Chapter 12: The Hero of Bassett

Bassett wasn’t the largest city I had ever seen. In the grand scheme of things Bassett could be considered a medium sized city of the empire. However “medium” was relative, and compared to the small city of Coria that we grew up next to Bassett might as well have been the most cosmopolitan metropolis in the empire.

And from the look of things we had arrived just as the residents were throwing a large city wide party.

Getting into the city was as easy as walking in. Unlike literally every city in Iskander the city of Bassett didn’t boast any walls around its perimeter, allowing the buildings within to be far more spread out and feel far more spacious than any city I had ever been to before. People came and went as they pleased, merchants and travelers and workers from the countryside simply coming and going without being stopped anywhere by checkpoints or guards. The buildings all looked in good repair and like they’d recently had a fresh coat of paint, all of them painted in some variation of white with red or brown highlights. As we walked into the city I couldn’t help but feel somewhat self conscious at how we must have looked and smelled after weeks on the road. However no one seemed to pay us any special attention aside from a few curious looks.

Catherine was in heaven. She had her head on a swivel, trying to look and take in everything with a look of unrestrained wonder on her face. A few people passing us by gave her amused looks. It occurred to me that Catherine hadn’t seen nearly as much as I had in my life and that this was her first time seeing anything bigger or more grand than the small city we grew up adjacent too. And I had to admit, after only a few minutes in and Bassett was already proving itself to be a city ten times as impressive as Coria had ever been. Catherine’s obvious joy at everything around us made something inside of me feel oddly pleased and proud.

The first sign that something unusual was going on in the city was the music. A cheery tune with flutes, drums and some kind of horned instrument wafted through the air instantly drawing our attention. The beat brought to mind something akin to a military victory song that one might hear played during an imperial triumph, except far more cheerful and airy. Then I noticed the people. While some seemed to simply go about their business unperturbed, it seemed the majority of people were heading towards a certain direction with an air of excitement and celebration about them. I wasn’t sure what we’d walked into but it seemed that some celebration of festival was going on.

Catherine obviously heard it too and she turned to me with the biggest grin on her face ever. “Gar, let’s go check out what’s going on!”

“Well, may-”

Before I could get out any kind of response kicked her horse’s flanks and she took off at a near sprinting speeds in the direction that the stragglers had been making their way towards, nearly knocking a couple who shook their fists and cursed at her as she passed. I swore out loud and made sure to grab the reigns of our third horse before setting my own trotting after her.

It was all I could do to keep her in sight for the next few minutes. Then, for no clear reason that I could see, she suddenly turned her horse to the right down what seemed like a random alleyway. When I reached the turnoff I realized it wasn’t exactly an alley per se, but a narrow road in between two tall buildings barely wide enough for two horses to ride down it side by side. At the end of the alley was a large crowd seemingly looking at something further beyond, and the music was definitely coming much louder from the other end of the street. Cat brought her horse to a stop at the very back of the crowd and was using her elevated height to try to look at whatever it was that everyone in the crowd was gawking at. Trying to trump down my annoyance at her suddenly taking off like that, I brought my horse to a stop next to hers.

“So what’s going on?” I asked, trying not to sound too curt with her.

“I don’t know,” said Cat, sounding cheerful and almost out of breath. “Looks like a parade and some people handing out free food.”

I looked out to see for myself. A large crowd of people were lining both sides of a large avenue directly ahead, the avenue wide enough that several wagons could easily traverse it side by side. It indeed did seem to be some kind of parade. What looked like household guards were marching in place in tight formation with a heraldry depicting a white swan and a purple lily on a field of blue depicted on their chests and shields. It wasn’t a heraldry that I immediately recognized. Aside from the marching men there were dancers, jugglers, and all sorts of other entertainers scattered throughout, smiling and doing their best to awe and entertain the crowd. Yet more people were carrying large baskets full of what looked like meat buns or pastries, throwing them by the handful high into the air and into the crowd. The roar of the excited crowd and the music was of such a fervor that part of me couldn’t help but wonder if by some impossibility the emperor himself had decided to come grace this city with his presence.

Surprised and a bit bewildered by the spectacle in front of me I resolved to find out more about what was going on. Taking a quick look at Catherine it was very apparent that she was quite enthralled by the spectacle in front of us. Good. That meant she probably wouldn’t immediately go running off on her own again if I took a minute or two to investigate.

