"Ow."

He said flatly while Riel tightened the splint around his broken leg.

"I guess even Goblins have limits when it comes to their healing abilities."

Riel simply sat back down and poked her nose back into the spellbook she borrowed from him.

"I'm sure there's a Healing Spell in here that can mend bones. Though, all I've seen thus far are attack-focused Spells."

"One book has Heal Spell. I'm not sure where."

Sirius looked at his empty Bag of Holding and the stacks of books around them.

He let out a heavy sigh as he looked out of the side of the cart. Hills, hills, hillls. Everywhere he looked, he saw only the rolling hills that covered the countryside of Te'loinn. Once, tribes of Goblins battled with Ogre clans to control this rich hunting ground. But if the stories were to be believed, the knights of this kingdom hunted them down and drove them out of the kingdom. It was a strange story. A warning, really, from his father to not cross the path of a Te'loinnian Knight. He could see that some of the hillsides had been turned into vineyards. Others were turned into pastures while the valleys in between were turned into wheatfields. A far cry from the stories of his father's father of hillforts, vast herds of deer and oxen, and Heroes waging war on their people.

"Wine. I heard Te'loinn's red wine is one of the best."

Said Semilia as she looked at one of the larger vineyards in the area.

"Not red. White. Te'loinn is known for its white wine."

Stefan said with a confident tone.

"Knights."

Riel sighed and closed her book.

"Te'loinn's best known for their knights."

"Ah. Asses with shiny white armor poking their fuckin' noses into people's problems."

"Heavy infantry that thinks they're better than others cause they're covered in armor."

"Steel death on hooves."

He said flatly while Riel rolled her eyes.

"Chivalry! For Goblins, what you just said may have been the case but Te'loinn's knights are known for their chivalry and loyalty to their lords and ladies! Not those... whatever."

Riel folded her hands and puffed out her cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah. I heard the stories. Unlike in the west or in Caradia, the Knights here are bound to their lords, and go on quests, and fight in wars... But I did hear that in the past, they had an order here called "The Brotherhood Bound in Fire and Scales" or the Dragon Knights, in short."

Said Stefan.

"Yes, they did. They had members from all kingdoms east of the Arenhein. They would go around, slaying evil Dragons and helping out villages with things like setting up walls for the winter, harvesting grain, slaying monsters, and other such charity works. From what I've heard, their Grandmaster– No, actually, I think they called it Lord Commander. Anyways, their Lord Commander was said to be a Dragon or at least descended from one. But now that I think about it, it's probably Draukr."

"What happened to them?"

"I'm not sure."

Riel shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

"My father... My father told me that their entire Order fought against the Sea Peoples when they tried to drown the world. My mother told me that their castle was besieged by a mighty Orc Warband and was brought down by a great and terrible dragon."

Said Riel in a wistful tone.

"If a dragon did it, it's no wonder there was no trace of the Knights now. A dragon's wrath could tear down even the mightiest of stones. Or so my old man says."

Stefan said while he looked down at the slight incline ahead of them.

"Sem. Grab my map and tell me where's the nearest town."

Stefan took out a folded-up map from his bag as well as his large notebook and handed it to Semilia.

The Low-Elf fumbled with it for a few moments before she finally unfolded the large parchment. The Cartographer who made this must've been high-leveled since the inkwork was well done and looked accurate geographically. He tried to look at the map, but the only thing he could see on the map was the Eastern Coast. After a while, his neck started to hurt and he decided to not look at it anymore. His ears twitched as Semilia kept flapping the damned map in her hands. In fact, he could hear Stefan muttering under his breath. The man was clearly annoyed at this point while Semilia kept twisting and rotating the map around in her hands. In the end, Stefan grabbed the map from her hands and tossed it at both of them while he shoved the notebook into Semilia's hands.

"You two! Try to find the towns on this road. Semilia, take a look at my notes there about the local cities. Can't believe a Low-Elf doesn't know how to- How many times do I have to tell you to learn how to read maps? How the fuck do your people manage to not get lost in that deep, dark forest you call home?!"

