บท 118: Last of them
"I represent no one but myself. Me and my friend were to get into the city, but we're kind of on the wrong side of the law, if you get what I mean?... Name's Mike by the way."
The man takes a moment to appraise Michael, and nods once satisfied, "Julien of Aeirton, one of his Majesty Prince Wales' Dragon Knights... Well, just knights now that we're without our mounts." he says, watching Michael's reaction to his words very closely.
Michael just pauses when he hears this, he wasn't sure if this was a lucky coincidence, or a preview of the disasters yet to come. "O-kay, nice to meet you Julien, I guess... I'm guessing you guys are here to save Prince Wales then?" he asks despite the obvious answer, not really having anything else to say to these men.
Julien nods, "Indeed, but we've run into a problem with the city's defences. I remember much during my time serving within Londinium, but I had not realised that even the aqueducts were protected." he admits, tossing a pebble at the gate which is reflected and knocked away by another spark of electricity.
"Ahm, I think I can help with that." Tiffania says as she comes out from hiding, again causing the men to stiffen slightly... In more ways than one due to her 'large personality'.
Tiffania walks over to the gate and goes to open it as Michael and the others watch with rapt attention. The former to make sure she doesn't get killed in case her royal status doesn't work.
Annnd!...
The gate swings open without much effort at all, making Julien flush slightly at the ease with which she'd opened it. "H-how did you do this, miss-?"
Tiffania lowers her head slightly, making sure that her ears were still concealed, "I'm Tiffania, and you just had to be gentle with it." she says,
Julien coughs into his fist at her words but doesn't try to retort, not knowing enough about the defences to argue against her. "Is that so... You've done us a great service by helping us here, but as much as I wish to reward you, we are low on time. It is only a few days until Prince Wales' execution, so we must get ourselves situation and prepared for it."
Michael shakes his head as he steps into the aqueduct, the water inside it reaching up to his thighs, "You guys must know that the execution is a trap right?" he asks.
Julien shrugs, "In all likelihood, it is. But our oaths forbid us from not intervening if at all possible. Even without the oaths I made, my loyalty is still to the true Royalty of Albion. I refuse to let some upstarts usurp everything my ancestors fought for and built." he states, getting affirmative cheers from his men behind him.
"That makes sense." Michael mutters, not really understanding how people could give their lives for such inane things as 'King and Country'. Not even the country of his birth, England, held his loyalty to the extent of these men, so Michael couldn't really comprehend dying for something like that... It all just seemed a bit useless to him.
From what he understood, most countries were incredibly corrupt, with even the clean ones slowly becoming self-serving cesspits. While he knew that Prince Wales was a good person, his father had been the one to have Tiffania's mother killed. Who's to say that Prince Wales children wouldn't be the same?
In the end, dying for another person that he wasn't incredibly intimate with didn't even cross his mind. The only people he'd even consider for it was his sister and Tiffania, the latter more because he required her Void Magic...
The duo and the loyalists slowly walk through the aqueduct, the latter of which trying to make small talk and occasionally asking Michael and Tiffania to help them in their attempt to free Prince Wales. They were soundly rejected of course as whatever plan they had was doomed to fail.
After half an hour of walking, the group finally reach a gate leading into the city... Tiffania opens it and they all stream out of it, Michael realising that they'd ended up next to the city's wall in some sort of slum area.
Michael turns and shakes Julien's hand, "Good luck out there, you'll definitely need it." he says, knowing that this entire group'll likely be dead before the end of the week.
Julien nods, "And you, young Mike, Tiffania. I feel the need to warn you though, stay away from Cromwell, he is in possession of some sort of mind control magic. It is incredibly powerful, enough so to control armies." he warns, not that Michael needed to be told, he was more than familiar enough with Cromwell's method of mind control.
"Thanks for the warning, but it ain't a spell he uses. It's his ring, the Ring of Andvari I think it's called. Cut off his hand and you'll have no problems dealing with it."
"Is that so? I thank you for this information, Mike." he turns to look at his men, "We'll be on our way, spread out and use our signals to locate anyone else who is still loyal to the prince-"
"Er, I'll warn you guys now, Cromwell will probably know any signals you have to contact other loyalists, his ring is more effective at gathering information than any torture. Anyway, take care guys." he says, giving a small wave as he and Tiffania leave, heading for the main street to get their bearings on the city's layout. Primarily though, finding an out of the place-inn and locating his tormentors was his main goal.
