In a blur, three days passed by. At times David would find himself sitting and during the other times, he would be standing by the doorway. The old man would offer his seat a few times as well.
Overall, it was an average journey with nothing special to speak of.
Well that is...if one can really ignore the stench that had haunted all the slaves sitting inside the caravan, along with the small cramped space where just lifting your head a little high could result in a collision with the heavy wooden roof of the transport.
On the eve of the dusk on thr third day, the caravan jerked to a halt. David's dozing eyes snapped open as the boots of someone walking came from outside. The next moment, the door was unlocked as the talkative soldier came into view.
"We have reached. Wake up the sleeping ones and come out quickly."
Slowly everyone started getting out of the "cage" they had been travelling in for three whole days.
David eyed the almost rotting body one last time as he stepped out, followed by the nameless girl who was still rubbing her eyes, trying to chase away the last vestiges of her sleep.
Ahead of them lay a large fortified archway with large walls and watchtowers surrounding the city perimeter.
At the foot of this archway, two gates were present and guarded by several soldiers wearing dark brown armour. Each of them carried weapons and had the Windsor royal sigil pasted on their breastplate.
"Sihapis..." The old man looked at the soldiers guarding the pathway, as if recalling his own days of service.
David looked behind him once to see if the two soldiers would be following them inside or would be guiding them.
But it seemed they weren't interested in it and were busy taking out the corpse from inside the caravan onto a stretcher. Once done, they covered it with a white cloth while the brother of the dead watched from a little distance away with a grim face.
'I guess he shall atleast get a proper burial...' But he didn't want to attract any attention by standing there, so after asking the girl to follow him, they started walking towards the gate.
Huge metallic doors stood wide open, intricate designs crafted magnificently on them. The main gate was wide enough to fit several people side by side. Just beside this, separated by a thick piece of wall, a thin gate was built.
Even though it's said to be thin, it actually was quite broad itself. However when compared to the main gate, the secondary gate looked really thin, which was right now closed shut.
David and the nameless girl stood in the line of several other people who were all waiting to enter the Capital. The Sihapis standing guard checked the people for their contents. After they were satisfied, they let the people in.
David noticed something - the Sihapis looked quite disciplined and were adequately polite to the common people. He wouldn't be lying if he said he was actually expecting these lower ranked soldiers to be bullying in nature and maybe even extorting money from these poor people.
Soon after standing in the line for few minutes, David and the girl reached the front.
Seeing a female, one of the soldier pointed at her.
"You! Go to her." He pointed behind him at the only lady Sihapi, indicating the nameless girl to walk to her.
'Yeah, I definitely need to join the Sihapis. They look like good folks. Heck, they don't even look disgusted by me and her even though they could see the slave sigil on our necks.'
A soldier approached him and started checking for any type of weapon or illegal item on his body. Finding none, he asked him.
"Here for the contest?" His tone suggested that he had already seen many other people arrive at the city for the same reason.
"Yes..." David replied to which the soldier nodded in understanding. Then suddenly his brows creased as he looked at David.
"You... don't have a weapon? You aren't going to win a fight in the arena without a weapon... that's completely suicidal."
"Won't they give any spares....Can everyone even have a weapon with them?"
"Yes, almost everyone generally have a weapon. Even if it's something covered with rust, they still carry it. You see...the kingdom is not kind enough to donate one to every participant."
"Jeffrey!" An older looking Sihapi standing a little distance away glared at the soldier, as if reprimanding him for making a joke of their kingdom.
But David didn't care for any of that as he found himself in a dilemma. Where shall he get a proper weapon?
'Should I just pick up a random durable stick and beat the crap out of my opponents?'
At that moment, the lady Sihapi from inside the gate shouted. "All clear! Let the boy enter as well."
"Just a piece of advice. If you know how to fight, don't bother finding for a weapon...a slave wouldn't be able to. Atleast not easily. In the contest, there are several brats every year who waste the savings of their parents and enter the fray hoping to win. Beat them up and take their weapon..."
Then smiling, he added. "Consider this coming from someone whose father had been a slave. And a Sihapi."
David paused for a moment. The idea wasn't bad at all....in fact, it was something quite practical. He bowed his head lightly as a sign of respect before quickly entering the gates of the Southern Capital, no longer wanting to keep the others behind him waiting.
Inside the magnificent gates, the nameless girl stood with a smile pasted on her face. Beside her, the woman Sihapi stood calmly.
"Be careful in this city. Atleast before the contest...the people are quite unwelcoming to slaves freely roaming the streets."
"You people don't seem so..." David spoke with slight curiosity in his voice.
The woman laughed sweetly as she answered.
"Trust me,while it's certainly a life threatening job to work as a Sihapi...we don't discriminate. Most of us had been poor country bumpkins who just wanted to earn some good coppers for our families. And slaves...don't they share the same amount of agony as us? It's just that the reasons are different but not the outcome."
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A/N: Seven more reviews required for the book to get a proper rating.