Chapter 32: Arrival

Chapter 32: Arrival

Reivyn and his two adventuring mates leisurely rested along the side of the road as they watched the horsemen come closer and closer. The cavalry unit was exquisitely precise in their horsemanship. Each individual horse was in step with the others at a trot in perfectly dressed columns, a feat that surely took a lot of practice and a fairly high level of Ride and Horsemanship.

Aside from the bannerman out front acting as the Guide, there were several other horsemen not in formation overseeing it. Reivyn turned his head and scanned the countryside and sparse woods in the area, but he didn't spot any scouts.

They are either supremely confident in themselves or their leaders are too arrogant. If there's anything I've learned so far, it's that one shouldn't get complacent.

Reivyn shook his head at his thoughts. Just because they were in a low Tier region that was populated by small bands of goblins and weak beasts, that didn't mean there couldn't be surprises. Reivyn knew for a fact that there were still roving ferocious beasts from the mountain range lurking about, but he didn't know how far they had managed to travel away from the mountains at this point. The mounted men might be high level, but their horses weren't, and ferocious beasts were just as likely to make a meal out of a horse as they were out of a man.

"Who do you suppose they are?" Reivyn said between bites of his ration.

"Probably the military branch of some church," Teilon replied. He leaned back against his pack and relaxed his body as much as possible. He was the last one to have unlocked the Forced March Skill, so he was the most exhausted of the trio.

"They have the Sunburst Standard, so they must be from the Church of Mierna," Kimberly supplied.

Reivyn inspected the standard carried by the Guide out front. He had recognized that it was a sunburst emblem when he had first spotted it, but upon closer inspection he was able to see that it was the official symbol of the Church of Mierna like Kimberly said. As the horsemen drew closer, Reivyn could see that their shiny, silvery armor was also decorated with gold-plated trim and patterns.

"The Goddess of Light, huh?" Reivyn mused. "That settles it then, they're obviously on their way to investigate the demon incident." His two companions nodded in agreement.

One of the horsemen not in formation cantered up to the trio. He had a frown on his face as he inspected the three youngsters from top to bottom.

"Make way!" He commanded. Reivyn looked at his two friends. He observed the distance between them and the road before looking back at the man. Even if they didn't move, they were sufficiently far enough away from the road that they wouldn't be in the way of even the supervising horsemen who weren't part of the formation.

"We did make way," Reivyn began.

"Insolence!" The man shouted. "You dare talk back? I didn't ask for excuses, I told you to make way!"

Reivyn gave the man a flat look through his lashes. "And? I'm not one of your subordinates. You can go around."

The man's eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the response, and he was momentarily stunned. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword as his expression turned furious.

"You dare to disrespect Mierna, the Goddess of Light?" There was a dangerous tone to his voice.

"No, no, no," Reivyn said with a shake of his head. "I don't dare to disrespect the Goddess of Light... I dare to disrespect you." Reivyn pointed at the man to emphasize his point.

Reivyn wasn't worried that the zealot would make good on his implied threat and actually attack the three of them. He was clear on the law. While the church was granted the authority to have an independent military, they had to abide by the laws of the kingdom, not the other way around. The three of them were just sitting on the side of the road, and they each had proof of prior military service and identities of sanctioned Adventurers.

"Josn!" A loud shout came their way as the man started to bare the steel of his weapon. Reivyn rolled his eyes at the theatrics. The man was clearly trying to bully them for some reason.

"Sir!" Josn replied as he shoved his sword back into place and turned his head to address the older man who trotted up to the small group. The other men of the cavalry drew abreast of the resting youngsters and continued along the road with their eyes remaining straight ahead, and, as Reivyn had determined, they were nowhere near close enough to impede the soldiers.

"We have somewhere to be, Josn," the older man said. "Are you going to slow us down to interrogate some random kids sitting on the side of the road?"

Josn stiffened in his saddle. "I suspect them to be Heretics, sir." Reivyn looked at his companions and guffawed.

"On what basis?" The man's stern gaze inspected the three teens. His eyes lingered on the flower crowns adorning their heads, and he assumed a thoughtful look.

"Three 'kids,'" Josn used air quotes on the word, "dressed in armor and wearing druidic artifacts on their heads, plus the proximity of demonic activity, is very suspicious."

Reivyn gave his two companions a look, and the three of them retrieved their two tokens and displayed them to the two men. Josn urged his horse forward and leaned down as if to take possession of Reivyn's tokens, but Reivyn smoothly deposited them back into his inner breast pocket with a smirk.

"I understand your zeal, young Josn, and it guides you well," the older man said. He gestured with his head for Josn to accompany him as he turned his horse aside. "But we don't have time to waste, and they have shown that they're members of the Adventurer's Guild. Having magical items isn't a crime."

The two men made their way back to the side of the formation, Josn shooting the three teens one last hostile look.

"Geeze, that commander needs to put a tighter leash on his dog," Teilon complained. He was obviously loud enough for the two departing men to hear as Reivyn saw Josn stiffen in his saddle for a moment. The older man didn't pause in his departure, though, so Josn was forced to keep up with him.

Reivyn looked over at his smirking friend. "You think he was just some zealot who was overreaching his authority?"The source of this content nov(el)bi((n))

Teilon tilted his head as he looked at Reivyn. "What else?"

