Chapter 58: Alnwick

The first thing that struck Leo was the noise.

After traveling on the empty road for the past few days, he’d forgotten how loud a city was.

At every second there was some sort of sound: the murmurs of passersby, the yells of merchants selling wares, the clopping of horse hooves, the squeak of rickshaw wheels. The clamor of Alnwick was everywhere he turned.

The next thing that hit him was the sheer amount of people. All across the stone paved road, city residents passed by in huddled masses. Stores and houses were packed tightly together, their material ranging from solid wood to carefully laid bricks, adding to the cramped feeling.

Here, most of the buildings were at least two stories tall, and the shingled roofs rose in sharp points and slopes. If Leo squinted, he could make out even more buildings in the distance, all of them packed together inside the walls.

Then there were the eyes. Leo would’ve thought, with such a large population, that another group crossing the gates would be nothing, but he’d underestimated how much attention both Allan and Spade naturally drew—albeit for different reasons.

Leo tugged his cloak closer and ducked his head, making himself smaller.

“This way,” he muttered. “Too many people by the gate.”

Turning, he edged closer to the side of the street. There were proper sidewalks here, separated from the street with rows of flowers. Leo moved quickly down them, but not so fast as to stand out.

It looked like they were on one of the main roads. Leo turned at the first fork, stepping into a still noisy, but slightly less populated street. He kept moving, hazel eyes constantly scanning their surroundings.

There were a lot of guards, he realized. At least two at every block, and even more on the main street.

Based on the way other passersby would glance at them or give them a wide berth, he suspected this wasn’t normal. His jaw clenched. Was this also part of the “precautions?”

On closer inspection, everyone seemed a little more tense than usual. Leo spotted multiple shifting gazes, glances across the shoulder, a general avoidance of others, a heightened briskness to everyone’s walk.

For all the buildings and people and colorful flowers, it felt…off, like everyone was waiting for the shoe to drop.

Leo turned another corner, the next street a narrow stone pathway that crossed between two large buildings. It was noticeably quieter, only a few people strolling along. Leo breathed a sigh of relief.

“I didn’t think there’d be this many people,” he muttered.

His eyes darted briefly over to the two guards standing at the mouth of the road, then back. Another reason he’d stopped here was because there were less guards.

“Were there this many guards last time you were here?” he asked Spade quietly.

“No.” The [Executioner]’s grey eyes swept across the street thoughtfully. “And the atmosphere was certainly less tense.”

“Oh good, I’m not crazy.” Leo shifted so that his bag was better concealed under his cloak. “The hell is going on?”

“Maybe it’s because of the notification?” Allan suggested. “It’s hard to know who has a fragment.”

Leo nodded slowly. “Yeah, probably.”

Without a skill like [Judgement], people would have to rely on deduction to determine who was a possible fragment hunter. It wouldn’t surprise him if the guards were there as much for catching law-breaking city residents as they were for outsiders.

The Council had made it illegal to gather fragments for yourself, but that certainly wouldn’t stop people.

In places with less guards and resources, Leo could easily see them descending into chaos. Alnwick was barely clinging onto a sense of normalcy with all its new rules and regulations.

He shook his head and exhaled. “Well, first thing’s first. We’re gonna need to find a place to sell these,” he muttered, gesturing to the stored crests. Though, with the amount of guards posted, selling them might be harder than he’d anticipated.

“I know someone who’ll take them.”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

The [Executioner] nodded. “Her name’s Lenore. She has a lot of connections around the city.” Illegal connections, was the implication.

Leo nodded slowly. He was a little hesitant, but this did seem like their best bet for selling the crests off.

“You know where she is?”

In response, Spade simply turned and gestured for them to follow.

—

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Leo was silently impressed at how good Spade’s memory was. She probably hadn’t been to Alnwick in a few years now, but other than an occasional pause at a street corner, she easily navigated through the winding, narrow roads.

The further away from the main street they went, the more sparsely the guards were posted. A formerly even mix of wooden and brick walls transitioned to mostly wood, and Leo saw far more one-story buildings now.

He’d long stopped seeing any carriages around, though there were still rickshaw pullers running down the street, heads lowered and drenched in sweat.

Leo’s gaze lingered on them, remembering when it used to be Allan tugging the rickshaw along. He shook his head and looked away. It was hard to believe how much things had changed in such a short period of time.

Spade’s pace slowed. They finally came to a stop in front of a plain, unassuming two-story building.

On the outside, it looked like some sort of inn. The words The Pearl were carved in curling, looping letters across the wooden sign, and a single guard stood posted outside the door. That was the first thing that got Leo’s attention. Usually an inn wouldn’t bother with hiring a guard.

It was possible, of course, that the inn was more well-to-do than its exterior indicated, in which case a guard would make sense. As soon as Leo’s eyes landed on the door, however, he knew that wasn’t the explanation here.

