Chapter 9
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I am working up a map to post with the next chapter so you guys can see the continent of Solus clearly.
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A very selfish decision
So much death around me, and yet I remain I thought being blessed by the gods was suppose to be a good thing, instead I have become a calamity to the people around me. William, Mathias, and all the guards sent to escort me are dead, because of me. All because I couldn't say no to my sister Mandy's request to sing, because deep down inside I wanted people to acknowledge that I had a talent other then fighting. I just wanted to make people happy with my singing, and I have ended up here.
I even could have given up on revenge for William and his men, I mean I didn't really know them that long. I could just have returned to Lorrington with Mathias.......
And he would still be here. I cried so hard for him. Was it because I liked him? Maybe it was the fact I saw myself in him and I knew the struggles he went through at a young age, or maybe I felt solely responsible for his death. Any way you look at it his death struck me real hard. All of these men sacrificed themselves for my safety and I am about to make a decision that will make them all turn in there graves. This idiot princess is about to make one hell of a selfish decision. I have to do it for my future as well as the future of Lorrington. The decision is not an easy one in fact it is the hardest decision I have ever made. The decision is
“I will not return to Lorrington” I said it out loud just to confirm to myself what I was doing.
Although I know it will cause my family a lot of grief here in the short term, I need to get stronger at least strong enough to take Darius. Not only that but now that people know about the Songstress Princess(its a title I got at the reception) my days would be filled with meeting nobles trying to garner favor with me in hopes of a marriage. People would even fight over me as I come of age. I know I can aid Termain a lot more on the battlefield then as some political piece. I will apologize down the road when the time comes, hopefully they can find it in there hearts to forgive me for making them grieve for me.
I would fake my own death it will be easy, I will just plant my royal ring here in this campsite among the charred bodies of William and the guards, which Roland had taken the liberty to cremate. Most likely to destroy evidence and keep monsters away. Down the road if I ever need to prove my royalty I could use my dagger which had the Rosewood symbol or simply use a spell to share my status, I think it could work that way.
I am sure that this camp sight will be discovered not before long, probably by morning since it is just off the main road into Termain from Toulia. People don't typically like to travel through dangerous woods at night where you cant see anything. I couldn't find any direct evidence on Roland to link him to Darius so politically my dad isn't going to be able to retaliate the way he wants to but to him it will be pretty obvious who was behind this.
I did however get some really nice goodies off Roland. I took his sword that when I used analyze it told me it was the quality of masterwork, he also had a very cool ring that was enchanted with space-time magic. It was a spacial ring, and inside it had a lot more goodies.
I found William's sword that was just below masterwork, I would use it as my second sword. I also found an even better hooded cloak that was enchanted to help concealment. Oh yeah he had a lot of gold in there too, like a shit ton. I wonder if he kept all his money here because there was easily over a 500 gold pieces. 1 gold is equal to 100 silver, 100 copper is equal to 1 silver. A well made set of plate armor made by a good smith cost between 5-10 gold custom made. I don't know why this guy still worked, maybe he had too much fun doing his job.
I looted a few other things before I left too, I restocked on as many crossbow bolts as I could find. Also the red gigalizard's meat is apparently an A rank cooking ingredient so chopped him up and put him into the spacial ring to cook and eat latter. I also took the dagger Roland kept in at his ankle it was master-craft as well. I am surprised such a rich man had no healing tonics but I figured he probably did but used them all over the 2 fights. Its also should be know that a healing tonic has somewhat of a cooldown effect where you cant just spam them, it only makes sense this is sort of a game world.
After the battles last night I am now level 15 which is insane for someone my age it probably has to be some type of record.
Status Window
Name:Kara RosewoodTitle:PrincessRace:HumanGender:FemaleClass:Subclass:BardAge:5Level:15TitlesThe Songstress Princess, ProdigyResourcesHealth:750/750Mana:2500/2500Stamina:1030/1030StatsStrength:95Intelligence:86Agility:115Charisma:120Wisdom:50Precision/aim:61Vitality:85Luck:50
I am pretty much on par with a level 40 whose stats scale normal. Not everyone at the same level is equal though as you can tell with me. Roland too he may have been level 40 on paper but there was no way in hell you could convince me that guy was any bit less tough then a level 50.
Now I have decided to fake my own death to both get stronger and for revenge, I need to decide where I am going to live for the time being. I could live in the wild but that seems really lonely and boring. I can accomplish the same thing living in a city subjugate monsters during the day coming back at night. I am not even sure monster subjugation is the fastest way to level up. That makes me realize something.
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I have the gift of Gods information, but I am still lacking in that department. I need a mentor to help me, to guide me. I also need resources like a library, craftsman guild, and also perhaps ways to raise money. 500 gold was a decent start but if I wanted true influence down the road I would need tens of thousands of gold.
There are 3 human cities that come to mind that I could move to. The first is Toulia which would be a really solid choice except if I ran into Mandy I don't know if I could help myself from approaching her. It is best just to start fresh so Toulia is out of the question for now, I still plan to attend Mahouren in the future. The second option would be the city of Moben, it is the largest city in the country of Valsey. Being a major trade juncture it was one of the richest human cities, however Valsey still allowed slavery which I really despised.
