Chapter 24: 27. Meal Part 2

Shaula keeps eating without looking over at Angelidis or Ajax. Ajax answers Angelidis’ question. Of course she would be curious why either of them got involved rather than running away. From how Angelidis puts it, humans aren’t very strong here. Actually, she did say untrained, Ajax realizes. He answers her.

“Well, both Shaula and I are pretty strong. At first, honestly, we were just interested in a cool fight. You’re a pretty amazing fighter, you know?”

“Heheh, thank you, I’m pretty good at fighting. Fighting, fucking, and riding Miellas, those are my specialties.” Angelidis takes a drink of her wine. Ajax decides not to comment on her joke except, the last part…

“Miellas?” Angelidis nearly spits out her drink.

“Huh!? How far out in the sticks are you two from!? Y-You know, the animals that pull every carriage in the city?”

Ajax remembers the insect looking creatures, the giant poodle moths. Angelidis looks at the two of them with a very scared expression.

Wow, how much does she love those animals, Shaula wonders.

“A-Ah, haha, so that’s what they’re called here. Back home, we call them ‘poodle moths’, I guess the cities call them something different?” Shaula notices Ajax has a knack for lying. Angelidis relaxes while taking another swig of wine.

“‘Poodle moth’? Weird name, but I guess every village has its oddities. Well yeah, I have a cute Miella in the stable of the building I live in, my best friend! She’s way faster than any of the carriage pulling ones too, I take her riding whenever I get the opportunity.”

“Oh, that’s awesome!” Ajax shares in her enthusiasm for her pet. Back home, he and his family never had any pets, but he did always want one. Her face looks much livelier when she talks about her best friend. Ajax smiles along with her.

“Actually, wait, before we talk about Spark. You know, you could have gotten really hurt getting involved against a mage. You should be more careful, you’re humans and you don’t look like holy knights or nobles. ” Angelidis looks in Shaula’s direction.

Angelidis knows that nobles have their own easily identifiable eye colors different from regular humans. Also, no holy knight or noble would sully their feet by walking in her poor, demihuman neighborhood.

Angelidis wants Shaula to answer her. Shaula puts the house special down, clears her throat and replies.

“Well… I didn’t want to see a stranger get hurt when I could do something. You wouldn’t have done the same thing? Besides, it’s not like we’re weak either. We’re just a bit… inexperienced.” Angelidis stares at Shaula while thinking over her words. She asks the two of them one more question with some hesitation.

“...Where you used to live, do you have a lot of demihumans around?”

Ajax replies while Shaula continues her meal.

“Oh, you mean like beastkin or… uh…”

“I’m a draconid, and wow, it seems like you lived in a purely human settlement. That’s… interesting… Well, sorry for all the questions. I’m not used to being helped by people, human or demihuman.” Angelidis feels a bit sad. Every human she has ever known has been prejudiced towards her. But, these two seem like they’re not even from anywhere in the Federation.

I’ve always heard the demons are pretty nice to draconids… and yet everyone here hates the Empire.

Ajax decides to ask a few questions about this place. The atmosphere feels a little melancholic and he’s not sure why.

“Actually, Angelidis, I’ll be honest. Neither of us know where this city is. We got in here somehow, but we didn’t stick around at the city gates to ask questions from those hardass gate guards.”

Good, Ajax, mix the truth with lies, Shaula wants to ask questions without being too suspicious. Ajax has followed her advice well. Just be natural, try not to stutter, don’t push too far…

“Oh, huh. I guess we all make mistakes in that kind of situation.” Angelidis looks at Ajax closely while thinking to herself about him and Shaula. The two of them have very little information. So little that it is making her suspicious after all. She wonders if they really do have anything to do with the demons and their Empire.

Could they be spies from there? The way they’re looking for information is weird, but… they seem way too clueless to be spies. Spies wouldn’t just ask for information without knowing anything at all, right? They’d try reading a few books, maybe, go to a library, do some eavesdropping… What the fuck am I thinking? Fine. I guess I can answer them with stuff that anyone in this city would know.

“Well, alright, I’ll answer whatever I can. Where should I start…”

“It’s a bit embarrassing, haha, but what is the name of this city?”

“Uh… Huh. I was just thinking you’re spies or something, but, wow… How did you two get here if you don’t even know about… *Sigh*, not my business, not my business. The name of the city is Tritol and it’s being ruled by the honorable Baron Liri Tritol. The neighborhood we’re in is called Astrid. THe only people who live here are demihumans, mostly beastkin.”

“Yeah, I did notice that. You’re the first ‘draconid’ we’ve seen actually.”

“Makes sense. This city has barely any draconids. Most of them live in the Federation’s east but there are at least a few hundred in this city. You’ll see us every so often.” Angelidis notices that Shaula has become interested in their conversation. Shaula pulls a napkin up to her mouth and wipes some sauce away.

[Ask about the homeless people. I want to know how they’re doing.]

“...Oh, actually, we noticed a lot of homeless people in this area. How are they doing? For our sakes, we hope they’re getting by at least?” Ajax makes it seem as if he’s asking about the homeless so they know what to expect living here. Angelidis can at least tell that they’re homeless themselves.

