Hajin pulled the dark tunic over his head, working the collar straight before he reached for the belt hanging off the back of the chair.
The room was small and clean, two silver a night.
'Today is the day,' he thought, buckling the belt while he slid the sword into the sheath at his hip, 'the Ranker exam.'
He rolled his shoulders once to test the fit of the sleeves, then picked up the royal badge from beside the bag, turned it over twice in the window light, and pushed it into his inner pocket.
The metal had gone warm where the sun reached it.
'Allen said to bring the registration fee,' he thought, tapping the inventory panel until the gold showed itself still sitting where he had left it.
He had a hand on the bag when noise from the street took his attention, voices that were not loud but packed close in the way a road packs when there is something worth looking at.
He stopped beside the window with one hand still gripping the leather strap.
