Free Web NovelChapter 22: 22: The City (4)
Before they reached the gate, Lucard stopped.
Jenny noticed first. "Lucard?"
"You go ahead," Lucard said. "I will come later."
Jake immediately frowned. "Where are you going?"
"I want to look around the city a little."
Jenny stared at him. "Now? We just arrived. It is getting dark."
"That is why I am going now."
Peter stepped forward. "Young Master Lucard, it may not be safe to separate."
Lucard looked at him.
Peter remembered what happened the last few times Lucard left alone and slowly closed his mouth.
Jenny looked worried. "Lucard, we are almost at House Ravencroft. Come with us first. After we speak with the baron, you can look around."
Lucard shook his head. "No. You need to enter as survivors asking for help. If I stand there covered in secrets, they will ask too many questions. You go first. Tell them what happened. I will come later."
That was only half true.
The real reason was simple. Lucard wanted to understand the city before entering another noble house. He did not like walking blind into someone else’s territory, especially a family connected to death magic. Also, the lady in the Marovain shop had noticed too much. He wanted to know who she was and whether she would become a problem.
Jenny looked like she wanted to argue, but Jake pulled her sleeve.
"Sister, Big Brother will come back."
Jenny looked down at Jake, then at Lucard. Her eyes were full of doubt, worry, and tired trust.
"Do not take too long," she said.
Lucard turned away. "That depends on the city."
Jake waved at him. "Come back soon." fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Lucard did not answer. He walked into the darker side of the street, his black cloak moving behind him. Jenny watched until he disappeared among the pale blue lanterns and gray stone buildings.
Peter stood beside her and said quietly, "He has changed more than any of us understand."
Jenny’s eyes stayed on the direction Lucard had gone.
"Yes," she said. "But he still came back for us."
Meanwhile, Lucard moved through the city alone.
The air of Gravehold was colder at night. The pale blue lanterns made every shadow look deeper. Somewhere far away, a bell rang slowly from a tower. Lucard walked without hurry, but his senses were open. He listened to footsteps, whispers, coins, wagon wheels, and the faint pulse of old death magic under the stones.
He had planned to leave Jenny and Jake at House Ravencroft and then go his own way.
But first, he needed to know what kind of city he had entered.
And who the woman in the Marovain shop was.
Lucard walked through the streets of Gravehold alone.
The city looked different at night. During the day, it had been quiet and gray, but at night, it felt even colder. Pale blue lanterns hung from iron poles along the streets, and their light made the stone road look like it had been washed with moon water. Most shops were closed, but some inns, pubs, healer houses, and small gambling rooms were still open.
The people walking outside at this hour were not simple families or noble ladies going for a peaceful walk. They were guards, merchants, drunk men, prostitutes, workers returning late, and the kind of people who didn’t look around before doing something shady.
Lucard liked those people more than polite nobles. He can kill them however he wants if they don’t answer his question. Polite nobles took too long to say one useful thing. They only talk rubbish about how great their families are. So Lucard made a plan.
The first thing Lucard did was walk around the city without asking questions. He needed to understand the shape of Gravehold. The main road went from the outer gate to the upper noble district. The merchant square was in the middle of the city. House Marovain’s branch shop stood there like a fat merchant sitting among poorer cousins. Near the northern side of the city, there were warehouses, stables, and worker houses. The eastern side had old shrines, grave markers, and roads leading toward tomb hills. The upper district belonged to House Ravencroft and other important people connected to them.
The city was not too large, but it was organized well. But the territory outside the city was very large.
Inside the city the guards walked in pairs. Their patrol path was regular, but not stupid. Every few streets, one pair changed direction, while another pair watched from a corner. The walls had watchtowers, and the towers used pale blue signal lamps instead of fire lamps. Lucard guessed the lamps were connected to death magic or some special mineral from Ravencroft land. Normal flame gave warmth. These lamps gave cold light, which was useful for seeing but bad for comfort.
He also noticed something under the road.
The city had many old bones beneath it.
Not fresh bones. Not battlefield bones. Old bones. Very old. The death traces under the stone roads were deep and thick. It felt like the city had been built over graves, then more graves had been built around the city, then someone decided to add more graves because apparently House Ravencroft looked at empty land and felt offended if nothing was buried there.
Lucard found it amusing. A city of graves was better than a city of flowers.
He passed through the merchant square again and stopped near House Marovain’s branch shop. The shop was closed now, but light still burned on the third floor. Two guards stood at the front door, and four more were near the side entrance. These were not ordinary shop guards. Their equipment was better. Their boots were clean. Their eyes moved too much for normal hired men. That meant someone important was inside or had recently been inside.
Lucard knew it had something to do with the woman in the shop. He remembered the memories of their shopping.
She had sat in the corner like a VIP, sipping tea as if the world existed only to entertain her for a short time. Her eyes had been sharp. She had noticed him. Not in the way normal people noticed a bloody young man. She had looked at his posture, his silence, Jenny’s reaction to him, Peter’s caution, and Jake’s trust. That kind of woman was not a simple shop manager.
Lucard moved away from the shop.
