The sun rose over Beijing as the daily flow of traders entered the City, their horses and carts filled to the brim with trinkets, food, fine silks and even some weapons. This was my favourite part of the day as it coincided with the changing of the royal guard. After a long night of patrols and monitoring the horizon it was nice to relax and have some downtime shopping at the freshly opened stalls.
It was relatively quiet at this time of the morning, the muddy streets yet to be filled with the still sleeping civilians, the market place only home to the traders setting up for the day. This was the only time I abused my status as an Emperors guardsman, but it allowed me to shop in peace and quiet before the masses awoke. I found my ornate, black plated armour brought me much respect from the people in and around the city. People offered me food, fine clothes and even women, all of which I politely rejected unlike some of my comrades. I never thought less of my comrades for accepting these gifts for free, I just wasn't interested in such material things.
I spent a while gathering the essentials, perusing the stalls for anything that took my fancy, talking to the traders I had become familiar with over the countless times i had visited the market at this hour. Eventually I ended up where my greatest interest lied, the single weapons stall located at the back of the market. The stall owner and I had become close friends over the time I spent in his shop talking about his stock and what made a good weapon. It is probably safe to say he was my only friend, and although he would treat the general masses like idiots to turn a profit i still had a great respect for him.
As soon as I entered the stall he reached into his cart and pulled out a long oak box engraved in a floral pattern and laid it on the counter in front of him. At this point I knew there must be something of great value inside, otherwise it would have already been on display amongst the other weakly crafted or second hand garbage he sold to unknowing buyers.
He had always told me idiots who buy from him cant tell the difference in quality and would generally go on the price. I remember not believing it until I saw him selling a 100 coin sword for 350 coins after putting a price of 800 on it. I told him it was wrong to do so, but he quickly replied saying "If people cant judge how good a sword is then they shouldn't be using one. Plus people who don't know about swords just want them for decoration." I couldn't help but see his logic, even if his morals were flawed.
He slowly opened the case to reveal a perfectly crafted bow alongside a similarly perfect Katana. I looked up at him to see a casual nod allowing me to feel the craftsmanship. The bow and the katana were both next to perfection, each expertly crafted to perform their primary task while at the same time being ornate and well designed. They felt hundreds of times better than my issued weapons, sturdier, lighter, sharper. I knew I needed them!
“How Much?” I asked in a sharper tone than I intended, excited at the prospect of having these weapons as my own. Hoping they weren’t more money than I had.
It took the trader a split second to reply, he had obviously had a price already in his head for them. “For anyone else the price would only be fit for the emperor, but for you my friend i will give you them for what I got them for....3000”
I stood in shock, this was basically my life savings, 10 years of military service to be worth the same as 2 perfectly crafted weapons. I thought it over in my head, but in the end the decision was easy. To better protect the emperor my life savings were a small price to pay.
Within the hour I had them, I had no money left but I had them. I couldn’t help but think if I had these types of weapons at any other time in my military career my commanding officer would have taken them from me, claiming all soldiers should be the same and weapons of this calibre would be better used by them. It was at times like this I was glad I only answered directly to the emperor.
