"The thing is, around a few weeks back people of this city started getting affected by a serious curse. Although the cultivators of this City were somewhat immune to this curse, the normal folks were completely defenseless to this curse. At first, it was only the people that lived here that were affected by this curse. But around a week ago, even the travelers that came to this city from other places also started getting affected by this curse."
"Do you know what kind of curse is this?" Aditya asked while looking around. The people who were affected by the curse looked really pale and sick. Their bodies were much more skinner. They looked extremely weak and fragile. It was as if even a slight strong wind current could end these people's lives.
There were even some 40 and 50-year-old women and men who were standing with the support of a cane or needing the support of another person to keep standing in the line.
"More than 500 already had died and with each day the number of deaths is touching new numbers." A day before yesterday more than 150 died and yesterday around 200 died.
Aditya watched the long line of people in quiet thought. The girl stood by his side, giving him time to take in the heavy news she had shared.
The sight before them was hard to take in. The folks in line were clearly going through tough times.
What she didn't mention to Aditya was the grim detail that most of the 500 who had passed hadn't been laid to rest properly. Instead, many of their bodies were left around the city. This meant that one could stumble upon bodies that were starting to decay in back alleys or just outside the city's borders, abandoned. No one seemed to take the time to clean up the mess.
It was even worse on the outskirts of the city. While the city's core, with its tourists, powerful folks, and wealthy folks, saw a quicker cleanup because shop owners and businesses didn't want the bad smells to scare off their clients, the outer parts didn't receive the same attention. Here, the bodies were often just left to rot.
Aditya broke the silence with a question that carried the weight of the situation. "So, what's the City Lord doing to sort this mess out?" His voice was low but heavy mirroring the gravity of the situation.
The fox girl next to him let out a laugh, but there was no joy in it—just a hint of scorn and a dash of sadness. "The City Lord?" She answered with a bitter chuckle, her tone was full of mockery.
"Oh, he's only got eyes for gold and silver. That's common knowledge around here. No one's holding out for him to lift a finger. He wouldn't bat an eyelid even if every last one of us common folk—us beast-folks and humans—dropped dead this very moment." Her words were laced with a harsh truth that spoke volumes of the city's grim reality.
"Just who is the City Lord of Savannahclaw City?" Aditya didn't spend any resources or send any of his men to Savannahclaw in advance to gather information about the City Lord before coming here.
The original plan was to buy a desert ship modify it and then leave Savannahclaw City before night arrived. However, there were several facts that Aditya clearly wasn't expecting.
Aditya blamed himself for not thinking about Lara. The fact that Lara was a normal vampire kind of slipped his mind entirely. Or rather knowing that the Dragon Grass was the solution to Lara's disease and knowing that there was going to be a lot of competition, Aditya didn't waste any more time in preparation. He felt that he was enough prepared.
However, the problem was resolved within a few hours, and now the issue with this mysterious Curse. Since Lara wasn't a cultivator, there was a heavy chance that Lara might be affected by this curse.
This just goes to show that sometimes things just don't go as planned. It was impossible for everything to be under Aditya's plan. Unexpected things are bound to happen in life.
"The City Lord of Savannahclaw City is the Patriarch of the Tigrine clan." [1]
"The way the Tigrine clan picks their leader is really different. The next leader isn't automatically the son of the last one. Instead, when the current leader steps down or passes away, they have a big contest. All the strongest men in the clan fight in it. The one who wins the most battles becomes the new leader, the Patriarch. The ones who do really well in the fights but don't win, they get to be the future big bosses, the elders, of the clan."
"Now, if the old leader steps down on his own, he gets a special role. He becomes the Supreme Elder. Everyone in the clan respects him a lot, and all the other big bosses, the elders, have to listen to what he says and follow his orders. The only person who doesn't have to do everything he says is the new leader. But even then, the Supreme Elder can still share his wisdom and give advice based on what he learned when he was the leader."
"Interesting...!!!" This reminded Aditya of the tradition that the Deep Sea Palace had. Laura became the current ruler because she managed to win the competition.
"Tell more about about this current Patriarch." Aditya wanted to know more about this Patriarch.
Since Aditya had handsomely paid her, the fox girl had no problem talking for as long as Aditya wanted her to.
"The current Patriarch rose to his position around 5 years ago. Back when the previous Patriarch died while hunting for monsters in the desert. Zarim was only 20 years old when he became the Patriarch of the Tigrine clan."
"So his name is Zarim." Aditya nodded his head. He was going to remember this name while he was in this city.
"Although his clan members loved him, he is hated by everyone else outside of his clan. Ever since he became the Patriarch, the situation of this city has been getting worse and worse with each passing day. As long as one paid him money, he would allow any kind of crime to happen in this city. He wouldn't care if the people of this city died or lived. If there were some sorts of protests or the word of the people of this city being dissatisfied with him reach his ears, then he would straight up increase the price of water that we ordinary beast-folks cannot survive without." As the girl spoke, she remembered some bad memories of her past and tightly clenched her little fists in anger.
Aditya could feel the immense anger behind her words. It seems the girl must have gone through a lot in the past.
"Since the Tigrine clan took over Savannahclaw City, they have been controlling the natural water resource that should rightfully belong to the people of this city. We have been living in this city for generations after generations. Before there was no need for us to pay any money to get drinking water. Yet when the Tigrine clan killed the previous clan that controlled the Savannahclaw city and took over, we had to pay even for our daily water needs. And worse of all, we are also banned from harvesting rainwater. The City Lord has declared that all the rainwater is their property and no one is allowed to harvest it. If anyone is found breaking this law, then that person along with his family will be killed publicly. Despite the risk, there are many families who have no choice but to secretly harvest rainwater sometimes out of desperation."
Aditya felt that now he had a better understanding of what Zarim was like.
"Why didn't you leave this city and go somewhere else?" Aditya asked.
The girl gave a bitter smile and responded. "Just where can we go in this desert? We can't buy tickets for desert ships as the price of the tickets is just too expensive for us. Even if we save for decades, then I don't think we would save up enough money to buy tickets for the whole family. Though from time to time, there are many people who secretly try to sneak in and leave the city."
Aditya thought for a moment and then asked the girl's name. "What is your name?"
The girl hesitated for a bit not knowing if she should trust this man or not but then she decided to say her name. "My name is Huda!!!! It means 'Right guidance'"
"Do you have any parents?" Aditya asked. He could guess that here in this city, even someone as young as Huda would need to work hard to support the family. Due to her situation, she was forced to mature early in life.
"Yes."
Really Thank you very much to all those who send support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
Sorry for not uploading yesterday. Yesterday, I was busy watching the Cricket world cup final match between Australia and India.
[1] Tigrine means Tiger-folk or Tiger-kin
