Chapter 2: I’m a Drunken Poet
Sometimes, I get a bit too emotional in my thoughts and rush into what I want to do.
I find myself standing at the corner, looking at the entrance to the building used as a prison. The Imperial City is divided into several districts, and as I’m currently in the red-light district, the main neighborhoods are the Ring districts, also known as the "Holes of Lust," which comprise about four blocks in this area.
Since the entire city is immense, there’s no way they can accommodate every type of service everywhere. However, due to the nature of this environment, they had to at least implement a jail to send rude customers who don’t know how to behave politely in brothels and cabarets.
How Ravenna ended up here, I have no idea. I guess she tried to escape and was thrown into this lock-up because it was closer. Now they’re just waiting for a chance to send her to the imperial palace for a trial with the king... but of course, the damn MC will rip off her neck before that happens and find a disturbed romantic partner in the process.
Okay, how do I get in? There are two guards at the door. This body knows some magic in its memory, but I’m not crazy enough to blow up the front door and then be decapitated by the Duke’s hand. Think, Darius, what would you do in this situation?
Well, maybe it’s time to test out some acting. In my past life, I spent some good hours in an acting club; I’m confident in the performances I gave in school and on stage, in front of nothing more than an audience of parents watching me dressed as a tree.
I unbutton two buttons of my shirt, mess up my hair, lightly slap my cheeks to make my face red, and start walking in a zigzag pattern. The trick is to look idiotic, not threatening. I enter the street stumbling from side to side, with a mastery worthy of Hamlet, with those faces turned upwards from so much booze I didn’t drink.
"Heeeeyyy, good... good sirs of the imperial law! I’m looking for my... my beloved... my adored Ravenna!"
I raise my hands in the air. Here’s the master move, acting like a drunken lovesick poet!
The two guards, one with a scar running across half his cheek and the other looking like his childhood was ruined after being run over by a goat, exchange glances. The scarred one grumbles:
"You’re too drunk to be here, friend. Move along."
"Whoa, whoa, my hiccup friend! I am... I am Darius. Darius Moonlight. The Duke’s son! You know? The guy who rules half the city! I came to visit my... hiccup my truly wronged fiancée!"