บท 3: The City Of Kokala
"Okay I have decided. I want you to join the Mercia Martial Arts Tournament together with us. I won't take no as an answer!"
Miur sudden shout broke the long silence. Len shrugged and immediately walked toward his mistress before he whispered something to her.
"I don't care! I wanted him so he will be mine, period! You guys can even surround and beat him if he refused to do as I say!"
Len's face turned unsightly when Miur threw her tantrum in the open like that.
Len was obviously one of the best fighter in their group but even with his strongest attack he couldn't even leave a scratch on Mays.
The nonsense spouted by his mistress was beyond laughable because if a group of weakling band together against someone like Mays, the only results would just be total annihilation on their side. Len even glanced at Mays to check whether he was irritated by what his mistress just said. Mays just giggled as their eyes met.
"So what says you? Will you fight for me? You don't have a choice anyways so it's better if you just silently agreed to it."
This time Len's face immediately turned blue. This young mistress of his really was self-conceited to the point of self-destruct. She had been sheltered too much and knew almost next to nothing about the world.
Mays was definitely someone they couldn't even dreamt of angering. Being able to block a bronze rank attack effortlessly would only meant that his rank was obviously higher, he was either a silver rank or even gold rank for god's sake.
"What if I said no?"
Mays who was silent this whole time suddenly retorted with a threatening tone.
At the same time, he also used his hidden class's skill "Demonic Illusions" which instilled fear to everyone's present. A huge black dragon appeared on top of him roaring loudly as if his anger manifested into the form of that monster.
Almost every villager present pissed on their pants upon such nightmarish sight. Even all the people who was in the same group with Len were scared shitless. This was after all, the first time they saw something that fearsome.
As for Miur herself, she already hid behind Len and cried out loud.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm so sorry!"
She even apologized for her rudeness from before just like a kid who had been scolded by their parents.
"Hehe I'm just playing around. Don't worry I'll go with you guys since I feel like it."
The atmosphere turned awkward soon after Mays said that. There were countless relieved sigh around the area as most of the people knew that nothing would happen to them. Mays was giving the little miss a lesson just to let her know that not everything would go the way she wanted.
He thought that this girl was quite cute and interesting in his mind. A lovely and honest young lady made a fine travel companion. Since he would need to travel and look for info in this world nonetheless, why not do so with a peace of mind? If the one who came up with that unreasonable request was a fat noble boy or an arrogant handsome young man, he would without doubt beat them senseless.
As Mays smiled earnestly and apologized to Miur for what he just did, Miur wiped her tears and looked at Mays with a face full of guilt. There were still some traces of fear but she did her best to hide it.
"I'm really sorry for earlier. Don't be mad at me okay?"
As he was getting no reply from Miur, Mays didn't know what to do anymore. He never was good in dealing with girls. Len saw how hopeless the situation was for Mays and he whispered something to Miur.
"I... I'll forgive you if you promise to be my bodyguard and keep me safe till the tournament ends."
Even though she stuttered, Miur finished saying her line.
"Ok deal."
Mays replied right away and let out a sigh of relief. He wouldn't know how to react if this young miss kept her mouth shut.
As everyone dispersed from the scene one after another, Mays and the group of young fighter were the only one who stayed. Right after Miur get inside her cart, Len and several other member of the group kneeled and apologized to Mays.
"We are very sorry!"
They shouted in unison right after they kneeled.
"Nah, it's okay. I don't really mind."
Mays brushed it off as if it was nothing. It really was nothing for him anyways.
They were all glad that Mays was actually a good natured guy. If he was not, everyone there would already turned into corpses with his power. Mays was also good at blending in with the crowd, even just as a facade.
In less than an hour, Mays already talked about a lot of things with them. This was actually what Mays had planned beforehand.
If he wanted some valid information, it needs to come from this kind of people, those with higher social status than common villagers and also those who already traveled quite a distance. Their information were usually more accurate and legit.
"What?? The young lady is twenty three years old? For real? I thought she was eighteen at most."
"Hahahaha I know right."
"Her body is just that small hahahaha."
Their conversation covered almost every topic as they had nothing else to do while they were moving. From the most useless rumours to the fact covering the truth of the current world, Mays tried every possible way to gain knowledge about everything.
Including the young lady, Miur, this group had a total of sixteen people. The leader of this group was Len, the son of the brigand's vice leader.
Len was the most outstanding youth among the group while the others were also good warriors from the same generation, aiming to prove themselves in the upcoming martial arts tournament. Even Lady Miur herself was a martial artist but she was nowhere as good as Len.
Apparently, aside from Len who was a good natured person, the other three who joined the heated conversation with Mays was another young male named Sali and two young female named Aria and Nova.
These people obviously envied the strength Mays just showed but none of them had any bad intention toward Mays as he was someone who was easy to get along with. None of them knew that everything that happened were all already calculated by Mays beforehand and everyone were practically dancing in the palm of his hand.