I dismounted and looked at the crowd of people arrayed before us, looking for someone that looked like they might be willing to talk to me. Almost right away I spotted a large portly man who seemed to be alone and who was very excited about the parade, pumping his fist in the air and yelling at the top of his lungs. Gambling that he would be feeling chatty, I walked up and tapped him on the shoulder, putting on my best closed lipped smile.

“Good day, sir,” I said when the man turned to face me. “I’m wondering if you could tell me what this celebration is all about? My sister and I just arrived in town to this spectacle, you see. This music and revelry was not what we were expecting to find! Is this celebration for some festival I don’t know about, [perhaps?”

The man scrutinized me for a moment before breaking out into a big smile. “You’re not a local to these parts are you? Otherwise you would well know what this was all about!”

The man’s Galian accent gave his words a flowing musical quality that I found quite charming. “Aye, this is just our second day in Galia!” I had to practically yell over the crowd to make myself heard. “Your province is charming and beautiful, sir, we have been very impressed.”

The man’s chest literally puffed up with pride at hearing my praise for his home province. After that the man became enthusiastically eager to answer all of my questions.

“Good of you to say so, sir! You have excellent taste. You simply must sample our wines while you are here, grown and bottled not even twenty miles away!”

“That sounds delightful. I’ll be sure to do so!” I replied, actually meaning it too. “You were saying about this celebration?”

“Aye, this here parade is being thrown by the Lord de Val. His family are the ones charged with keeping the peace here in Bassett. He organized this parade to celebrate his son’s victorious return!”

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“Victorious return?” I asked with a frown, confused by his response. “I wasn’t aware there were malcontents of that sort to fight here in Galia.”

“No, no that sort of victorious return,” the man replied, waving a hand impatiently. “The Lord’s son just returned from a successful outing with his very own adventuring company, the De Val Heroes! Not only has he struck another blow against the magic beasts, but also brought back magnificent wealth and riches. And the good Lord de Val is now often throwing celebrations like this and sharing their good fortune with the common people!”

The De Val Heroes? What an arrogant thing to call an adventuring company that you yourself founded. But if that was the case, then it could only mean one thing.

“So this Lord de Val’s son,” I asked to confirm. “He’s an Ascended then? A Breaker?”

“Aye, and he leads his own team Breakers to kill scores of those cursed magic beasts,” the man said while positively glowing with pride. “Our own home grown champion, Jean de Val, the Hero of Bassett!”

Just then a new chorus of trumpets sounded from the parade. On cue the house soldiers, the performers and the bread givers all began to move forward, where they would presumably march in place and entertain another throng of people further up the road. From down the road, however, people began to shout and cheer to even louder and more deafening levels as the procession moved forward. Soon enough an honor guard of men on horseback wearing plate armor and plumed helms rode up to towards where we were standing. The honor guard was magnificent, their armor shining freshly polished under the light of the sun and the swan and lily heraldry on their shields making them look every inch what people actually thought of when they imagined what a real knight should look like.

However even these knights paled in comparison to the individuals they were escorting. There were four of them altogether on horseback, one in the lead and three others riding slightly behind him, all of them wearing matching sky blue cloaks. The three behind the first figure consisted of two men and one woman. The first man was whip cord thin and darkly tanned, wearing some kind of pitch black leather armor with a rapier at his hip and a bow slung across his back. There was something dangerous about him, something about his posture and gaze that made me think that this was a man who wouldn’t hesitate to kill if given any kind of reason. The second man was a titanic beast of a man, wearing plate mail that somehow seemed to be streaked through with red and orange flames. His oversized mustache reached well out past his face on both sides and of the three he was the only one who was waving and smiling genially at the crowds. The final member of the group was a bronze skinned woman with a giant mane of curly untamed hair and a metal eye patch over her left eye that even from that distance I could tell was no mere trinket to conceal an injury. She was dressed in what looked some sort of layered robes in earth tones, and if there was any magic to them them then it surely included some kind of spell to hint at an impressive figure underneath all those layers of clothes. All three of them had an unmistakable aura of power and a presence about them that was far beyond anything that would have been possible for normal men. To my eyes it was easy to see that they were all Breakers, those on the Path of the Gods, and any one of them could have torn me apart as easy as breathing. The three of them were among some of the most impressive individuals I had ever seen.

However the man leading them from the front made the other three fade into the background and pale in comparison in almost every possible way.

