女神归来的夏天

Chapter 246: The City of James V

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I see the main road up ahead through the trees. There is a line of people this far back. Sally is getting better now, and I think she\'s ready to enter the city. We both have our hoods up and making sure our identities aren\'t revealed. Not many people would be able to connect the sketches of me from a single glance. They\'ll have to have a clear memory of the sketch in their head and make connections between the sketches. I\'m not saying it\'s impossible for someone to recognize me, but it ain\'t happening as long as I have this hood on.

We step onto the cobblestone road and look towards the entrance of the city. I feel Sally hold on to me from my arm. We start walking down the road, and passing carts carry goods. There are groups of people too, and some adventurers here and there. They must be low level. The closer we make it to the gate separating the city and the road, the tighter Sally\'s grip gets on my arms. "I\'m here, Sally... I\'m not going anywhere..." My whisper reaches her, and I hope that it eases her worry just a bit. We are now at the gate, and the guard captain is looking at us.

Before he can say anything, I pull out a small bag of gold and toss it to him. He tosses it up and down in his hand, testing the weight. He steps aside, and we move through the gate. Sally slows down considerably, but she powers through, and we are now in The City of James. "It\'s changed so much from 80 years ago... It used to be entirely slums with a single district for the rich... Now, look at it..." Sally begins speaking about how it\'s changed since she was last here. The city has probably improved more on the outside but is even more rotten underneath it all.

There is something that I want to do with Sally. Whenever we had the chance to eat food made by new people, aka players, we would. This city has player-run restaurants, and I\'m hungry for some good food and not food from my inventory. "Let\'s get something to eat, okay?" I look at Sally, and her head is lowered, and she isn\'t acknowledging my words. "Maybe it\'ll even be as good as the food we had in Zenith?" I try again, and there is a little bit of a reaction. She nods her head slowly as she begins to warm up to the idea.

As Cera and Sally slowly walk through the streets looking for a good restaurant, the sister of Cera is already digging into her food at the one she has selected. She and Emerald are chowing down food, and it\'s the same reason Cera and Sally eat so much when they get the chance. There aren\'t many opportunities to have delicious food when you travel a lot. Most of what you eat is rations and dried meat. Not to mention the fact that this is human food, food from earth. The best and most unhealthy food you will ever taste.

I take another big bite of the juicy hamburger. Some of the juice falls out the bottom of the hamburger and onto the hand-cut fries. Lathering the fries. Normally I wouldn\'t be allowed to eat with Emerald at a table, but since this is a player restaurant, the rules are different here. If you have an animal companion, you can bring them in and select something from the special beast companion menu. That\'s how it is at this restaurant anyway. I notice NPC\'s looking at me from time to time. More specifically, Emerald.

I\'m getting tired of people trying to take Emerald or demand my body, or both. It\'s really bad in this kingdom. While it happened in other places, The Kingdom of Pleer is filled with scum bags who think they can have whatever they want. I wonder if the capital and king himself is like this. Jasmine asked me to do this because she isn\'t strong enough too. "Mind if I ask you a question?" A man\'s voice rings out to my left, and I continue to eat. He takes my silence as permission, which I hate. I swear if it happens one more time, I\'m killing every NPC in this restaurant.

I don\'t care if I get kicked out, and I can\'t eat here anymore while I\'m in The City of James. "Were you in the rich district this morning?" Now that\'s a question I wasn\'t expecting, but I\'ve learned never to express emotion when being questioned. An incident in the past led to a bloody situation cause I couldn\'t keep my emotions off my face. My lack of reaction doesn\'t stop the man from talking. "Cause there was a grizzly slaughter in the streets. A group of men was butchered." It seems my act of self-preservation has gained some attention.

I still don\'t react in the slightest, and this frustrates the man even further. "You\'re probably wondering why I\'m doing all this. There is a bounty on that person placed by the Barony, and the only descriptive feature about the perpetrator was a magical beast. A white tiger cub, to be precise." I finish the last bite of my hamburger and turn my head to look at the man. I lightly pet Emerald and remain completely calm and relaxed. My hood is still up, so he can\'t see my face. The silence in the restaurant has increased. I\'m being looked at by NPC\'s.

The bounty on my head must be pretty good if so many are willing to gun for me. I gently place Emerald in my backpack, and I stand up. Many in the restaurant do the same and draw any weapons they have. "I\'d hate to bloody up this place. Mind if we step outside?" My even and level voice asks the ones interested in the bounty at the prospect, but one quickly jumps at me, trying to take advantage of the fact I don\'t have my weapon drawn yet. This causes a chain reaction. Many more jump with their swords and dagger ready to cut me.

They all move in slow motion to me, my stats are higher than any NPC I\'ve come across, and these idiots are no different. I pick up a french fry as they still move in slow motion, and I eat it. The first one to leap is starting to get close. I draw The Hearts Needle, and I cut all his limbs and head from his torso. The blood coming from the incident is moving in slow motion too. None of the attackers react to the bloody mess that I\'ve just made cause they can perceive his death yet. I\'m probably the fastest player in all of Gaia.

I decide to speed myself up as they all move in slow motion. I zoom between each man and woman interested in killing me, and I chop them into multiple pieces as I did the first guy. I could just stab them all in the heart, but I want it to be gruesome, so all these hunters know not to mess with me. Once word gets out about this incident, no one will be interested in my supposed bounty. After I sliced up the last individual, I slow down to the point that all of them speed up to normal speed, and a bunch of body parts flies everywhere.

Along with blood and internal organs. Many NPC\'s that didn\'t try anything step back and leave in a panic. The only people left in the restaurant are players. Who don\'t react to the bloody show at all. "You couldn\'t just take it outside, could you!?!" The player owner of the restaurant comes out the back and storms over to me. Cussing and saying I\'m never going to be welcomed here again. I can live with that. I\'ve sent the message that needs sending. My face is still hidden, and my identity is safe. If they find me again, it still has to be my Emerald.

I walk out of the restaurant with some disappointment. I never finished my french fries, but that doesn\'t mean I can\'t eat somewhere else. I look to the left and right, both paths of the road, and there are plenty of player own restaurants around here. I just have to pick a new one, and I see one that I like. It\'s a little up the road, but the magnificent sigh draws in a lot of attention. Emerald pokes her head out of the backpack and Mews. "I\'m guessing you\'re still hungry too?" She mews again with a little bit of excitement. Time to go check out that restaurant. Once I\'m done eating there, I\'ll have to get down to business.