“I’m happy to help! It will be like I'm back at school helping with the new students.” Rin seemed genuinely excited to get the chance to help Belle and the mention of school sparked a question from Adrest.
“You mentioned it a few times now, but what is the school you go to exactly? I’ve never been anywhere near the capital so all I hear are the exaggerated rumors.”
Rin thought for a second before answering, “Hmm, it’s a giant fortress on the edge of the city. And the area owned by the school is absolutely massive, maybe 4 or 5 or these towns put together? There are only a handful of ten to twenty or so people brought in each year so it feels really empty most of the time. Mostly everyone that works there are retired adventurers or knights so they’re really strict about rules and punishment. In the mornings they cram your head full of any and every bit of knowledge they can. Then, until well past sundown we’re divided up and drilled based on our specialties. For example, I’m really good at close and personal fighting, but not very good at long range spells so most of my time is spent doing drills and sparring against instructors while others might practice hitting targets with magic in various situations.”
Rin paused to take a sip of her cider, “There are also days where they bring in monsters from who knows where and all the students have to take turns fighting. Those are the best, you get to show off in front of everyone. Overall, it’s strict but only because the teachers don’t want to lose any more students.”
Adrest wasn’t expecting such a somber ending, but it made sense. Heroes were the ones sent to do impossible tasks, a last resort, it was natural not all of them made it back.
Adrest and Rose were lost on what to say to that, especially since they could see the sorrow in Rin’s always sunny eyes. Belle was awkwardly inspecting the wood grain on her mug, so it came to Alissa to break the mood. She clapped Rin on the shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.
“Sounds hard but rewarding. This round goes to the ones who didn’t make it back.”
Rin tried to stealthily wipe away a tear that had formed in the corner on her eye as she put her trademark goofy smile back on, “Thanks Alissa, cheers!”
The group didn’t stay up late, just sitting around for a few hours and getting to know each other better. Though Alissa had some trouble dodging questions about her family, and had to be careful about how she told some stories from her past, she was enjoying herself.
Belle was once again the first to go to sleep, exhausted from the days excitement. Once she was gone, Rin’s eyes filled with mischief, “So, how long have you two been together?”
With the still slightly socially inept dragon taking it literally, she remembered back to the day she’d found Adrest in her forest.
“Around nine months I think? It gets hard to keep track of the days when you're away from civilization.”
She looked at Adrest for confirmation, who decided he’d be better off explaining it now, than risk getting assaulted by a raging dragon later when she gets embarrassed.
He gave her a deadpan look, as if explaining to a particularly slow student, “She meant dating, idiot.”
Alissa’s eye brows shot up and her face turned even more rosy than it had been from the drinks. In a quiet voice she let out a simple “Oh.”
She shyly looked at Adrest’s eyes, looking for help as she wasn’t sure how to answer. It was Adrest that took over and leaned forward to make eye contact with Rin.
“We aren’t really dating, it’s hard to explain I guess? But Alissa was right that we met each other around nine months ago.”
“Really?” Adrest was surprised to hear two voices echo their disbelief, but realized they had never explicitly told Rose they weren’t a couple, and he could certainly see how she’d come to the conclusion.
“Yes, really. We happened to meet each other while traveling and after moving together for a week or so, we realized we got along really well and just kind of stayed together since.”
“Then whose sister is Belle’s? She seems so close to both of you, if you’d said all three of you grew up together I’d believe it.”
Seeing her chance to get back in the conversation, Alissa decided to take over the explanation for this.
“We’ve only had Belle with us for a few months, but I already can’t imagine my life without my cute little sister.”
Alissa gave a slightly altered version of how they’d bought Belle at the auction and gave her back her freedom. They couldn’t just say Belle was blessed or Alissa could casually break slave contracts as they were still under the cover of being simple traveling adventurers so they explained it as traveling to a large city to pay to have the contract broken.
“Rin was outright bawling at the little girls story and threw herself at Alissa, “Ughh… You’re such a good person.”
With Rin an emotional mess, they decided to pack it in for the night and go to sleep. Everyone wanted to be well rested for their trip tomorrow.
