Chapter 15

"Finally." Benn jumped off the horseback and looked down the cliff. The journey was tiresome for him.

"Mattidis city" he stretched both of his arms excitedly, but soon his expressions turned into puzzlement and then soured "What is this? You sure, this is the place ?"

Kylian nodded, he himself was caught a bit off guard, he hadn't expected such a disparity.

The city was surrounded by walls built around the city in a circle, within that circle there was another smaller circle which was one-sixth in area as compared to the outer one.

The difference of standard of living between the two places was huge, it was like two different world.

It was pretty much clear even from here that the smaller circle was where the Nobles stayed.

But what surprised the group even further was there seemed to be even a disparity in the outer circle. Even though much of the inner city was not visible from their location but the size of the building and their state made it really clear.

The closer the buildings were to the inner circle the better in the condition they were and vice versa.

The building close to the outer wall were old dilapidated structures, build really close to each other, there was nothing as city planning in that part. People had made buildings, houses wherever they had wished to.

The place was like a big Bazar, Kylian could see small figures crawling all over the place, and the density of people, as well as buildings, decreased substantially as one towards the inner wall.

Kylian had estimated the height of the outer walls to be no more than ten feet. Two gates stood at the outer walls, but they seemed useless to Kylian. He had already spotted three broken spaces in the wall. The collapsed spaces were giving free entry to anyone and everyone. Kylian could see the opening in the walls being used by people rather than the entrance itself. Not even a single soldier could be spotted neither on the wall nor the entrance.

The part close to the inner wall was in a good condition, the buildings were as tall as four stories with ample space between each of them.

The inner wall was at least twice the size of the outer wall, and small dots could be seen on the walls, Kylian had guessed them to be soldiers. The buildings inside the inner walls looked majestic, each building looked like a castle on its own, and even though the inner wall surrounded the area which was one-sixth as compared to the outer one, but seeing the number of buildings it looked like not even fifty families resided in those parts of the city, which was just a fraction of the people outside.

Kylian and Benn both had expected a lot more from the city. It was often counted as one of the best cities of the kingdom, maybe they had just considered the inner part of the city as Mattidis.

Kylian carefully looked at the closest broken wall from the entrance.

"Let's head to the city and check the claims ourselves," Kylian spoke

" 'Hodor you might have to stay here for a while, we don't want to stand out much. First we need to find a good disguise for you."

"...No...I have disguise...." 'Hodor replied aloud.

"What ?" both Kylian and Benn looked at him amused.

'Hodor was wearing a wig and a mustache both of matching color. Even though he looked huge but with the disguise, and his language no one would think of him as Jeyan, he could even pass for a very big Ablonion too.

"...SO how I see...." he gave a grandiose pose, one arm on his hip and a leg stretched outward. He tried copying the kings from past paintings.

Benn burst into laughter instantly and gave a big thumbs up to the giants' attire as well as his pose, even Kylian's lips curved into a weak smile.

"Let's go. I need to gather information about the guild and it is already late noon." It had taken them a few hours longer than Kylian had expected.

The three of them walked through the broken wall closest to the entrance. Even though Kylian was sure there weren't any soldiers to the outside but still there was a possibility of them being on the inside.

The city close to the outer wall was even worse than what it had looked from the outside, there were people everywhere, and the shouting of the vendors only added to the chaos. Klyian was really thankful he had tied the horses in a safe spot, they would have only made walking difficult and even separated them from the dirt-poor crowd.

The three of them hardly had to make any efforts to blend in the crowd. The chaos was the perfect cover and nobody seemed to even glance at 'Hodor or Benn, who was bumping into someone every ten steps. Everyone was busy and it was every day normal for these people around here.

"Watch the feet man....the feet" Benn grumbled. "Hey Kylian where are we heading to, we seem to be reaching nowhere ?" Benn shouted over the loud noise of the people around.

"Looking out for someone rich for some money " Kylian replied aloud.

"How are we find someone rich in here ? And why would rich person give you money. They became rich by taking money rather than giving in the first place ?" Benn spoke.

"Towards the entrance. The rich had to enter through somewhere." Kylian spoke, he had checked earlier and there was no other gates, just one in the outer wall, and he doubted the nobles would be using the broken parts of the wall.

Kylian further added "They won't realize their money is gone until it's too late."

The three of them snaked their way through the crowd towards the entrance.

It did not take Kylian long to spot a young fat noble entering through the city gates, a coin pouch hanging down his belt. The noble was followed by five guards and a horse , four-armed guards surrounded the noble guarding him.

It was impossible to ride a horse in their parts so one guard was taking care of the noble's horse while he followed the rest of the group. The young noble spat curses at the commoners as he walked through. His four guards made sure no one gets close to their lord.

Kylian checked his pockets, there were a dozen pennies in his pocket. That was more than enough, he then quickly narrated the plan to the remaining two and their parts in it.

Once done Kylian nonchalantly got as close as he could get to the noble, and tactically tossed the pennies from beneath the guards towards the noble. 'Now'

"Silver shrilling" "....Silver shrilling...." "SILVER SHRILLINGS" all three of them shouted aloud for everyone to listen.

Every passerby paused for a heartbeat and in the next second, all jumped towards the money. A single silver shrilling was enough to feed a family of four for a month and these people were in dire need of them.

The guards were overwhelmed by the sudden influx of people. They tried jostling their way out but there were dozens of people and more were on their way towards the noble to get their hands on the shrillings.

"You filty....pe...opleee.....you...what yo- doi- he....lpppppppp .. helpppppppp" the noble cried out aloud as he was crammed among more than a dozen commoners.

"Did you get it." Benn asked laughing, as he saw Kylian make his way through the crowd, towards them. It was not every day you get to see a noble harassed by a crowd of commoners.

"Yeah" Kylian casually juggled the pouch in his two hands. "Eight silver and ten bronze shrillings."

"What" Benn spoke in amazement, it was almost as much as his father's half years income and his father was a well-to-do farmer, some would say even one of the richest in his village.

"....We rich....." 'Hodor added.

The first thing Kylian did after getting the money was to search for a detailed map of the whole city. It took him a while and five times the price to get his hands on a map having details on both the outer and inner parts of the city. The inner part of the city was called the Noble Mattidis or the Rich circle, well for obvious reasons.

It came as no surprise when Kylian saw what he had expected, the outer city of Mattidis was divided into three parts according to the spending capacity of the people.

Close to the outer wall stayed people who were dirt poor and struggled to survive.

In the middle parts lived people who were in better conditions than the one outside, they could afford two meals a day and if planned properly could have a third meal too once in a while. There were some signs of roads in these parts, and the population and chaos was also considerably less than the outer part.

The innermost part close to the inner walls consisted of all the guilds, fine inns, and actual shops. This was the place where nobles made their income and most of the things were owned here by the nobles. The lifestyle inside the rich circle was extravagant, so some lower Nobles who could not maintain such a lifestyle resided in this part of the city. Here the roads were well paved, buildings were well maintained, and soldiers and guards roamed the streets.

The Honourless guild was at the innermost part of the city. So for smooth execution of the plan, Kylian decided to stay at an inn near the guild.

The three of them then got themselves a change of clothes so as not to stand out, and blend into these parts of the town.