Night was approaching, and we continued to move through the forest following Granid to the city of Itsqueen. I'm starting to get a little excited that soon I will see the permanent habitat of a primitive civilization, a city similar to where people lived on Earth in the era of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Now on Earth you can forget about cities in the middle of nature; the ancient conflict known as the “Great Hopeless War” practically destroyed almost the entire ecosystem of the planet with nuclear fire, forcing people to move below the surface for several decades.
When the war ended, people decided to return to the surface, but the poisoned air and apocalyptic climate of the new Earth did not allow people to return to their former way of life. On the surface, cities were built under domes with an artificial ecosystem while the state worked on reterraforming the planet, which is still very, very expensive for humanity.
When I was last on Earth, people continued to live in cities under domes. People could go to the surface, but only under escort and wearing breathing masks. The atmosphere is still unbreathable, but the Earth's ecosystem has almost returned to its original state. Toxic chemical elements in the Earth's atmosphere settled, and vegetation gradually began a new conquest of the planet's surface. In about a couple of hundred years, this process will finally be completed and the Earth will once again return to a state suitable for humans.
It will be a new thing for me to see cities, even if they are primitive, but located in the open air. This means that I can even see birds flying over the narrow streets of the city, and also hear the flow of wind overhead. I can’t imagine what it’s like to constantly live in a city where you feel nature with both your skin and your ears. I imagine this as pure bliss, like an eternal walk in the park.
While I was thinking about this, Alza approached me. She held her belly with her hands, waiting for the birth of her child, but there was no hint of joy from such an event visible in her eyes. That's why I decided to talk to her about it:
“Alza, are you afraid that you will die during childbirth?”
The girl looked up at me in surprise and shook her head negatively:
"No. I... I just...”
She was at a loss for words, constantly mumbling something under her breath. She didn't really seem to be worried about the birth, but she was worried about something else that she finally decided to report:
"This is not my child."
"Huh?"
I was surprised to hear her words.
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Ripun didn’t tell you this, but in fact, when we left the capital, I was raped by an Antigonish soldier. He broke into my house, killed my husband and my son, and then..."
"Stop."
I said, seeing tears appear in her eyes while she was telling this.
It was unpleasant for her to remember this, and I understand her perfectly. She was raped, and that rapist also killed her first child and her husband, and now Alza is going to give birth to the child of her rapist and the murderer of her family. How does one feel about this child after this? Can this child be given parental affection and care? Or will Alza decide to kill him after birth, placing the responsibility of his father on the child? It will be difficult to forget it and take it out of your memory as if nothing had happened.
«Children should never be held accountable for the sins of their parents.»
I remembered an ancient truth that I always adhered to. Nevertheless, this is a complex situation and I can only have one proposal for it, which I immediately voiced out loud:
“I can imagine how bad you feel, Alza. On Earth in ancient times, women also could not decide what to do with children whose fathers were rapists. Some of the women had an abortion, some had the courage to accept the child into the family, and some simply abandoned the child after giving birth.”
“Abandoned the child?”
Alza's eyes widened and I nodded.
"Yes. The state collects abandoned children in orphanages and cares for them until they come of age or until new parents take them in. Childless families could take them in and become loving parents for them, or these orphans could grow up without parents and continue to live without knowing their biological parents and the reasons why they were abandoned. I may seem overly cruel, but I suggest you do the same. If you cannot accept a child, then you can give him or her into good hands, those who will need your child, those who will take care of your legacy.”
"You're a fool, Boris."
Alza said, looking at me sternly and sobbing at the same time.
“I didn't mean to give up my child... I just... just... *sob* I-I won't say it. You got it all wrong!”
«What is she talking about?»
I was perplexed and suddenly Ripun turned to me.
“Boris, you may not know, but according to our customs, women cannot be addressed this way.”
“Did I treat her somehow wrong?”
“How can I tell you...”
Ripun thought about it before giving an answer and taking Alza to Zaden.
“In our kingdom, women are most important. They rule the country, do hunting, writing, counting, and they also lead families. And their husbands take care of the family hearth and raising children.”
