[Melas] Chapter 80 - Jahar'taw (Patreon)

After speaking with Gennady, I found Ginah to tell her about our general course of action once we reached Jahar’taw. She seemed slightly dubious— skeptical even. But she was hedging on me keeping my word.

“And we won’t have any problems with being there, even though we’re pirates?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes. I’ll speak to the King. No matter what, I can gain his audience. That I know for certain.” I had made a deal— a Witch’s deal, you could say— with her. And I was going to do what I could to keep my part.

That wasn’t enough to reassure her, but she was convinced I was telling the truth. “If you say so,” she said.

Having said my piece, I was about to take my leave, but the pirate Captain stopped me. She cast her gaze to the horizon as I gave her a confused look.

“Is something the matter?”

“No.” She shook her head. Then she raised her arm, pointing at the distant sky. “But look. You can see, the weather is clear— will be clear— up here in the north. There will be no more storms. No more delays. Get ready, because we’ll reach Jahar’taw soon.”

I nodded. And for the next few days, I readied myself. Mentally so, as well as made plans. Gennady showed me a rough layout of the city; apparently there was the main city where factories and businesses operated, as well as the outer city comprising some outlying farms as well as the harbor.

It was the second most populated city in the world, right behind the Capital of the Holy Xan Empire, Xanderia. Last he heard, there were almost three million people living there, probably breaking the three million barrier now!

Since the outer city was more sparsely populated, to maintain some secrecy, Gennady planned to get us a warehouse to stay in there. At least until we knew we wouldn’t run into trouble in the city.

We agreed to try and meet with Erzhan first, after I spoke to Adilet. I had Felix’s letter with me, as well as help from Gennady, so that could be done. With all that in mind, I had thought I would be prepared for our arrival in Jahar’taw.

It was just another city, after all. A city with skyscrapers, sure. But a city. There couldn’t have possibly been anything special or standout about it to me, right?

I was wrong.

A few days later, I stepped out onto the deck of the ship with Gennady and Sevin to be greeted by a light buzzing sound. It wasn’t the noise of an insect or a bug, but the tiny specks in the blue sky sure seemed like one at first.

“What is that?” Sevin asked over my shoulder.

“No idea,” Ginah harrumphed, letting go of the helm and folding her arms. “But it has been following us for the last 30 minutes.”

Gennady frowned, narrowing his eyes. “I’ve never heard of a flying Monster that made such a noise. Here, wait, let me grab my spyglass—”

I ignored them, and just stared at the distant objects. A fourth voice broke off from them, approaching me from the side.

“Something wrong, Melas?”

Lisa cocked her head, looking at me inquisitively. Realizing that I had gone fished eyed, I quickly blinked and focused on the young woman.

“No— it’s, uh, nothing.” I shook my head and rubbed at my eyes. I glanced back up, trying to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me.

They weren’t.

Planes flew above head, soaring through the sky. Two of them. They both had wings, of course, and a rotor attached to the nose of the aircraft.

I just looked on as they continued tracking us through the waters.

“I think they’re following us,” I managed to muster a thought.

“Are you sure—”

Lisa was interrupted as Gennady swore loudly, before erupting into a full blown guffaw,

“Sacred piss! That mad lad actually did it! He actually went ahead and did it!”

“What are you talking about? Explain,” Ginah demanded.

The Dwarf stopped hopping in circles, turning to face the pirate Captain; he handed his spyglass to her, pointing up with alacrity. “Tha'ss'a a plane! A damned plane, I tell ye! An aircraft!”

“What?”

Ginah, Sevin, and Lisa blinked. The young man coughed, and raised a hand meekly.

“Do you mean like a flying ship?”

“Nae, lad! It doesn’t need a Superior mana crystal or antigravity runes! It flies on aerodynamics! A large, mechanical glider!” Gennady gesticulated, stretching his arms out wide.

“A… glider?” Ginah gave him a blank look. But this time, Lisa was the one to answer.

“It’s a flying device. Jack told me about it— Dwarves are obsessed with flying, and keep going on and on about using gliders to fly.”

Gennady folded his arms indignantly. “You just don’t understand the ingenuity behind it— c’mon Melas, at least you see how amazing that is, right?”

All heads turned to me, and I bit my lip. Why’d you have to draw attention to me?

Well, it was not like anyone would believe I was reincarnated from another world. Or that it mattered much to me anyways. So I gave an honest answer.

