Chapter 21: The Orange Prince

  Soon they entered the city, bypassing the wall which, for some reason, had been built directly on the road.

  Justinian had high hopes for this visit—the story he had heard seemed inspiring and uplifting.

  'Even in a place as wicked as hell, a seed of hope and progress can bloom with cooperation and good intentions!' he rejoiced in his thoughts. 'Doctor Totius was right when he said that justice is an inherent feature of the world!'

  The smile that spread across his cheeks made Aldona smile as well. As for Franciscus, though he didn't have his notebook in hand, he was also exceptionally excited—after all, he himself had great hopes associated with visiting this place.

  So, they were all in the best of spirits as they stepped past the strange structure. With excitement, they looked beyond the border of Ukuun, only to see... a completely deserted place.

  "Um, is this how it's supposed to look?" Justinian asked Miss Borowiak.

  She, a bit embarrassed by the chasm between the team's expectations and reality, thought for a moment. Before she could say anything, however, Franciscus spoke up.

  "This is the largest city in Redland, perhaps this is a district of suburban holiday homes?" he suggested.

  The young noblewoman nodded. In hell, it was very popular for wealthy nobles to buy estates outside the city, which they would visit during major events. For the rest of the year, these houses stood empty.

  The explanation was very logical and convincing, so the whole group agreed to continue their journey. Five, ten, and finally fifteen minutes passed like this. All just to keep wandering among abandoned homesteads!

  "This place really doesn't seem right," Ignatius's adept finally commented.

  Aldona was growing more and more bewildered, and Franciscus seemed unpleasantly surprised.

  "Maybe we should turn ba—" Miss Borowiak began, when the young devil interrupted her.

  "No... Let's check deeper inside," he said with determination in his eyes, afraid they might actually abandon the place.

  Justinian and Aldona looked at each other. Franciscus, who had always been withdrawn, seemed very eager to visit this place for the development of his poetry. He had been a very good companion to them so far, so of course, they wanted him to feel comfortable with them as well.

  "Alright, but let's be on our guard," Justinian finally nodded, which made the young devil breathe a small sigh of relief.

  Soon, the group ventured deeper and deeper into the city, and the sights of the deserted areas of the once populous and wealthy Ukuun became more and more disturbing.

  After about an hour of walking, they finally came across signs of life. There, among the abandoned buildings, devil children were playing, and upon seeing the newcomers, they immediately fled in a panic.

  The atmosphere was quite thick, so Justinian ventured a joke to break the tension.

  "The devils here are terribly hospitable," he stated with a smile.

  Aldona scratched her cheek, slightly annoyed; the truth was, something strange was really going on in the city. The locals were, after all, famous for their hospitality.

  "We should be near the main market soon," Franciscus said with a certain anxiety in his voice. The realization that something was wrong was beginning to dawn on him as well. Despite this, he wasn't willing to give up when he was so close to his goal.

  It took no more than thirty minutes before the main market of the city, and indeed all of Redland, finally appeared before the group's eyes. Stalls with a variety of goods stood in a specially designated city square, with local devils crowding around.

  "What's with all these orange flags?" Justinian asked, squinting.

  These flags with the crest seemed terribly out of place in an area that was quite... modest. While there were about thirty stalls, the boy had seen a much larger market back in the Kingdom of Peace. Because of this, he was quite disappointed with what he saw.

  "This can't be the main market!" Aldona said loudly. Although she hadn't visited this city before, she was certain that official accounts spoke of the main market consisting of thousands of stalls, not fewer than a hundred. "And these flags... I recognize them from somewhere..."

  Franciscus was the most stoic about the discovery, returning to his withdrawn demeanor. He closed his eyes for a moment, then decided to take his notebook out of his backpack and announced to his companions, smiling sadly:

  "I'd like to spend some time at the market in search of poetic inspiration. Could you please grant me a bit of solitude?"

  It was clear to his companions that the young devil was experiencing great disappointment due to the discrepancy between his expectations and reality. However, they wanted to respect his request, so they soon left him in peace.

  "We'll be nearby. If anything happens, don't hesitate to call the Doctor," Justinian told him as a farewell, handing him the pipe with the ghost. While the details weren't precisely known, it was clear from their conversations with the ghost that he could defend his possessor from an attack once a day.

  Franciscus nodded with sad gratitude and soon went his own way. Thus, the group parted.

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  "So, shall we go see what they're selling?" the boy asked the still-bewildered Aldona.

  Although she was also in a bad mood due to the strange state of this popular city, the suggestion immediately improved it.

  'Especially since it will be just the two of us!' she thought excitedly.

  She had long wanted to be alone with Justinian, and in her heart, she even began to think of this stroll as a date!

  Of course, Justinian, in his thick-skinned way, was completely oblivious to the girl's feelings.

  Soon, they were walking through the market, collecting intrusive and hostile stares from the local merchants.

  "Why are they looking at us like that?" the boy whispered to the noblewoman.

  As one might guess, she too was not pleased with this hostility and, deep down, was much angrier than Justinian. After all, in his mind, they were just staring at them strangely; in her eyes, they were ruining a long-desired first date.

  "Because they're clearly asking for a beating!" she hissed so furiously that the young man looked at her in surprise.

  He hadn't seen this version of Aldona before, and she suddenly seemed genuinely menacing. Wanting to defuse the atmosphere, he laughed awkwardly and suggested they move to the next stall.

  "Maybe something from here?" he asked, walking over to a stall with small souvenir jewelry.

  Aldona, contrary to her typically calm persona, loved such trinkets. So, browsing the wares of the merchant who was watching them skeptically, she happily chose a bracelet for Justinian to buy her.

