Chapter 21 Chapter 21 - City of Mercenaries (1/2)
CHAPTER 21
CITY OF MERCENARIES
Atop a natural, earthly plateau surrounded by flatlands and rolling hills, a city of stone brimmed underneath the red sun. A gaping, winding road led upward from the frontal valley to the city walls, situated half a mile above the ground. Plateau burned in reddish-brown, curious rocks and stones protruding at the sides like spikes and tree's roots, its body's shape squared, flattened into a circle at the very top. The plateau itself was massive; otherwise, how could it house an entire city? Legends say that it was dug up by an Immortal's Hand and that the Immortal used it as a temporary abode, but no one could verify such stories. After all, the plateau was here long before the entirety of the Umbra Kingdom was formed, and long before those tribes lived here. Due to its natural color, it was named Red Plateau, and it was one of the iconic landmarks of Umbra Kingdom. Such reputation only soared when the city atop its bones was taken into consideration.
Walls ran rampart wholly around the city, made entirely of chiseled, rough stone lain atop a sturdy foundation of the plateau itself. The walls were nearly five meters tall, and were once upon a time silver in color; however, greyish and brownish colors slowly began to overwhelm the silver's purity, and the wall itself began exuding somewhat of an ancient aura, though it wasn't older than five hundred years. Encapsulated within was a lively and bustling city – the most popular city of Umbra Kingdom if Capital Umbra is excluded – City of Mercenaries. As the name suggests, the backside of the city is supported entirely by a massive force unbound by the country's borders – Mercenary Union. A group of rogue, unruly kind who would do any odd job for a coin made up majority of the city's populace, but as the trade thrived in the city, it wasn't void of merchants, blacksmiths, cooks, and any and all sort of craftsmen looking to put their name out into the world.
Due to the shape of plateau itself, the city was built in a ring-like fashion; outermost parts appeared relatively poor, overwhelmed by wooden houses, empty, plowed fields and dirt pavements. The further toward the center one walked, the more prosperous the city appeared, all the way until the center itself where an enormous, twenty-meters-tall building stood like an erect sword, looming over all else. Due to its sheer size, it was impossible not to notice the moment one entered the city. For that reason, atop the stone-laden building, engraved in majestic letters of gold and silver, the name 'Mercenary Union' stood all day and night long.
May it be day or night, the city was eternally busy; there was a constant stream of people going in and out, walking down or up the winding road. Beside people, there were horses, carriages, cages, and all sorts of odd vehicles transporting any and all goods. Among the stream of people climbing up, Lino and Aeala mingled in silence. While the road was fairly wide, it was hardly enough to properly accommodate the huge mass of people. The scene where someone would fall off the side of the road and plummet to their deaths wasn't all that rare; actually, during the one-hour climb, Lino had witnessed two such scenes. Luckily, even if the entire road was to crumble entirely, Lino was confident in being able to save Aeala and himself from the predicament. It took the two nearly two hours to reach the city gates; it wasn't because the road itself was long per se, but because the sheer number of people slowed down the speed considerably, even if wagons and carriages were to be taken out of the account.
While not everyone and their mother could enter the city, the security was rather lax nonetheless. After all, only idiots would try to do something unruly within the City of Mercenaries. So, guards scarcely cared to truly inspect the newcomers. There was a one silver-coin entrance payment which was almost nothing; however, considering the constant stream, Lino theorized that the city earned hundreds of gold daily – on bad days. Even he felt slightly envious.
Although entrance to the city was rather easy, that only applied to its outermost parts. If one wanted to enter the more prosperous, inner area, it was much more difficult. One either had to have sufficient strength, backing, or coin. However, for the time being, Lino didn't care about the inner parts of the city. Alongside Aeala, he quickly departed from the city gates and the elongated line of people and entered the outskirts of the city. Wooden houses lined up in a half-circle way, going from one end of the city to the other. Some appeared newer, some older, but they all had one thing in common: they were barely large enough to house a single family. As though stacked atop of one another like a house of cards, houses seemed like a swarm of locust when looked from above, with only a dozen or so curved lines – which were the streets – cutting in-between the rows of them. Lino asked around and quickly found a temporary lodging; it was a small inn, roughly half an hour away from the city gates. It was slightly taller – but not much wider – than the houses surrounding it. Behind a desk was a youth roughly Lino's age, currently reading a thick book. He had rather scrawny disposition and messy, black hair, while half of his face was covered with thick glasses. As the youth heard the footsteps, he hurriedly put the book down and looked up at the newcomers.
