Chapter 77 Avesta

They closed in on the city and the closer they got the more uncomfortable Freya got, after all this was their final stop together. Now she would have to go out there alone with no one at her side to protect her. She was determined and willing to build her own faction, but that didn't mean she didn't get nervous.

The city looked quite big, with enormous walls to protect the inhabitants from any misdoer or monster. Lucas could see a few flags on top of the walls, but he couldn't pinpoint what they meant or if they had any meaning to begin with.

Before they entered the town, Lucas could see that any passenger was being checked. They had to show papers for their transported goods and a card, presumably for their identity. Lucas didn't have either, he was an unknown citizen of the kingdom. The people in outskirt villages were never important enough to have such things. Lucas didn't know if he could bluff his way through the checkpoint, but he didn't really see any other way.

While they closed in on the guards, Lucas started to create an elaborate story about who they were and why they wanted to visit Avesta. He would be lying through his teeth, and give away that he didn't mind lying to officials to the princess. As long as he got inside, he found it to be worth it, even if there could be some trust issues later on.

All of that fell into the water when Freya, now with her hood back on, flashed a card at the guards that immediately let them pass.

"What kind of card is that?"

"It's a citizenship card, as long as one person in a group has a card, they can bring along others who aren't from here. Plus, this is really a formal check, mages can simply sneak in without any problems, so this is just for the people in lower nobility ranks."

"But aren't there any enforcers of rules around here?"

"There are, don't get me wrong, but some cities are a lot stricter than others. Avesta isn't really that good when it comes to security. The officials here are Rank 2, but as far as I know, they haven't done most of their work."

"Is that something that you can change? Perhaps make the citizens happier?"

"No, or maybe, but most of the mages love the fact that they have more freedom, no rules to follow, and so on."

'Frigus is already in trouble with the Holy Kingdom, it won't take long before they start a war if the rulers aren't loyal to the throne and the mages in the kingdom don't care much about the kingdom itself...'

'It's only a matter of time before this country collapses, no matter who's on the throne, we both know that.'

'Yes, so let's reap as much as we can when the time comes.'

"That's too bad, well, we both have other things to focus on, so that doesn't matter much."

"Conrad,", she paused in her steps to look Lucas in the eyes, she looked hesitant.

"Is this where we part?"

"Yes, but we will see each other again, once I've gathered my supporters I'll come back to look for you."

'With our reward hopefully.'

"Then I'll look forward to your return, your majesty, good luck out there, and never forget, I'm always there to support you."

"Thanks, Conrad, I.. I'll miss you," she said with a slight blush, but Lucas brushed it aside. "But it's not like we'll never see each other again, so don't worry about me, look out for yourself, you'll need it."

"Ye-yes, you're right, well then.."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

And they parted, Freya seemed to want a hug or perhaps even a kiss. But Lucas held his distance, clearly showing his intentions to not make any physical contact with her. He wanted to get rid of her for now since he had other things to focus on and didn't want to be distracted and walk around with a ticking time bomb. She was a princess that was meant to be dead, and the only thing hiding her was a hood, Lucas would've never felt safe if that was the only security he had.

He was alone again, in a city that he had heard so much about when he was young. He wasn't in a hurry as he didn't know anything about how the academy worked. Hurrying now wouldn't make much of a difference, might as well enjoy the sights.

There were tons of shops around that he had never seen before, blacksmiths, runeforgers, auction houses, an entire red district, a hundred if not more shops for clothing, and so on. All of this was pretty typical for any normal-sized city but he had never known anything outside of his own village and the mansion. Seeing all of these different stores, he didn't feel very happy.

'So all of these shops are purely for enjoyment and pleasure, whether that be sexual or materialism.'

'What did you expect? What else can motivate a human than precious items?'

'This is just vulgar...'

Lucas felt offended, he just never had any of this when he was young, so when he saw what others valued, he couldn't help but lose hope for these people. Grasping the reasons why these things were so adored simply flew over his head.

At a certain point, he found a restaurant that gave off a beautiful smell, luring Lucas inside. One of the few things he knew about cities was that they had amazing food. Due to the fact that Freya bought most of the supplies, he could save some money. And with him stealing pretty much anything from Venion's room he did have a few coins. Food and knowledge were the only things he found useful for spending money on.

Going inside the building he found a bunch of people dining on whatever might be on their plate, Lucas was intrigued enough to try it out for himself. There wasn't anyone to guide him to a table since the waiters had their hands full with other work. Picking a random place, he sat down and looked at what could be served.

'What the hell is all this?'

'Yeah, I've never heard of any of these things, what is a 'Ceviche' and 'Roe'?'

'What? No, no I'm not talking about the weird glossary of words, but look at these goddamn prices! A silver coin for whatever a 'Gnocchi' is? There's no way food can cost so much money!'

'You don't know that, perhaps the price is an indicator of how delicious the food will be. Let's try one of these out.'

'You have to be kidding me!? You're going to spend an entire silver coin on these stupid things?'

