Chapter 213: A Sad City
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After talking quietly for a while, Anfey and others slowly walked out of their room and went downstairs. The owner and few female staff of the Garden Hotel all waited downstairs. The owner was about fifty years old. He must have had a sight problem. He had his eyes open wide until he saw Anfey and his crew walking downstairs. He squinted his eyes to look at them.
Urter roughly wrapped his wounded hand. Seeing their mayor hurt, the owner and female staff looked at each other with confused faces. They immediately moved their gaze elsewhere. They knew someone had died upstairs. They did not feel like they needed to worry about it since the mayor was in the hotel. There was a saying in Buddhism, "Don’t’ look, don’t listen, don’t ask." Maybe it was wise to pretend they did not know anything.
"Master, where are you going? Do you want to come to my office?" Urter walked outside and asked in a low voice.
"No, I would like to walk around first. I will see you tonight. You need get the things I asked for ready." Anfey looked at Urter’s hand. "Is your hand ok?"
"I am fine, master. I will get it done," Urter said, smiling.
Suddenly a middle-aged woman ran towards the Garden Hotel. She stared at Suzanna and yelled like a crazy woman, "My child, my child."
Suzanna was shocked and subconsciously grabbed the sword handle. An old man chased behind the middle-aged woman. He ran really fast for his age and got hold of the woman’s thigh. The woman seemed to be stronger than the old man. She struggled to walk forward and dragged the old man along with her on the ground.
"My child…" The woman was only five yards away from Suzanna.
"We do not have your kids." Urter said with a scolding tone. "Vicky, why did you let her get out again?"
A few fully armed soldiers ran out of the grocery store across from the hotel and held the woman on the ground. The old man put his hands on the ground and struggled to stand up. He cried aloud before he had the chance to answer Urter’s question or check his brush burned arms for blood. From where he stood, Anfey could see pea-sized tears on the old man’s face.
"Take all of them," Urter yelled as he waved his arm.
A few soldiers took the woman’s arms and legs, carrying her away. The old man was still crying on the ground. Urter gave a low sigh and walked over to the old man. He squatted down and comforted him a little bit, the passed a few silver coins to the old man. The man took them as he sobbed. He wobbled to the other end of the street.
"What happened?" Anfey asked. Anfey would get alert every time something happened. He took a close look at what happened, but did not find anything unusual.
"Old Vicky is a poor guy," Urter said bitterly. "He only has a daughter. He raised her by himself. His daughter married a guy who moved in with them. Later his daughter gave birth to a girl and a boy. They finally lived a good life together. His daughter and son in-law were capable people, so they ran a family business very well. No one would expect misfortune would fall on them. The soldiers from Shansa Empire took over Violet City. They also took their granddaughter away. His son in-law had conflicts with Shansa Empire’s soldiers and got killed. The Shansa Empire’s soldiers even burnt down their house. His only grandson was burnt to death. Such a nice family only had two people left now. His daughter went crazy. Alas."
"Poor guy," Suzanna said sadly.
Urter had smiles on his face, but hatred showed in his eyes. "There are many more people in worse situations than old Vicky in Violet City."
"Before I came here, I heard Violet City is a very beautiful city. Now…" Anfey could not help sighing.
"The previous owner of Violet City, Aroben, is still in the city. Master, if you see him, you will learn from him what kind of bastards those people from Shansa Empire are," Urter said with hatred. "People from Shansa Empire asked Aroben to convince Blackania City to surrender, but they got scolded by Aroben. They cut off Aroben’s tendons on his wrists and ankles. They even killed everyone in his house, including little kids. Aroben himself…" Urter could not continue. His voice started to tremble. "But Aroben did not surrender to them."
Anfey was surprised to hear this sad story. Monarchy was the only political system in this world. Militaries were not humanitarian, but they rarely abused royal families. Royal families were in dominant positions whether in political or military areas. For self-protection, hostile countries would not treat royal families in extremely bad ways, since no one would know if they would fall into a bad situation themselves some time. Even when royal families became captives, they still could be treated well. As long as ransom was paid, royal families could retrieve their freedom. This had become a rule between countries.
