Jack packed his stuff first thing in the morning, He went downstairs to fill up on breakfast. The table was a two-seater, and there was no one in the other seat. Most of the people, in fact, sat on the other side of the room. A lot of them were human, but he caught a glimpse of the hulking form of a troll, as well as an elf, and even a man with the head of a wolf.
He didn’t stay long, as far as he was concerned there was a small chance that people might still be looking for him.
He grabbed a cup of tea and a piece of buttered toast then he left.
Jack wandered the town for a while, Gavhin was downwind of Keywark, Sure it had taken a while to get over on foot, but in carriage was an entirely different case. Since Gavhin was downhill from Keywark, using a carriage was an optimal way to travel.
Jack had absolutely zero clue as to how or where keywark got its food from. All he knew was that this village was certainly the closest and the largest.
Jack stopped, taking in the view of the cityscape. He had previously been in the agricultural section, but as he moved closer to the center of the city and more houses came into view, there were some buildings that were higher than 3 stories.
The fog became thinner as well, so Jack could actually see where he was going. Over to his right, was a tavern, named Oxen’ Ale. Like the one in Rorin, but much bigger. Also, it seemed to double as some sort of restaurant. Jack wasn't hungry, but he was less than satisfied with the tea he drank when he was at the Sleepy Frog, perhaps here, they had some Geralds Tea. Also, maybe some of the answers he was looking for could be provided by the locals inside.
On his left, was a police station.
Jack made up his mind immediately.
Jack was hit by a blast of warm air as he entered the, unlike the bar in Rorin, there were booths, and another section dedicated to drinks specifically. Jack made his way to the other section, narrowly avoiding two policemen making their way out.
He weaved his way through customers of all shapes and sizes. There were some Aldarians , unfortunately. Most of the people seemed to be soldiers of some kind, all with weapons visible on their body. The restaurant seemed to be pretty rowdy as well, two men arguing in one corner, probably Aldarians , and latchkey children were here and there, He saw some children pulling on a dwarf's braids, then running away when he got mad, a waitress almost tripped when child ran in front her, some of the guy chuckled, but quickly looked away when she glared at them.
Jack entered the other area, which was less rowdy, but still carried the same energy. He spotted a guy with the head of a bird eating a fat worm in front of a group of his friends, who seemed to be disturbed, yet entertained, a woman laying into a crying drunk man, and finally, a fairy laying on a windowsill sipping beer from a bottle twice her size. Jack stared in disbelief at the fairy. She turned to look at him, rolled back, then burped.
Jack surveyed the restaurant for any person not currently busy with making poor choices. He spotted a man sitting at one of the tables, his focused appearance suggested he was probably sober, or at least not too drunk. The man was possibly in his forties or fifties.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
More importantly, the man had a patch that indicated he was a soldier from keywark.
Jack sat down. He cleared his throat.
“Sir?”
“Uh huh,” The man responded.
“I see you are a soldier from Keyw-”
“Was,” The man corrected.
Jack waited for the man to continue, when he didn’t, Jack spoke again.
“I’ve heard alot about Keywark and the, uhh, government there. What’s going on with that?”
The man shrugged, “A tourist, eh? Well, Keywark ain't exactly a getaway.”
“Well, actually I’ve been there, and I managed to escape,” Jack replied.
The man took a swig of his drink. Only after he had finished it entirely, did he set down the glass and turn to Jack. He eyed Jack with a look of confusion, “Don’t tell me you want to go back to that place, son.” The man scoffed. “Nah you couldn’t possibly be from there. Not a single person I've met who’d lived there aint’ never wanted to return.” The man cleared his throat. “I was born there, and I hated every second of it. I hated that place with all my life, and since I’d left, I ain’t never ever thought of goin’ back there in my life.”
Jack waited for the man to stop talking, when he did, Jack rephrased his question.
“I was wondering about the royal family, exactly what part do they play in the government?”
The man pulled out a pipe and lit it, blowing smoke out slowly. “Every damn part. As a matter a fact, I heard they used to be bankers or somthin’.”
Jack leaned forward. “What, so that's how they started? Then what?”
The man broke eye contact, Clearly losing interest in the conversation. “Just somthin’ I heard, but they eventually go rich enough, and ya know rich folk, once you got up there you ain't’ never wanna come back down.”
He put his pipe back in his mouth, “then they realized that the other banks were starting to catch on in’ do the same thing, they decided, hell, why not just buy the whole damn city?”
“But der’ was a problem, when you have a merchant city the only way to make it illegal is to do it for everyone, and that would mean losing out on the shiny stuff, so dey’ despised such a clever scheme, why not start socialism? and BAM! dar’ ya’ have it! Of course they were too greedy for power, to have a single drop of socialism in der’ blood. So they devised another clever idea: if they couldn't sell to their own people, they could sell to outsiders.” The man shook his head. “The damn bastards starvin der’ own people.”
Jack sat for a moment to take in all of it. The royal family had bought literally an entire city, then proceeded to manipulate the whole population into believing that socialism was the key to their answers.
“And where are they now?” Jack asked, becoming more impatient.
The man practically ripped the pipe out of his mouth, and got up. “How could I know stuff like that? If you're so curious, why don't you just read a book about it? Oh, wait, there are no books because all of them were burned!” He waved his hand as if he was shoeing Jack. “Go find another person to bother, I'm tired of answering questions all day!”
Jack made his way out of the bar. Jack planned to go to the library to get more info, but the man mentioned all information regarding Keywark was destroyed.
Jack wandered down the street. He had no real plan on getting Bel out of Keywark, or tracking down the person who killed his family, or serving justice to corrupt Aldarians .
Jack’s thoughts were interrupted when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
It was a man, a hobo it seemed. The man turned his head to look at Jack.
It was the man who attacked him in Keywark.