Ch 30

Chapter 30

8. Trist, The City of Sin (4)

The following day, Alius, Riltein, Serati, Karnak, and the others left Derat City as scheduled. Each of them was divided into east, west, south, and north and moved separately.

Of course, they wore a priest’s uniform, a magician’s robe, and a knight’s armor. After rejoining at the place they promised in advance, they took out the clothes they had prepared.

“Okay then, let’s put up the disguise.”

Then, half a day after leaving Derat City, they changed their route again. Alius wore a traveler’s attire instead of a priest’s attire. The priest’s staff was also changed to a normal appearance by adding a shabby piece.

Karnak and Riltain were easy. It was enough to remove the wizard’s robe and hide the wand. Barros and Serati were a bit tricky. In the case of Barros, even taking off his armor, he was so large that he showed signs of training. Since it was impossible to reduce his size, he disguised himself as a worker by covering his entire body with a wide coat and carrying a backpack the size of an adult.

The problem was that Serati was way too pretty. Many other women were also out there, but they were not as pretty as her. Therefore she drew attention just by her appearance.

However, it was also dangerous to disguise as a normal face. The mere fact of disguise would raise suspicion. In particular, Trist City was a den of all kinds of criminals, so wherever they went, there would be a high possibility that their disguise would be discovered. Alius was well aware of this fact.

“If you’re going to look suspicious anyway, you just have to create a reason to be suspicious in the first place.”

So, Serati wore light makeup on her face, fine gloves on her hands, and dressed in a shabby woman’s travel outfit. She was a typical noble young lady who secretly went around hiding her identity.

“Oh, I’ve never seen anything like this on my face…….”

Riltain smiled at Serati, touching her cheeks as if her makeup was awkward, “Indeed if you do this, there will be no problem even if you are suspected.”

To those who didn’t know, she was just an ordinary woman, but to those with experience, she would look like a noble lady in disguise and with a story they must serve. Either way, you could hide your true identity.

After disguising themselves, Karnak’s party headed toward the northwest where Trist City was located. Barros grumbled as he moved along the mountain path.

“It will take quite a while since we have to go on foot.”

Alius replied by apologizing to them, “I’m sorry. I can’t help but draw attention when I’m on horseback.”

Horses were so expensive that they drew attention just by riding them. And since they disguised themselves as ordinary people, they had no choice but to suffer as ordinary people. On the other hand, Karnak’s reaction was surprisingly fine.

“Am I not bad at this either?”

In his previous life, he was the kind of person who wouldn’t do hard things even if he died. It was to the point where he could even say something like this.

‘No matter how much I exercised, I didn’t sweat!’

If he hadn’t moved his body, would he have lived while knowing what it felt like? In the past life, the body of Karnak was a cumbersome obstacle, a trivial curse that interfered with brain activity. So, he could turn himself into an undead without any burden. But this life was different.

‘O! My Precious body! I must save and take good care of you.’

As he regained his health through steady exercise, his condition improved, he got healthier, and his enjoyment of eating from his dreams also returned. It had reached the point where he would always unpack his food while traveling.

“Come on, let’s eat!”

At lunchtime, Karnak got hyped as if it was a party. They gathered under a tree near the road discreetly and took out the food. The meals of travelers would usually be dried fruits, biscuits, dried jerky, etc.

“A beef tongue terrine sandwich with capers!”

“Roasted pigeon with arugula puree and fried acacia!”

“Steamed freshwater crayfish seasoned with white wine and pepper!”

What came out of Barros’s backpack were the famous delicacies of Derat City. All of them were menu items that had been prepared for preservation and portability. At least they were not things one would encounter in the streets. Alius was dumbfounded.

“……If anyone sees it, they’ll think you’ve just packed a lunch.”

“Eat well to gain strength!”

“…You really didn’t just pack lunch, did you?”

“Right?”

He couldn’t believe it, so he looked inside the backpack, and it was really filled with only packaged food, that huge backpack that could fit an entire adult man.

“What clothes do you change into?

“We can just wash what I was wearing!”

“What if it got torn?”

“I can sew it up!”

“Armors and weapons……”

“I’m wearing it under my coat! You don’t have to take it off!”

“Still, isn’t it too hard to dress like that?”

“If you eat delicious food, you will gain strength you didn’t have before!”

“……..”

Alius was silent. He didn’t think it was possible and considered it so logical that he couldn’t even disagree. Serati was also dumbfounded.

“We have to travel for three more days, so won’t the food spoil?”

Barros had prepared for the answer.

“The Young Master put the preservation magic on it in advance!”

Riltain asked in fright, “You put preservation magic on all these foods?”

Preservation magic was a 3rd circle spell, so it can be used well. And the reason why they brought preserved food…

“Oh my God, wouldn’t it have taken you a whole day?”

Preservation magic was not an instant spell but a spell that required long casting. A magician from 6th Circle must cast magic for 1 hour to preserve 1 serving of food for 3 days. That was also why preserved food was useful even though there was preservation magic.

‘It’s great, but did he have to go that far?’

Karnak replied confidently, “Don’t you have to work hard to eat good food?”

“Ah, yes……”

In fact, at Karnak’s current level, it didn’t take that long.

‘It’s just that I don’t have enough normal mana right now, but my computing power is still the same.’

Due to the low amount of magic power, he could only use up to 4th circle magic, but this realm was already beyond even the archmage. He solved magic riddles that would take an entire day in less than 10 minutes. The atmosphere was quite friendly. Neither Karnak nor Barros were sleazy men who ate delicious food only by themselves.

“Would you like to eat together?”

“Thank you!”

No human in the world would refuse delicious food. At Barros’ suggestion, Serati was delighted and accepted the sandwich. Thanks to this, the distance between those who were meeting for the first time narrowed down a lot.

