During our travels, it had become quite clear how much more real the world seemed. I had been used to the conveniences of modern life, such as constant entertainment and insanely fast travel across the planet. A distance that would take a day at most to drive had turned into a week and a half of gruelling travel on the roads in this medieval land.
I Could no longer pretend that the people were merely Npcs like I did the first few days, treating it as a game to build favorability and find little snippets of information. The more I interacted with the people and world around me, the more convinced I became that it wasn't a mere simulation. I must have been reincarnated in the body of Cosmin. Everything was too well crafted to be fake.
Not to mention that I could feel my body like I was connected to it. No simulation should be able to simulate all the little aches, pains and discomforts I felt every minute of riding a horse or walking on the endless roads. At least there is nothing humanity could have done even with a thousand years to innovate by that point. And Why would they test a simulation on a nobody anyway?
While deeply contemplating and aimlessly staring in front, I saw two people riding in a Horse Drawn Cart. It looked like two peddlers, one overweight man and a scrawny Boy. The cart was pulled by an ageing horse trudging along without a care in the world as it fed from a contraption attached to its mouth.
The sight brought a generous amount of excitement and interest to me. I purchased soap from a similar peddler just a few days ago. At that time, it was just in time for me to bathe in a nice fresh spring when we stopped for the night that day. It was much too cold for my taste, but it had been enough to clean myself and feel clean for the first time in this strange new place.
Meanwhile, on the cart approaching the aureni Family Guard.
“Master Gregorie, we are approaching some armed men on the next hillock. They look like Some Boyar's men never seen the crest.”
“Dammed fool boy, were you spacing out again? I told you to be vigilant. How did you miss them?”
“Master Gregorie, they just crested the hillock. I can't see them when they are behind it.”
“Do I need to discipline you for talking back to me again?”
“ I wouldn't need to talk back if you could see further than your fat nose.”
With an annoyed grunt, the man went to slap the boy's head but missed as the boy dodged the slap. With an exasperated sigh, the man Slumped.
“ I will be Talking with your mother about your behaviour.”
“ Not like that will change anything, Grampa Gregorie.”
“ It's master Gregorie for you, boy. You are my apprentice first and grandson second. Let's hope It all goes well.”
Approaching the peddlers, I could see the anxiousness on their faces. Unfortunately, it was warranted. Ion had informed me that It was common for vulnerable peddlers to disappear or to have to pay ransom when encountering unscrupulous groups of armed men. Luckily for the peddlers, all I wanted was just some Soap.
With a few words, one of the men rode forward slightly and stopped twenty paces in front of the peddlers.
“Greetings are conveyed from lord Cosmin of the aureni”. Upon hearing the aureni name, the peddlers calmed down. The aureni family had a good reputation with the smallfolk for being just and reasonable.
“We request to trade.”
“It would be an honour for us to trade with the Aureni lord,” said the older peddler with a reserved and welcoming undertone.
After some brief negotiations, I purchased a soap bar and moved to the side to allow the men to trade for items they wanted. The peddler had few things to trade, but what he did piqued the men's interest. The peddlers managed to sell a small number of trinkets to the men. After the trades concluded, we bid them farewell and informed them of the war in the Vlachian kingdom that seemed to douse their spirits, but they said something about travelling to Iaș instead of Tîrgoviște.
Soap was meant to last a long time, but I had lost it because of an unfortunate string of encounters with critters. I had planned to wash my feet in the river because of some mud I walked into accidentally while not paying attention to what I was doing due to sheer boredom.
Just as I dipped my feet in the water and weaved them around a little, I felt a sharp sting and quickly pulled my feet out of the water. It turns out that two leeches decided me to be a nice meal and had stuck to my sole. With an unmanly shriek, I began hopping on the other leg and pulled them off, but without noticing, I hopped directly on a grass snake that then bit me, eliciting a bloody scream that brought half the soldiers to me. As soon as everyone realised what happened, they laughed at my childish antics.
That had embarrassed me, and I had sulked for the rest of the day. It didn't help that I also began panicking that the snake might be venomous and that I was gonna die soon. Ion quickly reassured me that no snakes were venomous enough to kill a man anywhere in the eastern lands.
A further few miles of horseback riding, and I could no longer bear it because of the severe saddle chafing. That, along with the constant jolting of horseback and endless road, had made me want to vomit and had given me sea sickness, or in this case, that would be horseback sickness, who knows. The disagreeable beast had also been unhappy to carry me lately, stopping and refusing to move anymore. It could have been confusion from my constant readjustments on saddleback, thus accidentally giving it conflicting commands.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
After three hours of slow marching, we arrived in Chilia County. This county had been the site of conflict and upheaval. The last Chilia boyar had betrayed the kingdom and requested to join the Osulimani empire.
The betrayal led to a split in the county, with the Borays loyalists joining him while the remainder of the people installed a new Boyar in the Town of Săiți. Now, the county of Chila was an outlaw's dream. The current Boyar had very little power and could not enforce the law, so the whole place was lawless, and petty Boyars were springing up in every village and fortress, all vying for the county.
Chilia County was the only way to return to the aureni holdings, as the northern Boyar of Tighina had been on bad terms with My late Father and wouldn't hesitate to capture or even kill me. We could try to sneak in, but he regularly patrolled the territory, extorting the traders or inspecting them, as he liked to call it. Attempting to traverse the territory would lead to encountering the boyar and his posse.
