Chapter 43. Journey to Darrumburgh

Opening his eyes to see the bright red eyes of Alice staring at him, Ken gives the vampire girl a small smile before reaching over to give her a morning kiss.

“How long have you been creepily staring at me instead of just waking me up?”

“Why can’t you just get rid of every other girl and just be with me?”

“Emma is the one who should be sad! We have been together all of our life and if I was never selected, she would have probably been my only girl and we would be traveling the world together.”

“Without any money, power or abilities, you are lucky you didn’t end up doing something that stupid. At best you end up realizing you needed to go back home and at worst, Emma gets kidnapped and sold while you are dead.”

“Is it really that bad out there?”

“Ken… Sure, no major wars had broken out in two thousand years and only us vampires got majorly screwed during this peaceful time. But do you really think the king of a country the size of Darrumburgh or Yelwraek can watch only his entire kingdom?

Outside of majority cities and major trading routes, there are plenty of bandits, thieves, and other criminal groups all over the world that would be more than happy to kidnap and sell a beautiful young woman like Emma in the black market and you would probably get turned into organ parts and sold as well.”

“Well, guess now I know where Rose’s father got her parts.”

“I don’t know what you mean, but stop thinking about other girls when you should only have me on your mind!”

After some bantering, the two got up and got ready and greeted Ava and the servants as Ken had a nice breakfast before the trio set out in the carriage and headed for Darrumburgh.

“Hey Ava, I thought about the boys, can you give them one silver coin each month after we are gone? I will go talk to Ryo and tell him to come by the castle each month to pick it up for the group. It should be just enough so they won’t go hungry but not too much for them to forget their roots.

I really think when Ryo is fifteen, he will no doubt get selected and by then, he should be able to support his family but until then, I don’t want him to starve to death.”

“You really like him, don’t you?”

“Yep, reminds me of myself when I was his age. My older siblings all left, I was 10 or 11 and the oldest of the bunch and had to do whatever I could so we didn’t starve.”

“Isn’t Emma older than you?”

“Oh yea! But I have always treated Emma as my little sister so age doesn't really matter. You are older than me too Alice, but I’m always babysitting you and have to keep an eye on you so you don’t get me in trouble.”

“LIES! I am the one who’s always teaching you new things! How are you the one babysitting me?”

“Do I have to listen to you lovers flirt for the entire ride while I’m here all lonely and single?” Ava said with a sigh.

“Nope. First off, Ava, you are a married woman and Secondly, I will just make out with Ken for the next 5 hours instead.”

Doing what she can to make Ava jealous, Alice started making out with Ken as he tried to push her away.

“Stop it Alice! See! This type of behavior is what I am talking about! You are always actively trying to make others mad!”

Not caring about Ken’s protest or Ava’s complaints, Alice made sure to spend the entire ride as intimate with Ken as possible while making out just to annoy her sister.

“Ken. Is she this insufferable at school?”

“Only towards Clare, to everyone else she is actually pretty reasonable most of the time.”

“Stop talking about that drama queen! I hope she can just disappear. Every time I see her or you bring her up, the mood instantly gets worse!”

“You're right, we are here in Darrumburgh to have fun! No point stressing over things I can’t control. But, please don’t wish for anything bad to happen to Clare, I don’t think I can take losing a single one of you.”

“Well, she isn’t yours anymore so I can wish all sorts of terrible things on her!”

Pretending he couldn’t hear her and still fully intending on getting Clare back, Ken changed the subject as the ride towards Darrumburgh continued.

“Finally here! I need to find a freaking boyfriend in Darrumburgh to bring home or else I don’t think I can handle riding home with Alice.”

“I will tell your husband Thomas that you are out here being unfaithful to him.”

“AH! Alice, I think it's been a year since I last saw him. I don’t even think he remembers he got a wife.”

“To have such a beautiful wife and not even wanting her sounds crazy to me.”

“Come on Ken, do you really think he doesn’t want me? I just didn’t want him because of all the girls he would bring home every night. I don’t understand why all you men can’t be satisfied with having just one girl. Do different girls really feel that different you can’t be satisfied with just one?”

“Sorry Ava, I have been with only one girl so far so won’t be able to confirm or deny. But I won’t deny that I am very attracted to many other girls so maybe we are all just like that.”

“Ken! My father’s only got our mom so obviously that’s a lie. There are just good men and bad ones and you are a naughty bad one!”

“Yea. Sorry Alice, I guess you should find a new boyfriend here in Darrumburgh like your sister.”

“I am not as lame as my sister! I don’t mind you having a few extra girls around but you won’t ever be like Ava’s husband and just sleep with random ones every night.”

