The beauty of the princess left most of the surrounding citizens crippled, It wasn’t until the princess was out of sight and the sound of the drums could only faintly be heard that people left their crouched down position. The chaos had returned, people from all over the street once again pushed and shoved to follow their path, making smaller species such as myself struggling to keep up. As soon as I picked myself up, I could clearly grasp the view in sight, for some reason a cluster of people were still lying face down in the dirt.
The amount was certainly in the tens as far as my eyes could observe and as I stood there examining expecting them to pick themselves up, time passed, resulting in no apparent movement. I could no longer hold in my curiosity and therefore walked over to one of the nearby citizen to observe further, the result was indeed shocking. The small dwarf looking creature had no pulse, since the arrival of the princess this pitiful creature had perished. When I looked around people didn't seem to bother by the fact that this man had just died and in the middle of the street for that matter. Instead I got glances of disgust from the surroundings viewing the spectacle, this feeling that I felt many times in my old life once again came to the surface, You are something that is disregarded and disgusting therefore do not appear in my sight.
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Darkness is everywhere in this small alley, not even the lights from the main street can reach this far into the darkness, the dumpsters that is close by smell of faeces and the never ending rain continue to pour down. The cold bites down with it's clutches far and wide across the body of the meager child lying next to the polluted garbage bags.
Hunger in it self seem to devour the child's last fortitude, the mere fragility of the child's body makes him appear more like a ghoul or skeleton then a human being. The dirty ground continue to contaminate his already filthy body and the never ending rain continues to dissolve the muddy streets, steadily forming what can only be described as quicksand. As the mud and rain increase to the level were it's about to enter the mouth an old man enters the alleyway, most likely on his way home from work. As soon as the fragile boy spots the man he gathers his remaining strength and crawls trough the mud up to the old man, grabbing on to his legs and musters up the only words he have the tenacity to educate,
“Please, Help me”
The mans first expression is one of shock, but seconds later it turns into one of disgust and anger, his mouth is open, his eyes ones of tigers, he collects himself and musters up a sentence in a loud voice,
“Get the fuck off me, you disgusting brat”
As soon as he released his anger at the young child he forcefully releases the foot that is currently being tightly grabbed and then continues to kick the child in the stomach furiously screaming,
“Die already, you dirty little monkey”
After the man released most of his anger on the fragile child, he turns around and dust of the dirt from his pants and then continues walking down the tight and dark alleyway, muttering the words,
“All these disgusting little brats, why don't they die already”
As soon as the man is out of sight the small child proceed to cough up blood, the red substance combines with the brown mud and begin to mix up into a mysterious texture, flowing down the alleyway.
The only thought that was left,
“I must survive here, I refuse to die like this”
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The memory was streaming down my mind, but I did not feel sad because that was a happy moment to remember, a moment that made me stronger and if you can't survive such an ordeal, you do not deserve the gift of life.
“I need to get going”
As I picked myself up and was about to leave, I noticed something rather strange, the body did not have any signs of trampling neither did any of the other. These death was obviously the work of something else or someone else, there were no wounds and there was no sign of blood, a truly weird death. The first thought that came to mind was poison, but it wouldn't be possible to poison about 15 people simultaneously. I was continuing to stare at the body when a man suddenly appear right in front of me,
“Hey hafling, carry on your buissness it's the peacekeepers job to disregard of bodies”
The man was wearing a dark robe, had brown hair and dark eyes, his skin was almost green but otherwise looked mostly like a normal human being. He was at least 3 meters tall but still possessed a rather slim body for that kind of height, the expression he carried was more of someone that was annoyed then angry, which made me feel at ease. The many violent encounters that I had come across since entering this world, made me much more cautious not to upset someone, but this guy was not angry and which in consequence granted relief.
