Chapter 77: Birkaz (1)

"Thanks for your generosity, young sir."

Bending his back nearly in half, the old man expressed his gratitude to his young client. But all the nice impression that this act could make was destroyed by how swiftly the coachman hid the additional silver coin into his pockets. 

"It's okay. To be quite honest, back when I started my journey, I didn't really plan ahead a lot. You could say that I just followed my heart just like everyone always advised me to do so… And I ended up knowing nearly nothing about this region!"

Shaking his lowered head with fake embarrassment, Fen was doing his best to hide his anxiety. Because the situation in the city was far worse than what he hoped for.

It couldn't be said that it was dangerously bad. Nobody paid any attention to the young man yet, guaranteeing his safety for at least a while longer. But the number of guards that patrolled the streets just in the short moment after Fen's coach moved past the gate and before they reached a plaza right beside the city's entrance? With no external force capable of targeting this place, there could be only one reason for this kind of active presence of the guards.

A prisoner was on the loose.

Whether it was Fen or someone completely else, it didn't really matter. Fen's entire backstory would fall apart the moment anyone would bother to look into it. As long as the young runaway was dealing with bored guards unwilling to move an inch from their spot, his story would sell. Sadly, once the officers would step in, no half-assed story would be enough to fool them.

"Just before you go…"

Suddenly breaking Fen's train of thought by energetically reaching for his hand, the old coachman pushed on the young man's hand to force his sight down onto his serious eyes.

"Remember one thing. If you do not want troubles, then do not venture to Thief's gate. As much as you can get done there, most of the time the saved resources and time are not worth�� the effort."

Rather than keep his eyes on the young man, the coachman's pupils continued to wander in all directions, frantically scanning the entire area. It seemed as if saying what he just said could bring a lot of trouble on his head, hence the man's strange behaviour.

"Thanks for the help then."

Nodding his head in response, Fen finally took his leave. Despite how massive the caravan seemed to be on the road, even while people still continued to poor inside and crowd the plaza when compared to the massive city around it the caravan seemed to be… small.

Once Fen finally left the plaza, the true scale of the city was revealed to him. While there was a point of the huge walls making it feel like if he was closed down in prison when compared to the time where the young man could freely traverse the world in any direction that would come to his mind, this was actually nothing more than an illusion.

In reality, this place was at least the size of Akhaz, if not bigger. That meant that even if Fen was willing to spend years just to explore this single location, he wouldn't be able to unearth all of its secrets!

'Gosh, they are really trying to catch whoever they are looking for…'

This though appeared just a few moments after Fen dived into the streets of the main part of the city, the trading district. Outside of the expected crowd of people that continued to earn money both for the stall owners and the city itself in form of many taxes, this entire place was filled to the brim with officials and city guards. 

Just on the main road alone, Fen saw at least seven checking posts where the guards controlled random people. And it was all before the young man even got the chance to reach the town's centre, created by leaving a huge spot in the middle of the city open, with only some lucrative stalls allowed to be set on the flat surface.

"Excuse me, are you by any chance selling liquid metal?"

Approaching a random stall, Fen quickly asked the first question that came to his mind. Just walking around the city without engaging in the most common trade here was all sort of suspicious, and with how high the alert within the city was, being suspicious was the last thing that the young man wanted.

"Can't you see what I have here? How do you expect a food stall to have liquid metal?!"

Looking down on him as if Fen was some kind of strange animal, the stall owner appeared as if he was the king of the entire place overseeing the petitions of the commoners.

"Dear sir, I was given the advice to stock on some liquid metal, but the problem is that I have no idea where to find it or where to even begin my search. If I were to say that I could use some help here…"

It wasn't a bribe. Pulling out two silvers, twice the price of a random product that Fen saw on the man's display, and passing it openly to the merchant could only be considered to be a tuition fee, rather than some sign of corruption.

"I see…"

Just as expected, the stall owner wasn't a man who created problems. After safely storing the coins away in his pocket, the merchant's face turned from stern to all sorts of pleasant as he smiled to Fen with a huge dose of sympathy.

"In short words, liquid metal is one of the basic materials that smiths use. Compared to solid ones, it requires far less effort to mould, and once it's tempered in its form, its qualities change from the liquid to a proper chunk of solid metal. You can buy it in literally every smithing shop in the city, but if they ask you for more than a silver per standardised package, then leave and never go back to that place!"

Quickly it turned out that Fen's downpayment investment in his knowledge was actually worth it. According to Fen's former coachman's words, buying some of the liquid metal here only to sell it in Kharag could easily net him some profits, but most of all, give a plausible excuse for his journey, no matter what kind of alter-ego Fen would decide to adopt!

"Thanks for your help!"

Nodding his head just as yet another group of guards passed by, Fen took the opportunity to do something outwardly ridiculous. With all his worries about being discovered, the young man actually ran up to the patrol, before deeply bowing his head to the two surprised soldiers!

"Excuse me, noble sirs. I've just arrived in this town, but as time is money I need to deal with my matters as quickly as possible. Would you please be as magnanimous as to point me out to the nearest smithy?"

The first thing that any fugitive would usually avoid, would be any representation of the law that was after him. But in reality, being chased by humans wasn't all that different from escaping the clutches of the death in the claws of some beast in the forest! All that changed, was how one had to act against the expectations of one's pursuers to fool them!

That's why, an action that was completely natural in itself, but that went against anything that a fugitive would do, was the best way to hide in the open. And by acting so lowly in front of those men and praising them to the sun even before they would have the chance to utter a single word…

This was something that forced the recipient of the sympathy to consider it as the effect of his role in society. And who wouldn't want to be respected due to the job he was doing?

"For a smithy… I know there is Matter Platter nearby, what about you, Frank?"

Just the naming sense that one of the guards presented to Fen made the young man feel a bit overwhelmed. At least back in the Akhaz, outside of some specific names, most of the things were named as they were instead of using some fancy names. The staging ground was the colosseum, the school was the school, no one bothered to name the place where Fen met Stiel and Kaisha the Ultima Magnus Arcana Forefront! 

"If you want the nearest, then Matter Platter is the one, but taking into account how you just bought the information, I assume you are looking for good prices. While it will be a long walk, I would recommend going for Blacks Supplies on northern border of the trading district. It's close to the Thief's Gate area, but if you are looking to save money, that's the best place."

After giving out this advice and receiving Fen's gratitude in form of yet another deep bow, the guards left. From now on, if anyone were to have some problems with Fen, he at least had some record of activity in this city to prove his innocence!

But as the young man walked in the direction that the second guard pointed him out at, the true scale of the city started to dawn on him. As militaristic and dangerous as it looked from the outside, the fact that outside of the infamous Thief's gate and Noble area, the entirety of the town was actually all a trading district! 

It seemed as if even the Royals or the local noble that owned this place couldn't say no nearly endless gold that was coming from the imperial Highway trade!