“If you thought the disparity between poor villages and the cities were bad nowadays, just be glad you live in the present. It was even worse many centuries ago, and the improvement was a very recent thing, honestly.” - Marten of Osthavel, farmer and villager.

City of Lavinja

Lavinja County,

Clangeddin Empire, North-Western Alcidea

4th Day of the 1st Week of the 7th Month of Year 241 VA.

“Okay now, stop gawking like a country bumpkin and close that mouth before a fly flies in,” said Aideen with a chuckle when she saw Celia gawk at the sight of the city. It was mostly a joke, of course, as she only meant to tease Celia about it, but the girl had gawked quite a bit when she entered the city for the first time.

“Well, excuse me for being a country bumpkin then,” replied the younger girl in a similarly joking manner. She did, however, cease her gawking and followed Aideen a bit more closely, both of them mostly covered by their cloaks like many travelers were. “It’s the first time I’ve been in a city that deserved its title, honestly.”

“Your first time, huh?”

“Yeah, my parents and grandpa brought me around to a few of the larger towns, or what passed for them around here, at least, when they were still alive,” said Celia with a wistful tone as she reminisced about her lost family members. “But none of us ever visited the main city itself. We were just farmers out from the boonies. Chances are the guard would have kicked us out instead.”

“Now that you mention it… I do notice the lack of the poor around this city,” replied Aideen after some thought. Both she and Celia were wearing clothes she had brought with her or restocked from Posuin and Knallzog. The clothes were simple, but while they were relatively cheap, they were still more finely made than what many of the city’s locals wore, so the guards probably thought of them as wealthy travelers.

“I don’t think they even allow them in,” nodded Celia as she replied. While her borrowed clothing was a size too large, fortunately the spare shoes Aideen had did not fit too loosely, as the younger unliving girl had rather big feet for her frame. “At least, we heard some rumors about it before. Something about the count not wanting the poor to… tarnish the image of his city.”

“What an ass,” replied Aideen. Unlike the locals, she naturally had no compulsion to fear the Count, nor did she worry about getting into trouble over the insult. Celia had flinched when she blatantly insulted the Count, though, despite how there was nobody close enough to have caught wind of it around them. “I’ve seen that type before. They often strived to promote a false image all just to make themselves look better, often as a point of useless pride.”

“As it was, they could have had actual, proper prosperity for their people, or at least some better living, had they used the money they used to preserve appearances for more useful things, but out of the nobles I know of, those who could think that way were rarities,” Aideen continued as she led Celia down the main street of the city, which was more crowded, but still rather sparsely populated for a city of that size. “Most either chose pride over their people’s wellbeing, or just spent it all for their own personal enjoyment without a thought given for their people.”

Both of them moved to the side of the street when a crier walked over and yelled for people to make way, and in his wake, passed a group of what were most likely young nobles, mounted on their steeds. Many of the civilians gave a bow as the nobles passed, though as others merely kept to themselves and had not bowed, Aideen and Celia had not stood out.

The nobles were mounted on fine horses with well-groomed feathers, and wore ostentatious clothes in a riot of colors, as were the current fashion in the Empire. Their clothes were made from the finest fabrics, and were often decorated with gold and silver threads and buttons where plausible. Aideen bet even those horses of theirs ate better than most people living in the County, with how healthy they are.

“And there you have an exhibit of those who kept up appearances at the cost of their people’s sufferance,” commented Aideen with visible distaste once the nobles were out of earshot. “Bet you ten silvers one set of those clothes could have fed your whole village for a week if they were sold.”

“Is it… different where you’re from?” asked Celia with some trepidation. The former village girl was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of disparaging the noble masters of the land she trod on, though Aideen did it as easily as breathing.

“Depends on the nation I guess. Some in the north were often even more ostentatious in their displays. Think of parades that go for hundreds of meters all clad in silk and gold,” replied Aideen to the younger woman. “Then there’s the east, where the land was harsher than even here and the living is hard. To be a noble there meant you have to be a leader and a warrior. Their nobles lead from the front, living and dying alongside their men.”

“And where you… come from?”

“There’s no real nobles where I came from, honestly,” said Aideen with a bit of a smile on her lips as she recalled the Lichdom, which she had been away from for decades by then. “I guess the governors and overseers are close to it in responsibilities, though with few if any of the privileges. They all still answer to grandpa after all.”

“Grandpa?”

“Technically, he’s the master of my mother,” replied Aideen with a nostalgic smile. “He considered me and my siblings like his own grandchildren and told us to call him grandpa, though. To others, most just know him as the Bone Lord, the undying overlord of the Lichdom.”