"Please, one by one. Don't push or you will be chased away!" One of the guards near the first checkpoint shouted while maintaining numerous people trying to enter the Capital's territory in order.
The queue was extremely long and Akashi's group came quite late.
'Looks like more and more people are relocating to the Capital...poor souls, they don't even know that their life will be even worse there. On the other hand, I don't pity them since it also means more work for me to do, I can't accommodate too many people and since my territory isn't that bad to live in, a lot of people will try to get there. I already had to regulate the migrations of people from other territories because of too little available space.' Akashi thought while sitting on the driver position of the carriage. All kids were already wearing cloaks and were hiding their faces, making them look quite suspicious.
"Wait here, Kana and Tetsu, take over the reins." Akashi said and jumped down on the ground.
"W-Where are you going, Elder brother?" Kana asked but refrained from using his name since he warned them not to use it in public.
"Talk to the guards, the queue won't be moving any time soon so don't worry, it won't take long." Akashi replied and advanced along the queue, gathering the attention of many people, and some of them even started shouting at him.
"What the hell is going on here!" One of the guards immediately arrived due to commotion and shouted while hitting the ground with the shaft of his spear to gather attention.
"He is skipping the queue!" Someone from the crowd of people shouted while pointing at Akashi.
"Why are you disturbing the queue? Everyone has to go through this checkpoint fairly so you can't skip anyone even if you are alone and have no carriage with you. Now, go back before I will be forced to chase you away!" The guard shouted at Akashi with a slightly tired expression but Akashi didn't even stop walking and kept on walking towards the guard.
"Hey! I get that you are blind but don't tell me you are also deaf! Get back already!" The guard moved in Akashi's path and pointed the tip of his spear at him but despite this, Akashi didn't stop, making all people gasp in shock while guard narrowed his eyes.
Just when Akashi was about to walk into a shaky tip of the spear, he gently put it aside with his finger, shocking the guard. The guard wanted to quickly retreat but before he could, he felt Akashi's hand in his pocket and then he heard his words.
"Take me to the captain of this checkpoint. You don't want people or your colleagues to see you taking bribes, right?" Akashi said while passing by the guard and he continued walking towards the tents in front of the queue.
"Huh?" The guard put his hand into his pocket just to feel a coin and by the size, it must have been a gold coin itself!
"What are you all looking at?! Don't cause any more ruckus!" The guard said and turned around. He didn't dare to take the coin out of his pocket in front of so many people so instead, he followed after Akashi like a loyal dog.
'He gave me entire gold coin just for taking him to the captain, I believe that captain won't reprimand me for this, maybe I will also get a promotion!' The guard thought with a happy smile on his face.
'...So simple but it's easiest to work with people like him. In this era, everyone needs to be selfish, especially weak and poor people, they have no energy or strength to spare for helping others. I even quite like people like him, as long as you have something to offer, you are free to do what you want to do but I wouldn't dare to entrust him any secret.' Akashi thought with a small smile while keeping his head low.
"Captain, this man wants to talk to you." The guard that escorted Akashi said once they entered the biggest tent.
"Fuck, how many times have I said not to disturb me unless necessary!" The captain sitting at the table raised his head and once he saw "blind" man he immediately reprimanded the guard.
"I want to pass, right now, without any checkups!" Akashi said and threw a sack full of gold on the table, making a few gold coins spill out of it on the table.
"Wha-" Both men's jaw dropped down when they saw the number of gold coins.
The captain recovered faster than the guard who arrived with Akashi, he was still in his fantasies, spending the money lying on the table in front of him.
The captain looked at the money before glancing at Akashi with a complicated expression.
"Don't even think about that pal, just think about it... from where could I have gotten so many gold coins? Steal it? Small chance. Don't be too greedy or you might lose your hands." Akashi could see through his intentions so he warned him with a cold tone.
"?!" The captain's eyes widened in shock before he nodded, completely putting aside Akashi's threat. While the guard woke up from his fantasies only after hearing Akashi's threat which completely shocked him how easily and calmly he could threaten the captain of the entire checkpoint.
'This guy...I can feel glaring daggers at him even though he has that blindfold...creepy. I better just take what he is offering, I just need to give a small part of the money to that idiot who escorted him here and no one will know about this bribe.' The captain thought and quickly decided before taking the action.
"You, go back with this gentleman and let him pass without any complications! Here is my permission, after you are done go back to your post." The captain took the sack of coins and ordered his subordinate while nodding at me with a grateful look. He then took a piece of paper from the drawer and handed it to the guard.
"Yes, sir!" The guard saluted while doing his best to tear his eyes away from the sack in Captain's hands.
