Chapter 207: Re-encounter
Fei didn’t know about the huge reaction among the mercenaries back in the pub. After getting out of the pub, the three of them pondered on the street since it was still early in the day and both Angela and Emma wanted to check different places out. It was noon, and there weren’t that many people on the street at this time. The autumn’s sun wasn’t hot. In fact, the weather was chill and comfortable. They went to many stores, and saw many interesting scenes. Soon, they forgot about what happened in the pub and the mood brightened up again.
Hot Spring Gate was named as the northern economical and political pivot hub of the Zenit Empire, and it had all the functional areas that a city could hope for. Fei picked out a few areas that interested him, and the three of them headed over there. The first place they went was a mid-tier auction house that was hosting an auction at the moment. Fei paid close attention to the process, but none of the items in the auction interested him. After spending some time in there, they left.
After the auction, Fei asked for direction to the biggest Money Window in the Hot Spring Gate.
Money Window was like the bank on Earth. They were all backed by the Royal Family or Huge Noble Families. These facilities were responsible for creating liquidity in the gold coins made by the empire, and they were also responsible for converting magic gems and rare items. Since these facilities were very important to the economy of the Azeroth Continent, the magic civilization and its effects were demonstrated here. The connectedness of these Money Windows were so great that if you had enough properties or status, you could become a VIP instantly. A Crystal Magic Card would guarantee you the ability to take out money from any Money Window in the empire, so the trouble of bringing a huge amount of money with you would be avoided.
However, to Fei, the benefit offered by these Money Windows was close to none since he had the huge storage space from the Diablo World. However, since having a VIP Crystal Magic Card from the biggest Money Window chain in the empire meant status and could be used to show off, Fei took out 10 high quality fire magic gems, which were [Ordinary Rubies], and exchanged for 100,000 gold coins to deposit into the account without hesitation. He instantly received a Purple Crystal Magic Card. It looked impressive, so it was perfect for showing off. Fei felt like it would come in handy when he participate in upper class parties in the future.
After leaving the Money Window, Fei felt like he suddenly become very rich. After all, ten [Ordinary Rubies] weren’t the same as 100,000 gold coins. The feeling of putting the Purple Crystal Magic Card into his pocket was very addicting. The King started to hum his little song shamelessly: “Yo, I’m rich, and I don’t even know where I should ditch. I got a Samsung in my left, and I got an IPhone in my right, I’m riding a BMW and ……” As Fei laughed out loud, he had a dumb impulse of hugging Angela by his left arm and hugging Emma by his right arm.
Then, the three of them went to many other places, including the Mage Union, Mercenary Palace, Mage Tower, Defense Wall, Blacksmith Shop, tailor shop, Soros’ Merchant Group’s Hot Spring Division, the Church, slave market, trading market, and the black market from the rumors. Fei got a lot of the info that he was looking for in this trip. His understanding of this world was increasing at an insane speed. Finally, they arrived at the camp of [Rapid Wind Legion]. The defense troop of Hot Spring Gate was tightly guarded and prohibited unauthorized personnel from access. The king would sneak into the camp and see what was the difference of between his 300 bylaw enforcement officers and the [Rapid Wind Legion] which was one of the top ten legions of the empire.
By around 3’o clock in the afternoon, Angela and Emma were very tired. Their feet were at the verge of swelling, but they still wanted to walk around and take in the sights. Women were persistent monsters when it came down to the few things that they actually care about, so Fei purchased a comfortable horse carriage to take the two girls around; Fei himself acted as the groom.
The thrilling experience of riding with beauties in a nice car that Fei didn’t experience in his previous life was realized today. The king of Chambord wasn’t the mysterious master who defeated the Golden Sun Knight or a majestic lord of a Kingdom; at this moment, he was a young man who loved to show off. As he sensed the envy coming from pedestrians who were looking at him and the carriage, Fei felt great. He even wanted to open the window to show everyone that he had two beauties inside.
However, the king’s face turned green when he was feeling the proudest.
“Uh…… Where am I?”
Fei realized that after letting the horse walk freely for a while, he didn’t know where he was. There was no one in these streets, and his expert level anti-directional skill kicked in. He couldn’t tell north from south at all. His horse carriage wandered on the road that was getting tighter and tighter, but Fei couldn’t find the way out. In fact, he couldn’t even remember where he came from.
