Past the crude log walls, Kevin's suspicions were all proven correct.

It was all a ruse.

High quality, solid-built guard posts were just inside the wall, barely low enough to be mostly hidden from outside by the wooden palisade. The roofs of the first few rows to buildings next to the wall were covered in pieces of logs to camouflage them, blending in with the outwardly shabby appearance of the village. There was a cleverly hidden stone wall that ran around the entirety of the perimeter, too. Crystals were embedded into the wall, and Kevin recognized them as magical defensive constructs.

Inside the village, the people were wearing far nicer clothing than those outside. Kevin had assumed that the villagers were some sort of noble house in exile from one of the other countries on the continent. But based on what he was seeing, it might be more than that. Perhaps, instead of a minor noble family, this had been a major one. Or royalty.

The fact he might have just threatened a group of exiled royals and all their loyal retainers made Kevin suddenly miss a step, so he gathered his breath and did the sensible thing–he stopped worrying about it. What was done was done.

He was actually more and more impressed by the “village,” the farther in he walked. The buildings themselves looked fantastic.

In this world, most mages awaken to a true affinity with a single element, with a minor affinity in another element, usually an opposite or adjacent type of magic. The first impressive building that Kevin examined would have been described on Earth, during his first life, as looking a bit like a plain concrete house. However, there were gemstones and crystals built into the walls, and overall, a thin wall of running water perpetually ran down each flat surface. The water collected at the base of each wall and disappeared into the ground, probably being siphoned back to the top and running again.

This sort of house was the work of an earth mage with a minor affinity in water. Builder mages with this elemental affinity combination were highly sought after not only for the beautiful aesthetics they could create but also for practical purposes. An earth mage with a minor in water could set up plumbing and water in the home by themselves much more efficiently than calling in a water mage after pipes had already been created.

All around the village, Kevin saw wealth and power. He had grossly underestimated the number of mages this group had access to. Fairly quickly, he realized he probably would have been allowed into the village even without the oaths he took. Then again, maybe not. But the intention could have been to shock and awe him before ensuring his loyalty, the result being this group would have another ally or trade partner. He could imagine that one downside of such a powerful group living in isolation at the edge of the dragon forest would be the lack of regular news from around the rest of the world. After all, if too many messengers visited them, it would draw more attention to this otherwise unremarkable settlement and expose them.

And he was sure a group of people with this much power and talent had plenty of ways to bind loyalty or secrets.

Another thing Kevin realized as he wandered was how he might have succeeded in intimidating Frida. The more he saw of the city, the less that interaction made sense. At the very least, Frida had to be a noble, and with this amount of power backing her, she should not have been so easily cowed even if she were not a mage herself. But Kevin was used to spending time around dragons, creatures with the strongest personalities and auras in the world. And he had an abnormally strong soul, too.

He kept forgetting that his normal on this world was not everyone else’s.

Kevin realized he needed to take his parents' guidance about his soul power more seriously. They had always told him how as a baby, he had immediately caught their attention with his soulpower. According to them, when they’d first found him, it’d been on par with a young dragon. In fact, the sheer power of his soul was why most dragons who knew him believed he’d been able to learn dragon life skills in the first place. The power of his soul was how his parents had discovered him when he’d been abandoned on top of a huge rock.

Even they still had no idea how he’d actually gotten up there in the first place. There’d been no signs of his biological parents or anyone who’d left him there to die. It was something he still thought of occasionally.

He surreptitiously glanced at Frida and the rest of the party that had come into the village with him, but none of them looked in his direction. They were all stony-faced. He realized a second later that they might be embarrassed. After all, regardless of why, he had cowed them.

Several other things made sense as he continued to walk through the village and weather the stares of villagers recognizing that he was an outsider. On one hand, the fact that so many people in this village were likely so powerful made Frida's potential disrespect–if Kevin had been a dragon–make a little more sense. But on the other hand, it also still didn’t fully make sense. If she had met the wrong dragon who was just passing through, why risk a fight that would still likely kill many of her subordinates?

The welcome group subtly continued to guide Kevin down the main street toward a building in the center of the walled space. Since the village had been built in a depression, from outside, it hadn't been easy to see the various buildings inside other than on the very edge. This sort of construction would not have been possible without all of their mages to help. Otherwise they’d be living in a pond, not a village.

Kevin suddenly realized one reason why the villagers might have been nervous about dragons. Dragons flew, and if a dragon was in the air over this village, spotted the strange buildings, and was curious about it, that would definitely end up being a problem.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

At least the villagers might think so.

But even past that, Kevin still felt there was a lot of mystery. If he was going to talk to the town's leaders, perhaps he'd find out soon. He definitely knew he had his limitations, and if this village suddenly turned against him, it would be dangerous. Luckily, he was fairly confident he could escape if he needed to. And although he never wanted to use his dragon life skill, [distress call], especially this close to his parents' home, it was an option. Ironically, the same reason he would never want to use it close to them, that his parents would actually be able to react quickly, meant it really wouldn’t be an option the farther away he journeyed.

So he could either give up close to home, or never ask for help after enough time passed. It was sort of extreme. But it was a little reassuring that at least at the beginning of his journey, he had an escape.

This was likely yet another of the only reasons his mother had finally let him leave on his own. But if he had to call his parents only a few days into his first adventure on this world, who knew how much longer it’d be before he was given any kind of mission or responsibility again.

He tried to start a conversation with Frida a couple of times during the walk, but both times she merely said, “Everything will be made clear at the mayor's office, adventurer. Please be patient until then." After the second try, Kevin just shrugged and waited to see how everything played out.

