The North gate into town wasn't quite as large as the East and West gates, but it was definitely more grand. The town specifically invested in embellishing this gate for the benefit of the town's patrons who all lived to the North, including the Seeker family.
The guards that manned this gate were all of the best Market Town had to offer. They had sketches of all the prominent families nearby and studied them regularly. As such, when I, a sweaty young girl with no chauffeurs, ran through the gates, they didn't even twitch a muscle. They knew who I was immediately.
At first, I turned and jogged down the wide road parallel to the city walls. So this was Market-town. For some reason, I had expected the walls to be rough-hewn stone blocks. Instead, they were perfectly smooth, with almost no seams between the nearly black stone bricks. I jogged next to the wall and ran my hand along it, it was like glass instead of the sandpaper feeling I was expecting, giving me the impression of obsidian. There was no climbing this wall.
On the inside of the wall were trees, squared bushes, and well-trimmed grass in a 15-foot strip parallel to the wall. It was like a miniature park, except that if it ran around the entire edge of the town as it appeared, it wasn't miniature at all. Adjacent to the wall-park was the brick road with 2 lanes which were 20 feet wide each, separated by a median full of shrubbery with many gaps to allow traffic to cross. The reddish bricks were laid down in a weave. These did have the rough feel I was expecting, however, there was not a single cracked or worn brick in sight. Whoever was in charge of maintenance for this part of town needed a raise.
Across the road were grand shops with fanciful signs. One only needed to look at the shape of the signs to know the nature of the businesses, clearly, literacy was still a problem to advertise in this way. Most of the shops here were luxury shops. A tailor selling fine suits. A smith selling expensive suits of armor and gilded weapons. There was a whole row of shops selling luxury foods that made my mouth water instantly. From the gourmet chocolate shop with tables bursting with teeth-rotting sweets to a butcher selling perfectly marbled beef and grilling tantalizing samples in front of his shop. There was even a grand bookshop. However, it seemed to get noticeably less patronage than the other businesses.
A handful of feet into town and I suddenly wanted to buy, buy, buy. These entrepreneurs knew exactly where to do their business. It was fortunate I didn't have my father's wallet or I might've bankrupted the Seeker family in a single afternoon. I continued to jog down the road, wistfully staring behind me at the juicy chunks of beef on the butcher's grill. Drool mixed with the sweat on my face.
The streets around me were bustling with people; there were hardly any carriages here. The walls and streets seemed to be straight and stretch on forever, even though I knew they curved. The absolutely massive Market town was impressed upon me. Was 200,000 people are large number for a town? Maybe not in the world I came from, but here, with very little technology, it was tremendous.
In the world I came from, when technology was at this level, towns could only grow so large before succumbing to disease. The rudimentary plumbing here probably helped quite a bit, but it was more than that. Qi, that had to be it. I could see it in the faces of the townsfolk. Even average people absorbed trace amounts of qi into their bodies and that made them just slightly healthier and more robust. Almost everyone here was hale and hearty.
I finally reached 5/10 km jogged, and I had hardly touched upon seeing the sights of the town yet. It was time to visit my sister, so I turned and jogged in the direction of the massive warehouse that towered over the surrounding buildings.
As I got closer, even more people and carts crowded the roads. Contrary to before, carriages and wagons filled the double lanes in and out of town. However, they were at nearly a standstill and so pedestrians ran between carts without even giving them a precautionary glance.
I squeezed through throngs of people in any space I could find. Like a cat, I would pop my head between any available opening and then squeeze the rest of my body through.
As the sun descended to just before the halfway point between noon and dusk and the sky took on that peculiar orange hue that hot summer afternoons acquire, I reached the warehouse. I found my sister, like usual, running from stall to stall, doing entirely too much by herself.
"VIVI! BREAK TIME!" I yelled as she whisked past me before she got too far away.
She turned and gave me a look that was cross between a deer caught in headlights and a look suggesting I had more than a few screws loose, "Break what?" She asked.