“Well, not like I’m interested in random girls in the first place.”

“So you won’t sleep with a girl like me if I offered?” Ava asked seductively.

“I mean, you are not random. You are Alice’s sister so I think it should be fine.”

“KEN! You are NOT sleeping with my sister!” Alice shouted.

“I’m just messing with you Alice, one pair of sisters is enough trouble for me. I don’t want any more headaches.”

As the three chatted, the carriage stopped at the checkpoint where they all got out to be inspected by the wall soldiers stationed, to make sure no one dangerous is entering the capital city.

“State your business.”

“We are here for a few days to tour the city.”

“Citizen ID and Permission form please.”

“Don’t know what those are.”

“Visitor permission form?”

“Nope, no clue what that is either.”

Looking at Ken suspiciously, the guard waved over some backup as more guards rushed over and surrendered the group.

“If you are not a citizen of the country or a foreigner with permission and invitation to enter the city, we are afraid that you won’t be allowed inside.”

“You need permission to enter a city? Alice?”

“I guess we have only been here with our dad or uncle before so never really had to go through with a border check.”

“Can you go get Luke? I’m sure he can vouch that we aren’t some spy or anything and are just here for sightseeing”

“Luke who? We at Darrumburgh are a nation that follows rules and orders. Without proper visitor permission granted by our foreign embassy, we don’t care who you are, you won’t be allowed inside the city.”

“Luke Darrumburgh? Isn’t he like the nephew of the king? If he tells you all to let us in, you are telling me we won’t be allowed inside?”

“Ken, I think Luke would probably laugh at us for coming here without getting permission than letting us in.”

“SHhhhh!” Ken gives the girl a side glance telling her to stay quiet while he tries to get them inside the city.

“You know there is no way we could ever get in contact with a noble like the son of the duke. Please leave now before we are forced to take more drastic action.”

Not giving up his plan on visiting the city, Ken looked around to see if there was anything he could do when he suddenly spotted someone and shouted.

“VINCENT!”

Hearing his name called out by a stranger’s voice, Vincent Aguirrane looked towards where the voice came from and saw a group of guards surrendering with a few outsiders and walked over to check out the situation.

“Is anything wrong here?”

“Hey Vincent! Remember me? Can you tell your friends to let us in the city please. We just want to spend a few days here sightseeing.”

“You are Ken from the class of 2000 correct? And those two are the daughters of the duke of Vespera?”

“Who is he, Ken? Never seen him before.”

“It’s Vincent! You know? The guy Lucia always hypes up during the tournament as someone who is super talented and can eventually become a top 10 hero? Do you even watch the tournament, Alice?”

“Yep, I pay close attention to you and make a mental note everytime Genesis or one of the others try to get too intimate.”

Shaking his head with a sigh, Ken turned his attention back to Vincent.

Vincent Aguirrane, a fellow student from the academy who just finished his 6th year as a student. Average height, styled dark hair, dark eyes with handsome features is one of the students that Lucia really likes to hype up during every tournament and someone Ken had made a mental note to look out for since long ago.

“Can you get us into the city, Vincent? I’m sure it won’t be difficult for us to get the permission needed from the whatever place if we have time but I really don’t. If you can go get Luke that would work too, he is like my best friend. We talk and complement each other daily, I’m sure he would be able to get us in.”

Nudging Alice hard trying to make her stop laughing at his comment, Ken smiled at Vincent in hopes of convincing him to let them in.

“Hi guys, those two are daughters of the Duke of Vespera, I am sure they will be granted automatic entrance. Ken here is a student at Dragonspire from the same year as Luke so I am sure he isn’t lying about coming to just visit for a few days, can we let them in? I will escort them and go register them at a hotel and inform the embassy.”

With the assurance from Vincent, the guards allowed the carriage to go through the city walls and Vincent tagged along to be their guard.

“Man, so much for being the daughters of a Duke, can’t believe the two of you didn’t know we needed some permission to enter this city!”

“Sorry Ken! We only ever came by teleport so we didn’t think about needing permission!” Ava apologized for the awkward standstill at the gates.

“Thanks so much for saving our butts Vincent! Without you, we might have just wasted two whole days! Why were you at the walls anyways?”

“It’s my pleasure to help out a fellow schoolmate and of course getting on the good side of the nobles from Vespera never hurts. My father happens to be the capital of the wall guards so I grew up around the walls and during my break home, I am here often to help out.”

“Wow, I always knew I had good luck! Good thing you just happened to be around! I heard you reached divine level on everything after your 5th year! Are you close to reaching holy level yet?”

