Chapter 20

The cart rattled ever so slightly as we made our way to the gate of the city, it was the only noise that could be heard, it was a quiet night, the Dragon Guards stood like statues, they stood in a formation ready for battle at any time, they seemed to be highly trained and their teamwork was probably impeccable.

We were now a couple tens of meters from the entrance, the guards suddenly changed their formation, four of the front dragon guards walked up to the cart, they never broke the formation of four when they stepped out of the formation of hundreds.

In the armour they wore, every guard looked the same, this was to give the enemy fear on the battlefield, it gave the physiological ‘no matter how many you kill there will always be more’ feel, It was to mess with the opponents heads.

The leading guard halted in front of the carts, the others naturally stopped too, not breaking their synchronized movements for even a second.

“This is the City of Kuregg, you will be able to enter once you give us identification and allow us to search you.” the leading guard said, he had a deep voice and it was a voice confident in his own abilities.

The security in the Dragon Empire is no joke, me and Dac showed our status windows to the guard and then the three other guards proceeded to check out the carts in which Dac brought along, Fen was quietly watching the dragon guards from my lap, this was the first time she’d had a chance to see them, she was asleep the last time.

The search seemed to take a while as they routinely checked every nook and cranny of the carts and goods, when they were satisfied they went back to their formation front of the cart.

“All clear. You are free to enter, welcome to Kuregg.” the leading guard said, the four guards escorted us to the gate and signaled to the other guards we were free to enter, we then entered through the gate into the giant dome city.

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The large entrance led into a tunnel than sloped downwards, the tunnel was made out of the same dome was made out of and it was lit up by giant torches.

Due to it being night the torches were the only source of light in the tunnel, but that in itself was more than enough to see clearly.

The tunnel continued to slope underground, until we arrived at the end of the tunnel, what the tunnel opened up into was a giant courtyard, the courtyard had lots of guards in it and at the end of the path which led into the courtyard was another giant gate, beyond the giant gate was the city, the city was gigantic but everything was very well structured, the paths and routes between the buildings were symmetrical and well designed, the city was also very clean, in the distance, one could see a huge structure.

“Dac, what’s that massive building over there?” I point, asking Dac because this was his hometown.

“That’s the Palace of the King, it goes to the top of the dome and overlooks the city, amazing huh?” Dac replied, I nodded, the structure was a very luxurious palace.

Our cart stopped at the gates into the city and they were opened for us, when the last cart had come through the gates closed with a slamming sound.

It was night at the moment so it was very quiet and there weren’t many citizens around, the only people really around were the guards who patrolled the streets.

Dac had casually said one day when we were on our way to the city that I could lodge in his house, he said his house was large because he was a successful merchant and that there was plenty of room for me, his wife would also cook us meals too.

we made our way through the cities uniformly lined buildings and structures and followed a path to the western side of the city, as we went past lots of smaller houses we reached a long house with 4 sections, it had a lots of plants and outdoor ornaments around the house, Dac stopped the cart when we reached the house, puffing his chest up and with a big smile on his face turning to me he said, “This is my beloved home! welcome!”

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We were aloud to stay in one of the independent sections of the house, it was a very clean house and it was comfortable and modest.

Early the next morning I decided to explore the town, Fen casually strolled behind me, the domed city was bright just as if it were outside, the city must of used some kind of magic to make artificial daylight, it was extremely convincing and I swear I could even feel a slight breeze like one would on an autumn day.

The city was bustling with people, I noticed the abundance of blacksmith shops.

*DING* *CLIING* *DING*

Sounds of the hammers banging away as metal struck metal sounded throughout the city, the temperature of the city was also increased by all the forges burning extreme levels of heat, but this didn’t affect the citizens, after all, the Dragon race had the best affinity to the element of fire.

As I looked around the city streets I went to the mainroad in which we came in by, this was one long road and was like a strip of shops, it was extremely busy.

“We do the best daggers in the area! Buy one dagger well made daggers for 20 silvers and get a sheathe free!”

“Got a horse? Buy our quality horseshoes!”

“Swords, spears, scimitars, daggers! we sell them all! Offers on swords are now on! Buy a sword worth 1 gold at 90 silvers! cheap, cheap!”

The street was booming with activity, all the merchants and shops were trying to sell the passersby their equipment, most of it was actually quite expensive!

The money system is very simple in the continent, it’s universally accepted that everyone has the same money system:

1 gold is the equivalent to 100 silvers and 1 silver is equivalent to 100 coppers.

Silvers are the coin which are most dealt with, except for the cities a gold coin is quite rare, this is because 100 silvers is very expensive and most commoners earn a wage of at least 2 gold coin a year meaning they get paid in silvers.

The reason for the high price was the quality, the quality of the products was very high.