As the party enjoyed each other’s company and stayed warm by the fire, a single man was running through the frigid night without pause on the back of a black horse. He had icicles forming on his red exposed nose, and the left a trail of steam behind lingering in the air, showing how hard he was working to keep his body warm.
As the man was just thinking about giving the horse a break before it collapsed, a giant wall came into view from a bend in the trail. It was at least four stories high, and impossibly grand as it quickly swelled the man’s entire view.
As the approached the end of the trail, it led him to an iron gate and 2 guards inside a tent with an opened flap. “Halt! It’s an hour past curfew, please return and camp for the night, the gate will be opened tomorrow.”
Knowing this would happen, and ever so thankful for the letter in his saddlebag, he pulled out the off-white envelope and large red seal, and slowly approached the guards with his hands raised non-threateningly, bringing it to their attention and to show he wasn’t a threat.
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“Please sirs, I’ve been tasked with delivering urgent news to Sir Zurk, I was told to personally put it in his hands as soon as possible.”
One roughly grabbed the envelope to closely examine the seal. Turning it in his hand a few times before handing it to the other one.
“Looks real to me, should we let him in?”
As the older of the two finishing examining it, he shrugged, “Looks real enough to me, I say we let him in and let him be the patrol's problem.”
Getting confirmation, the younger of the 2 guards muttered under his breath that he’d just gotten warm as he went back into the snow and wind towards a thick iron chain on the side of the metal gate.
With a grunt of effort, the chain made a groan and lazily moved down as the man used all his strength and even some mana. 30 seconds of the man pulling with everything he had and the gate was partially opened enough for the messenger to duck under.
As he passed inside he said, “Thank you sirs, Randier is sure to appreciate it.”
The now cold guard massaged his hands to work out the pain and stiffness, “Yeah, yeah, get going and don’t cause any trouble.”
As the messenger walked the midnight streets, he was happy to feel like he was in civilization again. The streets were flat and wide, and if you looked under the snow you’d be able to see light grey bricks, neat and orderly.
The buildings that surrounded him were made of wood and stone. The manmade monsters towered over the street, all multiple stories tall. The difference between the outpost town and here couldn’t be put into words. Here, all the materials that made it out of the forest were funneled here before getting sold and shipped to the various clans and groups across the nation. That plus the constant flow of young nobles and adventurers that came in to explore the great forest resulted in an explosion of profit for the town that had been once been basically just a fortress to defend against beast tides from the forest.
Beast tides were horrible things that effected virtually every kingdom and country, the world was just too big and the humans and intelligent races not plentiful enough. Even now, scholars theorized that they were out numbered 1000-1 to beasts, and that was very conservative. While F and D rank beasts made up a large share of the 1000, their claws and teeth still had no problem going through the average human a rank higher.
When large unpopulated areas such as the endless forest neighbored a country every 20-50 years, tens of thousands or more, of low level monsters are chased out of their territory by the strongest monsters and bombard their surroundings.
It was a battle of survival for both sides, the monsters trying to escape the forest lords deep in the unexplored lands behind, and the people ahead trying to force them back so they can continue to live in peace. Beast tides were natural disasters, and over the millenia it has become a part of people’s lives and they’ve adjusted to it, every developed county prepares and builds against tides well in advance.
This city fortress was a great example of this, they could defend against as many monsters as the forest could spit out while keeping their own men safe. The walls weren't just decoration being many feet thick and there were a myriad of traps and hidden paths behind the wall, waiting for soldiers to use during wartime.
As the man admired the militarized city, forgetting the bitter cold for a moment, he found himself outside an extravagant mansion. The white marble structure seemed to go out of its way to show the wealth contained. The huge double doors with their dark wood grain stood out in stark contrast to the structure. Seeming to guide the eye to the entrance were enormous columns that would take several men to encompass one with their arms out.
As the man cautiously ascended the steps, he noticed on close inspection, each column was decorated with elaborate designs and patterns. Some were precise line work that spread around the stone in sharp angles and straight grooves. Others were works of art, with images painstakingly dug out in perfect detail. It was too dark for the man to see perfectly, but he could still pick out some such as the Randier crest, dragons, Phoenixes, kelpies, swords, and armored men that had a heroic aura even though it was just a relief.
