pappabearbooks Chapter 1616 - 1616: At the edges of Emberona.
Chapter 1616 - 1616: At the edges of Emberona.
=Let me check the monitor…=
…Zhen Liu isn't a figurehead…
"So...what's the plan for today?" Zhen Xing asked Zhen Liu. "Is this where we pick a fight with the Theocracy or do you have something clever and not so obviously violent in mind? As in, do you have a lead yet or nah?"
"That...hmmm."
Several days had passed since Zhen Liu had already informed his friends and family that he had begun his usual activities of spying on everything and everyone, as evident by the fact that his kaijin accessory count was visibly lower than usual.
Unfortunately, this also meant that while Zhen Liu was doing this, he honestly had no idea what to do now other than wait.
A part of him had thought of checking out even more of the various sects that called Emeberona home, but he had a sticky feeling that they were going to be mostly mundane. Or at the very least, non-existent threats at his current cultivation.
Evidently, the lack of any immediate plans was why he and his group were in the middle of lunch after spending the morning doing nothing other than blocking out the noises of the morning rituals.
"I'm going to be honest, I usually just do my thing when we have other things going on," Zhen Liu admitted. "So the fact that my own thing is now the main thing is throwing me for a loop."
"What?"
"Darling is saying he's used to being subtle like an affair in the dead of night, and he's not used to having such torrid dalliances be under a spotlight," Jinju Ren explained.
"Ah."
"That was...a touch crude but accurate. Thank you, Jinju Ren."
"Anytime."
"We could check out the military situation by checking out Mercenary Town," Olstenna suggested. "If they're independent enough, maybe you can hire some of them directly to act as escorts…or something more devious."
The last bit of his sentence was capped off with a predatory grin that suggested he was more than willing to take the fight to the Theocracy directly if it came down to it.
Zhen Liu doubted that a situation would occur that would necessitate human mercenaries over his collection of kaijin and zakos, but he didn't dismiss the Ignarii warrior's suggestion.
"I don't know about hiring more muscle, but learning about which of the sects the Theocracy uses to come in contact with the mercenaries might prove interesting…aight, why not? Let's go check it out."
"Sweet."
"Wait, if we wanted to check out the caliber of warrior, shouldn't we go and see their arena?" Zhen Xing asked.
"I was originally going to do that, but I didn't see the hide nor hair of such a structure around here," Zhen Liu answered. "Not unless these guys have a weird underground ritualistic arena dedicated to blood sacrifices."
"..."
Zhen Liu had made this suggestion as a joke, but he also technically wasn't wrong about that being a possibility. Especially given all the crap they went through leading up until now.
"Anyways, let's go and see how Mercenary Town compares to the rest of the city."
"We're probably going to have to punch someone's lights out while we're there, I just know it."
"Maybe."
…One walk through the city later…
Zhen Liu already had a decent idea of what to expect when they arrived to the portion of Emberona where the mercenaries congregated, thanks to the spy mission that he had assigned Mysticlassic.
So far, they had nothing unusual to report in regard to the movements of Abbott Ferroxa, other than the fact that the man never seemed to fucking sleep.
Day in and day out, Ferroxxa seemed to busy himself with either dealing with rowdy mercenaries, interrogating prisoners of war, or helping injured veterans readjust to life. They had seen the man eat and occasionally answer the call of nature, but they had never seen the man sleep.
Regardless, Ferroxxa wasn't in Mercenary Town for the time being, so Zhen Liu and his friends had free reign to poke around and see how the place was like without a religious overseer causing horrific injuries to everyone and anyone who crossed them. It was actually oddly…welcoming, at least to Zhen Liu and his friends.
Zhen Liu, Zhen Xing, and Zhen Tai's hometown of Stone Claw City wasn't precisely a lawless hellscape at the frontier of human civilization, but there were enough bandit groups, mercenary groups, and the occasional runaway noble criminal to keep the place lively.
Jinju Ren, despite being a literal princess, actually found the rowdy nature of vagabonds and mercenaries more welcoming than the stuffy nature of royal court politics, while Rianna herself was used to dealing with rough people and even rougher beasts.
As for Lythero, Antonio, and Olstenna, these mercenaries were their people.
However, there were still moments that occurred during their trek through Mercenary Town that caused the lot of them to pause and reconsider some choices.
"Whoa, what the fuck happened to that guy?" Antonio asked aloud as he couldn't help but stare at a man who was busy replacing the bandages of his bisected arm. "Did he try to stop a Saber-Rhino with one hand?"
"Close, actually," Zhen Liu answered. "Apparently that guy ended up breaking some kind of internal church rule and got punished for his hubris."
"And that right there is why I refused working any church-related contracts," Olstenna added. "Fucking bullshit like that."
"Noted…"
But other than that incident, their look through Mercenary Town went surprisingly smooth.
Turns out, that despite the ramshackle nature of some of the buildings, Mercenary Town had a surprisingly good infrastructure.
The entrance and exit to this section of the city were guarded not by the mercenaries or low-ranking soldiers, but actual members of the Temple Guard that were legitimately strong enough to put a stop to most, if not all, incidents that could occur here. Granted, they didn't really get involved unless citizens got caught up in the fighting.
There weren't any city walls to defend this particular area, but the sheer presence of so many rough and rowdy warriors was its own kind of deterrent.
"Huh… I just noticed something kind of interesting about these mercenaries," Jinju Ren said to Zhen Liu as they walked past a group of warriors comparing their sword techniques. "Not all of them are native to the Dozing Salamander continent. Some of them appear to be from Stampeding Bison."
"That tracks," Zhen Liu nodded. "Back home at Stone Claw, we'd also get a lot of traveling mercenaries from Dozing Salamander. Hell, we got some from Roaring Tide too."
"Really?"
"I remember talking to some, and they said that they travelled so far because warfare money was one of those things that demanded travel. That and they mentioned that they could technically charge more for being an 'exotic fighting force.' It's the same kind of logic behind why silk and cotton have such radically different prices between Stampeding Bison and Roaring Tide…at least, I think it's the same kind of logic."
"Hmmm."
"What?"
"You're cute when you ramble about things, you know that."
"Oh, hush," Zhen Liu refuted while hiding his blushing face.
However, the moment he did, that was when he saw a most unexpected sight.
"No fucking way…," Zhen Liu trailed off as soon as he saw the sight. "Zhen Xing. Zhen Tai. Check it out, does that logo look familiar?"
"Huh?"
"No way…"
A good dozen or so feet away from them, Zhen Liu and his cousins could see the familiar banner of the Wolfe Family being used by a mercenary band.
They had honestly forgotten about their former foes, but the last they remembered running into them was back in Pearl Tusk Harbor, where they learned that the fallen frontier family had taken up their lot with a sect that they were friendly with once upon a time.
Evidently, that aforementioned sect was still a part of their lives, as Zhen Liu could make out their emblem being mixed in as well.
"Well, shit, I knew that they were making a new life for themselves elsewhere, just didn't expect to see them out here as mercenaries," Zhen Xing commented. "Should we go and greet them?"
"Nah," Zhen Liu said, shaking his head. "Our hatchet with them was buried alongside the bodies of both our groups. As far as I care, they're not—"
But before Zhen Liu could finish his sentence, an alarm bell rang out throughout Mercenary Town.
"INCOMING ATTACK!" a watchmen shouted with an aether-enhanced shout. "THE ERUPTING DAWN ATTACKS!"