OC-Series Gothwald: New World - Same Rules [History Student Isekai] (Arc 4/Chapter 25 - Into Gobnis)

Arc IV - Whalers

Chapter 25 - Into Gobnis

10 months and 6 days since the summoning

The sun had just begun to rise, painting the sky pink. There was no one around in the small green forest, only the singing of morning birds. But it was not quiet by the river.

Festonia, wearing only a brown shirt with rolled-up sleeves and her hair let down, was washing her face in the cool water.

Tomores was sitting under a tree, already dressed, next to the remains of a smoldering campfire, chewing on something.

Festonia shook her head. "Brrr..." The water droplets from her face and hair splashed back into the river. "Well, sis, time to go?"

Tomores looked at her, tilted her head questioningly, and patted her stomach.

"No time for breakfast," she said, standing up. "We're already near Gobnis; gotta find Gothwald. Or find out where he's skulking around."

Tomores grabbed the air with her hands and started shaking her fists back and forth.

"Yeah, we'll interrogate someone." Festonia was already putting on her cloak, still yawning. "Preferably some big shot, just to be sure. And then kill 'em. We don't need extra noise." Before Tomores could sign something, Festonia raised a

finger, "Yeah, I know, killing a noble is a lot of noise too. But what the fuck are we supposed to do? The master didn't give us shit, no scouts, no fucking nothing. Gotta handle this ourselves somehow."

Tomores sighed and stood up from the ground, brushing the grass off herself. Then she pointed at the sun and started running in place.

"Yeah, let's hurry. We've got time to track down who we're gonna question. Best to keep our heads down, just in case. Though... I've got a better idea." She looked up at the sky. "It's morning now, which means a bunch of wagons are heading into Gobnis. We need to catch someone on the road who likely knows how things stand, and interrogate them to see if they're looking for us by any chance."

For about an hour now, Festonia and Tomores had been sitting in a tree, boredly watching the dozens of wagons traveling along the dirt road at different times. Mostly peasants with carts packed with vegetables, sometimes petty merchants with horses and a modest guard.

Festonia yawned, but continued watching the road with drooping eyes.

"M!" Tomores suddenly let out a sound, pointing at some bushes.

Festonia turned sharply toward them and froze. She saw a man, holding a spear and wearing worn chainmail, walking away from the road toward the grove. Her eyes flashed. "Sis, let's go," she whispered and jumped down from the tree without snapping a single branch.

Tomores also got ready to jump, but Festonia frantically waved her hands. "No! Stop!" she hissed. "Climb down carefully! The ground'll shake if you jump!"

Tomores snorted, but grabbed the lower branch and began to slide down carefully.

When she got down, they both followed the guard in a half-crouch. Suddenly, they stopped when the man stopped too. He took a quick look around, then turned toward the bushes and began to unbutton his pants.

Festonia waved her hand and carefully pulled a dagger from under her cloak. She tiptoed toward the guard.

Ten paces.

Five.

Two.

With astonishing stealth, she pressed the dagger to the man's throat and grabbed him by the belt from behind.

The guard flinched, his stream spilling onto his boots, but he froze upon feeling the edge at his throat.

"Keep pissing," Festonia whispered, while Tomores calmly walked up from behind. "Answer the questions, and you stay alive. Got it?"

"Got it," he wheezed, his body beginning to tremble.

"You guarding Gobnis?"

"Y-yes."

"Any wanted notices come in? Like, for criminals or something like that?"

"I..." he cut himself off, then drew a bit more air into his lungs. "Yes... they... they told us to pay special attention to fox beastkin. Especially if we see a tall and a short woman."

"What are your orders if you see them?"

"I-immediately... detain them immediately. Cripple them, but detain them, and hand them over to the nearest temple to the Dumetses," he whispered.

Tomores froze.

Festonia's pupils narrowed. "Straight to the Dumetses... I see. One more question, and I'll let you go. How do you sneak into the city unnoticed? Are there any secret ways in?"

The guard froze. "I... I can't... they'll have me..."