The man didn’t have long to admire the display of wealth though, as soon as he climbed the last step an old man seemed to appear from the shadows themselves scaring the semi experienced adventurer greatly.
The elderly man ignored the started yelp he let out, simply saying, “May I know the purpose for your visit, sir?”
“uh.. Oh yes! I was given a letter by the branch leader in the outpost town, all he told me was that it was urgent and I must deliver it to Mr. Zurk personally.
The old man raised a grey eyebrow hearing the reason, but nodded and waved a hand. The doors silently swung open to reveal an entryway.
“Follow me Sir, I will tell my Lord.”
The little messenger audibly as he stay a few steps behind the old man. Going inside, it only took a few turns to enter a large sitting room with a roaring fireplace. The servant led the man to a red beast leather chair, “Please sit, I will return shortly.”
Doing as instructed, the messenger sank into the chair and was finally able to take in the room now that the old man had left.
Lining the walls were many bookcases fulled with thick leather texts and scrolls neatly arranged. The floors were a deep brown wood that shone like a mirror. Inside that mirror the man saw what was giving this room such bright light, high above was a large mana light chandelier. The clear crystals adorning it gave off a gentle white light.
He suddenly found it hard to even breathe, he was surrounded by more wealth than he had ever seen in his entire life. His entire net worth could probably only buy three or four of the hundreds of crystals that made up the light hanging from above.
As the seconds dragged by for the man, growing ever more nervous so far out of his depth, he could only listen to his fast beating heart and the roar of the fire. It felt like an eternity before he could finally hear the hear steps on wood coming from the hall the old man had left.
The door silently swung open and was held by the servant. Who walked in was a handsome middle-aged man. His blonde hair and blue eyes gave a youthful charm to his features. He would be a popular figure if his eyes weren’t so cold. The deep blue irises held a cold and calculating malice that couldn’t be contained.
Shivering and scared for his life, the messenger jumped to his feet in a formal bow.
“Mr. Zurk. It’s an honor to meet you.”
Mr. Zurk coldly snorted and waved his hands, “Where’s the letter?”
With trembling hands he held out the thick envelope that he’d been guarding for days through the treacherous mountains. When he’d been traveling through the mountains the adventurer thought he’d rather be anywhere but out in the cold. Suddenly though, he wished so badly to be back up in the mountain, anywhere but here.
Giving the scared man a contemptuous glance, he grabbed the offered letter and took a small knife out from a hidden pocket in his suit. He neatly sliced and retrieved the paper inside.
As his eyes quickly scanned the neat writing, his irritated aura receded and his thinned lips turned upwards a tick.
“Haha, very good news indeed.” Mr. Zurk walked over to a nearby desk and quickly arranged paper and ink. He efficiently wrote out a reply and put a small metal container on his palms. The air around his fist shimmered for a heartbeat and he tilted it to the side. As he did, wax flowed out, forming a small perfect circle on the center of the new envelope.
Mr. Zurk stamped it with his personal seal and returned to the messenger.
“Take this and return to the village outpost immediately.
“Sir? I cant leave the city until dawn, and my supplies are emptied. Plus my horse is exhausted from the journey here, it would die under me before I could get back to the base of the mountain.”
The man didn’t want to talk back to his employer’s employer, but he really had no way to get back to the outpost right now.
Giving the man an annoyed huff, “Fine, follow Quin. He will arrange everything.”
Like that Mr. Zurk walked off, done with the conversation. The adventurer gave Quin the servant a glance.
Quin nodded, “Come along, we have a horse stocked with a weeks of rations and cold weather gear waiting. Go to the gate and give whichever guard is on duty this letter.”
he handed the man a second smaller envelope before he started walking.
Like that the Adventurer sped back off into the freedom of the forests that he now found less intimidating, heading towards the branch manager with new instructions.
Meanwhile, Mr. Zurk had donned a heavy black cloak and walked off through the night to quiet shop tucked in a back corner alley of the merchants quarter.