Hoghdar hit the side of the cart’s front right side wheel before waving them goodbye. “Be safe out there.” He walked off paying them no further mind.
“Don’t you worry about us!” Juna yelled out. She took the reins of the single horse and sent it moving along the cobbled street. “Alright you two, your job is to help protect the cargo in case anyone tries anything.”
“Is that something that we can expect to occur?” he asked.
“Well, the chances aren’t high. Especially with you two seated with me, but you never know. Liall’s pretty safe relatively speaking, but there’s still plenty of troublemakers who’d love to ambush us and take all of our things, especially around here.”
If anyone tried attacking them, he would gladly defend not only himself but Lar and Juna as well. The only problem was that they weren’t technically allowed to carry weapons since it was illegal. Both Juna and Lar could use magic in more effective ways than him. Once he got a little bit of training—which would be soon—he’d be able to be more confident in effectively using magic without worrying about carrying illegal weapons on him.
For now and under current circumstances, he kept a small dagger hidden around his ankle which was covered by some dark green trousers.
“Phew, it’s hot out here.” Juna motioned her hand at her forehead.
She wasn’t wrong. It was a bit hot. The sun blared down on them making him wish it were night.
“So this is your first serious task, isn’t it?”
He crossed one leg over the other as he sat beside her at the front of the moving cart. “I suppose so. If this can be considered a serious task.”
“Oh definitely. Actually, this is quite a dangerous task. If we were stopped by the city guard for example and they discovered the illicit cargo we have well hidden, we’d be hauled away straight to a dungeon. And trust me, you don’t want to end up in one of those. I hear it’s quite a bad time for anyone in them.”
“You don’t say,” Lar said.
“But anyhow,” Juna said with a sigh. “The two of you are lucky to be given such an important task so early on. It took me at least half a year of being in the coalition until I was given any meaningful task.”
“That was probably a wise decision on their part,” Lar remarked.
Juna began to pout and shake her head. “You know, you could be a little nicer towards me. I’m not just some low-ranking member either.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Cause that’s what nice people do.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not nice.”
“Now come on Lar. Juna’s busy driving this cart. We need not distract her.”
She shrugged their shoulders and smiled. Still upset she beat you earlier? Being defeated by her likely made her feel absolutely terrible.
For about half an hour’s worth of riding, the cart managed to not make many stops. However, a crowd of people walked along the street towards the east forcing them to keep the cart stopped for a long time.
So many people kept walking by. He wondered whether there was an event going on. While they sat there, he eyed a few blue-cloaked city guards walking over towards them.
He felt his body tense up. That’s not good. Rather than walking by them, they made a stop beside the cart and looked up towards Juna who waved towards them. This is definitely not good.
“What are you three carrying on this cart?” a younger brown-haired guard said.
Juna slapped her knee. “Oh you know, totally not anything illegal or anything like that.”
He wanted to press his palm into his face hearing her say something so stupid out loud. She laughed and he tried to make the most convincing smile he could as they looked over to him.
None of the guards laughed or changed their expressions. They began to pull away the piece of thick material that covered the crates and barrels on the back of the cart.
“We’re making a delivery to the southern area beneath Liall. We’ve got a whole lot of food to deliver as you can see.”
A guard opened a crate only to find a pile of apples inside. “Apples, eh?”
“Uh huh,” Juna said. “Why don’t you take one? No charge of course.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” They took an apple and the other two guards grabbed one as well. They searched through a few other things on the back of the cart before hopping off and pulling back the cover as it was before. “You three take care.”
“You as well!”
As the crowd that forced them to stop earlier cleared out, she sent the horse forward motioning them through the more wide street that ran down the center of the city.
His heartbeat slowed down and his body could relax. “Should we really joke about things like that?”
“I find it works a lot better actually. I know what you’re thinking. ‘Juna, how could you say something so idiotic like that?’ But trust me, I’ve done a few of these trips and it makes things go a lot better. You have to act as casually and jokingly as possible. Otherwise, they’ll be eager to do a thorough search. Most of these guards just want to go about their day. Plus if you toss them something for free, you’ll be right on your merry way.”
She had more experience than him, so who was he to say otherwise. He could doubt her jovial method all he liked. But it did work.
They managed to avoid further stops by guards. Some motioned by uncaring about them and not even bothering to look him in the eye. The cart went over some bumps and then took a right down a narrower street. The buildings in this part of Liall were a bit more industrial than the other parts they had gone through. This part of Liall near the southeastern part of the city was filled with people making all kinds of things. There were structures for blacksmiths, tailors, crafters, and engineers. A lot of warehouses were stuffed in this area as well.
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As they went further in, a large wooden platform appeared. Juna led the cart towards it and brought it onto it. She gave a thumbs up to a man a fair bit away. They pulled a lever and the platform began to lower itself.
Juna let go of the reins and put her arms along the backside of the cart that the three of them sat against. “You’ve never been to the parts beneath Liall, have you?”
“Not yet.”
“Honestly, few have. Almost everyone stays on the topside. I guess no one likes living or being in a place where the sun doesn’t exist.”
He couldn’t quite imagine how it might look in his head. He had heard of an entirely open area that existed beneath the city, but how it might appear remained a mystery.
Until now.
A wide expansive space existed all around with giant pillars jutting out from the ground towards the top. Hundreds of buildings were built into the rocks and rivers of flowing water ran around near the bottom.
The chains that lowered the platform kept going and it would take at least another minute or two before they reached the bottom.
“Impressive, huh?”
With a population that couldn’t spread out from beyond the pillars due to the toxic green fog, they had little choice in terms of growth. If they wanted to expand, they could build structures that went up. Or they could also somehow manage to build a civilization that could also live underground.
