The rest of the travel since the attack by the cultists went by without a single hitch. All it took was an hour of listening to Johnathan’s war stories before the towering city wall of Belmud appeared on the horizon. The forest slowly transitioned into an open plain in the last ten minutes of the travel, meaning that the city wall was all the more visible under the sun’s light.
The city was ‘hidden’ behind the wall which stood approximately three to five stories high, with only the towers of the city’s castle standing taller than the walls. The wall seemed to be several metres thick, with many tall towers and silhouettes of onagers, trebuchets, and ballistas evenly spread out across the wall, giving Walter the impression of a silent ‘stone beast.’
Hung over the city gates were banners which had checkered black and white fields, a golden shield with antler horns placed firmly in the centre. There were also similarly designed flags carrying the same emblem spread out amongst the city wall. Walter was told that this particular emblem was the insignia of the noble Eikthyrnir Family, the ruling noble family of Valha.
When the caravan slowed down to a halt at the city’s gates, Johnathan, Tomas and Walter left their respective carriages and met with the patrol team guarding the entrance. Like the men of the guard escort, the men of the patrol team wore gambesons that had an emblem of the Eikthyrnir Family pinned onto it as well as a metal sallet on their heads.
Unlike the carvan’s guards though, these city patrolmen were also equipped with pollaxes that was slightly tall as they were along with short swords held within their scabbards.
Of course, Walter already convinced Johnathan to cover for him should anything go wrong.
Walter accompanied Johnathan and Tomas on what he told them was a ‘mere whim.’ The truth was that he wanted to personally check the integrity of the patrol team. If the men of the guard escort being easily ‘persuaded’ by the promise of gold was anything to go by, then these patrolmen should also be very ‘impressionable.’
Even the ‘good old’ captain Johnathan was easily swayed by Walter’s promises. Granted, Walter also ensured the captain’s trust through granting him a collateral that Walter got back anyway as well as bringing to light that the rest of the guard escort will benefit from Walter’s ‘generosity’ but the point still remained.
Nevertheless, Walter’s suspicions were proven true when Tomas slid ten silver coins into the questioning patrolman’s pockets before the patrol team could inspect the caravan. These silver coins were apparently known as ‘silver franqs,’ which along with ‘gold franqs’ and ‘bronze franqs’ were the main currency used in the Franko Kingdom and its protectorate territories.
Soon after, the leading patrolman gave a nod to the others and they allowed the caravan to pass. They didn’t even give Walter a second glance when they passed through the gates.
He immediately sensed a change in atmosphere once he was officially within the city. The vast open plains were replaced with various buildings compacted together. The dirt road below him was replaced with paved cobblestone while multiple stenches mixed together in the air.
Inaudible chatter echoed in the background as Rogjick and Tomas lead most of the caravan towards the castle to drop off the supplies. On the other hand, Johnathan and Walter along with a few others, remained with the remaining two carriages. Of course, these carriages were filled to the brim with the weapons and equipment looted from the dead cultists.
The story that they agreed upon for the disappearance of the two carriages was that they were ‘unfortunately’ lost during the forest skirmish. Since the Eikthyrnir Family had no method of confirming or disproving their claims, they could only accept it as the truth, especially since occurrences of these misfortunate events weren’t all too rare.
Although Walter had some concerns about the two carriages not going their intended route being too conspicuous, his doubts were alleviated by Johnathan. He claimed that it was common for carriages full of goods to travel around the city because of the multiple artisans and merchants that needed and used them to transport equipment, goods and raw materials.
As long as the carriage went in the vague direction of the commercial district or towards one of the city gates, then nothing was out of the ordinary.
Along the way towards the ‘rather clandestine’ market, Walter noticed multiple people who wore odd outfits. It was not that what they wore was bizarre, but rather because he felt that what they wore was out of place.
Their clothes were definitely of finer make than those worn by the peasantry, being on par with a well-off merchant from this era. Some of these people even wore armour and had weapons holstered on their hip or back. However, unlike the hired guards of the Eikthyrnir Family, these people wore no standardised equipment or clothing.
They all wore varying different types of armour, ranging from leather and padded armour to light chainmail and heavy plates, sometimes mixing and matching some of the different armour types. The same went for their weapons, which ranged from the typical short swords and spears to obscure weapons like zweihänders and morning stars.
While, there weren’t many of them, they were still very noticeable when compared to the other people within the city. This was made especially true when Walter could often see them interacting with weaponsmiths and armoursmiths who seldom sold goods to the common peasant.
Just as Walter was pondering what these people could possibly be, they passed by a two storey building which had more of these people congregating around it than anywhere else. Like how the world translated spoken words for him, the words on the overhanging sign of the building were also ‘written’ in English.
It said two words only; ‘Adventurers’ Guild.’
In an instant, Walter realised what these people were. Yet he still needed to confirm his suspicions before making any assumptions.
It didn’t take him long to come up with a solution.
“Oh adventurers, I always wondered what kind of ‘adventures’ these brave people go on.”
“Hmph, adventures. Yeah right.”
Johnathan’s contemptuous reply almost made Walter smile but he suppressed these emotions. Instead, he pretended to be confused as he questioned the captain.