Shansa Empire tried to take over Blackania City for a long time, but failed. The whole of Shansa Empire became crazy about it.
Anfey created a scene not long ago, which made some civilians walk out and stand on the streets to watch. If this happened in other cities, civilians would have talked about it, but not in Violet City. They were all quiet and none of them talked. They all had the same look on their faces. They did not show any emotion on their faces and kept quiet.
"Where is Aroben now?" Anfey asked slowly. "I think we should go visit him."
"He’s at my house," Urter said.
"Your house?" Anfey was shocked.
"His garrison residence was destroyed. He lost the ability to walk and move around. Where could he go?" Urter heaved a long sigh. "Aroben saved my life before. I have always treated him and will treat him as my own father."
"Very nice of you!" Anfey nodded. "How is he now?"
Anfey was not sure how he saw Aroben. It was hard to criticize people like Aroben. Is he cold since he watched his family dying in front of him without trying to save them? Is he tough because he sacrificed his family for his country? If his case was seen from emperors’ and historians’ points of view, he should be praised. However, if they were Aroben’s family, Anfey did not think they would praise him the same way.
"Very bad, but Aroben said that he would try to live to the day he can take revenge on Shansa Empire." Urter slowly continued, "Master, I am not flattering you. I respect you, and admire you from the bottom of my heart. I mean it. Shansa Empire is so proud of Griffin Aerial Unit. You wiped out the whole Griffin Aerial Unit and you did that for us."
Anfey smiled, but did not say anything. After he was quiet for a while, Urter continued to say, "Master, do you know where you want to go now?"
"I only want to walk around," Anfey said.
"I will have my people follow you. If something happens, I can find you immediately," Urter said.
"Sure," Anfey said.
Urter waved his hand. A young man just over twenty years old ran over. "His name is Iliverny; smart kid." After talking to Anfey, Urter whispered something to Iliverny. Iliverny suddenly stared, his eyes wide. Iliverny could not control his facial expressions. Urter continued to whisper something to him, and then he stood aside, looking obedient.
"Ok, Urter, you can leave now. Can you handle the issue upstairs?" Anfey slowly said, "Suzanna, you can get on the wagon now."
"Aren’t you coming too?" Suzanna was shocked.
"I am not riding in the wagon." Anfey shook his head. "Take care of the little guy." He wanted to take a closer look at Violet City. If he hid himself in the wagon, he would miss out on many things.
As Urter said goodbye to them, Suzanna ducked into the wagon with a bamboo basket on her arm. Anfey walked along the main street while the wagon driver drove the wagon behind him slowly.
Normal people probably thought Anfey’s crew was weird. Their wagon was big and wide. It was pulled by eight horses. The wagon looked fancy. Everyone could tell the owner of the wagon must be someone with power. It looked strange that Anfey walked instead of riding in the wagon. That no one paid attention to Anfey seemed even stranger. When people almost knocked into Anfey as they walked with their heads down, they just walked around without looking up at Anfey.
The longer Anfey walked, the more he seemed to get a sense of this city. This was a quiet city, a dead city. It was a sad city in some sense. Everyone in Violet City seemed to hold something inside of themselves.
The feeling Violet City citizens had toward their city was terrible. Maybe as time went by, what these civilians held in could be slowly relieved. Maybe the whole city would have a riot just as a bomb would blow when something triggered the citizens.
Anfey was not sure how long he had walked, but he found himself back to the Garden. It seemed that he had walked around in a big circle. This time those maids in the hotel dared not to ignore the guests. They rushed out and stood on both sides of the door. They dared not to say anything, just looking timidly at Anfey. They had no idea what Anfey would do.
Anfey looked up at the sun to tell the time. He turned around and walked up to the wagon. He tapped the wagon wall twice. "Suzanna, are you hungry yet?"
"I am alright," Suzanna said.
"What does that mean?" Anfey usually could understand others well but he did not quite understand what "alright" meant.
"Anfey, we are hungry," Black Eleven immediately interrupted. "We have not had any food since this morning."
"That is right. It is already afternoon now," Apa said.