Mays was great at coming up with unique plan even back in the previous world and that was an indisputable fact known by everyone in HeavensTale. He would only do things if it was mandatory or if he felt like it. He enjoyed leisure life the most and traveling with this group of people happened to be something he felt like doing.
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Mercia Martial Arts Tournament was a martial arts tournaments that were held every two years here in Mercia Kingdom. The royalty themselves hosted this tournament and the rewards were something drooled over by every single practitioner living in Mercia Kingdom.
The one and only rules for those who wanted to participate was that the age restriction for this tournaments was that participant's must be under thirty years of age. One couldn't participate in it if they already hit thirty years old.
There were cases before when someone whose age were above thirty but disguised themselves to look younger tried to participated but they were stopped before they could even walk passed the Gate of Truth.
Nobody knew how the gate worked but everyone were convinced that the gate could identify human ages accurately and it just happened to be a gate that identify those whose age were below or above thirty. Those above thirty of ages who walked passed the gate died on the spot.
As for the style of the tournament, it was usually a battle royal for preliminary round and death match duel as the main tournament. As Mays inquired a lot about the tournament, he never stopped to take any opportunity to ask about basic knowledge in a ways that nobody could guessed that Mays had just come into this world only yesterday.
Mays mounted his black horse, together with the other four he was quite close with, moving side by side in the middle of the formation. Mays was the only one who ride a horse while the others were riding some reptilian rhinoceros looking creature called Grey Horn.
These beast got that name from their main traits which were the grey full body colour and one protruding horn on top of its forehead.
They were obviously much slower than horse if they were to compete in running speed but at the very least they could still walked at the same pace with a normal horse. They also had quite a lot of stamina which allowed them to walk for a long time without the need to rest.
Currently, Mays and the others were almost halfway toward their destination, the Royal City of Merry, the capital of Mercia Kingdom. The village where they met Mays was the last village under the influence of Miur's father, the brigand force. The road afterwards was filled with danger since they were moving pasts several forests and hills before they could ran into cities.
There were a total of eight villages under the control of the brigand force. Since these villages were located at the outskirt of the kingdom, not even the feudal lords nearby would bother with the likes of them. Sending soldiers to fend off the brigand was already an effort as it was.
Not to mention that taking control over these poor villages would meant that more money was needed in order to maintain everything. Just the thought on how much money would be wasted in the process already made everyone turned their eyes away from it.
At the very least, under the brigand's reign, those village were still functioning properly. With just one big power ruling over them, there were less thievery and other sort of small misconducts thanks to the fear towards the brigand force.
After spending days with these people, Mays get to know more and more about a lot of things regarding this world. With his intelligent, he could grasp most things even after he only listened to it once. As of now, he already knew almost everything he needed to wander off this world even if he was to be left alone.
During his journey together with this group of people, they happened to encounter some low level rat type monster but he didn't have the opportunity to face them as the strength of the vanguard leading the group were more than enough to deal with those monsters.
Apart from encountering those weak monsters several times, the group moved steadily without any problems at all until they finally arrived at the first city located at the outskirt of Mercia, Kokala, after one week.
The shortest route for someone who wanted to go to Mercia's capital Merry city from the southwest side of the outskirt was to go through three big city and one small city during their journey. They need to first pass through small city Kokala, followed by the other three big city which were Kilia, Jora and Murika.
Even though Kokala was just a small city, its size was actually bigger than all eight villages under the brigand force's influence combined. After all, it was still a city with a legit feudal lord commanding and governing over it.
Upon their arrival, the two guards that stood in front of the city gate stopped and inspected the group. Len who was the leader of the group immediately walked towards the guards and started talking to him.
After several minutes of negotiations, Len took out a small pouch bag filled to the brim with copper coins and handed it to one of the guards. The guard smiled as he opened the gate soon after.
"Well guys, we will spend two days here before we continue our journey. You guys can do whatever you wanted in the meantime."
Almost everyone in the group nodded in unison and some even replied loudly toward Len's instruction. Everyone there was used to being led by Len as he was the most capable in the group. As for Mays, he just agreed to whatever as long as it didn't obstruct him in any ways.
And of course, after everyone acknowledged the instruction, they all dispersed into the city in smaller group leaving only Mays and several others behind.
"What do you plan to do these two days?"
Len asked as he saw Mays was undecided upon what to do the moment the group split and dispersed. After all, everyone in the group already had their own task to accomplish such as procuring foods, securing the lodging for this two days and even getting more info about road ahead.
Currently, beside Mays and Len, only Miur and two of her personal guards were left. The others already spread out and disappeared into the city.
"Truth be told, I don't know myself but for now I would just wander around the area. Let's meet again at the city hall two days later. "
"Sure."
This was not the first time this group of people entered Kokala. That was the reason why these people already knew their destination beforehand. They even set up the meeting place two days later to be the city hall which was located at the center of Kokala city.
