[A/N: Check out the new prologue chapter in the auxiliary volu. It contains Sylvester's past.]
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"Why did you help her? What did she tell you?" Felix asked from the back, still lying to heal the body joints. They had just left the Fallshoot Village. Since Markus' family had already moved towards the East to buy new land with the help of Felix's contacts, they had no reason to stay.
Sylvester was holding the reins of the two horses. It was cold now as the winter had finally started knocking on doors, and sadly they had no extra clothes.
"Soone has to, Felix. As for what she said, it'd be a disservice to her trust if I told you. It wasn't much; forget about it." Sylvester replied and focused on the road.
Traveling on the dirt road, they soon arrived at Fort Sunflower. And since Sylvester's attire was very famous, they were quickly given entry. This ti, however, they didn't go to et the Duke as they were in a hurry. Instead, they went to the market to buy so blankets for the remaining journey first.
Their plan was to avoid the Riveria Kingdom as a whole in their return journey as the chances of being attacked again were very high. So instead, they were going to keep going up on Desert Road until the Snake River crossing, and from there, they'd enter the Garcia Kingdom and take the Green road straight to the Holy Land.
"I wonder if that slave you gave money to the last ti is still alive." Felix wondered as they entered the market streets.
Sylvester was also interested in that man. A rchant to a seasoned warrior—a victim of the world he lived in. Not to ntion, the na Kaecilius Silvanus was unique enough to make it morable.
"If he's strong-willed and nobody plotted against him, I don't think he'd die that easily. He has everything to lose if he loses one fight. Anyway, I shall go and et Duke's Prima. They should at least know we're here." Sylvester took off without explaining much further.
He soon arrived at the Duke's castle first, but he was inford the Duke had gone to the River City, the capital of the Kingdom of Riveria. So Duke's Prima was handling things.
He was allowed a eting relatively quickly since they knew each other.
The man ca to greet Sylvester himself at the door. "Lord Bard, welco back. I'm sure the Duke will be heartbroken to hear the ti of your arrival."
"Thank you for the hospitality, Lord Jeremiah. I only wish to inform you of my visit… and et the Duke if possible. We shall be heading back to Holy Land after buying so winter clothes." Sylvester plainly inford the man.
This earned a raised eyebrow. "I shall order one of our commanders to escort you out of the Riveria territories then."
Sylvester raised his palm and quickly denied. He'd rather not take useless favors from these nobles, as he never knew what hid behind their masks. "No need, Lord Jeremiah. We shall take the Desert Road towards the Gracia Kingdom. However, maybe you can help with one thing. What happened to my reward the last ti I was here? Did he survive?"
Smiling, the brown man smiled. "He is alive and well. Thanks to you, his rise has quickened as now he owns armor and a better sword. Worry not for him, Lord Bard. I, too, was a slave once in the sa arena and fought until I got my freedom and slowly climbed enough ranks to sit here. I know when I see n with a greater purpose—he has one… just like you."
Sylvester felt so lies and excitent from the scent coming from this man. He didn't like it, but he didn't care either. He had no plans for this man. After all, if anything, he'd wish to kill him and make the Duke more vulnerable.
"One more thing, Lord Bard. Duke expected sothing like this to happen, so he left a letter for you. Here…" The man took out an envelope from his desk drawer and handed it to Sylvester.
It was a premium, neat, clean paper with excellent cursive writing, nad to him directly.
"Thank you, Lord Jeremiah. I shall take my leave then." Sylvester left the Duke's castle and went straight to the fighting pits to see the slave. He wondered if he could use the man in the long run or how good he was at fighting and accounting.
Using his status as a man of faith, he entered the fighting pits, mainly the area where the resident fighters are kept. It was all underground space under the arena, so the place was dark and unpleasant, as bleak as the future of many dwellers.
Still, there were fire torches every few ters and guards standing straight. There were long corridors, and each held rooms, at least they looked big considering the space between each door.
He knew he would not be allowed to et the prized top fighter of the arena, so he had to utilize so underhanded ans of corruption. It was good for him in this case because as long as the guards felt they did sothing wrong, they'd try to keep his visit a secret.
He paid the guard a coin of gold and easily went into the man's living quarters. At first glance, the place seed spacious enough, with two large rooms interconnected, but it had nothing other than a mattress in the corner and a table and chair in the other corner beside the oil lamp.
When he entered uninvitingly, the man was writing sothing and jumped to his feet in fright, a reflex that saved him all these years. He turned around and was ready to fight. But instantly, his shoulders relaxed as he recognized Sylvester.
"Nice armor you bought," Sylvester muttered as he walked around to the armor pieces hung on the wall.
The man—Short black hair, a stubble beard, and a face that told a sad story with scars and dark circles beneath the eyes—frowned a little and spoke in a hoarse voice. "I will give back the money once I win three more fights. I only have half the money at the mont."
Sylvester waved his hand, appearing serious. "I care not about the gold, Kaecilius Silvanus."
'Sniff-Sniff… my gold.'
