Julie stands outside looking at the rest to see if they are paying attention to her. “So this area here, I call it the Ruined Zone. All the houses here are empty, and probably for the better. At this point if you’d enter one it might fall down on you. There’s a very low chance of finding people here, since they all tend to avoid the area. Even the ‘main road’ is deserted.”
Julie takes a few steps forward until she reaches an intersection. “Since this path where we came from is a dead end we’re not gonna stick there. If you go to the left here you’ll end up on the main road, can’t be missed since it literally doesn’t lead anywhere else. The main road is pretty straightforward and in a square goes around the town. So we’re not gonna go there either. To the right we’ll get to the heart of the town, it leads to multiple alleys and pretty much gets you anywhere faster than the main road.”
She then leads everyone to the right, again stopping at the first intersection. “This road continues onto the main alleyway, that starts at the left main road and ends before the right main road. If it weren’t for the rich people wanting a garden it would probably have reached the right main road. If we head to the right we’ll enter the zone I call the Broke Zone. It’s the smallest houses all built right next to each other. And even though the houses are the smallest you’ll find a lot more people crammed inside. For now however we aren’t going there, there’s so many little paths made by people just wanting to reach something that it’s gonna take a while to memorize.”
They all continue following the road. They walk by a path that goes right. “This is also a dead end that just leads to a few houses, we’ll only go to the most important things for now.”
They reach the main alleyway and there’s a few people hastily walking by. Blue hides behind April as soon as she sees them. “Why are there people here?”
“Well that’s what it’s a main alleyway for, from this point you can reach the rest. We left the Ruined Zone now, although no one ever heads this way. That’s why we didn’t meet anyone before, they all just skip this route and use one of the other alleys to reach their destination.” Julie explains.
"I see, so we basically have the whole Ruined Zone for ourselves?” April asks, more to herself than to anyone.
Julie responds with a laugh before continuing her tour. “If we go to the left here we’ll find Nicolas and his apparently not so free bread. He’s located on the main road, but he chose the nearest spot to the main alleyway since that’s where most of his customers live. He didn’t want to exclude the richer people though and thus took that spot.
Also, he’s the only one who decided he wanted a shop and actually set one up. Most average people buy from the Church since they decided to teach their priests how to make stuff. Now the Church makes clothes, all kinds of cooked food and raw vegetables from their garden. They even make beer, they get quite the profit because of it.
The richer people hire people to make it for them, of course not just anybody but the best they can afford. They’ll have their own people fishing and hunting for food and they keep it all to themselves. If they need something they don’t have they’ll trade with the other rich people nearby or go to the ‘Little Market’. Which is called little but it’s more like a black market. We’re headed there actually, so you can see for yourself.”
Julie easily passes through the people and gets on the other side of the road. The rest of them have a little more trouble and bump into people quite a few times.
“How can you walk by them so fast?” April asks surprised.
“I’ve been doing it everyday so at one point it just gets easier. People move predictably so it’s easy once you get the hang of it.” Julie proudly boasts.
They head into an alleyway that’s a lot busier than the ones they had before. At the end of it there’s a big guy guarding the road. People wait in a line until he lets them through.
Julie however ignores the line and walks straight past. She stops in front of the big guy and waves. “Hey Fred, long time no see. Let us through alright?”
The people behind her in line complain and throw all kinds of slurs towards her. She ignores them all however.
“Julie, what brings you here? You even brought a group of friends, I thought you would forever stay a lone wolf?” The guard seriously says. It definitely isn’t serious talk but he keeps his work persona on.
Julie smirks. “Oh Fred, you know how it is. Some poor kids came by and needed a home. Of course I can only offer what I have. Now I’m showing them around so they won’t need me anymore.”
“I see, well enjoy your stay then.” He hands Julie something and Julie signs for the others to come.
Blue stays close to April and hides her face behind April. She doesn’t want people to see her and carefully they walk to Julie. Vince runs after them and looks around with big eyes.
They walk a bit further before Julie stops them and shows what Fred gave her. Blue curiously looks at what Julie is holding and sees that it’s four masks.
