That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.27 Lower City P.2

Rimuru's pov: 

Walking down the street of a city felt refreshing after being cooped up inside the carriage for so long, plus I always felt good visiting new places. Ehrenfest really did not feel as wealthy as even Blumund, it seemed the wealth was spread in a similar  way to Eurazania. It did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth seeing it for the first time, I did think it could be solved though. "Ferdinand-san, don't you believe this crazy wealth disparity might lead to revolts?" I finally addressed the question while walking past a few of the homes on the street, looking at the age of the wood in their walls. 

"Revolts are nearly impossible, due to the power disparity between nobles and the commoners." Ferdinand stated promptly while making a small gesture to the people staring at them. It seemed most of them were focused on Sylvester, seeming to vaguely recognize him. 

I quickly realized what he meant, the commoners had very small amounts of magicules. All the nobles I had seen so far from Ehrenfest had a large quantity of them compared to most people. Only a few of them could be considered strong by Tempest standards, but that was still saying a lot from what I'd seen in Engrassia and Ul-gracia. Compared to a place like Falmuth I'd have actually been much more worried about an attack from Ehrenfest, as their power is more focused in elite units from what I'd seen of the knights earlier. "I see." I said promptly. 

Sylvester seemed a bit uncomfortable with this realization of power dynamics. "Are the citizenry really scared of us?" It seemed to leave him quite disappointed. 

After inspecting some of the gazes more closely, it did seem most of them would fit the description of fear. Most of them keeping their children hidden or  their valuables stashed. There were even some murmurs of a rumor about a demon lord being in the city, "I do think they may be scared of me. Though I can't exactly say they aren't scared of you too." I said a bit apologetically with a slight pat on Sylvester's shoulder. 

He did seem to perk up a bit at me throwing myself under the bus for his sake, though he quickly seemed to droop his shoulders a bit at the rest of my statement. "It is incredibly unpleasant to think my own citizens think that." He said afterward. 

'Really? Shouldn't you already know what they think?' I thought to myself, getting a little bit annoyed by his cluelessness. I did not think I'd be letting him leave Tempest, at least until he learned to be more observant to the state of his people. "Don't worry about it, I will grill you on it later." I said in a flat tone before continuing on. 

I took a left at the plaza in the center of the town, intending to go to what I had gathered was a market from the information Raphael had fed me on it. Walking along I noticed a few gazes directed at me in a different light, more greedy gazes. I pretended not to notice, while walking closer to the buildings on the left side of the street. 

"Rimuru-sama, it seems you have some unwanted admirers." Sylvester commented discretely to me, while stepping a small bit closer to me. He seemed to grip one of the rings on his hand. He had certainly been a bit uncomfortable after realizing the state of his city earlier. 

I smiled brightly and brushed it off with a small wave of my hand. I then kept walking toward the market, intentionally distancing myself from the other two. 'Trail me for a bit, please.' I sent them a [Thought Communication] with a request. While doing so I gained a bit more distance from them, appearing to be out of their line of sight now. 

Some of the gazes seemed to get excited about this, and it was not long before a pair of hands reached out in an attempt to grab my shoulders. They were able to get a firm grip relatively easily. Afterward I saw a few people running toward me quickly from various places around the street. 

'Adorable.' I thought to myself while firmly placing my feet on the ground, the attempt to pull me off them promptly failed as a result. The person was simply left trying to pull me from where I was, as if I was a massive chunk of concrete. 

It seemed a few of them had noticed this and ran away almost as fast as they ran toward me. The others appeared to be too focused on their goal to notice. It wasn't long before I was surrounded by five people, all trying their hardest to move me from where I was standing. 

"This really was a good attempt." I said coyly while smiling to the group of them, it seemed that smile made two of them realize their mistake. Before they could run away however, a barrier erected itself around the six of us. 

It seemed the rest of them, noticing this sudden change had gotten finally alerted. They immediately ran to the edges of the barrier, trying their hardest to escape by banging against the walls. One of them screamed at the top of his lungs and called out for who I assumed was his wife. 

I felt a bit uncomfortable now, having realized how desperate they were. "So what was this about then? I am not gonna hurt any of you." I stated promptly once I had gotten their attention back on me by releasing just a bit of my aura. 

My aura nearly immediately caused them all to fall to the ground and start gasping. It seemed I had released too much for them, so I eased it slowly. Finally they were able to stand, after a little while of me easing the density of magicules. "We.. Just needed the money.. We thought we would ransom you off.. You seemed like a valuable noble child.." The one that had screamed for his wife previously blurted out between gasps. 

I nodded softly, 'I suppose they really were just desperate.' I inspected them and quickly realized they all seemed quite malnourished. I supposed they had turned to crime after losing their jobs or some other common story. "I'll give you enough money for a few weeks. If you can, come to Tempest. If you have obligations here, I hope the future bodes well for you." I threw them a pouch of coins from my [Stomach] before lowering the barrier. 

Their eyes went wide upon opening the pouch, and they all bowed to me while apologizing in various ways at the top of their lungs. Then they made their way to an alley to split the coin. 

