The late afternoon streets were still chock-block full of people, even worse than the crowd at noon-time, forcing Lars to manoeuvre around the oncoming traffic repeatedly. Many of those who began their work and tasks in the early mornings were returning at this time to do some shopping at the markets or to get a mid-afternoon drink before heading home.At one point, a group of 6 knights in light plate armour galloped past and held back the crowd to clear the way for a regal carriage to proceed smoothly.
As the procession hastened by, he heard some inane but amusing chatter from a pair of men walking behind him, one tall and thin, the other short and stout. He listened in and tried not to laugh at the comical pair"s conversation.
"Yo... You heard da news bout the demon goat?"
"No, wazappen?"
"Goat with two heads I tell ya! And it walked like a human! Creepy..."
"Ya sure iz not bcuz you f***ed it? Ehhehe... Ya know yaself and how much ya love dem goats, huh!"
"F*** ya in da face, Mitch! Ptui!" The shorter spat in indignance, then muttered, "I dint gone an" f***ed *that* she-goat, no I dint..."
Then after a short pause, the stout man continued on, "Did ya heard da news about da new special investigator from Danedaar...? Heard she"s a tasty, feisty one..."
"Shh! Shut yer trap! Ya"ll gon get us in trouble!"
There was a short pause before the taller and thinner man in the odd duo continued, "But yeh... I"d love to get me a dip into *her* honeypot... Gyihihi!"
"Yeh.. I heard she only brought 1 team member... Think we could take him... And *take* her...? Ehhehehe!"
"Someone new in town...?" He made a mental note of the change in kingdom personnel. Perhaps it would come in useful.
As he continued on his roughly 1.2 km journey from his lodging to the tourist information centre, he began eaves drop in earnest, paying attention to what was on people"s minds these days. And he began to hear news. Worrying, troubling news.
"The Sino 12-planets Alliance reports successful capture of a new subsidiary planet, Raituo in the Andromeda galaxy..."
"Senthil claims that the wormhole discovered will provide low cost resources! Dammit! If only I"d listened to him! Stock prices will soar!"
"All-Heaven Divine Empire"s Chen family invades Sakuto cl.u.s.ter! The Nain Industries and Chamber of Commerce"s imports from Sakuto likely face heavy disruption!"
"Phew...! Glad I sold all my shares a month ago!"
"What"s that? All-Heaven whatchamacallit? Never heard of them before... They must be some weak single-planet kingdom trying to strut their stuff with the name as an "Empire"! Hahaha!"
"Western Nalar planets declare war on the central Nalar coalition - rumours say for newly discovered etherium mana node at planetoid WN772!"
"...What in the world...?!"
They spoke of war so casually? And this was not just war between countries, but war between worlds and planets! Was it such a common thing that no one seemed surprise, no one seemed to care beyond whether they profited from the events or not...? How could they be carrying out such matter-of-fact discussion when it involved the livelihood and survival of entire races and civilisations of people??!
And... If war and planar invasions were just common-place events...
Then was the invasion of Earth just another everyday occurrence...? The intruders" foray that destroyed so many lives and scorched the earth for thousands of kilometres in every direction - was all just a simple matter of economics and expansion of territory for the perpetrators...?
The immensity of this revelation found in simple gossip and rumours was too momentuous for the young man to bear.
No hidden secret, no great plot, no hidden hands... No sense at all behind the invasion of Earth...?!? Just a simple game of chess on a cosmic scaled game board...
He began to s.h.i.+ver uncontrollably in disbelief, having to will himself and force his trembling to stop.
He rubbed his hands together vigorously, trying to keep himself calm and collected, to not lose his mind in such a public place and be investigated.
His heart beat furiously in trepidation, with a sinking feeling at the scale of the game of war and struggle for predominance which Earth was sucked into.
...And also beating furiously with excitement. Somehow, the thought of the vast planar wars... Thrilled him...? He shook his head energetically and even used his palm to knock the sides of his cranium. What was wrong with him? He felt confused, as if though a haze or fog of slight red hue had settled around his consciousness and mind since a week ago when he had met Kizorik...
But as he tried to think about it, a mind-numbing migraine hit him with great force, so painful that he stumbled and had to hold on to the nearby walls to keep himself from falling.
What was going on?? Did he hit his head too hard or something? Distracted and reeling from the pain and frustrated from the annoying thoughts, he cast all the complicated thoughts aside and focused on the job at hand - to find out how to return home.
* * * *
He hurried over to the travel centre as quickly as he could without disrupting the traffic, as he wasn"t sure what the operating hours were.
When he arrived, he saw an awe-inspiring scene. The travel centre occupied and enormous compound, spanning an incredibly large and wide area despite there being barely anyone around. He surmised that teleportation was very expensive, not too much different from the cost and complication of spell-based teleportation without the a.s.sistance of portals or formations.
Looking at the width and breadth of the walkways, pa.s.sages, doors and building, the design was probably to cater for large contingents such as a royal procession? Or perhaps for extra large and bulky s.h.i.+pments of goods?
If the teleportation portal at the Arena could be taken as a standard, then the portal here in Gorun"s travel centre was large than the usual 10m tall and 8m wide, maybe 20-30% larger. That must mean that there was sufficient traffic coming through to warrant the size - further solidifying the city"s position as a very highly frequented and bustling centre of trade, the commercial hub of the entire north.
He walked with brisk and lengthy steps to the entrance and politely asked the guards at front for directions if he were to speak to Mushana. The guards frowned at him as if he had said something wrong, then shrugged before they pointed him out to the far side, nearly 80m away. He bowed slightly and thanked them, then headed off.
As he drew nearer, he could see a gla.s.ses-wearing woman behind a wide counter labelled "Commercial Travel Enquiries". To his dismay, she could be seen packing up already. Perhaps the portals did not function at night...? But that didn"t make sense - what if it was day-time on the other side of the world but night-time here...?
Dismissing his pointless question, he quickened his pace to a jog to catch her before she left, in the hopes that the lady would be willing to address his enquiries today.
He went up to the counter and coughed politely, catching the counter girl"s attention. She looked up distractedly from behind the counter where she sat and sorted through a mess of files, papers, doc.u.ments and bills. Seeing his opportunity to speak, Lars quickly asked the twin pig-tailed girl if he could see Mushana, on introduction of Jazir, his friend.
The girl"s eyes widened in surprise and then quickly stood up and bowed deeply with no small amount of respect. Unfortunately for her, her sudden arising upended some of her files, sending the papers scattering onto the floor.
Despite her obvious expression of chagrin at the extra filing work before her, she did not show even a hint of impoliteness or annoyance as she maintained her bow and asked her to wait for a short while. Then she turned around and entered a door behind the counter, presumably to fetch Mushana.
Lars, still in disguise and looking like a ruffian, waited at the counter patiently, It was only after about 5 minutes that a wiry thin man in voluminous robes came out to meet him. He had on his chest a nametag that read, "Senior Manager Mushana" - clearly he was one of the higher-ups in charge here! Jazir"s introduction really was valuable!