“I… never heard of those,” I admitted. Not in this world, at least. “But I think I understand what you’re saying. It’ll revolutionize travel, right?”

“See? She gets it. And she’s only ever been to the Free Lands—  the most backwards place in the world— and Laxis, which— no offense— was never a place of innovation even before the embargo by the Holy Xan Empire two decades ago.”

The Dwarf raised an arm, pointing at the planes as they suddenly sped up and flew at a distant city in the horizon.

“These are the future of travel. Maybe not now, but in a hundred years? Two hundred? Flying ships are expensive. Costly. And require too much mana crystals for any other nation in the world to procure on the regular. But planes? They’re like flying cars.”

I saw Lisa and Ginah exchange a dubious look; even Sevin wasn’t fully convinced. But Gennady went on, grinning like a madman.

“You won’t see it now. ‘Course not. I didn’t see it at first, but Erzhan told me it would work. And now he has proven it has.”

“Erzhan?” I raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that who we’re supposed to be meeting with?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “Don’t give me that look. Us Dwarves are never just that simple— he may be a businessman, but he’s also insane.

Gennady strutted over to the edge of the ship as we approached the city. I got a clearer view now of it; the city wasn’t as big as I thought it would be, although it was still larger than Luke. Behind the city was a mountain— a rather large mountain that peaked over the clouds.

His eyes twinkled as he gestured past the buildings, at the mountain. Then I realized, what I had seen wasn’t the city.

“This? This is Jahar’taw.”

As we reached the docks of the city, the glittering ocean water changed in color, turning to an odd vibrant red that streaked the entire shoreline. Apparently much of the sand and soil around the city was mixed with clay, giving it the unique color I’d have only expected to see in a vast desert.

And while I didn’t notice it earlier, the city was indeed large. What had appeared to be Jahar’taw was only the outer city. Gennady was being literal when he said that.

The city was built into the mountain I had seen from afar; there was a large opening to the side of it, and I could see several networks of roads and railways leading into the mountain from the harbor and the outlying farmlands and factories.

I stared in awe at this sight. The mountain was hollow. Or at least, it was partially hollow. There had been a large cavern there once, with a massive deposit of mana stones and liquid mana that they had mined away. Then refining those mana stones into mana crystals, they reinforced the walls of the cave and expanded it by such vast amounts it could now fit a city within.

I was still admiring the sight, having changed my mind with how unimpressed I had been with the Taw Kingdom. This was not possible in my world, even if tall buildings weren’t new to me. I felt the ship jerk as we finally came to a stop.

The moment our ship anchored itself, a group of Dwarves came down the gangway and stopped us. They were accompanied by two large humanoid figures— Golems, made of clay, with a mana crystal protruding out of their chests.

Ginah went down to speak with them.

“Halt you ship, lassie. What business do you have with the city?”

“We’re just traders. Merchants coming in to do business here. Is something the matter?”

The lead Dwarf— a rather rotund woman, even for a Dwarf— ruffled her coat and snapped. “Merchants? What be yer wares?”

“Just some—”

She cut Ginah off. “Ye be bound from Laxis, ain’t ye?”

“Yes, we—”

“If we find any enuim in your ship, yer going straight ta jail, got it?”

The pirate Captain gritted her teeth, stopping herself from shouting back at the Dwarf. “Yes, of course,” she started, glancing at the Golems and Dwarves at her side. “And I take it you’re the Harbormistress here?”

“Harbormaster. Unlike ya Humans, us Dwarves dinna care about damned—”

I could tell Ginah was reaching the end of her patience. She was not a bad person, but the Harbormaster was not giving her any room to speak— and that would annoy anybody. I was relieved to finally hear the heavy footsteps come from behind me as Gennady came out of the ship yelling.

“Oi! What’s with all the commotion? Why can’t we leave yet? I’m getting sick and tired of waiting.”

Immediately, the Harbormaster gasped. “Gen— Gennady Usenov?!” She stepped back, shocked at seeing him as a susurration ran through the Dwarves companying him.

“Gennady? As in tha inventor o' tha Steel Golems?

“He made mana core's more efficient dinna he?”

“Tha blooming Gennady? Thought he left!”

My head snapped to Gennady. He looked back at me, a grin plastered on his face. “What, lass? Surprised that I’m famous, ain’t ya?”

“No, I—” I started, shuffling my feet uncomfortably. My gaze slowly slid off his face, averting to the side. “I have no idea what they just said. Was that even in the Ordinary Language?”

