<~> Chapter 183The m, I sat with Cecilia in the coach seat of the carriage as roached the capital, Torlimal City. The trip had been almost entirely peaceful which was kind of strange given the circumstances. Other than a few wild mohat showed up during watches at night, the trip had been quiet the eime. We had been anticipating bandits or something on the way here but the only other people assed were transp food back to Goldeh. Every carriage we passed had no she of guards proteg them. They had seemed prepared to fight, so passing them on the road had been a bit nerve-rag for both sides I assume.

  It was mid-afternoon when we finally reached the capital city. Giant white stone walls that doubled the size of Goldeh towered into the sky with enormous bahat shoh bright colors even in the shade. An enormous shadow from the walls bathed much of the st stretch of the path in shade as roached the giant city. As we got closer we realized that the walls were ringed by refugees that had a roughly put together shanty town. Acc to Cecilia, this was very strao see because those outside of the walls wouldn't be able to protect themselves from monsters as easily. Even in a retively protected area like this, sneaky monsters could slip in and kill children or the infirm uhey were guarded at all times during the night.

  We eventually stopped in lih the carriages that were trying to ehe city. I do mean trying because it seemed like more than half were being turned away at the gates. Anyone who didn't have signifit cargo or official-looking papers was being turned away much to the dismay of many of the carriage drivers. They were beio a separate path that traveled around the city where industrious people in the shantytown had stalls set up to resupply the carriages before they left for somewhere else. There was a sed rge gate where foot traffic was let through. Many of the people traveling through it were wearing rge packs or carrying crates both in and out of the gates to supply the people outside the walls. This seemed far less tentious, few people were refused access, but every person and their cargo was being individually checked before entering. pared to Goldeh the security here was much tighter.

  "This is strange," Cecilia ented. "I've never seen Torlimal like this."

  "Do you think this is in respoo what happened in Goldeh?" I asked.

  She shook her head. "No, this looks like it's worse than that. Something else must have happened, maybe Torlimal was attacked directly."

  I frowned, first Goldeh now the capital? Why does it feel like everywhere we go things are a disaster?

  Eventually, we reached the gates where a human guard on horseback approached the coach seat from the side. Nikka and Landa were well behaved and quiet but I could tell they were stressed.

  "Do you have ary dot beastkin?" the guard asked me.

  I pulled the sealed letter out of the rger envelope and ha to the man. "I have a letter of introdu from the ag lord of Goldeh to the Captain of the guard."

  The man sed the outside of the letter before nodding and pointing off to the side. "Pull your carriage over there for now and I'll have this delivered to Sir h. Shouldn't take long." The man turhe horse away and moved out of the way for Cecilia to drive the carriage into the space set aside for us.

  "Do you think that letter will be enough to get us in? Things look tense here," Cecilia asked me.

  I shrugged. "Not sure. Nathahe man I rimarily dealing with in Goldeh, told me that letter of introdu should be enough to get me in without many questions. I don't know if he anticipated what's happenihough."

  A short few mier, the guard that had taken my letter of introdu returned with two padins wearing blue and white. Tamin Padins. "This is her sir," the guard gestured at us.

  The higher-ranking padin of the two stepped forward and squinted his eyes at me. "A demonhunter beastkin? Seems you animals are good for something after all." His mouth twitched in disgust as he rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. A tense silened for a moment as he searched for something. Finally, he nodded. "The demonic miasma on this one does suggest it's a demonhunter after all, fancy that." He turo the guard who was standing there quietly. "You tell your ahat I have firmed it. As much as I dislike animals, this one may prove useful. The church has no objes if you let it through." Without waiting for aion or reply, the two padins turned and walked away.

  Clearing his throat the guard turned bae. "You're free to ehe city with your carriage, beastkin. My ander has given me permission to give you and all of your rades perma entry permits if the Tamin padins did not object to your entry. The guard captain would like to meet with you tomorrow at the sixth bell, however."

  Raising an eyebrow Cecilia leaned forward. "Since when did entry into the capital require permits?"

  The guard turo the woman and frowned. "Two lords have been murdered within a month, first a baron and now a t. You said you came from Goldeh, are you surprised the capital has tightened security?"

  Cecilia's eyes widened. "A t has been murdered? Whie?"

  "Ah, you must have still been on the road when word was sent around, my apologies. t and tess Kornd were murdered and much of their castle was burned down six days ago. There isn't a lot of information about the situatio but it's lio a cult the Tamin Church has been hunting for a while now."

  "Did they summon demons iy there?" I asked.

  The guard squi me, seemingly annoyed I was asking. "No, the situation is not as dire as the one in Goldeh. It was only the nobles and most of the castle staff that were attacked. Currently, the town is uhe trol of the local Adventurer's guild master. Now, have your panions e out of there, we need all of you to sign some paperwork before I give you your entry permits, beastkin." He gestured at the carriage before stepping back to wait.

  I climbed down to get the others while Cecilia calmed the uunas before we moved on. I opehe door and stuck my head into the carriage. "It seems all of us o sign some paperwork to get entry permits into the city. Everyone's going to o e out for this."

  The group filed out of the carriage and all of us headed toward an office just ihe castle walls. The process was b but thankfully simple since all of us could read and write other than Mimi. I had to help Mimi write her she was a master of copying my movements so it wasn't difficult. It was a good remihat one of us o teach her to read and write though. I was a bit surprised Raya knew how to read and write but she told me that Grace had taught her a few years ago.

  Once we were finished with that Cecilia was able to pull the carriage into the city walls aoward one of the nearby stables. Once we found a good spot it meant even more paperwork to check the carriage and uunas in for a while too. Cecilia already had the gold for that prepared though, so I didn't have to pay any more for it. She khe exact stable she wao go to and with the increased security iown, there lenty of room for us there.