In fact they had felt hungry for quite some time. Anfey looked like he was in thought on the way, so Black Eleven and Apa dared not interrupt him. They finally got a chance to say their piece now. They could not let this opportunity to slide.
"Let’s just grab something quick," Anfey said.
Iliverny rushed into the hotel first. He did not mean to take the food first, but to make arrangements for others. As he rushed into the hotel, a harsh and loud whistle suddenly rose on the street. Iliverny was shocked for a second and turned around immediately. He ran outside as he whistled loudly back.
"What happened?" Anfey turned around.
"Master, I am not sure," Iliverny responded immediately to Anfey. As he whistled, he ran towards where the whistle had come from.
Anfey, Black Eleven, Suzanna and Apa looked at each other confused. They did not go into the hotel. They looked around on the street to see if there was anything suspicious.
After a while, they heard horses running from a distance. Two horses came into view. Urter was riding one horse and someone Anfey had never seen before was riding the other horse. Iliverny and a group of people ran after them, but were left far behind by Urter.
Urter had rushed to Anfey in the blink of an eye. He jumped off the horse before the horse could stop itself. He almost fell to the ground. Luckily, Anfey caught him in time.
"Master, I have something to tell you. Can we talk in private?" Urter said, breathing heavily. He looked perplexed. A little shocked, some joy, and mostly excitement.
"Come in the wagon." Anfey looked at Urter and smiled. "Black Eleven, you guys come in too."
"Master." Urter had followed Anfey, but he stopped when he heard Anfey invite others to come in. He said, "I insist on talking in private with just you."
"Urter, what do you mean?" Apa was a little unhappy about it. The first time he met Anfey, Apa had tried to ask Anfey to leave Suzanna out of their conversation. Now he had a chance to taste not being trusted. It indeed did not feel good. Urter was his friend. He even had tried to speak for him when Urter had some issues with Anfey that morning.
"Sorry, Apa, it is not that I do not trust you. This is too important." Urter smiled bitterly. "Master?"
Anfey went quiet for a moment and walked into the hotel. Even though Anfey and Urter had not known each other long, they had experienced things together. Anfey had already developed some trust in Urter. It must be something very very very important to make Urter act so abnormally, almost unreasonably.
Urter followed closely behind Anfey into the hotel. He scanned around. "You guys need to leave now."
The maids obediently walked out of the hotel without saying anything. The owner walked out as well.
Apa and Black Eleven stood outside, looking at each other. They tried to suppress their unhappy feelings. What could they do? They could not fight with Urter for that reason.
"What exactly happened?" Anfey asked.
"Master, if you were not here, I would have no idea what to do." Urter heaved a long sigh. "I think you know we are building the garrison residence for you, right?"
"Yes, I know about it," Anfey said.
"A few slaves dug out a stone tablet when they dug the foundation. It was the stone tablet of Brunswick." Urter’s eyes brightened. The muscles on his face twitched. Obviously, he was super excited.
"Brunswick? This name…I think I heard it somewhere." Anfey tried to search for the name in his head as he spoke.
"No way, master. You really do not know about him?" Urter asked.
"I definitely heard it somewhere", Anfey said.
"Master, do you know where the palace of Sacred City was built?" Urter smiled bitterly.
"It was on Brunswick Mountain. Is it that Brunswick?" Anfey asked.
"Master, how many Brunswicks do you think there are?" Urter rubbed his nose. He thought Anfey would shout in surprise. He was disappointed that Anfey had no idea who Brunswick was.
"What is that stone tablet about?" Anfey did not think it was important information.
"I really do not know if you are really from this world." Urter gave Anfey a bitter smile again. "After Brunswick died in the Sacred Battle, Queen Marisa was in deep sorrow. However, she still took on the responsibility Brunswick had left. She gave commands to Brunswick’s military to fight with magic beast tribes. After she beat the magic beast tribes and ended the battle, Marisa suddenly disappeared. There was a legend that Marisa had built an underground maze. She had no other desire left for life after the battle. She had already sent her husband’s body to the underground maze. The last thing Marisa did was to seal herself in the maze."
