Chương 104: Animals

Sunlight broke through the clouds and made the fresh layer of snow on the rooftops glitter. Cal pulled the collar of his cloak tighter, feeling the cold groveback plates and what remained of his armor against the back of his neck. He had put on a clean shirt and trousers after a long sleep, but Selara's words from the night before had been a warning that'd made it hard to sleep. Whatever it was, it felt like the kind of problem that required armor, even if the acidic blood from the tendril had left it a ruin.

So he had suited up and made his way to the Golden Mortar, only to step inside and see Aurelian holding the letter from House Kaelix between his thumb and forefinger, staring at it in offense.

"He replaced us with the Halmi siblings?" Each syllable was laced with aristocratic venom.

"Ido has no shame." Selara leaned against the doorframe to the lab.

"The letter confirms it. Ido brought Hope and Zamir to Deadfall, just as we expected he might, but Angelika and Filip hold our old positions now."

"Those two circus acts." Aurelian spat.

"Ido Aloi, still chasing my sister's shadow after all these years, and this is his grand gesture? Replacing us with high elves who treat magic like performance art? The man's sense has always been secondary to his pathetic pining." Pathetic pining? Who were these people to the Veils? Selara straightened from her position against the wall.

"We need to go see them."

"Absolutely not."

"Aurelian…"

"I will not dignify this insult by—""You know Ido," Selara cut in.

"If we do not go to him, he will come to us. He will make it a spectacle and bring his entire party to our door, making sure half the village sees it." Aurelian flared his nostrils. For a long moment Cal thought he might refuse, but then the alchemist let out a controlled breath and nodded stiffly.

"Fine." His gaze shifted from his sister to Cal, expression losing its haughty frustration for a moment.

"Well? Your report? Was the trip to the Depths a success?" Selara chuckled wearily.

"You could say that. He came back looking like he had wrestled a mosshide bear and lost. Honestly, it reminded me of that mess in the Weeping Mire, brother. The time you and Ido tried to negotiate with those bog scavengers right before they swarmed us." She shook her head at the memory, her features turning more serious.

"He got what he came for and more, not to mention something… unusual." She shivered at the memory of it.

"A kind of fleshy red abomination." Aurelian stiffened, his gray eyes locking onto Cal with intense curiosity.

"Show me." Cal reached into his pack, then carefully unwrapped the preservation cloth and placed the severed piece of dark red flesh on the wooden counter. Beside it, he set down the pulpy buds of the carrion bloom he'd snatched.

"I found this in a deep cavern," Cal explained.

"It came out of a hole in the ground, just like the one from the goblin cave where I found these carrion blooms before. It's D-tier." He pointed a finger toward the severed end.

"Be careful with it. The blood is acidic. It ate right through my leather and started pitting the groveback plates on my armor." Aurelian leaned over the counter, leaving the Kaelix letter abandoned. Ignoring the carrion bloom, he fixated entirely on the still-twitching piece of flesh, holding his breath as he prodded it with a silver stirring rod.

"Acidic blood," he muttered, his voice brimming with fascination that Cal could barely overhear.

"Remarkable. What kind of biological mechanism allows for such a potent corrosive without dissolving the organism itself?" He leaned closer, his eyes following the faint outlines of the suckers.

"And no discernible epidermis. Perhaps it possesses some form of rapid regeneration to mend superficial damage."

"Aurelian?" Selara prompted, crossing her arms. He paid her no mind.

"The suckers imply a parasitic function. I wonder what it feeds on. And it continues to move even after being severed from the primary organism… how interesting…" Selara sighed and walked to the counter; before Aurelian could react, she snatched the tendril. The air around her fist distorted for a split second and the specimen vanished. Aurelian shot to his feet, sputtering, indignation twisting his features.

"That is an irreplaceable biological sample! Its value is incalculable!"

"And it will be waiting when we get back," Selara interrupted, her tone leaving no room for argument.

"Ido and his friends are here. You can have your new toy back after we have handled our business." Selara gestured for the men to follow her out. Afternoon commerce filled the market, a clamor of vendors calling out prices for root vegetables and dried meat as carts clattered over uneven cobblestones. The air carried the smells of woodsmoke, sweat, and the ever-present dampness of the forest. As they stepped through the crowd, Cal matched Selara's determined pace and lowered his voice.

"This Ido and the others you mentioned - what's the history there?" Selara kept looking ahead as she answered.

"Ido, Hope, and Zamir were our team back at the Academy, and we were the standard. For three years, every other delving crew was just competing for second place. They were…" She paused, searching for the words.

"Our friends."

"Friends… perhaps. Once," Aurelian interjected.

"The Halmi twins, however, are insufferable performers who spent their entire academic careers confusing magical flair with actual substance while failing at every turn to compete with us." The group rounded a corner, and the narrow street opened into the bustling heart of the market proper.

