The youth eventually came full circle, having ridden their carriage through more forested areas of the giant trunk the city was built inside of—eventually now on the same path from before, the ride that didn't belong to him was abandoned and left behind in a nearby strip of trees and moss. The only thing Midas now had in mind was dragging himself and a bitter-looking Uteli to their inn room.
Once he found himself stopped at the entrance area of his inn, the youth froze at the sight of a displayed paper—nailed between others that listed up the characteristics of known criminals or people that went missing, among them now himself and Uteli. The youth slightly panicked at the fast pace of the knighthood—the sun had only begun to set once they arrived here, suggesting that in this timeframe, multiple knights and guards are currently walking the streets in search of him. Having also killed one of their men didn't make their situation any easier; perhaps the treatment of Javelin could be much more rough than the usual captured thief, as the death of the knight could be pinned onto him instead.
Not wanting to be recognized by the person behind the counter or those who squabbled at the tables by their size or hair color, the youth quickly walked up the set of stairs, unlocking their dorm room to quickly retrieve his belongings. His pace eventually slowed down at the sight of her unsure stare—seemingly completely absent mentally, almost puzzled as to why the youth could just move on without knowing what would happen to Javelin. Having pressed his book and the retrieved cloth into his leather bag, the youth turned eventually to Uteli—disrupted by a slowly opening door before being able to speak.
"Could've gotten the bounty that is set onto your two heads right now, you know...?"
Midas's eyes widened in dim shock, turning to Jikith, who easily rested against the doorframe with his arm—his smile and joking tone suggested clearly that he already knew why both of them seemed so stressed. Behind him stood Guan, his skinny torso now covered by a roughed-up green poncho that rested around his shoulders—a leather strap held onto the slim wooden bow and bundle of arrows on his back.
"Why are you here...?"
"Why...?" I think it's quite obvious you two are currently hunted by the knighthood, and being paid five silver coins to retrieve two children sounds like an enticing job to most of the adventurers here. Now, if you want to free your friend again, I can help you... There is even someone who could give you a place to hide in. Of course, only if you are going to repay me somehow."
Midas narrowed his eyes at the driver; the mention of having to repay him sounded somewhat sketchy—especially since the youth already distrusted him for the fact of hiding his real name when around Guan, at least if Avernil really wasn't his actual name. The person that possibly allowed them to hide from the knighthood was also something the youth was uncertain of—not sure if he would be able to trust someone only Jikith himself would know.
"And where do we hide...?"
"Underneath, of course... inside the layer of the elites, completely shut off from any water kingdom knight squadron or lingering adventurer. And before you ask—yes, the person giving you a place to stay is one such elite as well... one that doesn't think much of the current Water Kingdom crown."
Glancing at Uteli, who only stood there with a sunken head, Midas weighed his options before speaking up again. Taking the risk of having to somehow spend another two days before the festival would begin by somehow surviving on the outskirts of the city—possibly encountering multiple knights, plant kingdom guards, or an adventurer with a mana stone—was much riskier than staying inside an unfamiliar person's home, especially if the youth had to encounter Gunvar at the festival to get the powder. Having no secure place to stay in, Midas would most likely be drained of his energy before the fest even began.
"Good, let's go then..."
Not dragging Uteli with him anymore, Midas quickly followed the two of them, forcing her to wake up from her trance of losing Javelin to make sure she wouldn't be left behind. Arriving at the carriage, Midas pulled the girl with her axe inside the ride from behind as Jikith wasted no time to seat himself at the front, steering the wooden carriage towards the center of the city.
"They will never let us go inside there with this kind of carriage...! How do you plan on going down there if the guards surrounding it inspect your ride...?"
"They won't if the one steering it belongs to one of the elite clans. These idiots will simply glance at his long blonde hair and fancy clothing and do the rest of the work for us without even knowing that there are four more people inside this carriage."
Pressing his ride through the masses, Jikith couldn't be bothered slowing his ride down as they forced the dim mass of people roaming the street to split up onto the slim walkways so they could fit through. Seemingly having acquired a new Fahin, the youth watched as both of them halted in front of a tiny shop—the man that left out of it seemed familiar, clothed in a long green robe made of silk in which long flowing patterns of darker green were woven. Giving up the seat for the dimly smiling man with long blonde hair as if all of this had been planned before, Jikith placed himself next to Guan in the back.
"This is Helmut von Glimm'teich; you met him before in case you forgot... this is the man that helped us out after we were stuck just outside of the city."
"That's... Helm?"
Widening his smile, enjoying Midas's surprise as he faced him from the driver's seat, Helmut simply nodded again—not speaking much further as he showed his hands from the long sleeves of his robe to turn his back to the youth, steering the ride without saying much further. As they began to move again, it became clear how eerily smooth the operation of retrieving the two of them went, making Midas cling onto his sickle as the chance of them being backstabbed by the driver suddenly rose up more.
Arriving at the wide wooden platform in the middle, Helmut stepped out of the ride—both the back and the front of the ride were closed off by red curtains, which blocked any vision of who might be seated on the benches of the carriage. Upon seeing him, one of the guards bowed down completely, muttering a welcome in a respectful tone as his free left hand was placed on the right side of his stomach, eventually rising up again, stepping back, and hitting the back of his spear onto the ground, activating the plantstone slotted into it to let the wooden platform descend down.