The people that constructed this village had been clever. The land around had been lowered at an incline so that the central building was actually at least one or two stories lower than many of the buildings around it. This allowed it to be several stories tall and still not rise higher than the walls surrounding the village. At the very base of the building, at the “bottom” of the village, was a moat. There were bridges over the moat. Kevin knew without even asking that the water level would never rise or fall. It would be static. There was likely a retention pond or some sort of system to carry excess water to a nearby river.

Lots of things were possible with magic builders.

Over the course of the last fifteen years, Kevin had researched a great deal of magical theory, much of which was subtly different here than the world he'd been a knight on, Goldmere. He'd had a basic understanding of magic back then but still hadn't been able to learn any. His lack of talent hadn't stopped him from studying, though, and using his existing foundation in magical theory, he’d made huge strides in his knowledge in this world.

Additional guards had appeared around their little group on the way, and now there was a full eight of them around him. Kevin was equal parts curious and annoyed. He could understand that these people wanted to keep their existence a secret, and it had been his decision to approach, but he didn't like being treated like a prisoner when all he'd done was try to pay a social call.

They walked across the bridge of the sunken moat, and large wooden double doors were opened ahead of them as the group marched in. There was a straight hallway down the center of the building to some sort of receiving room, and once they entered, Kevin decided it looked more like a throne room. The chair at the other end, being occupied by a woman who looked similar but slightly older than Frida, definitely fit the part of a throne. It was a big, heavy, ornately carved affair, one nicer than Kevin had seen in many years.

Of course, it looked like trash compared to Morrigan’s, but that was an unfair comparison.

"Hello," said Kevin. He waved a hand at the woman across the room and could have imagined it, but he thought he saw a small smile ghost the surface of her stern mask.

"Hello, adventurer," said the woman on the throne. "My sister Frida has informed me that you have come to pay a social visit, but you came from the direction of the Dragon Mountains, which, of course, was a bit suspicious. And by now, I'm sure you can understand why we might take security very seriously here. But I've also been informed that you voluntarily took a legitimate oath that would allay many of our concerns."

Kevin nodded slowly. It didn't particularly surprise him that somebody with this amount of power and followers would have already been magically informed by someone at the gate. As he and the woman on the throne studied each other, Kevin also flipped his eyes to either side to take in the room. If this room had been built with magic, it had been by a mage with extremely fine control indeed. There were beautifully carved mosaics on the walls and decorated trim around the ceilings. The wood that the room had been paneled with was unfamiliar to Kevin, but he could tell at a glance that it was expensive. It gave him a bit of an itch on his face that he had learned to associate with studying material imbued with mana. He assumed that the walls had been enchanted against eavesdropping and probably heavily strengthened against attack. Little tables dotted the edge of the walls and had beautiful treasures on them, with plaques on the table themselves giving the name of the items.

He was unsurprised by now that this building and this room didn’t match the image of a humble, frontier village.

The woman on the throne looked to be about forty years old and quite attractive. She had the kind of beauty that most women could only maintain in their middle age with a certain amount of necessary money and background. Her eyes were sharp, blue, peering at him under a cascade of hair shot with an occasional gray strand. Kevin had to stifle a small smile when he realized that this woman, the mayor, actually reminded him a little bit of a character he'd seen in a movie back on Earth. Her clothing even fit the part: a gorgeous, obviously expensive, green dress that flowed around her body like viridian waves.

She broke the silence, saying, "I am called Genevieve. Greetings. I am the mayor of this town." She gave him a look as if she were daring him to challenge the introduction she'd given herself.

Kevin had no idea who she really was and didn't actually care that much, so he just let it go and introduced himself. "My name is Kevin."

"Is that it?" asked Genevieve.

Kevin smiled and winked. "While meeting with someone who is being so polite and humble as to only give her first name and station, I felt it was appropriate to respond in kind. And I have no station, so I am just Kevin."

Some of the guards around the room tensed, but Kevin ignored them. If there was going to be violence, he had absolutely no intention of fighting. He was going to run away. And now that he'd seen the layout of this building, he was much more confident that he could. He didn't want to get attacked or have to run away, but he also wasn't planning on getting steamrolled by these people either. If they didn't want him to come into the village, they should have just said so.

To try communicating all of this as succinctly and non-combatively as possible, he waggled his eyebrows at Genevieve and said, "I didn't know that this town's mayor was such a beautiful, well-spoken woman. If I had, maybe I would have come sooner. But now that I'm here, I would definitely like to trade with your villagers."

The guards around him tensed even further, but Genevieve smiled, her eyes still flat, calculating. She said, "I don't sense any malice from you. And I suppose we are the last people who can take a moral high ground against others keeping secrets. I'm aware of the contents of the oath you made, and I feel it is acceptable. I hope that this can be the start of a friendship between our village and yourself, since you are obviously a capable adventurer to have traveled through the dragon forest by yourself."

Kevin nodded in acknowledgment and in thanks for the praise. "May I ask what this village is called, Mayor?" It was difficult not to say 'mayor' with a sarcastic tone. Kevin would be willing to bet eating a sock that this woman was nobility of some kind.

She said, "This village, or rather this settlement, is known as Great Hope. I hope that you enjoy your stay here, and I will instruct our merchants to treat you with great courtesy for your first visit. We would definitely like your repeat business. Building trade relations has been a high priority lately."

Kevin bowed again, this time actually putting effort into the gesture as best as he could manage—an old-fashioned bow his parents had taught him. Genevieve's eyes widened in astonishment, and some of the surrounding guards that had been slightly leaning forward leaned back instead.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mayor Genevieve," said Kevin.

The woman gave him one last speculative glance before nodding in a stately manner and announcing, "Dismissed."

Kevin didn't have to be told twice. He spun around on his heel, and his guards or entourage had to hurry to keep up. Once he was outside the central building, he turned to an obviously confused Frida and asked, "Where is your market at? Also, who knows about named or unique monsters around here? I'd like to talk to them."