Chapter 129: Bogside Town
“What did you tell them?” Percy asked, watching Nesha return with some folded clothes held in one hand, a bucket of water in the other.
The sun was already at its apex, the girl having taken all morning for the round trip. In fact, Percy had started getting worried at some point, thinking it might have not been too wise to send her alone in that state. He also felt a little guilty over the harsh things he’d said the night before, though he knew she had to hear them.
“The truth. More or less. I just said my travelling companion wasn’t presentable, and he was too embarrassed to walk in public looking like that. I obviously didn’t go into details, but they’re going to see you later, so I couldn’t just hide your existence entirely.”
Percy nodded, as he finally took the dreaded tunic off, using it to wipe some grime off him. Next, he took the bucket from Nesha, washing up as well as he could. Which wasn’t that well. At least, his skin was visible by the time he was done. Sadly, he didn’t have anything clean to dry himself with, so he just used his pure mana to get most of the water off him, before donning his new clothes. The linen fabric was cheap and unassuming, but it was really soft, and a hundred times more comfortable than the mismatched leather pieces.
Finally, the two headed to the town together, still having lots of items on their agenda for today. As soon as they entered, Percy looked around curiously, this being his first time in a commoner town on Remior. It definitely wasn’t as bad as the primitive village he had encountered on the world with the brown fog, but it wasn’t nearly as majestic as the Alchemists’ Guild either.
There weren’t any mushrooms looming over their heads, nor any colourful motes bathing the place in their lustre – just the warm rays of the midday sun. Nobody had bothered to dress the streets in cobblestone either, the locals happy to walk on simple roads of paved dirt. As for the houses, most of them were wooden huts, lining up either side of the streets.
The petite buildings looked nothing like his family’s grandiose mansion, their exteriors full of patches and holes, their walls marred with mould and rot. The acrid scent of old wood permeated the place, mixed with the even worse odours of piss and excrement. As for the people, they were all dressed in cheap, ragged clothes – not unlike his own. What surprised him the most was that he couldn’t see anybody at Green!
‘On second thought, maybe it’s not that strange…’
While Yellow-born commoners emerged at the same rate as nobles, they rarely remained commoners for long. Most Houses were eager to recruit them, marrying them into their families. It was actually the opposite situation from how Red-borns were treated – often getting kicked out of their families and left to leave as commoners.