CHAPTER 521: CHAPTER 521 - EXPLORING CERYNEIA (PART 3 - COAL CITY)

After the long dinner, it was finally time to rest. I started walking towards the staircase only to hear a complaint from Marius about the need to sleep in separate rooms. I shook my head since I can perfectly understand what he is thinking as of the moment. I smiled in amusement and teasingly replied, "Not because you claimed that I am your wife in front of everyone, it will be true once it is just the two of us."

He pouted after being directly rejected and he even whined a bit, trying to convince me to share a bed with him but I simply teleported away from him so he wouldn’t even know which room I was staying inside this house. Including his room, there were a total of eight rooms in the house and I locked seven of them so he can only access his own room. I wish him luck in trying to find which room I am staying in for the night.

The night went by peacefully on my end though I am not sure if it was the same for Marius. The next morning, I woke up early to have a full breakfast since I will need tons of energy for this busy day ahead. Marius seemed to be still asleep so I left a note on the dining table instead, together with his breakfast.

My first stop for today will be Coal City which is the next area from here if I go towards the center. I sneaked inside Coal City using the secret passage that Marius and the people of Ash City taught me.

It was the parh they used to get in and out of both areas if they need to buy things or look for short term work. The guards never checked or cared about the last two layers so the security was very lax. Security only becomes tight from the area going to the third layer onwards.

I literally crawled into an underground passage which leads inside an abandoned building on the other side of the wall that separated Coal City from Ash City. I did not have a choice since I cannot teleport to a place I have never been to before. That would be suicide even for someone like me who is practically immortal.

Upon exiting the crawl space, my clothes were torn and muddy in most places. I had to use cleaning0 and restoration magic on myself so I would look as clean as I was before I squeezed myself into that damn tunnel.

I stealthily exited the abandoned building and walked towards the streets of Coal City. Once I am in plain sight, I did not even bother to hide my presence since I would stand out no matter what I do. My clothes are too clean for me to be seen as a slave and it is too lavish to be called working clothes for manual laborers.

I looked around and the place was filled with hastily built shanty-like houses left and right. It is still early in the morning so most people must still be sleeping. The only ones that I can see outside on the streets are the manual laborers walking their way towards the inner parts of the layer where they would be reporting for work.

After walking for about two wide blocks towards the center from the abandoned building, the scene changed abruptly. Gone were the shanty-like homes and what appeared in their stead were bigger structures made of stone. They obviously looked like workshops, stores and factories. This is definitely the workers’ district now and the previous place must be the residential area.

The central area has a big flea market of some sort. This may be the reason why the residential area was quiet. Most of the people are already here hawking their wares and also on their way to their manual labor jobs.

As I approached the plaza, I can feel a lot of eyes watching my every move. Sure, I do stand out from everyone else here so I ignored the stares since none were looking at me with malice or killing intent.

Most looks are of confusion and curiosity. I even heard some murmurs about them wondering if I was a noble from the third layer that got lost or maybe I was looking for a slave to buy and have fun with.

I continued walking towards the flea market and looked around. I noticed that the market follows the rule of paying either by Ceryneia currency (pearls and gems of different colors) or the barter system. The market sells food, weapons, tools, clothes, herbal medicine, materials found from the mines, services and lastly, people. As for the last item on that earlier list, it was either someone selling another person or the person selling himself in exchange for either food or money.

As expected of an early morning market, it was noisy and there were a lot of people. I went to the less crowded part of the market and couldn’t help but notice a thin and shabbily dressed man who was weakly sitting on the ground. He was staring on to the more boisterous parts of the market with empty eyes. Though he looked malnourished and unkempt, he still looked good due to his merfolk genes, light royal blue hair, perfect skin and overall handsome features.

I approached the guy and asked casually, "What are you selling and what are you accepting as payment?" His shoulders flinched in surprise as he heard my voice. He looked up slowly towards my direction.

He stared at me for a few seconds and then responded with a soft and hoarse voice, "Myself or my services at least. Preferably short-term. I can accept long term but you have to take in my father and my younger sister too. I just want food as payment."

I nodded my head at his concise and honest reply. Copying the way he talked to foster some kind of familiarity, I replied, "My name is Rina and I am from the dry lands. I have food to pay you. I can consider taking you and your family in if you work for me well. Deal?"

He placed the palm of his right hand on the ground to push his body up so he can stand. When he finally stood up, I noticed that he was tall and indeed very thin. It is evident that he can’t feed himself enough. I wonder how his father and younger sister look like if he is already in this state.

The man must have noticed that I was observing him intently so he avoided eye contact. He then murmured, "My name is Lir. I can do any work that you want me to do but can you give me food first. I am too hungry to work, honestly." We then walked forward side by side towards the quieter parts of the city.

It was surprising that he did not even bother to ask what type of work I will be asking him to do. The only thing he was worried about is for him to be fed so he has the energy to perform his job well later.

I understood what he meant when he said he can’t work on an empty stomach and I honestly even doubt if he could work well even after I fed him a full meal with how lanky he looked. Well, it is not like I will make him do any labor-intensive work but I don’t want him passing out on me due to hunger.

I told him that I wanted to give him some hot food so I needed a place to cook. He stopped walking upon hearing that I wanted to feed him freshly cooked food. He stared into my eyes as if questioning. His face totally is saying, "Why is she being too nice about the food payment when she can just give him something store-bought or anything that she has with her?"

I smiled at him but then I lied smoothly. I told him I was hungry too since I just arrived from the surface early this morning. I also explained that I don’t want to just eat bread or anything raw so I needed a place to cook.

He sighed then told me that he will guide me to a shared cooking area between the workers’ area and residential area. We walked for about 10 minutes until we reached an open rectangular space surrounded by the backwall of 2-storey workshops on two sides and shanty-like homes on the other two.

It was a make shift kitchen comprised of two rows of stone structures. The first row was installed with four stone stoves that looked like they were powered by magic. The next row was a long stone table that is most likely used to prepare ingredients. Finally on one side, there was a long stone trough filled with water and next to it was a well.

The amenities are quite basic but for a place that have barely enough to eat, it serves its purpose so it is perfectly alright. It is way better than nothing. The kitchen has nothing that one could use for cooking though except water so I guess I’ll have to provide everything else before I could start preparing a meal.