"We don't need maps back home! We have waypoints all over the forests!"

"What? You speak to fucking squirrels as a marker?! Fuck off and just try to find a town in my notes that has a Healer or an Apothecary."

Semilia punched Stefan on the shoulder while he simply ignored the Low-Elf's shouts and screeching.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The two of them looked at the large parchment between them. It was a strange sight, really. He had maps of his own but this one was clearly different from the ones in the dungeon. The shape of the land is still the same, but the forests were smaller. There were quite a few names as well and the borders have changed, not as drastically but he could tell that a large territory in the north had clearly changed hands. He stared at the many roads all over the map and felt a little bit dizzy. Riel tapped a spot near the south while she hummed quietly. She traced the roads on the map with her finger and tapped at a spot that looked like a small town.

"Frai-chaen. From there, there's a road that takes us directly towards the King's Road."

"Nothing on the notebook about it. Wait. Hold on... It says here it has a market."

Stefan let out a sigh and shook his head.

"The King's Road goes through some cities. Can you check?"

"It goes through Arveoundy before it reaches Castlleon. It's a major city, so most likely there would be a Healer or an Apothecary there."

Semilia said before closing the book with a loud shut. Riel's eyes widened and she immediately piped up with a wide smile on her face.

"Arveoundy?! M-My Aunt lives there!"

"Aunt? We thought– Nevermind."

Stefan shook his head and sighed.

"Let's stop by the city and perhaps I could arrange us a place to rest with my aunt!"

"Ooh! Nice idea! And maybe we can–"

"Ehem."

He let out a cough and all heads turned towards him. Slowly, he pulled down his hood and loosened his scarf.

"Big city. Small Goblin."

A collective "Ah" came out from all of their mouths while Sirius stared out of the cart with a blank look in his bright, amber eyes.

"... Right. Shit, forgot about that..."

"Riiight. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Riiiiiiight. Goblin. I... I guess we can sneak him in? Riel, you're a Mage. Do you know any disguise Spells?"

"None. The only Illusory Magic that I know of is [Hazy Images] and it makes small butterflies."

For demonstration, Riel cast the Spell and sure enough, two butterflies appeared over her large hat and fluttered around her.

"Damn. Okay, that's a problem... A big problem... Hmmm."

"Can't we just take the Healer out of the city and have Sirius patched up somewhere out of sight?"

Said Semilia.

"No. That would be difficult. Arveoundy is a large city and I doubt we could hide Sirius outside the city."

"Shit."

Semilia clicked her tongue and glanced at him. Scratching her ear as she did.

A moment of silence passed, then Stefan smacked his thigh and let out an "Aha" that spooked the horses slightly. Stefan rummaged through his back and pulled out some rope and bandages. All three of them tilted their head at him. Stefan smiled and chuckled, then tapped his Adventurer's Tag with the widest grin on his face. Semilia snapped her fingers and nodded back at him. A sharp glint on her eyes as she too turned her head towards him. She let out a snicker as she stood up from her seat and jumped into the cart with them, rope and bandage in hand. For a moment, he wondered what she would do to him. Then it clicked within his mind as well what was about to happen to him, an adventurer and a person. He let out a screech but the bandage quickly stifled whatever noises came from his shocked and angry mouth.

----------------------------------------

He stared at the city and found only a sprawl of tall houses with colorful rooftops and bright, white walls. Unlike Arenhein, no walls wrapped around the city and enclosed it. Though they did pass by one of the many gates around the city. It was strange, really. A great tollhouse in the shape of an arch was built on each road that passed through the city. It was the usual, really. Travellers simply declared their purpose, Merchants declared their goods and paid the toll and taxes imposed by the Custom Officer, and Adventurers declared their rank, purpose, and if they are bringing anything into the city for inspection. It was the last part that let him sit on the cold stone inside the cramped cell in the customs office.