My jaw probably dropped at that moment from what I heard. Do they really have a real Matriarchy? For me, a person from an equal society, hearing this was a little wild.
“So in your society women rule?”
Just in case, I asked him, and Ripun confirmed my guesses.
“I don’t know what «Society» is, but your words are true. Yes, we are ruled by women.”
“Do women fight too?”
I asked, remembering that at the first meeting with Hippolyans there were two male spearmen, one of whom was killed. I expected that the privileged part of society, that is, women, would take over the power structure, but as it turned out, this is not the case here, or rather more precisely, my guess is correct, but only half.
“A woman is the mind of the family, a man is the hands of the family. A woman prefers to think, and a man to act. Therefore, only men go to fight, and women command them with a cool mind.”
“But you said that women can hunt, that is, they can go hunting?”
“By «hunt» I mean searching for the love of my life. It is women who are the first to decide to approach men and share a bed.”
"Aww… so that's what it means."
I spoke out loud, confirming in my head that the rings with the spell of Babylon cannot accurately translate certain words in our native languages.
«So "hunting" in their language also means searching for love... I'll remember that.»
“But I see you only have one woman and you treat her with the utmost respect.”
Noticed by Ripun, clearly hinting about Sigrun.
“In our society, women and men are equal. We treat each other with respect regardless of gender.”
"We have the same. Only the last word always belongs to the owner of the family.”
«Wow... real “equality”.»
I thought sarcastically to myself and decided to ask Ripun something.
“Your country was conquered by the Antigone Empire, what can you say about their army?”
In the future, if we have to fight them, then it is definitely important for us to know their combat capabilities, because they already partially know ours. Considering that there is so-called “magic” and “Gods” on this planet, it will not be difficult to guess that we may encounter paranormal phenomena. Moreover, we have already witnessed Antigonians hiding from us visually, as well as detecting us at long distances in difficult terrain. This cannot but raise concerns about their possible trump cards in the coming war.
Ripun, hearing my question, looked at Princess Niana, who had been listening to our conversation all this time. She looked at me sternly for several seconds, and then sighed and nodded to Ripun, after which he decided to tell me something:
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Two years ago, our kingdom never bordered the Antigone Empire. There used to be another country in the west, the kingdom of Hazbotan. It was completely opposite to ours. Men ruled there, and women were not treated as equals.”
“The king of the Hazbotan kingdom even wanted to take my mother by force.”
Princess Niana interjected with contempt in her voice.
“How disgusted I was to see his ugly and lust-hungry face. Mom defeated him in a ritual duel, after which the king of the Hazbotan kingdom never visited our court again.”
After these words, Niana plunged into her thoughts, and Ripun then continued his story:
“So where did I stop? Oh yes... ahem-ahem~... So two years ago the Empire conquered this country, and its inhabitants fled from it. Queen Femila hosted some of the fugitives, but the Empire, through its ambassadors, threatened war if we did not hand over the fugitives to them. The Queen did not want war and therefore carried out the will of Antigone and closed the path of the Hazbotanians to Hippolyta, and also returned those who were refugees to the Empire."
Ripun's face suddenly became much more gloomy. He continued the same story, but in a lower voice, as if the next part of the story was covered with a huge stain of his personal shame.
“Two years later, the Empire broke its promise and attacked our country. We were not ready for war, our armies were swept away, we were few in number and unorganized, we had no chance of victory. The queen died, and the princess was forced to flee, leading the remnants of our people with her. And the next thing you know, we met in the poisonous forest.”
He did not explain further because he had already told us this part, namely how the Antigonians were chasing them, and the poisonous forest was then taking more and more lives of the Hippolytans. Of course, from the story I did not understand the military capabilities of the Antigonians, but their policies were suspicious. Ripun did not say why the Empire attacked them, apparently he himself did not know the exact reason for this.
From what we heard, it can be assumed that their attack was completely unfounded, as well as completely unexpected. Given their enormous numbers, it is possible that they did not waste time preparing for the invasion and invaded Hippolyta relying on the strength of their own troops to ensure the success of their invasion.
