Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

If farming was king in the East Kingdom, then alehouses were their mistress. Not outright acknowledged, but ever-present and somewhat necessary. You couldn’t have one without the other, after all.

By my estimate, it would be full dark before we would reach the Central Kingdom, so I made plans to stop at an inn when night fell. As we approached the first gate, I quickly put Eris’s hood up. The guards should let us pass without trouble, but it was better to be safe than stupid.

Four men guarded the first gate, a giant black wrought iron monster, thick, heavy bars latticed over one another. It stood out sharply in comparison to the whitewashed limestone walls that encompassed the whole of the Compass Kingdom.

One of the guards commanded us to halt. From his lapel, he was the sergeant in charge of the others. He wore a striking blue and gold tunic and matching pants over his sparse armaments, along with a short-brimmed hat with a long plume atop his head.

A statement that suggested a superiority complex, if I’d ever seen one. The Alliance didn’t enforce a strict uniform with their soldiers, as they didn’t like spending the coin to outfit the many dozens of thousands of men under their command. The only piece of the uniform they did issue was a chest plate with the Alliance crest embossed across the majority of the metal.

A sword inside a clenched fist, surrounded by five stars, representing each of the kingdoms.

“Afternoon, sir. May I inquire about your business inside the East Kingdom?”

I nodded my head at him, discreetly reached inside my purse and withdrew a single gold coin, slipping the guard the money. “Just a little business and pleasure is all, sir.”

He returned my nod and offered a sly grin. “Of course, sir. Head on in.”

He turned and barked a sharp command that wasn’t so much a word as a whistle. After a second or two, the gate started to rise slowly. Within half a minute, we were inside a stretch of white tunnel lined with torches that burned steadily even during the day, as light could never make its way deep enough to keep the place lit.

The two-gate process was an admittedly smart system of defense. Two different gates with separate opening mechanisms and two different sets of guards to open them. Who were assigned at complete random, making it much harder to bribe and coerce the men who were stationed there.

We made our way through the dark tunnel. Lacuna's hooves clacked loudly against the stone, only to echo throughout the tunnel. Before we’d even made it halfway through, the opposite gate had already started to rise. By the time we reached it, we had just enough room to squeeze through without ducking our heads.

As soon as we had passed through, the gate began to shut. Paranoia much?

The streets were awash with hundreds of people going about their day. Grain merchants were everywhere, buying and selling wheat and barley by the bushel. A few produce vendors here and there, but as most of what was harvested here went to the other kingdoms, there wasn't as much of a need for it here where it was grown in excess.

Wheat and grain had a nearly universal appeal even here in the East Kingdom. And even if you didn't need it wholesale, wheat and wheat by-products were still in high demand. Bread, flour, and even ale were staples everywhere and required a steady amount of grain.

You'd think with how well this kingdom’s exports sold; they could afford better roads. The stone streets were rough, uneven, and even missing tiles. All topped with caked over with dirt and mud that the workers tracked with every step.

Eris was having a blast. I don’t think she’d ever seen so many humans at once; she kept darting her head back and forth, as we wove through traffic and proceeded to the main road. It was adorable to watch, and I left her to her own devices while I steered Lacuna toward the Central Kingdom gate. About twenty minutes later, she seemed lost in thought, before turning around to ask me a question.

“There are thousands of men and women, but I’ve seen very few children?”

“Oh, that's because it's not that easy for NPCs to have kids. Well, human NPCs at any rate.”

“Why?”

Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure of the answer myself—all us players have are theories. But I didn’t want to spout off some of the more “out there” conspiracy theories, and so I settled for the one I put the most stock in, and by far the most common theory.

“Well, I personally think it has to do with how rapidly humans reproduced back on Earth. We spread like a disease, and it quickly became a huge problem that led to shortages in almost every major resource. So here, on Nexus, the theory is that Ouroboros restricts how many humans can have children.”

“That’s a little sad to hear, but it makes sense. Compared to the elves or dwarves, humans far outnumber either race, and the demi-humans are bordering on extinction. I wonder if an entomancer and a human can have children? What do you think our children will be like?”

“That’s something I don’t have to consider, because players can’t have kids at all.”

Eris whirled around with a shocked expression. “You can’t have children?”

I shook my head. “None of us can. The AI can simulate life, but actually creating it is an entirely different story.”

Eris didn’t say another word, just turned around. Her shoulders slumped over while we rode, so to cheer her up, I put my arm around her and pulled her into my chest, kissing the top of her head.

“Don’t think about it so much, nothing you or I can do to change it, so