CHAPTER 39 THE CAPITAL
Penny spared my dignity overnight and only lightly showed her affections for me. So when we got up for the day I was in a fairly good mood. In my defense it would be hard not to be in my position.
Waking up later in the night for our watch was relatively uneventful overall as well. Once everyone was prepared Lillian gave the command to set out once again and day two of our trip to the capital began.
We traveled next to Fiona and the rest of her group which I learned their name was the Silver Maidens. Doing a double take on their armor and group aesthetic the name was pretty on the nose.
We lightly conversed but made an effort to focus more on our surroundings. I was happy with the level of professionalism everyone showed. All too often I found myself getting angry at my co-workers in jobs I did for not taking things seriously when the time called for it. They would get too comfortable in their surroundings and end up slacking off.
At the same time they didn’t become too uptight and allowed themselves to enjoy the company of the people around them. Lillian was a lot less strict than the air she gave off coming by several times as we were talking. Maybe she could tell that we weren’t necessarily slacking off in our job so she didn’t say anything.
The rest of the day passed as uneventfully as the last, no surprises, no accidents, not even a sprained ankle. There weren't some random monster attacks that happened for no discernable reason other than to provide tension to the scene. Nothing.
The rest of the week passed completely uneventfully and before I even realized it we were on our approach to the capital. It was almost a little disappointing. I quickly squashed that feeling since it was most definitely preferable than losing half the group on the way out here.
What I found particularly amusing is that the excitement didn’t happen until we actually made it into the capital itself.
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I could see the walls rising up in the distance. They were tall. I mean like easily 50 feet, if not more. What was even more impressive was that behind the walls I could easily see what had to be the royal palace in the city. It looked like it was on a raised portion of the city, almost like there were layers, like an onion. If you were so inclined to think so.
“Alright ladies and gentlemen, we’re almost to the capital!” Lillian called out to us, making me jump a little as she was standing right next to me.
“That doesn’t mean we should be lazy, something can and has happened this close to the capital before, the last thing we need to do is let our guards down and that be the moment an enemy chooses to strike. Stay focused. Once we reach the capital we’ll be making a trade-off. At that point your job will be done and you’ll be able to go to the guild and receive payment for your job.”
The capital was still several miles off, but the last bit of traveling seemed to take the longest and to stress everyone the hardest. After what seemed to be agonizingly long hours we finally pulled up to the gates of the capital. The only real word to describe them would be ‘opulent.’ The looming archway was filled with a portcullis that was only partially raised, although that partial raising had it roughly twenty feet off the ground.
The portcullis itself looked to be made out of steel, and was so polished and smooth that it almost looked like silver. The center of it bore the royal insignia of the ruling family as well as being representative of the country.
The insignia itself was a red shield crossed by a longsword and a staff. The design itself seemed to shimmer slightly. I frowned before focusing on it with [Mana Sense].
Sure enough it seemed to have a magical effect on it as it glowed to my eyes, quite brightly as well.
A pretty strong magic skill, although I wasn’t entirely sure what it did, if it was just supposed to be aesthetic or had some actual application. Maybe Garrus or Karif could tell me.
As we passed under the archway the guards stood straighter, saluting with their halberds as we passed by. I could really tell the difference in the quality of the guards here versus Vinwood. The ones here wore full-plate with helmets that came down. They had an extremely powerful western feel to them, each was armed with a halberd, as shield, and a longsword strapped to their waist.
A quick inspection revealed each of them to be tier three. There were one, two, five… Fifteen guards alone at this gate that I could see. Quite an impressive lineup compared to what I’d seen previously. No doubt the further in towards the city the higher level the guards would be, which only brought more attention to how much I’d kind of underestimated the capital and this country in my mind.
Maybe I just didn’t have a full grasp on levels yet or how economies worked, but everything I’d been told had led me to believe that this was a small kingdom that economically couldn’t quite stand up to its neighboring countries. I was only now realizing that was not what Karif had told me during our little social studies session.
He’d never once explicitly said the Seltas Kingdom was weak, just that it was smaller and had less population than its northern country Alixia. Definitely not a mistake I was gonna make again anyways.
We stepped the rest of the way through the archway that felt a little more like a tunnel than anything else. Once we got all the way through Lillian had the group come to a stop. In front of us waiting for us was an exceedingly well armored regiment of soldiers. They were similarly outfitted to the guards at the gate, except [Mana Sense] gave away that all their gear was magical and not mundane.
The man standing at the front of their group wasn’t wearing a helmet and only had a longsword strapped to his waist.
[Level 1025]
A pretty impressive level, it did somewhat drive home how important this guard detail was and the fact that there was actually a VIP in the carriage.
He gave a brief salute to Lillian who nodded her head in acknowledgement to them. So, while Lillian I guess officially outranked him, he probably held rank in decisions regarding his charge which is why she acknowledged him back.
I was probably reading way too far into this, maybe they just knew each other.
