Xiao recovered nicely after three days. He was strong and healthy so a cold was nothing on him, as it was for all knights. The three days were spent perusing books on medicine and anatomy, donated to him by Monk Olga who came everyday to check on him. Xiao told him that it wasn't necessary and there must be more pressing matters, but Monk Olga was resolute. He also told Xiao the ingredients in the medicine prescribed for Xiao - figs, mint leaves, and lanling leaves. Xiao understood that mint was for sore throat and lanling worked on headaches. He figured figs must be there because it was nutritious. 

Bradley had just woken up. He went out with Frank last night as per usual. During his sickness, Xiao had reverted to his old sleeping schedule of waking up extremely early in the morning. At four, Xiao would wake up to wait for Bradley to come back. Then he would read in the candle light and then the dim light of dawn. Though, yesterday, Bradley was extremely deep in his slumber and Xiao was extremely bored. Thus he spent the morning helping the guest house owner peel potatoes and listen to him talk down upon the other major guest house in the city, Menard Guest House.

"You should be sleeping," Bradley said as soon as he saw Xiao sitting up.

"You've said that the past three days," Xiao said. "I'm fine. Now that you're awake, I'll go out."

"You aren't well enough!" Bradley grabbed onto his arm.

Xiao shook it off, which took more effort than he anticipated. "I'm fine. Besides, I haven't been walking about for so long. I think my legs will become useless if I stay here one more minute."

"Stay for one more minute then."

Xiao knew that was Bradley's assent so he got ready to go outside.

"Wear my coat outside yours alright?"

Xiao obliged and went out. It was already ten and people were out on the streets. The wind blew withering petals down from trees and caressed Xiao's cheeks. He stood outside the guest house for a moment and took in the beautiful spring day before heading towards the pancake place outside the temple, on the other side of the city. He thought that he should pay a visit to Monk Olga, who carefully took care of him.

After buying four pancakes, he headed to the temple. Monk Olga, who had taken over as the head monk, was talking to two younger monks. He seemed to be directing them. The two monks nodded and headed back. Monk Olga turned and saw Xiao. "Knight Xiao."

"Hello Monk Olga," Xiao greeted. "I saved you a visit today."

Monk Olga smiled. "I was going to send someone to relieve you. You have recovered nicely. It was a minor cold after all. The headache was just because your hair had been wet that night. There wouldn't be any lasting effects."

Xiao nodded his thanks and he and Monk Olga chatted a bit until a young monk came in. "Monk Olga, we searched the room one more time. We think we found something."

Xiao's eyes widened and he looked at Monk Olga questioningly. Monk Olga beckoned him to come with him. "Yesterday, an intruder got into the secret room that the priest used to occupy. He was probably searching for something. We got him and sent him to the town hall."

Xiao stomped his feet. "Monk Olga! The town hall wouldn't do anything but release him!"

Monk Olga casted his eyes down. "Monks shouldn't kill."

"You should have given him to us," Xiao said. 

"I think the town hall will at least keep him for a while. It was Curtis."

Xiao's eyes widened. "Him again?"

Monk Olga nodded. "Anyway, so I ordered a search because I thought that there must be something important in the room. I didn't think they would come back for the medicine. Those can be made anywhere."

Xiao nodded. "Makes sense."

The young monk led the two to the secret room and the other young monk Xiao had seen earlier was holding a small, brown notebook for Monk Olga to examine. The monk took it and Xiao looked over the shorter man's shoulder. It was an accounting book. There were about fifty entries, all based on four places - Guifang, Harrison, Roche, and Lapoint. Beside each place, there were accounts of how many doses of medicine were sent there.

Xiao gasped. "Monk Olga! This is crucial information."

"Where did you get this notebook?" Monk Olga asked the two young monks.

"It was in a secret drawer in the desk," the taller of the two answered. He showed that there was a secret compartment at the back of the desk.

Monk Olga nodded and then turned to Xiao. "Knight Xiao, I trust you will help with these areas."

Xiao nodded vigorously. "I will send letters to request help from other knights."

On his way back, Xiao decided to go to the butchers. Their guesthouse had ran out of meat due to the delays in delivery due to the constant rain. Everyone had to eat vegetarian meals, which wasn't ideal. These knights - especially Xiao - were used to drinking by the tankards and eating plates after plates of meat. 

So Xiao walked towards the only remaining butcher shop in the city after the trafficking started. However, he found the butcher only had one chicken left. Xiao was disappointed, but it was better than nothing. "I'll take it, butcher-ge," he said.

The butcher grimaced. "Knight, if you would like some meat, I suggest you go to a restaurant and ask them for meat. Someone had pre-ordered this chicken."

Xiao almost laughed out loud. "I didn't know you had pre-ordering service."

"Knight-ge, you don't know. The person who ordered the chicken is the son of the mayor. He didn't have money on him, see? And my business doesn't do outstanding money. So he went back to get money."

Xiao pursed his lips. "Alright." He couldn't do anything if someone had already ordered. First come first serve, right? So he left for the closest restaurant. However, he was met with the same story.

Xiao was becoming angry. "What? Is it because of the way I look that you're not selling me meat?"

The waiter talking to him recoiled in fear. "No, no, knight. It's really because the son of the mayor ordered it."

