Chapter 10

Hearing an exasperated sigh coming from the guard and then hearing the sound of him scratching his head, I know I have become glorious. If I could applaud myself at this moment, I would. “Fuck. Alright kid, I wasn’t angry at you or anything. Look, I don’t care that you lied. It’s just my job to make sure anyone and everyone going into the town are good people. From what you’ve told me so far, you didn’t do anything wrong that I can see. I just had to make sure where you got all that stuff you’re carrying, alright? It sounds like you kids have had it rough but what are you planning on doing now? I still need a valid reason for travel if I’m going to let you into the town. See all these people out here? They’re just like you, they’re all refugees. But they don’t have anywhere else to go and they’ll stay here until the Nasaaran army comes through and sweeps the peninsula for any stragglers, although I think they’re already gone. If they were planning on staying here, they’d have come to Mountain’s Toil already to control the tunnel. Anyways, I’m rambling. If you don’t have anywhere to go then find a spot in either camp and wait for the kingdom’s army. We’ll keep you fed as long as you’re working hard.”

Quietly wiping the tears from my eyes, I look at Wraine and he looks amused by my performance. “Wraine has an uncle in Midriver and that’s where we were planning on going. We don’t know where that is but if you could tell us how to get there that’d help us immensely.” When I mention Midriver, I notice the look in the guard’s eyes changes significantly. From apologetic to… horror? Is it about Midriver?

“If I were you, I wouldn’t go there. Just send a letter from Mountain’s Toil or anywhere else for that matter. You don’t want to go to Midriver.”

“Okay, but can I ask why?”

“Midriver’s not a good place. It’s a city where all the kingdom’s murderers, rapists, and basically all of its worst scum gather. If your uncle lives there, you might not want to meet him either. The city’s controlled by its underground gangs and since they have such influence and control on the city, they don’t even need to hide themselves anymore and criminals with bounties can walk the streets like it's nothing. If I were you, I wouldn’t even think about going near that place.”

“But what about the city’s nobles? Would they really let the city be controlled by anyone except themselves? The city should also have a leader right? Like someone whose job is to make sure the city doesn’t go to shit? Why doesn’t the kingdom just send its army if it's that bad?”

“The city does have a city lord but I heard that he’s given up on the city and just secludes himself in his manor with the rest of his guards, disregarding what happens in the city. I also heard most of the nobles work with the gangs and do some really heinous shit like human trafficking. The kingdom has a war on its hands and can barely send out troops to clear out the peninsula, not to mention a city filled with criminals. Besides, the city lord used to be a high ranking noble and I guess the king still likes him enough to ignore what’s happening in Midriver.”

“Alright, we’ll talk about it and see what we want to do. Can we go into the town though? We’ve slept on the ground for almost a month straight and we’d like to at least stay at an inn.”

“Okay, but you’ll have to pay the toll. It’s 3 coppers per person so it’ll be 6 for the both of you. Just be glad the tolls were lowered by the town’s mayor from 5 to 3 coppers on account of the refugees.”

“What, I didn’t have to pay any money when I entered Vilnau.”

“Don’t compare the two places. Vilnau’s basically just a big village pretending to be a town while Mountain’s Toil is a legitimate town built by Oswald the Benevolent himself. Hells, he even developed the whole peninsula in his wisdom. If he was still king right now… oops, shouldn’t be saying that. Anyways, cough up 6 coppers or head over to a refugee camp. I don’t have all day, I still need to look like a proper guard.” The blonde guard holds out his hand gesturing for the coins and Wraine counts out the correct amount from the coin pouch before handing them over. As we’re heading towards the gate, the guard gives a signal with his hand and the guards on top of the gate give another signal causing the stone gate to open for us. “Hey, before you scamper off. Right when you enter the town, go right and keep going until you find a blacksmith named Kapri, tell him Stanley sent you and he’ll take care of you. You can’t go around covered in Ribierian gear or holding Ribierian weapons, might give someone the wrong idea. Offload all your Ribierian stuff to him, he’ll give you a good price and buy what you need. If you have a lot of coins leftover, think about getting an adventurer’s license if you don’t want to stay in Mountain’s Toil. It won’t get you into every town or city but it’s better than nothing. Take care now.” The younger guard, apparently named Stanley, tells us before waving us off and then resuming his guard duties.