"S-Sir, we could bring in one Goblin on our own! I'm sure my party and I can take care of a heavily injured Goblin!"

"No! I will not risk the safety of even one person within this city!"

The officer slammed his fist down on the table while Stefan kept glancing back and forth at him and the officer.

"Do you know what happens if even one Goblin gets loose in this city?!"

"Oh, I'm sure one–"

"Our image will be ruined! Ruined! We can't risk that now! Just a single Goblin going loose in the city would drive away the Merchants! We can't have them packing up and leaving with their money in their pockets during this time! War is upon us! War!"

The Officer repeatedly slammed down his fist on the table to emphasize his point.

"Then you expect us to wait here for the Guildmaster? Sir, we are adventurers sent on an urgent matter–"

The Officer snapped his gaze towards Riel and pointed a finger at her.

"Listen here, Mage! This is my job! It ain't clean, it ain't great at times either, but I do it well and I do it clean! I am not like the others posted at the other gates where you could wave your wand and money at my face and expect me to budge and let you have your way! So I suggest that you don't poke your nose into my job, and I won't hamper you with this "important matter" of yours, got it?!"

The man slammed down his fist again while Stefan put back his coin pouch that jingled a lot back into his pocket.

Sirius let out a sigh under the gags as he watched the plan unfold in front of him. He knew that the moment the man didn't take Stefan's bribe was the moment the plan unfurled and spiraled into disaster. It was wrong of him to trust in Stefan's foolproof plan of bribing the officer. He let out a heavy sigh while he stared at the worried three. Silently, they panicked and their sweat could've filled buckets. Stefan slammed down on the table and shouted at the officer, and he watched from behind the solid bars as Soldiers entered the room and pointer their spears at them. Kak. In Common, shit, the room felt heavy and he knew that this just became very, very complicated. For him, of course. He too began to sweat since this could only end badly for him, and he may soon be staring at his body from the floor. He looked up at Stefan and Stefan looked at him; he mouthed "help me" while the Swordsman stared at the tips of the many spears pointed at him.

The door opened once more, and another Official entered the room. A woman. An old woman, yet the look in her eyes could match the fierceness in Semilia's despite being older than her by at least a decade. The woman stared at the three, then at him. A bead of sweat ran down his nape as the woman narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue. With one gesture, one of the Soldiers turned and marched towards him with the spear pointed at him. A cry left Semilia's mouth while he decided that now was a good time to panic. The tip of the spear poke through the bars while he readied an [Ice Spike] Spell just in case. But before the both of them could poke each other to death, the old woman let out a gasp. All heads turned to the woman, who now pinched both cheeks of the crying Riel beside her.

"Riel Alviers! Gods! You stop writing to me for the past year and this is how I meet you?! Stirring up trouble in my city over some monster?!"

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Owww! A-Aunt Nivea! Please let— Ouch! T-That hurts!— let me explain!"

The old woman glared at the other two then back at the Mage. Then she started pinching harder.

"That's "Minister Nivea" to you, Riel! You should know if you had the time to actually read the letters I sent you! Seveth! I will vouch for these three. And have some of your men take that thing to the Adventurer's Guild for dispatching! You three! Where are your tags?!"

The old woman immediately let go of the reddened and swollen cheeks of Riel and narrowed her eyes at Stefan's and Semilia's Adventurer Tags.

"Silver and Silver. A Silver-Ranked team. You could've gone for Gold with your talent and education, Riel."

"H-He's actually Gold. Stefan Hendrickson, W-Wyvern Slayer."

Stefan looked away while the old woman looked him up and down. He would've laughed at him if it wasn't for the Soldier dragging him out of his cell and poking at him with his spear.

"Never heard of him. But we can talk about this later! As the Minister of Customs and Finance, I welcome you to Arveoundy! You have met Seveth, a competent brick wall of an Officer and he did well not throwing you out of the city immediately. Bringing such a creature into the city..."

She glared at him and he stuck his tongue out at her. She smiled.

Then something whacked him on the back of his head.