I could use some more clothes so I went around asking if their were any tailors or blacksmiths that made flexible clothing, one of the locals told me that their was an extremely high quality shop in a back alley called ‘Dragon hammer’, this was an extremely cliche name, it seemed all the shops around here named themselves ‘Dragon ----’, how could a shop called this possibly be any good.

After asking around and searching the back alleys for a little over an hour I finally found the shop I was looking for, it was a massive shop that oozed quality, there were even guards standing at the door to the shop, it must be a shop that nobles and rich people use, I guess I’ll go have a look around.

Walking up to the door to the shop I tried to enter but was stopped by a hired guard, he snorted at me, looking me up and down with eyes of contempt he said,

“We don’t allow the common folk in here, you look homeless anyway, get lost!” his voice was one filled with obvious disgust.

The other guard joined in also, “Pahaha! a poor bastard like you can’t afford this shop, aiming a bit too high aren’t we? you look like a beggar!” they both laughed me like I was a piece of filth.

“I just want to look around.” I said, I wasn’t particularly annoyed, after all my mind was calm and unshakeable due to my training, things like this couldn’t easily shake me.

“I said fuck off! you can’t afford it, what part of that didn’t you get through that thick skull of yours?” one of the guards said, whilst showing no emotion on my face I was calmly thinking,

wouldn’t this be bad for business if they turn down every customer who didn’t ‘look wealthy’, I’m sure the owner of this place set up his business for this very reason, to make money, this quite obviously defeats the purpose..

“Hey aren’t you listening? I said fuck off!” the guard lifted his leg and his foot came flying at my torso, ah, he shouldn’t of done that… idiot.

Before the foot even managed to touch my body his leg was torn clean off by a black blur, then, standing before the guard was a unassuming wolf pup chewing on the leg, swallowing it whole.

“a-ahh-AHHHHHHHHHH!” the guard screamed, the other guard unsheathed his sword and attacked me in panic whilst the guard who attacked first was lying on the floor, clutching at what remained of his leg as blood pumped out of the wound.

Annoyed at their antics I stopped the sword with my bare hand, the guard’s face was a picture of shock and fear, after all, how could they know my skin wasn’t something a warrior of this caliber could cut.

gripping his sword tighter he tried to pull from my grip but he simply wasn’t strong enough, with a flick of the wrist I threw him by his sword into the wall, the impact instantly killing him.

The guard who initially started this was cowering in fear as he bled to death, forgetting his pain as he cowered.

“a-ahh! please don’t kill me, ha- haha! I was joking! JOKING! I was wron-” Before he could finish Fen bit his head off with her mouth, it was a cruel way to go but I felt no remorse and wouldn’t scold Fen for something this trivial.

“Ah Fen you went a bit overboard again” I said whilst stroking Fen, she whimpered in apology and I told her to clean the bodies up, which she was more than glad to do.

With all that had happened I got a bad opinion of the store and lost my appetite to shop there, those that don’t value their customers don’t have my respect.

I decided to call it a day and head back to Dac’s house, I simply wasn’t in the mood to shop anymore.

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The next day I was disturbed by banging on the door.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

I went and answered to see who wanted me this early in the morning, it was 5am after all.

“Yes?” I answered whilst pulling the door open.

“You. You’re coming with us, according to a witness account you committed a crime within our city.” a burly looking dragon guard said, he was with a squad of around 6 elite looking guards, they were all very powerful.

Ahh, now we’ve done it.

I wasn’t going to act against them due to this being Dac’s home, I was simply to indebt to him to do something like this, I’ll obediently follow along.

They let me take Fen with me, she jumped into my arms and I carried her, the guards surrounded me and escorted me, albeit forcefully, to the palace.

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The road to the palace was rather long, it consisted of a road that went straight to the palace, we got many look from curious citizens as the guards escorted me.

we arrived at the huge gates of the palace and the guards opened them up once they seen it was their colleagues.

Speaking of the palace, it was spectacular, golden pillars held the huge roof up and there was artwork everywhere, the floors were made of pure marble and it was very grand, thousands of Dragon guards patrolled the palace, inside and out, it was impenetrable.

The 6 guards took me to a cell like room which had a bed, it was obviously a temporary cell and was lined with all sorts of magic barriers to stop powerful combatants from breaking out.

They put me in the cell and the leading guard spoke, “You’ll be trialed tomorrow, don’t cause a ruckus, you’ll be tried by his majesty the king.” he said whilst closing the door and locking it.

By his majesty, the king of Kuregg? this situation keeps getting worse.

Fen whimpered slightly whilst she looked at me, she was being apologetic and felt sad that her master was in this situation because of her, looking at her I stroked her coat,

“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault Fen” I told her.

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