A moment of peace

I walked a bit up the cave, but not up to the entrance since I might catch the attention of some roaming goblins if I exposed myself.
My new fancy sword was hidden away in my sheath at this point, I have to say it felt surprisingly light, lighter than my previous sword even.
The cave paintings were also rather interesting, it's important to learn a bit about this world after all, since it will be my home for this lifetime.
I haven't realized it yet, but after sitting in the cave for a few minutes, I realized how painfully boring not doing anything is, even for a few minutes.
The past few days have been so hectic and... well quite frankly scarring that I didn't have the luxury of boredom.
Now though, I can't do anything, I can't go outside, the goblins are out there after all, I can't explore anywhere, I already searched the cave and I have no more sticks to burn for light.
So, I pulled out my newly acquired sword, and with the tip of it, started drawing into the cave walls.
I actually drew... "cultured material" in my previous life too, only for a short while out of sheer boredom.
Needless to say, I was trash at it, but hey, I was better than someone who never even tried it!
At first, I tried to draw actual things, you know, a house, a flower, but boredom kept mounting and...
...I may or may not have desecrated a holy place with my drawings... If any archeologists arrive here in the future, I give my sincere condolences for the sheer confusion they will feel.
Man, the memes that would come from something like this being discovered on Earth! Haha!
Also, this sword is really good! It's actually cutting into the stone pretty well, though whatever magical shenanigans enchanted it has clearly weakened, there is no way this thing is capable of slaying anything remotely as powerful as that hand thing in the drawing.
It's not getting dull either! That's extremely convenient since blood tends to make steel rust and dull. Though it might not work that way against blood.
Kuku... I shall use the goblins as good lab rats to test this kuku...
Sasuga Alexandria-sama! I thought to myself while drawing a certain bone daddy from a certain anime.
...Imbellis should have arrived at a city by now right? Some backup would be nice against those things...
...Things were looking up. For the first time since I came here, I was having fun!
I didn't realize this consciously at the moment, but deep inside me, I was relieved to finally have some light-hearted fun in this cruel, ego-crushing world.
And so, I continued to... "decorate" the cave's insides, leaving a mess of BBC's, obscure references to anime, manga, and some rather... shapely figures.
So with an innocent smile, like that of a child goofing off, I continued to carve, completely oblivious to the world around me.
-x-x-x-
Imbellis, meanwhile, has successfully arrived at the local city.
Nations in this world are a foreign concept, instead, each city is its own nation, a city-state in other words, which controls and protects the surrounding villages in return for food.
Currency is also not as valuable since food is rarer, hence villages pay their tax not with gold, but by giving a portion of their harvest instead. This allows for the more prosperous cities to focus on other things.
This city is called Ru'lagar, the name was created by the orcs, who invaded and successfully took over the city forty years ago from the ruling humans.
Stone walls protected the city, though they weren't particularly high or thick, merely the bare minimum someone could expect from a city of this size, they weren't particularly well maintained either, which showed how competent the current ruler, an orc named Ku'tahr, was.
The current city is a mix of humans, orcs, and half-orcs, with tensions still high between the humans and orcs, the unfortunate half-orcs are stuck in the middle of their conflict, hated by both sides.
There was no line to the city, trade was a risky endeavor, hence merchant caravans were exceptionally rare.
And besides, why would someone come trade to this place, which is well known as the poorest and weakest of the local states?
Imbellis walked to the gate that protected the city proper from the wilderness, its steel rusted and broken, showing that the city was prosperous, long, long ago.
"Open the gate! One of the strikers has returned!"
Right, an adventurers' guild didn't exist here, since no one had the time to pay people to leisurely eliminate monsters, instead, each city had its own organization dedicated to going into the wild and searching for things like goblin nests, which have already destroyed many cities in the past.
In other words, they would strike out into the unknown and strike the heart of darkness, hence they were referred to as strikers by the people.
One of the guards ran up to Imbellis, he was wearing leather armor as steel was far too expensive and steel armor was difficult to create, let.
"Imbellis! Where are the others? Did they get killed?"