"Keep going," Anfey said.
"This legend has proved true with some evidence. Brunswick and Marisa loved each other so much. After Brunswick’s death, Marisa had always said she had no desire to continue to live. The only thing that kept her living was the responsibility." Urter emphasized each word. "Later many tomb raiders searched for her maze and found three in the next few hundred years. Unfortunately, those were the fake ones Marisa made to fool people."
"How do you know they are fake?" Anfey asked.
"Because there was something missing." Urter thought for a moment and said, "There was another reason. After tomb raiders found the first underground maze, many people thought they found the real one, but there was nothing besides money and jewelry. Later many people lost interest in Marisa’s legend. A few tomb raiders found another underground maze about a hundred years later. The layout and treasure in the maze was exactly the same as the first one. Master, think about it, why did Marisa build fake mazes on purpose? What did she want to protect? Was it only because she did not want anyone to disturb her life?"
Anfey did not respond to Urter right away. He concentrated to think of all the possibilities for why Marisa built fake mazes and how reliable this legend could be.
"Master, there was one item missing with the disappearance of Marisa. No one has seen it since," Urter said.
"What is it?" Anfey asked.
"The Taboo scepter." Urter stressed every word.
"What is the Taboo scepter?" Anfey asked.
Urter almost fainted from Anfey’s ignorance. He held his hands into fists without even worrying about the pain on his hand. He grinded his teeth and said, "Master, Brunswick died on the Brunswick Mountain. After Brunswick’s death, the Taboo scepter broke through the block of the magic beast tribes. It flew back to Marisa. Do you know what it meant?"
"That is so amazing." Anfey raised his eyebrow. He had become used to the magic and combat power in this world. Anfey was still amazed by an object that could have its own mind and spirit. It was impossible to explain how it could happen.
"Master, Taboo scepter is an amazing artifact. A legendary artifact. I heard that some books said the Taboo scepter had some unexposed secrets. I heard even a regular human being can perform forbidden spells with the Taboo scepter." Urter finished his talk in one breath. He took a deep breath. "Do you understand?"
"Yes, but what does that stone tablet mean then?" Anfey asked.
"There should be an underground maze," Urter said.
"Maybe it is a fake one again." It was not that Anfey was trying to disappoint Urter on purpose. Anfey got used to assuming the worst scenario when he looked at problems.
Urter was speechless. It was not normal for people to stay as calm as Anfey when they heard the news about the Taboo scepter.
In fact it was Urter who had short vision and lack of life experience. It was easy to make Anfey lose himself. He could just say "Have you seen the porn of Mutou Ran?" Anfey would jump really high and grab Urter to ask him where he was from.
"No matter whether it is a real or fake maze, we need to figure it out anyway. Ask them to come in so we can discuss it," Anfey said slowly.
"No, don’t do it, master." Urter hurried to stop Anfey.
"Urter, you need to know they are my companions. I trust them with my life," Anfey looked serious.
"Master, it was not that simple." Urter smiled bitterly. "I need to write a report and send it to Sacred City every month. I would not report anything before we can figure the maze out. Even if I have to see the King in Sacred City, I would not tell him either. Master, only two of us can know about this secret."
"You don’t have to make it so secretive." Anfey looked indifferent.
"Master, if the secret gets out, Violet City might disappear from this world," Urter said worriedly. "Master, do you know I have killed the slaves at the construction site. They are the captives from Shansa Empire. I did not mean to let them live anyway. I would not risk them leaking the information out now."
"Huh?" Anfey said.
"Master, if all the top powers gathered in Violet City from all over the world, who could control them? Even if our king could send all the troops here, they could not control those most powerful people," Urter said.
Anfey’s heart sank. He knew how powerful those most powerful people were. Professor Saul once told him that many top powers chose to be away from the early world. They hoped to break the bottleneck to challenge god. There were so many countries on Pan Continent. Almost every country on Pan Continent had few major powers. If these major powers all came to Violet City and gathered here, Violet City would be destroyed.
"This is not about trust, master." After arguing with Anfey, Urter’s voice started to become hoarse.