”W-welcome, travelers! M-my name is Ahmed, and-and I am in your service!” the youth exclaimed somewhat awkwardly.
”Two rooms. How much?” Lino asked calmly. As he spoke, Aeala's heart skipped a beat, but she didn't say anything. She couldn't even begin to guess Lino's mindset at the moment; perhaps he truly needed some time alone.
”Ah, two rooms… two rooms will be ten silver coins a night, five per room.” Ahmed said, somewhat surprised. He was certain these two were lovers looking for a place to do stuff. After all, he'd seen many couples similar to these two come here almost daily.
”Hm,” Lino nodded as he threw over thirty pieces of silver, booking the two rooms for three nights. ”Are there any restaurants nearby?”
”Y-yes!” Ahmed exclaimed, still somewhat awkward; even though he was speaking to a boy his age, he felt strange, almost suffocating pressure whenever he'd look at the boy's eyes. ”There's the Livestock Diner just a few houses down the road. They're pretty cheap and their food is fresh.”
”Alright, thanks.”
”Hm, here,” Ahmed handed them two keys with wooden key chains, numbers 8 and 9 carved atop their surface. ”The rooms are on second floor. I hope you enjoy your stay.”
”Thanks.” Lino said plainly as he headed upstairs, followed shortly by Aeala.
The inn was rather simple; there were hardly any decorations, and most of the light either came through the window, or a few [Luminous Stones], Level 0 gems that are rather abundant in the Umbra Kingdom. A few of them were enough to light up an entire room for over a year.
”Let's meet tomorrow morning and go eat breakfast together.” Lino said as the two located their rooms.
”Hm.” Aeala simply nodded and watched as the youth before her walked in and closed the door behind him. Sighing lightly, she followed his steps and soon found herself in a rather simple and quaint room.
Lino was currently lying motionlessly on the bed, staring at the dull-looking ceiling. A faint ray of fading sun in the sky perched through the side-window and landed on his chest. As his face was draped in shadow, only his lips were clearly visible. The pair were currently trembling, as though cold inside out. While the room wasn't spacious, it was still large enough to house an entire bed, a small night desk and a body-sized mirror.
One word to describe Lino's current state of mind would be 'chaotic'. Because of his sharp senses, on his way over, he was able to pick up a lot of new information. The strange, hundred-something strong group appeared a day after he'd killed Patriarch Varick and fell into coma. At first, they simply went around isolated villages and slaughtered wantonly, but about twenty days into their campaign, they split up into three groups. The largest one continued the killing spree through the isolated villages, while the remaining two spread out and began ambushing merchants, mercenaries and even Kingdom's nobility. Although the Legions of Knights were sent out – and even Crown Prince Yox himself took to arms – the two groups were rather elusive, and they never stayed too long at any single place. It is estimated that over two thousand people have been killed so far, and that number keeps increasing every day.
Lino suddenly sat up and stuffed his chin into his bosom, wrapping his arms around his raised knees. A ray of light piercing through the half-closed window was like a blade slicing the world into two stratospheres; on one side was sharp brightness, highlighted in white edges, while the other side was cast in deep shade of black. Lino began rocking back and forth slowly, taking one deep breath after another, trying to stifle his rampaging emotions as much as possible. When he realized that it wasn't working, he turned his head toward the Patriarch Varick's void ring to distract himself, as he still hadn't looked over clearly through it.
He picked out a thick book at random and flipped open the first page which only had the title <Flying Swords Art>. Right beneath it said that it was High-Mortal Grade Art. Lino smiled bitterly for a moment and shook his head, once again realizing how lucky – or unlucky – he was to obtain mpyrean Writ>. After a quick overview, he realized that this was the art Vyeala used to make her swords fly when he first met her. However, it didn't matter much to Lino; not only would he be unable to use this art as he can't externalize his Qi, he can't learn it to begin with as mpyrean Writ> doesn't allow him to learn any other Martial Arts besides the ones grated by the former itself.
Skipping over the martial arts themselves, he looked for some books which describe general knowledge as he lacked that the most. Shortly after he came across a book titled <Qi Through Stages>. As the title piqued his interest, he took it out and began flipping the 300 odd pages. It didn't take long for his head to start aching somewhat, as he once again realized that there's something wrong with mpyrean Writ>.