I never usually talk about other men this way, but there was no other way to describe it: the person in the lead was a breathtakingly beautiful man. His features were refined and delicate without managing to be overly feminine. Silver-white hair tumbled down like a waterfall down past his shoulders and his eyes were an emerald green that stood out starkly against his nearly porcelain skin. He had a self-satisfied smile on his face, as if the crowd going wild and cheering for him was both welcome and his well deserved due.

“If that him?” I asked the man still standing next to me, having to yell in order to be heard over the roar of the adoring crowd. It was unnecessary to ask at that point really but some part of me still wanted confirmation.

“Aye, that’s him,” the man yelled with unrestrained enthusiasm. “Jean de Val, the Hero of Bassett!”

Examining him further as he sat upon his horse and drank in the adulation of the crowd, I saw that he wore a magnificent breastplate made of some blue metal with the swan and lily heraldry of his house etched in the front. The only weapon I could see on him was a sword at his hip with the distinctive cross shaped guard of a knight’s sword. Unlike my simple blade the hilt of his sword looked rather ornate and was capped with what looked like a huge green emerald on the pommel.

In that moment the sun glinted off of something metallic pinned on Jean de Val’s chest, drawing my attention. Curious, I focused in on what it could be. What I saw shocked me. I stared in disbelief, and then in rapidly growing apprehension as I recognized the broach that the so-called Hero of Bassett had pinned on his chest.

Jean de Val was openly wearing a broach depicting a crescent moon and a half lidded eye, the symbol of the Cult of Abadeth.

To say I was shocked and suddenly feeling incredibly apprehensive would have been an understatement of epic proportions.

I cursed under my breath. What did this mean? Was he a follower of the cult? Was he a threat? Would he and his family be willing to help the cult? I had no immediate answer to any of these questions. In frustration I used my [Observe] skill on him, even knowing it probably wouldn’t do me any good.

Level: ????

Name: ????

Skills: ????, ????, ????

Status: ????

Stones of Apotheosis: ????

It was a disappointing result but not unexpected. I’d seen and even worked with a few Breakers during my time in the legions, and the result had always been the same. My [Observe I] skill simply didn’t work on those of a higher level who had stepped onto the Path of Ascension.

However when I used my [Observe] skill on him something unexpected happened. Jean de Val suddenly tilted his head in a quizzical manner as if something had caught his attention. His eyes began to scan the crowd until a moment later his gaze landed firmly on me.

Our gazes locked from across the street and my hand reflexively went to my sword at feeling the intensity and power contained behind those eyes. The feeling of his power was overwhelming, especially knowing that he was as far above me in strength as heaven was from the earth, but even then I stubbornly refused to back down and look away. Jean de Val held my gaze for a few more seconds before his smile turned amused and he gave me a tiny, almost imperceptible nod in my direction. Then he broke our eye contact and went back to waving and smiling at his adoring crowd.

I exhaled a heavy breath out of my body after he looked away, my heart racing from a sudden spike of raw adrenaline. As I tried to force my heart and breathing back under control the trumpets from the parade sounded once again. The whole procession once again began to move forward. The four cut impressive figures as they rode away, the sky blue cloaks of the four Breakers proudly displaying the heraldry of the de Vals on their backs.

That guy had made his family’s heraldry into the symbol of his adventuring company, too? He really was an arrogant bastard.

An arrogant bastard who happened to be close enough to the Cult of Abadeth to openly and proudly wear their symbol in public.

The man I’d been talking to before was still standing next to me cheering his lungs out with the rest of the crowd. Trying to sound as casual as possible I asked him the question that was now burning at the forefront of my mind. “Say, I saw Lord de Val there wearing the pin of a God from the next province over. Do you have any idea what that is all about?”

The man regarded me for a second before shrugging and speaking, for some reason sounding a bit embarrassed. “The de Val family is a strange one in that sense, that they are fiercely devoted to a foreign God. Something about a priest of that God having saved one of their ancestors who in turn converted or something like that. It’s a bit queer and controversial, but no one in their right mind is going to try and make a big deal out of it, if you know what I mean.”

I did in fact get what he was hinting at. “Just how influential is the de Val family anyway?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice casual as possible.

“Well, they are the Sheriff family of this city, appointed by the Duchess herself,” said the man, seemingly energized at the prospect of sharing gossip with a stranger. “So that would normally make them firmly the number two family in the city, right? But I’ve heard that their recent popularity is causing a lot of friction with the ruling Steward family of the city.”

“I see,” I said thoughtfully before falling silent.

It looked like our stay in Bassett was going to be even more complicated than I had originally thought.