As I was about to answer back in apology someone tall appeared behind me,
“Hey your are not messing with Fey are you, otherwise Muto will put you in place”
The black robed fellow annoyance suddenly turned to anger but before he could express himself Marius appeared right behind him,
“Sorry, these two are new please forgive their rudeness”
The once angry man saw Marius and in consequence released his furious facial expression,
“Okay, but if they disturb official buissness again there will be consequences”
“Of course, carry on with what your are doing and I will talk to them”
As soon as Marius said his part he just walked over to me and Muto and proceeded to pull us away not furiously but with enough strength to actually pull Muto. When we had forcefully been pulled a couple of meters, he let go and continued to walk down the crowded street like nothing happened. Muto and I just looked at each other, both thinking, what the hell just happened?.
I had to find out about this black robed fellow, the curiosity was already consuming me after we had walked for about 1 minute since the incident, Marius didn't seem angry at least not from the back, so the consequences of asking was probably not harsh and Muto seemed like he also wanted to ask, since his mouth had continued to twitch in an odd manner. I ran up to Marius,
“Hey, who was that black robed guy?”
“He was a peacekeeper”
“Peacekeeper?”
“Yes they are the official soldiers of Nikt, they act as guards to withhold the laws of the king and well, disposing of bodies”
“Guards huh, there isn’t a king for nothing I guess, withholding a small amount of laws is probably good if he wants the village to blossom”
“I agree, but they are mostly useless and arrogant for that matter, acting like they have power, when they don’t”
“Well they are under the king and therefore bear his protection, I don't think people would mess with that, we had similar things called police in my country which had authority to uphold the laws and they were useful to some degree”
“The king huh, we recently changed king in this village actually, the old king was strong and powerful, no one thought anyone could overthrow his reign for at least a 100 years but one day one man entered the village, walked up to the palace, slaughtered all the royal protection and the royals and declared himself king.”
Muto was itching to get into the conversation and could not help himself in answering,
“Then the new king is one powerful warrior and his guards are under good protection, The almighty Muto would like to fight this man and declare my self the king”
As soon as he was done talking I had to intervene,
“Muto you are missing the point that Marius is making, if one man can overthrow a kingdom by himself, the guards power become useless”
“Your very smart Fey, good answer, yes the difference in fighting abilities in this world is massive in comparison to our old worlds, here you can combine the knowledge of strength of different races and some races are just stronger then others.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“If a giant got the chance to steal something valuable from an ant, of course he would proceed to do so, the guards aren't that strong by themselves and instances of theft and murder appear everywhere.”
“Since the king can't intervene everywhere, how do he expect to keep order?, well he doesn’t therefore making the duties of the peacekeeper mute”
Strength truly was an important factor in all this, if a race of godly proportion compared to humans ever appeared on earth, they wouldn't oblige to the rules of society, they would set the rules and rule over all.
“Marius, doesn’t that make the powers granted by the caste system and the titles also become mute in consequence?”
“Yeah to the strong, the weak has to oblige by the laws of the strong but the strong are bound by none and form the path for those who are weak, strength in numbers don't matter here, I mean how could ants revolt against a giant? Haha”
Marius was smiling, almost like he had a long time to think about these things and was obviously proud to present his findings, proving that he was not only easy going, but also a deep thinker. As Marius had presented his finding we arrived at one of the palaces that I earlier had seen from the hill that we ascended to arrive at the village. Seeing it from the front was truly a remarkable sight, the mere amount of decoration’s was truly eye catching, everything from big pillars to beautiful statues of what seemed like great warriors. The entrance was a big wooden door which could easily been placed in front of ancient castle, the wood was not green or brownish like in the human world, but instead pitch black. Marius turned around with big smile on his face,
“Well this is my stop, I need to report to some people here, let's meet back here in an hour?, It was nice hanging out with you so I will show you around town after this”
“Haha, Everyone likes the great Muto, you can lick my toes now if you want!”
