Chapter 528: JACK: Vindobona
Jack the Ripper.
O where did he hide?
O where did he go?
Where else? He hid under the protection of the Lord. He went to the Great City of Vindobona.
Territories were one thing, Divine Territories were another. Divine Territories warped the fabric of space-time and housed entire cities within what seemed to be a single gateway leading to a small neighbourhood. Divine Territories were created and under the protection of a great divine entity. Some time ago, a report came out estimating the total population of the Nebulous Bazaar to be over eight million.
Two hundred thousand people lived here in the Great City of Vindobona. The City of Endless Water. The City of Canals. A floating island where waterfalls fell in every cardinal direction, the entrances from the Nebulous Bazaar connected alongside those waterfalls. Tickets for tourism or simply to live were expensive. Every citizen was documented and paid what was called the "Otto per Mille" tax—meaning Eight per Thousand or eight percent per thousand. Merchants paid even heftier fines.
As a Divine Territory, it was in some ways not apart of the Nebulous Bazaar and therefore exempt from the No Violence Law that protected the Bazaar. There was no need to fear, however. The Church was mighty and the Templar Order was mightier. Indeed, the presence of the Templar Order could be felt almost everywhere in the city. Knights patrolling, knights helping locals, and knights eating at local stores.
For Christians of all denominations, it was a paradise.
Gondolas drifted lazily beneath arched marble bridges and every turn of a corner revealed another tight alleyway drowning in the scent of brine, wine, and ancient stone. The city never truly slept. Not in the morning and not at night.
Neither did Jack.
The white mask clung to his face like second skin, the thin slits of his eyes flashing with something dangerous as he nursed a glass of clear, tasteless wine. No one saw him. He was a patch of living shadow, folded into the bar’s darker corners, an afterthought even to the drunk in this bar of young Christians.