He stared at me for a moment, then sighed. He turned to the Harbormaster and shouted down at her in his Dwarvish accent.

“Be that ye, Batima? Dinna think ye were still tha Harbormaster here.”

“Aye, it's me!” the Harbormaster, Batima, bellowed. “Yer looking gray, ain't ye? 'S been a while!”

Gennady strutted down the gangplank, spreading his arms open to greet the female Dwarf. Ginah blinked as they hugged each other, and loudly smacked each other in the back several times.

“You know her, Gennady?”

“Aye!” he said, facing the pirate Captain. He paused, clearing his throat before speaking in a more slower voice. “I’ve known her for as long as I can remember. We’ve been friends since we were this small.”

He held his hand up to his waist, indicating how tall he had been back when he was a kid. Ginah narrowed her eyes. “Oh. Didn’t know you had friends that were so…”

“So much of a stuck up?” He glanced over at Batima. “Well, she’s a wee bit of a bitch, but she’s my friend even so.”

“Oi! Watch ya mouth, you stone faced fool.”

The Harbormaster punched him hard on his shoulder. Gennady let out a loud ‘oomph’, before exploding into laughter with her.

I walked down over to the group, as Ginah just glanced between the two Dwarves in resignation. “I don’t think I want to deal with this,” she sighed.

“It’s a good thing,” I said as I passed by her. “A blessing, I guess.”

“Why’s that?”

I simply smiled, then turned to Gennady. “Hey Gennady,” I interrupted him as he began chatting with Batima.

“Yes?” He looked away from her, still with a wide grin on his face that emphasized the crow’s feet wrinkling the side of his eyes.

“Is this your friend? It’s nice to meet you, I’m Melas.”

Batima paused, her face losing some of the alacrity that had been there, although she wasn’t scowling as she had been when she spoke with Ginah.

“I’m Harbormaster Batima.” She proffered a hand as she spoke in an over enunciated way. I shook it, then she turned to Gennady.

“What are ye doing with a Human girl, Gen? Thought you would be busy completing that stupid project of yours.”

He snorted. “It’s not a stupid project. And I’m here because I’m done with that project. I finally finished the last of my bestiary.”

“You did?” She gave him a blank look, and he just waved a hand dismissively.

“‘Course I did. It was a long undertaking, but I finally did it. And when I was done, I met Melas here—”

I cut him off, stepping forward. “And I led him to Ms Ginah who hired him to protect our vessel through the stormy seas. And it worked out since he wanted to return home, and we were looking to come here for business, right?”

I turned to Gennady, giving him an obvious look. I could see him mentally snapping his fingers as he nodded.

“Right, that’s what happened. These merchants were just headed here, and since I was too, I thought I could offer my services to ‘em. Worked out well in the end— was a mostly uneventful voyage.”

“That’s odd, I’d have thought the route here from Laxis would be too dangerous, even for you.” Batima furrowed her brows.

He shrugged. “Not the first time you’ve been wrong about me, eh?”

The Harbormaster just rolled her eyes, as I frowned having picked out what she said. “How did you know we came from Laxis, anyway?” I asked.

“Oh, that?” She glanced over past the red waters, into the ocean beyond. “We had some planes flying out this morning spot you. Ships coming from that direction are either our own Dwarven boats— which yours clearly isn’t. Or from Laxis. And since you’re a bunch of Humans, we simply put it together.”

“But there won’t be any problem, right?” I looked over at Gennady. “We’re just merchants. And I don’t think the Taw Kingdom has an embargo with Laxis. So it should be fine.”

“There better not be any problems,” he said, crossing his arms. “C’mon Batima. I’ve been with this lot for months, they’re good. Trust me.”

“We’ll have to carry out our inspection as per procedure. But I won’t pester you guys any further, since I haven’t seen you in a while and you’re insisting.”

“Thanks.” He winked at her. “I might just buy you a drink for that.”

“Aye, I’ll take up that offer. But next time.” She spun around, addressing the Dwarves with her. “Alright lads, do your job.”

The other Dwarves behind her— many of them less stocky than both Gennady and Batima, but still rather burly— shuffled up the gangplank into the ship. Ginah stepped to the side as they did, before going up to me as Gennady and Batima began to catch up.

“So that’s your cover this time?” she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

“Just for now,” I said. “It’s better for the both of us, right?”

Nodding, she lowered her arms down to the side. “I guess.” She peeked over at Gennady who was boisterously exchanging words rapidly with the Harbormaster. “So I guess he wasn’t lying when he said he knows people.”

