The human being is a sociable creature by nature

The descent from the great mountain range was slow, the road was narrow and winding, as we advanced some survivors of the bandits surrendered, they were famished, apparently, they had a very bad time after we destroyed their camp, in total we took 19 prisoners, after three days we finally left the mountain range, we could see the great city of Dumai in the distance, from that point on, the landscape changed completely, they were no longer the humid and cold forests of the south, nor the desolate snowless mountains in the central range, the climate was warmer, almost subtropical, extensive growing areas stretched out in front of me as far as the eye could see.

When we were still two days away from the city, we were overtaken by a small group of horsemen, a group of light cavalry, as we were 6 days behind the schedule of the caravans, they were worried at the headquarters of the Merchants Guild of the city of Dumai, it was normal to be a day or two late, but after three days without news they panicked, so they sent a group of swift horsemen from the city garrison when we told them what had happened, the horsemen joined the escort taking custody of the prisoners and sent the two fastest horsemen to report to the city.

When we finally arrived in the city, I was in awe of its architecture, it had a strange resemblance to the old city of Istanbul, except that it was not a coastal city, the organization of the city was formed by 5 concentric rings of huge defensive walls, divided in turn into 4 quadrants each, North, South, East, and West, they even had cultivation areas and natural parks within the walls, the garrison castle looked strangely similar to the great cathedral/mosque of Hagia Sophia, despite being a military fortress, according to Val, Dumai was the largest city on the continent and had more than 2 million inhabitants.

Unlike other cities in the kingdom of Castial, Dumai was not ruled by any noble, it was entirely governed by a council made up of the representatives of the most powerful guilds, being the majority belonging to the Merchants Guild, in addition to the Miners Guild, the Craftsmen Guild, and the Magicians Guild, different nobles had tried to take control of the city throughout its history, both covertly and through conquest, but they always managed to maintain their independence, financing a great army and through its great economic influence achieved not only by the control of trade routes and exotic products brought from the south but also through loans of large sums of money, positioning the city as a third power in the kingdom of Castial, on a par with the authority of the King and the Nobles.

At the entrance to the city, we were greeted by staff from the Merchants Guild, we handed over the prisoners to the city guard, Gulmir told me that we would be thoroughly questioned by the city council, after all, it was a very serious incident, I gave all the evidence that we had obtained to the union employees, they also asked me for my identification and I gave them a letter of recommendation that they gave me at the headquarters of the Merchants Guild of the city of Ciliana, they told us we shouldn't worry about accommodation, we would be taken to a farm belonging to the Merchants Guild for the duration of the investigation, apparently, they wanted to keep the information under control since surely the other party involved had spies who would not see with good eyes how their plans were ruined.

We were led to a beautiful farm located between the fifth and fourth walls of the north quadrant, Gulmir had told me that the entire North quadrant was occupied by upper-middle-class people, being the most luxurious, clean, and tidy of all, had parks that mimicked different landscapes, farms, and mansions, the South quadrant was the poorest and was almost entirely occupied by miners' homes, their families, as well as by people who were employees of the many businesses in the city, the West quadrant where the castle was located, was the military sector of the city, the soldiers' homes, training grounds, stables, and smithies, finally in the eastern quadrant all the commercial activity of the city was concentrated.

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The farm was completely walled and was heavily guarded, the main building was a large two-story pavilion, oriented from north to south, with rows of rooms on each side and a corridor that divided everything to the center, they gave individual rooms to each of us, I ended up next to the Red Claws again, Sophia, Katarina, and Val occupied the rooms on the east side, Vance, Jonas, and Gilber the rooms on the west side, I occupied the room located next to Gilbert and Gulmir the room located on the east side opposite mine, they told us that we would rest today and tomorrow we would be summoned for questioning by the city council, we all went to bed early that night, they all had a lot of accumulated mental fatigue from being constantly alert the previous days.

The next day we were summoned before the city council, we were taken to a large building, similar to an auditorium hall, which was extremely luxurious, the first to be called were Jonas, Val and me, we told them about how we had made the recognition of possible places of ambush, how everything had gone as normal until we discovered the bandit scouts, how we parted ways and sent Jonas to warn the caravan, and how Val and I had tracked down the location of the bandits' camp, we were bombarded with many questions and had to describe down to the smallest detail, when they were finally satisfied a lunch break was called.

There is a large buffet dining room, we all meet back, "uwaaaa I'm sorry I'll die!", exclaimed Val angrily, "I already want to get out of here", Jonas said with his usual grim face, "calm down children this is just beginning", said Gulmir, "have you been in this type of research before?", I asked for, "Yes boy, something similar has already happened a few years ago but it was on a much smaller scale, they are the damn nobles wanting to reach into the city of Dumai", he said furiously, "it seems like we got into something troublesome", I said out loud, all the Red Claw members agreed with me.

After lunch we were called again, first, it was Gulmir, he explained how we had reported the reconnaissance and how I suggested the plan to attack the camp, he also told his part of the events in the night attack and the subsequent reconnaissance of the destroyed camp, then they called Val, Gilbert, Sophia, Katarina and the other magicians and warriors who participated in the bombing group, they were all questioned about the same as Gulmir, "looks like they left us for the final dish", said Vance with a disgusted face, "man that's horrible, I want to get out of here", Jonas complained of a face that looked like he was about to throw up.

By mid-afternoon we were finally called, first Vance, then Jonas, they were questioned about how we infiltrated the camp, how we discovered the swords among the supplies, finally about the assault on the bandit chief's tent, until I was finally called, they questioned me about the same as Vance and Jonas but they took a special interest in the man who looked like a knight, they even brought the briefcase with the papers, the medallion with the carved crest and the sword, I had to describe in detail how I had found them, they finally ended up satisfied with my statements, the sun had already set, everyone else had already been taken back to the farm, when I was about to leave to get into the carriage, I was called by one of the people who had participated in the investigative hearings, he was an elder of the Merchants Guild, his name was Ralph and he was part of the council that governed the city of Dumai.

"You are a very peculiar young man, you could keep your cool in such a desperate situation", old Ralph told me, "I was born and raised in the great black forest, I had to learn and survive since I was very young", I replied, "I don't doubt it, but I see something special in you beyond strength", said the old man as he looked at me carefully, "I keep fighting to overcome my limits", I told him, "certainly, many are those who run into that wall that we call our limit and are unable to move forward, I hope I can talk to you again young, I feel that great trials await you", he said and left without saying goodbye, "I feel like I keep meeting problem people", I said wryly, I knew that I was the number one problem person and that I would surely attract more problem people to me in the future, I sighed and got into the carriage ready to take me to the farm.