Lament of the Slave

Chapter 41: Roof

When Enola told me about the name of the labyrinth, I asked her what it meant. She told me it was just a name it had, nothing more. Right now, I felt it was much more than just a name. I couldn't describe it, though. The remembrance or the echo of the past did not fully capture it.

The question that bothered me now was what battle Traiana had fought, when she fought it and why her statue was here, part of the labyrinth. I wondered if the other labyrinths looked the same. If they had a similar platform with a statue in the middle, I was even more interested in their names and statues standing there, and what they represent.

"I won't find the answers here, though!!" I sighed out loud, still looking at the statue.

I saw about everything I could here, and it made little sense to stay here any longer. That's why I looked at Ria, who was peeking at my tail but didn't dare try to hug him again.

"Okay, Ria. I'm not sure if there's such a place in Castiana, but I'm looking for a park," I said, crossing my fingers so that there was one.

Not taking her eyes off Sage and not even thinking about it, she said, "There aren't any."

"What about the gardens?" I asked, a little disappointed, but I expected her answer.

"Hmm ..." kitsune thought for a moment, then she looked up at me. "The Lord has gardens in the palace. The Alchemists have small gardens of herbs and the florists with flowers."

"So there's no place where people can just sit and do nothing, just relax?" I asked, not believing there was no such a place in the city. People needed to rest, to relax.

"Pubs, taverns, inns, brothels ..." she said as she counted on her fingers, but I had to stop her. I had no idea who told her about the brothels, but I understood that the place I was looking for would not be easy to find.

"I meant a place where there is peace. Where there aren't that many people or a place only a few people know about. Don't you know something like that?" I asked, clarifying my question.

Ria's eyes lit up with understanding, and she nodded, "I know one!"

Without saying anything to me, she set off.

Looking at Traiana for the last time, I promised to return here soon. Although I was afraid of what I would find in the depths, doubting my fighting skills, I wanted to get in there as soon as possible. Learn to fight, face beasts, face my fears, and finally level-up.

I caught up with Ria and went up the stairs to the square. When I looked around now, my gaze not fixed on the entrance to the labyrinth, I saw more clearly its hexagonal shape, the streets that led into it in every corner, and I was heading for one of them, led by my guide.

After a week in the city, I had a more accurate picture of it now, and it was not very different from the cities on Earth I knew. There were neighborhoods that were richer, such as around Labyrinth Square, some less affluent, say, inhabited by the middle class, and then those where the least wealthy lived. It seemed to me that with my dirty-looking and torn clothes, I stood out everywhere. Even the poorest were better dressed than I was. Okay, most of them. There were people like me among them, too.

Back on Earth, I wouldn't dare to go out dressed like this and go out. Now I was glad to have some clothes at all and hoped I would never find myself naked in the cell again.

While Ria led me to one of the poorer parts of Castiana, I realized that my view of this world was too distorted by the novels I had read. I expected more segregation, like a ban on entering certain parts of the city for the poor and such. I didn't come across anything like that here, though.