"Break time. You ..." I pointed at her, "need ..." I carefully enunciated, "to ... take ..." I made a grasping motion, "a ... break." I placed my hands near my face to imitate a pillow and mimed sleep.
"I can't ..." Vivian began to protest.
"VIVI! You stink!" I went in for the critical strike.
As expected, she looked appalled while only managing to point at me, unable to voice that I was clearly just as, if not more stinky than her.
I looked around and saw several men in the Seeker family tunics, indicating they were workers here, however, they were idle. At some point, someone had noticed Vivian's problem and hired the help, but Vivian being Vivian, had never entrusted them with any tasks. Out of them, I noticed a short and scrawny man with hair like straw, who had been diligently paying attention to Vivian's every movement. Not in a creepy way, he was just learning the job as best he could through observation. I pointed at him, "You, you'll be overseeing the warehouse until Vivian returns." I pointed out 2 more of the individuals who seemed a little more observant, "you two will be assisting him. And the rest of you will be running errands for the first 3."
The scrawny fellow, perhaps sensing he wouldn't get another chance to get the hands-on experience he wanted, quickly began assigning tasks to the rest of the workers. Vivian still had her hand raised in the air, but her index finger was now hanging limply.
"Okay Vivi, time to go."
Vivian allowed herself to be steered out of the warehouse. This time, we exited on a side not being crowded with customers. We washed our faces and arms at a nearby well, then headed to a nearby diner. We ordered our food and while we were waiting Vivian finally noticed a problem. She looked at me and her face hardened.
"Zoey Emelia Seeker!" Vivian said slowly, "Where are Fred and Andrew?"
"Fred? Andrew? Who are they?" I feigned ignorance. I could see red blotching into Vivian's ears, cheeks, and temples and decided I'd taken my little jest far enough.
"Oh that Fred and Andrew! Oh yeah, I left them at home, they were too slow."
Vivian's face crumpled as she held her head up with the tips of her fingers, elbows on the table. "Zoey! You need to stop ditching them. They're there for your protection!"
"No one would want to touch this stinky brat!" I proudly proclaimed. Vivian seemed to agree a bit too much with that statement though so I switched gears. "Fine, Uncle Fred and Uncle Andrew can accompany me, but only if they wear normal clothing when we're in town and they give me a little more freedom."
"Deal!" Vivian quickly acted on my rare concession and we shook on it. "No take-backsies"
"Darn, my evil plot has been foiled by the sacred law of no take-backsies." I jested.
"What're you doing here anyway?" Vivian asked.
"Duh! Helping you get out of work obviously. No need to thank this royal missy." I put on airs. Vivian snorted.
"The great and fabulous me also needs to visit a tailor." I stared dismissively at my fingernails as if even they were beneath me.
"Oh yeah! Let's head there immediately!" Vivian exclaimed.
We ate our lunches and then departed for the tailor. I was a bit disappointed. After smelling that delicious barbecue near the gate, the diner's steak was practically garbage.
The tailor welcomed us and enthusiastically jotted my ideas down so he could work on them later. In the meantime, I purchased several active-wear robes, tunics, and pants. They were even cute. It was time to give Zoey's wardrobe a makeover.
Then I returned my sister to the warehouse. It was almost a different scene now. The carts and carriages that had been in gridlock before were now moving along at a slow pace. The roads were much emptier. The warehouse was operating like a well-oiled machine. At the center of it all the scrawny fellow was directing the workers like the conducted in an orchestra. I walked up to him.
"Formerly nameless peon, what is your designation?" I asked him deadpan.
"Tobias," He replied smoothly.
"Tobias you are now Vivian's direct assistant. You are to make sure she isn't overworking herself and gets a sufficient number of breaks. You can delegate tasks to the other peons as you see fit." I directly promoted Tobias without Vivian's input.
By the time I jogged home, the sun was low in the sky. The bully was conscious again, sporting a colorful bruise on his chin. He didn't bother me this time. I got my 10 km just as the villa gates came into sight. As I completed the final exercise for the day, I could feel qi enter my pores and strengthen my muscles and organs. Today was a productive day.