It was early morning by the time the twins arrived at the town's entrance. They were escorted by a trainee who left right away without wasting any time. The guards did not stop the twins when they approached the town gate because they had seen the trainee who had escorted the twins.
They finally opened their eyes when they arrived in town and were astonished. The East Cliff town was not as large as the Ecrin town, but it had much larger and taller buildings, more civilised people, and a much larger number of force-users than the Ecrin town.
This town was more developed than the Ecrin town in general, had less branches of superpowers present than the Ecrin town. Since Ecrin was a town full of commoners, the superpowers wanted to manipulate and use them, but a town like East Cliff was of much less value to them.
Tsar started praising Shura while they were strolling.
"We were able to trick even the cult's trainees thanks to your clever idea. But how did you come up with such an idea?"
"I figured the trainees wouldn't know our exact appearance; they'd only be told about our age, eyes, and physical structure. So, if we could hide everything except our height and make up a story, we'd be able to get away with it. But even I didn't expect them to escort us here."
Shura responded while frowning, even she was taken aback by the hospitality they had received, but she didn't dwell on that as they were safe now. She then went on to question Tsar
"What are we going to do now that we've arrived in this town?"
Tsar remained silent for a few moments before responding.
"We certainly need to save the money Sophie had given us. We can't farm here, so we'll have to look for work, and I suppose we should also disguise ourselves. I'm not sure how desperately they want to find us, but if they're willing to break the laws and upset the Lodrac empire, they must be searching for us here as well."
Shura was taken aback, and it took her some time to process everything she had heard. She then turned to Tsar and said
"What should we do to hide our looks? We can't just remain in this condition now, can we? Is it ok to spend money on buying items to disguise ourselves when things are much more expensive here?"
Tsar chuckled and replied
"Though we can't afford to waste too much money, we do need to buy the bare minimum for disguise. We just need to get a wig and something to cover our eyes, or people here will start noticing us due to our eye color, just like they did in Ecrin town. Well, let's have a look around the town first."
Shura also nodded and they then started wandering the town
They observed a range of people while strolling. There were some who were wealthy enough to travel in carriages, shopkeepers who sold their wares and lived a simple life, and beggars who lived by begging from others.
This surprised the twins as they were witnessing differences like this for the first time. Though they used to leave their home frequently, they would only visit the library or mountains to collect wood. They had never strolled in the town as Alkis didn't allow it, now seeing such differences they were perplexed and surprised.
They began to feel hungry after a few hours of strolling. They decided to eat at a small restaurant near the city's slums. As they entered, they noticed many people who appeared to be beggars sitting and eating food. Since the twins looked like beggars, they did not draw any attention and began eating the food.
They nearly puked right then and there, as they took the first bite of the food, but managed to swallow it. Since they were used to eat food made by Tsar, they had faced some problems after running from the city. When they ate the food that the carriage driver gave them, they managed to eat it despite how bad it tasted, but the food in this restaurant was utterly disgusting to them.
They left the restaurant after somehow ingesting the food; since it was already late after all of their travelling, they decided to look for a place to stay. They intended to select a place near the slums, and while they had heard that such areas often housed criminals, they were confident that no force-users would be there. The twins felt certain that they could defeat anyone as long as it wasn't a force-user or a peak-level human.
While they were searching for a place, Shura asked Tsar
"So, now that we've observed so much, what work do you think we should do? We must also decide what we want to do in the future; we cannot just keep on living in this way."
Listening to this, Tsar sighed and said
"We can't just go and start doing some labor, and based on the people doing the work, I don't think people our age are supposed to work there."
Since they hadn't seen much of the world and had just read about it, the twins didn't know if children as young as them were allowed to work. As they were walking, t hey came across a run-down two-story building with cracked walls, broken windows, and paint flaking off the walls. The word 'Inn' was written on a board, the remainder of the text was covered by the dust.
They entered the inn and sensed a terrible smell coming from every direction; yet, despite their discomfort, they proceeded inside the tavern. When they arrived at the half-broken old table that appeared to be the reception, they spotted an obese middle-aged man sleeping on the dusty chair behind the table, with oily skin and filthy clothes.
Tsar lightly knocked on the table to wake the man up, but the man did not respond. He knocked again, but the response was the same, so Tsar, slightly irritated, used a little more of his extraordinary strength and knocked on the table, causing a loud boom noise that startled the man, who looked around intently until his gaze fell on the twins.
He was irritated and outraged after being woken up since he hadn't slept in the past thirty hours due to work. He was now even more enraged seeing children who he assumed were just playing around. In an enraged tone, he then questioned
"What are kids like you doing here?"
Tsar answered
"We want to book a room for a few days"
The man was surprised but then frowned and asked
"Do you have the money to rent a room?"
"Yes"
Tsar answered almost immediately
"Ok, the price will be 25 ryos for today, 35 ryos for 2 days, and every single day will cost 15 ryos more."
Shura had been disturbed by the smell since she walked in. The man's sleeping, and the enraged tone infuriated her even more, now the high prices of such a shabby place had finally gotten to her. Just as she was about to shout on the man, Tsar held Shura's hand and signalled her to remain silent. Shura regained her poise and calmed down.
Tsar looked at the man and said
"Don't you think the prices for such a shabby place is too high?"
The man was surprised at first, but then started laughing angrily. Though the prices he quoted were a little high, it was still arguably one of the cheapest inns in the vicinity. Now someone, whom he had a bad impression of, said something like this to him, enraged him . He then said angrily
"If you have any money, then reserve a room. Otherwise, get out here and sleep on the road, boy."
Tsar sighed and said
"I can give you 30 ryo for today, but from tomorrow, the price will be of 10 ryo per day till we stay here."
The man frowned at the rates but then started thinking about it, because though they were significantly lower than what he had initially proposed, it would still be profitable to him. Even though he didn't like the twins , he was not foolish enough to reject a profitable deal. He hadn't gotten many customers in the previous three months. He considered simply killing the children and taking the money, but seeing that some beggar-looking children had this much money, he decided against it to prevent any potential trouble.
He then said
"Fine, but you kids will have to make your own food, I will just give you the ingredients"
The twins were delighted since they could finally eat a good meal. Though the food wouldn't taste as well as it did back home due to the degraded ingredients, it would still be far superior to the food they had been eating for the previous few days. They entered the room after cooking and eating the food. The room had frail wooden walls, a single bed that was thankfully free of bugs, and a small table with two chairs.
Tsar sat in one of the chairs and spoke to Shura, who was lying down on the bed.
"We'll go look for work tomorrow; since the cost of living here is so high, the wage must be as high as well."
Shura nodded and began to yawn. They had been walking since early morning and were tired; all they wanted to do now was sleep. Tsar also rose from his chair and lied down on the bed beside Shura. After only a few minutes, they both were fast asleep.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There were around ten people standing in a group at the East Cliff town's entrance. One of them started speaking
"As planned, live like a commoner, do a decent job, and do not let anyone know that we are force users. Even if the chances of them being in this city are slim, we can't overlook matters concerning the Eye of Nirvana. When you get any piece of information on the twins, report to me immediately."
All of the other people responded together
"YES"
They then proceeded to enter the city by paying the required toll.