Chapter 356: Human City
Urgent reports from human scouts disturbed Mirkavala, which had not yet been fully rebuilt - a dwarf from the Norse Mountains brought bad news.
Outside the gate of Mirkavala, Carado the Wild Bear staggered to the ground and swore that he would never leave the ground again. No dwarf had ever ridden a horse, and his personal experience proved that this was a wise move.
Granny's hammer! If the Ugol man hadn't helped him, he would have fallen into a snow pit halfway.
The dwarf looked at the dilapidated human city with curiosity. If the dwarf city was a magnificent classical capital, then the human town was a village so simple that it was difficult to describe.
The rubble and debris had been cleared, but the relatively new, not-so-tall buildings betrayed the fact that this place had been destroyed.
Based on the architectural knowledge that Karado had learned and observing the current architectural layout of humans, even in the heyday of this city, in the eyes of the dwarves, it was at most a larger village.
It looked like a fortress divided by countless low walls. All humans lived behind the walls. Circles of battlements divided it into countless rings. At the end of the dwarf's sight, a towering dome pierced through the low houses, overlooking the entire city out of place.
Above the wonder that can be called a palace, a suspended pyramid floats quietly there, giving Karado a strange contrast of backwardness and advancement.
This world is really strange.
Humans may not have seen dwarves for a long time. Karado thought he would be surrounded by onlookers, but there was no curiosity or suspicion on the faces of those passing by, only indifference as if they were used to it.
Karado forgot what the Ugor people around him were called, but it didn’t matter. He just had to follow the humans to meet the local lords and then throw the bad news to them.
Karado slowly took the suitcase from the packhorse and picked up the troll stomach containing a full set of plate armor with one hand. Under the close attention of the human soldiers on the city wall, he and the Ugor who led the way entered the city smoothly.
The pedestrians coming and going were hurried and lively. There were no numb people as Karado had imagined. He thought that under the backward system of mankind, there were few living people with normal thoughts, but what he saw were people busy running for life, living for themselves.
Hunters shouted and displayed the bloody skins they had just peeled off, and butchers placed the cut pieces of meat on tables on both sides of the street for tourists to choose from.
Carriages from all over the place brought tree trunks still covered with snow and dry branches. Wood merchants and craftsmen were busy bargaining over the wood. From time to time, young men and women would exchange branches and charcoal that could be used as fuel with money or in kind.
Money moved rapidly between people's hands, and soldiers coming and going ensured that it was circulated legally.
Occasionally, one or two unlucky pickpockets were caught, and Karado watched with interest as they were escorted to an unknown place by soldiers.
"Where will they go? How do your laws punish criminals?"
The dwarf advanced stubbornly among the crowd with his stable lower body, and his loud voice seemed to be afraid that the Ugor rider could not hear it.
"Who knows? Maybe it's the mines in Tchaikovsky, maybe it's the lumber camp in Sanovsky, but I guarantee that everyone will be whipped a few times, but it will only hurt a few times.
Valeriboye is too kind. The rules he set cannot warn people who want to cause trouble. When Levichboye was still around, thieves would have their hands broken. "
"It sounds like your former lord was a harsh man."
"Before the war, every boyar was very strict. After the war, the law became much more relaxed. Who knows what the boyars were thinking? In my opinion, criminals should pay with their lives for their crimes, or at least be disabled."
Karado responded with a smile but did not express his own opinion. He just wanted to know what to pay attention to in human territory. Now it seems that there is nothing to pay attention to.
Kislev was not a highly centralized monarchy as Karador had imagined.
The words of the Ugors revealed the weakness of royal power - small lords could even make laws on their own.
There were abnormally many pedestrians in the city. It was not until noon that Karado crossed the fifth wall dividing the city and arrived at the center of the city.
If a war breaks out, this city is full of potential fortresses, and any street can become a line of defense.
Of course, the premise is that the enemy is a normal human being. Some strange creatures will not attack the city in the human way.
Karado's eyes wandered among the houses and crowds on both sides. This urban area seemed to be the core area of human beings. He thought that humans would establish an administrative center in that palace.
There were obviously a lot more soldiers in the inner city, and very few civilians came and went.
Young humans wearing coats made of wild animal skins often passed by with teams of soldiers. The Ugor man who led the way was no longer as relaxed and casual as he was in the outer city. He looked extremely nervous.
From time to time, he would stop and say hello to the young people who had not yet lost their youthfulness - these little guys were actually boyers.
So why would a group of boyars gather in one city, rather than ruling in different places? Isn't the Tsar worried about the changes in the land? It seems that the border lords of Kislev have come together, and at least ten boyars have joined this alliance.
Karado had no time to think about it because he saw something unexpected.
A bearded dwarf.
The old dwarf walked arm in arm with a frail human who looked like a charlatan or a fraudulent prophet.
Eugen hunched his body with difficulty to accommodate the dwarf's height.
Sorian not-so-secretly put his ear close to Eugen's and told him the secret information he had discovered in a voice that could be described as a roar, making the "secret communication" that was meant to cover up one's own faults a torture to the human eardrum.
"The ruins are no longer safe. I swear in the name of Grimnir. I saw a sneaky shadow on the upper level of the pyramid yesterday."
Maybe this is how dwarves communicate secrets. Eugen could only think so. He could hear the suppression in the dwarf's words, but no matter how suppressed his voice was, it could still shake off the dust on the wall.
He is a man of great adaptability. Only a fool would go against the dwarves. They are all fools.
Eugen's keen second vision allowed him to instantly detect the strange gaze. He subconsciously followed his intuition and happened to catch the corner of his eye before the Norse dwarf could dodge.
Eugen patted the dwarf on the back, interrupting the secret intelligence that the long-bearded dwarf was about to unfold, and making Sorian also notice the young dwarf.
(End of this chapter)
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