𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅

chapter five

Emriana

"That one is 200 quarros," the lady hummed at my words as she eyed my work from a closer look.

"That's expensive for such amateur work," I frowned at her words.

"Amateur work, what do you mean?"

"Look at his poor brushwork over here. The shadows are facing each other. They shouldn't be," she explained, and I bit my bottom lip, not liking her criticism. The painting dated from a while back, but I still thought it was a great one.

"Well... I like it," I smiled at her, and she scoffed.

"Nobody cares what you think. This is about what the customer likes," she snapped before walking away.

"Well, that lady wasn't nice, wasn't she, Akira?" I looked under the table to see the animal lazily lying down. He looked up at the sound of my voice and stared for a bit before lowering his head to the cool floor. The huge drape that covered the table covered the entire front of the table, creating a shadow for my furry friend.

It was better this way because it hid him from the people passing by, and I didn't have to deal with their outbreak when seeing the animal. If there was something I now definitely knew from the past few days in the kingdom, it was that having a pet tiger was very uncommon, some even went as far as saying our friendship was impossible.

It had been hard to find an inn willing to offer me shelter with Akira, most turning me down, fearing for their safety and their customers. Thankfully, Kove had been so helpful and knew one that would be more lenient, which is where I had been staying.

"Hey, this one looks great," my focus was brought to a young woman accompanied by an older man. She bent a little to get a closer look at one of my paintings.

"What do you think? She would like this one," she added, and the man hummed in approval.

"How much?" She said, and my smile widened.

"200"

"Great," she reached into the inside pocket of her overcoat and pulled out a small pouch. She pulled out the coins and handed them over.

"Thank you," I smiled at her before she walked away with her now newly purchase artwork.

I squatted down under the table and petted Akira a few times as he dozed off quietly. It was the first day he was calm after spending the first few days looking out for possible attackers. After realizing the people here weren't a threat, he calmed down a little.

"It's going really well, Aki," I whispered to him.

"I think we should be able to go back tomorrow morning. Almost all the paintings are gone," I added, feeling a sense of pride at the fact that the people liked what I did enough to buy it.

"Hi," I jumped to my feet in surprise and saw an older woman watching me. Her black hair, mixed with occasional grey, was tied into a clean bun. The simple blue dress she wore made her blue eyes a little intimidating.

"Hi," I replied quickly.

"Is this your work?" I nodded, and she smiled as she leaned forward a little to get a better look.

"That's impressing, I love the brushwork here," she pointed to one of my favorite canvases.

"Thank you."

She looked at the paintings for a little while longer, and the constant smile on her face assured me she liked what she saw.

"Yes, I definitely want you on my team," she said as she looked back at me, and I raised a brow.