Xiao backed away too. Of course both the butcher and the restaurant couldn't have came up with the same story. 

He then headed to a smaller restaurant close to the guest house. 

"Knight Xiao, I'm sorry," the owner said. "All our meat supplies have been bought by the mayor."

Xiao's eyes bulged out in anger. Who did the mayor think he was, taking up all the meat in the city? He thus went back to the butcher shop, this time in a bad mood. He had urgent business to do!

"Butcher-ge, let us strike a deal," Xiao said. "I'll pay more than the mayor's son and you sell the chicken to me."

The butcher looked at him fearfully. "I don't think I can, young knight. After all the childe already ordered the chicken."

Xiao laughed. "But come on. He's been and bought all the meat in the city. What's the matter with being one chicken short?"

"I suppose," the butcher said slowly. However, before he finished talking, a group of men came up to the butcher.

"Yo, butcher! Give me my chicken! I've got some coins!" the leader called. It was a skinny man about Xiao's age. He looked quite funny as his face was quite a contrast to his body. It was pudgy with small eyes and pursed thin lips.

Xiao came between the shop and the childe. "Childe Laffut," he greeted. 

"Who are you?"

"My name is Xiao."

"Got a last name?"

Xiao smiled. "Childe Laffut, I was wondering if I could have the chicken instead?"

"You have this chicken? Then what am I supposed to eat?"

Xiao's smile faded. "Childe Laffut, you've bought all the meat in the city. I doubt this one chicken will make a difference."

Childe Laffut crossed his arms. "Don't you know the supply of meat is scarce?"

"Then it should be shared," Xiao said.

"Who are you sharing with?"

"Everyone in my guest house."

"Who says I won't share the meat I bought?"

"Then you should spare this chicken."

The childe looked at him with displeasure. "Listen, I'm the royalty in this region, alright? I've been away for a few weeks, and I am buying all the meat for a feast tonight."

"Should you have all the meat for yourself?"

"I paid, didn't I?"

"But others need the meat too. Besides, will you be able to eat all the meat you've bought?"

"Of course. Do you think all the meals are like the ones you eat in your caves?"

Xiao didn't like what the childe was saying. "What about I buy the chicken from you, Childe Luffat? Say, let's play a game of some sort to win the chicken over."

That struck. The childe instantly looked interested. "What game?"

"You can decide," Xiao said.

"Well I see that you have a sword," the childe said. "How about we wrestle?"

Xiao grimaced. He really didn't want to dirty his robes. Because Bradley had always liked wrestling, Xiao had taken it upon himself to hate it. Though he still engaged in it myriad times due to fights with Bradley. He knew why the childe was asking him to wrestle - Xiao was skinny, not muscular like the stereotypical knights. But what the childe didn't know was that Xiao's strength wasn't anything below the others.

"Alright. But please don't go too hard on me," Xiao said. 

The childe swaggered over and went for Xiao's legs. Xiao reached for the childe's legs with the speed of lightning and pinned the childe onto the ground easily. 

"You still need to practice," Xiao said as the childe struggled. "I'll take the chicken, alright?" However, before he could get up, the servants standing around them surged onto him. Xiao understood the childe's plan. If he was on the ground, he was at the perfect position to be tackled by the servants. 

Xiao sneered at this lowly tactic. He picked up the childe as if he was a duffel bag and swung the childe around. That effectively kept the servants at bay.

"Don't play these kind of jokes on me, alright?" Then, as he held the childe, he asked the butcher, who was frozen with shock - "How much did the childe offer for the chicken?"

"One piece of silver."

Xiao got out two pieces of silver. "Here you go, butcher-ge. I'll take the chicken."

Then he threw the childe on the ground. Luffat instantly became a groaning heap on the ground. Some servants went for the childe while others wanted to surround Xiao. Xiao looked at them evenly, daring them to come up. They didn't even try to get close to him.

"You!" Xiao said to a servant at the back of the crowd.

The servant's voice trembled. "Yes, knight?"

"Toss me the alcohol, will you?"

The servant looked around. No one moved or told him what to do so he threw the bottle. Xiao caught the neck of it easily with an extension of his right arm. "I'll see you around then, Luffat."

When he came into the yard with a chicken in one hand and a bottle of alcohol in the other, Bradley's face darkened.

"Why were you out for so long?"

Xiao laughed. "I have such a fun story. Let me get the chicken to the owner first."

Bradley followed him as he gave the owner the chicken and asked him to make some good food with it. Then they entered their room. Frank was waiting for them.

Xiao took the pancakes out of his pocket and gave them each a pancake. "Here you go."

Bradley took it and wolfed it down. "So?"

"I went for a stroll first, see? And then I met Monk Olga. And look at this!" He showed the notebook to Bradley. 

Bradley examined the notebook carefully. "Right, I've been to Guifang and I've gotten a few traffickers there."

"We've got to ask mentor and all our friends to go and eradicate these strongholds," Xiao said excitedly.

Bradley nodded, his jaw set. "Let's set to work."

Later, Xiao repeated what he told Bradley to Frank and the three wrote for the remainder of the morning and Frank went off to send the letters. Bradley and Xiao had advocated for them to hire some messengers to send them, but Frank insisted that he had to pass on the letters to the grandmasters as a show of respect.

So it was just Bradley and Xiao who sat in the room for lunch.