This means that the Antigonians wanted to conquer the country as quickly as possible and, for some reason unknown to us, tried to conquer the kingdom as quickly as possible. Considering how many settlements were shown on the map in the tablet to the west of the poisonous forest, we can assume that there are a large number of states with which the Empire may now be waging another war of conquest. And why they are doing it is still completely unclear.
It is unlikely that the reason for this is the desire to expand their territory, because they did not leave their own borders for thousands of years, so why only now did they start fighting? Does this have something to do with us? Or is there a completely different reason here?
«I'll leave this question for later.»
I brushed aside these thoughts and, thanking Ripun for the story, continued on my way following Granid.
We continued walking for some time until we finally emerged from the forest just before sunset. The sky overhead was already orange, and we, having crossed the line of trees, found ourselves on a flat field, apparently sown with wheat, and in the distance we could see small one-story wooden houses. A little further from them there was a forest, and beyond it rose the stone walls of a relatively small city.
Here it is, an open-air city.
“We have to hurry, otherwise the guards will close the gate.”
Granid told us in a slightly joyful voice. I followed him while watching animals like foxes and rabbits running across the field in the distance. I haven’t seen any people yet; apparently they were now in their homes and going to bed.
“Is this the kingdom of Lakuus?”
Princess Niana spoke and Incartia answered her question.
"Yes. Are you curious about this country?”
"I'm wondering if the kingdom of Lakuus will help retake Hippolyta."
Niana said with some hope in her voice.
“The Empire will not stop at Hippolyta and will be ready to cross the poisonous forest to conquer Lakuus. I hope that together we will defeat the Empire and return what the servants of Sod took from us."
“It’s up to the owners of the country, not its subjects.”
The old mage answered the foreign princess.
“I may be far from high society, but I think they will refuse to help you. After all, your enemy is the servants of Sod themselves, the Antigone Empire itself. The kingdom of Lakuus will not be able to fight with the entire Empire.”
The dark-haired girl drooped when she heard the magician’s words and whispered under her breath:
“If I can’t atone for my guilt, then why did I run away from there? Why did I come here?”
Princess Niana is clearly worried about her people, she hoped for the support of the inhabitants of the kingdom and its rulers, but the uncertainty of whether they will agree to help her or not is already beginning to weigh on her. I probably would have also felt depressed if this magician had not agreed to help us cross these territories.
"Do you have any daggers?"
Granid suddenly asked us without turning to face us.
"We have combat knives,"
I answered and at the same time became interested.
"Why are you asking?"
“The guards will not allow armed men through without special permission, which you do not have.”
"I understood you."
I said and ordered the entire platoon.
“To all fighters, give all bladed weapons to Stern. Stern, collect everyone’s knives and go hide it all somewhere. Then mark on the map the place where you hid the knives and hide them securely so that no one steals them.”
"Yes, sir."
The entire platoon said in unison as they began to hand over their combat knives to the droid operator, who in turn collected all the folded folding combat knives in a bag and ran into the forest, hiding the weapon somewhere near the trees. He returned quite quickly and confirmed the execution of the order.
Meanwhile, we were approaching the massive wooden gates of the city, which, to my surprise, were very weakly guarded. I expected to meet the same armored soldiers as the Antigonians, but those guards who stood guard were dressed very modestly. Leather armor, hats, spears and unattractive tired faces, and most importantly the musky stinking smell of their bodies. There were loaded crossbows on the wall, and above the gate there were cobblestones tied to the wall with ropes.
The gates were practically empty and only five people guarded the entrance to the city. One of the guards, seeing us and sitting leaning against the wall, rose to his feet and stood in our way. The man's face was mature and rather tired. You can tell from him that he clearly wanted to go home as soon as possible.
"Who you are?"
The guard asked lazily when Granid approached him, and the whole platoon of us stopped ten meters from the gate.
“I am a free mage and my name is Granid, and this is my student and guests from distant lands.”
