Dokeshi March: Chapter 16 (Patreon)

Chapter 16

“The labyrinth?” Grant had heard the word before, but he didn’t know why a hedge maze would be a difficult proposition. “If we have to go through a bunch of bushes, I can just chop them down.”

“Shh!” Suki put her finger up to her lips, and dragged Grant deeper into the building. “They might still be close by. Keep your voice down.” He ducked his head in shame. Before he could apologize, she gave him a glance that told him to just stay quiet. After a few minutes with no sounds coming from the street, she continued. “It isn’t that kind of labyrinth. Or the regular dungeon kind, either.”

“Dungeon labyrinths?” Grant had never heard of one before, but he could guess what it meant. “There are actual dungeon labyrinths?”

“That isn’t important. What is important is that we have to go through something different.” Suki crouched down and used a gloved finger to draw a rough map in the dirt on the floor. “Now, I’ve never seen it myself, but from what I understand, the district is laid out in three layers of gambling houses. The two of us were taking the trade road to avoid them, but it looks like that isn’t an option anymore.” Suki glanced up to make sure Grant was paying attention. “We are in the outside layer right now, and the shift in quality of life is supposed to go up the deeper you get. The gambling houses are nicer too, and they must have guessed that we wouldn’t risk going through that way. All they had to do was ask the food vendor in the first market we went to, and they must have written you off as a gambler.”

“But, how does gambling get us deeper into the district?” Grant looked at the ring-shaped layers of the district, and didn’t understand why they couldn’t just jump over the wall or something.

“The rings are actual buildings. Instead of just building a wall, the old Lord March had his people build giant casinos that serve the same purpose. There is no way through, besides the trade road gates.” She pointed to the wall itself. “Unless you can win enough games to prove you belong in the next region, we are stuck out here. It is a labyrinth of chance and luck.”

“How are we supposed to win enough to get through these places? And won’t their guards recognize us?” Grant still wasn’t convinced. “I still say we try to just climb over the casino walls and make our way forward that way.”

“If we get there, and we see a way to do it, I’m all for it.” Suki held up a bulging purse. “This may seem like a lot of Time right now, but it will run through our fingers like water if we let you start gambling the way you do now.”

“I’m not really that bad, am I?” Grant’s only answer was a quiet chuckle from Suki, and a not-so-quiet guffaw from Sarge. “Okay, I guess I am that bad.”

“We can work on it, Grant.” Suki stood and brushed the dirt off of her knees from kneeling on the dirty floorboards. “If you apply the same lessons I am trying to teach you from the Way of the Noble, you will improve in no time.”

They left out the back of the temple and carefully searched the small yard before passing out a back gate. The overgrown cemetery had raised the hairs on the back of his neck, but Grant couldn’t tell why for sure. Maybe it was all the crows silently watching them from the top of the oversized wrought-iron fence.

Suki winced when the gate let out a loud creak as they left, but nothing raised the alarm. Grant reluctantly pulled out a couple of the dry and tasteless granola bars from his pack, and passed one over to Suki so they could eat while they walked.

Occasionally, Sarge would bark an order for him to execute an exercise, or throw a monster or rock at Grant to continue to test his reflexes. He was tempted to complain, but even Grant could see the gradual gains he was making with his Iaijutsu and Kenjutsu skills.

That wasn’t the only training that took up Grant’s afternoon, of course. While they walked in a zig-zag pattern down abandoned streets and dark alleys in search of a sign to point them at a casino entrance, Suki continued to ask him questions, and get him to agree to things he didn’t really want to do.

“So, you were raised on a farm, right?” Suki was rolling a fat gold Week coin across her knuckles. Of course, it just so happened to have her face on it, since the District it came from had been hers. She had said she was ‘practicing’, but it did a great job of distracting Grant from paying attention to his surroundings like he should. “Would you be willing to show me how to operate a farm when all of this is over?”

“Sure!” Grant was excited to give her some lessons in farming. It was something he knew how to do, and he could prove to her how knowledgeable about the subject he really was. “First, I can show you how to care for animals. They are my favorite part, and-” Suki flipped the Week up into the air, punched him in the face incredibly hard, and caught the coin before it could hit the ground. “Ow! What was that for?!”

“Just because you want to agree to something, doesn’t mean you should.” Suki surreptitiously rubbed her knuckles against her hip to relieve the pain from punching him in the jaw. She hadn’t activated her gauntlets this time, and his face was as hard as granite. Next time, he was getting the full-metal treatment, even if it did mean the battle system would be activated again. “By the time this is all over, you will be the Calendar King. You won’t have time to give farm tours. You will be managing the farms for the entire planet!”

Grant was once again struck by the size of the task before him. It wasn’t going to end when he defeated all the Lords and Ladies. That was just the start. His pack felt really heavy again.

<That’s why you must become a samurai.> Sarge seemed to at least understand what kind of weight Grant was feeling at the moment. <If you can gain true understanding of how a samurai thinks and acts, it will help you be a good and just king. One the people of this world needs.>

“Thanks Sarge.” Grant rubbed his face to alleviate some of the pain from getting punched in the face again. And to shake off some of the heavy feeling the reminder had given him. “At least you will be there to help me when I need you.”

Sarge didn’t answer, so Grant took his silence as acceptance. Suki had taught him that was how it works.

“Look! A sign!” In the distance, a glowing advertisement for ‘Patty’s Perfect Palace, Poolroom and Pavilion of Hand-Picked Poker and Pinochle’ was poking over the pointed roof of a poorly maintained post office. Suki was almost bouncing with excitement at having finally found something to point them in the right direction. “How much do you want to bet that place is where we need to go?”

“I don’t know, maybe it is just another gambling house. They seem to be a dime a dozen around here.” Grant once again didn’t see the fist in time to stop it from socking him in the cheek. The metal gauntlet was enough to activate the system, but Grant just ignored it, along with the two points of damage that flashed across his vision. “Seriously? I didn’t agree to anything this time!”

“That’s for trying to ruin my good mood.” He tried to argue with her, but she didn’t give him a chance to answer. “Besides, you should be getting better at blocking them by now. Another lesson from the Way of the Noble: Even your companions could attack you at any moment. Before the Wielder Wars, assassinations of Lords and Ladies was commonplace. We are all taught from a young age to expect the unexpected.”

<I can’t argue with that idea.> A slime dropped out of the sky, and Grant stepped to the side to dodge it, where the offending glob splattered and disappeared a few moments later. <Maybe it’s just the color orange? Hmmm…>

“Well, either way, there is only one way to find out.” Grant stepped off before the two of them could hurt him in some other way he wasn’t expecting. “If we are going to make it to the casino before dark, we better get a move on.”