When Leona planned to go to another town, she wasn’t expecting to have to deal with politics, at least, not in a place like that. The tactician quickly found her way inside the mayor’s office accompanied by Krieg, a rather shabby looking wooden cabin that was bigger than the houses near it, there were only three creaky wooden chairs, one of which was behind one large wooden table with a plethora of signed papers and other documents where the mayor named Vicent was sitting, while Leona and her knight were introduced to talk to them.

“Here, take a seat.” The middle aged mayor motioned with his hand to the two chairs in front of his table. “I heard from my soldiers, you are a group of adventurers, is that right?”

Leona nodded with conviction as she sat down, Krieg quickly glanced around the room before doing the same. Two soldiers were behind them armed with halberds which made the knight feel uneasy.

“Yes, we are a group of five, two of us wished to stay in this town while the rest of us will be on our way to Astera after restocking and getting some rest.

“I see… that wouldn’t be a problem at all…” He glanced over at the soldiers and then back to Leona whilst tapping his fingers against the wooden table. “If you were to pay the toll fee.”

“Even though we are not using your roads per se?”

“All citizens must be treated equally regardless of how they make their way through this town and as far as I am aware, Miss Frostleaf, you are not nobility nor military.”

The tactician sighed a bit before glancing at Krieg.

“Krieg, if you please.”

“Understood.”

When the knight stood up it made both soldiers uneasy for he was significantly taller than anyone in that room. However, since he simply placed a sack of coins on the table in front of the mayor before sitting down again, it made both armed men sigh silently in relief.

“Twenty gold coins, as the usual toll fee including carriage.”

“Carriage…” The middle aged mayor scratched his brown goatee. “I suppose that is more like two carriages, given how big it is.”

“...” Leona glanced at the knight once again who stood up and took another sack from his belt before slamming it down on the table this time, clearly showing his disliking of the mayor. “I hope we can be on our way with this then.”

The man opened the sack and counted the coins before pocketing all of it in another bigger sack beside his table.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Frostleaf.”

As Leona stood up, she noticed Krieg not taking his left hand off the scabbard as if he was ready to fight at a moment’s notice, but deep down she was thankful that everything could be resolved with coin.

“Come on Krieg, let’s go.”

“Ah, one moment.” The mayor called her and that made the knight face him with a stern look on his face. However the middle aged man didn’t seem at all troubled by it as he just continued talking. “One man named Marcus was supposedly looking for merchants for supplies, if you have anything that might interest an adventurer he might be a good client for you.”

“I see, I’ll go talk to him then. Might I ask you where he is?”

“Probably inside the ruins in the middle of the city. That man rarely leaves that place.”

Leona nodded and turned around, going past the two soldiers and then through the door with Krieg right behind her. Once out and sure they couldn’t be heard, the tactician glanced at the knight.

“We’ll head to this ruin before heading back, lest them suspect we aren’t merchants.”

“Very well.”

They walked a bit through the dirt roads until they reached the middle of town, there were no houses around the ominous looking entrance of the ruin and most of the townsfolk seemed to avoid going near the place as Leona could tell from the lack of footprints on the slightly wet dirt.

“Interesting…”

Her mutter caught Krieg’s attention.

“What is it?”

“You can tell by looking at the dirt, not many footprints around the entrance, which means most of the people that live here avoid coming to this place.”

“Hm?” He didn’t seem to notice at first since he only began looking at the ground after she said so which surprised him. “That is true… how did you come to notice it?”

“Phoebe taught me a few things while we were heading to Londria.”

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“I see…”

After Leona approached the ruin’s entrance, she felt a chill go down her spine as if something was wrong with that place. She stopped at the top of the stone staircase leading down towards the darkness and shouted.

“Sir Marcus! Are you there?!”

There was no answer for a few seconds which prompted Krieg to step in front of her in order to head down but as soon as he set foot inside the ruin he heard a male voice coming from below.

“Who wants to know?!”

Leona took the lead as she shouted back.

“My name is Ravness Frostleaf! I’m a merchant coming from Arcadia!”

“Merchant? Who told you I was here?”

“The mayor!”

She couldn’t quite make out what the man was grumbling but it seemed to not be pleasant words until he said.

“I’ll be there in a minute…”

A few minutes passed and Leona could hear footsteps coming from below as the darkness slowly vanished from the light of an oil lamp. A blonde man in his fifties was wearing what seemed to be a collection of ragged miner’s clothing put together in an attempt to recreate the protection of a gambeson, however to an experienced eye that was nothing more than extra weight of haphazardly cloth. Aside from the strange looking clothing his overall appearance seemed rather common, well trimmed blonde beard, combed back short hair, denim fabric trousers and well worn pair of leather boots.

