The caravan’s guards promptly dropped their weapons - this was a job, not a cause to die for. Seeing this, those travelling with the caravan, including Kyle, Alex, and Gust, threw their weapons to the ground as well.

Seeing that the caravan had no intentions of fighting, the surrounding soldiers raised their spears and stood at attention.

A knight in heavy armor, flanked with several mages wearing traditional robes, walked out of the fort, and examined his prisoners. After casting his eye briefly on each of the wagons, he walked up to Mark, who was now sweating bullets.

“You are Mark Shylock, of the Shylock Trading Company?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“Hello Mark. I am Sir Rosenthal, the commanding officer of this fort. Unfortunately, I must inform you that we have it on good word that you are transporting illegal goods to the Kenta Kingdom. Will you confirm or deny this claim?”

“Ahem, of course I deny these claims, good sir.”

The knight smiled. “Then, you won’t have any complaints if we look through your cargo?”

At this, Mark’s smile faltered for a second. “Um, of course!”

He stepped to the side, and motioned toward the wagons. “After you, sir.”

The last wagon was too far from the front to hear this discussion. However, the shouts earlier for the caravan’s fighters to drop their weapons had woken Wesley up.

“Hey Gust, what’s going on?”

“We’re at the gates of a fort, but for some reason they’ve surrounded us with soldiers. I think Mark is talking to some pretentious looking bloke up ahead.”

Actually, Gust was rather curious. Was all of this happening because of the chaos gems he’d discovered?

Then, the soldiers who had been standing at attention suddenly began to move toward the wagons.

Alex shouted, “Hey, what are you doing?”

One of the soldiers looked up and addressed Alex. “Don’t be rash. We’re just inspecting your cargo.”

Having walked up to the front of the wagon, he pointed his spear toward Alex. “Don’t try anything funny.”

Then, he examined the interior of the weapon, his eyes briefly glancing over the other passengers. “Everyone, get up and get off the wagon. If there’s nothing wrong, you’ll be free to go.”

A collective sigh ran through the wagon, and they slowly climbed out of the wagon, only to see that a similar situation was happening with the other wagons.

After leaving the wagon, Gust grabbed Wesley and headed toward a group from another wagon.

“Hey.” Gust waved to grab their attention. “Do you guys know what's going on?”

An older man waved back. “Hello there, Gust. The guards wouldn't tell me much, but this is definitely out of the ordinary. I’ve travelled between the Conarite and Kenta Kingdoms hundreds of times in my life, and I’ve never seen a single group of travellers surrounded by so many soldiers.”

“Furthermore, Mark has been travelling this route for the last few decades, and as far as I know, he has a good reputation. Well, not much we can do right now. If we run, who knows if they’ll pursue us.”

Meanwhile, the soldiers at the first wagon had broken open and rummaged through the boxes already, but hadn’t found anything other than ceramics, textiles, and some jewelry.

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Likewise, the soldiers at the wagons climbed out of the wagons, and informed their superiors of the same - nothing out of the ordinary.

The knight looked on with a frown. Just a week prior, he had received an emergency message from his teacher, who happened to be the King’s Chief Military Advisor. The message shouldn’t have been wrong…

Furthermore, Mark had truly been nervous when he’d demanded to check the man’s cargo. Were his instincts failing him? Regardless, his soldiers had checked all of the wagons, with no result. He looked back at the mages behind him.

One of them shrugged, then began drawing a seal.

Seeing this, the knight turned back to Mark. “Your wagons look clear, but as a precaution, this esteemed mage,” He motioned toward the mage drawing the seal, “is going to cast a quick detection spell. If nothing shows up, you’re free to enter my fort.”

Mark was as confused, if not more, than the knight. He could’ve sworn that he had been transporting gems for the Kenta Kingdom. Had he imagined it all? He subtly tapped his right pant pocket.

Yes, the scroll was still there, solid proof that he wasn’t going crazy. But then, where had the gems gone?

After a brief moment, the seal had been drawn and activated. The mage briefly closed his eyes and concentrated. Then, he opened his eyes, and pointed toward a young man standing on the side.

“Check his pockets!”

Afraid for their lives, those in the area the mage had just pointed at quickly retreated, and the young man found himself all alone.

Two soldiers swiftly marched up and grabbed the man by his shoulders, while a third rummaged through his pockets, and pulled out a green gem.

As soon as the surrounding soldiers saw the gem, they went on high alert, spears pointed toward those from the caravan.

Sir Rosenthal’s eyes narrowed as he stepped toward the young man. “Boy, where’d you find this?”

Jason’s body trembled as he answered. “Uh, I found it in one of the wagons, sir.”

Sir Rosenthal took the chaos gem from Jason’s hand, examined it, then turned toward Mark.

“Now, Mark, why would he have found a chaos gem on one of your wagons? I'm sure you know that these are classified as highly destructive military supplies, yes?”

“Uh, I know that they are military supplies, but I have no idea how one got into one of my wagons, sir. I swear of it!” Mark was more confident now, hopeful that there wasn’t any evidence against him.

“Well, let’s come to a compromise. You, everyone, and everything with you, will be escorted into the fort. However, you will park your wagons in an area we will designate to you, and we will be guarding this area. Furthermore, none of you will be allowed to leave the area until we have searched through every single person’s belongings and clothes. Is that understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well then.” Sir Rosenthal motioned toward his soldiers, who motioned for the travellers to head back into the wagons. A few minutes later, the caravan passed through the gate into the fort.

However, nobody was thinking about dinner.

After the wagons had been parked, the soldiers lined the travellers up, single file, and patted them down.

Sir Rosenthal was watching from the side, still flanked by the mages.. “So, what are we looking for?”

One of the mages responded. “We’re looking for anything that could be used as a Holding item. For example, you may have heard of Rings of Holding - these are the most common Holding item, as they can be worn easily and are small.

“But really, the ring part is useless - the important part is the gem. Space-based magic seals are carved into the gem, which results in a safe space to store non-living things. So really, we’re just looking for jewels. Unfortunately, Holding items are undetectable with magic unless you’re directly touching it, or we’d have found it already. ”

The entire caravan had less than a hundred people, so despite the mage’s grumbles, the search progressed quickly. However, only a few people in the caravan possessed jewelry of any kind, and the mages were able to quickly verify that none of them were magically enhanced.

Wesley and Gust were near the of the line. However, as the line moved forward, Wesley received a few clear indicators that Gust was nervous.

For one, the hand that was holding his was now clenched very tightly.

“Gust, you’re hurting my hand.”

Gust blinked, then looked down. “Oh hey, sorry little man. My bad.”

“Are you nervous?”

“Pshhhhhh. Me, nervous? Why would I be nervous?”

“You have the stuff they’re looking for, don’t you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think they’ll find it. At least, I hope not.”

At this point, Wesley and Gust had reached the front of the line. Gust still had his bag on his back, while Wesley didn’t have anything on him.

One of the soldiers glanced at Wesley, then looked at Gust. “This your kid?”

“I mean he’s my kid but he's not my son. So basically I'm responsible for him, but if you were to take him off my hands, I wouldn’t mind.”

The soldier was not amused and stared at Gust with a stoney expression.

“The kid won’t need to be checked. You, though, step forward.”