While the men were preparing the grounds, I was exploring the area, looking for a nice tree to climb. It was interesting how the lack of constant entertainment had affected me. The boredom was almost tortuous. I was a massive audiobook, podcast and web novel consumer, and the lack of those endless forms of entertainment left me directionless yet much more rooted in a strange way. I had almost forgotten what nature sounded like since I always listened to something and never contemplated my surroundings in peace. With all my overthinking, I nearly tripped on a root but managed to save my stumble and remain standing. Feeling petty, I decided to climb the tree that nearly tripped me. Slowly, over the course of the next five minutes, I made my way up the tree just to where I could see the distant horizon. Luckily, the sun would be setting where I could see it.
As I was watching the breathtaking view of the sun setting, I began to see some smoke rising up in the distance, then one more collum of smoke, another and another, and soon twenty smoke columns were ascending into the sky. That was definitely not a good sign, and I hurriedly climbed down the tree and went to the temporary camp to inform the men about the smoke columns.
While nearing the camp, I decided to go straight to Ion and ask him what we should do next instead of acting like a panicked chicken. Ion spotted me quickly, and I waved back and slowed down a little to not show my panic; after all, a leader cannot show his fear.
With an inquisitive look and eyebrows raised, Ion looked at me to ask what happened.
“ Ion, I spotted some smoke “, I said in a rush while almost breathless.
“ Smoke means fire; is it in the Tree copse? “Said Ion in a matter-of-fact way.
“ Uhh. no, it's in the distance, just beyond the horizon.”
“ Can you point the direction, Cosmin? “
“ Yes. It's towards the setting sun. “
“ That is the direction of the next village. It is probably some raiders from the Khanate. That village is gone. They usually capture the women and children and kill everyone else, “said Ion with an angry look and steel in his voice. After a long pause, Ion seemed to deflate and said, in a defeated tone. “ They have probably already left the village and are making their way to their next target. We would never be able to catch them.”
On a sour note, after a long day of travelling. Ion had commanded the men to make small fires instead of bonfires like we had done every other day. The tartars likely had scouts roaming the kingdom at night for rich targets such as merchant convoys camping on the side of roads.
The food for tonight would be some simple stew made with dried meat and grains we had bought from the peddlers earlier with some generous salting to give it a pleasant taste. I was beginning to enjoy these plain and spartan meals. Initially, I could barely eat them, but now they tasted as good as anything I had ever eaten. Hunger and tiredness brought out everyone's appetites.
The men decided to gather around the campfires and start singing in unison. The song was a gaudy song about easy women, wine and war. The vulgarity of the song gave it a charm, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It helped everyone bring up their spirits and bond while having some fun. Many of them had lost friends and family members during the ambush when Cosmin's father died. Everyone was in a melancholic mood once the singing stopped. But tiredness didn't allow it to continue, and they went to sleep shortly afterwards.
The sun had disappeared, making way for a gorgeous starry sky. I could see an absurd number of stars and nebulas, and it was amazing every night, no matter how many times I saw it. Since the second night, I would stay up late and star gaze. It made many troubles feel less significant and all-consuming. It made them seem manageable in the face of the enormity of the night sky. After some time, I got up and went into my tent to sleep.
I felt rough shaking as I dreamt about some delicious pizza and Pepsi.
Bleary-eyed, I got up to behold who was so uncouth as to shake a man awake before even the sun decided to show himself. It turns out that by the time I opened my eyes, the person had left, leaving me confused, but that quickly disappeared.
I got dressed quickly, now used to all the belts and buttons on my clothing and with a sigh of yearning, I started packing my comfortable bedroll quickly, followed by the tent coming down as I unhooked the canvas from the branches propping it up. as soon as I got out from below the fallen canvas with a bedroll in hand Two men began to roll up the tent and store it in a nice carrying harness for the horses.
With my duties finished this morning, I went to get some stew and speak with Ion about our course of action. The Tartar Raid had made the travels much more dangerous. If we encounter any raiders, it's a meagre chance for us to escape them.
”What is with the Early occasion?” I asked with a sleepy yawn following.
”The Tartars likely raided all through the night and will be resting throughout the day. If we are lucky, we might be able to avoid any troubles until we get to the First Aureni Keep. On the Road to The White Fortress.”
The meal had been a sombre affair with talks of precautions and danger ahead of us so close to home. The squad leaders had also taken part in the conversation, demonstrating their courage, at least nominally, all of them offering for them to remain as bait if needed.
” Let's hope that leaving anyone behind will not be needed and that we can all get home safe and sound. The deaths of the men that we already lost are heavy enough. I don't want to lose any more good men.”
”All we can do is pray, boyar Cosmin” " said Squad leader Gheorge, a wiery-looking man with a nasty scar across his forehead.
”With that said, Let us pray” " said Ion; immediately after dropping to his knees and beginning to pray in his mind, everyone followed, including me, even tho I definitely didn't know any prayers.
With prayer done, the men seemed to relax, feel safer, and less anxious about going into the County.
We were travelling toward the smoke columns spotted last night, and Ion decided to ride ahead. Riding would be safer than walking if we encountered anyone Hostile.
Just as we rounded another hillock, we could spot the village that had been raided.