Sylvester ignored Miraj's whimpers and walked forward to shake hands with the man. "A man of numbers counting dead bodies instead of gold? Your story is fascinating to , warrior. So I offer you here—I invite you to join the church as a Knight. You shall serve in the Inquisitor's army."
Kaecilius denied it imdiately. "What is my life's worth when I leave behind my treasure—my family? I thank you for being considerate, my lord… by I desire nothing but the warmth of closeness of my family."
Sylvester nodded silently in admiration. He never really had permission to recruit soone, and he was rely testing the grounds. If the man had accepted, he'd have left him behind. But now, this proved that this man would fight no matter what for sothing he cherishes. A man worth investing in because this one also had brains.
"I hope you did not spend all the money on the armor. Did you give so to your family?" Sylvester asked him.
Kaecilius was trying hard to understand what Sylvester wanted from him. He had lived in a world of rchants and then slavery for years now, and he knew there was no black and white. Everything was in shades of gray.
"I sent so to my family… they could use so new clothes and better food."
Sylvester nodded, but sowhat rudely, he sat down on the chair and took a paper from the desk, and started writing on it with the quill. "What does your family do, Kaecilius?"
"My wife is the handmaiden to the Duke's wife, and my kids… they help clean around."
Sylvester sighed as if hurt deeply. "This is unacceptable. The fact that you are a learned man ans your children have the potential to be scholars or traders as well. What are their nas?"
"Remus and Cirus… my lord, did they offend you in any way?" Kaecilius asked nervously as a caring father. He knew he couldn't do anything if a man like Sylvester decided to make his life hell.
Bam!
Sylvester took out his wax seal of Sanctum Inspector and lted it, then stamped it at the end of the docunt. He blew on it to let it dry, then folded it before handing it to the man. "Here, a letter of recomndation and request that the local monastery allows your children to get basic education… and that they are treated equally—or the bard will sing so songs."
Kaecilius quickly looked at it and silently read it. To his shock, the letter was indeed about his children's education. He felt conflicted by this, however. He had never t or talked to this man before, and what scared him was that there was no request.
"What will this cost , my lord?"
Sylvester gave a faint fake smile and extended his hand. Kaecilius felt obliged to shake it and did so. "Kaecilius, not always there has to be a reason for kindness to be shown. Because if there was a price involved, it was never kindness. Now, I believe you were busy writing your book, so I shall take my leave. If fate wills it, we shall et again."
Sylvester proceeded to leave calmly. But deep inside, he hoped the sche he had just hatched would soday work in favor. 'How will the wind bow for you, my friend Kaecilius—Only ti shall tell if you will be my Spartacus.'
[A/N: Spartacus was a slave who led the third and largest slave revolt against Ro in the 1st century BC.]
…
"Ha!"
"It's good to be able to do this again!" Felix relaxed as he was finally able to move and sit in the front seat and hold the reins. It had been three days since they left the Fort Sunflower. They quickly moved West and took the Desert Road again. Then, it was a smooth journey as the Desert road here saw a lot of movent, and no one dared attack him on it.
Then, finally, the crossing of the Snake River ca. There was no bridge, however, as the location held strategic importance for Riveria and Gracia. But it was shallow enough to allow carriages to move with care.
Sylvester was relaxing beside Felix and looked towards the north. He rembered just a few kiloters upstream, there was the Black Pit, the place that brought cholera to Pitfall town years ago.
p
Sir Dolorem glanced and sighed instantly. "Because it's usually covered in mist… It's rare we can see it from here today."
Gabriel was interested, too, since the map showed nothing out there. "What is it?"
Bishop Lazark chid in. "That's the Tower of Godless, the largest Slave market in the world, divided into a hundred floors. Each floor caters to specific needs. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastkins, rkins, vampires, centaurs… anything that moves, you can find it there at the right price. I have only seen the ground floor once… they don't allow clergyn to go above 3rd floors."
"How can faith allow such a thing to exist? So close to the Holy Land?" Gabriel asked in disgust.
Felix chid in, already knowing about the place as it was near his family county. "Because the land it lies on belongs to none. It's on the other side of the Snake River, everything is barren desert there, and Desert Cannibals constantly attack."
Sir Dolorem also added. "And on the top floor lives the Slave Imperia Council—Made of 5 self-proclaid Slave Gods—three of them being Grand Wizards and two being Diamond Knights."
Bishop Lazark had more to say. "It's also protected by nobles… for it's the place where they get their best slaves for work—best elven won to bed—and best orcs to do hard labor."
Sylvester nodded in silence as he glanced at the distant mystical but dark place. Its size was so enormous that Sylvester was forced to imagine how many tears of blood and cries of pain were echoing in there.
But then he shook his head since he could do nothing about it and focused on the road ahead. "Even with all of us living under the sa sky—the light that reaches us cos in many shades of gold... so dark and so pale—so accept the false peace, and so get rid of that delusional veil."
Felix agreed and responded. "That's why they say Ignorance is bliss—Because once your eyes open, it's just an endless dark abyss."
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[A/N: Look at the map to see the location of Tower of Godless.]
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