Chapter 2 – A Delicious Smell Wafting Through the Air at Night (part1)
The city of Olbrum, which I entered through a gigantic gate, is staggeringly vast.
There’s a plaza front of the gate, and from there, a wide road, which seems to have about 12 lanes, stretched straight into the city.
In the plaza, there’s also an information board displaying a map of the whole city. I couldn't believe my eyes for a moment. If the information is accurate, this city would be about the size of Tokyo's 23 wards, and it’s surrounded by a 30-meters-high thick wall.
There's no way this is possible. Just how much effort, money, and time did they spend to build it? Or is it something that can be built in a flash with magic?
I had always thought that the population of a city with this kind of design would be around 10,000 people at most, but….
Olbrum is divided into 42 wards, where the area called the “Central Ward” is located in the heart of the city. From there, numbers are assigned to the other wards in a radial pattern. The 2nd Ward, 3rd Ward, 4th Ward, and so on.
Speaking of which, I’m in the 30th Ward right now. This ward is ruled by the Wishart Family I heard before.
The 30th Ward to 42nd Ward are located close to the wall and there are several other gates leading to the outside located in the other wards. The roads here are really wide which make it easy for carriages to transport goods to each ward. If I continue to follow the widest lane, it seems that I will reach the Central Ward eventually.
The streets are neatly organized, with brick and stone houses standing out. There are wooden buildings among them, but they are not shabby at all. They are designed to add the beauty of wood grains to the cityscape instead.
This is a beautiful city where the word “modern” seems to fit perfectly, with a perfect balance of liveliness, spaciousness, and playfulness.
I don't know if the 30th Ward is special or if other wards are also at this level, but the cultural level here seems to be rather high. I had been expecting to be disappointed because of the bad food and poor clothing, but if I could get used to this city, I would be able to live comfortably in this world. Now that it’s been decided, first I need to cash out the pepper and secure a place to sleep.
This pepper was supposed to be sold to the lord of 30th Ward, so it would be too risky to sell it here.
All right, let’s go to the neighboring 29th Ward.
It's going to be a long walk, but if I think it's for the sake of 5,000,000 Yen, my steps will surely be lighter
Thus, I headed for the 29th Ward while sometime skipping happily along the way.
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This is weird....
There's clearly something wrong with this city.
I saw a lot of people with animal face walking around the city on two legs, and stir-fried weed was classified as a dish here. There was also this girl who looked beautiful from behind, but her face was actually that of a snail. Everything was too weird, to the point that I’ve stopped caring.
But that's not the main problem here! In this city, it seems you can't tell lies.
I tried to sell the pepper to a grocery store in the 29th Ward at first. However, they told me that I needed a guild membership card or a resident card to do trading in this city. Otherwise, I could only sell the merchandise directly to the guild. Except for adventurers or merchants, it seems anyone who wants to sell their merchandise would go to the guild.
However. this pepper had caused quite a commotion at the front gate. They would immediately know that I’m involved in this incident as soon as I brought it to the guild. Because of that, I tried to negotiate with the store to see if I can sell it directly, but that was when something wierd happened.
“Where did you get this pepper?”
There was the Judgement of the Spirit thing that Norbert used on me before, so deciding that it would be wise not to tell lies carelessly, I chose to be vague in my answer.
"I got it from a friendly merchant." (Yashiro)
The word 'got' here included the meaning of stealing, so it was by no means a lie. I thought this would go well, but then the store owner suddenly turned like an angry demon.
"I have no intention of doing business with thieves! If you don't leave right now, I'll turn you in to the guards!"
The store owner’s anger was so intense that I ran out of the store without a second thought. Because he also persistently shouting 'Drop dead, you thief!' from behind as I fled, it seemed that I have become quite a hot topic in the 29th Ward. I decided to give up on the idea of selling the pepper in the 29th Ward and headed for another ward.
The city was zoned in a circle around the central ward. To the right of the 29th Ward was the 28th Ward, and to the right of that was the 27th Ward and so on. Because of such a design, it was necessary to cross the wards in order, to get to the next one.
The 30th-42nd Wards were located in the outermost circle. Next to them was the 23rd-29th Wards circle, the 11th-22nd Wards circle, the 6th-10th Wards circle, the 2nd-5th Wards circle, and located in the center was Central Ward. From the 29th Ward, the inner 22nd Ward was closer than the neighboring 28th Ward or the 27th Ward. Thus, I decided to head there instead.
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Now that I've cleared my mind, let's quickly make a lot of money here. Fufufufu....
"You thief! I'll cut off your nasty arm!"
However, the same thing happened in the 22nd Ward. Despite how skillfully I gave a vague answer, I still got chased out by a store owner with a hatchet.
Deception doesn't work. But if I were to outright lie, it would surely get me into more serious trouble....
"What the hell!? Is this really impossible to cheat in this city?" (Yashiro)
It's probably because of Forced Translation Magic. Even if I muddle the language, it will be translated into words that are familiar to the other person. Just like how the Japanese words 'watashi', 'ore', 'boku', and 'sessha' are all translated to 'I' in English.
For example, when I said 'I got it', the other party must have heard it as 'I stole it'.
This is really a troublesome city.
In the end, I was left penniless despite having five-millions-yen worth of pepper. I had tried to convince them that Japanese Yen was a legitimate currency, but they said that only Reuben coins could be used for transaction in this city. I was told to go to the currency exchange guild --- one the place I wanted to avoid the most.
To make it worse, rumors have started to spread that thieves were roaming around the city. In this situation, I couldn't even stay in the 22nd Ward for long and decided to leave quickly. However, the rumors were spreading faster than I had expected, and by the time I entered the neighboring 21st Ward, the people on the street were already talking about it. I hurriedly evacuated to the 10th Ward, but the rumors had already reached there as well.
Fast! It's too fast!
Maybe they have an established method of transmitting such information. I'm sure the guild is involved in this.
Guild is like a union, so to speak. People in the same industry form a guild to exchange information and to cooperate with each other so that they can share the benefits. In return, there are obligations that are imposed on them like contribution and regulation.
In any case, it's getting hard to stay in this neighborhood. Maybe I should go further away like the Central Ward. No, wait a minute....
I took another look at my surroundings.
From the 30th Ward, I've made my way to the 10th Ward. I didn't notice it before, but the streets here are more beautiful. The image of the city is even more refined than in the 30th Ward, which I thought was very well organized.
Considering that the Central Ward is the heart of this city, does that mean that the lower wards number, the higher their rank?
There are something like gas lamps erected on the streets of the 10th Ward which is something that was not seen in the 22nd Ward. There's also a large building that looks like a theater in the 10th Ward and the people walking around the streets are dressed in expensive-looking clothes. From there I can tell that the 20th Ward has more money than the 30th Ward and the 10th Ward has more money than the 20th Ward.
My guess is probably not far off. In that case, the best place to escape would be the ward with higher number like the 42nd Ward.
If the lower the wards number, the more rich people living there, then the people from the bottom of society would be gathered in the wards with higher number.
The ward with the highest number in this city is the 42nd Ward which is located right next to the 30th Ward, according to the map.
Until things cool down, I guess I'll lie low in this bottom-most ward.
I turned on my heel and headed back the way I had just come.