I smiled a bit and brushed it off, I really didn't mind it. I'd have actually punished them if their intents weren't out of desperation. After quickly inspecting each of them with [Analysis], that didn't prove to be the case for any of them. 

"That was quite the scene." Ferdinand commented while walking up to me, it seemed he had been shooting a death glare down the alleyway. Afterward he looked around at the small crowd that had formed to watch what I had just done. He made a motion for them to wander off. 

"I don't mind, I am not exactly trying to make a discrete visit. Plus that should stop anything like that from happening again, if anything it was helpful." I explained my reasoning quickly while starting on my pace again. It was not long before we had made it to the market. 

I was quick to examine all the goods they had here. Very few of the produce was fruits, it consisted mostly of vegetables and tubers. Most of it was very fresh, so it was likely harvested locally. Along with this there was mostly breads and tacks, the breads being freshly made while the tacks were made for long storage. There were a few stalls selling freshly made foods, seemingly one was selling a simple bread wrapped around cheese and potatoes melted together. 

The other stalls in the market were mostly selling practical utilities. Pots and pans, stove-tops, bricks, nails, precut wood, etc. A very small number of them were selling things such as clothes, apparel, and recreational items like toys. 

I frowned a bit looking out on it all, and was quick to turn my head away. I had already seen everything I needed here. 'Blumund was certainly far more impressive than here.' I thought to myself while walking back to Ferdinand and Sylvester. 

Ferdinand seemed to immediately pick up on my expression, he did not seem to say a word. Not trying to justify it in any way, if anything there was a tinge of regret in his eyes. 

"I assume there is still more to this by the look on your face. I am disappointed, but I am not gonna blame the two of you just yet." I said while shrugging off the feeling creeping up on me rather quickly. 'I'll need to help these people, a lot.' I thought to myself while resetting my expression. 

<It should be an easy task, following the ascension of Sylvester to a demi-spirit.> Raphael stated in what seemed to be the most vague statement she had ever given me. 

'That is ominous.' I stated simply inside my head while making a bit of a fearful face at whatever crazy plan she had. Though I immediately regained my composure. 

Sylvester seemed even more disappointed himself. "Surely we can fix all this? I wasn't even aware of most of it until now, so I think it can be rectified." He stated with a bit of a confident tone to cut through his own gloomy atmosphere. 

I chuckled a bit at his sudden ambitions, I hoped him to actually see them through. "That's the spirit, I suppose." I smiled wryly with the statement. 

Sylvester smiled proudly, then realized the joke a few moments later and seemed to almost blush a bit. "I didn't even see that coming." Saying this he seemed to get a bit shy. 

Soon we were interrupted by Ferdinand, "I believe we should go to the temple now. You did tell Karstedt-san to meet us there." He seemed to be sorta irritated with my time wasting. 

I looked back to him a bit apologetically before nodding myself. "I think that may be right. I already know the directions, do you want to go there immediately?" I asked while making sure to make it seem like it was already something I was planning on doing. 

<Heh.> What was that? I felt an immense amount of degrading thoughts directed at me. 

Ferdinand gave a small sigh before nodding. "I'd prefer that, we have spent a lot of time out here already. As well you've already made quite the scene, so I doubt we will get any privacy after today." It was a well thought out explanation I'd expect of him now. 

After nodding along with the explanation, I took my walking stance once more. Then I made my way down the street immediately, using my mental map to do so. 

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Making my way to the gate of the Temple made me feel nostalgic somehow. It was a very unexpected feeling, and I could feel a bit of activity between my soul corridor with Veldora. 

'What was that?' I though to myself while walking into the gate and entered it. I could feel a soft holy-barrier around the temple, it wasn't strong enough to effect me at all as I was now. It certainly brought back unpleasant memories from a few weeks ago, however. 

The temple was a large set of several chalk-white buildings with the largest windows I'd seen in the town so far. The insulation on the buildings was different between each one, but was still clearly rather thick even compared to the largest homes I'd seen in the merchant district of the lower city. The central building was flanked by two long buildings that appeared to be used for housing, both looking like large apartment complexes with smaller windows than the central building and evenly spaced rooms. The central building was by far the grandest, with massive chalk pillars with golden trimmings on the top and bottom. Behind them were a row of statues flanking the grand door on the building. The roof was a large dome led to by a small pyramid like structure, and a smaller dome on top of both housing a bell-house. 

"It is as large as some of the larger buildings in Tempest." I commented discretely while keeping quiet otherwise. There were several people here to greet us already, seemingly having news of Ferdinand's return. Several priest in grey robes, along with a single priest in white robes, and two priest in blue robes. I rationed rather quickly the power structure meant the white robes had the highest status, under them the blue robes, and the lowest being the grey robes. I was curious how it worked further, though at the time I had no time to ask. 

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--2198 words-- 

(AN: Shorter chapter as it was intended to be an addition to the previous chapter to prevent it from being too long. Please comment your suggestions or criticisms.)