33 Risen#re - Chapter 331

Lirian bit into the steaming meat bun with gusto, but almost instantly his face fell, ‘This has got to be rat meat!’ he yelped internally.

‘It’s no wonder that lady was selling a dozen for 5 coppers,’ he said while taking another bite, although he was a lot less enthusiastic.

‘What can I do, a man’s got to eat,’ Lirian sighed and continued to pop the steaming rat buns into his mouth, as he judged the taste he came to a conclusion, ‘I’ve eaten worse,’ he thought and continued to walk through the busy streets.

As Lirian made his way through the bustling streets he continued to pay attention to the topics of discussion, and he was surprised to find that he wasn’t mentioned in anything.

Lirian soon learnt that when those commoners said that House Kurt had sealed itself off, he wasn’t kidding at all.

The keep released no intel on Lirian, hell there wasn’t even a poster with his face on it on the bulletin boards, ‘Did I really scare them so much?’ Lirian wondered with a crooked smirk etched across his face.

‘But this could pose as a problem to my meeting with Izlandi, if she doesn’t make it for the meeting, I’ll just go and teach them another lesson,’ he shrugged, ‘For now I need to make my preparations for this city and find the Red Boar,’ Lirian thought and set off.

A few minutes passed before Lirian rounded a corner and found several beggars, lining the walls of a street, a copper slid into his hand, and he flicked it at the first beggar.

A man wearing an old flour sack filled with holes as clothes eagerly caught the coin and looked at Lirian.

“Guide me to a place called the Red Boar and I’ll give you another two of those,” Lirian said to the beggar.

“Make it three more and you have a deal, good sir,” the beggar said trying to bargain for more.

“Two more!” Lirian said with a cold edge to his voice, “Or I’ll just move on to the next person,” Lirian pointed behind him, there were several other beggars who were lining the walls and they were staring at Lirian hungry for his coin.

All it would take was a word, and they’d happily come running to Lirian.

The beggar sighed in defeat but put on a big smile, that revealed his yellow teeth, “As you wish good sir, but you can’t blame this man for trying, money isn’t easy to come by these days,” he said climbing up to his bare feet and led the way for Lirian.

“The Red Boar is a very pricey place, the only people who frequent the place are nobles, might I know why sir would like to go there?” the beggar asked inquisitively, a beggar he was but stupid he was not.

One look at Lirian’s clothes was all the beggar needed to be able to tell that it was beyond Lirian’s price range.

“You may not, just shut up and lead the way,” Lirian said to the inquisitive beggar.

The beggar nodded and led the way in silence, it took several minutes before they came to a stop, “Good sir this is your stop,” the beggar announced with flare to his words and an exaggerated gesture of grandeur.

Two coppers appeared between Lirian’s fingers and just as he was about to hand it to the beggar, the beggar stopped him, “No need for you to pay this humble servant good sir, it was this servants pleasure to be of service to you,” the beggar said with humility and walked away, without so much as taking a second glance at the coin in Lirian’s hand.

‘This charm is really useful at saving me money,’ Lirian laughed at the greedy beggar that refused to take his payment.

Lirian didn’t actually need the beggar to point out the building for him, because inside he could see dozens of energy signatures.

There were at least 50 novices and a few adapts inside the place, Lirian presumed that all of them were people from minor noble families, since the keep was still currently shut off.

From what Lirian could tell the nobles inside seemed to be having a meeting, at the top floor, there were 8 adapts in the room forming a circle, and behind each of them, there were a few novices, standing in attendance.

Lirian looked around, to see if there was anyone around, after a few minutes he found that the area was pretty empty, due to the high class of this part of time very few people came to these parts besides nobles.

Lirian activated levitate and rose up to the top floor of the building, behind the building Lirian discovered that there was a large open garden, with a few water fountains and gazebos in the open areas.

Down in the gardens, Lirian could make out several women who were stretching their long legs in the shade of the gazebos as they happily sipped on tea and ate freshly baked biscuits and cakes.

‘Oh man I have got to get myself some of that food,’ Lirian thought sucking in his leaking saliva and licked his lips as he settled down on the roof of the building and cast a few spells to keep his presence concealed.

‘I’ll go grab the food after I’m done listening in on this meeting,’ Lirian thought with self-restraint as he pressed his ear against the walls of the top floor and activated a spell to enhance the sound.

After a few minutes, Lirian learned roughly about who the parties involved in the meeting were, to Lirian’s understanding they were the strongest of the minor noble allies that House Kurt had gathered over the years.

Lirian looked through the memories that he stole from Izlandi and slowly matched the names used in the conversation to the names Izlandi knew and before long he had a rough idea of all the participants.

Lirian laughed as he listened in on the conversation, it appeared that House Kurt’s were prospects wasn’t looking too good.

Lirian followed the movement of a man named Grant Ventrano, his House name was quite the mouthful, as he spiritedly spoke about the disappointing failure that was House Kurt.

“Grant would you please get to the point, you’ve been speaking for hours on end already, and I’ve been bored since the first minute,” Lady Liberia Marshall complained as she covered her mouth with a fan to hide her long yawn.

“What I’m saying is that all of us entered into this alliance, under the presumption that our lands would expand after the region was unified, but currently not only have my lands grown smaller, I’m constantly fighting a defensive battle against House Hauton’s troops,”

“I was promised 20 additional novices to hold the lines, but after the poisoning at Izlandi’s feast, I haven’t so much as received a single soldier, I just received a report today that I lost two troops of infantry and another piece of my land was taken,” said Lord Ventrano.

“Would you please get to your point!” Lady Liberia complained fervently for the umpteenth time since the meeting began and fanned her face.

Lord Ventrano curled his fists into tight balls, at Lady Liberia’s constant interruptions and lack of patience, “My point is that I entered into this alliance for…” but Lord Ventrano found himself interrupted once more.

“Pffft,” Lord Thoman Maxim laughed so hard that his drink sprayed out of his mouth and splattered all over the other’s present at the table, much to their displeasure.

Lord Maxim didn’t appear very apologetic as he rubbed the spilled wine with a serviette and looked at Lord Ventrano with an amused smirk, “Pardon my interruption but my memory is slightly different from yours, I don’t remember you entering the alliance,”

“You were forced to enter and in an extremely humiliating manner I might add,” said Lord Maxim.