Royal Blood : Chapter 14 (Patreon)

Chapter 14: Port Royal

“What’s a port?”

I leaned against the wall of the hired coach, opposite the Boss. It was eerily reminiscent of when he’d kidnapped me from the Imperial City just over a year ago.

“Alllyyyyyyy!”

Of course, I had company this time. “A port is a city on the coast, where ships go to trade.”

“Oh.” Nezza paused. Right now, she was in her dagger form, hidden away inside my cloak. We were only a few hours out of Iduneth, and the road outside sloped slowly downward towards the sea. “What’s Port Royal then?”

“The biggest port in Norvusk.” This time, we didn’t follow the river. All of the tributaries in the region flowed towards the Kandrel River, and that one flowed south. Port Royal was to the west. “The Imperial Family owns it, and it is one of the Royal Charter Cities that are administrated directly by a member of the Imperial Family, as opposed to the nobility.”

Really, bringing me there was a bold move from the Boss. There wasn’t anywhere outside of the Imperial City itself where my family’s reach was stronger. Of course, it had also been a year. They’d probably given me up for dead by now.

And here I was, no closer to figuring out who’d let the assassins into the city to begin with. Heck, this was my first time out of Iduneth since I’d been kidnapped.

“You know a lot about the Empire, Alex,” Nezza said.

I gave the mental equivalent of a shrug. “I was classically educated.”

There was a moment of silence. “What’s that mean?”

I held back a chuckle. For all that she was a few years older than me (in this life, at least), Nezza was still just a kid. I could practically feel her excitement now that we were out of the city.

“That’s right, your mom probably taught you, didn’t she?” I rested my chin on my palm. “You’ve never been outside of Iduneth and the surrounding lands, have you?”

“Nope!” Like I said, nearly vibrating with excitement. “What’s it like?”

“Different. The world is a big place, and the Empire of Norvusk is only a part of it. A large part, though. Even I haven’t been outside the Empire.”

Part of that had to do with being a prince, and more than that, a trueborn Prince of the Blood. Now, of course, I was an assassin. I imagine I wouldn’t be traveling very much now either. Seemed like the type of thing only more experienced assassins got to do.

Ah, that reminded me of the skyship company I’d been following, back when I was still at the Palace. I’d sent all of one letter, accompanied by a small gift, before my father had shut that down.

Couldn’t let people hear too much about the worthless prince, after all. Well, now I’d get the chance to show him worthless.

“So how much longer?”

“It’ll be the better part of a day.” I turned away from the window, taking in the Boss for a moment. For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be sleeping, grey cap pulled low over his eyes. “Might as well get comfortable.”

“A whole day? What if I get hungry?”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t get hungry in dagger form, remember? We tested this already.”

Nezza sent back a mental huff. I could already picture her crossing her arms and pouting at me. She liked to call them glares. “I’m a hu—human being, too.”

“Technically, you’re a daemon now.” I sighed. “I wish Boss taught me Observe, so I could take a look at your sheet. I didn’t even know that daemons existed before. The archives must be incomplete.”

“What archives?”

Oops. Uh… “Remember how I went to the library in Iduneth all the time?”

“Ugh, more books.” She would be shaking her head, I could tell. “You read too much.”

“Maybe if you tried it some time, you’d know what a port was.”

“That’s what I have you for!”

I had to hold back a chuckle before turning back to the window. There really hadn’t been anything about daemons, or other types of ‘half demon’ in the royal archives. It made me wonder if Nezza could continue to evolve. So far, she hadn’t gotten another heritage quest, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

If she could become a full Demon Lord…

“Hey. Are we there yet?”

I closed my eyes. “No.”

“Mhmhmgm.” There was a brief pause, before, “Are we there now?”

“If you keep this up, I will toss you from the carriage.” I huffed. “Then you can walk back to Iduneth if you want to get there so bad.”

She continued to grumble, but settled into silence after a while. Really, I understood where she was coming from. I was born in the modern age, after all, where getting from Iduneth to Port Royal would be a few hours by car at most. Instead, we left in the morning, and we’d get there just before sundown. Made me wish I had my smart phone.

It’d be dead by now, of course.

The hours passed in silence, broken up by brief conversations with Nezz as she asked about various things. At about noon, Boss woke briefly, and we ate a cold meal of dried meat and bread in silence. Then he leaned back and closed his eyes again.

I could never tell if he was actually asleep, or if he was watching me.

With nothing else to do, I started practicing my skills.

Boss had been pleased I’d picked Sneak as my first skill and leveled it a few times. It was, according to him, a requirement of being an assassin. Beyond that, he’d instructed me to pick Sucker punch instead of Backstab. Sometimes you have to stab people from the front, after all.

From there, my other 4 skill slots were taken up with

Small Blades lvl 5

Conceal lvl 6

Viper’s Art lvl 9

and Sleight of Hand lvl 2

Viper’s Art was the catchall for the skills, small ‘s’, I’d learned from Boss. How to brew a poison, how to care for blades, and more importantly, how to fight like an assassin. Of course, I’d picked up the generic Small Blades as well.

Sleight of Hand I got from doing tricks with Nezza. A knife that could switch from a weapon to a combatant and back again in the blink of an eye opened up all kinds of tricks, though so far we still weren’t great with it.

Since I was in a carriage, I worked on that one.

