Chapter 94 - Pretty Good Physical Strength

The carriage Erick and I sat in slowly moved through the broad and bustling streets of Virshak City, and by broad streets I mean they were very broad, like you could easily, and comfortably fit three carriages next to each other on those roads.

And then there would still be enough space left on the sides of the road for the pedestrians.

It was really amazing!

I saw so many different businesses that I felt like a kid in a candy store. I just had to keep myself from starting to take notes of everything around me, I mean I couldn’t keep going at the pace I was going at that moment. I couldn’t immediately implement each and every new business idea I had.

But unfortunately, that’s just how my brain works. If I find something interesting, or new, I tend to immediately try it. Which meant that, yes, sometimes I tended to be a little impulsive.

Anyway, as the carriage trundled along I kept staring out of the window, looking up at the massive stone buildings that surrounded the streets, the mid-morning sun casting shadows from their rooftops.

However, my astonishment at the beauty of the city lasted only for a while, because I immediately started to notice the rot that had been festering within it, and it wasn’t entirely what you’re probably thinking.

It’s not about crime, or gangs, or murderers, although I noticed those as well. But almost every small side-street or alleyway that I looked into was filled with people who were clearly living there.

A stream of water trickled down the side of the street, at first I thought that maybe this was a winter rainfall area, or maybe it was just snow that had melted in the mid-morning sun, but as soon as I caught the smell that wafted along with that water I immediately knew better.

The worst of it all was that the closer we moved to the center of the city, or to the palace where the duke lived, the better it became. The streets were cleaner, the people that walked along the roads were in much better conditions, even the buildings were in better conditions.

Clearly Erick was entirely right when he told me about the duke favoring only certain individuals, and it seemed that we had found those individuals.

I couldn’t stop my hands from clenching the edge of the plush seat I was sitting in, which unfortunately immediately shattered the wood that it was made of.

"I think I’ll go and have a chat with this ’Duke’ Charles first," I growled, making some air quotes when I said Duke. "But let’s first get to the inn."

"Didn’t you say that you were going to pull strings from the dark?" Erick asked, a shocked expression on his face.

"I did," I nodded, a smile spreading on my lips, a smile that might have looked slightly... evil. "And I still am, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t go there and scare him shitless. Anyway, doing that might actually help us."

"What do you mean it might help us?" Erick asked.

"It’s simple really," I answered, my smile spreading wider. "By giving him a clear enemy, even an unrecognizable one, we remove his attention from his own family."

"So you’re going to use this as a distraction?" Erick asked.

"... You can say that," I nodded.

I mean it’s not like I could tell the man I simply couldn’t hold back anymore, and I just wanted to scare the shit out of the corrupt noble that made his own people suffer like this, and had dared to threaten the life of my Julia.

Erick would lose all respect for me.

It was much better to give him a reason to think that this was not just an impulsive decision. And I mean all the reasons I gave him were actually entirely true, and realistic outcomes.

They just weren’t my primary reasons.

But he didn’t need to know that.

After a few more minutes, we finally reached an inn that was in the area closest to the palace, which unfortunately for me meant that it was hella expensive.

This of course was something that I knew would be the case, which is why the moment we stepped out of the carriage, I handed Erick my purse and told him to go in on his own and book two rooms for us.

"You’re not coming in?" Erick asked.

"No, I’m going for a walk," I answered, although I could see that Erick knew exactly where I was actually going.

"Be careful," he muttered, turning and walking through the door of the inn.

I made my way to a small and narrow alleyway between the inn and the store that was next to it. After a few moments of making sure that there was no one around that, and that the alley was completely empty, I spent another few moments in the darkest area there, just focusing on the details, burning the image of that area into my mind.

I was going to need that image later after all.

Finally, I cast my light concealment and made my way out of the alley.

Now some of you might be wondering what I mean by light concealment.

You might ask, ’but don’t you usually use shadow concealment?’.

And the answer to that is yes, I do usually use shadow concealment, but I also usually sneak around at night, when shadows are prevalent, and not at mid-morning when they are a lot less.

But to give you an idea, the light concealment works on a pretty similar basis as shadow concealment, it bends the light around you, making you disappear into the surroundings.

The main difference though, unlike shadow conceal, light conceal doesn’t hide you from senses, or mask any sounds you make. But that is pretty easily fixed with some null-magic.

I really loved null-magic at that point.

I walked down the streets of Virshak, making my way toward the massive palace that stood at the very center of the city, no one walking with me on the street even knowing of my presence among them.

After a few minutes of walking, I stood in front of the massive gates of the courtyard surrounding the palace. The courtyard of this palace alone was almost the size of the entire Lofie Village.

"Really overcompensating for something aren’t we Duke Charles?" I couldn’t help but mutter as I walked toward the closed gates.

The moment I reached the gates I found the iron barred monstrosities locked and shut tightly, with no way for me to just quietly push them open.

Every few seconds a patrolling guard would walk past the gates, and make sure that they are still shut tight.

"Pretty tight security," I mumbled, looking at the top of the gates that were about twelve feet high.

At first I thought about using anti-gravity and wind magic to simply float over the top again, but that just sounded like a lot of work. I looked at the thick steel bars that made up the entirety of the gate, and had a brilliant idea.

I hadn’t tested my physical strength again after accidentally ripping our room door from its hinges after all, what better time than right then.

I reached out and put my hands on the two nearest bars to me, braced myself, and pulled them away from each other with all of my strength, which might have been a little too much strength.

The two steel bars bent apart so fast it looked like two magnets with similar poles retreating from each other.

"Hmm, pretty good," I muttered, stepping through the newly made gap in the gate, and then quietly fixing my entrance behind me again.

I couldn’t have people wonder why the iron bars on their gate were suddenly bent at weird angles.

"Now then," I muttered, making my way toward the palace. "Where will I find you, dearest Duke Charles."