Go to the market

Xabar makes his way toward the busy market. The street is packed with potential customers for the various shops, produce stands, and assorted displays of an endless variety of goods for sale.

As he passes one produce stand, Xabar sees the merchant busily chatting with an elderly woman while bagging up the cucumbers she had just purchased. Xabar takes advantage of the merchant’s distractedness and quickly slips an apple into his pocket before moving to another display.

He can almost hear his friend, Hager, nagging him with the tired, old admonition, “You shouldn’t steal!” Xabar gives another look in the direction of the produce stand to confirm that no one witnessed his action before retrieving the apple from his pocket and taking a bite. “Does it honestly count as ‘stealing’ if no one notices that it’s missing?” he said to himself.

Coincidently, that was the same rationale he used to dismiss any feelings of guilt he would otherwise have had when he spent that glorious mid-term break in the arms of Lady Regina Dillsworth. Granted, she was married and had children almost as old as Xabar, but Lord Dillsworth was away on business so often, and when he was home, he was generally too drunk to pay any attention to his wife — a wife who had certain needs, as Xabar memorably learned.

When he returned to school after a week of satisfying said needs of said older woman, he got a bit of a scolding from his friend, lecturing him about the sanctity of marriage, etc. Xabar listened patiently, but dismissed Hager’s concerns, telling him that any man who was too out of it and disengaged to notice he was being cuckolded in the next room didn’t deserve to have such a lusty MILF for a wife in the first place.

He smiles as he remembers Lady Regina, and wonders if he should pay her a visit sometime soon.

Amidst the chaotic chatter of the marketplace, the sound of laughter stands out to him. Looking in that direction, Xabar sees a man in expensive-looking clothes, speaking in a theatrical manner to a couple of ladies. They seem captivated by his words, and as he continues to speak, they laugh, obviously enjoying whatever it is he is saying.

Xabar eyes the napsack the man has so casually set down beside him. Like the man’s clothing, the napsack is of fine quality, and suggests the owner is one who has wealth and appreciates the finer things in life. Judging from the appearance of the ladies whom he is charming, that appreciation extends to women, as well as material possessions.