Chapter 43: Chapter 43 - Stellor City
What I saw when I looked at the massive walls of Stellor city excited me unlike anything you would be able to believe.
As a man from Earth, who loved medieval fantasy movies, or fantasy books, what could be more exciting than a massive stone rampart?
There was even a drawbridge!
A guardhouse could be seen inside the gate, where every person who wanted to enter had to be identified.
If they didn’t have any form of identification, they had to pay the entrance fee, which was two silver.
Two silver!
That was twenty percent of the median monthly income of a villager of Lofie village.
Which meant that I had to cough up fourteen silver.
Now some of you may be wondering why exactly it had to be fourteen.
Well Julia at least had some identification, because she was registered with the adventurers guild.
The deserters also had identifications, but being what they were it’s not like they could flaunt them around.
Even though Dellroy had no allies, and no kingdom would be likely to hand over deserters from them, it was still better to be safe about it.
And then there was me.
I mean if you can’t figure out why I had to pay for my own entrance fee, then you really haven’t been paying attention at all.
We walked through the bustling city, and I couldn’t help but gape at just how many people there were.
Now Julia would probably tell you that I was extremely nervous about being surrounded by so many people, but that would be completely inaccurate.
"We should probably go and find an inn for the night." Julia said as she led the way through the crowded streets.
Darkness was already falling at a rapid pace, and yet it seemed that that did not affect the business of this massive city.
"Yeah, do you know any good inns here?" I asked.
Honestly my heart was already pounding at the thought of what our rooms would cost per night.
I mean if the entrance fees alone cost me fourteen silver, I didn’t even want to think about the cost of our stay.
"There’s a good one that’s pretty close to my sister’s shop." Julia answered.
I still hadn’t pressed her more on why she said her relationship with her sister was complicated, and at that moment I thought it might be time to do just that when we reached the inn.
We walked for a few more minutes through the bustling streets, with street vendors still yelling out their wares as we went by them.
Apparently they didn’t believe in working standard business hours.
Or maybe they worked in shifts?
Finally we reached a sturdy looking building with a sign of an elf playing a flute hanging at its entrance.
"This is it." Julia said as she stepped through the door.
Now if you thought that maybe the inside of the inn would be a bit less bustling and busy than the streets outside, then you would be entirely wrong.
Inside the inn there was a massive fireplace, with tables and chairs all around.
Waitresses were bustling around everywhere, serving drinks to the people seated at these tables.
And there were many of them.
We shuffled through the crowd of people standing around having their drinks.
Stepped over a few that had decided that they might as well sit on the ground since there weren’t any tables available.
Until finally we reached the desk at the far wall.
Behind it stood a man that I would generously describe as being a bit on the fat side.
"How can I help you?" The man asked.
"We would like four rooms please." Julia said.
The man’s gaze drifted from Julia to me, then to the six men that stood behind us.
"That’ll be twelve silver per night." The man finally said.
I could literally feel my heart twist at that amount.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have the money to pay for the rooms, or that they would even significantly hurt my purse, but still.
Twelve silver per night!
I was about to ask him if meals were included in that price when Julia nodded, and pulled my purse from my hip.
A moment later twelve silver exchanged hands and we were heading up to our rooms.
I was still a bit dazed by the sight of Julia so carelessly spending my money.
I mean sure, she’s my wife, and it’s my job to support her, but was it really necessary for her to just dole out my money like that?
"You guys can settle in here for now, we have some errands to run." Julia told the men that had followed us to the rooms.
Erick only nodded, then started to assign rooms to his men, while Julia dragged me back out of the inn.
When we stepped out of the inn again, I finally snapped out of my daze.
"Twelve silver a night?!" I groaned.
"That won’t put a dent in the amount of money you’ve made, we can stay at that inn for weeks on end if we want." Julia said, looking at me with brows raised.
I almost choked on that statement of hers.
"Do you want to bankrupt us?" I asked, deadly serious about that question.
Did she not understand the importance of capital in businesses?
"You’re overreacting." She said, increasing her pace.
"I am not." I said, lengthening my strides a bit. "You haven’t told me why you said your relationship with your sister is complicated."
"I should probably know that before I meet her."
This made her slow down a bit, a complicated expression appearing on her face.
It seemed like she was trying to find the right words to explain it.
She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but never said anything.
"Well... it’s hard to explain,"
"You’ll just have to see for yourself." She finally said as we came to a stop in front of a small building, that was clearly a storefront.
The moment we stopped in front of that door, my nerves started running wild.
I was about to meet the family of my wife for the first time after all.
Wasn’t that supposed to be something I should have done before marrying her?
Shouldn’t I have asked her father’s permission?
Why haven’t I asked her where her father is?
I felt like an idiot when I realised I had really never asked her about her family.
I kept telling myself that I just didn’t want to pressure her into telling me everything.
But maybe I should’ve considered trying to get to know my own wife.
She pushed open the door, and stepped through.
Me? I kept standing in front of the door for a few more moments.
I was just giving her a moment alone with her sister.
It wasn’t like my feet had been frozen outside the door.
That lasted only until I heard a loud crash come from inside.
My feet before I had even thought about it.
I stormed through the still open door, only to freeze again.
Because what I saw inside that shop stunned me beyond measure.
