Chapter 176: Until so pleasant

The numb cold of the dark, starry night washed away, so I no longer kept company to the melancholic royalty. After I gathered information, the Side Mission simply washed away, too, and who knew when such a same quest-like event would fall on me. For the time being, the Main Quest "???" — "Become the King. 0/1" — was put to rest, too.

And after the night, came the day. After the silver-cold cast of the moon, came the warm liveliness of the sun. I kept company to the priestess whom I liked to play at being friends with. In the capital of Roerden, while, outside of its walls, trouble brew, I walked the city, more or less aimlessly.

One day, the priestess had mentioned it to me. About thieves. When we visited the many job-related guilds of the Guild Bureau, I was interested in a certain class, but it wasn't available to me. Why, because thieves weren't like the other actual classes you could train as. That was due to unresolved open conflicts with the State. I asked about it, and I was told that in some cities, thief/assassin guilds still stood as regular guilds, openly taking disciples in and training them. Anyway, that wasn't the case in Roerden, apparently.

With thieves, I felt a certain sense of kinship, at the time. It might have been naive of me, but I still somehow entertained the thought of finding a place where I could find brothers of mine. I didn't need a home since I found my elf, Cetha, but I still wished to see a city of thousands of many "mes."

Monsters, but with intellect. There weren't that many at all, so finding a society of such a people wasn't possible. And demi-humans wouldn't cut it.

My thought process, today, was that monster-types were evil, and they were rejected. A day or two ago, with the old man, we stumbled upon a thief. I took a liking to it.

Really, I then had thought, I got to. I got to visit them. Thieves. Maybe they can be like me. Maybe I can make... something more similar to "friends" than the human monster-hunters I always play with, with thieves and assassins.

They could become my "monsters," I hoped. Uh, my friends, I mean.

That was how I decided to investigate their case. The thieves' case. If they caused problems, they had to be there. Somewhere, hiding around in the shadows of the grand buildings of the city. If I hid in plain daylight, it was because I had people teach me how. If thieves didn't, maybe I could show them the way. My guess, however, was that they did hide, too, and I just didn't see them.

Regardless, I needed to pinpoint a location. A place to go.

So I set off to fully visit the capital. And, with the priestess, I had an efficient tour of it.

I felt that my guide was more distant than usual. That couldn't be helped. I probably shouldn't have beheaded countless hobgoblins with my bare hands in front of her. I shouldn't have drowned the image she had of me, her young lively boy, in the blood of the hobgoblins. Afraid, prudent, distant. From a low-level creature's perspective, it was probably safer to behave like this.

I didn't mind it: I grew a lot, so I probably wasn't a "young boy" anymore, from an outsider's perspective, but more a young man. I was never a "boy" to begin with, but I didn't expect people to treat me as a child anymore.

Her being distant didn't mean she didn't feel immensely grateful for how I saved her. Today, my monster-hunter friends were taking the day off, so the prudent priestess guided me around as I asked, doing her best to appear as unfazed and demoralized by what tragic accident happened the other day.

We didn't actually visit it all, but what I couldn't see with my eyes, the priestess helped me see with her words. The capital knew numerous different areas. Depending on how rich you were and what your occupation was, the people were basically separated into many zones. I and my group lived in an aristocratic district. There, there was plenty of room everywhere. The houses and buildings were grand and proud. The space allocated to a resident was spacious: Surrounded by a natural-green color and a warm air of human civilization, the richer people had it good. A few master alchemists and magicians had a few shops around, and they supposedly sold the best products of the region to the best (rich) customers. Aristocratic areas were mostly calm, rich, and gorgeous. Thieves didn't have much to go about here. That was my guess.

Above the aristocracy was the nobility. A nobleman or noblewoman mostly inherited their name from their father, unlike aristocrats. They were all formally called lords and ladies, and with respect. If dwelled in the capital, it was at the Palace or the vicinity in castles and proud houses of their own. I already visited around the royal place and its many gardens—thieves didn't rest there, they couldn't. The place was just too secure. If I didn't have the System backing me up, even I couldn't slip in and out as easily. Magic domes and barriers kept the security just that tight.

Then, there were the more generic areas where most of the people lived, taking up about half the land of the big city. Where I had to search and sniff about. There, the people were always bustling around by many. I liked the commoner's grounds better: The land was richer with people, the great many streets and alleys were larger yet tighter, and life was at the heart of everything. I could see mostly human folks, but elves, dwarves, and other rarer human-races could be spotted now and then. The sun shone warmer down here. And the earthy streets stretched long in the distances, forming a rather plain maze where everyone was a master of their own destinations, in the morning and in the evening.

There were richer areas among the commoners. Rich merchants and entrepreneurs lived there, among other merchant people. Where the Guild Bureau, and most of everything of interest, was, it was plainer yet more attractive and pleasant. And then, the streets kept getting poorer and poorer, up until the land wasn't all that pleasant anymore.