After a good night’s sleep, I woke up early and stared out the window. Well, I say early but it was probably around nine in the morning; pretty bright outside. Den slept in the room next door, so I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not. I didn’t really care either. Our boat was going to leave after midday, so we had plenty of time.
This place was quite something though. Thousands of people in the streets, going about their days. Horses, carriages, carts. The whole scenario screamed Middle Ages. However, their architecture was pretty good. And the city’s plumbing, even better. They had running water~!
Ah, how I’d missed having an actual decent bathroom for the last five years! Our toilet wasn’t really that bad but we did have to carry water in there, so… yeah. Glad that was over.
A sort of tranquility settled in. This was a new world. A world of new possibilities. However, this world had its own problems. And one of those problems was this shit religion of Askavan. They were standing in the way of my peace. In the way of me spending time with Mom. I hated my mother, I hated her all my life for being manipulative. However, Lin was different. I loved her, and I wanted to be near her; with her. I wanted to be pampered by her. And I wanted her to love me.
And if a shitstain church was going to get in the way of that. “Then… wouldn’t it be better if they just disappeared?”
“What?” Den knocked once and came in. “What disappeared?”
“Oh uh,” he’d caught me off-guard. Why the fuck had I spoken aloud? Fuck. “Fiends, Den.”
Den rolled his eyes. “They have their place too kid. Come, let’s go get breakfast. Did you get fresh?”
“Not yet.”
“Then get to it.”
“Yeah.”
***
Breakfast consisted of meat soup, bread and some meat balls. Not terrible, nothing great either. Apparently, breakfast was often made from last night’s leftovers. So yeah.
Once done, Den showed me around town. We had a few hours to kill before our ride hit the shore, so we went around touring. The streets were bustling with fruits and wares from across the globe; same for people too. Different people from across the world. I suppose a port city was a port city no matter where you went.
Alastur had some free time, and he joined us as a guard, thanking us for lodgings. I had a feeling this was going to be a battle of gratitude sooner or later.
There wasn’t much to see in town though. I mean it was a port city and had a lot of stuff port cities had, but I didn’t really find them that enticing. Compared to the other city I’d been in, I suppose this was a massive improvement though. The entrance was littered with inns and restaurants but the further you went, there were just typical houses and stuff. At the center, a large mansion stood out from the rest. The mayor’s house. But something else stood out even more. The church. Wretched scum.
I didn’t necessarily want to destroy the church. I had no way of doing so. And even if I somehow did, then what? Religion, as shitty as it was, held back human carnal desires. It acted as a buffer between rationality and irrationality.
But I did want Askavan to lose all its powers… but to do that and to not fuck up society, I needed something else to take up Askavan’s place. But what? What could possibly take place of a religion that’s been literally circulating for thousands of years?
“Another one,” I said. Why not just make another one? Better, less shit and… wouldn’t get in the way of me and Mom.
Hmm…
“Another Honeycrisp?” Den said. We were both eating some fruit.
“Yes, please.”
He rolled his eyes. “You sure love them.”
“Yes sir, I do.”
He chuckled and bought me another one from the vendor down the street. We casually ate the fruits watching the roaring sea. Yes, sea. It was here all along. I just didn’t notice it last night since it was so dark. Then again, I kind of expected it to just be a big river or something but no, it was an actual sea with that familiar salty breeze. Rather calm; the water seemed oddly green rather than blue. We watched over the port from a distance, not quite going over there. At one point, Den had picked me up and showed me the ocean and I acted a little surprised and said- “Looks like a big lake!” He’d chuckled and told me it was much bigger than a lake.
“Are their fiends in the ocean?” I asked.
“Yeah, but ships have dedicated adventurer and mercenary guards, so it isn’t that risky.”
That risky. Well, travel of any sort was risky in some way but there were fiends in the water. According to the history book I’d read, sea travel had been far, far safer now compared to the past. Back in the day, massive sea fiends emerging and taking whole ships below water wasn’t unheard of. And although those things were mostly gone, I was hoping they remained gone and didn’t make a random guest appearance during our journey.
“Don’t worry, I’m also traveling,” Alastur said.
You were still here? “What do you mean Mr. Alastur?”
“Hey, you never call me Mister,” Den grumbled. I ignored him.
“Alastur’s fine,” he said. “You are traveling to Saint Schalion, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”
Oh yeah, he did say he was going to school and the only good school near us was apparently Schalion Academy. I did some digging on the school. It was founded three hundred years ago by the court mage of Siran. A rather old but traditional school that didn’t differentiate between nobles or commoners. Then again, Askavan also emphasized equality to some extent, so things were pretty decent for commoners in this age. Assuming you weren’t born poor or talentless. In that case, fucked you were.
I also found out about the country we were in right now. Although the Southern and Western continents were named as such, there were quite a few countries here. We were in the country of Jarun, central Southern state, and the academy was on the very border of Slovia, Siran and Jenvola, western countries. They had a bunch of other names going around and the actual countries were kind of small by earth’s scale. They were more akin to large cities like NYC, than actual countries. The names were so atrocious, I didn’t bother remembering.
“That puts me at ease,” I said.
“And having me doesn’t? I’m the best ranged Hunter in the village, you know,” Den said.
“Keyword, village.”
Den grumbled but begrudgingly shrugged. “A little early but our ship’s here,” he said.
Where? All I saw was water and a dot? The dot came closer and closer and yeah, definitely a ship… Shit eyesight.