“Spell-blade Lillian, I’m glad you made it here safely.” He took a quick glance at the rest of us with an almost imperceptible look of disdain. I sighed internally to myself seeing it coming a mile away.
“I feel that you could have made a better choice for the guard detail however.”
I snorted slightly under my breath. Which was a mistake apparently, because I forgot how highly tuned people's senses are in this world. His head instantly snapped over to me. I didn’t break my gaze from him and was about to say something when Lillian replied.
“I vetted them all personally, Raylith. Is the implication here that I don’t have good judgment?”
Raylith spent another few moments looking at me before turning back to her, “Normally I’d say no, but I have to wonder about having a tier one guarding her highness, that just seems to be a security failure in my opinion.”
That was the moment I decided I was ready to get into more trouble, much to the consternation of Garrus who saw it coming and tried to stop me, but was just a tad too slow.
“Big words for someone that sat in the capital the entire time.” I retorted.
He slowly rotated his gaze back towards me, fixing me with a glare, “Excuse me?”
“What? You deaf on top of being brain dead? You heard what I said. If this job was so important you should’ve done it yourself from start to finish. You should’ve been there from the very beginning.” From here I decided to start making some guesswork.
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Clearly this was a princess in the royal family, she had to have been out of the capital on some sort of business, given that there’s nothing down south except forest that eventually ends in the coast, that means that she came in from the east or west, more likely the east given that the coast is closer on that side. Which means she probably landed by boat and was escorted from there by the two spell-blades to Vinwood since that was the nearest large scale town that they’d be able to higher reasonable defense. It seems up until that point they were traveling incognito until they could get further protection beyond the two main guards.
It was time to put that theory to the test.
“The moment she left the capital you shouldn’t have let her out of her sight, and if her protection on the return trip was that important you sure as hell should’ve been there the moment she landed on the coast. And there definitely could’ve been a better job disguising the caravan. It entirely defeats the purpose of hiring adventurers to disguise the caravan if it’s clearly obvious they’re guarding a VIP of the royal family instead of a merchant caravan. Dignity or respect of the traveling group either shouldn’t matter, in which case aesthetic of what they’re traveling in is irrelevant. Or, if it’s the most important thing, in which case the royal guard should’ve been there as a show of force from the get-go. Instead we have this half-baked measure that fooled absolutely no-one let alone this tier-one as you so graciously put it. And now we have to deal with you complaining about it for some inane reason.”
As I went off on my rant I could see his face slowly morph into a visage of anger. Lillian was looking at me as well with an eyebrow slightly raised by the time I reached the end of my tangent. Castella was standing next to her and seemed completely uninterested.
What I didn’t see coming was Garrus launching his fist into my jaw. I felt it practically shatter under his punch. My vision went black as the pain completely overwhelmed my sight.
I could barely breathe through the agony I was feeling, my breath hitching as I tried to get my mind under control. I could hear voices saying something, but I was completely unable to focus on them.
I slammed my fist into the ground managing to get myself to push mana through it activating [Healing Blossom]. I could slowly feel the bone shifting around in my face, getting set and the broken fragments realigning themself slowly. It was not a pleasant feeling.
I was also starting to get an idea of how much Garrus held back in our spars. I had no doubt in my mind that if he had really wanted to he could’ve made my head spin around a full 360 degrees with that punch.
Slowly the voices started to come back into focus. “-him then you have a problem with me, and I promise you that’s a fight you will not win.” I belatedly recognized the voice as Lillian. Lots of strong women have come to my rescue since I’ve shown up here, not that I necessarily minded.
She continued speaking after a short pause, “Go ahead and get him out of here before he finishes healing and digs himself a deeper hole.”
I felt a couple pair of hands grab me and help hoist me up.
“Absolutely not, if the man wants to pick a fight by all means let him, no need to step in for him. Surely he’s strong enough to take care of himself without other people standing in front of him.” I could practically hear the sneer in his voice, and visually managed to confirm it as my healing fixed me up enough that I no longer felt like crying from the pain.
Lillian sighed, “Try not to be a hypocrite, Raylith. You started the argument by directly insulting them. And you also insulted me by doing so, as the officer in charge of this operation any offense levied against my charges is levied against me, thus any fight that gets started with them I must end. If you would like I’ll be more than happy to have that duel with you if you’re so insistent on fighting someone. Just one word of warning,” Her voice went deathly cold at this point, mana quite clearly charging it as an oppressive weight fell down from the skies on everyone in the area. Even Raylith seemed affected, “I fight to the death.”
I felt a snap in my jaw as everything realigned properly. I gave it a couple good work overs. I managed to shake off Garrus and George who were holding me up, they probably wouldn’t have let go of me normally but I was certain Lillian had their attention more than I did.
I probably shouldn’t speak more but I had an opportunity here and I wasn’t going to waste it. It took a lot of effort to step forward through the intimidation technique she was using, but she was using it more to drive home a point rather than actually stop people from moving or acting. Otherwise I’d probably be crying on the floor.