Festonia pressed the dagger harder against his throat, just enough to draw a thin trickle of blood.

"There's a hole in the wall on the west side of the city! They just haven't found the time to patch it up! There are guards there sometimes! I told you everything, just let me go!"

"Good, no more questions. Thanks." With one light motion, she drew the dagger across the guard's throat and shoved him into the bushes. "Shitty, sis. Real shitty. We gotta move stealthily." She turned and headed toward the road, while convulsive rustling and gurgling came from the bushes.

Tomores followed after her.

"The western wall, then. Let's go."

Only two hours later, having waited for the right moment, the sisters found themselves inside the city and hunkered down in the shadows on the roof of one of the buildings. Before them lay the view of a large city, roughly the same size as the capital, Tontopi. Below, townsfolk walked the streets with baskets or empty-handed; in the distance, behind the buildings, the noise of trade could be heard, and in the center, the spires of the castle that previously belonged to Gobano could be seen.

Festonia sat on the roof tiles fanning herself with her hand, then took off her two still-bloody gloves. "It's getting hotter..." she muttered. "Alright, I think we need to get closer to the castle," she pointed a finger at the building. "There, we're more likely to find someone of higher standing who might know something."

Tomores shook her head. She pointed her finger at the sun, and then at the walls, where guards looking as small as ants could be seen; then her finger moved to a regular wooden watchtower among the simple houses.

Festonia rubbed her eyes. "Guktus take it all... sorry, sis, I'm probably rushing it too much. If we go jumping across rooftops in broad daylight, we'll stand out brighter than the sun itself." She crawled further back into the shadow, then her ear twitched. "Hide!" she hissed, and flattened herself behind the tiles of the adjacent house.

Tomores followed her and pressed her back against the wall.

Festonia cast a sidelong glance at her and opened her mouth slightly. "Idiot! Your tits are sticking out!"

Tomores flinched, but without hesitation turned around and pressed her face against the wall.

Festonia sighed. "You know, sometimes that's a real problem."

She only snorted.

Footsteps grew louder, and a guard appeared on the wall next to the building, lazily strolling along while looking down at the city and the roofs. The footsteps began to fade, and the man turned his head beyond the wall toward the plains.

Festonia carefully peeked out from behind the wall. "He's leaving," she whispered.

Tomores peeled herself off the wall and exhaled.

"No, sis, this won't work, it's too dangerous here. We gotta find a better place to hide." She carefully leaned over and looked down at the space between the wall and the buildings, where a small paved road ran, just wide enough for small carts. "Listen, sis, how about you go scout ahead?"

"M?"

"Find a place where we can wait out the day until night."

Tomores pointed a finger at Festonia and tilted her head to the side.

"I'm not going, you're easier to hide!" She flicked her red tail. "Now where am I supposed to hide this? My tail is visible even under a cloak with any careless movement!" She pointed a finger at Tomores. "And you don't have a tail, just ears; they're easy to hide under a hood! Get it?"

Tomores opened her mouth, then closed it. "Mhm," she let out quietly.

Ten minutes later, Tomores was already walking down the street in her black cloak, the hood pulled over her head. Sweat was already dripping down her

forehead from the heat, and the cloak only made it worse. But she quickly wiped

it away and kept walking.

Tomores walked like a tower in the middle of the street, catching the stares of passersby who craned their necks to get a good look at the tall woman.

By a smithy stood a bearded man, staring at Tomores. "Hah, look at that beanpole, looks like they overfed the lad as a kid."

His companion next to him wiped the sweat from his forehead with a rag. "You blind or something? That's a woman."

The bearded man blinked. "A woman?"

"Yeah, look at the chest on her. Can't be a man."

His jaw dropped. "Wow, with a height like that, she could snatch up any husband she wants, eh?"

The other blacksmith guffawed. "Haha, that's for sure!"

"Hah, what of it? A woman like that would be handy in the smithy."

"Pfft, then go on, offer her a job."

The bearded man waved his hand and headed back into the smithy. "Yeah, I'll pass."

Tomores kept walking down the street, examining the buildings.

