41 The City of Rubar

Acting as the main hub for trade, Rubar sat between the many towns that branched out across the Caladian Kingdom and the great capital city of Caladan Proper.

Unlike the wooden walls surrounding the town of Lockwood, Rubar was surrounded by large stone walls and towers that stretched out over Lake Gaspar, named after the local lord, Liam Gaspar, and his family. The city's main entrance itself sat at the peak of a large hill that led down towards the lake, parts of the hill carved out to give the city layers that were split into the many districts that made up the city.

The Harbor could be seen from the main gate as ships sailed in and out of the lake from the many connecting rivers. Tha Harbor shot out a good distance over the lake, with the main causeway that housed several offices over the water where the vessels would conduct their trade. Numerous Caladian flags lined the docks that were used to signal where a ship could dock.

AI sat at the back of the rear carriage of the small caravan as it made its way through the main gate into the cities first Defense District. This district was named this simply because there was a second, smaller stone wall that separated this layer from the rest of the city, acting as a second line of defense against invaders.

This district also acted as a way station and resting point for the many caravans that entered the city, many offices and stables sat close to the inner wall, with many other caravans and merchants awaiting approval from Rubar Officials. Given the sheer amount of trade that entered the city, this process typically lasted a while as some of the local merchants took to constructing a few cheap inns for the travelers to rest while waiting for approval.

Thankfully for Ai and Amari, since they worked as guards for the caravan, they were registered as travelers and the time it took for them to get approval to enter the city was much shorter.

Receiving their entry papers, the sisters entered through one of the smaller inner gates into the Outer Market District. Just past the inner gate was a stairway that led down into the district, the buildings directly in front of them were tall and well maintained, but as they entered a little further into the district, most of the buildings and stalls seemed much less appealing.

It wasn't that hard to figure out that the much more appealing buildings were well maintained for the city to keep up appearances to outsiders, most of the incoming merchants traded with the owners of those outer buildings so it was easy for those merchants to assume that the rest of the city was well off.

The girls continued on to the next district, following down another set of stairs that led to a mixed district that held both housing areas and business buildings, including the local adventurer's guildhall.

Pushing open the double doors, they entered a building that was surprisingly much smaller than the guildhall back in Lockwood, instead of a large billboard in the middle, flyers and requests lined the walls, with multiple reception desks sitting between the sections of quests and notices. Most of the desks went unmanned and only had a device that would scan the guild ID's and automatically assign quests and rewards.

Ai thought back to when she had applied for her ID and was grateful for having the [Disguise Self] skill. She walked up to one of the empty reception desks and held her ID up to the device.

*Beep*

[Welcome, Ai, Level 10 Arcane Mage. Completed Quest Detected, distributing reward. Stand-by!]

After a couple of seconds, 30 silvers fell into a bowl to the side of the device.

Grabbing her coins and counting to make sure the reward was right, "Number G1 Repressed." Ai said as a small portal opened up, looking down into it showed a small pile of coppers and silvers that didn't launch out as her other portals did. When Ai named one of the portals with the keyword, "Repressed", the portal acted like a storage unit that wasn't like the System's inventory.

Tossing the silvers into the portal and closing it, Ai turned to Amari and smiled. "Looks like I got enough to exchange for a gold or two! After we take care of the troll, I'll have a few golds!" Ai said with a giggle.

"Sounds good, got any more business in this city, sis? I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to." Amari said, nervously looking around.

"Eh? Got some enemies in Rubar, sis?" Ai tilted her head.

"More like, it's more likely that I'll run into trouble here. Besides, I'd much rather sleep outdoors." Amari chuckled nervously.

"Well, this princess enjoys a nice warm bed. We should stay at an inn just for the night and head out in the morning."

"Eh!? Do we really have to? I can just go outside the city and meet up with you in the morning."

Ai looked at Amari and furrowed her brows. "You ok, sis? It's unlike you to leave me alone like that, normally you wouldn't even attempt to leave me defenseless."

Amari looked at her in shock. "Ah! You're right, sorry sis, I just really don't like big cities. Too many creeps."

