章 149: Capital? More like uhhh... umm. Funny joke.
Coming closer to another large wall that seemed to hold a city, much like every single wall in this world, Mitsuna pat horse on their head as the duo slowed down near the entrance of the seemingly dilapidated city wall.
Few guards stood on the tall walls as they aimed their weapons at the approaching Mitsuna.
A small group of said guards exited the city walls, weapons in hand.
"Identification."
A few of the guards on top of the walls and in the small group seemed very different from any human or other type of creature Mitsuna had ever seen.
They had mostly smooth and colourful skin that could be seen through, no blood or flesh to speak of. They had a humanoid appearance yet lacked aspects that would make them human. As if a living and moving sculpture of slime wearing human clothes. Their eyes glowed in a dim light, it was the only property they had that made them seem alive at all.
Mitsuna inspected the few interesting beings that surrounded her, all with a seemingly on-edge glow in their eyes.
'Humanoid Slimes. Fascinating.'
She thought as she showed her adventurer identification to the group of guards who momentarily glanced at the card before moving their attention back to her.
"Purpose of arrival?"
The same man that asked for identification asked her. He seemed slightly less stressed since he saw how Mitsuna only had a C Rank identification.
Mitsuna placed her identification card behind her back and in her inventory as she answered briefly.
"Registering for war."
A slightly shocked expression flew across the faces of the guards that heard her answer. Nevertheless, they let her enter the city walls.
'Quite on edge around here. I wonder if the war has already reached the city itself.'
She hopped off of horse and left him near the gate at an open stable.
"If anyone tries anything you can just run in my direction. Enjoy the break."
She said as she lightly waved at the horse.
Walking around the city that seemed quite nicely constructed, Mitsuna could see that most of the shops around all dealt in selling weapons or weapon attachments. Specifically guns.
Walking up to a random humanoid slime, Mitsuna asked a quick question.
"Heyo. This is the capital city, right?"
The female figure of slime dressed in wizard garbs turned around and spoke without moving her lips at all.
"Indeed."
The humanoid slime turned back around and continued her walk. As she did, Mitsuna realized that the 'Wizard' was carrying a rocket launcher.
'Huh. So magic isn't popular here but magician clothes are? Fun.'
She simply thought as she moved deeper into the city.
'I can register at the guild but before that I should get some extra info on the war itself. I want to see if any of my theories are correct.'
Walking down the road while minding her own business, she could hear a faint shout from one of the alleyways on the side of the road.
Taking a quick step back, she avoided the woman who had almost ran into her.
The woman gave Mitsuna a side glance as she dashed off and disappeared into the crowd.
'Mugger or something.'
Mitsuna concluded as she took a step forward and looked down the alleyway where a girl with light red hair ran towards her, fatigue clearly plastered on her face.
"S-Stop that r-robber!"
She yelled as she looked at Mitsuna who just glanced in the direction that the woman had ran in.
'Guess I was right. Well, stuff like this happens. I don't really feel like helping right now either, have some stuff to do.'
Mitsuna thought as she took one last glance at the tired red head and walked off without uttering a word.
"W-Wait! Why? Why didn't you help?! Or even try?"
The red head asked loudly as she fell on her knees, gasping for air. Mitsuna stopped for a second, only her back visible to the girl.
"Weren't you... right there?"
She asked, taking deep breaths in between talking.
"Not really my problem."
Mitsuna said as she continued walking without looking back.
Mitsuna could hear the girl punching the ground over and over as the *thuds* were slowly drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the crowded streets.
Continuing her walk with no particular thoughts on the incident, Mitsuna stumbled upon a particularly shady building that had a sign of a lemon and a dagger on it. Unlike the buildings surrounding it, loud and cheerful yells covered the area near the entrance along with some thematically appropriate piano music.
'Now that's just too weird not to check out.'
She thought as she entered the building. Like every other shop or pub she had walked inside of on this continent, it seemed to take inspiration from the cowboy west back from her last last life. A large majority of the people inside were humanoid slimes.
There was a rather big table covering nearly a quarter of the free room where everyone was crowded around and watching a game of high stakes poker. Every once in a while a loud happy/depressed shout came from the table followed by the appropriate response from the onlookers.
Besides that there was a rather empty bar table on the other side of the room where a few men and women were ordering one drink after another.
The most impressive thing however, was a disheveled looking man playing a piano that was hanging from the ceiling by a few ropes and swaying from side to side. The homeless looking man kept playing the piano and swaying along with it like it was the only thing he knew how to do.
The piano was covered in bright candles, the lit fire swayed along with the music as the piano had somehow replaced a chandelier.
'This place is hilarious.'
Mitsuna thought with a lightly awkward smile as some hot, burning wax from the piano fell onto the poker table and lit a players cards on fire.
"Damnit! Leonard!! You ARE against me winning this afterall!"