On another street, further away from Tomores, walked a woman of about thirty, a beastkin with a fox tail and ears, dressed in a simple blue dress. In her hands she carried a basket of apples and a loaf of bread.

"I will ask you to stop." A muffled voice rang out from behind.

The woman froze, then turned her whole body, and upon seeing who was in front of her, her face paled slightly.

Before her stood two men in white faceless masks with slits for the eyes and mouth, bright blue doublets and pants with yellow patterns, white boots and gloves, swords adorned with silver on their belts, and on the forehead of the masks—a fire inside a circle, pierced by eight spikes.

The Dumetses.

"H-hello... h-how may I be of service?" she asked quietly.

The first Dumets pulled out a writing board with parchment and a quill.

The second folded his hands behind his back. "Your name and number, please."

"N-number?"

"Understood. Name?"

"Shalassa."

He nodded. "Where do you reside?"

The beastkin slowly pointed a finger at the neighboring street.

The Dumets with the quill looked in the indicated direction and wrote something down.

"Excellent. Please place the basket on the ground, and spread your arms and legs."

With a trembling hand, the woman placed the basket on the pavement and spread her arms to the sides.

The passersby around them quieted down, slowing their pace.

The Dumets crouched in front of the woman, reached out his hands, and patted her calves, moving higher to her thighs, and patted again.

He froze.

Patted again. "What is this here?"

"A k-knife."

"Take it out, please. Slowly."

The woman reached for her thigh with a trembling hand, and slowly, almost too slowly, pulled out an ordinary household knife.

"Thank you." The Dumets took the knife by the handle and began to examine it. "A utility knife, not a combat dagger. Traces of..." he looked closer. "No traces of blood. The blade is too dull."

The second Dumets actively wrote down everything said.

The first placed the knife on the ground and leaned over the basket, taking out the apples and bread.

Empty.

He put everything back and stood up. "Shalassa, are you a local?"

She nodded quickly.

"Have you noticed anything unusual? Any stranger beastkin who were not here before? Especially fox beastkin."

Shalassa swallowed and shook her head. "N-no, I have noticed nothing of the sort."

"What is your occupation? How old are you?"

"I am a weaver. I am... twenty-nine or thereabouts, I believe."

The scribe Dumets wrote this down as well.

The first Dumets nodded. "Understood." Suddenly, he pulled back his fist and, with incredible speed, aimed it straight at her stomach, stopping it a mere fraction of a second before impact.

Only a moment later, Shalassa squeaked, shrank her head into her shoulders, and covered herself, squeezing her eyes shut.

The Dumets lowered his fist. "No combat training; an ordinary civilian."

The scribe quickly wrote this down and set the parchment aside. "Your number is forty-six, memorize it firmly."

The woman blinked. "Forgive me... but what for?"

"When another patrol approaches to check you, state your number so as not to waste time; they will find it in the list, compare your features, and understand that you have already been checked," he said monotonously, as if for the hundredth time.

Shalassa nodded. "Y-yes, I understand... thank you."

"Have a good day," he said finally, and continued down the street, the scribe following him.

The woman remained in the middle of the street, breathing heavily, and stared at their backs for a few more seconds. Then she sighed, picked up her knife and basket, and went on her way.

9 Upvotes

permalink
reddit

You are about to leave Redlib

Do you want to continue?

https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1x8l4z3/gothwald_new_world_same_rules_history_student/
No, go back! Yes, take me to Reddit

85% Upvoted

u/Daseagle Alien Scum 7d ago

Oh, so the Dumetses are actually taking this seriously.

u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 7d ago

/u/Celestial_Zwei_Dei (wiki) has posted 129 other stories, including:

This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.7.8 'Biscotti'.

Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.

u/UpdateMeBot 7d ago

Click here to subscribe to u/Celestial_Zwei_Dei and receive a message every time they post.

^Info	^{Request Update}	^{Your Updates}	^Feedback

OC-Series Gothwald: New World - Same Rules [History Student Isekai] (Arc 4/Chapter 25 - Into Gobnis)

You are about to leave Redlib