“Unfortunately, I have been in a rut this past year. I was progressing smoothly all the way up until divine level and as you said, I was getting a lot of coverage and publicity but after reaching divine level, the progression had pretty much stopped and I don’t think I have gotten much stronger since a year ago.”

“I mean, don’t sweat it! Once you reach divine level, you can stay at the academy forever right. Just take your time, I am sure you will get there soon! If it’s easy to reach holy level, I’m sure people like Siveril and Frederick won’t have been able to make it to the top 10 with only divine levels of mastery.”

“As your senior by a few years, I can assure you that there is more to power than simply levels of mastery. Just like that dragoon friend of yours with her natural born advantages and the two vampire nobles here, there are many other factors when it comes to actual combat.”

“Oh, I am learning something new everyday! I just learned about boost recently so I am sure someone with high stamina with divine level mastery can boost up to holy level and go head on and many other factors probably also play into it. If you have any tips you are willing to share, I will be more than happy to listen!”

As the carriage moved along the road taking the group to the main district, Ken and Vincent had a great time chatting about how to get stronger while the carriage moved along the road to their destination.

“Why are you two only talking about fighting and how to get stronger? Why don’t you two talk about more interesting things, You two are putting me to sleep!”

“Alice, why do you think I am trying to get stronger? Who do you think put all this pressure on me to win the tournament by the end of the next year so she could tell her dad and we could get married?”

“Wife number one is reserved for me!” Alice claimed happily as the carriage arrived at their destination.

“This is the best hotel in all of Darrumburgh, I wasn’t sure if you all are looking for a more casual place to stay or staying at the best. Sorry I forgot to ask before taking you here first.”

“We will be glad to stay here! Thank you so much for everything you did for us today.” Ava answered happily.

“Not a problem. If you don’t mind, could you please go check in and have the room setup so I can go get the three of you registered and checked in with the foreign embassy just to avoid any legal issues.”

With Vincent as their escort, the group walked into the huge magnificent white building that could rival the decorations and furniture from the academy and even Alice’s castle.

“Hello! Welcome to Hotel Darrumburgh! Do you have a reservation?”

“No, we do not. How much for a room for the three of us? Prefer if it has two rooms.”

“We will be more than glad to help! For a suite with two rooms, we have a few different options. What budget range would you be looking for?”

Turning to the two girls, Ken left the details to Ava who was the one who had the cash out of the group.

“We will take a luxury suite.”

“Of course, that would be 2 gold coins a night, how many nights would your stay be for?”

“I think 5 nights is enough.”

“Ten gold coins for 5 days? Are you people made of money?” Ken whispered to Alice.

“No clue, I never had to worry about money or care how much things cost.” Alice replied casually as Ava handed over ten gold coins to get their room situated while Vincent got all the details he needed to file the official report.

“Well Ken, Lady Ava and Lady Alice, I will be taking my leave to file the official permission with the embassy. If any issues arise which I do not foresee, I will make another visit. Please enjoy your stay here in Darrumburgh.”

“Thanks Vincent! You were a great help for us today. If I don’t see you around, I will see you around at school.”

Waving goodbye to Vincent, with the sun already setting from the long day of travel, the trio headed to their luxury suite with beautiful decorations and fancy furniture.

“What will happen with Albert and your carriage?”

“When we checked in, the staff will take care of providing our horses with a stable and Albert a place to stay as the butler corner. Our fee includes the care of the horses and our butler.”

“For two gold a night? They better include way more! My family could live for months on two gold coins! Could you imagine how much blood Ryo could buy with two gold coins?”

“Nope, don’t care or want to ever think about that thieving kid ever again. Ava, what do you think about that Vincent guy? I think he is a good fit for you, too bad you are married!”

“Ken! Take that annoying sister of mine and go to your room! I can’t believe I actually thought I missed having her around sometimes!”

Saying goodnight to Ava, Ken and Alice left for their room to take a shower and head for bed.

“Were you always this mean to your sister?”

“Only because you are here Ken. Once you leave, I will be much nicer to her.”

“Wow, I get blamed for everything don’t I?”

“She is very lonely, Ken. I know I should be comforting her but with you around, I would rather not let her have any ideas so it’s definitely your fault.”

“I won’t deny she is a very pretty lady but you are definitely prettier.”

“Nice try! I won’t let my guard down just from a few flattering words.”

After taking a nice shower together, the pair laid down on the huge soft bed curled together exhausted from the long day of traveling but excited for the upcoming adventures in Darrumburgh and quickly fell asleep.