“Hmm? Is there something wrong?”
“Yeah. The word ‘adventurer’ is basically just a fancy name for ‘monster hunting mercenaries.’”
While the other guards didn’t say anything in response to Johnathan’s claim, they didn’t show any signs of disagreeing with him. One of them even nodded his head in agreement with Johnathan. Yet Walter knew that he had nothing to gain from agreeing or disagreeing so he simply replied indifferently.
“But like you said, they are still monster hunters are they not? They dedicate their lives to the extermination of beings that threaten us. Surely that has to count for something.”
“Cheh. Perhaps. It still doesn’t change the fact that they are basically mercenaries with no sense of chivalry or honour, they’ll throw themselves into any filthy dungeon and use any means necessary to achieve victory.”
Walter opened to mouth to respond but was instead interrupted by another guard.
“Oi Johnathan…”
“Yes?”
The guard’s tone turned slightly meekish in the face of Johnathan’s question. Nevertheless, he still mustered the strength to speak.
“I-isn’t what you’re saying a bit of an exaggeration? I mean… they really aren’t any different from us guards, we both still protect the people. It’s just that we man the city walls or defend the caravans while they go monster hunting in some forsaken dungeon.”
Although the guard’s sheepish voice was accompanied by nervous head nods from the others, Johnathan didn’t seem to care. Instead he stayed silent and turned to face out the window, acting as if the conversation never happened.
Soon after, a whisper from another guard entered into Walter’s ear.
“He doesn’t really like adventurers. He never told us why but he just doesn’t like them.”
“Yes I can tell. Who do you think that you are talking to you daft dimwit?”
That was what Walter wanted to say but he only pressed his lips together and nodded silently. There was no need for him to antagonist the guard, at least not yet anyway. Until the time calls for it, Walter needed to hold a good relationship with these men while he is still unfamiliar with this world.
Nevertheless, no further conversation occurred during the rest of the ride. It would seem that the talk about adventurers left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. But Walter had no qualms about this, he only wanted to check if these ‘adventurers’ were similar to those portrayed in fictional media within his world.
Sometime later, they finally arrived at the blackmarket which turned out to be within the commercial district, albeit just a bit ‘out of the way.’ Located within the alleyways and backstreets of the real marketplace, the blackmarket mainly consisted of multiple cramped walkways.
As such, they had to alight from their carriages and continue on foot. They also only carried one crate full of goods with them while a few guards remained at the carriage.
Apart from the occasional backdoor of a building, there were no real building stores within the black market. Most people opted to instead set up temporary stalls or even just stood out in the open with their goods by their feet.
Unsurprisingly, there were little patrolmen within the blackmarket. Instead, there were many more adventurers. Now that Walter had a closer look on them, he now also confirmed that adventurers consisted of many different ‘classes’ for lack of a better term.
Like the guard escort, there were particular adventurers that he could identify as a magic caster. It was just that excluding clerics who all wore virtually the same white coloured outfit, Walter couldn’t exactly what kind of magic they practiced.
“What a surprise, of course he would be down here.”
Walter’s train of thought was soon broken by one of the guard’s voice, contempt and scorn being clearly audible in his tone.
“Who is here?”
Hoping that his status as an outsider of the city was enough to justify him not knowing who this ‘he’ was, Walter questioned the guard who spoke.
“It’s Thyvin Eikthyrnir, a damned noble son who you shouldn’t concern yourself about.”
Johnathan’s answer eliminated Walter’s fear of that ‘Thyvin’ being someone who he should have recognised on the spot. Now, Walter knew that it was very likely for Thyvin to only be locally famous, no judging from the others’ attitudes, the word ‘infamous’ should be more suitable.
When Walter glanced at Thyvin, he saw a man who didn’t seem to be particularly bad at first glance. He looked like a typical aristocrat with a well groomed appearance. He wore a mostly golden coloured coat that matched his golden blonde hair, there were also multiple black patterns and symbols that Walter can’t recognise etched onto Thyvin’s coat.
Since his last name was Eikthyrnir, Walter knew that he was a member of the ruling noble family. But from Thyvin’s appearance, he also didn’t seem like the type of person who would draw such ire from his own subjects.
“What does he do that’s so taboo? Is he an incompetent noble or a tyrant or something?”
“Tch… since you’re curious, let me tell you why…”
Although it was done reluctantly, Johnathan still answered Walter’s question.
“Despite being a highborn noble, Thyvin chooses to study the art of necromancy. Unlike his other magically gifted siblings who became respected mages, Thyvin chose to become a heretical necromancer.”
“I… see…”
Walter only gave an impartial reply. He knew better than to condemn or to condone their cultural beliefs of what is and isn’t ‘heretical.’ Although he also had a general idea as to why they believed that practicing necromancy was a heresy. But Walter didn’t pay these thoughts much mind.
For now, he just smiled as he followed the others through what seemed the backdoor of a building. Looking around, Walter saw that they were within the storage room of some blacksmith shop. A few seconds later, he caught sight of his ‘customer,’ the person that Walter was about to bargain with.
Soon a soft smile formed on his face.
After all, the art of business was his expertise.
