On the finale day of the trip the large hill, almost a small mountain with a sprawling city covering it in clear view. As they approached Thomas soaked in the sight. At the top was a massive castle, it covered nearly the entire top of the hill. Below that was clearly the noble district, the mansions there clearly showed wealth and were massive. The next ring was what appeared to be another wealthy district but also had market areas, but it was hard to tell from this far away. The last ring looked like what he would expect to see from a normal town. It had modest houses and marketplaces. Each ring was separated by large walls. Including the base, outside the bottom wall was another sprawling town. It looked like it was there to support the local farmlands that supplied the massive city. Thomas struggled to understand just how many people could be fit into this one city. The town that was outside the walls was bigger than Les alone. In the open fields around the city were farmlands. They stretched for miles in all directions.

Abigail saw the dumbstruck look on his face and said “The area outside the walls is there to support the farmlands and the city, it does a lot of the backbone work a city needs to operate. Outside of food it also provides a lot of the basic items that people need. Most of the forges and leather tanners are there and the products are sent to the crafters in the city proper. You can clearly see the difference in each district.”

Thomas nodded to that and asked “how is it so big? I know you said this the last real city before the frontier, but it just seems to massive.” He knew that was a dumb question, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around its size.

Abigail chuckled and said “It was originally founded as a fortification against any beasts that wandered out of the southern frontier. Before the Unification of races there was a problem of extremely strong monsters coming out of the southern plains. When the first King of Balmar unified the populist and founded the kingdom he wanted to secure his southern border. That led to the creation of Balwyn Fort, and over time as the frontier was conquered it was given to the Hill family to managed. That’s where the Hill part of the name comes in. I believe they were given the noble rank of Count when they took the land.” Before she could continue Lady Hill voice cut in form her carriage.

She said, “You are surprisingly knowledgeable about my family history.”

He didn’t know how she heard them since they were riding towards the front of the carriage. Sharing a look they slowed to ride next to her so they could hear her properly. Seeing that she had their attention she continued "My ancestor was a landless Baron who was serving in the military at the time. He was the commander of Balwyn Fort in charge of keeping the southern border secure. He received his noble title for exemplary military service and was promised a holding when he left the military. When a massive beast wave happened, he managed to defeat it in such a spectacular way with minimal loss that the King of the time granted his wish for land. Granting him Balwyn and making him a Count in the process. All he had to do was promise that the Hill lineage would stay true to the original purpose, which is to be a barrier to the south. Even now my family still fulfills that promise. We also turned the city into an economic hub as well as maintaining a large military presence. Most of the products that come from the frontier come through our gates, all we had to do was build an infrastructure to support the incoming goods. As you can see, we have a supporting town outside the walls that helps the agricultural and other needs of the city. Then you have the lower district, it’s the most populated of the three. You have the middle district or depending on who you talk to they may call it the merchant district. Then you have the upper district, also called the nobility district. You don’t have to be a noble to live there but a majority are.”

Abigail spoke up for both of them saying “Thank you for the in-depth explanation. We will be arriving in the city in a few hours. We will escort you to the keep.”

Lady Hill nodded to that and said, “Thank you.”

They had no issues making it through the outer city, people quickly got out of the way. He still stayed observant either way. Arriving at the gate was interesting, Abigail got out a medallion from Lady Hill. Showing it to the guards, when they saw the crest of the Count and her guild card. They ushered them through, bowing to the carriage as they passed. They were alert as they traversed the city, Abigail led them through the switch back roads. Thomas was riding behind keeping a close eye on the people flowing around them. He stayed tense the entire way through the lower district. Now would be the time for an opportunist to attack them within the city. Abigail cut a clean path through the road, most people got out of the way and watched as the carriage went past. He didn’t spot any threats, but he did spot what he thought was a pickpocket target someone in the crowd.

They were met at the gates to the middle district by a contingent of guards. A heavily armored man in front of them approached Abigail. They spoke quietly for a few seconds before she strode back to where he was behind the carriage.