He pointed his hand at Incartia, and then at all of us.
“We arrived here to wait the night, heading to Ran.”
The guard, however, seemed in no mood to welcome us into the city.
“We will close the gates soon. Go and wait the night in another place."
The old mage's already gloomy face became even gloomier. He did not expect that some mortal would refuse him right here and now.
“Where do you think we should wait for the night? In the forest? What if the monsters overtook us?”
"Yes."
The guard answered wearily.
“Now go, I don’t want to mess with you... a-a-a-a-a-a-A-A-A-A-A-A~!!!”
The guard suddenly flew into the air and the next moment flew away like a bullet into the nearest bushes. The other four guards, seeing this, became alarmed, grabbing their spears and pointing their weapons towards the old mage. One of them jumped on his horse and galloped into the city, apparently for reinforcements, while we readied our rifles in preparation for unforeseen circumstances. I hoped we wouldn't have to kill people again.
“I'm not some peasant for you to treat me like this.”
Granid said angrily, menacingly creating a fireball above his staff, illuminating the gate with a white-orange light.
“I am a free mage Granid, respected by the king of the kingdom of Lakuus himself. Where has the former respect for the magicians who protect your country gone? Or is life cheap for you ungrateful plebs?”
The guard who had fallen into the bushes, spitting out dry branches, rose to his feet and looked wide-eyed at the old mage in a gray robe. The man trembled with fear, seeing in front of him confirmation that in front of him was a real magician, and not some crazy old man with a stick. Dealing with a magician is beyond the power of an ordinary person and therefore the guard gave up:
"Okay-okay. I’ll let you in, just tell me your names and why you came.”
The frightened guard raised his hands while the rest of the trio of guards lowered the sharp ends of their spears. Granid smiled and extinguished his fireball over his staff, and then said:
“I already said why we are here, but there shouldn’t be any problems with names.”
After this situation was resolved, we breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. We approached the guard one by one and told him our names, and he wrote them down on some piece of paper with some kind of writing stick. And when it seemed that we had finally entered the city, then suddenly the same guard decided to ask everyone:
“You look so strange. What are these things in your hands?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but stood in a stupor, not knowing what the best words to choose for the answer were. Fortunately, Granid answered instead of me, who had already prepared an answer in advance:
“These are tools for blacksmithing. I really don’t know how they work, but I think they are very valuable.”
The guard thought for a moment, looking at the barrels of our rifles and nodded.
“Yes, I’ve never seen such things in my years. Well, since you only need to spend the night, I advise you to go along this street, there you will find the “seven virtues” tavern, with a horse and a star on the sign. It’s a good tavern, you won’t regret going there.”
“Thank you, but I’m going to go to another inn and wait there for the night.”
The guard sighed in disappointment at Granid's words.
"Well, good night, lord, and forgive me for my ignorance. This will not happen again."
The guard waved with a timid laugh and we finally walked through the city streets.
There was dried mud underfoot, and wooden one-story houses were very close to each other. I saw people walking around dressed in all sorts of rags. Oddly enough, they did not pay any attention to us, although in theory we should look very bizarre in their eyes. There was also a stench in the city that made you want to openly puke.
This is not how I imagined an open-air city. Maybe I expected it to be clean, but it seems that due to the backwardness of civilization, it is not located in the best condition. However, it turned out that the city should not have been like this based on the following words of Granid:
“Itsqueen. The last time I was here, this city was beautiful, but now it’s as if only poor people live here.”
“Why didn’t the guards demand payment from us?”
Zaden suddenly asked the old mage.
“I am a free magician, and you are my guests. The guards undertake to let us into the city without paying. If we were ordinary people, we would pay to enter.”
«Did we also have to pay to enter the city? Some kind of savagery.»
I thought until we finally arrived at the inn.
Alas, the ring with the spell of Babylon does not allow us to read the words in the Lakuus language, but only to speak it, otherwise I would understand what is written on the sign at the entrance to the two-story inn. However, we were not allowed to go inside by a detachment of guards who had arrived.