  The inside of the city looked nearly as grand as the outside, at least architecturally. The buildings were a lot more uniform looking than the previous cities I had been to. The rows and ns of buildings looked extensively pnned and the only thing that broke up the uniformity was the occasional building that took up two or four plots pared to all of the other single-plot buildings. I didn't stop to gawk at things this time because while the architecture was beautiful, its citizenry was... not.

  All of the public spaces and streets were crowded with people and the obvious distribution of wealth between the average citizen and the beggars oreet was stark. A rough estimate was that seventy pert of all the people I could in this part of the city were human and the other thirty pert were a rge variety of beastfolk. Roughly half of all the beastfolk I came across were wearing very obvious sve colrs, a rge portion of them were beggars, and only a handful were wearing well-made clothing and buying things at the shops.

  It wasn't difficult to tell the people in well-made tailored clothes apart from the beggars wearing rough spun cloth. Unlike what might be expected, despite all of the beggars oreets, the people and enviro was . The ing ritual magic I was first taught was likely the cause for that. Some of the people still smelled bad, the ing ritual wasn't perfect, especially farments like pants and shirts, but the squalor wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Rather than a ck of liness, the real issue looked to be malnutrition. All of the beggars, and a good portion of the sves, looked emaciated. Not to the point that they were in danger of dying from starvation, but they were clearly too thin to be healthy.

  "Things have gotten worse here," Cecilia quietly said under her breath. "This pce has always had a problem with beggars but things look like they've gotten out of trol."

  "Perhaps that's why there's a shantytown being built outside. The city has stopped any mees from ing in," Sibyl added.

  Cecilia motioned for us to stop as a group of four Tamin padins and two priests walked through the street. The people hushed around them and the group passed by without i. They didn't slow or stop but they did look over everyohey passed, one of the priest's gaze lingered over roup but after a moment, realization came to his eyes and he o me respectfully. Caught a little off guard I nodded bad he turo tinue onward. The moment the priests got out of earshot the people around us started loudly chatting again and going back to whatever busihey were dug.

  "Those were demonhunters, you could see the symbol on their pauldrons," Man whispered to me.

  I gently patted her and nodded. We had beehe etiquette in public repeatedly over the st few days. She couldn't openly talk to us without causing offe whispering into her 'mistress's' ear erfectly fine. Small touches of affe were allowed as well but thanking them in public was also frowned upon. I hated it but this is how things were here. I would have to put up with it for now, hopefully our stay in the capital wouldn't be too long.

  When we reached an interse Theo stopped me. "It appears that we're headed in different dires now. I the book back to the library to plete my quest for Sorsette." He pointed off in the distae spire sed i only to the castle built on a pteau. "That spire is the Great Library of Sorsette. I'll make sure the head librarian knows of you, you ask for me when you get there but I have a feeling she will let you in regardless."

  "How much do you pn to tell her about me?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Theo ughed. "I don't hide mas from my boss but I'll keep yours close to my chest if you wish. That woman has a way of finding things out on her own though, so don't think I've betrayed you if she turns out to know too much. I don't know how she does it frankly."

  "I suppose this is goodbye then," Raya said. "Thank you for your lessons in magic Theo." Raya bowed respectfully, it seemed a bit uncharacteristic but I suppose that just showed how much the magic lesso to her.

  He smiled. "You're wele budding mage." He turo look at me and Man. "It was also a pleasure teag the two of you on our trip. Rarely have I e across sutelligent students. I hope to see you all again soon."

  roup watched as Theo walked off on his own through the city. It was a bit bittersweet. The guy had grown on me a little even if his sarcastic attitude irritated me from time to time. He had mellowed out a lot whearted teag us though, settling into that role turned him from snarky jerk to snarky-yet-wise teacher.

  After that, we headed to an inn Cecilia liked. We stepped inside and walked up to a small ter with keys lining the walls, much like the one in the Ruby Vixen. A middle-aged human woman with greying bck hair looked over us and frowned. "We don't house beastkin anymore. You 't stay here."

  Cecilia's eyebrows shot up and her mouth gaped. "What? This pce has always been friendly with beastkin. Where's John? I talk to him?"

  The woman sighed and shook her head. "Things are different right now, none of the inns in town will take beastkin except for in the southern quarter. John has no say in it."

  Cecilia suddenly looked livid, her hands curled into fists until her knuckles went white. "You're saying the only inns in town that will take beastkin are in the slums?"

  The woman signaled some guys who stood up and came over to the ter. "I'm afraid that's how it is. I wish I could be more aodating but I ot." Her eyes trailed along roup. "If you wish for a room I provide o none of your friends are wele here."

  Most of the people hanging out iavern part of the inn looked tehe men standing up trying to look intimidating... weren't. None of them were as strong as us, not even close. If we tried to fight them it would have been a bloodbath but... what would the point of that even be?

  I put my hand on Cecilia's shoulder. "Thanks for being angry on my behalf but it seems like we don't have much choice here. Let's just go somewhere else."

  She met my eyes, clearly unhappy with the situation but her anger simmered off aled intnation. "Alright. I... might know another pce that will take us."

  I nodded and roup followed her out much to the relief of everyohere. I smiled wryly as I heard one of the 'big intimidating me out a sigh of relief and sit heavily bato his chair.

  Off to the slums I guess.

  Saine

  Hello! We've finally made it to the Capital city of Torlimal! What a wonderful first impression! It looks like things are even worse than expected. And with the death of the t of the port city of Kornd, looks like more things are happening across the kingdom. Hopefully the group won't be too disced by all the subtle ahan subtle racism they're going to have to deal with here. Thanks for reading!

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