91st day, again, again.
After buying the boots and ink at The Wise Wanderer, Ortenz strolled around the city to learn its basic layout. He intended to stay for several days, and being constantly lost would quickly become infuriating, so, with his newly acquired ink and his notebook, the young mage made a rudimentary map of the city or, at least, the zone he visited.
From the Wasp Fountain to the Cheetah Fountain—The eastern entrance, Ortenz mapped nearly everything, except for the small alleys, which he drew with two small lines. He only had an ounce of ink and didn't plan on wasting it on useless details like names, back alleys, or the uninteresting outskirts.
Ortenz looked one more time at his map, then tucked it away in his satchel; sipped an orange juice sat at a restaurant under an umbrella. The few hours he spent strolling around the city hadn't only been passed drawing, no. He also bought food, but that wasn't very interesting. What was, however, was the kidnapping.
Ortenz asked left and right about the kidnapping as he found it ridiculous that the affair hadn't been resolved yet: she was the daughter of a count, not a peasant's daughter, but when he asked, not many people seemed to know anything, and some didn't even know about the kidnapping. The whole thing was strange as, usually, the lord's knights would have already scoured the city from the slums to the castle to find her, then executed the culprits, yet, nothing.
"Something's fishy..." mumbled Ortenz as he looked at guards.
They were patrolling around the fountain while murmuring to each other as they lustfully eyed ladies and laughed loudly. Typical guard behavior: one would say, but Ortenz wondered how many of them knew about the whole situation. Maybe the guards hadn't been informed, it would be strange, but given the circumstances, it wouldn't be so far-fetched.
Ortenz sipped one last time his drink and rose from his seat. "It's too early to look for a room. What should I do?" He was at the Apple Fountain, where there were only restaurants and food stalls; hence, many people of different standings came here to eat, from well-off adventurers to upper-class citizens and nobles; Ortenz even saw a mage, a rarity around here as mages typically prefer bigger cities.
"I could map the northern and southern entrance, but... Meh, I don't know." He wandered around the fountain and further away, in the mains streets, eavesdropping on discussions and paying more attention to people than he had before.
And even if the discussions were as mundane as one could possibly imagine them, Ortenz noticed something: nearly every person that seemed to have money wore clothes from a certain brand: Reified Flamboyance. But this information was useless, except for indicating a possible monopoly on the clothes market.
He also noticed that many men were wearing faint hints of feminine perfume with sweet and fruity fragrances. Usually, Ortenz wouldn't find this strange as the trend, even more among nobles, was, to say the least, bizarre. But when he saw a man in his eighties wearing this same perfume, it caught his attention.
The man seemed old-fashioned. Straight posture, hair curled backward and top of the head bald, two butlers at his sides, and a stern look. This man perfectly represented the stereotype of the severe grand-father. In short, Ortenz was having a hard time imagining him choosing a feminine perfume.
Ortenz spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, mapping it as he walked; he explored the southern part of the city as he heard there was apparently a library there, an old one containing many ancients books and grimoires, but he couldn't find it, and the sun was setting. "Better luck tomorrow," he mumbled as he walked to the Flower Fountain, where he found his inn, the Fairies' Respite.
The reason why he had chosen this inn over another was its price, and the reason its price was so low was because of the inn's location. The Fairies' Respire was situated in the south-east corner of the city, at the Flower Fountain, and the particularity of this Fountain wasn't food, nor clothes or jewelry. It was a certain form of entertainment.
In his insignificant quest of: "Let's find the origin of this perfume!" Ortenz had wandered here and found the said origin: a high-end brothel with prices as outrageous as the chest of the women inside. Ortenz quickly fled the place, not that he didn't enjoy the pleasure of the flesh, but his wallet has threatened to commit suicide if he ever stepped into one of those places. And this brothel was located at the Flower Fountain.
"The prices of the inns here are absurdly low, and the quality frankly isn't so bad," said a drunk guy lying in the gutter while throwing up. Ortenz had listened to the wise advice of this man and found his inn, so cheap he could even afford a bath without spending more than a silver coin; it was a great inn if one ignored the dubious coming from the toilet or the worn-out beds.
The young mage tiredly walked in the dim-witted streets, only illuminated by the moonlight and the occasional lanterns of shops and late-coming citizens returning to their homes. Perhaps not for the mage, who had mostly done tourism, but the day had been tiring for the busy men passing by Ortenz, dragging their feet on the stone pavers as they sighed several times in under a minute. Street after street Ortenz walked, and he now shouldn't be far from his inn, but he was surprised he had walked so much without realizing it.
This was one of the few merits of this journey.
His inn was in sight, a three-story tall building with apparent beams on the outside. It was apparently a local style. A large, luminous sign hung from a beam that protruded from the building.; it read: The Fairies' Respite.
In front of the inn were a few tables, mostly occupied by drunk travelers and some disreputable, but at least they complimented well with the environment, the dark alleys where smugglers, thieves, and beggars awaited; the streets littered with junk and sometimes, traces of blood. Despite its rich clientele, this zone wasn't well served by the guards because of its rampant criminality and peculiar type of inhabitants.
During the day, Ortenz had heard some anecdotes about mutilated bodies of guards hung or impaled found in this corner of the city, but so far, the count hadn't done anything to curb crime.
If one ignored the distant yells and birds, the surroundings were quiet, perhaps even too much for Ortenz's taste. He glanced around from time to time, behind him, in the alleys, on the roofs, and muttered a curse under his breath. "I hate cities at night."
The ever so shrinking streets, the grunts, shrieks, and creaks happening in the dark, out of sight. There was indeed much to say about the night ambiance of cities, but Ortenz wasn't a fan of such a scene, especially because he remembered the advice the shopkeeper gave him. He accelerated the pace and heard a cat hiss in a narrow street.
Ortenz didn't stop and glanced behind, nothing. Then, a hand landed heavily on his shoulder. "Hey, boy!"
The man stopped Ortenz in an instant. "Oi, ya look tired? Ya need to a vent off a bit ya know'?" Despite the darkness, Ortenz perceived the man's impressive stature and musculature. His hand tightened as his lips curled upward. "It's important to have fun! Ya look all straight and tense and all. Not good for yer body!"
"I saw ya walking and looking all down, ya sure look like ya need to comfort, no? Hey, I'll tell ya somethin'... I know a good place, there's nice chicks and it's not too pricey!" Ortenz smiled awkwardly and tried to shrug the man's hand, but his grip was too strong. "N-No, I'm good, thanks."
"Oooh, don't be like that! I see it at yer pose! Come with me." The man put his second hand on Ortenz back and pushed him. "Ya will see. Ya will LOVE it!"