Near the center of the open space stood the Compliance Board, a large wooden structure easily ten feet wide and covered in layers of official documents, each stamped with the crimson fist and golden sun of the Caelverax Dominion. A bored-looking scribe in a gray uniform tacked up a fresh notice. A cluster of Duskborn citizens had gathered near the board, so Cal slowed his pace to listen.

"Dungeon Proximity Tax," a man muttered, squinting at the notice.

"Says 'ere every home within five miles of the nearest 'population center' to a dungeon owes more.""'nother tax?" a woman replied.

"We've barely managed the last one."

"That's the entire village!" Cried someone else.

"That's the point, 'innit." A younger man with calloused hands and dirt under his nails shifted closer.

"Did you see the one below it? Another conscription lottery. They're pulling names next month." The crowd devolved into mutterings as Cal moved on, following the Veils. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. The market's hum continued around them as a vendor shouted from a stall selling rope and nails, and a baker called out prices for loaves still fresh from the oven.

The cycles of commerce were relentless, indifferent to the anxiety simmering just beneath the surface. A harsher shout carried through the noise.

"Thief! Stop him!" Cal whipped his head toward the sound. A gaunt man in threadbare clothes was sprinting through the crowd, clutching a loaf of bread to his chest. His face was hollow, his ribs visible through the gaps in his torn shirt. One of the Unlit, desperate and starving. The man glanced back, saw the vendor pointing at him, and tried to run faster. A Legion patrol passed nearby, four soldiers in red-trimmed armor marching without concern. One of them, a woman with a longbow slung across her back, stopped.

Her eyes followed the fleeing man as she unlimbered the bow. Cal's breath hitched. In one motion, she nocked an arrow, drew the string, and released. It all happened in a single heartbeat. Thwack. The arrow punched through the man's back, driving him facedown into the stones. He hit the ground hard, the loaf of bread tumbling from his hands to roll into the gutter. His body twitched once, then went still. The crowd parted around the corpse.

A few people glanced at the body, but most simply stepped over the pooling blood that melted the thin layer of snow around it. Fresh flakes drifted down, landing on the corpse's back before dissolving into the dark fabric of his shirt. Retrieving her arrow with the same rote motions used to fire it, the soldier wiped the shaft clean on the thief's shirt, shouldered her bow, and fell back in with her patrol. The body was just left there like it were someone else's problem.

Cal stood frozen, his heart hammering against his ribs. His mind lurched, violently dragging up a [Perfect Memory] as he tried to process what'd he just witnessed. He was back on Earth, standing in the cramped aisle of a convenience store while a teenager, maybe sixteen, bolted for the door with a bag of chips under his jacket. The manager shouted. A clumsy, red-faced security guard gave chase, tackling the kid in the parking lot just as police sirens wailed in the distance.

The kid was crying, his face pressed into the asphalt while his hands were cuffed behind his back and passersby stopped to film the messy spectacle. It had been so much more humane. Here, there was a single arrow. A life erased as casually as swatting a fly. Aurelian walked past the scene without a second glance, his stride never faltering and his face never changing. He simply continued forward, indifferent to the remains cooling on the ground behind him. Selara paused.

Her eyes lingered on the Legion soldier's back, her mouth barely holding back a snarl of disgust.

"Barbaric animals," she cursed under her breath. Then she, too, kept walking. Cal forced himself to move, his legs feeling heavy while his mind replayed the moment over and over. A loaf of bread. That was all it'd taken. The image of the dead forager in the alley superimposed itself over the man on the cobblestones. One killed by a criminal, the other by the law, and the only real difference was the uniform. It was the lesson he had been learning since his arrival.

Narbok's brutality in the arena was called sport, while Zarven's extortion was called business. Now, a summary execution for a piece of bread was called justice. This world had refined in justice into a system, a heartless calculus where the powerless always paid the final price. The powerful simply gave their cruelty different names, creating a reality far more nakedly transactional than anything he'd known. At least on Earth there were pretenses of due process, of appeals and second chances.

He clung to Selara's quiet disgust. Her revulsion was a small proof that he wasn't alone in seeing the rot, a sliver of shared humanity in a world determined to pull him down to its level. He fell into step behind his mentors, the grim silence of their procession a fitting tribute to the man left dead in the street. As their path took them from the commons toward the heart of power in Deadfall, the village transformed.

Mud and grime gave way to swept cobblestones, and timber homes with patched roofs became stone-faced manors with iron gates. The market's noise faded, replaced by the muted crunch of their boots on clean pavement. The few Duskborn they passed reacted immediately. Flattening themselves against the walls, they dropped their eyes to the ground, hunched their shoulders, and shrank inward. Each one held perfectly still until the nobles had passed before resuming their hurried errands.

