"Remembrance is forbidden. It's a rule the first settlers of this shore arrived at. It still took them quite a few years to come to that conclusion", answered Sance to the wanderer in the brown overcoat.
The wanderer's overcoat looked a bit fresh, but it still carried a few new ashen marks. As if the marks have willed themselves into the coat.
The wanderer asked, shrouded in the reflected daylight of the morning inside the Pioneer Ramshackle, "so, why still stay here?"
"I, uh, don't have the correct answer for that because Kingdom of Riga needed something from here. But what I do know is the city's name is tied to the reason why settlers will have a chance in the future", Sance offered, a little shaken from within.
Nodding to his own thoughts and wonderings, the wanderer had one more query.
"About the city's—"
"Hey, lad! Has anyone taken up the request I put up?" slamming the doors open, a city dweller came.
The double doors had one of the doors sleeping on the ground.
'That nap must be heavenly. Wait, What does the word heavenly mean?' The wanderer wondered to himself.
The city dweller, introduced himself again to Sance, by the name of Patnos. He didn't bother looking at the wanderer and his brown overcoat. To the wanderer it seemed Patnos knew the unspoken rule of 'not glancing at things unless you have indication that you may look'.
Sance clearing his throat, answered Patnos, "there have been people who showed interest, but they have not been in Cleaving. Let me check my diary again."
Patnos clicked his tongue, "what they been trying to understand why the forest doesn't do some sort of action of fire, huh?! Those scoundrels, it's the same reason as why we have problem remembering. Remembrance is forbidden!"
Sance flipping through three different diaries, "that may be true—um, ah here is one—huh, this one too. Let's see, uhh,-- this one also, and that one too. Even the young knight Castroph.—"
Patnos surprised, "wait, Castroph was interested in extending the Tide breaker into the sea further? I haven't seen him since,-- Ahh!"
"Yes, it seems every single one was taken back then", Sance stared into the diaries wanting to burn them with his stare. He still felt the diaries aren't responsible.
The wanderer standing around the reception desk as he listened to the conversation suddenly decided to chip in. "I'll help, I am also an adventurer and a one night Pioneer by now. Need to get some work done as a Pioneer too."
"Oh, that's good and all but I need more people, not just one", Patnos cut in.
"I get that, but if you tell me more about the city I'll work without resting for two days at the start, so how's that for a deal?"
Patnos thought to himself. He then nodded, "that won't be enough but I could may be use that to guilt trip other cityfolk. Sance keep the request up and add his name or Pioneer tag into the request hires list."
Sance glanced from one to the other, "but what about the swimbeasts and the Kikren?"
"What is Kikren?" asked the wanderer, a bit concerned suddenly. He had a wondering notion in his mind, 'why did I readily offered that? That's… that's suspicious.'
"Yes, but that's also why we are extending the Tide Breaker. And not in the way we do it on land", answered Patnos walling his thoughts behind his stern face. Shadows nor light could have made his hair look more black than it actually was in that hall.
An hour hadn't even passed and the wanderer rather than putting his brown overcoat back in his cottage had it on him, as he cut some trees in the forest.
Patnos and Sance were there with him. Sance had a nudge as to something he had forgotten, had just followed Patnos.
During the walk to the forest, the wanderer in the brown overcoat made it a bit more clear as to why and what he wanted to know about the city. But the answers Sance and Patnos provided were not to his liking, he hated the reasons.
Noting Sance was still with Patnos and the wanderer in the brown overcoat, some random outskirt city dweller came over. She asked, "Sance, is the Pioneer Ramshackle once again broken down?"
"No…it just had a hole this morning", a realization hit Sance, Patnos and the wanderer at the same time. "I AM GOING BACK! REMEMBER 'REMEMBRANCE IS FORBIDDEN.' " shouted out Sance, running to where he needed himself to be.
The outskirt dweller avoided collision from Sance but she was still here, looking around at Patnos and the wanderer.
Patnos exhaled, "I sure hope that I remember that Sance left the Pioneer Ramshackle open, because if even a single nail is missing I will remind the people who was the first instructor of Knight Castroph."
"I'll keep reminding, now if both of you can tell me why is there no guards at any of the Tide Breaker gates?" the wanderer mused aloud, swinging the axe that Patnos gave.
This time it was the outskirt lady who answered, "are you new here? Because then only you could have not known that Kingdom of Riga had taken everyone from the age fifteen to forty, four years back."
The axe missed the bark by a hair.
Cheal in the meanwhile, had terrified not only the Second Street gambling addicts, but also several of gamblers from the outskirts and inner numbered Library Streets.
His terror incited the gamblers to rise against his winning streak. They wanted their hard earned money back from him.
Cheal had taken quite the liking to the numbering scheme behind the streets. But he also understood one thing, whomsoever had named them. That person either may have figured something else out, or they were very deliberate at choosing that the same named streets can only be up to sixteen.
Quite the peculiar number for his taste, but he was looking forward to the people's rebellion to get him. Mostly just a few dozen people.