Chapter 503: Tharion [Part 3]
"Tell me, Elf lady, what the hell are these many of you all doing on Earth?"
In that moment, everything seemed to go blank; the air suddenly felt too thick to breathe, each inhale shallow and panicked as if the very oxygen was betraying her.
Every creak of the floor, every distant murmur, sent her heart into a violent staccato, hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
Her hands, crossed upon each other right below her abdomen, trembled. She pressed them together, trying to steady herself, trying to convince her body to be still.
As she heard those words, in that moment, there was nothing but fear-raw, suffocating fear.
Everything she had been working so hard for, they had been working so hard for... was going to come crashing down because of some strange, ominous young child.
No!
She was not going to have it.
Slap!
"How dare you grope my chesticles! Guards! Throw this underage scoundrel out of this place right now!!"
Northern, who had just received a slap on the face with how close he had leaned in, froze, shocked and short of words.
Immediately, people threw glances at their area; the guards also looked around their area and were coming closer.
A dark grin parted Northern's lips. 'I see... that's how you want to play?'
He grinned even harder into the lady's face as he responded with a very audible voice.
"You shameless elf lady, aren't you the one that keeps trying to seduce a sixteen-year-old! I'm not even legal yet, you should drown yourself in a river of shame, you cougar!"
Northern expected two kinds of gazes. The first kind was going to turn the embarrassment back on the lady.
The entire crowd might not be convinced that he didn't grope the lady's chesticles. But they'd also have disgust towards the lady who is seducing a child that hasn't become a full-blown adult.
And the second part of the crowd, the workers. He had intentionally added "elf lady" there for
a reason.
Without any waste of time, the guards at the door came towards them and grabbed all three of them, dragging them outside and eventually out of the gate.
Before long, the atmosphere of the citadel had returned to the usual; people muttered here and there, but the air of enjoyment continued.
The workers, however, all had a weary and worn-out expression on their faces.
Northern dusted the best piece of mundane clothing he had worn in months as he stood up from the ground.
After finishing, he turned to meet Shin's furious gaze.
"What exactly just happened there?"
Northern looked at him and shrugged, "I don't know... I tried busting their cover?"
Shin held his head together, trying his best to keep it together.
"North, you have been behaving very weirdly since you came back from the Dark Continent, but I have intentionally not taken anything up with you. Because I believe eighteen months in whatever hell that place was must have had a lot of impact on you. But boy, any more and I think I might start to swell to the point of bursting. Do you understand the importance of what we are trying to do?"
Northern looked at his father with a blank face; he looked at the two guards who stood like statues still, then he sighed and turned away.
"I'm hungry."
Ryan raised his hand slightly up too, "Me too..."
"Let's go get something to eat then."
"I want to have that bread from this morning again."
"Yeah! That, it was actually amazing. Dude, we should totally get that!"
Their voices grew distant from Shin, who stood with a red-hot forehead, glaring at Northern as he trekked forward nonchalantly with Ryan.
He took a deep breath in and expelled it heavily before briskly moving towards them.
Northern made no mention of anything; they found a good tavern, where they went ahead to eat breakfast.
Since they had little change left, Shin opted for minimal food, giving them fresh bread and honey tea, along with tenderized sofur meat.
The Sofur meat could be compared to lamb meat back on Earth. There were other more expensive dishes, but it was the best choice for commoners who wanted to save their money.
Aside from the fact that it was tasty and enjoyable to eat, the meat also had its nutritional benefits.
But Northern was more concerned with how tasty it was to eat; apparently, it's a meat cultivated from a monster that had been tamed over the years to become a farm animal.
After the breakfast, Northern decided that he was going to gather more information about the Tharion citadel and insisted that he wanted to go alone.
And they decided that they would meet at the Sleep'n Tight auberge. Since things have gone south, it seemed that they would have to spend another night there.
Shin silently wondered what exactly Northern was up to and how their movement was going to be from this place.
The more he looked at Northern's actions, the more he felt like the boy had something in mind but was not communicating it to anyone.
He wished Northern would at least tell him his plan, but he decided not to stubbornly insist but instead trust his son.
"To be honest, I will call them a savior."
"Yes, really, the Citadel Headmaster does not infringe absurd taxes on us, and he protects us from rifts and field monsters. Since Tharion came around, South Drywall has begun to enjoy the kind of abundance of resources that kingdoms have and refuse to share."
"My friend here is right; at this point, I don't think anyone would mind should they decide to rename the city Tharion and become a nation."
Northern raised a brow, 'A nation ruled by elves... I don't know if that's a really good call.'
"Don't look like that. It's because you are a traveler that you don't know. The headmaster there is really nice and dependable. I hear he is an Ascendant even; very soon, he would become a Paragon."
"Just an Ascendant?" Northern was shocked; to be honest, he had expected more, since they were elves and from everyone he spoke of, these elves seemed to have gathered mountainous
respect from the people.
Of course, no one except him knew of their elven origins.
"What do you mean just Ascendant? Look at this kid, tsk tsk, you think being an Ascendant is a
small feat?"
"Let's go... this guy obviously does not know what he is saying."
Northern watched, deadpanned, as the two civilians he was talking to marched away with
irritation and disgust at his words.
"I didn't mean to do that..." He muttered, then sighed, looked up and around before walking
forward.
When he got to the mouth of a slightly dark alley against the ebbing evening, Northern cut
into the alley and continued to walk forward.
He got to the closed end of the alley and exhaled tiredly.
"You've been following me since morning; aren't you guys tired?"
The men cloaked in shadowy apparel trembled in shock and took a step back, their faces contorted with terror, pearls of sweat washing down the revealed part of their masks.