The Kaelix Manor appeared ahead, a sprawling structure of pale stone and dark timber. Its gates were tall and ornate, wrought iron twisted into patterns of scales and swords, with the gilded crest of House Kaelix polished to a mirror sheen at the top. The moment they passed through the gates, the air changed. The winter chill vanished, replaced by a pleasant warmth that carried the scent of blossoms. It's just like the Dominion's section, Cal realized.

He remembered the aggressive purity of the air inside the imperial district, starkly contrasting with the rest of the village. The Kaelix family was projecting a similar kind of power, maintaining a bubble of idyllic spring weather within their walls while Deadfall shivered under a late winter snow. The lush green lawn and flowering trees were evidence of the sheer cost of the warding, a declaration of wealth more potent than simple walls.

Flanked by two impassive guards in the severe black-and-gold livery of House Kaelix, a middle-aged servant waited just inside the courtyard. His bearing was impeccable as he inclined his head toward the Veils.

"Master Veil. Mistress Veil. Deputy Mayor Kaelix and his guests are expecting you." His eyes passed over Cal as if he were a shadow. Selara nodded.

"Thank you." The servant gestured toward the manor's entrance.

"If you'll follow me." Cal moved to follow them, but the servant stepped smoothly into his path. He maintained a mask of polite neutrality.

"My apologies. Only the Master and Mistress are expected." A flash of annoyance crossed Selara's features, but she quickly blanked her expression. She glanced back at Cal, her tone clipped.

"Wait in the courtyard. We won't be long." She and Aurelian disappeared through the double doors with their guide, leaving Cal alone. He stood alone on a path of white gravel, raked into symmetrical patterns, while flower beds lined the walkway with blooms arranged in rows so exacting they looked artificial. Cal glanced down at himself. The grime from his journey was ground deep into his gear, and the sour tang of mosshide repellent still clung to him despite his icy bath and change of clothes.

He felt incredibly out of place. As he waited, Cal replayed the market scene, the memory of Selara's quiet abhorrence turning over in his mind.

'Barbaric animals.' She was right. The whole system was barbaric. An old futility washed over him, the weary powerlessness he had felt on Earth when confronted with systemic injustice. Corporate greed. Political corruption. Laws written for the wealthy and enforced on the desperate. Go cast your vote, it'll make all the difference! He shook his head, reminded of the self-protective apathy he'd adopted for years.

But if personal power is king here, then maybe— Movement at the edge of his vision pulled him from his thoughts. The stoic attendant emerged from the manor, carrying a silver tray laden with refreshments. He walked with easy grace, his posture upright and his smile unchanging as he crossed the courtyard in a straight line, his path leading directly toward Cal. Cal shifted slightly, preparing to acknowledge the man. The man walked past Cal as if he were a piece of the scenery. Cal blinked.

He turned, following the servant's path with his eyes. The attendant stepped off the gravel walkway onto a manicured lawn. There, sitting in a tableau of casual privilege, were three people around a table set with fine porcelain and crystal goblets, underneath the shadow of a flowering tree. A young human man with unruly dark hair and intense orange eyes drummed his armored fingers against the table. He wore a stylish tunic of deep crimson, and bronze gauntlets etched with flame patterns gleamed on his forearms.

Beside him sat a young human woman in immaculately tailored black clothes, her expression one of aloof boredom. Her severe black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail, her steel-grey eyes cold. The third figure, a Mycari woman, observed the others in thoughtful silence, polished river stones braided through her long, dark green hair. She had pale jade skin, and her large hazel eyes were observant as she sat slightly apart from the others, serene and silent.

The servant placed the tray on their table and retreated without a word. Oh crumb… Now he really felt out of place. Deep breath. It's just three teenagers in a garden. A… very expensive garden. He resisted the urge to straighten his armor, which would have accomplished absolutely nothing except redistributing the filth. This is fine. In a previous life, you once presented a Q3 budget forecast to twelve senior vice presidents with a coffee stain on your shirt. You survived that. This is basically the same thing.

Kasien Blodwen leaned forward, muttering something Cal couldn't hear, sounding impatient and slightly frustrated. Astrin Kaelix shrugged dismissively. In response, the young man grinned, his eyes alight with anticipation. The black-haired youth glanced at the retreating man, then shifted his attention toward Cal, his lips curling into a mocking smirk. The trio rose in unison. Kasien led them across the soft grass to stop at the border where the lawn met the gravel path.

Astrin and the Mycari woman fanned out behind him, forming a loose triangle on the turf. Kasien spoke first, tilting his head back to look down his nose at Cal.

"Finally decided to join us? We were wondering how long you were going to stare off into space." His eyes swept over Cal, pausing on the ruined armor before narrowing.

"I was disappointed I did not get to fight you in the Reaping Tournament. Now that you are at the threshold of F-tier…" He paused, his smirk widening.

"Let us see if you earned it."