  "How much for this?" he asked the seller, who seemed to lack the hostility visible in the others' eyes.

  The man looked at him, considering for a moment what to answer, before finally sighing and naming a price.

  "1000 infernal dollars."

  The young man involuntarily let out a breath, and sweat appeared on his temples. The hand holding the bracelet suddenly felt terribly heavy.

  As he panicked and tried to put the ridiculously expensive item back as quickly as possible, he felt a hair-raising, murderous aura erupt beside him. Aldona had had enough of all this and looked far more furious than when Totius had been trying to convince her of the church's taxonomy of beavers!

  At the same time, young Franciscus took a seat in one of the quieter corners of the marketplace, where he sat cross-legged. Then he took out his notebook and opened it to the back, where he wrote all his poetic creations.

  'The marketplace really doesn't seem like anything special...' he thought, assessing the situation. 'However, the number of legends circulating about the poetic inspiration gained from observing the crowd here might suggest there's more than meets the eye.'

  Finally, he let out a small breath, and determination appeared in his eyes. He focused completely on trying to derive poetry from what he saw.

  He tried to pay attention to every detail in the stream of buyers and sellers, and in his mind, only the market existed.

  In this way, he began to work on his piece.

  Unfortunately, by dedicating so much attention to the marketplace, he failed to notice that for some time, a group of men who were not participating in the market at all had been watching him.

  "Please calm down, ma'am, I really didn't mean to offend you!" the panicked merchant, who had earlier demanded a thousand infernal dollars from Justinian and Aldona for a piece of cheap jewelry, explained.

  "Are you kidding me?!" the fuming noblewoman shouted, miraculously still being restrained by Justinian from beating the frightened devil. "This junk isn't even worth ten dollars! How dare you be so insolent?!"

  The young man holding her back from violence could only smile in reaction to this mundane scene. For him too, the price was absolutely ridiculous, and even if he multiplied his savings by ten, he couldn't have paid it.

  However, he couldn't let Aldona beat the man in the middle of the marketplace.

  "It's really not my fault!" the devil replied with tears in his eyes. "The original price is 5 dollars, but I have to add the tariffs for foreigners..."

  The shocking nature of his words made not only Aldona stare at him in disbelief. Even Justinian momentarily forgot to restrain her and stared at the merchant with wide-open eyes.

  'Who adds a 995 dollars tariff to a 5 dollars item?!' he wondered about the man's absurd approach to his customers.

  Suddenly, Aldona's idea of beating this scoundrel didn't seem so bad.

  'It would be pure justice,' he concluded in his thoughts, outraged.

  The devil-merchant apparently guessed what was on his mind, as he immediately began to justify himself in a squeaky voice.

  "Those are the regulations! It's really... really not my fault! It is the will of the Orange Prince!"

  Justinian sincerely doubted that anyone would introduce such absurd regulations. Aldona, however, upon hearing this... suddenly stopped and looked at him with a serious expression.

  "What did you say?"

  The devil at first clearly didn't realize the threat had temporarily passed—instead of answering, he trembled for a few more seconds until he grasped the situation.

  Seeing a chance to get out of this encounter unscathed, he didn't dare deceive his interlocutors:

  "It's the honest truth. The tariffs were imposed by the will of the Orange Prince—Shedim Medaiash. I must only carry out these orders..."

  "But didn't you prosper precisely by opening up to other markets?" Justinian asked, genuinely curious.

  The devil-merchant sighed and looked around to see if there were any listening ears that could bring trouble. When he was sure the situation was safe, he loosened his tongue a bit.

  "Indeed. It was our great pride, and everyone wanted to become a merchant and even promote the tariff-free policy abroad to spread this business model and reap even greater profits," he sighed, as if speaking of times long past.

  "So what happened?"

  The devil just shook his head and spread his hands.

  "What could have happened? The affairs of cultivators, which are beyond our skills and understanding."

  Justinian frowned. Aldona's expression, however, said that she was beginning to connect the dots and see what was really happening in the city.

  "Ukuun has always been under the loose patronage of the Mountain of Swamps and Darkness," the merchant explained. "They never interfered in our affairs and only took a small percentage of the overall taxes."

  "So what changed?"

  The merchant smiled and looked him in the eyes.

  "The previous ruler of the mountain was murdered, and his domain and territories were taken over by a new player," he said with a brutal honesty that made the hairs on the back of Justinian's neck stand up.

  "No one knows who Maleficius is or what he wants. So at first, everyone was afraid to take any steps concerning our city and country. At least, until..." he stated sadly.

  The suffering associated with watching the fall of his beloved homeland and the realization that they were in a situation that would be very difficult to get out of was palpable in his voice.

  "I understand this changed with the arrival of this prince?" Justinian asked.

  The merchant nodded.

  "He was a former representative adept of that mountain, and a fellow countryman of ours, for that matter. Exiled along with the rest of the adepts by Maleficius, he recently decided to make Redland his new seat," he concluded, spitting. "As soon as he settled in a bit, he came to the conclusion that tariff-free trade is a fraud against him and a way for foreign entities to avoid taxes."

  "Hence these ridiculous tariffs?"

  "Exactly. His observations were undeniably logical; the only thing he didn't take into account was the fact that even though no taxes flowed in due to the lack of tariffs... that was the only thing we lived on," he finished sadly.

  Justinian was quite shocked to hear this story and the great pain associated with it. He was about to ask a few more questions when a scream pierced the air from another part of the market. Instantly exchanging a look with Aldona, he saw terror in her eyes and the fact that she, too, knew that voice.

  The scream, full of pain, belonged to Franciscus!