That leaves me the largest human city on the continent the capital of Calipis Empire, Zyrus. I know from my gift that the city about twice the size of Toulia in both population and geographical size. It also like Toulia had a varied population with a very strong elven demographic since Zyrus was the closest major human city to the elven continent. It also had a labyrinth in it that was open to all adventurers. The surrounding area had many places in which you could train.
It would be the perfect place to disappear for a while and get stronger. I need to decide what horse to take and I went with Williams horse that had been tied up with all the other surviving horses.
Williams horse was named Strider it was a white war-horse that was 5 years old just like me. At first I tried riding him the traditional way but I quickly found that it was very uncomfortable for me having my skirt constantly being pushed up so I adopted albeit begrudgingly a sidesaddle approach of riding.
I would need to go through Toulia to get to Zyrus. It took me a whole day to get to there only stopping twice to feed the horse and myself. My family would likely still celebrating the wedding for a few more days, and knowledge of what transpired at the river Coll would not reach them for a little bit.
Just for extra caution I took my horse around the outside of the city so I could enter through the east gate instead of the north one since the stable master at the north one might recognize William's horse. I pulled up to the gate and 2 guards approached me.
“Hey little girl can I help you? Do you have a pass?” The guard asked me.
Time to make use of this absurd charisma I have.
“Father sent me out to make a delivery of medicine to one of farmers just outside the city. But I have lost my pass on the way back!” I then start to cry and looked up at the guard teary eyed.
“Now don't worry about it little miss we wont hold it against you, just next time remember your pass ok sweetheart.” The guard was completely swayed.
Too easy, I dropped the horse off at the stables here for the night. Then I head look for an inn, it would have to be a cheap one since I bet all the expensive ones would be filled from guests from Mandy's wedding. Even if they are not I don't want to risk one of them recognizing the Songstress Princess.
The problem with going to a cheap inn is they are usually are in a bad part of town. Toulia is no exception.
“Are you lost little girl?"
“This not the place for a little girl to be all by herself”
“Running away from home? You can stay with me.”
All sorts of people are talking to me and I ignore them. I notice that 3 people have been following me actively, they are really making it way to obvious. I find a nice little alley which I can sense no one around. I have already judged these guys are scum based on the fact that they want to kidnap a little girl. I quickly climb up the wall making use of my acrobatics to jump from spot to spot. Now I wait for them to enter the alley. Pulling out my crossbow and having my daggers ready.
“Hey where did that girl go I saw her come down this alley.” delinquent number one stated.
“She definitely went down this way” delinquent number two agreed.
Delinquent number three didn't get a chance to chime in because there was now an arrow in his head.
I quickly descended on delinquent number two lodging both daggers into his back. Delinquent number one tried to react but I was too quick I stabbed both of his knees.
“AHHHHH that hurts. I will kill you!” He tried to grab me but frankly I was too fast for him I quickly immobilized his arms by stabbing his biceps and triceps several times shredding the muscles. Now his arms just hung down at his sides like limp noodles, I missed any major artery or vein so the bleeding was relatively slow.
“M-m-m-monster!” he said his face full of despair realizing what I had done in under 5 seconds to the the three of them.
“Haha I may be a monster, but you are a far worse type of monster who kidnaps little kids in the slums. What do you do with them? You are going to tell me everything ok? If not I am going to have start cutting things until you tell me” I tell him so coldly that I scare even myself.
“Please don't! I will tell you everything just let me live!” I am sort of disappointed I was kind of hoping he wasn't so much of a wuss so I could work on my torture techniques.
“The kids if we find out they are have rich parents we ransom them back. Pretty good pay, as for the kids of poor parents who cant afford ransom we” He stopped talking as if he slipped up. I stab him in the left thigh and he screams in pain.
“You what? I don't have all day here.” I am not playing around.
“We keep them locked up until we get a decent amount of them then we sneak them out of the city and sell them to slavers.” He confessed.
“Where do you keep them? The 'poor' ones” I asked.
“A few blocks from here its a big building our boss uses as a headquarters all the kids are kept underground. There is a brothel next to it called 'Heavenly Sins'. So like we promised you are going to let me li..”
Before he could finish his sentence I had slashed his throat. I never promised you anything scum. It appears I have to take care of something before I leave Toulia.
For such a large operation to occur unnoticed there has to be guards in on it, both in the slums and at the gates. It would would be very dangerous for me to go in and liberate all the kids myself. Even though I really want to personally destroy all them. As a matter fact I bet human trafficing is just one of the few things they do, it would not suprise me if they sold drugs too, or if they robbed people.
All I have to do is get enough evidence to the right people and they can do all the fighting for me. Let me think evidence is a lot harder to come by in this world, there is no cameras or voice recording. All there was is eye witnesses and paper records.
I would have to deliver an eyewitness or informant that can give detailed information or paperwork that links them to the crimes.
This should atleast being entertaining. I need to help clean up this city that Mandy lives in, low lifes like these deserve no place in it.