“I doubt anyone looks enough like us to make us anonymous but hey, it’s a start.” Julie jokingly says while putting one of the masks on. It’s a mask that only covers the top of her head and doesn’t show the eyes. It’s simply black with no design on it at all and a little fabric that hides the eyes but doesn’t prevent the wearer from seeing. It’s kept in place by a little wire that people tie themselves.
April takes one and puts it on, she then helps Vince put one on. Blue looks at the mask for a little while before putting it on.
April looks at her. “Do you need help tying that?”
“No, I’m fine.” Blue stubbornly says while struggling to tie the wire behind her head. She hears Julie laughing, which only makes her try harder.
Suddenly there’s two hands on her own hands. “Here follow my lead, I’ll show you.” April says gently.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Together they manage to finally tie it. “See, that’s how you do it. Easy right?” April smiles at Blue.
Blue pouts and looks away from April. “I could’ve done that myself.”
“Uh-huh” April laughs.
Blue blushes and walks off in the direction of the market.
Julie casually follows her together with April and Vince. “Let’s find things she can’t do, she’s cute when she’s being stubborn.” Julie teases to April.
“I heard that!” Blue shouts at Julie. She quickly quiets down after realizing people are staring at her.
Julie laughs and quickly catches up to Blue. She throws her arm around Blue’s neck. “Look at you running off like that, aren’t you afraid you’ll lose sight of us?”
“I don’t need you!” Blue argues.
“Alright then.” Julie removes her arm. “Go ahead, find your way yourself.” She says seriously.
Blue suddenly gets scared and runs back to Julie to hug her. “I’m sorry! I still need you, don’t leave me!” She says with tears in her eyes.
“Good, now don’t you ever says things like that again. You can’t just throw around things you don’t mean like that. You might not realize it but you can hurt other people's feelings with it. Do you understand?” Julie says.
Blue looks to the others and sees April and Vince looking coldy at her. She realizes she doesn’t want to hurt them or lose them. What would she do if they left her side? “I understand.” She sadly says.
“Now apologize to the others.” Julie coldy says.
Blue turns to the others. “I’m sorry!” She sincerely says.
“Apology accepted.” April says with a smile.
“Now then, stay close to us. This isn’t a place you want to get lost in. If anyone finds you here alone they will take you and get you into slavery.” Julie states.
“Okay.” Blue says with a weak voice. She grabs April’s hand and then with her other hand grabs Julie’s hand. Vince quickly follows and grabs April’s hand too.
Julie moves on and together they arrive at an open area. “Now this is the Little Market. If you ever need anything you can’t find anywhere else, you can definitely get it here. Even if they don’t have it in stock, just ask the merchant for it and poof.
They got all kinds of weapons here, including flintlocks and swords. They are terribly overpriced, but what can you do when they don’t sell them anywhere else. That building over there sells the weapons.” Julie points at a little house to the right.
“The building next to it is where they sell slaves. Because we’re such a small town there’s no official slave shops and we can only do with some illegal ones. So you don’t question how they got the slaves and they won’t question you on what you need them for. They probably got them by kidnapping some people from other towns, who knows.”
Julie points to another building in a right corner. “That over there is where the traveling merchant comes with exotic goods. His wares are never set in stone so it’s a surprise every time you visit. The rich people usually crowd his place whenever he arrives into town, to be the first to get their hands on whatever he brings them. Seeing that it’s not crowded at the moment he should be out.”
Julie goes to the building that’s right in front of them. “This building is also a favorite among the rich people. It sells jewelry and all kinds of expensive accessories. There’s a 99% chance that it’s stolen though, so they are a bit cheaper than if you would go to an actual Jewelry store in the city.”
She continues onto the building left of the jewelry shop. “Here you can bet on fights. They get two volunteers to fight it out and people love to see that. I’m sure it’s rigged, they just tell the one where most people bet on to lose and give them a share of the money.”
She then points to the building on the left. “That’s where you can hire people to do things for you. And with things I mean either breaking in, kidnapping, attacking or even killing people. It’s expensive though, so only the rich can afford to ruin people.”