“Mhm.” I made a sound in agreement.

“Are you surprised by it?”

“A little bit,” I admitted. “I didn’t exactly doubt it, but I thought he could’ve been over exaggerating slightly.”

“Huh.” The pirate Captain turned back to me. “I heard from Sevin that he was famous. Apparently he’s mentioned in books too.”

“He told me that too.”

“And you still didn’t fully trust him?”

I looked back up to Ginah, meeting her hazel eyes. “Not at first. But I’ve learned that I’m not always right. So I’m glad that I trusted him now.”

“I see.” Ginah looked away from me, and rested a hand on the hilt of her Energy Whip. “Well, I hope I’m right about you.”

I turned to her, but she was already stalking off to follow the Dwarven workers into the ship. I muttered under my breath.

“I hope so too.”

As Gennady promised, he situated us with a warehouse to stay in for the time being. It took us a while to bring all of our important valuables here; members of Ginah’s Crew were coming and going, taking carts back and forth from the dock to the warehouse, unloading everything they needed for now as Ginah found a place to store the ship for the time being.

I tried not to draw too much attention to myself for now, so I simply stayed in the warehouse with Sevin, who was showing me his most recent invention: a flashlight. He called it a tubelight at first, but I convinced him it was a stupid name and he accepted that flashlight was a far better name after a short conversation.

Then night came and we all had our dinner together. I was just resting after the long trip. But I knew that everyone had their eyes on everything I did; we were finally here, in Jahar’taw, and I was staying indoors.

But they didn’t say a thing. And I knew they were expecting me to do something— whether it be keep my promises, or run off somewhere— they didn’t know. However, I knew what I was doing. I had already spoken to Gennady about it.

The Dwarf hadn’t been with us since he showed us to the warehouse and got us in, but he finally returned after I finished my meal. He marched straight to me, holding up two small pieces of paper.

“Here,” he said, handing one to me.

Blinking, I accepted it and inspected what I had been given. “This… is a ticket?”

“Yep. It’s for a train ride to the inner city. I know it’s not that far, but trust me, you’d rather take the train in then walk for miles through the busy streets in the morning.”

I pocketed the ticket and nodded. “So,” I started, looking back up to him, “the meeting went well, huh?”

“‘Course it did.” He pointed a thumb at himself. “I told you not to worry about it, didn’t I?”

A voice broke in from the side as Sevin came over, having overheard the conversation. “Meeting? What meeting?” He looked between the both of us. “What are you guys talking about.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” the Dwarf said, all too sarcastically. “I just got Melas here an audience with King Adilet after speaking to a few people. Nothing too much, y’know.”

The young man stared at him, shocked. “Wait— how…” Sevin trailed off.

“And I arranged it so we’ll be meeting tomorrow morning.” The Dwarf nodded at me, and I pushed down on the nervousness building my stomach.

“Right, just as we planned,” I said.

Sevin lightly slapped his face a few times, breaking himself out of his light trance. Then he shook his head, collecting himself. “Can I come too? I’ve always wanted to see the Taj Palace. And the House of Or’taq too! In fact, there’s so many things I’ve always dreamt of seeing in Taw. Bring me with you, please?”

Gennady snorted. “Hah, no. Go by yourself when you have the time, lad. Melas and I aren’t going there as tourists. We’re in Jahar’taw for business.”

Author's Note:

18 November 2020: Sorry for the delay. My dog was hospitalized and I had essays due, so I wasn't able to work on the chapter as much as I would've liked. Next chapter will be on friday as per usual.

22 December 2020: 

And we're back with another Melas chapter!

The 1 and a half week break I took was absolutely necessary, and I feel so much better now writing Melas with that. Seriously. I apologize for taking so long, but I literally have not felt this good about a Melas chapter in months.

Now all I have to do is maintain these uploads through Christmas and New Years, while trying to pump out 5 Salvos chapters a week. But don't worry, I have a 3 chapter Salvos backlog buffer to help me with that.

Also, I'm no longer writing 4,000 words for a Melas chapter. All that did was force me to make a scene longer than it needed to be. I'll write Melas chapters however long I want it to be now. Whether it's 1,000 words or 11,000 words, I will decide.

Next chapter on Friday or Saturday.

Thank you all for sticking with me throughout the tumultuous last two months. I genuinely appreciate it.

For everyone still reading the backlog/patreon chapters that isn't the latest, I apologize for the quality of writing there. It wasn't my best and I'll be the first to admit that.