Lucas waited around for a while before a handsome waiter visited his table. "What can I get for you?"

"I'll take a Gnocchi please."

"Would you like anything to drink with that?"

"No that won't be necessary."

'At least you have the common sense not to waste half a silver coin on a glass of water. These guys have to be exploiting something here to ask for such high prices.'

'I doubt water would ever run out with magic, so yes, this is an exorbitant amount to ask for such a simple thing we can conjure with a beginner rune.'

Waiting around he looked at who was dining at this place as well. You couldn't tell who was a mage and who wasn't since everyone was hiding their aura as best as they could. Letting that loose could kill innocent bystanders, not that many mages cared for that, but it would result in chaos.

Some people flaunted their wealth very openly by ordering enough food to feed five households and eating maybe a single plate. When Lucas saw such kind of people something just didn't sit right with him.

'We should kill those kinds of people, the ones who can't help but flaunt their wealth and obsess over materialism to the point of vulgarity, this is disgusting to look at.'

'....Since when are you the one suggesting we should kill people? That's my business, know your place asshole.'

Adverting his eyes from the insides of the restaurant because he simply couldn't watch anymore of what he saw he looked outside. The diner was placed at one of the sides of the market, very close to the main church in the city, which Lucas also wanted to visit after his meal. In the main square, there was a lot of commotion, but Lucas was too far away to clearly listen, there were too many voices to filter out the right ones.

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My name is Micheal, I'm a priest for the Order of Light and was sent with a party to scout out the Frigus Kingdom. They have different beliefs from us, but part of our doctrine is that we should accept others as long as they don't practice any evil acts. What those acts entail is entirely up to our discretion, The Lady of Light once made a book filled with evil deeds that are being used in the Holy Kingdom as a guideline. Sadly, only our kingdom follows those rules, any other country is free to do as they wish.

While I said I'm here to scout out the Frigus Kingdom, it's more of a visit than anything. I'm being forced to follow the rules of Frigus while not knowing any of them. They never told me anything or gave me a book or rules to follow, I'm blind and deaf and I'm meant to speak correctly, how is that even possible? Oh well, at least I was capable of converting a few peasants that were wandering the streets. These people don't know the beauty and happiness one can get by following our Lady, it's only right for us to convince them to the best of our abilities.

Obviously, I'm not alone in my party, a few others came along as well, some good others not so much. We have been given mercenaries to protect us, but the way they act is simply disgusting. Visiting the brothels openly and even inviting people of the cloth with them, how shameful. I've never been so embarrassed by my traveling companions. But I do have to say that they are powerful enough to handle any trouble we've had on the way here. During our trip we saw and heard a ginormous explosion not far away from us, to which the mercenary leader said that it was a lot more powerful than a normal Rank 1 mage and we had to move if we wanted to be safe. Although there was some selfishness involved, they also helped us move forward, so I can't criticize them too much.

It's only been a day or two since we've been in this city of Avesta, but my brothers and sisters have already found a follower of the Demonic cult. At first, I was genuinely impressed by their devotion and their skill to snuff out our arch nemesis' underlings, but looking at the evidence they found I must say that they put the cart before the horse here. Some loose leads and baseless rumors were apparently enough to take this woman to the main square of this town and publicly stone her.

They say that they've found clear and objective evidence to report this woman as a demonic follower, but I'm not sure myself. We're not even in our own country, to publicly humiliate this woman and kill her didn't sit right with me. Even if we did have concrete evidence, we shouldn't stone her, simply kill her as quickly as possible or extract information first, not this...

Her husband was there as well, he was being held by our mercenaries, screaming after his wife and us. Even though I was being insulted by the man, I couldn't find any rebuttals, he was right. What we were doing was wrong, we should've brought an apostle with us, they would be capable of guiding us to the light. Sadly, they always have their hands full.

From what I can tell, the woman is called Francis, but the man's name slipped my mind. I approached the furious man with tears in his eyes. I didn't know what to say, to not mind that his wife was being killed in front of his eyes? Or that it was all for the greater good? Would he even understand words right now? All these doubts could only be absolved by conversing with him.

"I'm sorry for what you have to go through, dear sir. But my brothers and sisters have found evidence leading to suggest that your wife was a follower of the demonic cult. As priests of the Order of Light, we are obliged to do something about it."

"You're wrong, my Franciska would never ever hurt anyone, we've never even heard of this dumbass cult!!! Leave us alone, please! Stop them, please! We've never done anything wrong! This is all a mistake!", the man started to sob and cry in front of all the spectators. Yet all I could do was try to calm the man down. We priests work with a just and democratic system where if more than half of the priests support a certain cause we all support it. Thus, I can't object to the way they're handling the situation, even if I don't agree with their methods.

"Sir, sadly the goddess has already sealed our fate, there's nothing that can be done at this point. We must accept reality and try to move on, if you're ever in need of council, please visit our humbly abode and ask for Micheal, I will help you move on in these troubling times."

The man's face was a mix of complete anger and hopelessness. To him, the priest was like a crazy person, a madman.