“Are you…” Leona tilted her head a bit as she asked. “Sir Marcus?”

“Do you see anybody else with me, girl?” He sighed as he put out the oil lamp by putting a lid on top of the fire, snuffing it out. “Let me cut to the chase, I need mana potions. I’ll buy any that you have on you.”

The tactician flinched a bit by his attitude but nevertheless she kept her act going.

“But of course, I just need to go back to my carriage in order to get it for you.”

“Very well… don’t take too long though, I need to go back in there as fast as I can.”

“It shall be done.”

Leona bowed slightly as she made her way back to the ship by the edge of town. When they reached the outskirts of the town, Krieg couldn’t help but ask his liege.

“Did you really need to go through that? I could’ve handled it with the pretense to be your retainer.”

“Best if we don’t cut any corners, Krieg. The last thing I want is for us to get into trouble when we are so close to reaching our objective.” While she was thankful for his worries, that was hardly the place or time to worry about formalities. Especially when she was trying to pass off as another person. “Nevertheless, we shouldn’t let our guard down.”

Leona climbed back aboard the ship and noticed Phoebe standing by the engine room with both of her hands concealed behind her back. Once she noticed the two, she simply waved to them.

“Welcome back, did everything go as planned?”

“It did but we are a bit short on funds now thanks to that mayor.” The tactician sighed. “You wouldn’t happen to have mana potions with you, do you?”

The high elf reached for the satchel on her belt and pulled two glass vials filled with faintly shimmering blue liquid.

“I have three, but I’d prefer to keep one for emergencies.”

“Very well. Can you come with me? The plan of passing off as merchants lies on this exchange.” Without saying anything, Phoebe simply nodded and got ready to jump off the ship. Meanwhile Leona turned to the two newcomers. “Sir Reinhardt, Miss Elaine, it was a pleasure traveling with both of you however this is where we part ways. I already spoke with the mayor and you two are allowed to stay in this city.”

Both of them kneeled and bowed before her.

“From the bottom of my heart I thank you, Princess Leona.” The paladin stood up, after all the time they spent traveling together, not once he removed the helmet, however the tactician swore she could feel him smiling. “Lorraine I may not be anymore but I swear upon my honor that I won’t forget what you have done for us.”

“Waiting on you, merchant.”

Leona heard Phoebe’s voice coming from below the ship which prompted the tactician to sigh shortly.

“Well then… I hope you two stay safe.”

After bidding farewell, Leona climbed down the ship and joined by the high elf, they went to the center of the city once again.

The man named Marcus was sitting by the ruin’s entrance while inspecting his oil lamp before he noticed the two young ladies approaching him. The high elf caught his attention with her beautiful eyes and hair.

“Ah, about time.” He stood up and hung the oil lamp on a hook in his belt. “How much for each?”

Leona quickly glanced at Phoebe as if saying ‘Say something in my stead.’ Thankfully, the high elf was quick on the uptake and pulled out two flasks of the shimmering blue liquid as she said.

“These are the last ones in stock, each will set you back eight silver.”

“Eight?!” He clicked his tongue. “Can’t you do four? I’m from Akrapocalis, I’m sure I can put in a good word about your boss if I were to say you helped me.”

Phoebe feinted ignorance and started to scratch her chin as she proposed a new price.

“Seven.”

“Five.”

“Six and no less.”

“Deal.” The adventurer took out a few silver coins out of his pocket and handed them over to the high elf. “Say, you don’t happen to be royalty do you?”

“Me? Royalty? No, I’m just an assistant.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“Hmm… well either way, do you have any information regarding Zenith? I have never been there myself but I need to know about a few things that happened there in the past few years.”

“...and what exactly do we get in return?”

“How about… some unique relics I found in this ruin? I’m sure something would sell for a higher price in Astera or Akrapocalis.”

As if noticing Phoebe was going to say something wrong, Leona gave her a subtle elbowing as she stepped in and said.

“I would be interested in perusing the goods that you have to offer.”

“Sorry but I’m only interested in what this high elf miss can tell me about her homeland.”

Leona looked at her and backed off.

“Very well, I’ll leave it to you then.”

“It shall be done my lady.”

Phoebe bowed down to the tactician as she took her leave back to the ship with the sack of silver coins. Marcus turned around and lit up the oil lamp.

“Come, let’s talk inside.”

The high elf nodded as she followed him through the staircase.