As for Mays, everything he experienced was obviously his first time. After Mays walked away from Len and the others, Miur who was inside the carrier peeked as Mays's back gradually disappeared from her sight. Not even Len knew what kind of thought the young miss harboured toward Mays.
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Right after Mays parted ways with everyone, he moved toward a less populated area at first before he opened his archive cube. He put back the black horse tablet inside the archive before he started strolling the roads in town.
Riding the black horse would definitely gather a crowd for sure because apparently horses were rare mounts in this kingdom.
Kokala city layout was more or less almost the same as those city from ancient china dynasty where these huge and sturdy city wall surrounded the whole city. Farmlands, houses and even larger building were all packed together inside the city wall.
"It really do feels like I'm visiting ancient china haha."
Mays giggled as he talked to himself. Back in the real world, he never had the chances to go sightseeing overseas hence this kind of experience was quite refreshing for him. As he walked further into the town, it became livelier with more and more people moving in and out at the streets.
Mays smiled as he imagined how easy going the people living there was like compared to how his real world was. They need to struggle with almost everything but here everything was taken for granted.
These people didn't even have to worry about various type of taxes, datelines, bank loans nor even something trivial like parking lots.
As Mays walked deeper into the town, finally he stumbled upon a marketplace. It was always good to observe the marketplace because it was the best places with the most abundant things in need be it foods nor goods.
"Come here ladies and gentleman… We got every kind of clothes here in this shop!"
"Fruits! Cheap fruits! Come, come and buy some cheap fresh fruits!"
The situation was more or less like a bazaar. Stalls were all over and the stall keeper were busy trying to drag in customer.
Even information of some sorts could be obtained from this kind of place. Mays walked past several stall and moved right away as nothing from there caught his attention.
"Please, don't treat me like this. I just wanted to get some money."
"No can do. Those without permits can't openly sell their stuff here! Scram now!"
An old man was chased away from the marketplace as he was unable to pay for the permits. He looked uber desperate as he tried to reasons with the officer but obviously he was ignored.
Money talks. Those without money couldn't do anything.
As Mays happened to saw what happened, he walked forward and immediately helped the old man. He picked up all of the old man's stuff that were scattered before the both of them walked away from the crowded marketplace.
At the side of the marketplace where both Mays and the old man sat, the old man immediately checked his belonging to make sure that none of his items were missing.
Even though most of his items were worthless, they were still his only source of money. He sighed as he finished checking his item and found out that several item of his were missing.
The old man observed the surrounding as he knew what item was missing. It was then when he saw that one of his missing item was in the hand of the officer who chased him away earlier.
That officer didn't even tried to hide it at all. The old man who felt that he was wronged immediately walked toward the officer to get back what was supposed to be his.
"That thing you are holding is mine. Give it back!"
The old man shouted as his finger pointed at the shining yellow item in the hand of one of the officer. That same officer then looked at his friends before they both started laughing.
"What are you talking about?"
The officer smirked and pushed the old man aside as if there was nothing wrong with his action. All the onlooker just shook their head in disagreement on what the officer just did but none of them dared to stood up for the old man.
Maybe because most of them knew that picking a fight with those officer would do them nothing good, none of them even bother to help the wronged old man.
"Give it ba… argh!"
One solid punch landed on that old man's cheek as he persistently pestered the officer to give back what was his.
"If you said anything more, you won't get away with just a light punch."
"Heheh that's right."
As both officer acted that way, the expression on the face of the old man immediately turned ugly. The old man knew that he couldn't do anything since the officer fancied his item and they even decided to snatch it away from him.
After he gave up on trying to get back his item, he heard a scream coming from behind him. The officer who took his item from before screamed as hard as he could as if something terrible just happened to him.
The old man immediately turned back to see what actually happened and was shocked as he witnessed what just happened.
The young man who helped him pick up all his scattered belonging earlier was there, facing off both the officer for his sake. Apparently, the shining yellow item was no more in the hand of the officer, but it was now in the young man's hand.
"Here, this is yours. Take it."
Mays tossed the shining yellow item toward the old man and immediately turned away to leave the scene.
"Stop it right there. Who said that you could just walked away after you stole something from me?"
The crowd started pitying the lone man who tried to be a hero but never considered things beforehand. This was after all, not the first time someone tried to bring justice inside this marketplace.
But obviously, none of them were successful as most of the officers were not self-righteous and corrupted. They only cared about their well-being and not those unrelated to them.
As one of the officer tried to slash Mays with his sword, Mays evaded the attack easily. That stunt made everyone gathered there shocked as they thought Mays would be done in by that attack for sure.
Obviously that kind of low level attack would have no effects on Mays but the current Mays didn't know if his toughness would be the same as in the game or not. It was better to be safe than sorry.
Mays turned back toward both officer as he stared at them without blinking. Nobody knew what he thought when he grinned while observing the two officer who had their swords unsheathed and pointed toward him.
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