The platform jolted a bit as it hit flat ground. Juna retook the reins and the horse led them off the platform and onto a black stone path by a bunch of other black stone structures.
When he looked up, he could see the expansive ceiling of this entire underground dwelling that lay beneath Liall. It was oddly serene.
“So I take it not a lot of people live down here judging by how empty it appears.”
“Yeah,” Juna said. “A lot of the work to expand it has stopped over the last decade or so from what I’ve heard. The population kept growing a lot for a while but then it sort of began to level out I guess so all of this extra space hasn’t really been needed. If the population ever does greatly expand then a lot of people won’t have a choice but to live down here.”
“I kind of like it,” Lar said. “It’s not so bright down here and it’s not so noisy either.”
“You’d get along well with Frederek. He’s been practically living down here his entire life.”
“Who is this Frederek person anyways?”
“Frederek Allstone’s his full name. He’s one of the coalition’s faction leaders who operates solely down here. He’s been responsible for coordinating efforts in the underground region of Liall. No one else wants to so he’s the guy keeping things in order in these parts.”
They began to cross over a bridge. Along the blackish smoothed-out streets, aura-infused lighting kept the underground parts lit well enough. If not for them, a torch or candle would be required to move around safely. It would be easy to run off a cliff or get off path.
“Are there many patrols down here?”
“Nope. There are a few, but they don’t like patrolling down here. This is actually where you two are going to come in handy. If we’re going to run across troublemakers, it’s right through here where we’ll encounter them.”
They began to enter one of the towns. It didn’t appear all that occupied. There were just a few stone structures with light coming out of them letting him know at least those were occupied to some extent. The rest could’ve easily been unoccupied judging by how undisturbed they appeared.
“We’re getting close to our destination,” Juna said. “Just a little bit longer.”
So far they didn’t run into any patrols. He doubted that they would. The underground parts of Liall so far felt pretty barren. It was quite the opposite of the surface level where their cart could barely move in some places due to how many people moved around.
A person from the dark side of a rooftop to his right began to run. They leaped across one rooftop to another managing to get some distance from them towards the direction they rode towards.
Kiran pulled his right pant leg back and grabbed his hidden dagger placing it beside himself. Lar took notice and began summoning her fauchard.
As it appeared in her hands, Juna raised her brows. “Is something the matter?”
“I think we might have some trouble,” he said.
She quickened the pace of the horse forcing it to go at a quicker pace than it might’ve preferred. Whatever the case, they had to get moving.
That person on the rooftop was clearly watching them and when he spotted them they went running. Couldn’t be an easy gig. Now we’ve got trouble likely coming our way.
The cart went over another bridge reaching another part of the town with a lot of squished squarish buildings built up beside each other. They stacked them on top as well to maximize the space. They didn’t appear all that occupied however much like the rest they had motioned on by.
A dry fountain lay in the center of the space they rode along. The horse turned at a bit of an angle to ride around it only for Juna to get the horse to stop as several people began to block the dark path up ahead.
The dull light given off from some aura-infused street lamps did little to reveal their faces since they all wore hoods. They also wore black leather and black cloaks.
A man approached them with a short sword in their hand. “Leave the cart here and nothing will happen to ya.”
“Says who?” Juna asked whilst furrowing her brows.
“Says me.” They pointed their finger inward. “Now get off that cart and scram. Otherwise, me and my crew are going to have to kill ya. You don’t want to die do ya lass? You’re far too good-looking for that.”
“What do you think?” she said to Kiran. “Should we do what he says?”
Kiran put his right hand down and grasped onto the handle of the dagger. “I think we should try to reason things through first. I’ll make a counteroffer,” he said towards the hooded figures. “The half dozen or so of you can get out of the way and none of you will get hurt.”
“Are you serious?” They looked back towards the rest of their crew who laughed a little.
“How about this then,” Kiran said and pulled out an apple from a crate and threw it at the hooded man. They caught the apple with a perplexed look. “Consider that a token of my goodwill towards you. I get it, you want to take all of our things, but I can’t nor will I let that happen. I’m not that interested in any of you despite threatening us so take this opportunity and leave us be.”
They took one step forward and dropped the apple on the ground. In one instant, the apple exploded as their foot slammed down onto it.
Lar repositioned her fauchard while Juna grabbed her two daggers. Does it really have to come to this? Surely not. Kiran did not wish to spill blood. But they were eager to. He had no choice but to force them to bleed if they were so unwilling to act peacefully towards him.
As everyone neared the point of launching an all-out assault, a big burly man appeared behind the half dozen people down the street. It caught the attention of a few of them while the man closest to them kept their eyes on Kiran.
“You’re blocking the road.” The big man crossed their arms and gave the road blockers a nasty glare. “Get out of the way.”
“Crap,” the man nearest to them muttered.
Juna leaned over towards his ear. “That’s Frederek.”
That’s him? The guy was quite large for a man. Not large in a fat kind of way either. They had big muscular arms, legs, and a wide chin. Even though they were somewhat far away, he could make out those details with ease.
“What’d I say?” Frederek yelled out. “Move!”
The would-be robbers fled away along another street. Kiran leaned back and allowed his arms to slump down. I’m sure glad he arrived when he did.
“Frederek!” Juna said.
“Juna.” They approached the cart and looked around to make sure those troublemakers weren’t coming back. “Glad I thought to go make sure things were alright. The streets down here have been a problem for the last week in particular. Come on. Let’s get this thing hauled over to my place before those morons bring another dozen or more of their friends over.”