The player screamed and shook his fist towards the hanging piano as the onlookers laughed at his poor misfortune. The man sat down with a grumble as he was now poor and pushed all his coins towards the center of the table.
"Another bad hand?"
Someone asked jokingly as the laughter didn't dissipate in the slightest and the piano continued to be played without interruption.
'This place is nice, I wonder if Magny would like this place as much as I already do?'
Mitsuna walked to the bar and started speaking to the bartender.
"Hello there. Fancy place you got here."
The bartender glanced at her as he placed down a drink he was sipping on and straightened his back.
He had a pale cream coloured goatee and hair with a lean body type and dark blue pupils surrounded by a brown iris.
"And who might you be young lady? A noble from the upper districts?"
Needless to say, the moment the bartender asked that, the piano grew slightly quieter and slower. The laughing and crying from the players and onlookers was still there, filling the area with a pleasant atmosphere but a lingering feeling of unease filled the background of the noise.
Everyone was silently listening to the conversation the bartender was having.
'So it's this type of place? I like it even more.'
Mitsuna thought as she ignored the slight change in volume and continued talking to the barkeep.
"What? Do I look like a noble from these parts?"
She asked with a slightly playful tone.
"Well, do not take it personally when I say your clothes and looks betray you."
The bartender said with slight vigilance.
"I do not think they do."
Mitsuna answered, getting the vibe that nobles aren't particularly liked in these parts.
"Then who might you be, if I may ask?"
Mitsuna took out her identification from her inventory, concealing it as she had reached in her back pocket.
"Adventurer. Mitsuna, from the East."
She placed her identification on the table and tapped it with her finger.
"Here for the war. Pleasure to meet ya."
The atmosphere slightly returned as the piano player who had glanced at the identification from up high resumed playing at the original speed and volume.
"Well then, Mitsuna of the East. You may call this barkeep Majo. Welcome to Lemon's Dagger."
After the bartender, Majo had said that, nobody listened to the conversation any longer as they started dealing with their own matters again. Majo also got back in his comfortable position of not straightening his back and sipping on his drink.
"If I may. Why is your establishment here named Lemon's Dagger? A rather weird name, no offence."
"Well, we deal with rather uncouth missions that we sometimes give away to customers, most of the people who come here are rouges, assassins, thieves or something of the sort and the thing that ties all of these together is The Dagger.
A great tool for many a task. Even up there, stuck to the piano is a legendary dagger that belonged to the great thief Malachite from long before the Great Change or System Update as some call it. This place was her favorite place to drink.
So the weapon known as the dagger has a long history to this place."
"Fascinating. So what about the Lemon part?"
"Well the capital is called Lemon."
"PFT!"
A soft voice laughed out loud as an even more cheerful atmosphere enveloped the place. Some gazes turned towards Mitsuna as she covered her mouth to contain the her snickering.
"Who came up with that name?"
She asked with a smile.
"Sadly even I do not know that miss. It is a catchy name however."
The bartender said with a light smile.
"Most cities around the capital are named in a similar fashion. For example Lime, Avocado and Banana."
"Pft. The guy who named these places must have really felt bored at his job."
"History says that the ruler of the time wanted names that would bring people over."
"Fun story. So if I could ask a few more questions, just got here today afterall."
"Of course miss. Care for a drink as well?"
"Sadly I'm dirt poor."
Mitsuna said as she rested her head on her hand and glanced around the place.
"We also take ammunition as currency."
"Well first time I've heard of that."
"In times of war, a bullet has a better chance at saving a life than a copper coin."
"Fair enough."
Mitsuna took out a few rounds and placed them on the bar table as they were slotted into a bucket filled with tubes that held quite the amount of bullets.
"And what are you going to do with that there?"
"We donate to the war efforts. Most people who live in the capital as regular citizens don't know how to use rifles or guns so they donate to the ones who do know how to use them. Swords, spears and bows don't really help with these types of wars."
"Well that's awfully nice."
"Of course we also get a little something in return. Now, what would you like to drink?"
"Anything is fine really."
The bartender mixed a drink infront of her as Mitsuna simply observed.
After receiving her drink, thanked Majo and then asked.
"So why did this war even start?"
"Sadly I don't believe anyone around even the capital knows the reasons."
"Then who started it?"
"Well each country and each continent sees it their own way but looking at it from the perspective of a local, we surely did not. I believe things have simply slowly been escalating and tensions rising for one reason or another."
"Any rumours?"
"There are a few. Politics, murder of high officials, disputes among rulers, hostages and so on."
"What's the main one?"
"That would be Fear."
"Fear? On who's side?"
"The rumour started after a search party had captured an enemy soldier. They sealed his escape routes and stopped him from commiting suicide and used truth revealing skills and drugs to get as much out of him as possible.
Some guards who were on duty of protecting the area around the interrogation had said that they heard what the prisoner had spoken about."
"And that would be?"
"The reason for the war. Fear of the Slimes."
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