Translator: Anom

Proofreader: Orange

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Serati carefully inspected the new party while crunching on the sandwich. At first glance, they were nothing special. A lord of a territory and his attendant knight, as expected, a common combination. Their skills were also quite strong for their age, as warriors and wizards, but compared to Serati, who was an aura user, they were definitely mediocre.

‘Even so, did they really catch necromancers so easily?’

Because she moved so quickly, she had never been able to do sparring properly, so she was curious about their skills. How talented are they?

‘From what I’ve seen so far, they seem to be just people obsessed with food…….’

It was an ordinary journey except for meal times. Karnak’s party continued heading northwest along the Eustinian Canal, disguising themselves as peddlers.

After four days like that, they finally arrived at Trist City.

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Karnak was immersed in thought all the way.

‘It’s the city of sin because someone once gave it a grandiose name.’

Urban slums were familiar to him. Karnak and Barros also used to live in the back alleys in their previous lives. To him, who had been through all the famous cities all over the continent, how could he move by being called the city of sin in a rural corner like that?

No matter where in the world, there were bound to be blind spots and places where security was messed up, so he wished to be very nervous about that.

‘Yeah, it’s a town where people live, so what?’ ……he thought so, but Trist City was different from the outside. The basic frame of the city itself was reasonable.

Initially, it was the western front of the Kingdom of Yu Steel, so strong stone buildings were erected everywhere, and the streets were paved with stones. But all of that was half-collapsed.

People lived by repairing the ruined areas with planks and logs. It was too fine to be called a ruin and too desolate to be called a city. There were too many people who wanted to abandon it, and the atmosphere was too gloomy to be lively.

“This is… a remarkable city.”

“It’s not called the City of Sin for nothing.”

As he kept walking, the market appeared within sight. The market was also in the form of roughly repaired collapsed buildings, stalls, and tents scattered all over the place. Karnak laughed while feeling deja vu.

‘This is completely like the empire’s black-market atmosphere.’

The only difference from the black market was that the sun was still up. Perhaps because it was dinnertime, many women came out to buy groceries all over the market.

Serati murmured at the sight of everyone carrying a shopping cart normally, “They say it’s a lawless zone, so how much security is maintained?”

Alius laughed.

“The security is said to be self-sufficient.”

“What?”

It was when Serati opened her eyes wide, wondering what this was about. Suddenly, a boy in rags snatched an old lady’s shopping cart from the street.

“Aaaaaa!”

He rushed forward, cut the line with his hand knife, snatched the basket, and ran like the wind. His skill was extraordinary! Riltain and Serati muttered in surprise.

“A snatcher?”

“Aren’t there so many people?”

On the other hand, Karnak and Barros were not surprised.

‘Piece of shit policy…….’

“What does it matter whether there are many or few people?”

As expected, the passersby didn’t care at all whether their things were snatched from the side or not. They just watched as if it was interesting. However, the ensuing situation exceeded even the expectations of the two.

“Oh?”

The woman who was snatched was not embarrassed. She calmly took out a dagger from her bosom and threw it away!

Whoa!

Hooked!

The dagger was stabbed right into the boy’s thigh. Blood splattered, and screams erupted.

“Aah!”

Even the woman wasn’t in a hurry. Leisurely, she approached the fallen boy and grabbed her shopping cart.

“Ah, I need to fix the handle.”

She muttered as if it was not a big deal and pulled out her dagger. It looked like she didn’t even blink her eyes even though he was bleeding. Then she just went her own way. She wasn’t angry and didn’t curse him. She just left as if nothing really happened.

“A-Ah……”

Pedestrians passed by and threw words at the boy, who was moaning in pain.

“Tsk tsk, did you aim for a snatch with that skill?”

“Start over with begging.”

A child was bleeding on the floor, and no one helped him. Karnak and the others who were watching were just dumbfounded.

“What is this?”

“What’s the atmosphere like in this neighborhood?”

Meanwhile, Serati was restlessly looking back at Alius.

“What should I do, Mr. Alius? That child, if left like that…….”

Whether it was a coincidence or the woman’s skillful throwing technique, the boy was hit by a knife avoiding a blood vessel in his thigh. At first, there seemed to be no danger to life. Even so, wouldn’t it be possible to just watch it? How much more for Alius, who was a priest?

Alius just shrugged, “Didn’t I tell you? Security is self-sufficient.”

Indeed, three children rushed out from the back of the alley. Everyone was dressed in shabby clothes, but as if they were used to it, they approached the fallen boy, stopped the bleeding, and applied a bandage. In the meantime, the sound of doing it was a spectacle.

“Look, Brother Cain, snatching is dangerous!”

“Let’s live faithfully by selling our bodies, we…….”

The children supporting the boy’s arms and legs hid again in the alley. All of this happened in just a few minutes. All that remained were merchants soliciting customers as if nothing had happened and passers-by passing through the market.

“Come on, come on! The meat is cheap!”

“There are fresh turnips that came in today!”

Looking at the red blood stains on the floor, Riltain sighed.

“My God, I wondered why the roads were turning brown all over the place…….”

He stepped on it without thinking, but it was very uncomfortable. Karnak and Barros were also really impressed.

“Eh, it’s a town where people live, but…….”

“There are a lot of different types of people living there.”

It wasn’t that the woman had great skills. Compared to those who had formally learned martial arts, they were definitely clumsy. However, it was challenging even if the basic stance was different. Not just the woman but the whole city.

“I don’t think you need to be extra careful.”

Alius refreshed the atmosphere.

“You see? This is Trist City.”

Karnak and the others were obviously strong. Serati alone could easily take down dozens of bandits if they fought head-on. But you wouldn’t expect kind people to come to you head-on here.

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