39 Wars and the Slums

Savine pulled her focus away from Eliseline and walked on. She entered her room and saw Zuri and Leanne staring at her with questions. Dred wasn't there. The other two asked about what happened, and Savine only told them it wasn't their business and started to change into something more comfortable.

Leanne's eyes darted everywhere, smelling something fishy.

"Leanne, remember when I told you that I won't allow you near certain things?" Savine said. "This is one of them, so sit here and wait obediently."

A hint of murderousness flashed through her eyes and her left fist clenched and unclenched itself. Noticing it, Savine barely contained the grin on her lips. She knew Leanne kept her Vasa under her left thigh garter.

'So she's capable of those things as well…' Savine thought. 'I suppose the bishop wouldn't send me someone random.'

"Zuri, follow me."

When the two were outside, Savine turned to Zuri. "Go and wait somewhere near the bishop's room. Wait there for a few minutes and you should see Leanne running there."

"I understand."

"Confront her from a distance," Savine said. "Ask her questions, but don't get close to her. If she tries to close in on you, be ready to run away. Be careful of her left hand pulling out a wand."

"…I understand," Zuri nodded more heavily this time, understanding what Savine was trying to say.

"If you need to, stay beside Eliseline. Explain things to her properly without worrying. I'll be gone for a few hours," Savine said and walked out.

She tucked her hair into a bundle and wore a hat over it. With an unassuming cloak covering her from neck down, she walked towards the slums. On the way, she saw a hulking figure walking towards them in a light strut.

Savine raised her hand towards him and he stopped before her.

"How did it go?"

"They're already working on it," Dred said.

"When they're finished, tell me and also send someone to the duke. Tell him there's something important you need to show him."

"Alright."

"For now, do you know a spacious place with no other eyes around?"

"Hm?"

"It could be outside the city as well, I told everyone I'd be back after a few hours."

"What do you need it for?" Dred asked.

"I told you, I'll teach you a few things about fighting. Bring me someplace where we can spar. A quiet place, preferably."

Dred made that same face again, like he was wondering if Savine was serious or not. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind.

"Young lady, it feels weird when I'm the one saying it, but I'm quite the accomplished warrior," he said. "I've been to many battles, deliberately sending myself to the most dangerous, heated locations. I know you mean well for me, but… uh, it feels weird for you to be teaching me about fighting."

Savine sighed.

"Have you ever fought mages?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't call it a fight. I usually find myself running the opposite direction of mages, or trying to avoid the bombardments they send across the air."

"You've never fought mages close-quarter?"

"No, young lady," Dred said. "As the main force of armies, mages are always clustered together and they ruthlessly bombard anyone close enough that they can hit accurately."

"What happens when you win the battle and somehow manage to reach the enemy mages?"

"Battles usually end when most of the enemy non-mages are killed. If not, the enemy mages try to run away but if they can't, they surrender themselves. If the fight's between two sides that aren't completely on bad terms, they're taken into custody by the winning side. The losing side can pay money later to buy them back, or they stay with the winners and serve them.

"But if the fight's between two irreconcilable enemies, then the mages who can't run away kill themselves, knowing they'll be forced to become slave mages."

'Makes sense,' Savine thought.

Here, and in most worlds really, mages were treated like artillery. After all, they were akin to rare resources that everyone wanted, so no one would want to use them in melee scuffles. Even if they were mages, they could still die from stray arrows and swings.

"In that case, imagine yourself in a duel with a mage," Savine said. "Do you think you'll be able to win?"

"I mean, depends on how far they are, I suppose. If they're in arm's reach, I'd be able to win, definitely. If they're ten steps away, then I guess it's a matter of how good the mage is. Beyond that, I'd probably be thinking of where to run."

Savine nodded. Dred really was a good fighter.

"Then we'll start at ten steps," Savine said. "You'll try to rush me and I'll try to keep you away. So things are more fair, I won't use more than two spells at a time."

"You say I must rush you, but ain't like I can swing an axe at you or slam into you, young lady."

"Alright. I'll stick a pole on the ground, you're gonna rush that, how about that?"

"Yeah, that sounds better."

"Well, then, let's get somewhere quiet."

Dred still looked unconvinced, but he nodded regardless.

"Okay. There's an empty warehouse we use for meetings near the slum's edge."

"Perfect."

As they walked, Savine took in the slums' sights once more. Since she only came to have a look last time, Savine realized she didn't even see half of the slums yet. She also realized how wrong it was for them to call the slums… the slums. At first, there were many houses that were old, broken-down and ruined, but as Savine neared the edge of the city, new buildings popped up everywhere.

New houses, new fences, new roads, everything was new. And the surprising thing was, most of the materials used everywhere, was the same. All the wooden planks were the same length, all the rooftiles were the same size, and if Savine got closer, she felt she'd see the same nails as well.

The result was an extremely tidy-looking set of houses, with no house sticking out like a sore thumb, among the new ones. And a couple steps in, even the smell of waste disappeared like it was never there in the first place. Now that she thought about it, the slums' smell never reached the other side of the city.

If the people here really did throw around their waste everywhere they wanted to, the smell would've leak into the high-class residencies.

'The Architect lives up to his name…'

It was obvious that someone meticulously planned how the slums would build their houses and streets and even how they would fool the rest of the city.

Savine looked back, and saw the dirty, jumbled mess that she just left behind. It was like two different worlds inside the slums.

She then had a glance at all the people in the worse part of the slums and realized every one of them was selling something or another. Blacksmiths selling their wares, lumberjacks selling wood, seamstresses who sold clothes.

But there was never the sound of hammers banging on steel or saws cutting wood. There was also no one who sold food.

'They all work here… but no one lives here.'

"Impressed?" Dred said proudly. "It's one of the Architect's ideas. The two sides of the slums and all these new building materials and methods. He left behind a notebook full of genius. The way to use salt as currency was something he thought of as well.

"Hah, people ask me how I could do this for three years even though I'm an outsider, but… the job's pretty damn rewarding."

'And you still consider yourself an outsider…'

"But why keep the slums' front as such a mess?" Savine asked.

"We're preparing a surprise for the duke," Dred smiled. "One day, we'll tear down all the buildings there and we'll start building the newer houses in their stead. We're almost ready with preparing all the materials."

"Guess that would be a sight to see."