District 42-Chapter 284: Too late part 3

Time passed in District 42 as Ari was accepted as a new integrant of the city guards. Most of the time he was still out of the Castle, working on the streets of the south region to maintain the safety of the citizens.

He was more than one year following always the same routine, which left him used to it already. And because of his good performance, while acting with the city guards, he had a great opportunity to become a Ridire.

Ari didn’t have too many friends among those people. He conversed normally with everyone, though. He wasn’t shy at all, just introverted. The young guard preferred to be quiet.

The only person that could, curiously, grasp all his sympathy was Canute. He also was someone who just ingressed to the city guards, being as young as Ari.

Contrary to Ari, though, Canute wasn’t a commoner. He wore a white mask since the day he was born. The boy was the son of very important Jarls of the Castle.

He never was too specific about it, though, no matter how many times people asked. When they decided to go further in details, he always changed a thing or two, making it seem like a lie.

Ari was standing under the sun. The typical battle-axe that the guards carried, mostly just for show, was hanging on his back. Pistols were kept on his waist.

With his current position, he wasn’t allowed to have high-caliber weapons, but he didn’t want to rise in the rank. If he became an important person among the guards, it would be hard to leave his position and become a Ridire.

He was looking bothered to the people passing in front of him. He always got somewhat pissed off by seeing how all those commoners walked. They always had their heads lowered, their expressions weren’t too different from the sad masks, and each day seemed to be a different struggle.

He needed to pass for such a thing before, but now that he earned more money, he could help his family to have a better life.

"You are making pity of them again, right?" Someone appeared, mocking him. A boy that had basically his same age, sixteen.

"Yes. Got a problem?" In Ari’s mind, a clock appeared, timing how long he would take to answer the question. Yet, a second one appeared, but timing how long the boy would take to reach Ari.

Those and dozens of other clocks were surrounding Ari, timing all sorts of ordinary or important things.

"Yes, I got a problem. You should be thinking about other things. C’mon, you have a free pass to enter the Castle one time per day. Soon, you will basically live there. And, if you do things right, we will have direct contact with the Royal Family. You got more things to do rather than pity those guys."

Ari was pissed off by his analogy and preferred to be quiet. He was sure that they would start a bothersome argument if he snapped, and it gave him a headache.

"Putting it aside, you are late, Canute." He narrowed his eyes. "Our shift ended twenty-five minutes ago and you didn’t show up. The next time I won’t wait for you."

Canute rolled his eyes, shrugging.

"I saw some hot woman while walking around here, so I was giving them some attention. What’s the problem with it? I am man, contrary to you."

"I am a man as well, but I think with the right head, contrary to you."

Both of them began to argue while walking on the streets. The citizens who were passing by glanced at them in confusion but remained quiet.

District 42 was a place where most people had the blood of warriors on their veins. It wasn’t difficult to find a prodigy even among commoners. Because of it, a lot of guards had the same age as Canute and Ari, a few ones even younger.

Nonetheless, it was still a shock to see two warriors who should be disciplined having such a behavior.

"Ok, ok. Let’s stop this already. You always have such outstanding behavior. The way you show off your feelings with no regard is annoying. People are starting to look at us."

"We are guards, we don’t need to care about these commoners."

"Well, you care enough to try to woo their woman."

The argument lasted some minutes more. Both got tired to fight and just kept quiet while walking to the Drakkar stop.

"Pay for me. I spent my money yesterday going out with my new girlfriend."

"You will need to woo the driver this time, then. Because I don’t have money for two tickets. Also, if you want to go out with a different girl each day, that’s fine. But don’t charge me for your expenses when you run out of money. You are the noble here."

Canute stretched out his tongue for Ari.

"Let’s take a teleporting pad, then. I don’t need to pay, nor have restriction to teleport directly to the Castle."

With that solution, their trip was way shorter than it was meant to be.

Ari wasn’t used to taking Teleporting pads in the start. His family didn’t have money for the cheapest travelings. Also, all the Teleporting pads that were out of the Castle had their price raised and a lot of restrictions. The process to make your teleportation work took the time to go to a Drakkar stop and travel from there.

Once that confusing experience was finished, they appeared in front of the Royal Family’s mansion.

Canute sighed, giving a dumb smile behind his mask, and looking to a specific part of the mansion while daydreaming.

"Hehehe, finally I will see her again. I was missing her."

"You see Vick every day since you were young. And you saw her yesterday two times. How could you be missing her?"

"That’s true love for you, buddy." He slapped him in the back. "Now, let’s go see her. You need to give math class to Vick, right?"

Ari nodded, then followed his friend, entering the mansion after Raul, the butler, welcomed them.

The butler was strangely quiet that day. For some reason, he didn’t take his eyes off Ari, as if he was pitying the boy.

They got beside the corridor that led to Vick’s bedroom. As per usual, they were going to turn to that corridor and continue their way, but Raul stopped both, denying slowly with his head.

"No. Follow me. Your routine just today will change slightly." He stated, placing both hands together behind his back then returning to his walk with elegancy.

The two boys couldn’t understand the reason behind Raul’s actions but didn’t question anything as well. After one year and a half, they learned that the butler was someone that they could trust.

They moved towards a Teleporting pad that was placed inside the mansion, which made them get even more confused.

"Why are we changing the course so drastically? Do you have something important for us? You could have just called..." Canute spoke. He was kind of stressed because of that brusk change. The boy was looking forward to seeing his beloved after all.

"It is something of extreme importance that is happening these days. It is related to work, so I am not asking, but delivering an order that your superiors gave."

After hearing his words, the two young guards couldn’t do anything but obey. They knew what were the consequences of taking the order of a superior lightly. They saw it with their own eyes a lot of times.

They walked toward the Teleporting Pad. Raul muttered some coordinates from outside the pad. This way, Ari and Canute got teleported.

When they realized, they were among other guards, formed in a single horizontal line. In front of them was their captain, someone that they could easily recognize the voice because of the multiple scolds he gave on them.

He looked intently at Ari and Canute. They were the last guards to arrive there. The captain narrowed his eyes and seemed to be ready to eat them alive, but didn’t do anything in the end. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

After all, it was his own fault to count on Raul to teleport those two brats. He should have had messaged them earlier before their shift ended, but he didn’t want to give too many details of that operation, particularly for Ari.

"Before it starts, I need to say to you scums that this is one of the few chances you will have to stand out. While in the city guards, you will just be idiots trying to be warriors. These operations will make you left the status of idiots and get you a higher possibility to become a Ridire. Got it?"

Everyone on that line answered in a loud "Yes, sir".

"Ok. That said, let’s start to talk about the operation itself. If you have any questions, just keep your mouth shut and try to answer them yourself, because I don’t want to be bothered!"