After about 10 minutes, the horse carriage entered an area that was dirty and quiet. In the maze like area, the air was filled with the stinky smell. It was like a different world compared with the lavish lifestyle of the other areas.
There were almost no one walking on the streets, and there weren’t any stores. There were only small and short houses made from wood and dry grass. The only people that Fei saw where thin, dirty, and in torn clothes. Black stinky water floated on the ground, and rotten garbage was filed up on the sides of the streets; Fei even saw some human corpses in the garbage piles. Dirty and vicious wild dogs and cats ran in the garbage piles in groups and tried to dig out food. From their dirty fur and thin bodies, Fei could tell that their lives were horrible as well.
“This must be the ghetto of Hot Spring Gate…..” Fei thought.
Fei didn’t try to leave right away after he saw everything. He sensed the familiar dark sensation that came off of the dark skinned young man at the Ivy League Pub. After some thinking, he rode the carriage towards that direction.
On the way, he saw some women who were thin and had a dull expression walking to the side of the street when they heard some noise.
It was quite chilly in late autumn, but they were wearing very little clothes. Their thin bodies were exposed as they shivered in cold. They eyes shone and waved as they saw people walking by. They were prostitutes.
The trade with these prostitutes were very simple. Fei saw some rough and violent mercenaries pick a few women who weren’t that thin among all the women as they pushed others away and started to do it on the street by just pulling down their pants. The payment that these women received were just a piece of dry black bread. One of the women was perhaps too hungry; she threw the bread into her mouth despite the fact that the mercenary was on top of her……
Fei sighed; he couldn’t really do much as an individual in this situation.
Of course, this area wasn’t a stranger to crimes. After a few minutes of proceeding, a scream and begging sounded on the side of the street, and Fei was just in time to witness the killing. A white haired elder got half of his head chopped off by two teenage boys around fifteen years old. As the elder fell down, the two half naked boys grabbed onto the pickled carrot in the elder’s hand and started to bite onto it like animals. When they saw Fei, they swung their rusty blades that were still dripping blood while their eyes shone a vicious light……
After about another ten minutes, the sensation of that dark skinned boy got stronger and stronger. After a turn, a cleaner clear area appeared in front of Fei. This space was fenced off by wood, and more than two dozen small wooden fences were built on the west side in an organized manner. In the middle of the clear space, Fei saw both York and the young man Philip who he met at the Ivy league Pub. The two of them were leading more than twenty kids who were about twelve years old to practice combat skills.
“Straighten your body…… be steady……suck your stomach in….. Yeah, that’s right!”
Old York was standing in front of the kids with his back towards Fei. He was instructing the kids a very basic punching technique. He was frowning as if something was bothering him; but after he saw the thankful and admiring look on these kids’ face, he relaxed a little and forced a smile onto his face as he continued to instruct the kids.
The dark skinned young man Philip was also practicing among the kids earnestly.
The familiar chilly sensation that Fei felt came from him. Fei felt it so clearly that he knew this dark skinned young man had secrets that others didn’t know about.
The clip-clop noise of the hooves sounded, and the kids all stopped. They blinked their eyes as they saw the luxurious magic horse carriage. They all had an envious, surprised, and scared expression on their faces. A kid that had a mushroom hair cut lightly pulled one of York’s sleeves.
“Little Andrew, why aren’t you practicing…… Huh?”
When York turned around and saw the magic horse carriage, he shouted in surprise. It was rare for a luxurious horse carriage to appear in the ghetto. But when he saw the person sitting on the spot of the groom, he was shocked. He gasped and rubbed his eyes as he didn’t know what to do.
“Hey, Uncle York, don’t recognize me anymore?” Fei jumped off of the carriage and laughed.
Behind him, the door to the carriage opened, and both Emma and Angela peek out their heads. When Emma saw York, she got mad. She still hadn’t forgot how this man left the pub without any courage. It was obvious how York and the dark skinned young man acted this morning didn’t fit Emma’s moral code.
“I do, I do! You…… You are King Alexander?” York said with an ashamed expression. He didn’t know what to do for a moment. Then, he walked up and suddenly kneeled in front of Fei. That action alone scared both Fei and the two girls.