Chapter 29: 32. Their City Part 5

A few hours later, Ajax returns to Shaula with a key to an inn room, two larger, heavy duty backpacks to carry the coins, and some cardboard coin wrappers from various shops in the city. They needed a way to carry their coins without having them jingle around. Ajax also had to make sure he didn’t buy too many coin wrappers at the same store.

He found about six general stores in the city that sold coin wrappers. A society that uses coins instead of paper money definitely had better ways of wrapping it up. He bought ten to fifteen coin wrappers from each store and got 84 in total. Each wrapper can hold a hundred coins.

The two of them spend some time carefully putting as many of their coins into wrappers as they can. This takes them about six hours for 8300 coins. After this is done, they put each coin roll into one of their two bags. No more jingling, just like that. They hold the remaining coin roll (half bronze coins, half silver coins) on them at all times.

They spend the rest of the day carrying around their coins and buying some more clothes. Both stuff they can wear daily and things they can wear indoors in their new room. They use bronze coins to pay for it all.

While carrying their shopping bags, they get some street food and stop at a nearby city park to have their meal. This time it's a set of skewers made of an animal called a Fenulepe, horned rabbits they remember seeing in the blue forest. They spend some time in that park with the coin bags next to them. Nobody noticed anything strange about them.

By the time they reach their inn and park their coins, it is already the middle of the night. Ajax had booked a stay at this inn, named the Seven Dagger inn, for a month. It costs a silver and 13 bronze coins a night. He paid a dozen silver coins up front and they agreed to accept the rest later.

Ajax and Shaula have exclusive access to their two-bed hotel room and told the staff to never go into their rooms without permission. Shaula didn’t mind that they had to share a room, it was cheaper after all.

The two of them take showers one after the other, this room containing full bathing facilities. They change into comfortable, at-home clothes and try to go to bed. But, it’s no use; sleep does not come to them even in the perfect environment.

So, they remain in their rooms, talking about how they got to this point. They aren’t tired physically or even mentally. They should be, but they’re not like that anymore. So, they slow things down. They don’t make any plans, not yet. For now, they can stop moving.

For the past few days, it had felt as if they were great white sharks and if they stopped moving they would die.

“By the way, I think I figured something out about this city. Ajax, the reason why there's still a lot of poor people in this city is because of the economy. The poor people, human or demihuman, can do the shitty work that the rich can’t stomach. You need workers to maintain those kinds of services, like driving carriages and running storefronts and shit. Rich people would never do that kind of work for other rich people. In exchange, they get to live in the walls rather than in the villages nearby.”

“Huh. Then, why is there still a lot of joblessness?”

“The poor are always nearby so the workers know what’ll happen to them if they stop running on their hamster wheels. That’s how it is back on Earth as well. But… unemployment is pretty huge, right? I think, and this is just my own opinion… I think that there was probably a recession over the past century. Or, it might have had something to do with… What’s wrong?”

“No, it’s… it’s nothing.”

Ajax is sitting up. He has something on his mind now. He doesn’t have to think about money or magic or their powers at all. So, he thinks about their current situation.

“Remember we talked about how the two gods Osva and Semjaza were fighting each other and the fighting started just a while back?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think one of those two brought us here?”

“...Honestly, I doubt it.”

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“Why?”

“Ajax, remember what you heard from that merchant? The gods’ fight could have caused a massive tsunami that killed millions of people. Wiped out entire fucking cities. If they could do that, what the fuck would they need us for?”

“Well…”

“Just think about it. We’re superhuman. We’re pretty strong, I will say that. Stronger than any human back on Earth, sure. But, gods are gods. We’re still human. *sigh* Simple as that.”

“...Yeah. I was just looking for something to answer why. Why the fuck… are we here?”

“I wish I had some kind of answer. Something. I don’t fucking know… All I can do is think of the next step, the next thing we can do to protect ourselves here. The next thing we can do to find a way… back.” Shaula looks at Ajax’s cloudy expression.

“I… I want to see my parents again. I want to see Rita again… Shit… Why is this happening?”

This moment is what Shaula had prepared for. This is why she wanted a place to return to. So that Ajax could deal with his pain in a safe place. She sits up and looks over at him. She’s in her bed and he’s sitting on his. She looks at him cover his eyes with his hands.

“...Ajax. If you want to–”

All of a sudden, Ajax takes a deep breath. He takes his hands away from his eyes. Shaula can tell that he was beginning to tear up, but… it looks like he’s not ready to deal with it yet. The fact that he’s stuck here for the foreseeable future. The fact that he won’t see his family again for a long time. He’s not ready yet. 

She’s not going to force him to realize. He’s going to see it for himself. She stops what she was about to say and waits for him to say what he wants to say.

“I think I’ve laid my head down enough. I want to get drunk. Come on, let’s go.”

“...You want to go to that bar where… Ah, you want to see Angelidis again.”

“And get drunk. It’s fine, right? Let’s go talk to some people, no more moping around inside. We have no answers and no future. Let’s get a little buzz going. Or let’s get shitfaced, we’ll see how things go!” Shaula sees a refreshing smile on Ajax’s face. She knows he’s trying to hide his pain, but getting drunk in their current bodies shouldn’t be too bad.

Shaula looks towards the window of their hotel.

The red moon is out once again.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Let’s go.”

 

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