City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

“Down the hole,” I ordered Amaat. Tang moved and jumped down through the trapdoor first, then Yen stepped up and grabbed Amaat’s beak, yanking him to look into her eyes.

“That’s an order, Legionnaire!” she snapped, and he glared back at her for a split second before blinking and closing his eyes.

Yen was apparently satisfied by that, as she gestured for me to drop through the trapdoor.

“After you, my lord,” she said. I peered down, seeing that nobody was in the way, and jumped in. I’d seen Tang do it and figured it mustn’t be that far…and being the idiot that I was, I even went for a superhero landing.

I slammed into the floor below and swallowed a scream as my knee cracked, the sound audible to the entire room as it echoed.

I gritted my teeth and looked up at Tang, who offered a hand to help me up, a wince clear on his face.

“Damn, that stings…” I hissed, straightening up and stepping to the side to allow Amaat to climb down the ladder into my freshly vacated place.

“Yeah, well, I’m an elf. Humans shouldn’t try to keep up…” Tang said with a grin.

“Well, I’ll tell any I meet that.” I say, getting a frown from him as he looked me over.

“You mean you’re not a…”

Yen interrupted him as she slammed into the ground next to us, barely seeming to stagger as she landed, with Oracle zooming down beside her. I heard the clang of the trapdoor slamming shut and realized Yen must have pulled it as she jumped.

“What did you do this time?” Oracle asked me, buzzing down to look at my knee, then rising to eye level to shake a tiny perfect finger at me. “I’ve a good mind to not heal this! You need to learn to be a better jumper!”

“It wasn’t the jump, it was the landing…” interrupted Bane, and I turned to glare at him.

“Really, dude?” I asked, and I felt his laughter.

“No… not another ‘superhero’ landing?” Oracle asked, facepalming.

“I should never have told you about that,” I grumbled, shaking my head. “Look, there’s more important shit to discuss here…Oracle, heal me, please.” She started muttering about ‘idiot men’ as I turned back to the scouts. “Okay, we were talking about the mob out there and you being ambushed. Explain what you think is going on, and why, please.” I said. The three of them looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable, but it was Tang who spoke up.

“There’s a bit of…uh…discussion about what’s been going around of late. Not the murders, so much, but the Legion and the city…”

“Gossip, you mean,” I said, and he colored but nodded. “Does it make sense?” I asked, and he nodded again.

“It does, if you think the nobility—pardon me, my lord— are out to look after themselves, and nothing else matters.”

“Yeah, that sounds like them,” I said, nodding. “Go on; tell me what you all think.”

“Well, the Legion Enclave is pretty big, and by Imperial Law, the Legion receives ten percent of all taxes taken in the city for the Empire…”

“Right? So why the hell are you losing people? Ten percent is…”

“Not what we get,” Yen interrupted, and I raised an eyebrow.

“There was a Legion general a few years back who thought he should be kept in a ‘manner befitting his station’ and spent most of the gold stockpiled to ‘improve’ the Enclave. Most of it was spent on his quarters, and those of his cronies; even more was spent on the arena and on gambling. In the end, it got so out of hand, there was a rebellion within the Legion. Articles were cited, and the Legion General was…removed,” she said, looking ashamed.

“Okay, a dickhead officer took the piss, and you got rid of him for it, so…”

“So, the noble houses used it as an example of Legion Corruption. We were ordered to leave the Enclave and set up a new base outside the city walls. The Legion General who took over refused; he said that the Legion was bigger than one man who’d crossed a line, and he instilled an ethos of conservatism. The taxes were cut, or at least the portion that we received was. We went from ten percent to one, while the news of the ‘Legion Tax’ was spread about the city. We told them that we received one percent, but the nobles claimed it was twenty, and that if we ceased to exist, then the taxes would be lower. The nobles keep insisting that the other nine percent is being held back to cover ‘additional expenses’ in the area, and by law, they can do it, but it’s getting to the point that their Oaths will compel them to hand it over soon. People hate the Legion now, because they think we live a life of luxury. When a Legionnaire dies, protecting them, they think it’s the least we can do to make up for milking them of their money.”

“And why do the Nobles want to be rid of the Legion?” I asked.

“The Enclave is on the edge of the noble quarter and is almost a quarter of its size. We think the nobles want to use it for themselves, but who knows. Add to that the fact that the Legion General has a seat on the council. He opposed the war with Narkolt, and most of the excesses that the nobles seem to love. He pushed for the old laws, and a good chunk of the people housed in the Enclave are escaped slaves, as slavery is illegal in the Empire. They escape and come to us, and once they step inside, they’re free. The nobles hate that. Plus… well, the nobles keep pushing on the council to clear out the slums and force all those that live there to relocate outside the city walls. On the other side of the slums are some old docks. Word is, the nobles want to clear out the Enclave and the slums to