I pulled out a silver coin and a copper slug. Holding one in each hand, I started what had become my normal practice routine, trying to switch the coins without it being obvious. Back in my first life, I used to watch magic tricks on ViewTube all the time, not that I’d even practiced them or anything. It was super annoying, knowing what the end result was supposed to look like, but only having a vague idea how you actually did the trick.

Fortunately, I had a lot of time to practice.

I passed the rest of the time trying to do a simple—or at least, I thought it was simple—coin swap trick. I was rewarded with a new level of Sleight of Hand by the time the walls of Port Royal came into sight.

I stowed the coins as Boss sat up. Nezza had grown bored with it a while ago, but she immediately perked up when the carriage began to slow, and the familiar sounds of a city washed over the carriage.

“Are we there yet?”

I grinned. “Yes. We are.”

Even at this time of the evening, there was a constant stream of traffic entering and exiting the city. We stayed in the carriage as the driver paid the toll and dropped us off at an inn near the walls. Boss tossed a pouch of coin to the driver. “Go take care of the rooms, brat.”

“Got it.” I nodded, happy to be able to stretch my legs.

I stepped into the inn. It was a classic: sturdy wooden tables around a cheery hearth, a bar complete with a jolly looking innkeeper, and more tankards of beer than I could count.

Really, I couldn’t ask for a better start to my first mission.

I walked up to the counter, putting on a smile. “Hey there, good man!” I waved, hopping up on a stool. “Lovely place you got here.”

The man laughed, rubbing his wiry mutton chops. His hair was brown, a shade darker than my own had been before I dyed it. “It’s not much,” he said, “but it’s honest work.” He patted the lacquered counter fondly. “What can I do you for, lad? Traveling by yourself?”

I shook my head. “My master is outside, settling up with the carriage.”

“A tradesman, ey? What’s your Class?” Luckily, he didn’t seem to have Observe. Like I’d said, most people didn’t, and Conceal could counter it—Sneak made my physically harder to detect, while Conceal hid me from magical detection. Luckily, I could train it with both the Boss and Nezz.

“Things are booming now that the Royal Guard all up and left,” the man continued. “‘Bout damn time, too!”

I guess they really had given up. I brushed the thought off. I’d make my way back to Elysia on my own.

I already had an answer to Innkeeper’s question. “My master is a scrivener!” I put down a few coins on the counter, sliding them over as the innkeep deftly poured two beers. “I’m still an apprentice though.”

He laughed heartily. “No worries, it comes in time. Why, my own daughter still hasn’t picked up the innkeeper class.” He nodded to a girl only a few years older than me, weaving deftly between the tables. “But she’ll get there.”

Hmm. Innkeeper’s daughter? Could be another quest flag, but I’d also had a few false positives over the years. Either way, my search for main characters had led me to Nezza, so I liked to keep my eyes peeled.

“Thanks!” I rubbed the back of my head. “It can be a bit…much. I don’t know if I’ll ever make a good scribe.”

“It’ll come.” He patted me on the shoulder with a meaty hand. “It’ll come. Now, I think you said something about a room. One for the both of ya?”

I shook my head. “Master likes his privacy, so I’m sure we’d all be happier with two.”

“Well you’re in luck.” He took my coin, pushing the beers towards me. I took a sip of the first one. It was frothy. Not really my poison, but hey, you didn’t insult a man’s drink in his own house. “I have a few open. I’m sure we can work out a satisfactory arrangement. It’ll be six silver a night each for the rooms; comes with a bowl of porridge and fresh bread in the morning.”

I hemmed and hawed for a moment. “Throw in a lunch? We’re gonna be here for a while.”

“Why, lad, I can’t just give away food for free. Put me out of a business.”

I shrugged. “My master said to take care of the meals too. How about seven a room, then, and three square?” I looked down, kicking my foot against the counter. “He, uh, got mad at me when I forgot last time.”

He chuckled. “Well, we don’t want that. Eight silver a night.”

“Seven and half?” I looked up at him, eyes wide. “Please? He probably won’t even eat here most nights. Never does, but he wants it taken care of all the same.”

He looked at me for a moment longer, before huffing. “Oh all right. Seven and a slug.” He ruffled my hair. “You’re a good lad.”

With a grin that was only a little fake, I put the first fifteen silver on the counter: a ten that was almost pure silver, and then five more coins that were little more than silver-coated nickel. I’d had whole weeks of lessons dedicated to coinage. Made me miss fiat currency so much. “I’ll go get him! Thanks, mister!”

He chuckled again. “No worries, no worries. I’ll keep your seat for you. And a bowl of some of the stew when you get back.” He gave a wink. “Wouldn’t want to short my new customers.”

I grinned back, before darting outside. The coach was gone, and Boss was talking with a few men on the other side of the street. They left as I approached.

Boss turned. “Got it taken care of?”

I nodded. “Two rooms and three meals, fifteen silver a day.”

“Heh, not bad.” He brushed past me. “The beer tastes like piss, no doubt.”

I shrugged, following Boss back into the room. Just like I expected, he ignored the innkeeper save to get a pair of simple keys. He tossed one to me before heading up the stairs.

“Is it alright if I take his portion upstairs?” I slid onto my stool, doing my best to look small. “Otherwise…”

“Ah, with a teacher like that, no wonder you drive a good bargain. Here, lad, take it, take it.”

I nodded in thanks, finishing my own portion before taking the other bowl up to my room, where Nezza devoured it like a starving animal.

And so passed my first night in Port Royal.