Reaching the Tower

The situation in the Roseblood Empire was really precarious for most of the population... It could be really disheartening to see the situation face to face, if I wasn't already used to this scenario in certain areas of the Coventry Kingdom. Even so, this way too much... The number of people living in these poor areas outmatched Coventry's by far.

"Come on, you have to pay your taxes, one way or another! Ignore me is the last thing you should be doing", a soldier nearby shouted, knocking on the door aggressively and angrily. With him, two soldiers by his side.

"Okay, okay, just don't destroy my door... And I already told you, we don't have the money...", a woman said, opening the door, despair visibly in her face.

"Well... We can let you off the hook, this time... But you know how it works, right?", the soldier asked... I could almost see the face that he was doing under his helmet, with a devilish perverted smile... It was disgusting even if I wasn't seeing it directly.

"I feel like intervening...", Jeffrey commented. I can't really blame him, anyone with a heart and soul would likely feel like doing something to help. But could we really do it? It would probably blow our cover before we can even make it to the tower... The feeling of guiltiness was stronger, however... As I watched the soldiers walking inside the house of the poor woman, my legs started moving back to that house.

"Excuse me", I said, trying to pretend a rough voice, of a male Roseblood soldier. The soldiers inside looked at me, all surprised and in certain annoyance. "We have an emergency at the emperor's palace! All soldiers need to be there, now!", I shouted to them and in clear shock, they did not hesitate, standing up and running away from there. The leader of those soldiers gave a glare at the woman as if saying they will be back...

"Well... I am guessing I will be under the care of you, instead of them, right?", the woman asked, closing the door behind me, separating me from Jeffrey and Beech.

"No, no... You misunderstand... I am with the rebellion, undercover. But what you should do is hide somewhere other than this house before they discover my lie...", I said to her and moved to leave her house. The woman suddenly wide opened her eyes, in clear surprise and happiness at the same time.

"Ah, I see... Thank you, thank you very much...", she said, smiling and quickly moving to prepare herself to leave her house... As I left the house, I saw a child with her, the two preparing to leave the fastest they could.

"You know... You might have cost us our cover... It won't take long for the Roseblood soldiers to probably warn the wizards of possible impostors wandering around their city...", Jeffrey commented as we resumed walking to the tower.

"Well... It was worth it, don't you think?", I asked him and he smiled at me, nodding in agreement while Beech put its head out of the shoulder bag and nodded as well.

After walking a little more on the horrible conditions of the poor area of Roseblood's city, we reached somewhere empty... The same precarious buildings were here, looking like they could fall at any moment, but the silence reigned here, with no people walking on the streets... It was almost frightening, like a ghost town...

"Are you sure we're going the right way? The bridge for the tower is here?", I asked Jeffrey and he nodded in confirmation.

"I am very sure that the rebels told us that the bridge was in this direction"

"I see..."

As we continued through the ghost city, the bridge for the tower was finally found. Unlike the buildings on the area, the bridge looked impeccable, perfectly clean with the Roseblood's flags hanged around the tall structure, which allowed us to reach the tower in the middle of the inlet, while also letting ships go underneath it. Two soldiers guarded the bridge's entrance, to our great luckiness...

"Halt... What are you doing here?", one of them asked as we approached and I coughed a little, in a failed attempt to fake a male voice again, but this time it forced too much my voice.

"Uh... We came for the daily inspection", Jeffrey answered while I could only cough, recuperating myself little by little.

"Daily inspection? You're way too early, it's only at the sunset", the soldier said, tilting his head to the side, in confusion but also suspecting something. "By the way, if you're part of the daily inspection, I am sure I would know you..."

"Uh, we have been designated by the emperor himself, he's suspecting treachery among the wizards and the late-day inspection team... Consider this a surprise inspection to get the wizards off guard, if they are indeed hiding something", I explained to the soldiers forcing my voice while with a hand on my neck.

"I see... But there's a standard procedure for this, the emperor himself said that if anyone is sent to the tower out of their usual time, they must have written authorization granted by his graceful imperial majesty himself", he said, extending a hand as if requesting this written authorization which we clearly didn't have.

"Of course... I... I have it right here...", Jeffrey said, putting his hand on the shoulder bag while we exchanging glances with him. I don't know what he was thinking, but assumed he was going to attack those guards, so I looked at the top of the tower... It didn't seem like any wizards were looking here... So I nodded, allowing him to do it while putting my hand on my sword.

"Here it is!", Jeffrey shouted and threw Beech right at the face of the soldier. He expected the attack, but not a creature to jump at his face, so he was very much caught off guard, trying to attack the fox while our friend smartly twisted the helmet around and covered the visor, blinding the soldier.

"I see, you're the actual treachery!", the other soldier shouted and charged against me, but I quickly moved my sword and at least deflected the guard's spear. It seemed like the rebellion's sword wasn't that bad, but I still miss my sword...

The soldier tried to impale me again, and again. The spear made with iron on the handle was easily blocking my attacks when I had the chance to attack. But being at a disadvantage, he forgot about Jeffrey, whose sword just pierced through one of the joints of the armor, getting through the shoulder and making the soldier drop his spear. Finalizing him, I swiftly got my sword through his armor, hitting through the chest.

The other soldier was busy, trying to get rid of the fox but unable to see where it was, nor he could see that his ally was dead. It was a quick, easy win, with Jeffrey hitting the soldier on the legs. Unable to walk, the soldier fell on the floor, in pain, screaming, and then Beech removed his helmet, allowing me to finish this with a head cut off.

"Good teamwork... Now let's hurry up before the wizards realize what we have done here", I said, looking at the extension of the bridge... It was quite long to run through it quickly, but the early we start, the better.

"Too late, take cover!", Jeffrey shouted and jumped to the side. When I looked at the tower, countless ice spikes rained down at us, but I luckily managed to hide behind the bridge's structure.

"I think the attack on the harbor must have already begun... We need to get to the tower now!", I said to Jeffrey and he nodded.

"Okay, but how?", he asked... And honestly, I had no idea... I couldn't even take a peek at the enemy, with the ice spikes raining at our location with a continuous stream...