Marius big smile suddenly turned into a straight face,
“No thank you, see you Fey”
He turned around, picked up his bag he had thrown on the stone pavement and walked towards the beautiful building. Muto turned his heard towards me with a big smile on his face, a creepy one to be honest,
“Hey Fey, Let's go drinking!!, they have very tasty alcohol in this world, almost like the smiling cat, haha”
The mention of the smiling cat and a drink that could compare put water in my mouth and made my mind almost go blank, but I really wanted to explore town by myself before getting the official tour by Marius,
“I am gonna walk around a bit see you here in an hour”
“Your so boring Fey, drinking is good, come here”
I didn't feel like confronting this anymore so I turned around and proceeded to walk down the crowded street, before I knew I was shoved along it's path and was probably out of sight in Mutos perspective only after a couple of seconds. As I strolled down the main street, I spotted tons of merchant's selling all kind of different food, I was hungry but didn't have any money so I quickly put the thought out of my mind. The wares sold was most cloth and other materials used to keep yourself warm, the weather wasn’t very cold but I could imagine there being winter in this world and the usefulness of it then. The constant screams of merchant was becoming rather annoying only after walking for about 10 minutes, the constant chatter between people wasn't that loud so it didn't bother me, but having a merchant yelling directly into your ears was rather annoying,
“Buy the warmest clothes here”
“Buy the best alcohol in all of Nikt for a cheap price”
“Come and have a taste of this brew, it will make you look younger”
“This potion will make your hands bigger”
“Come and buy weapons and armor of the finest quality right here, survive your travels in style”
Some potions and brews had some rather odd effects, alchemy was clearly on a whole other level in this world. The design of the clothes was clearly different everywhere, the influence of a ton of cultures was combining and setting some rather odd trends, having big hands seem to be one of them. I couldn't bear with sound anymore so I continued to run along the street, after a while I stopped, I had arrived at yet another one of those palaces that could be seen from the hill before entering Nikt. The decorations was once again very pretty with giant statues of godlike proportion illustrating a women begging before a round eye like form. The only difference was that that the house was in a white wood, but what drove me to finally walk over there was not the decorations but the quiet aura it was emitting. It was quiet, no sound of speech could be heard from the outside, was this my chance to finally find a moment of peace in this loud village?,I had to find out.
As soon as I was inside I instantly knew what I just entered, this was without question a church. There were statues illustrating a giant hydra battling with a small gnome, the hydra was facing him and response he hold up an eye looking thing, like he was warding off evil. This statue was in the very back of the church, in the front and all they way to the front was benches, and to the sides podiums probably used to preach the word of the religion, the roof had decorative roses spreading across everywhere, almost like thorns that were after you. After inspecting the interior I walked over too the nearest bench and sat down. Before I knew a brown robed lizard man sat himself beside me, he was what could be assumed some kind of priest.
“Hey young man, amazing interior isn’t it?”
“Hello, yes it's amazing, indeed”
“First time coming to a temple of Kuruzor?”
“Yes, if you don’t mind me asking who is this Kuruzor?”
“I don't mind at all young man, Kuruzor is the protector of the weak, the eye in the never ending darkness, guiding us, always”
Religion was something I hated in my previous world, where were god when I was starving to death? Where were god when I was about to die? Where were god when my brother died? Where were you?
“That seem stupid, the weak are suffering all of this world, where is the Kuruzor, this protector?”
For some odd reason the priest didn't react like I wanted him to, instead he smiled at me and answered back,
“Kuruzor was actually someone who lived in this world a very long time ago, he was once a small gnome considered the weakest among his peers, but he never gave up and eventually came upon a power that ruled over others, but he didn't abuse his power, he helped weaker people ascend this world in the hope of creating a better world, in another word a truly great person.”
“Kuruzor is actually not considered a god for the Order of Kuruzor, he is a belief, a belief that there is hope for the weak, because if there isn’t hope how do we have the power to live on?, his stories provide hope of self improvement and gives us the courage to continue.”
Disappointingly enough the answer did seem to make sense, making this priest feel uncomfortable would have been a lot nicer, but the answer was kind of settling to some degree. The priest noticed that I was troubled and spoke up,
“Young man, I can see that you are struggling with the curse of being weak, the sect of Kuruzor offer training for the weak for the purpose of self improvement, you can start if you are intrested!”
Without even thinking much I answered,
“Yes, please teach me”
The priest put on a big smile and answered back,
“Good to hear, I can not promise you will improve that much because it all depends on the individual but we can certainly teach you,
for a price”
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