It was morning with the sun partially visible at the horizon. Zecruix had prepared everything and he was currently being sent off by the smirking village chief and his family after Zecruix had stayed with them overnight.

His next destination was a town called Ghanur just west from here near the city of Trusyonium, The northern border City of The Ebony Empire and the gateway to Vermillean.

It would take him almost a day to reach there. He heaved his bag, now heavier due to added supplies.

The whole family was waving at the departing Zecruix and he responded by waving back.

After some distance and the family was a blur in his vision, he stopped waving and face forward at the dirt road. The road ahead looked long and winding but this was a good start.

                     --

Along the way, there weren’t much people as he met only few travellers and peddling merchants. He only stopped to take a break for lunch when the sun was up high in the indicating it was Midday.

After an hour after lunch, he stumbled upon a river that was following the road or the road was following the river.

It was noon when he reached the town of Ghanur. The town looked relatively bigger than Adinanum and it had several large stone buildings and there was a notably large water mill at the right side of the town where the river was.

Now that Zecruix had arrived, the first thing to do was to get a room in the inn and find any Rakhe-related rumour to find demonhunting jobs.

It was important because Demonhunting was a calling only few were selected not by merit but by birth and he had been ingrained from young of the importance of the work with a serious lectures by his usually care-free master. Some Rakhe or demon, as they are known to many, can be harmed physically but they would only revive back after a period of time while others are made of pure magick and cannot be harm physically. Thus the only way to stop them was by Rakhe’threv or Exorcising Artus.

After entering inside the town, he saw a crowd of people walking on every direction all around him. Since it was noon, it was probably time for dinner. Zecruix received a few curious or dismissive stares from the crowd due to his silver hair. Most people would assume he was an Ehridolon but it was half true for Zecruix was only half-blood Ehridolon.

The inn wasn’t hard to find because the sign ‘Ghanur Inn’ could be seen from the entrance and it was quite close. In fact, He had been here a few times with his master but never stayed here, only to rest. After a minute or so, he had reached to the door of the inn.

He opened the door and entered.

Inside, it was crowded with patrons, who were siniging jaunty songs and merrily clamouring. He navigated his way to the counter in the revelries and safely made there without causing a commotion. There rows of stools and every one of them were occupied so Zecruix could only stand.

Behind the counter stood a middle aged man with a blond hair wearing apron, talking with a patron nearby. Seeing he was the only man behind the counter, Zecruix assumed he was the innkeeper and coughed lightly to get his attention. The man looked at him.

“Can I help you young un?”

“Yes, is there anymore vacancy?”

“Lemme check on the log.”

The innkeeper turned around. There were two books side by side and he took the one on the left side on the table of the other side.

He turned back while looking at the book.

“… Yes, we still have rooms! Can I interest you in one?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Yes, how much is it?”

“It’s about 10 denurs with breakfast.”

Zecruix took out and check his purse bag with his right hand. Inside there was about 180 denurs. At first, when he was kicked out, he had about 30 denurs. The added denurs was the reward from the job at Adinanum.

“… Yes, I’ll take it for one night.”

“Okay. Please write your detail here and I need you to show an identification certificate.”

The innkeeper put the book down for Zecruix to write. Zecruix put the purse bag inside his robe and with his left hand, took out his certificate and gave it to the innkeeper.

While the innkeeper turned around and wrote the detail of Zecruix’s certificate in the other book, Zecruix fills in the book that he was given.

After a while, both of them were done. The innkeeper gave back the certificate after Zecruix took out the denurs and paid for the room.

“Oh, before that, do you have anyone that sells information?”

The innkeeper narrowed his eyes.

“Eh… what do you want to do with that information? Cause if you’re a spy from the Mountain tribes, yer pretty dumb to ask it openly.”

“Oh no, no, no. I’m actually a… Demonhunter… have you heard of them?”

Zecruix pulled the right sleeve of the robe and showed his right arm. Near the area elbow cap was a crest of three triangles intersecting with each other. Each of them, upon being lit, showed a colour of blue, red and grey.

The innkeeper was taken back as he was surprised.

“Eh, really!? Every folk here know that crest!! Ha, of course I have. They’re pretty famous around here. Say, you know Kravstor?”

“Yeah… he was my master… sadly.”

As of now, Zecruix remembered that his master would always chat with someone on this inn on every visit. Zecruix was perplexed as he didn’t remember this man at all.

“Really!!? How is he? I owed him you know!”

At first, upon being inquired about information, he spoked with a cautious tone but when Zecruix showed the crest to him, he drop his guard and was now openly jovial.

“He… retired…”

“Really?! I didn’t know you guys can retire!”

“I didn’t know that too…”

Zecruix frowned hard. The innkeeper chuckled.

“Ah, never mind, you said you need information right? Well you came to the right place! I’m got all the dirt and juices in this town.”

The innkeeper gregariously stomped down both of his hands on the counter as he grinned at Zecruix.

Well, he thought that at least he had completed both of his current objectives.