When she got close, she said “That’s the Counts men, he tried to dismiss us, but we were tasked to take her to the keep so we will.”

Nodding to that, they road in silence as the guards marched in formation around the carriage. They created a wall preventing anyone from approaching, including them. Since they were effectively useless now Thomas turned his sights to the city around him. He tried to not act like a country bumpkin, but he still ended up slack jawed at the surroundings. The dark stone buildings were contrasted by the numerous small gardens. Some of the buildings had what looked like gold inlay carvings. He didn’t even know how the designed everything with the slope of the hill, but all the streets and buildings flowed together effortlessly. The stained-glass windows on some of the shops had to be worth more than some buildings back in Les. It wasn’t just the buildings or the well-maintained roads; it was also the people. The average person was better dressed than most people in Les.

A hard poke to his armpit was enough to break him out of his wide eye stupor. Whipping his head around to look at his attacker, he saw Abigail with a wide smile on her face. he asked, “What was that for?”

She answered him saying “I saw you looking around and you almost looked overwhelmed, It’s a big difference compared to Les. Balwyn Hill is one of the more interesting cities I have been too. This place is beautiful compared to most bigger cities. They truly invest in the city layout and public works. Interesting fact Balwyn Hill is the third largest city in Balmar. Only beaten by Duke Edwin Moreno’s seat of power and the largest which is the Capital of Balmar.”

Smiling in return he said, “How much bigger is the Capital compared to here?”

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She shrugged and said, “Not sure on the actual numbers but if I had to guess probably twice if not three times larger.” That was to large to even imagine so he let that topic drop.

They continued talking about random things as they rode through the city. The noble district again made him slack jawed. Which got another chuckle from Abigail. Even compared to the middle district the upper one looked like a golden jewel. Where the middle and lower districts were built out of dark stone and had designs to match. The upper district had white marble with silver and gold everywhere.

The good-natured conversations slowly died out as the castle started to loom over them. The castle was made out of the same dark stone as before. Contrasting with the white stone as its neighboring noble mansions. It looked rugged but somehow more elegant than the other mansions. It made Thomas think that while the other nobles tried to flaunt their wealth and status the Hill family didn’t need to since they were already on the top. When they made it to the gates there was an older man standing in the middle of the path, arms crossed and a look of anger on his face. He was wearing a clean-cut military style outfit with muted colors, with a sword hanging from his hip. His imposing figure matched well with the dominating castle behind him.

Abigail motioned for them to stay slightly back to see what happened. The carriage came to a stop and Lady Hill stepped out, to his surprise instead of looking upset or worried she held her head high. She stopped in front of the man who based off of the rigidness of the guards had to be her father, the Count. She did a small curtsey and started to walk past him. Before the man could speak, she said something to quiet to hear and walked passed him.

The older man anger seemed to vanish as she did so replace by weariness, and he just sighed. He said in a clear voice “Thank you for escorting my daughter back, Captain. You may return to normal duties.”

After saying that the captain bowed, saluted then hurried through the gates with his men. Thomas got ready to leave but Abigail motioned for him to stay put. That’s when he noticed the man walking towards them. They advanced to close the distance as well, when they got closer, Abigail did a slight bow on horseback and Thomas quickly mimicked her.

The older man nodded and said “Thank you both for escorting my daughter back here safely. I am Count Jonathan Hill; I will sign off on the completion of this quest. Please hand me the document.”

Abigail pulled out the quest form the one she received when she accepted the quest and handed it over as she replied to him “It’s nice to meet you Count Hill. I’m Abigail Thorn A-ranked, this is Thomas D-ranked adventure.” She pointed to Thomas as she mentioned him.

Count Hill just nodded as he made his house crest out of mana and burned it into the quest form Abigail handed him. Once he was done, he handed it back to them and said, “Have a good day” he paused and scrutinized Abigail for a moment before he just turned and left.

Thomas was surprised with how normal he seemed; Thomas hadn’t interacted with any nobles before. Other than Lady Hill and she didn’t seem like a good representation of how a noble should act. Her father seemed nice enough just from that small interaction. Shaking that odd interaction off he turned to Abigail and asked “Where to now? It’s still early enough we could head to the guild and get my testing started and turn in the quest at the same time.”

