Chương 415: 410. Ulriga - II

Calubo looked around carefully, seeing new faces everywhere. Different clothes, different accents in the snippets of speech he caught. Men in worn work tunics. Women with scarves pulled tight. Traders in better coats—the recent rains had cooled down the weather noticeably. A few laborers pushing handcarts with their heads down like they'd done it a thousand times. There were some children too, hanging near adults and shifting from foot to foot restlessly. Pydaso glanced at him.

"First time you're coming here, right?"

"Yeah," Calubo nodded, and he knew his voice sounded a little too quick.

"Keep your eyes open," Pydaso said quietly.

"It's safe here, so close to the gate guards, but once we enter the city, there are street urchins and thieves everywhere. They'll snatch what you're carrying right in front of you. Don't get distracted by the city just because everything's shiny and flashy." Calubo nodded once.

"Nothing's going to happen to our cargo. I'll make sure of it." He said it like a promise, and he meant it. Lord Kivamus had trusted him. Hudan had trusted him. He wasn't going to let them down. Still, his eyes flicked up toward the huge wall again, then back to the gate. He wished Hyola was here. She'd never seen a city like this either. Neither of them had. The thought made him miss her suddenly, but he pushed the feeling down. This was no place to be distracted by his sweetheart waiting back at home.

The line crept forward slowly but steadily. The cobblestones ended at a stretch of wood—drawbridge planks laid thick and reinforced. Calubo noticed there were two bridges side by side: one for entry on the left, one for exit on the right. The exit side moved faster, but even that had guards checking people as they went. He'd still expected bribery here. Cinran had been like that. Smaller villages on their route had been like that too. Someone always wanted a few coppers to 'make it easy.'

But here, the guards looked sharp and busy and there was no hint of any coins changing hands. There were too many people waiting to enter the city and too much traffic for laziness. It was just... busy and active and bustling. Calubo watched the guards working sternly as the line shuffled ahead. Three guards handled each wagon line—one reading papers, the other two checking cargo when needed. Two guards managed each line of pedestrians, and another pair managed each waiting line of small traders.

On the exit side, there were more guards doing the same, moving people along and stopping anyone who looked suspicious. Further inside the entry lanes, he saw another half dozen guards gathered around a knight who looked like he was the highest authority here. On the exit side of the gate, a bigger group—maybe a dozen—sat near the road, sheathed swords kept on their sides, their shields balanced on chairs, watching the flow with eyes that didn't drift. Calubo started counting without meaning to.

Over 40 guards were working here, doing one thing or another, and this was just one gate of the city, on one shift. That meant over a hundred guards would be needed just to cover all shifts of just one gate, and he'd heard Ulriga had many such gates on all sides of it. It added up to the city needing more than a thousand guards, just for gate-duty, if the numbers stayed anything like this. And that didn't count the men patrolling on top of the walls. Or the ones inside keeping order within the city. Or the knights.

Or the personal guards of all the nobles living inside the city... He felt a strange mix of awe and unease. This city wasn't just big. It was humongous. On their way here from Tiranat, they had stopped in Cinran for a night, which was the biggest town he had seen in his life before coming here, and he had believed it was such a big place compared to Tiranat, that there couldn't be anything bigger than that. But only now he realized how wrong he was.

Even Cinran would easily be fit twenty to thirty times over inside those walls, and there would probably still be some empty space left... It was just astounding... Looking at those huge walls, he felt that Ulriga was a fortress in all but name. No wonder this city had never been breached in a war! Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Calubo stared at the stonework again. Close up, the blocks looked even heavier.

His mind went to old stories his father used to tell in his childhood about the mad king. Around a hundred years ago, when the mad king Kreslinus Vorlarken started his campaign of conquering the western lands of Cilaria, starting from his home city of Dorastiz, and eventually conquered the whole area which was today known as the Reslinor Kingdom, even he hadn't been able to breach the walls of Ulriga.

The Duke of Ulriga at that time, who called himself the King of Ulriga before that campaign, eventually did have to submit to the mad king because the extended siege of his city had forced his hands, but even then it was mostly a compromise between them instead of a subjugation, since the city walls still hadn't been breached even once despite all the might of the mad king! Seeing those towering walls and its defenses from his own eyes convinced Calubo that those stories were indeed the real truth. Just amazing!

