I walked towards the city once again, but not before looting the thieves, there might be useful stuff.
Turning over the body of one, I noticed it's a rough looking man with a scraggy beard and scarred face; his skin was cold and signified no life. I searched the pockets in his studded leather chaps and found a few silvery coins stained with blood.
After looting 3 more thieves, all in all, I got a dozen silvery coins, one gold-ish coin and a couple of bronze coins. I also got a knife, a couple of daggers, and a long sword. I put them all in the Bag.
''Better get out of here, a few more minutes and it'll be a real stink fest,'' I muttered. Did you know that a few minutes after dying, your muscles would relax and release all your... nasty stuff? Well, now you do.
Running back to the side of the road, I continued trekking to the city, though a bit tired and bloodied (from the looting).
I started to contemplate this world's mechanics. I mean, there's obviously magic, though I haven't seen anyone using it yet... is magic not wide spread? No, scratch that, I can't make that conclusion after only seeing 2 groups of people. Anyway, speaking of people, they really looked human... How is that even possible? Did this world follow the same evolutionary pattern as Earth? Then how come goblins?
With my thinking bringing more questions than answers, one last question came to mind. "What is their language??" I stopped in my tracks. There's no way the language here would be English... right?
Ding!
A high pitched notification sound was heard.
"Status" I said hurriedly, willing the translucent screen emerge. And emerge, it did. I ignored my status pages and pushed the blinking envelope button.
And in the 'Alia' tab, this—
{
1. No, it's not English.
2. Yes, it's because of your 'remodeling'
3. You're speaking the Lorian language currently.
4. Yes, you can still speak English.
5. Yes, I'm watching you but not always
Is that enough answers for your curious little mind?}
—Was her message... can she read my mind? She's really suspicious..
Ding!
{I can't}—is her response. Yup, definitely suspicious, but, she's a being greater than gods right? She might have mind reading capabilities.
Having some of my questions answered, I walked towards the city again... You know, I’m really getting tired of saying that sentence. I'm still only halfway when I heard horses once again, this time, not ahead but from where I came from.
A carriage was being driven towards the city. I once again stopped my tracks and inspected it, from afar, I could only see a dark brown carriage being pulled by similar colored horses, it had a flat roof and stuff are placed over it. When it's only about a dozen meters away, the coach and I had eye contact. I waved at him and shouted, "Hey, can I hitch a ride?!"
He slowed the carriage but still over shot me by a couple of meters, I ran towards the front and talked to the coach, from his looks, he was a middle aged man, he sported hard leather clothing, a short beard and a bald head...
"Hi, can I hitch a ride towards the city?" I said while smiling wry, I can't let this chance go. I'm tired of walking.
"Kid, where did you come from?," he said suspiciously while raising an eyebrow, "Did you walk from Falon to here and all by yourself?"
Stolen story; please report.
"Hahaha, " I laughed wryly, "I'm a traveler, did you see those corpses back there?," I pointed towards the way we came from, he had a shocked expression,
"Oh! No, no, no. I didn't kill them, my horse ran away to the forest after being spooked by that, it threw me off and now I have to walk towards the city..." I waved my hands in front of me, scratched my head and looked down. I'm a good liar, you know? Else, how did you think I made Elliott believe that he can protect a whole classroom of people from armed men? It's all psychology. (At least that's what I’d like to think.)
"Hahaha, kid, why should I give you a ride? You're already halfway there! You can do it!" He laughed at me.
"Hey, Arnold, just give the kid a ride! Come on! Let's hurry to town!" A voice of an old woman came from beside me, the window of the carriage was open and an old lady with already gray hair was looking out of it.
"Haaah," Arnold sighed, "Alright grandma!"
He shouted back and beckoned at me to seat beside him in the coach's seat. I sat and gave him my thanks.
"No problem, I was only joking earlier. Hahaha." He laughed again.
'What a jolly guy' I thought as he flicked the reigns of the horses.
"HYA!" He shouted and the carriage moved onwards.
----------------------------------------
After 30 minutes of riding the carriage and chatting with Arnold, we finally reached the city.
My first reaction to it would be: Tall. The walls were at least 100 meters tall! When I asked Arnold why that is, he said that it’s because we’re at the border. Then he grew suspicious because, ‘How can you not know that? That’s common sense!’ I dodged the question by saying, ‘I never thought it would be that high, you know?’
I noticed that there was a huge gate at the side of the wall. Armored knights were stationed to guard it, and a line of carriages were in front of them. We lined up with the other carriages and waited in line. The guards are probably inspecting everyone to make sure there are no smuggled goods and they have the proper documents.
After another 30 minutes waiting in line, we still haven’t moved an inch, another carriage has arrived and lined up at our back, one person then got down said vehicle, went towards the cart in front, and started talking with the coach of the other cart. I could hear the words ‘Battle’, ‘Monster’, ‘Corpses’ and ‘Pancakes’… I’m not sure about the last one, but they probably talking about the battle earlier, there’s no doubt they saw the bodies that littered the dirt road. In the end, I decided to ignore them and be as low-key as possible.
After another half hour, we were almost at the front of the gate, the two merchants; at least I’m guessing they’re merchants, that were chatting earlier were already back at their respective carriages.
“Hey, Arnold, what’s up with this really long wait time? And do you have water? I’m parched, I can pay.” I looked towards him and asked, we became close during this short amount of time. He was even willing to trade the long sword for some silver. He got surprised when I took it out of the Bag though, he said that a Treasure bag of this size was as expensive as his yearly income. When I was asked where I got it from, I said that it was from a friend with LOTS of power. He grew just a little bit wary of me ever since.
“I dunno, we just got here. But it would usually only take a half hour at most,” He put his hand to his chin and pondered for a while.
“Oh, okay, “I nodded at his answer, “What about the water though?”
“Water?” He looked at me questioningly and then remembered, he pointed towards the back, “Oh! Go towards the back, there’s a keg there, I used it to transport wine to Falon and then used it as a water container when my jug broke during the ride back here to Krilka. You don’t have to pay, it’s just water.”
I got down the coach seat and went inside the carriage. ‘Krilka… That’s the name of this city huh?’
“Hello, grandma Helliot, Do you know where the keg that has water is?” I waved at the old lady, during the travel, I found out that she was ’86 winters old’ which I guess is just a fancy way of saying ’86 years old’, By the way, when I asked Arnold how old he was, he said that he was ’25 winters old’… I know, MIND BLOWN. On that day, I learned not to judge a book by its cover. He said ‘It’s because of the bald head isn’t it…’ with a really serious tone. I could only nod in shock.
Okay, back to the present. “It’s the one on the right most side near your end of the cart,” Grandma Helliot replied to my inquiry and pointed to the keg in front of me.
“This one?” I pointed at the keg and looked towards her to look for confirmation.
“Yes, son, it’s that one. Do you have a cup with you?” She nodded and handed me a clay cup.
“Ah, thanks Grandma,” I received the clay cup and laughed wryly, “I… was planning on using my hands.” I just realized how stupid that idea was.
“Hahaha,” She laughed at me, I pay it no mind and filled the cup with water. After drinking, I thanked her, returned the cup and went back to the coach seat.
“Hey, I’m back,” I sat beside Arnold again, “Thanks for the water, did I miss anything?,”
“No problem,” He nodded at me, “And we’re next now.”
“Cool,” I just replied at him and leaned back.
After 10 more annoying minutes, I was finally able to go inside Krilka, the fortified city.