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บท 119: Gathering Stage
Michael and Tiffania wander around Londiunium for a couple hours, taking in the various sights of the city and memorizing points of interest. It should also be mentioned that Wanted Posters of Michael had already been put up around the city, and his depiction was far more accurate than the one Tristain released... Even if it still got a few of his features wrong. He was sure no one would recognise him, not without something to key people in on his identity at least.
After a few hours, the duo purchases a shady-looking inn room at a tavern halfway into the slums, and Michael leaves Tiffania inside to practise her magic as he scopes out other parts of the city without having to worry about Tiffania being discovered.
Truthfully, he suspected that his three-hour-long traipse through the city with Tiffania had only allowed them to see a small fraction of it. The slums were vast and dwarfed the public markets as well as the more presentable and monitored streets.
Unlike Antomiers, the guards of the city seemed to heavily restrict beggars, thieves, and pickpockets, literally cutting the hands off of any who try their luck outside of the slums. Michael got a first-hand seat for this when a guardsman noticed a young girl reaching for a merchants coin pouch, only to grab her hand, force it onto a tree stump, and abruptly cut it off with a few agonizing chops of his sword.
No one seemed to care about it, aside from the girl's 'annoying' screams of pain. Which was both strange and appalling to Michael's senses. The fact that no one even had the decency to grimace at the girl's fate had him suspected that Cromwell may have used his ring outside of just military affairs.
Was it possible for him to mind control his citizenry to make them more obedient and accepting of the status quo? Or were events such as this just so common that everyone had become desensitized to it... Or, lastly, was Cromwell and the guards so scary that people didn't dare to even display a slight disagreement with Londinium's government?
Michael shakes his head, watching as the young girl tears up her dirty top and quickly ties a makeshift tourniquet around her wound before limping off towards the slums. He didn't attempt to interfere, despite his slight leaning to, as he knew his and Tiffania's position would likely soon be far worse than the girl's if they were caught.
While exploring the city, he makes a few stops at some stores, looking for magical artifacts, magical books, etc. While he might not be able to afford any, stealing was always an option, especially with the abilities he'd acquired.
Unfortunately, while there were some low-tier magical artifacts up for sale, there were no books on magic spells or theory to be found. They were likely kept in the palace under lock and key to prevent anyone not under Cromwell's rule from learning magic. The same could probably be said for any powerful magical artifacts as well, though, Michael suspected that the Military Academy nearby the Airship Port would possess some magical books, after all, where else would they learn magic? It wasn't as if the Magic Academy in Tristain would be willing to take any of them in, especially after the destruction of Antomiers.
So, in the end, Michael just heads to the next point of interest in the city, the Airship Port. Aside from the palace, the port is the largest structure around. It sits on the Western side of the city and by the looks of it, currently held around thirty airships.
Judging by the other empty ports, the place could fit around ten more, though Michael wasn't really sure on how many Airships Albion actually had. His first thought when spotting these ships was to attempt something like the bombing in Antomiers, but that idea was squashed when he realised that he had no idea on how to create such an explosion, nor did he know how to fly one if he did.
His issues aside, it could prove to be a good distraction if he set fire to it. Most of the interior of the port was made of wood, so if he got a fire started, it'd likely go out of control without immediate interference. That said, he'd probably need Tiffania to use Combustion to start such a thing as he doubted that an ordinary fire would be easy to start, especially with the unknown magical defences of the place. A Molotov Cocktail would be another solution, but again, most of this world's alcohol was around five to ten per cent in purity, which wasn't even close to being flammable. (FYI, you need at least 50% purity for it to burn. Not happening this medieval world.)
His last option would be to bait a dragon to breathe fire at the port, but he sincerely doubted anyone would be stupid enough to allow that, especially after what happened in Cendri.
With that idea temporarily on hold, he changed his focus to something else he hadn't noticed in other cities... Londinium's prison. He hadn't recognised it at first, but once he saw the bars on the stone windows he realised what it was. He hadn't seen a proper prison in any other city he'd visited in this world, so it was a surprise to find this one.
"This might work..." he mutters to himself in thought. Depending on Cromwell's policy on the loyalists, that prison might just be filled to the brim with Prince Wales followers. If it was, he could stage a mass break out and have them do his work for him, maybe getting a shot at Cromwell himself as he dealt with it.
Of course, this wouldn't be as effective if Cromwell executed any loyalists he captured. Though, even regular imprisoned criminals would be a good enough distraction. The only problem was actually starting the breakout and getting away without anyone realising his intentions.
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