บท 30: The City of Deviants
Zanuff halted his horses at the main square of the city, or at least it was the largest open space with various wagons and shaggy booths that I saw ever since coming to this world. It was bustling with all sorts of people, although not a melting pot like Wülgenville. I noticed far more individuals in ragged clothes and guards in more complex defence. Their tunic, instead of the cryptic fish, contained a blue image of a sea serpent, something akin to the myth of Leviathan.
Once it was finally time to descend from the wagon, I took a sack of food that was already half empty from the time we travelled here. There were enough provisions for another day, not including Nila's dried meat in her suitcase, which was not as appetising now as it was several days ago. The elven woman, of course, took her trusted suitcase, however, I did not see her staff.
"Well, then, be goddess with you while you cross the monster realm. I will be going to the guild." Zanuff pointed at the 3-story building behind him, the gate was already opened, awaiting his horses and goods. Nila nodded at him and gave a rare smile, "Indeed, I suppose, it is the last time when we see each other boy. Make sure to live for a little longer."
"You are saying it as if this is my last detour! I will be trading goods from my home village for a longer while, do not worry." Zanuff laughed and glanced over in my direction. His expression was unreadable, definitely not one of sadness, but rather suspicion? He limped towards me and extended his hand, which I accepted in a firm handshake. Despite his fragile appearance, the strength in this hand was quite surprising. He definitely was not lying about his intentions of continuing with the trading.
At that, we finally parted our ways, the old man disappeared behind the closing gates of one of the various guilds inside the city, while we moved deeper into the square and ended up in the middle of the fair. As I was looking over Nila's suitcase, I could not help but ask.
"How do you make your staff disappear?"
She slowed down to make it easier for me to catch up. For the second time today I saw her smile, although the one now was more of a sassy one, as if she could not help but be proud about her staff.
"Finally asking real questions, huh? I can't summon it in the city as I did not register it upon our arrival, but to answer your question… My staff contains a special rune that makes it ethereal. Meaning that I can make it appear and disappear at will."
"Is that so?" my eyes widened slightly at her words, but she only continued with her explanation, "This rune is the sole reason why I ended up in the Schöltum region. They are usually hard to obtain as they are crafted by dwarfs and as a result mostly present in regions of the human realm that are inhabited by dwarfs. But Schöltum region is one of the few places that has rune mines, which the united committee of the region uses to trade its independence from the crown of the Dlayla region. As a result, this item is not as valuable here and is easily tradeable."
The political situation between regions did not bother me that much, as it did not bother me in my original world. I was not even of the age to vote, moreover, I had been busy dragging through my miserable existence, thus did not have time to learn anything about politics. From her perspective, I should probably be familiar with the situation anyway, as she still thought that I was the habitat of the Schöltum region, which was another reason why I didn't really want to show my lack of insight about it. But I was surprised to learn that there were dwarfs around, not just elves. Really made you think what kind of other fantasy races could inhabit this world.
At least the fair did not look half as bad as the awful welcome overfilled with poverty and uncleanness right at the gates of the city. The booths were shaggy, but contained a great deal of items such as food, clothes, books and much more. People were actually trading valuables or some rubbish for it all, some merchants even put up newly acquired garments immediately into their stock. Even though there could be some helpful items that we could get to traverse the grounds of the monster realm, Nila did not slow down at all, although her eyes were glancing over and even locking on some books, jewellery and trinkets.
"Are we in a rush?" I finally asked, to which she slowly shook her head and turned to me, "Not really, but I really do not want to stay in Wiskoschia for too long. I would rather overnight in the wilderness of Dlayla region than here-"
As she was talking, one kid, shorter and younger than me, bumped into her, but it was a light tap, thus Nila remained standing as if nothing happened. The kid rotated mid-motion, exclaimed his rash apologies and was about to leave, however, I caught him by the sleeve.
"Huh? I already apologised."
"Return what you have stolen." I said in a stern voice, to which the kid took out the wooden comb from his pocket and threw it into my face and yelled, "This is useless anyway!"
The comb nearly hit my eye, which took me by surprise, and I released him as a result. The kid ran away while the comb slid down onto my hand. I rubbed the spot where it hit me, meanwhile Nila came closer and gently took the comb back.
