The pair of undead walked past the empty reception and opened the door causing the small bell to ring. When they stepped out into the early light, the cold morning breeze slapped them as it washed over the street from the north. The city should hurry to prepare for snowfall in the near future but the elf noticed that few if any homes had smoke already coming out of their chimneys. The temperature didn't affect her nor the pale mage beside her but from observing the dock workers at the far side of the street temperature had dropped enough that people have started heating their houses and wearing winter clothing. The few columns of smoke might have been the reality inside the cities where life was far more expensive than in the country and the people were saving up their stockpiles of wood for later.
The elf began to wander through the empty streets. After a bit of aimless meandering another bell rang and not that shortly after the city streets began to fill with people heading toward their work. Since they were in the lowest part of the city most people either headed toward the industrial district or began to head out of the city. After all, horses had to have their shoes put on, farmers needed farmhands to help with finishing before the winter truly set in, the nature around the city needed to forage for useful herbs and so on. That was all the things she had seen with other large human cities but Oriripol felt different.
Given that the city had a wall surrounding a large section of land near the city probably meant that all the usual surrounding villages a city usually had were housed inside the city itself causing the large crowds of people trying to get in and out of the city to appear near the gates. Trying to avoid the crowds flowing like water from a mountain, Iris turned and led them through an alley which looked to be leading further toward the second wall. After skipping one human wave the two had emerged onto a half busy street with people walking between carts. Kia wearing a traveler's cloak seemed to be silently observing the humans passing by her, occasionally someone would manage to glimpse under her hood causing them to gasp causing the ancient to each time furrow her brows in confusion. After a bell of walking through the lowest part of the city, the elf headed toward the next layer. The city guard manning the gatehouse didn't check anything allowing people to walk past them as they wished. Right past the gate the street split in three and Iris asked Kia where she wanted to go next. The necromancer stopped and stared at the elf with eyes hungry to see more new things and the girl pulled the risen toward the right. In an incredible coincidence that the tall elf found suspicious, they had entered a large market square with a trade house right in the middle.
"What is that?" Kia pointed at a tall stone building with large windows.
"That is probably a trade house."
"But why?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why did they build it, couldn't they make the market square bigger?" The ancient's words caused the elf to remember the multiple grand open plazas Cyclops seemed to have an affinity to.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Well, I can't be sure but I would imagine it has to do with the expenses involved, "Iris began to explain, using as much information she had heard from her previous life." For the Lord of the place, it is more convenient to concentrate all the industries as much as possible, this is why there an industrial districts and dedicated markets rather than all the stores being scattered across the city making taxing them harder and causing unnecessary traffic. In addition in cities everything is more expensive than in the country and having a giant empty square which does nothing for big portions of the day is beyond wasteful so building a trade house becomes profitable in the long term. The merchants and normal people having one safe and roofed place to go and buy everyday things are more convenient and easier for people from other cities to spend their hard-earned money in the city rather than wondering about."
As the elf spoke the girl nodded her head along, staring a the building while they weaved between stands.
"What is taxing?" Kia asked, her gem-like eyes shining with curiosity.
"Tax is a way for rulers to earn revenue from their subjects. When people intending on selling something enter a city they have to pay tax on the goods they are bringing with them, or another example of tax is the portion of the grain a farmer has to give to his liege lord." Iris explained.
"So it's a tribute but paid not annually?"
"Sort of."
"Wow." Iris saw the girl's eyes turn toward the stars after a moment before she made a sound of amazed enlightenment. Shortly after the ancient fell silent, looking like she was pondering something. "That doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't make sense?"
"The humans who act like rulers do not always appear to be the strongest. How can they extract tribute from people?" Kia asked but before the elf could respond the girl began to speak to herself."...But that's so inefficient, surely they can't be that stupid. Maybe they fight groups of humans at a time?"
"I'm here Kia. What are you talking about?"
"I'm wondering how could a human leader fit challenging their subjects into their schedules. How long do they even live for?"
"Let me start with the easier question to answer," Iris sighed stopping near the entrance of the trade house in fear of having her voice drown out. "Humans can reach the age of one hundred and fifty but most of them live until their sixties, seventies. Adding to that Dwarves live to about two-hundredth and fifty years. I as an elf would have lived for maybe six hours but I heard that they can live for far longer."
"So short!" Kia's eyes opened wide in fear as she wrapped her arms around the elf drawing the attention of the nearby humans. "No wonder the living hate undead, they are jealous of us."
Although the girl appeared to be simply gloating as she watched the humans walking nearby her words did ring somewhat true in elf's ears. There was no shortage of people delving deep into the depths of magic learning in and outs of necromancy in an attempt to live forever and she had seen many of these people willing to plunge their minds into cages of madness for eternity if they hadn't already done so in pursuit of their goal then face their demise by the edge of Brad's sword or his companions.
"To answer your other questions. Most races choose their leaders not based on their stats but on other things usually steeped in tradition. Some rulers are decided on seniority, some based on divine right and others are chosen on their bloodline meaning they inherit their power from their family, either in the form of land, money or titles." Iris stopped to see if Kia had anything to say but the girl didn't comment although puzzlement adorned her wonderfully expressive face. "I think you shouldn't think of things as they were back in your day. The king doesn't have to fight everyone to pay their taxes as the benefits usually outweigh the negatives, the walls protecting the citizenry of a city couldn't have been built by lonely people. Only when someone doesn't pay does the king send his soldiers to make them pay or put them in chains but I wouldn't say that the king fought those people. How did the Cyclops do things?"
"When the king asked people simply gave him the funds he needed." Kia said shrugging her shoulders after opening a window where life seemed to have been much simpler than it the was now."
*Gruu*
The mage's face became red as her ever-empty stomach rumbled loudly. The elf smirked before she stepped forward and entered the trade house, instantly having her ear twitch from the terrible noise inside.