Then the line moved again and it was their turn. A guard stepped up, his armor creaking faintly.

"Papers," he said, holding out a hand. Pydaso leaned forward, calm as ever.

"Oh, I'm a regular merchant here, you know? I came here with these two wagons less than a month ago." The guard's stare was uncompromising. Pydaso sighed overtly, and handed over a document with an official looking stamp. Calubo couldn't read it from where he sat—and yes, he really could read now—but he noticed the guard's eyes scanning it quickly. The guard made a short gesture to the other two.

"Check the wagons." Calubo's pulse jumped. What if they found their secret storage space? What if they found the Acelos tablets? He was getting more and more anxious when Pydaso slapped his back suddenly, holding a huge grin.

"I know you're hungry but there's nothing to worry about. There's a good tavern just a little ahead of the gate. It's been a long journey, so we'll have a good meal and some ale there before we find a place to sleep." Calubo's mind went blank for a moment, wondering why the merchant was talking about him being hungry... He had never even mentioned that. Then he realized that Pydaso was just trying to distract him from his thoughts. Shit!

If the merchant had noticed his fearful expression, what if the guards noticed it too? He swallowed, and forced a grin on his face, hoping the facade held long enough.

"Can't wait!" The other guards moved in closer to the wagons, unhooked the oil cloth, and folded it open. Coal filled the wagon bed, piled high, black and dusty. One guard dug a hand in, shifting the top layer aside, then leaned and checked deeper. Another walked to the second wagon and did the same, the driver sitting stiff with his hands on the reins. Calubo forced himself not to move. Not to look nervous. His mind kept flashing to the false bed, and the hidden compartment beneath.

If they decided to tear into it— The guards didn't. They checked under the top layer, checked along the edges, and one even crouched to look beneath the wagon. Then he stood and nodded to the first guard. Soon, the guard checking the second wagon returned with another nod. The leader handed the paper back.

"You can enter." Calubo took a slow breath that felt like it scraped his throat on the way out. Pydaso didn't look rattled at all. He gave a pleasant smile and a nod of thanks to the guards, and flicked the reins again. The wagons rolled forward over the entry bridge, wood thumping under the wheels, then cobblestone again on the other side. By the time Calubo's heartbeat slowed down and he looked at the merchant, he saw Pydaso gave him a sideways smirk as if he'd seen that exact fear on a dozen faces before.

"You did well enough for a first-timer smuggling something valuable," the merchant praised in a low voice.

"Just try not to look so alarmed next time. The guards only start thinking there is something wrong when they see someone looking scared. Otherwise, our papers are top-notch, and they certify me as a regular merchant traveling on the Ulriga to Cinran route. Nobody can hold us based just on that." Calubo didn't think he could speak anything at the moment, so he just nodded, keeping the instructions in mind for the future. The wagons kept moving, and soon they passed beyond the huge arches of the gates.

Once they were inside the city, Ulriga hit Calubo all at once. Noise of all kinds. Voices everywhere, overlapping enough that he couldn't make anything out clearly. Wheels clattering, on the main roads and the side alleys. Hooves striking stone. A vendor calling out from somewhere he couldn't see. The smell of animals, smoke, damp stone, and too many people packed into one place. He had to take a few more deep breaths just so he wouldn't get overwhelmed.

The wagon moved further and he started noticing the city with a clearer mind. Even the houses located near the gate were at least two stories tall, built close together, with proper beams and finished walls. Even the smallest ones looked expensive compared to what he'd grown up with. Farther in, he could see taller buildings—three to four stories high—some with upper floors jutting slightly over the cobblestone streets.

These were known as apartments according to Pydaso, where many different families lived in separate dwellings located within the same building. He already knew the term though, having heard rumors that Lord Kivamus had something similar planned for Tiranat in the future. It felt... crowded, and yet it meant that the families had a separate space for themselves, quite unlike the public bunks available to the villagers in the longhouse blocks.