On top of the hill outside of Karchidon, 2 teenagers were on top of it, riding on horseback.
"What a huge city, larger than Branberg. However, it was quite different than what I expected." Igor jumped down from the horse and inspected this large city, the countless ships sailing in and out of the harbour showed this city didn't fail its name, one of the greatest cities in Meridian Sea and the heart of Mathar league.
"What exactly did you mean? It seems quite normal for me." Vaterian fed a carrot to the horse and asked Igor about his question.
"This city didn't have a city wall, not a thing I saw usually."
"If the people who live on the mainland was Tharcian, they might have a city wall but it was not the case. The people who live on the mainland was Hellandic and those people who live on the Island won't care about them."
Looking at the two Islands placed in the middle of the bay, which connected with the Mainland by a huge bridge and surrounded by a high city wall. A statue of a man standing on the peak of the Island holding a cage with fire inside it.
"It sounds exactly like Charleston, We might need to go in and take a look closely." Igor jumped up the horse and rode it down the hill.
"It was your idea to come up here, and now you wanted to go down just after a small peek?"
"Sure thing, wasn't that I always did?" Igor laughed and shouted, the horse under him started to gallop according to its owner.
Vaterian grinned and followed Igor's steps. With the winds roaring beside his ear, he started to understand why Igor liked to rush down the hill despite it being a terrible decision for the horses.
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Entering the city bring Igor a different feeling from what he saw from the far, the city was badly planned, buildings were squeezing with each other and the road was barely able for a coach to pass through.
However, the stalls beside the road and those merchants from all over the Meridian sea yelling to promote their product showed Igor how lively and energetic this city was. The people who walked past him was smiling while they talked, neither of them seems unhealthy or uncertain about their future.
"Wasn't a great place to live in but it offers a lot of opportunities for everyone, no matter good or bad." Vaterian looking at those merchants alongside the road, he laid down his comment. The City Council of Karchidon didn't pay much attention in this area, for some reasons of course.
"How was here not a great place to live in? It seems great for me even though it was not as luxurious as Talismania."
"Here was the slum of Karchidon, Mister Igor. If you wanted to have an overview of this city, I recommend you go to the centre of this city." Vaterian told Igor about news that Igor wasn't expecting.
"Wait, you call this a slum? It was even better than the uptown of charleston."
"That's why those Angles noble never willingly went to Charleston, most of them was being exiled and never wanted to walk down streets of Charleston." walked down the streets, Vaterian saw a stall set up by a man, selling his goods, a pile of apples.
"The freshest apples from Hiberia! Only sold by the Hibernian themselves!" The man shouted, the apples were indeed as fresh as he promised but Vaterian was more curious about how he kept these fruit.
"Which part of Hibernia you come from, sir?" Asked Vaterian.
"CeasarAugustus, also where these apples came from, just plucked from the tree and sent right in front of you." Said the man. Vaterian was highly suspicious about the creditability of his words but he decided to try it out.
"Give my two of them, I wanted to have a bite of Hiberia specialities," Vaterian told the man and put some coin in his hand.
The man took a look at the coins and threw it back to Vaterian, "Don't you dare to fool me with these southerner coins, I selling the best and accepting the best!" The man tries to drive Vaterian away but Vaterian put another thing in his hand secretly.
"Sorry about my impoliteness, but I had no other currency right now, maybe you will accept this." Vaterian gave him the silver ring, despite it being a bit out of shape but it didn't impact its value.
The man examined the ring carefully, as he saw the name carved inside of the ring he was shocked.
The man quickly put the ring in his pocket and spoke to Vaterian "Thank you, good Sir! ff course you can pay with this ring!"
"I glad to hear that. I picked it up on the way I came here, never knew it had such a value." Vaterian smiled, picked the number of apples he wanted. He neared to the seller and receive a bag of coins from him, he knew the ring will cost much more than that but he didn't want to bargain with the seller, letting the man notice the silver ring just appeared on his finger was a bad idea.
"What did you bring from that stall?" Asked Igor, he was standing in front of a stall that selling combs, he was finding a compliment for the old one.
"Some specialities from Katherina's homeland, maybe you wanted to have a bite? I'm sure you miss her a lot."
"Phh, She misses you more than I pine for her. She might still be crying in her room about your leave." Igor replied Ironically, he always thought that Vaterian was the worst person to comfort the other.
"Like I always said, It wasn't me who seduced her, she just chose to like me despite I already told her a couple of times I was not interested."
"Sure it wasn't your fault, but it won't be a tragedy if you don't throw me out of Heiligen."
Vaterian fell silent, he was unable to respond to Igor, he was doing the right decision at that time, but he never expect such an outcome.
"Out from this topic. Sir! Gave me this comb!" Vaterian was surprised about Igor's response, Igor just went past it and yelled at the stall owner for the comb he had chosen.
"Here you are, boy. 5 Julius, please. Take care of it, it was from Massasiliya, not a cheap product." Vaterian knew the seller was lying about the value of the comb, but looking at Igor's smile he decide not to speak out.
"Here you go." Vaterian paid the man with some copper coins, he didn't do the trick he did previously, Igor will stop him before he does it.
Igor stared at Vaterian, curious about where that money came from, "I thought you paid all those coins to the smuggler? or the coachman, depending on how you wanted to call it."
"It was a secret, Mister Igor. You knew the rule and so do I." Vaterian spoke to Igor, answering his question.
"Never expected the stupid trick the Meister taught will actually be used one day."
"Lucky that I mastered it. Otherwise, we will struggle to even survive for the first day."
"But I will need to warn you, there were a bunch of men approaching us." Igor pointing at a distance, the Hiberia seller was closing in with a bunch of people around him.