Finally able to catch a breather, the youth watched as the curtain separating him from Helmut in the front was lifted to the side again by Jikith, his blonde almost an ashy beige color, evenly flowing down his sides to reach the height of his shoulders. After arriving in the same mossy cavern from before, Helmut didn't stop at its entrance, making the Fahin carry them downwards on the spiraling path that led to the base of it, from which multiple caverns started.
The familiar sight quickly changed, however. Once Helmut got out of the ride, his hand grasped onto a silver necklace, retrieving it from under the thin robe to make the plant stone slotted inside the rounded holster glow up. Kneeling down to the mossy ground, the plant kingdom elite placed both of his hands onto the floor, making it abruptly sink for a second, before the round platform eventually descended further much more evenly, a hidden way that the pirates that invaded the inside of the tree hadn't seen before Gunvar and the youth forced them to retreat.
Taking dimly longer than the first platform they used to descend, the carriage now slowly rode through a wide tunnel, passing by multiple wooden doors and decorated windows that were built into the wooden walls surrounding them—most likely being the housing of elites just like Helmut himself. Between the many entrances were vines that spread out on the ceiling over their heads; plump, plumb glowing fruits dangled down the thick stems, illuminating the long pathways that curved either left or right in irregular intervals, as if they drove through the roots of the trunk.
Parking the ride into a hollowed-out space next to a door built into the cavern's wall, all of them walked through the door—Midas dimly awed at the sight of a grand circular room, a wide plant fiber carpet circled through the round space, in its center a glowing stalk of the same fruit that gave light to the room. Ahead were two more doors leading into more rooms the youth wasn't going to explore, seating himself on one of the six cushions laid out on the floor—all of them surrounding a wooden table.
"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Midas. I hope you feel well being brought to this place... This accommodation here is barely used by any of us. I was the one who bought it from its prior owner, who planned on moving to the water kingdom to open up a new business."
"I appreciate your effort to allow us to stay here, given that you'd most likely have some complications with people like us living here."
"Oh, you won't have to worry about my relations with the higher-positioned families... most of us see a much greater risk in keeping water kingdom knights and elites in our territories—you simply proved that, despite their greater financial state and number of people, the water kingdom wasn't able to properly shield their own goods from invaders without suffering any losses."
"Hah, you almost seem happy about their insufficiency."
Not bothered by the position of the man next to him, Jikith leaned forward on the cushion he sat on to grasp the metal can holding a brew of multiple herbs inside, filling up his clay cup that was already prepared on the low-lying table. The light grin of the elite dimmed down slightly as he mustered Midas and Utelis's faces, placing his hands on his thighs as he kneeled onto his seat.
"We can be, yes. You see, Midas... the thing you just did could portray the water kingdom to be much weaker outside their own territory than many of the surrounding states think. Already expecting another disturbance caused by pirates at the festival, the knighthood has quite a lot of eyes on them, especially with the new commander that leads the operation to prove his sufficiency... If you manage to truly steal the Nor'Luft powder from them, their inability to properly guard this festival will be shown to many of our elites and their own nobles that attend the festival—which would be a much wider audience to witness their defeat."
"But why exactly do you want them to fail...?" Aren't they willing to give you protection...?"
"Our close relations to the water kingdom have turned our state into a mere puppet. The initial plan was to strengthen one tiny economy by trading with a much more advanced state. Many of our resources and land were eventually traded for gear and weapons, of which we lacked much, since our volk tends to stay inside the forest, secluded from each other instead of forming together to grow the economy of their state together."
"After the water kingdom saw how reliant we were on them, they increased their pricing for gear, technologies, and weapons... things that were needed to build the Baumfall of today. The past king gave away land, housing, and even ownership of certain businesses that were formed by natives of this kingdom—even taking over the same currency and laws—blinded by past events and the connected origins of our volk. This opportunistic approach was easily taken advantage of by salesmen, who were easily able to acquire certain goods for absurd prices, practically taking away our medicine market our economy was based around."
"The new king, however, has another vision—like me and many of the other clans, he wishes to disconnect from the water kingdom to reclaim businesses, land, and mostly the medicine and herb markets the native plant kingdom salesmen were pushed out of... However, doing so right away would prove more problematic than helpful, since the water kingdom still has a tight grasp on our outside relations with other nations—if we were to separate ourselves, their strong presence could easily sway the opinions of other elites, possibly even allow for an assassination of the current king before the plan comes into play."
"So... in order to keep the current king alive so he can fulfill the plan to grow independent of the water kingdom again, I have to steal the Nor'Luft powder...?"
"It might sound confusing at first, but doing so weakens the image of the knighthood... which in return could start the long process of shrinking the influence of the water kingdom on our state in the long run."
"Don't worry, kid... it won't be Midas who is going to be crashing this festival; it will be the pirates who disturb their day."
Suddenly feeling Jikith's hand on his left shoulder, Midas's face stiffened up in confusion, widening his eyes at the flashing grin of the driver, whose words suggested that he somehow would be affiliated with the same people that sneaked into the inside of the trunk, possibly knowing the man who carries the red stone that enables him to use fire.