“Yes, we will head to the guild get your mana tested and go shopping for an actual mount for you. Don’t worry I am charging the guild for your mount since you need it to be able to do your job effectively.” She paused before adding “We may need to stay here for a day or two it really depends on how long it takes to find you a mount and there is a few items I want to pick up since we are here.”

Abigail led them back to the middle district, as they wove their way through the streets, Thomas decided to ask a few questions. The noise of the bustling street made it hard to have a normal conversation but compared to the town outside the city and the lower district it was much more orderly here. Either way he decided to ask, “You seem use to this place, did you spend a lot of time here?”

“Yes and no, I only spent two weeks here. This city is different than most but once you have been to enough cities they are all are laid out relatively the same. I was originally working in the capital of Helsara for the last year. When I got tasked with what we are working on I headed over here. After doing some information gathering, I went to check out Les because of the odd activity happening there and you know the rest.” Answering his question as they went.

He knew that Helsara was his kingdom’s western neighbors, that just made him question why she isn’t responsible for checking that kingdom. Asking the obvious question he asked, “Why weren’t you sent to check Helsara’s southern border?”

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow until she realized it was an actual question. Answering she said “The southwest and most of the southern border of Helsara is a mountain range. That mountain range is the home of the Dwarves, it is called the Orie Kingdom. The rest of Helsara’s western border is coastline. The other side of the mountains is technically the frontier, but the mountains are a natural barrier. The Orie kingdom also patrols the passes as part of an agreement with Helsara. The smaller part that isn’t covered in the mountain range is patrolled by Helsara. There is a team still checking but it was determined that a few junior inquisitors and an Inquisitor could handle it.”

Feeling slightly embarrassed at realizing that he should have paid more attention when it came to geography, either way he said “Helsara is mainly a beastkin kingdom correct?”

“Yes, I was mainly doing team investigations while I was there. They had a spike in questionable activity involving some higher ranked members of the guild. Luckily, it wasn’t anything nefarious, just kept information about a new dungeon to themselves and they got fined and a note in their file for it.” After she answered the conversation came to a stop because of the noise on the street around them.

They made it to the main square of the middle district, if it wasn’t for how well-trained Jack was, he would have bumped into someone by accident. Jack plodded along behind Abigails horse, Angel, as Thomas was to distracted by the building they were heading to. It wasn’t just bigger than every other building around, but it looked exactly like the adventure’s guild in Les. Besides being twice as large, it even had the same carving on the door, but it was inlayed with gold and silver. He followed Abigail around the side and into the back where there was a stable just like back in Les.

Dismounting and handing Jack over to the man working the stable he said, “This is Jack, I rented him from the guild, do I report that inside?”

He just nodded and said, “Yes they can handle that inside.”

Abigail led Angel into the stables, so Thomas just waited until she came back out. Unlike back in Les there was a door connecting the stables to the reception area of the guild. Arriving in the reception area, a calm washed over him. He didn’t realize it but part of him was nervous before walking in but seeing that I was the same as he was used to pushed that away. It was just like back home, just bigger and with more people.

They got into line to wait for an open receptionist. When one was open, they walked up, pulling out their guild cards and placed them on the table. Abigail pulled out the quest for the escort and the note about the rented horse. Handing it all over she said, “Take the fee for the horse out of the reward for the escort.”

The younger man behind the counter was still looking at Abigail's guild card but her words broke him out of his stunned state. Stuttering “Yes ma’am!” He quickly looked over the two notes and handed over a gold and some silvers. Abigail picked up the gold hand slid the silvers over to Thomas. Before Thomas could protest that she should take more she waved him off as the receptionist asked, “Anything else ma’am?”

“Yes, we need a mana test on Thomas, he has a variant mana type.” She said with a bright smile.

The receptionist nodded and said, “Let me get someone to help with that, please wait it should only take an hour or so.”