Under the City (3)
It was the sixth day since they had officially set out on their carriage journey, and their destination, Balifield, was finally within reach. This meant that this tedious, endless carriage ride was finally drawing to a close.
To be honest, Yohan had once romanticized the idea of a carriage journey. But reality, as always, fell short of expectations.
"Yaaawn—" How boring. Spending the entire day rattling along in a carriage was not exactly a thrilling experience.
The first two days after they dealt with the bandits had been decent enough. Chatting among the three of them—including the Goddess, who occasionally manifested in her child form—was actually quite pleasant. It was a far cry from his days of rubbing shoulders with foul-tempered grave robbers who lacked even a shred of social decency. At one point, he had even thought that accepting the Goddess's plea to become her Apostle had been a pretty good decision.
But they quickly ran out of things to talk about. To make matters worse, the Goddess, who had thrown a tantrum demanding to ride the carriage in her physical form, had eventually retreated back into her spiritual state after succumbing to motion sickness.
"..." Of course, Yohan knew all too well that traveling through the wilderness in a carriage wasn't supposed to be a joyride. Having been part of a grave-robbing crew until recently, he had traversed this region multiple times.
Still, he had hoped that traveling at a leisurely pace for an actual journey would feel a bit different. But it was mind-numbingly dull. Falco, who sat beside him on the driver's seat, was currently nodding off, unable to fight the boredom. Yohan was practically praying for another band of highwaymen to jump out and pick a fight.
On top of that, the carriage's rigid suspension—or lack thereof—transmitted every single bump on the road directly to his rear, making his buttocks ache and fueling his irritation. This was actually an improvement; as they neared Balifield, they had finally hit a proper road. Though, calling it a "proper road" was generous, considering it was just a dirt path cleared of major rocks.
—Traveling leisurely through such open space on a beautiful day like this is truly wonderful.
At least the Goddess seemed satisfied with the carriage ride, which was a relief. Her insistence on maintaining a physical form in the first place was likely so she could experience the journey through her own eyes, ears, and skin. She had been imprisoned for thousands of years. While Yohan couldn't fathom the weight of millennia, he wanted to help her in his own way.
—Apostle. How fares your heart?
"Honestly, I'm kind of regretting this right now," Yohan replied, breaking his long silence as the Goddess posed her question.
—Is it because it is not as enjoyable as you anticipated, but rather tedious?
"Yeah."
—But by your own words, teleporting with my Authority is too perilous, so we had no other choice.
"True."
—Furthermore, you said we would reach this 'Balifield' by today, so do not dwell on such negative thoughts.
"Sure, sure." To think he was being consoled by a crybaby who wept at the slightest provocation. Yohan let out a heavy sigh.
"Oh, there it is." After traveling a bit further, traces of civilization finally began to peek over the horizon.
—Oh, so that is... The Goddess murmured in awe at the sight of the massive stone walls stretching across the vast wilderness.
"Mmh..." Perhaps awakened by Yohan's raised voice, the dozing Falco quickly snapped awake.
"You awake?" Yohan asked. Falco glanced at him, then quickly turned her head to look ahead. "We're almost there." "Yep."
Even the horses pulling the carriage seemed to sense that their journey was nearing its end. Without Yohan even having to spur them on, they picked up their pace. Before long, the towering walls surrounding the city filled their vision.
—I can feel countless lives beyond those walls. Though, I know not if any among them will become my believers.
"What are you so worried about? When you think about it, both of us were on the brink of death and just got lucky enough to survive."
—Heh. You do speak sense on occasion. Yohan snorted at her words, but a smile played on his lips. Falco, who had been quiet, also let her lips curl upward. She seemed to understand the silent exchange between the two based on Yohan's words alone.
Yohan pulled the carriage to a stop near the city gates. As if waiting for them, several guards clad in armor and wielding spears approached. "Stop right there and get down." At the guard's command, Yohan and Falco climbed down from the carriage.
"Coming from that direction, you don't exactly look like upstanding citizens," one of the guards sneered, squinting at Yohan and Falco. He pointed a finger toward the direction of Junk Town. "Your carriage is shiny and new, but you look like bums. Did you plunder this from somewhere?"
—How dare he flap his lips so insolently! To think he would... The Goddess's furious voice echoed in Yohan's mind.
Yohan didn't particularly care whether the guard tried to pick a fight or not. In fact, he had fully expected to hear something like this the moment they bought such a large, flashy carriage in Junk Town. However, the Goddess's reaction touched him. I guess she really is a deity. She actually cares about her one and only Apostle. The thought brought a slight warmth to his chest.
—If anyone is going to insult you, it should be me! I will not tolerate some random nobody badmouthing my Apostle!
"..." I'm an idiot for being touched, even for a second. Yohan dragged a hand down his face. He immediately reached into his coat and pulled out a few silver coins he had pocketed while raiding the grave robbers' hideout.
"Oh, come on. Didn't a few petty thieves escape from Junk Town recently? I came here after hearing about that."