Wraine and I walk past the stone gate and the town of Mountain’s Toil unfolds before us. Stanley was right, you can’t compare this town with Vilnau. Even before it was burned down, Vilnau couldn’t hold a candle to this place. Immediately after entering the stone gate, our feet land on stone pavement that covers all the roads in this town. On either side of the main street, massive two story buildings line the street all the way down leading to a massive tunnel dug through the mountain on the opposite side of town. There’s people everywhere bustling about making the town come alive. The mood and atmosphere from the refugee camps we were in contrasted with this busy, moving town makes me feel like we’ve entered a different world. There are street vendors dotting the street hawking their goods though most of them are selling food. Instead of the town smelling like shit because the streets were covered in shit like in Vilnau, this place actually smelled quite pleasant and the scent of cooked meat spread even to where we were. There are children playing in the street while their mothers are busy buying groceries for tonight’s dinner. There are muscular men moving huge wooden crates off carts and wagons and delivering them into the shops adjacent to the street. Seeing such a dazzling sight is dizzying at first but soon I’m overcome with a delightful feeling. Now this, this is what a town is supposed to look like. Breaking out of my own reverie, I break Wraine out of his as well by nudging his shoulder. I have to use my hand to point him where we need to go because the commotion from the busy street drowns out my voice. I’ll need to work on my yelling. As we’re walking down the street on our right, the noise begins to fade away and there are less people on the road we’re walking on. It might just be my imagination but the people walking past us are giving us odd looks.

“This town is amazing. I’ve never seen so many people at once before. That guard was right, Vilnau isn’t shit compared to this.” I exclaim in excitement.

“Yeah, I was surprised too. This is a really wealthy town though. Stone gate, stone walls, stone pavement too. I listened to my dad talk about the town he lived in before moving to Misanth and it was nothing like this. So, about the thing he said about Midriver being dangerous, what do you think we should do?”

After looking around to make sure no one is following us and lowering my voice until only Wraine can hear me, “I mean, even if it’s dangerous, I still think it’s our best option. If it’s a city full of criminals then that means it’s also a good place for us to hide. I’m just realizing this now but even though we tried to make up a believable story for that guard and prepared for it last night, we did a really bad job. Oh dear gods what did we do? What did I do? What did I say?”

“What do you mean? I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far.”

“Do you remember when we were talking with Stanley and I told him what happened to us in Misanth? I’m pretty sure I told him your dad’s name was Alain. What the fuck is the point of you using your dad’s name if I told him your name regardless. Oh gods, we even told him we were going to Midriver. If he finds out we’re deserters, they’re also going to know where we’re going too. Though he did make it sound like no one can touch us if we’re in Midriver, not even if they were the king.”

“What the fuck. I thought since you were talking so much you had control of the conversation.”

“Don’t even think about blaming me for this. You were right next to me and you didn’t say a word the whole time. You fucking froze the moment he started questioning us.”

“Well, I didn’t know what to say and it looked like you knew what you were doing.”

“There’s no way I could have known what I was doing. I didn’t expect town guards to be fucking geniuses. He literally looked at your boots once and knew they were Nasaaran. The fucking guards in Vilnau were passed out drunk when I got to the town and I just walked in with nobody stopping me. There was no way to expect Stanley to be a super guard.”

“Well, what do we do now?”

“I think we should be alright for now since he never asked for my name. If they’re looking for deserters they should be asking for our names. Actually, he would have stopped me right then and there. No one’s going to overlook my hair in a crowd. Anyways, we should still get everything we need from Kapri and then we should leave tonight.”

“Really? I mean, if we’re still alright even now that means either Aldore and his men are dead or they’re not here yet right? Listen, I just haven’t slept in a real bed in almost a month and I miss the feeling.”