There’s two people nearby the building talking to each other. Blue recognizes the clothes and hair on one of them, it’s her father.
“Can we move a bit closer to them? I want to hear what they’re saying.” Blue asks Julie.
“Hmm? Sure, just follow me.” Julie stealthily leads them to the building and hides nearby.
“I want my money, 200 luns as I said.” A male whispers with anger.
“You can’t prove that you’ve completed my request. Why would I pay you then?” Blue’s father says with a noble air.
‘What are they talking about? What request could my father have?’ Blue stares at the duo surprised.
“Prove it? You cleaned up the proof and you know it. Don’t play with me, I have enough connections to make your life miserable!” The male says.
“I see you resorted to empty threats. You can’t prove that I cleaned up the evidence either, you’re just making up things here.” Blue’s father calmly says, as if the threats mean nothing to him.
“I KILLED ALL OF THEM! WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED?! JUST GIVE ME MY MONEY ALREADY!” The man shouts.
‘Killed? Killed who? Father wouldn’t kill people right?’ Blue gets confused and slightly nervous. ‘The guy that screamed, he’s a murderer? Walking free?’
“And that’s where you are wrong. My men have spotted three of the four alive and walking around. This is exactly why I need proof, which you can’t give. So I think we are done here.” Blue’s father turns around to leave.
‘Three of four..’ Blue thinks quietly.
“What? How could that be? I personally threw the girl against the wall, she wouldn’t survive that.” The man asks confused.
‘No way.. It can’t be.. He wouldn’t..’ Blue holds on to April’s arm, as her world falls apart. Blue feels something touching her back and patting her, she doesn’t look up for it.
“And that’s another thing where you’re wrong. They are monsters and I told you they wouldn’t die of any simple injury. We’ve tested that before already. What about the boys, you seem to skip their part.” Blue’s father looks back at the man.
‘Monsters he says.’ Blue holds back tears. ‘Is that how he thought about us the whole time?’
The man nervously stands there silent. It takes a while for him to respond. “They eh… They ran away when we focussed on the other girl.”
‘Was it pure luck that I’m still here? Against my...that man’s wishes?’ Blue’s eyes look completely empty as she tries to figure it out.
“You were with two men and still let them escape? Weren’t you the professionals that always completed all jobs? This is exactly why I’m not going to pay you.” Blue’s father remarks and walks away, not waiting on another response.
‘He’s the monster.’ Blue lets go of April’s arm and stands up, hesitant to do anything else.
The man slams the wall before heading off.
Blue justs looks at the ground. “No way.”
April looks worried at Blue. “What’s wrong?”
Blue looks up without any emotion visible in her eyes. The temperature surrounding her turns cold. “That man...” There’s a hesitation in her voice as she nervously plays with her dress. ‘No, he’s not my father anymore. He probably didn’t want me anyway and that’s why he tried to get rid of us’ Blue tries to gather her resolve to end all ties with that man.
“He… He used to call himself my father.” Blue closes her hands in fists, hard enough to leave imprints. “He obviously isn’t much of a father and I’m not related to him in any possible way from this point on.”
Julie looks mad. “What a dick. Did that guy actually hire people to get rid of you?”
“We’re your family, no one else. We’ll keep you safe from that guy.” April hugs Blue.
Vince joins the hug. “Sis, you got me right! I’m not leaving you! And I’ll kick all the bad people away!”
“Let’s go back home, we’ll continue this tour on another day.” Julie states as she walks away.
The others stop the group hug and hurriedly follow her. Blue doesn’t say anything and there’s still a freezing temperature around her.
They quickly get back to Fred. “Hey there Julie, had a fun time showing off?”
Julie ignores his question. “We’ll keep the masks, Fred.” And like that they soon reach their so called home.
They get in and Julie closes the door. “Let’s at least get the beds ready so we don’t have to do that when we want to sleep.” She grabs a bit of grass and spreads it over the ground.
April helps Julie and together they get four beds near the fireplace.
April looks at Blue. “So hey, the good news is that your brothers are still alive!”