However, Shaula had discreetly asked Ajax to bring this up because of her own homeless past. She couldn’t help herself. Poverty is something she likes to be aware of. She sympathizes with the harsh lives of the poor. Maybe now, she can even help them. Angelidis speaks solemnly.

“Yeah, it’s depressing. A lot of people in this city don’t have jobs. I don’t know the exact numbers but there are people starving everywhere. Then, you have the war and I’m not surprised their lives feel even more hopeless. That fucking war, it just makes it feel like everything is coming to an end.”

“...” Ajax doesn’t know what to say. Asking about the war might be too much–

“...You two do know about the war, right? Not even that? Wow… Well, I guess the government wouldn’t be sending messengers to random villages for this kind of war. What can you even do? It’s not like you’re heroes.”

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“S-So, what is this war about?” Ajax asks awkwardly. Angelidis had seen right through his ignorance. She finds herself wondering if there could really be a village that far away from the cities. The only reason she doesn’t deny the idea is that the Federation is filled to the brim with people. There might be hundreds of villages in the province of Ystria that she knows nothing about.

Angelidis stops eating. She leans back in her chair and crosses her legs. She stares at the ceiling wondering where to start.

“This nation might actually be over. Honestly it feels unbelievable to me but…” Shaula looks carefully at Angelidis. This feels like it could be important. Not just as information, it could actually give them information about why they’re here. A war? One that could destroy the entire nation? What if their mission is to do something about it?

It might be grasping at straws, but she’s certain they weren’t brought here for no reason.

“Some months back, the Devil attacked God by surprise while his vessel was traveling through the southeast of the Federation. She fought him day and night for months. I mean, you know, they’re both gods so their stamina is gonna be off the charts obviously. Anyway, the heroes, the nobles I mean, were sent out when the Federation learned about what was going on. But, I don’t know what the current situation is…”

Angelidis drinks her wine slowly while having more of what’s left on her plate. Ajax and Shaula think over what Angelidis has just told them. Silence.

The Devil? God? She seems dead serious. Ajax was once a more pious Christian right before he hit puberty. He believes still, but it feels more like a family tradition now than devotion and faith. Shaula never had that phase at all. Atheist since day one. On Earth, she had always thought that if God is real then God must have hated her.

Both of them might as well be atheists or at least agnostic. But Angelidis is not only mentioning deities… She’s talking about them as if they are currently directing the world.

Gods are interfering directly in this world. Their breathing slows until it stops. It feels distracting at this moment.

The two of them cannot ask Angelidis who God is or who the Devil is. After all, real gods would be known by everybody in the world. There would be no way that a village living in this nation would not know their names. It would be like not knowing about the sky above them or the sun.

They would instantly expose themselves as foreigners. Angelidis has not noticed their confusion and moves on.

“Not only this fucking war though, apparently there’s a rumor going on about an earthquake in the south.”

“Earthquake?”

“Yeah, some southern merchants said that the ground was shaking down south. Some of them were from different cities too, so who knows where the exact center of it was… or if it’s multiple earthquakes at once.”

“Hmm… Do the Earthquakes have something to do with the war?” Angelidis mentioned earthquakes right after talking about war. Where is her train of thought going?

“Well, Ajax… My theory about the quakes? I’m guessing that the battle between the gods is moving across the Federation. Who knows, maybe the southern cities are being destroyed. Maybe we’re next. I told you, it feels like this country is at its end.”

Cold sweat flows down Ajax’s back. Angelidis snorts.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that, it’s just a theory. If it was really like that, they’d at least tell us about it so we could evacuate. At least I hope they would. But… it is weird. Some quakes down south all felt at the same time and it has nothing to do with the war? I don’t buy that. Ugh, enough of that, enough of that! Let’s talk about Spark now!”

Shaula zones out while Ajax pays attention to Angelidis fawn over her beloved pet. She has a lot to think about. About an hour later, she has a lot of theories and some knowledge gaps filled in. But, still there are too many more questions remaining.

The two of them leave the bar while Angelidis orders more drinks.

[Gods, devils, wars, earthquakes, heroes. One of the gods must have brought us here.]

[Yeah, you’re right. We have to learn about them, Shaula? How?]

[Books probably? Maybe there’s a church or temple or something here that sells bibles or gospels. Even a library or bookstore would help. We’ll have to learn more about this war too. And… if it is some kind of clash between deities destroying nearby cities, we’ll have to help out with the defense. We wouldn’t want Jelli to get hurt, now would we?]

[Yeah, you’re absolutely right. *Sigh* At least it’s something to do… Fuck, what a night though. Good food and wine. You know, I’ve never had alcohol before?] In Western Britannia, Ajax and Shaula are not yet of drinking age.

[Alcohol is garbage, I prefer soda.]

[Whatever.]

[The shawarma wrap thing was nice though. Like a shawarma wrap, bean burrito mix I think.]

[Yeah, it was great. So, where do you wanna go now?]

[Let’s run around a bit, I’m not sleepy at all.]

[Me, neither. I wonder what else is going on in this city?]

[Let’s find out.]

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