"Ah, those guys." Yohan had spoken in circles, but fortunately, the quick-witted guard caught on immediately. A party of only two traveling in an unnecessarily large carriage, coming all the way from Junk Town to Balifield to look for "petty thieves"—anyone could see they were bounty hunters or trackers. The silver coins Yohan offered were a token of sincerity, asking the guard to look the other way.
"So, do you happen to know anything?" Yohan asked, sliding another silver coin forward.
"I did hear something... but I had a drink before my shift, and my brain's a bit foggy." Yohan, expecting this, pulled out yet another coin. Only then did the guard nod in satisfaction.
"Right. It's coming back to me." "What happened to them?" Gathering information from local guards before starting a full-scale search in the city was a solid strategy. Both Yohan and Falco, who had stepped down with him, focused their attention on the guard.
"They're all dead. Apparently, they got into a fight among themselves or something." The guard spoke casually, as if it were no big deal. "What the fuck?"
The grave robbers who had pulled off one last heist in Junk Town and fled had been completely wiped out in Balifield. This was something even Yohan hadn't anticipated. Still, since they had already come this far, they needed to investigate further. Yohan looked for an inn that could accommodate their large carriage.
"We are... completely screwed, aren't we?" Yohan muttered his honest thoughts as he unpacked in their room. Flash! At that moment, the Goddess, who had been in her spiritual form, manifested in the room. Her expression was equally bewildered.
"Yohan. Maybe Wilhelm already knew about this," Falco suggested. "Hmm..." Yohan crossed his arms, mulling it over. Her theory made sense. It implied that Wilhelm knew from the start that the grave robbers had been purged in Balifield, and had used the quest as a pretext to indirectly grant Yohan—who was technically an enemy of the town—an honorable discharge.
"That makes sense. It really does." Her guess was certainly plausible. "But I think differently." "Why?" Falco asked.
"Don't overcomplicate it. Just look at Wilhelm as a person." "As a person?" "Do you really think Wilhelm is the kind of flexible guy who would go out of his way to do us a favor like that?" Falco couldn't find an answer to Yohan's question. In a way, she was conceding that he was right. When they had first entered Junk Town, Wilhelm had treated them with such hostility that they thought he might strip the flesh from their bones. Thus, this quest couldn't have been a mere ruse to grant them residency. At least, the Wilhelm Yohan knew was not a man of such convoluted, petty schemes.
"It's much more likely that even if that old man knows Junk Town inside out, he just hadn't heard about what happened here in Balifield yet." Falco nodded at Yohan's explanation.
"Apostle." "Yeah, what?" The Goddess, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, finally spoke. "The guard we met earlier... is he not a retainer of the lord who rules this city?" Calling a guard a "retainer" felt a bit grand, but it wasn't technically wrong, so Yohan nodded.
"I do not understand how such a person could speak so casually of a band of criminals being slaughtered." "The reason is simple," Falco answered in Yohan's stead. Yohan quietly waited for her to continue.
"Junk Town was a place where bad people like Yohan and me gathered to live, but Balifield is a place where the light and the dark coexist." "A place where light and dark coexist?" The Goddess tilted her head, not quite grasping the concept. Yohan exchanged a brief look with Falco.
"Well, we have to visit it anyway. Since we're talking about it, let's head over right now." "Okay." Yohan and Falco quickly packed their things again. "Where are you going?" "To Balifield's dark side." Yohan gave a brief reply to the Goddess's question and opened the door to their room. At that moment, the Goddess returned to her spiritual form.
"A while back, when you heard the name Balifield, you said it sounded like a peaceful farming village, right?" —Indeed, I did. "Apparently, it actually used to be like that." Geographically speaking, there was little reason for Balifield to attract a diverse crowd. It was far removed from the center of the continent, and the position of the lord governing this territory was practically a minor, backwater post.
"But Balifield has an Undercity." —An Undercity? "Yeah." Yohan and Falco quickly wove through the crowds of pedestrians, heading toward a specific destination. "We're here." They arrived at the mouth of a river that flowed along the edge of the city.
"Back when this entire area was nothing but fields, someone stumbled upon something interesting." Yohan strode into a dilapidated building built along the riverbank. Falco scanned their surroundings to ensure they weren't being watched before following him inside. "No one knows who built it or when, but there's a dungeon right beneath this city."
—Are you saying that wicked things swarmed directly beneath a town where people lived? "No. Apparently, there weren't really any monsters. It was just a massive underground space." This was the reason why Balifield, which should have remained a mundane farming village on the fringes of the continent, had flourished as a gray zone. Yohan and Falco pulled open a trapdoor set into the floor of the old building.
—I... I feel something from below. The Goddess spoke in a startled tone. Indeed, as the two descended beneath the trapdoor, the muffled clamor of a bustling crowd began to drift up to them.
"The grave-robbing crew we belonged to actually originated from here," Falco explained. "To be precise, they were a sub-faction of a gang based in this underground world," Yohan added. Soon, the Undercity of Balifield revealed itself. In a space so vast and open that it was hard to believe it was underground, haphazardly constructed buildings stood shoulder to shoulder. At a glance, it looked no different from a bustling town on the surface.