"Good call, I would not have noticed that he stole it." she said in her casual tone, although her eyes showed a slight glint of surprise. I shook my head and whispered, "I have keen eyes on the likes of him…"
I shifted my eyes downwards, refusing to say anything further, but suddenly, I felt a gentle touch on my cheek. The hand slowly raised my head, but instead of the blue and braided hair of an elf, I witnessed loose and wavy crimson hair of another woman. It took me by surprise and I stepped back, catching her entire appearance with my sight. The woman was wearing rather ragged clothes, despite her face clearly containing makeup. She was a head taller than me, her figure was curvy, but a bit slender. She was good-looking, but her smile along with sunken eyes was unnerving. But the most surprising aspect about her was the smell. Even through the countless foods and rubbish around us, I could clearly differentiate the metallic aroma coming from her.
She took a step closer to me and leaned towards my face for our eyes to meet, hers were brown just like mine. I was frozen in place, as if she cast some kind of spell on me, but it was obviously my own doing, or rather of my instincts.
"Um, excuse me?" said Nila who was observing this whole scene. As soon as the elf spoke, that woman stepped aside and gave me another smile before disappearing in the crowd.
"Do you know her?" tilted her head Nila, to which I quickly shook my head, "Not at all, for goodness's sake, now I understand why you wanted to leave as soon as possible. It seems like only delinquents and freaks are here."
To be honest, I felt more at home here than in any other place in this region. It felt rather nostalgic, but such a short amount of time really did remind me why I was happy to end up in this world at first. Perhaps, I was too harsh on Wülgenville.
Nila turned away from me and pointed at the tallest building that was further away from us. It was a castle with several towers looking over the entire city, "Then let's hurry, the queue to leave Schöltum region is not usually that long compared to the one that leads people here. But it still has its working hours, we might make it just in time before closing."
We rushed to the castle at the end of the main square, I looked over at some more homeless people in the corners of several houses and wondered, "What are they begging for?"
"Food, of course, since there is no money even within the first city that you get acquainted with in the Schöltum region. Zanuff was right when he said that this place is akin to a trial, the bureaucracy here is insane. I had to waste a month here just to get my paperwork done. There are plenty of uneducated individuals who escape here to find a better life, but as a result, only get stuck in the city as they are unable to fill forms due to illiteracy."
"But what about help from scholars, I believe there would be huge demand for them, no?"
Nila shook her head and sighed, "There is indeed a demand for them, but you have to trade something of value to buy their services. However, most people usually leave everything behind to find new life in the Schöltum region. I guess, women have it easier, since they usually trade their bodies, but prostitution is banned here, thus not everyone would risk it."
"But what about money? I mean, you can't spend it here, but what about earning your fee in the Schöltum region and spending it in Dlayla?"
Nila hummed at my idea, but then shook her head, "This won't work since you give away all your money at the entry point, as it is banned here."
"And what about smuggling money?" I suggested again, but her answer was still negative, "It is rather dangerous endeavour, since Wiskoschia's walls stretch way beyond the city along the barrier between human and monster realm. If you digress from the main path in the monster realm, you will probably end up at the footing of the wall. If you take an even longer detour to reach the end of the wall, you will most likely get eaten by monsters. Not the best perspective, huh?"
I shivered from the thought of being killed and devoured by some unknown beasts. The heads of this region sure had found ways to exploit their own system and patched them up as a result. I wonder how much trial and error they went through to arrive at the point where this region was today.
As we went through the gates of the castle, went past several guards and people yelling and arguing with the others in green suits, we arrived at one of the many registration desks, the only one empty.
"How can I help you today?" smiled the young woman by the desk while slightly adjusting her glasses. She was wearing the same green uniform as some other people around this place. Behind her and all the other registration desks stood a guard.
Nila put her suitcase on the table and opened it, meanwhile, she said, "We would like to leave the Schöltum region."
"No problem, do you need a conductor?"
"Not really, we can manage the monster realm on our own."
Nila extended a piece of crumpled paper. Upon taking it, the registration lady looked at me, to which I only shook my head. I did not have any documents on hand. She squinted slightly, but then her gaze shifted to Nila's document. After she read through it, her hand slid under the glasses to rub her eyes, she said, "So, one does not have any documents while another one's documents are overdue…"
"Are they overdue? For how long?" tilted her head Nila, to which the registration lady sighed, "For 15 years.", and turned to the guard while pointing at us, "Take them away."
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