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up early and stared out the window. Well, I say early but it was probably around nine in the morning; pretty bright outside. Den slept in the room next door, so I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not. I didn’t really care either. Our boat was going to leave after midday, so we had plenty of time.
This place was quite something though. Thousands of people in the streets, going about their days. Horses, carriages, carts. The whole scenario screamed Middle Ages. However, their architecture was pretty good. And the city’s plumbing, even better. They had running water~!
Ah, how I’d missed having an actual decent bathroom for the last five years! Our toilet wasn’t really that bad but we did have to carry water in there, so… yeah. Glad that was over.
A sort of tranquility settled in. This was a new world. A world of new possibilities. However, this world had its own problems. And one of those problems was this shit religion of Askavan. They were standing in the way of my peace. In the way of me spending time with Mom. I hated my mother, I hated her all my life for being manipulative. However, Lin was different. I loved her, and I wanted to be near her; with her. I wanted to be pampered by her. And I wanted her to love me.
And if a shitstain church was going to get in the way of that. “Then… wouldn’t it be better if they just disappeared?”
“What?” Den knocked once and came in. “What disappeared?”
“Oh uh,” he’d caught me off-guard. Why the fuck had I spoken aloud? Fuck. “Fiends, Den.”
Den rolled his eyes. “They have their place too kid. Come, let’s go get breakfast. Did you get fresh?”
“Not yet.”
“Then get to it.”
“Yeah.”
***
Breakfast consisted of meat soup, bread and some meat balls. Not terrible, nothing great either. Apparently, breakfast was often made from last night’s leftovers. So yeah.
Once done, Den showed me around town. We had a few hours to kill before our ride hit the shore, so we went around touring. The streets were bustling with fruits and wares from across the globe; same for people too. Different people from across the world. I suppose a port city was a port city no matter where you went.
Alastur had some free time, and he joined us as a guard, thanking us for lodgings. I had a feeling this was going to be a battle of gratitude sooner or later.
There wasn’t much to see in town though. I mean it was a port city and had a lot of stuff port cities had, but I didn’t really find them that enticing. Compared to the other city I’d been in, I suppose this was a massive improvement though. The entrance was littered with inns and restaurants but the further you went, there were just typical houses and stuff. At the center, a large mansion stood out from the rest. The mayor’s house. But something else stood out even more. The church. Wretched scum.
I didn’t necessarily want to destroy the church. I had no way of doing so. And even if I somehow did, then what? Religion, as shitty as it was, held back human carnal desires. It acted as a buffer between rationality and irrationality.
But I did want Askavan to lose all its powers… but to do that and to not fuck up society, I needed something else to take up Askavan’s place. But what? What could possibly take place of a religion that’s been literally circulating for thousands of years?
“Another one,” I said. Why not just make another one? Better, less shit and… wouldn’t get in the way of me and Mom.
Hmm…
“Another Honeycrisp?” Den said. We were both eating some fruit.
“Yes, please.”
He rolled his eyes. “You sure love them.”
“Yes sir, I do.”
He chuckled and bought me another one from the vendor down the street. We casually ate the fruits watching the roaring sea. Yes, sea. It was here all along. I just didn’t notice it last night since it was so dark. Then again, I kind of expected it to just be a big river or something but no, it was an actual sea with that familiar salty breeze. Rather calm; the water seemed oddly green rather than blue. We watched over the port from a distance, not quite going over there. At one point, Den had picked me up and showed me the ocean and I acted a little surprised and said- “Looks like a big lake!” He’d chuckled and told me it was much bigger than a lake.
“Are their fiends in the ocean?” I asked.
“Yeah, but ships have dedicated adventurer and mercenary guards, so it isn’t that risky.”
That risky. Well, travel of any sort was risky in some way but there were fiends in the water. According to the history book I’d read, sea travel had been far, far safer now compared to the past. Back in the day, massive sea fiends emerging and taking whole ships below water wasn’t unheard of. And although those things were mostly gone, I was hoping they remained gone and didn’t make a random guest appearance during our journey.
“Don’t worry, I’m also traveling,” Alastur said.
You were still here? “What do you mean Mr. Alastur?”
“Hey, you never call me Mister,” Den grumbled. I ignored him.
“Alastur’s fine,” he said. “You are traveling to Saint Schalion, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”
Oh yeah, he did say he was going to school and the only good school near us was apparently Schalion Academy. I did some digging on the school. It was founded three hundred years ago by the court mage of Siran. A rather old but traditional school that didn’t differentiate between nobles or commoners. Then again, Askavan also emphasized equality to some extent, so things were pretty decent for commoners in this age. Assuming you weren’t born poor or talentless. In that case, fucked you were.
I also found out about the country we were in right now. Although the Southern and Western continents were named as such, there were quite a few countries here. We were in the country of Jarun, central Southern state, and the academy was on the very border of Slovia, Siran and Jenvola, western countries. They had a bunch of other names going around and the actual countries were kind of small by earth’s scale. They were more akin to large cities like NYC, than actual countries. The names were so atrocious, I didn’t bother remembering.
“That puts me at ease,” I said.
“And having me doesn’t? I’m the best ranged Hunter in the village, you know,” Den said.
“Keyword, village.”
Den grumbled but begrudgingly shrugged. “A little early but our ship’s here,” he said.
Where? All I saw was water and a dot? The dot came closer and closer and yeah, definitely a ship… Shit eyesight.
