The Musafir
The Influence of Underground Networks on Kotaraja
“Every immigrant from a foreign country, no matter if it is just an ordinary merchant or state official, must undergo quarantine for two days. During that time, healers will continue to check and monitor their health.”
And for the sake of maintaining health, then cleanliness in the city is tightened as well. Let not the plague come from within the city itself.
“In the markets, vegetables that have been rotten or just want to be thrown away should not be left alone on the ground. Everything has to go in the trash. Can't be lazy. The fine is big enough for those who break it.
“While houses should not dispose of bathroom waste carelessly. There is an underground channel that connects with every bathroom in the city. Those wastes will be flowed into the ocean.”
***
MANTINGAN closed his eyes. Imagine the beauty of Kotaraja. Clean and orderly. Full of luminous magic. Crowd. Trading. The foreigners. Wouldn't it all be so amazing to see in person rather than just imagine?
Meanwhile, Chitra Anggini continued to tell stories.
“But even so, the happiness level of people who live in the city is relatively low compared to people who live in other cities around it. Especially, much more felt by the common people. You know exactly, that big city is a city of interstate commerce. Commoners find it difficult to find work, besides being a porters of goods whose pay is not much. Food prices and other basic needs are much higher than other cities around. Just imagine, with a piece of silver you can only get a bunch of spinach, while in other cities you can get up to seven ties of spinach. So the comparison is one to seven.”
Due to the all-expensive price, it is not uncommon for residents of Kotaraja to go to other cities that are much smaller, try their luck. However, more decided to settle in one plot because they did not have enough money to move to another city, making the place known as Kotaraja Poor Settlement.
“The settlement is the only settlement whose cleanliness, health, and security are not guaranteed by the government. It's so shabby that place. Foul and musty smell. Sick people everywhere. Theft is at every opportunity. Koying had taken his hands off her. Although really, the settlement has become a black spot or a disgrace for Kotaraja Koying.”
“Why didn't the Koying government give them a little money to at least go to another city and start a new life?” Mantingan asked while stroking his chin. He himself still does not think that the splendor of Koying Kotaraja in his shadow still has a poor settlement that somehow cannot be overcome.
“Not as easy as you imagined.” Chitra Anggini shook his head slowly. “The residents of Kotaraja Poor Settlement many do not want to leave the city. They say that the ancestral land should not be controlled by foreigners from other countries, so that they will remain there to maintain their allegiance. Some others do not want to go for fear of being scuttered, fear of not having a better fate in another city, or just simply being too lazy to pick up new hope.”
The mantle breathed a long breath. Back to his back on the back of the chair. But apparently, Chitra Anggini has not finished there.
“Their sharp rejection could actually be considered a rebellion against the Koying government. It could be that thousands of warriors from the government stormed the Poor Kotaraja Settlement to the ground. However, it was not done by the king, although as a master of the underground network I know that the king and his commander have devised the plan of the earthworks.”
Mantang folding forehead. Chitra Anggini seemed to have deliberately provoked his curiosity. “Why are urung done?”
Chitra Anggini smiled faintly before replying half in a whisper, “That's proof of the power of the underground network.”
Again Mantingan asked why; again Chitra Anggini explained. The mantingan was stunned at that instant!
According to the explanation of Chitra Anggini, which makes Poor Kotaraja Settlement still survive until now is none other than the existence of an underground network that protects it.
However, Mantingan could not have fun with the statement, because the purpose and purpose of the underground network was very cruel and bad, really cruel and bad!
“The underground group took advantage of them, blackmailed them, and killed them slowly, with illegal drugs capable of incurring an extraordinary delusion. Whoever has eaten the drugs will be addicted to death! I'm not kidding, and I'm not exaggerating. The devastating impact of the drugs was able to make a person in a half-dead state, even some of them to death completely.
“Although the elders in the settlement had done their best to withhold the sale of the drugs, but still the influence of the underground network was too great to resist. The only way to be able to win it was by armed combat, but the elders of the Kotaraja Poor Settlement did not have that power. Ah, let alone the elders of the settlement who clearly do not have the stash of power, even the Koying government did not dare to fight them.”
Again the mantel exhaled a long breath. Poor Kotaraja Settlement Affairs can indeed be complicated. Not to mention with all underground network interference, adding complexity only. As a result, no one can overcome such a problem. Mantingan tried to ignore it first, because his main purpose of going to Koying was not to eradicate poverty with all the troubling underground network groups.
“Lantas, what more do I need to know about life in kotaraja?”
***
Unknowingly, the sun had perfectly sunk at the boundary of the horizon. Leave a tinge of orange. Dimness.
The mantel raised one hand towards Chitra Anggini. “We'll do it here, Chitra. Soon night pick up.”
The two cheeks of Chitra Anggini meet dice-red while diverting his gaze from Mantingan. The young man quickly found out what he was thinking right now!
“You can sleep in bed, I'm used to not sleeping in bed.” Mantingan cleared his throat a few times while saying that.
“It is precisely because you rarely sleep in bed, then occasionally you have to taste it. I want to sleep in bed too. So, what's wrong if we—”
“Know, Chitra ...” The mantle cuts though not with sharpness, but with tenderness. “I am a man, and you are a woman. As is best, we do not sleep in one room, let alone in one bed.”
“What's wrong?” Chitra Anggini denied. “Didn't you think of me as your own little sister? Is it wrong if brother and sister sleep long?”
Mantingan was about to return saying half-touch, but Chitra Anggini cut him off. The woman's index finger was attached to the lips of Mantingan. The young man immediately spoke up.
“Nothing will happen. I'm not passionate about men, and I never felt so passionate about men. Wasn't that night, in the middle of the wilderness at the arrival of the Bloody Kelewang Swordsman, you've seen it all?” Chitra Anggini said softly.
The mantan can only complain in the mind. Chitra Anggini is not willing to accept any more objections. The index finger is still attached to the lips of Mantingan.
___
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IMPORTANT NOTE
Koying is a kingdom that is not really certain of its condition. Records of the kingdom are found only in Chinese literature, where a work stands near Wen Bay in the middle of the bay with black and red-eyed natives.
Today, Koying is still a question mark and a debate. Some say that Koying is Salakanagara, some still say that Koying is located in the Kerinci Nature. Everything is still cryptic, but I decided to still take the Koying Kingdom into this novel.
After all, this is not a historical fiction novel, and should not be assumed so.