An innocuous garland decorated the otherwise plain door, filled with a collection of flowers and leaves that normally wouldn’t warrant a second glance. Leo’s eyes honed in on the six red camellias woven into the display.

“This is a brothel,” he said bluntly.

He made sure to keep his voice down. They were alone on the street save for the guard by the door and the city guards on the other end, but he still didn’t want to draw needless attention.

Brothels were illegal in Avel, and after crossing into the country from Adrya, he’d picked up on some of the hidden symbols they used. There’d been one in Sindrey’s slums, too.

“It is,” Spade said simply. She walked forward towards the door without pause, ignoring the [Fragmentholder]’s questions.

Leo exchanged looks with Allan, who had an eyebrow raised and looked mildly curious at most.

Leo sighed and shook his head. Giving the city guards at the end of the street a final glance, he hurried after Spade, nodding once to the guard standing by the door as they stepped through.

The interior of the building was noticeably more extravagant than the exterior. Draping, silky curtains wound up and down the ceiling, where hanging lamps added a warm, ambient glow to the space.

Tall vases with lush blossoms decorated the corners, and across the elegantly patterned walls, various landscape oil paintings hung.

Leo’s gaze drifted to the back, where a reception counter stood in the center of two separate staircases leading upwards.

Hazel eyes narrowed as they approached the counter. A single man with pale skin, messy black hair, and a bored look on his face stood with a book in front of him.

Name: Kai

Age: 26

Level: 14

Class: [Receptionist, Tier 0]

Personal Skill: [Memento Lvl 2]

“Good evening, welcome to The Pearl,” the man said in a dull monotone. He wasn’t even looking up, light brown eyes instead focused on the open book lying atop the counter. “How can I help you?”

Spade came to a stop in front of the counter and raised a scarred eyebrow.

“Technically it’s still afternoon.”

“Good afternoon then. Wait.” Kai’s head snapped up. His eyes widened when they landed on Spade.

“Holy shit. Spade?” He laughed, the sound a mix of disbelieving and giddy. “You’re still alive? I thought for sure you’d died in a ditch somewhere!”

“I did say I was heading north to find more jobs,” the [Executioner] said with a smile. The man snorted.

“Yeah, that’s kind of why. Figured the Empire’d’ve invaded Avel by now, but eh, I guess you got lucky with the timing.”

He leaned forward, grinning. “Anyway, what’ve you been up to? Lenore just mentioned you, like, a week ago.”

Spade chuckled. “I’m looking for her, actually. I have some business to discuss.”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “Business as in…?”

The [Executioner] paused for a moment, thinking over some old memory, before responding.

“A warm cup of tea and a night and a half, if you could book days in parts.”

Kai’s eyes sharpened with understanding, posture immediately straightening from its earlier lazy slump. Leo tensed instinctively. Some kind of code phrase?

The [Receptionist] scanned the empty space, eyes finally landing on Leo and Allan as he noticed them.

Kai’s gaze briefly swept over the [Fragmentholder]—Leo noted how he pinpointed the location of his dagger—before lingering a little longer on Allan. He whistled.

“Damn. You’re really hot.”

“Thank you,” Allan said without missing a beat. He had on one of those perfectly pleasant smiles that never failed to take people off guard.

Kai blinked. Temporary surprise morphed into laughter, clearly not having expected the response. He turned back to Spade, grin wide. “I didn’t know you had actual friends.”

“We’re traveling together. They’re here on the same business.”

“Oh come on, let me have my fun.”

Kai shoved aside the book he’d been reading and pulled out another one, flipping through the crinkled pages and squinting down at it.

After verifying that the lobby was empty save for them, he seemed to have returned to his earlier relaxed demeanor. Leo supposed he didn’t have to worry about secrecy now with no one else around.

“Looks like you’re in luck. No one comes by this early, so Lenore’s free right now.” He jerked his head towards the right staircase.

“Should be up in her room.” The [Receptionist] grinned. “She’ll be happy to see you again.”

Spade nodded and turned to Leo and Allan.

“I’ll go explain the situation to her first,” she said. A hint of amusement flashed in her grey eyes. “She tends to give worse deals if she doesn’t know you beforehand.”

Leo glanced down at the bag containing the crests with a frown. He tugged his cloak over it.

“I mean, you know her best. We’ll just wait in the lobby for now.”

Things were moving so quickly that he was still trying to wrap his head around it all. This would at least give him time to process and to figure out how best to haggle over the crests—no one dealing with the underground market would agree to sell them without taking part of the cut, after all.

Spade turned and ascended the right staircase. The stairs creaked slightly beneath her.

After the [Executioner] disappeared from view, Leo stepped over to one of the soft-looking armchairs placed around the lobby and sat down with a sigh.

Now to wait.