"And too many assholes that might recognize you, right? I have an idea." Ai pulled her bear-hide cloak from her inventory and created a cloth face mask that could cover the lower part of her face. The cloth itself was plain and black with no real physical characteristics since it was made entirely out of mana.

"Ah, thanks sis, but what about you?" She said as she threw the cloak over her shoulders and donned the face mask.

Ai smiled and waved a hand over her hair, turning it the same blue color as her sundress, both of her eyes also turned the same color blue. "Thanks to my passives, I recover mana faster than the skill drains, so I can keep up this disguise." She said with a prideful grin.

Amari smiled and let out a chuckle. "Alright, we can spend the night, thanks, sis." Ai nodded and grinned, her hands at her waist as she posed like a hero.

The girls laughed as they exited the guildhall. They made their way to a courtyard with many stalls lined up like a maze. At the corner of the courtyard was one of the two Inns within the district. The Laughing Crane was one of the taller structures of the area, with 4 floors, the first floor held the tavern with the Inn's reception desk at the foot of the stairs, the above 3 floors were nothing but guest rooms.

The building itself was painted mostly red with all of the support beams painted gold, well perhaps they once looked gold as it was now more of a slightly shiny yellow. An Emblem of a Crane with its beak open hung over the front door.

Ai and Amari walked into the tavern section, many merchants sat at the tables, talking about trade deals and bragging about huge sales. With the number of guards that patrolled the Outer Market District, these merchants weren't particularly afraid of being robbed, and most merchants had plenty of trade between themselves so jealousy wasn't too much of an issue, with all the goods flowing into the city, there weren't a lot of merchants that were left wanting.

The girls walked past the filled tables to the reception desk where a half-orc man stood behind, he gave a big toothy grin seeing his potential patrons approach. "Welcome to the Laughing Crane, ladies, will you be staying the night?"

Ai nodded. "Mn, yes, one room with two beds for one night, please."

The half-orc opened a cupboard beneath his desk and pulled out a key with the number '24' written on a tag hanging from the key. "That'll be two silvers, miss."

"Ah? Two silvers? Isn't that a bit much for a night?" Ai asked, confused at the high price, this place looked decent, but the price didn't seem quite right to her.

"Ah, sorry miss, you must be new around here, yes, the actual price of the room is cheaper, but the owners have a rule in place where patrons must pay full price for all additional services, as such, room service, dinner, and breakfast are included in the price. I can assure you that the price is still worth it, as we don't skimp out when it comes to the meals." The half-orc scratched his cheek as he explained.

"Ah, well if that's the case, I suppose the price isn't too bad, although we don't like to make a habit of spending such a high percentage of our earnings. What does the room service entail?"

"Well, if your stay was longer than one day, our cleaning and laundry service would be available to you, but for your short stay, we can offer to bring your meals directly to your room and provide alcohol at no additional charge."

"Ah, well I don't drink, but maybe my sister would like some?" Ai turned to Amari.

"Heh, why not, sure, have 'em send a pitcher of whatever house draft you've got."

"I'll have it sent up with the meal, two silvers please."

"Ah, right, here you go." Ai reached into her inventory, grabbing a couple of the silvers she left in case she wanted to go shopping somewhere that she didn't want to use her portal for. Opening a portal here might have caught too much attention.

She handed the half-orc the two silvers as he handed her the key. "Your room is up two flights of stairs, it will be the third room on your right." Ai smiled and bowed her head as she and Amari walked around the counter and up the stairs.

Walking past rooms 20 and 22 on the left side, they reached their room and used the key to open the creaking wooden door. 'Hmmm, I might go ahead and reinforce this door with [Creation] just in case some of the sneakier patrons get a bad idea.'

As she closed the door behind them, she held her hand over the door as a green magic circle appeared over the door and mana started to spread out and cover the door, the mana took shape and hardened into an iron web that reinforced the door, she had imagined a locking mechanism that overlapped the doorframe that could be unlocked by channeling her mana through it.

"There we go, shouldn't have to deal with any pests tonight, so drink to your heart's content, sis."

Amari nodded and grinned as she removed the cloak and face mask. "Sounds good, sis!"

Ai threw herself onto her bed and closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort she hadn't felt in a few days, before she knew it, she had dozed off.