A carriage that was hardly lavish sped through the battered city gate, riddled with holes. Few people walked the streets, and the occasional one or two they saw had eyes full of resentment and despair, a silent protest against their miserable lives.
Brettel City was as filthy as Han Shuo had expected, only slightly better than the scenery along the way. A few idle soldiers watched the incoming carriage indifferently, without even questioning where he had come from or demanding gold coins as an entry fee. It seemed Brettel City really was on the brink of death.
"Hey, could you tell me where the City Lord's Mansion is?" Chester reined in the horses and asked a beggar-like commoner with a smile.
The commoner lay in the sun, lazily picking fleas off himself with a look of intense concentration. He seemed not to have heard Chester's question at all and did not even raise his head.
"One silver coin. Where is the City Lord's Mansion?" Having grown up poor, Chester understood the ways of such impoverished people quite well, and he asked again with a smile.
Adding a silver coin immediately produced results. The beggar who had been deaf a moment earlier seemed to catch the enticing scent of gold coins and abruptly focused all his attention on Chester. Pointing toward East Street, he said, "Go straight for three hundred meters. The tallest, most dilapidated mansion is the City Lord's Mansion."
A silver coin gleamed in the sunlight and spun down onto the ground in front of the beggar. Chester offered no thanks, merely giving the horses a sharp lash, and the carriage slowly moved off toward the City Lord's Mansion.
The beggar hurriedly picked up the silver coin and clenched it tightly in his palm before looking in the direction