“We could. I’ve never slept in a bed before. Whatever, we see Kapri first and if we have the money then we’ll talk about it later. Oh gods, we even mentioned we’re from Misanth. We’re fucking morons.”

After finishing our momentary panic and strategy meeting, we keep walking down the stone street until we can hear metallic clanging sounds. This looks like the blacksmithing district of the town because there are rows of smithing shops lining the right side of the street, hugging the town’s stone wall. The smithing shops are different from the rest of the town’s buildings because most of the shops have open sections on their first floors where the blacksmiths do their work. I wonder if this is done on purpose to draw in customers. It worked on us at least. Entering the first shop we came across, the stout, muscular blacksmith with graying hair and a graying full beard standing next to an anvil pauses his work, hammer still in hand, and looks at us, “Now what in the hells do I see before me? Two kids who haven’t even grown their curlies dressed like Ribierians. Alright, what do you want?” Alright, fine. Apparently determining where clothing and weaponry come from by sight is a more common skill than I thought.

“Are you Kapri?”

“Aye, and what business do you have with me?”

“I guess we’re refugees and Stanley told us to come here to make sure we don’t look like Ribierians anymore.”

“Sounds like a good idea. If I didn’t know any better and saw you walking these streets at night, I might be inclined to stick a blade in your back. I’d need to be quite a few ales in before making such a stupid mistake mind you. Alright, off with everything and we’ll see what we need to get rid of and what you can keep.”

“You want us to strip down here? Right now?”

“What, you boys shy? I’ve seen all there is to see in this world and nobody who’s coming in here will give two fucks at seeing two naked infants. Now take it off.” Glancing at Wraine I can already see him taking his linen shirt off. Godsdamn it Wraine. Sighing, I start taking everything off as well. Seeing the both of us start stripping, Kapri grins before shouting, “Honey! Got two newborns here who could use your help.” Frightened by his shouting, I pause and look towards a door that I assume leads further into his shop. A dark haired middle aged woman wearing simple linens with a bright smile comes through the door holding something in her hand. Seeing me stop, Kapri laughs and says, “My wife has seen even more than I have. Don’t clam up now.” Once I’m completely naked, I hide my crotch with both hands. Both Kapri and his wife laugh when they see this but I’m unperturbed, these hands are staying where they are. It seems like Wraine is doing the same thing and since he finished first, Kapri’s wife is measuring him first. I don’t think we even told Kapri we wanted new clothes. Too late now I suppose.

Once the measurements are finished, Kapri’s wife heads back into the shop and both Wraine and I start getting dressed again. “My wife’s quick with her hands and she’s just adjusting things she’s already made. They’ll be done by nightfall so come back for them then. Alright, let’s take a look at what we’ve got.” It feels like we’ve gotten swept into this and we’re just following everything Kapri says. Is this what a salesman does? Wraine and I didn’t even talk about what we were going to do with Gregory’s coins and I’m worried we might just lose all of it right here. Kapri is slowly examining the items we hand him, even the leather clothing. I didn’t even know blacksmiths handled things like those. “Alright, the vest has a pretty wicked cut and there’s still blood around the opening but the leather hand I’ll deal with later can rework it or use it for something else. If it was in perfect condition, I could probably give you 1 silver and 35 copper for it but with this cut and this wear, 80 copper is all you can get. The pants are fine, no cuts, just a bit worn, but they are soldier grade so a single silver and 80 copper is what you’ll get for this. Both pairs of boots are grimey and the brown haired kid’s pair is worn to shit. Your pair are soldier grade though so it’ll bump up the price a bit. I can take both pairs for 1 silver and 30 copper, 1 silver for yours and the 30 for his. Keep in mind a new pair of leather boots from the leather hand down the street goes for 90 copper a pair but at least they’ll fit, unlike these.” My mind is just dazed right now and I have no concept of whether this is a lot of wealth or very little. Wraine looks like he’s slightly better off but he’s struggling as well trying to keep up with the numbers. “Everett almighty, you kids can’t do arithmetic. How’d you survive until now?”