After being showered by a barrage of questions, Imbellis hastily answered to the best of his ability, earning a grim face from the guard.
"Elizabeth was captured by the goblins? Shit. Her armor cost the lord a fortune, he's going to be furious."
"Yeah, and it's gonna be my responsibility again," Imbellis said, tired of the lord's paranoid and greedy tendencies.
"Right right, you go and report to him now, with some luck, we might be able to salvage the equipment."
"Right."
Not a word was mentioned of rescue since there was no point in rescuing damaged goods.
When a person goes through something so traumatic, they won't want to fight anymore, and they will no longer want to have children either or do anything for that matter. It would take years to partially recover from the trauma, and full recovery from goblin capture has never happened, so it's best to just not waste time.
The equipment is more valuable since it can be outfitted for new recruits, and the steel can be smelted down to make more weapons.
The goblins would also have toys to play with, so they wouldn't be as aggressive as normal until they needed new breeders, of course, then their aggression would peak.
Imbellis would think it was cruel, but he never knew any better, so how could he tell?
Besides, he is the most senior striker in this city, because he's always been the first to run away from any potential danger.
The girls he was with were all beginners with great potential, particularly the knight, she had the chance of becoming a renowned warrior according to the lord.
So much so that he spent all his money on buying armor for her rather than preparing the city for the coming winter. Yes, the lord's stupidity has brought the city to the typing point many times, and no, no one knows how the city is still alive.
A true miracle brought upon us by the All-Mother indeed... Or maybe the Great Hand is simply toying with its food, it's difficult to tell at times.
He walked through the city streets, the streets were alive, though a silent tension hung in the air, children never left their parents' side as they bought items from stalls set up by the villages in the area.
The houses are all made out of wood, the ground also has only small stones inserted into it to help people walk if the ground gets muddy.
The lord's manner was in the middle of the city behind a short stone fence, only about two meters tall.
The city didn't have a castle, it wasn't big enough for that, and such a thing would cost a horrendous amount to upkeep, so the last time a castle might have actually existed somewhere was eighty years ago in a long-forgotten alliance of city-states, and even that is a legend now.
Imbellis entered the mansion garden, which isn't large by Earth standards, in fact, compared to the most luxurious mansions in Earth's history, this one could only be called pathetic, it is a mansion nonetheless however, and it is clearly the highest quality building in the city.
The mansion had two floors made out of stone and a roof made out of wood covered in a material known as Brail, this material helped to stop mold from growing on the wood, the material could have also been used to make medicine for the people, but the lord seemingly didn't care about that.
He knocked on the thick wooden door and waited for a few seconds.
Soon, an elf woman dressed in simple peasant cloth opened the door, an arcane symbol branded on her neck.
She has green hair and grey eyes, typical features of a forest elf.
"Ah! Sir Imbellis, the master has been expecting you." She bowed slightly and stepped out of Imbellis's way, not willing to risk enraging the senior Striker.
Imbellis didn't even acknowledge her, in his mind, she wasn't a person who should be greeted.
Imbellis wasn't evil for this, at least not intentionally. He didn't even realize he might be hurting her by doing this, it is simply the norm for the world to treat slaves as objects, and he's never known anything else.
(It's like explaining to someone from the 18th century that racism is bad, equality would be a completely new concept to them.)
He walked upstairs, silently followed by the elven maid.
Soon enough, he reached the lord's personal room, out of which some sounds could barely be heard.
"Is the lord busy with his belongings?" Imbellis asked the elven maid, speaking to her for the first time.
Indeed, they are not people, but mere items in the eyes of this world and its morality.
"My apologies, I don't believe Master has called any of my sisters in at the moment."
Imbellis raised an eyebrow at this.
He didn't want to interrupt the lord as he is scared of his wrath and always was.
"...Well... Tell the lord that I need to urgently meet with him once he is done."
"Understood." The maid bowed again, accepting the order.
Imbellis could see her shoulders lightly shake, from fear most likely, as he's basically forced her to bear the brunt of the lord's wrath for bothering him.
He felt pity, but not enough to change his mind.
And so, Imbellis left the lord's mansion, the meeting taking place only the next day...

Chapter end