The guard escorted Akashi and the rest of his group inside the carriage through the checkpoint without any problems, except for some people shouting that it's not fair but they were quickly calmed down by other guards.
"Whoaa, so this is the Capital?" Kana who was sitting next to the Akashi at the driver's position muttered while looking around like a country bumpkin, however, she wasn't the only one, most of the kids peeked out of the carriage just to take a quick look around while local people were looking at them like on idiots.
"*Don't let this image of mighty and glorious city fool your mind. You aren't safe even if you are inside this city, you would do well to remember that*" Akashi whispered to Kana when they finally passed through the enormous gate, finally entering the Capital.
Kana and Tetsu looked at each other before they nodded their heads with determined expressions.
---
Once someone passed through the gate, they could see a small pub right on the side beyond the gate. There, a woman with short blonde hair with two long tufts that frame the sides of her head and golden eyes was sitting at the table, watching everyone passing through the gate.
She was wearing a revealing outfit with a black tube top and scarf around her neck. Overall she was a curvaceous woman and her cleavage was gathering a lot of attention but most people seemed to know her already as no one dared to approach her and flirt with her.
"Ugh" The said woman groaned while gulping down the remaining beer inside her mug.
'"Try to look out for any potential members, strong, strange people. Or people who might know something" She said...easier said than done. Sometimes, she has the craziest demands.' The woman thought while crossing her legs, to find more comfortable position.
'Well...At least there will be apparently a new member joining us in a few days. Heh, I heard it's a cute girl from Lubbock. Anyway, that should be enough for toda- Hm?' The woman stretched out her arms while yawing but before she could stand up, she noticed a new carriage passing through the gate and she immediately spotted a few kids peeking from inside it. This garnered her attention since it was very rare to see so many kids being transported at the same time.
'Who is that driver? Is he a human trafficker? Well, I didn't have any action since the morning, I might as well take a look at this case.' The woman thought and continued sitting while stealthily observing the carriage.
Akashi's senses have gotten much sharper since he began his training with the blindfold and he could feel that someone was eyeing him or carriage itself.
'Person who is currently watching me must be very experienced, I have no idea from which direction they are looking at me. They are also good at hiding their malicious intentions which makes it even harder to discover them. Not to mention that there are simply too many people inside the Capital to discover which person is it.' Akashi thought and decided not to take any shortcuts and instead he took some detours into streets where people don't usually gather.
The woman was carefully watching everything from a safe distance on the roofs of the Capital. However, when Akashi's carriage took a sharp turn to the right behind the building where she was currently staying on, she was forced to jump over to another roof but when she got the carriage in her sight once again, it wasn't moving a bit.
'What's this? Why stopping in the middle of nowhere? I can tell that those kids are still inside but...?! Where is that man?!' The woman thought with a confused expression.
"Enjoying your creeping on little kids?" The voice came from behind her which made her body snap around, looking at the red-haired man wearing a cloak and blindfold with wide-open eyes in surprise.
'I was too focused on those kids and carriage but to think that he would be able to pinpoint my location so easily, he must be really strong...' The woman thought while taking one step back with her right leg.
"Ha-ha, you must be joking, of course not! I am into adults, by the way, hi! I haven't greeted you yet!" The woman replied with a forced laugh and an "innocent" smile.
"Are you saying that you weren't following the kids but me? I am flattered." Akashi replied, playing along with her despite his voice being devoid of any emotions.
'What should I do? He is obviously just playing with me...There is no going back now. I can't fight him since I have no idea how strong he is or who he even is!' The woman thought with a complicated expression while looking to the side on the ground.
"Well, I would like to talk more with you but I forgot to put out the fireplace at my place, see you later~ Lionel!" The woman said with an apologetic expression while seductively pouting before she shouted one word and her hair became longer and she gained lion ears, tail, and claws.
'?! He is dangerous!' Due to having her Teigu activated, her senses were enhanced to a much higher level and she could feel that behind that blindfold and cloak was hiding a monster. She couldn't really feel any murderous aura from him but she could feel his strong fiery aura which was more than enough alone for her to know that she should flee.
She quickly jumped away at another roof, she covered numerous meters with just one jump, indicating that her strength was enhanced by a lot.
'Hm? She is similar to the Gravekeepers in their transformation but they weren't using any tools to transform. Of course, the difference between those two is still visible since her transformation isn't too much beast-like as of those Gravekeepers. Yet it looks like her physical abilities are enhanced even more than of those Gravekeepers.' Akashi thought with a curious expression before he quickly jumped after her, following her.
And this is how cat and mouse game began.