It was the nobles' responsibility to inventory the harvest down to the last sack of grain and make sure that the city would keep what it needed for the next sowing.
All the buildings in Zeska were made of stone to protect both people and goods. Yet while a farmer's or a soldier's house was small, those belonging to mages and nobles were at least two-stories high.
Some even took an entire city block.
The streets were wide enough to allow two carriages to move side by side with space to spare.
If not for the tall walls that blocked the horizon and the lack of green spaces, Zeska closely resembled what Lutia would have looked like in a few years if the city kept expanding.
Lith had no trouble finding his way through the middle rim, yet despite his farmer clothes and his best poker face, he kept drawing attention. People would often point at him and whisper, sending a cold shiver down his spine.
'What the fuck? I've heard the saying "in tight-knit communities everybody knows everybody", but this is ridiculous. What the heck am I doing wrong to stand out so much?' He thought.
'I'm afraid that it's a matter of appearance.' Solus replied.
'Please, I'm not handsome enough for that in this form. Or are you implying that I was ugly in my first life?'
'Not that, dummy!' She said. 'While everyone else is going to the walls to check the situation, you are walking toward the inner rim. You don't talk with anyone, you don't look scared, and you have no plausible reason for going in that direction.
'Your gait is that of a man on a mission, not that of a scared farmer. I don't think that your cover is blown already, but unless you find a way to blend in, people are going to report you to the guards.'
Lith inwardly cursed and entered an empty alley after checking it with Life Vision. He leaned against the wall, racking his brain to make up a cover story or at least find a way to reach his destination in the quickest way possible.
The army had given him a map of Zeska that he had stored inside Soluspedia. Lith closed his eyes, focusing on the buildings near the city hall and the roads leading to them.
'Flying and Warping are out of the question. The buildings are too low and people would see me from the streets.' Lith thought. 'I could dress as a soldier, but without written orders, I would be sent to the walls.
'Posing as a noble isn't an option either. Even if the farmers don't mind me, the guards would stop me on sight. They surely know all the nobles and their guests and I'm not one of them. I can't change my face into that of someone I've never seen before.'
'What about the healer?' Solus pointed at the local hospital that was right beside the city hall.
'I already thought about that and dismissed the idea.' Lith replied. 'If I go there claiming to have the flu or a fever, they will just send me off to a minor healer. During a crisis, the hospital is for emergencies only and anyone healthy enough to walk doesn't qualify.'
'What about simulating a heavy injury?' She asked.
'I can't shave with magic, let alone inflict an injury. Besides, do you know what it takes to hurt me now that I've become a Tiamat?'
'Point taken.' Solus pondered for a while.
'I got it!' The Sage Staff appeared in a burst of emerald flames as she injected a bit of her life force in the pocket dimension to overcome the dimensional sealing array.
Solus's small hand appeared from Lith's stone ring, grabbing the staff and having it shrink to the size of a pin to hide it in her palm. She used Lith as a cover to assume her human form without anyone outside the alley noticing.
'What the heck are you doing? You can hold that form for less than half an hour.' Lith said.
'Wrong, I can move around for less than half an hour.' She replied while jumping in his arms.
Body Sculpting removed the colored streaks from her hair and raised her temperature by a few degrees. Lith could see sweat cover her forehead and hear her breath become heavy.
'You are not a suspicious farmer anymore, now you are a concerned man carrying her feverish girlfriend to the healer.' Solus said.
'You are a genius!' Lith said. 'And also quite heavy. I think that I heard my spine pop. You know that Gravity Fusion is a thing, right?'
'Less yapping, more walking, jerk.'
Lith walked out of the alley while holding Solus in a princess carry. People kept pointing at him, but now they were worried about the woman's condition rather than the man's identity.
"Is everything alright?" A man asked.
He and a woman were riding in a carriage that had slowed down after nearing the distressed couple.
"I wish, there's something wrong with my wife." Lith said amid what he hoped resembled strained pants. "After that crazy spell exploded in the air, she collapsed and developed a fever!"
At the word "wife", Solus turned to a bright shade of purple and emitted an honest groan that made even Lith almost fall for their own cover story.
"And you are taking her to the healer on foot?" The man was flabbergasted.
"One of the wheels of our carriage broke at the worst possible times and our neighbors are-"
"Guyll, you idiot!" The woman cut Lith short and brought the carriage to a halt. "How can you question a man worried for his pregnant wife?"
She pointed at Solus's belly that was further emphasized by the princess carry. She became so red and whimpered so loudly that the bystanders started to address the poor Guyll with mean words that made him turn as red as Solus.
'That does it! From tomorrow I'll cut down on comfort food, exercise, and cheat all the way down with Invigoration. I'm aware that I've gained a bit more weight after regaining my human body, but being mistaken for pregnant?' She thought while Lith and Guyll carefully lay her on the back of the carriage.
Lith had a hard time not having a good laugh at her expense but since he had a mission and knew from experience that there were few doors that a pregnant woman couldn't open, he decided to roll with it.
"Are you sure?" He asked the kind woman, pretending to be shocked and even more scared by the revelation. "I thought it was just a big scare due to the army at our doors, that monstrous mage, and Lord Quaron being away."
"I'm sure of it just as I'm sure that it's your first. Correct?" She replied while making the horse trot toward the hospital.
'It's my first make-believe child.' Lith thought.
"Correct." He actually said.
"Don't worry, it's a common mistake for newlyweds. The wife starts eating more, gains some weight, and the husband blames her for being a glutton just because he's too dumb to understand that she's eating for two.." The woman said with a snort while looking at Guyll.