“If he’s trying to duel someone and isn’t planning on fighting to the death I don’t mind taking him up on that.” I said.
I almost wished I hadn’t spoken as Lillian's attention snapped over to me. Immediately I felt like I was being crushed. Like the weight of the world was upon my shoulders. I fell down to my hands and knees, a cold sweat breaking out over my entire body. I felt like I was choking. It just as quickly ended.
Penny ran over and helped me stand back up, my body shaking uncontrollably. I was terrified but I couldn’t even feel it. I didn’t even try to make eye contact with Lillian.
“If you wish to disgrace yourself so desperately, I will not stand in your way. I will only say this, Raylith, if he dies…” She let the threat hang in the air, before she turned and stalked off.
Castella stopped to give us an odd look before she followed behind her.
Raylith stared at her departing form before turning to stare at me, I could see in his mind him debating the consequences of continuing. “I will make you regret your choice of words, Elf. You’re lucky for now that I have more pressing matters to tend too. I will come for you though.”
He let out a huff and then proceeded to ignore us and started barking out orders to the group that then surrounded the three carriages we had escorted out here.
Garrus took this opportunity to lead us out of there. Penny was still supporting me as I struggled to walk. My mind was still completely overwhelmed by Lillian. Even several minutes of walking later it felt like she was still staring me down, as if she planned to execute me.
“Set him down Penny.” Garrus said.
She hesitantly put me down. I immediately vacated the contents of my stomach, before channeling [Healing Blossom] again. The healing physically didn’t do anything for me. It didn’t seem to help with my jitters either. The warmth from the skill was slightly comforting though.
Garrus knelt down next to me, “Alex, what the hell were you thinking? If you had just let Lillian handle it there wouldn’t have been any issues. Now you have the attention of the royal guard, and not in a good way either. An insult against their superior officer is something they’ll all take offense to. And just because Raylith has been told not to do anything to you isn’t going to stop the rest of them. And we aren’t strong enough to protect you from them. They’re at least as strong as we are individually, and they have way more members.”
He let out a sigh. “Fuck! I genuinely don’t know what I need to do. I don’t think you fully understand the power they have in this country. I don’t know how it was done where you’re from, but they can justify any reasoning they want for taking you out. They can kill you just for looking at them funny and there wouldn’t be that big of a backlash against them, even less than that if the person they kill is a nobody. Who’s gonna believe the words of a couple adventurers versus the royal guards?”
I managed to push myself up into a sitting position. I rested my arm on his shoulder, I locked eyes with him as he gave me a confused look.
I gave him a good shove, “Go.”
I wasn’t quite strong enough to actually make him move if he didn’t want to, but he got the idea I was trying to get across to him.
“If you aren’t strong enough to protect me, then don’t. My problems are my own, I have no intention of dragging you down with me when I should’ve kept my mouth shut.” I whispered to him.
Garrus looked incredibly conflicted, eventually I saw him settle on a decision. “I’m sorry.” He whispered back before standing up.
Penny looked between me and Garrus, “Wait, you’re not planning on just leaving him are you?”
Garrus just looked at her, “I won’t tell you what choice to make, Penny. But you know as well as I do that he can’t stay with us anymore, Raylith isn’t going to let this lie.”
She looked practically on the verge of tears as her head kept snapping between the two of us. I hadn’t realized but Fiona and her group had followed us. She stepped forward and rested a hand on Penny’s shoulder leaning in to whisper something.
Silent tears started streaming down her face as she nodded before turning away. Garrus wrapped an arm around her and helped steer her away.
Fiona came to a stop in front of me, I slowly managed to raise my head to look at her.
“Still not feeling anything?” She asked, not unkindly.
“Still hasn’t quite sunk in, no. Lillian’s skill from earlier is still taking up most of my mind, although once it wears off I’m sure I’ll feel worse about what I did.” I replied.
She nodded before sticking out a gauntleted hand, “Come on, we’ll help you at least get situated. Get you down to the guild so you can get paid and at least get you set up in an inn or something.”
I didn’t reach for her hand, “Why?”
She gave me a slight frown, “Why do I care? Why do I want to help you? Why am I putting my neck in the way for you? There’s lots of why’s. Instead I’ll ask you two why’s of my own. Why do you care what I do, and why did you push them away?”
I thought for a moment, my mind slowly starting to work faster as I could feel the effects of the skill wearing off my mind, “I guess I don’t necessarily care what you do. As for why I pushed them away, Garrus was right. I genuinely should’ve just kept my mouth shut, I pushed them away cause even though it hurts, or rather it’s going to later, I care about them and don’t want to drag them down with me.”
She nodded, “I’m helping you because I care as well. It’s half the reason I started this group. Someone helped me and my sister when they gained nothing out of it once. All they asked in return is that we pay it forward. Marcie and Striga have similar stories as well. So I pose the same to you. I don’t expect anything in return, all I ask is that you pay it forward one day.”
I nodded slowly, “Alright. I can do that.”
I reached out and took her hand in mine.