"Nine times out of ten, the older guy told him to come investigate us. He might not have told him to be a jerk about it, but he knows what kind of person his subordinate is. They were just putting on a show to try and trip us up and give ourselves into their authority. When we didn't lash out and just calmly identified ourselves as Adventurers, that's when the commander backed down."

"Why did you antagonize him, though?' Kimberly asked with a frown.

"If I had tried to outright deny any disrespect at all, he could have kept up the connection to his deity and used that as a bludgeon, but admitting I was being disrespectful towards him, specifically, I broke his narrative."

Kimberly tapped her chin and looked up with a thoughtful expression. "That makes sense. If we let him keep up the thread that we were disrespecting Mierna or the church directly, he might have been able to detain us, and who knows what could have happened then?"

"Well," Teilon began with a smile towards Reivyn, "Who knew you had it in you. You're always so silent in these kinds of situations."

"Sounds like a plan," Teilon replied. "Just.. ugh... give me a second longer." Teilon looked at his pack with obvious reluctance. Reivyn clapped him on the shoulder with a chuckle.

"The sooner we find a place to stay, the sooner we can say goodbye to these packs." The three of them psyched themselves up briefly, and then, donning their packs once more, continued on into the heart of the camp.

Reivyn had initially planned on going to the government building to see if there was anything in there to lead the three of them in the right direction as there were no obvious signs other than the ones displayed on the outside of the taverns and inns. It might have seemed like a good enough idea to simply get a room at an inn, but they were probably constantly full, and Refix had given him a little extra money in order to pay for more secluded accommodations.

As he entered the main square, though, Reivyn spotted another, smaller stone building kind of off to the side that he couldn't see from when they first entered the camp. There was a signboard hung above the door that read "Adventurer's Guild," so Reivyn steered his companions towards it. The Adventurer's Guild wasn't just a place where people could find missions and quests, it also served as a hub to provide assistance or guidance to any of its members in the area.

The three of them dropped their packs outside the entrance to the branch building. They weren't worried that someone would come by and steal their packs, as they only dropped the heavy ones filled with rocks. Sure, the packs themselves were valuable, but anyone who attempted to empty them of their contents would require the time to do so, and Reivyn was confident they could react in time to stop them.

This branch of the Adventurer's Guild was incredibly bare, and it didn't have anything other than a couple of receptionist desks and a notice board. Reivyn had expected any branch of the Adventurer's Guild to have other accommodations attached to it, like a bar or something, but after some careful thought, he realized that it might in the future, but this building was extremely new, and there were already taverns outside that people could go to, so there was no need to provide such a service as a priority.

The three walked up to a desk with a young man sitting behind it. He was flipping through a book, as there were hardly any people inside the establishment at the moment. That wasn't to say that it was empty, there just weren't enough people lined up to cause Reivyn and his friends to have to wait.

The young man placed his book aside, marking the page, as Reivyn walked up to the desk.

"How can I help you?" He asked with a smile. Even though the man had been sent out to man the desks of such a bare branch in a hardly established area, he maintained a professional attitude. He might actually be happy to get in on the ground floor in a place that will obviously one day be important, I don't know.

"We just got here, and we need a place to stay," Reivyn said. "We want something more exclusive than just a room at an inn."

"Certainly, we provide private courtyards. You're lucky that you got here relatively early, as there are only so many spots we were allowed to purchase. As we're just getting settled in, though, we only have one form of courtyard available for everyone. They're little four-bedroom houses with a small kitchenette and living space. Will that be acceptable?"

Reivyn looked to his two companions, and receiving a nod from them both, he turned back to the young man. "That would be perfect. What's the price?"

"Since these aren't anything special, they're not too expensive, but, at the same time, there aren't too many of them. It will be 3 silvers per month."

Reivyn pulled out the coin purse his father had given him and pulled 12 silver coins out. His father had given him 50 silvers, enough to pay for an entire year, but Reivyn had no idea how long they would actually be staying here on this stint, and an entire year seemed like a long time for someone who had only spent 10 years alive so far. He also didn't want to squander the money his father had given him, and he wanted to return as much of it as possible.

"We'll go ahead and pay for four months," Reivyn said as he handed the coins over.

"Sure thing, just give me your adventurer tokens," he held his hand out for all three of them to hand their tokens over. Once he had them, he took out four different forms. He placed one token each on one of the forms, and for the last one, he placed all three tokens. Once done, he gave the tokens back while putting the coins away. He handed a copy of the forms over to Reivyn. "These are the contracts stipulating that you are the ones staying in the courtyard. Here," he produced a key from somewhere. This is the key. The courtyard you have is number 7. Just head out, turn left, and it's the fourth one on the left side of the road."

"Thanks, you've been a big help," Reivyn said as he took the key. "Is there a copy for them?" He indicated his companions with a tilt of his head.

"I'm afraid not. That's the only key at the moment. While you could get copies made yourselves, you'll need to do so through the guild branch, and there will be an associated fee."

"It's fine," Kimberly interjected. She looked at Teilon and Reivyn in turn, "It's not likely that we'll be in a situation where we'll be separated and unable to get in." Reivyn nodded at her words.

"You're right. Something to consider for the future if such a situation seems likely, though." Reivyn waved at the young man and took the papers and key, "Thanks again."

"No problem. Have a nice day."

The three regained their packs and made their way to the courtyard that was indicated. The guild building had been to the right of the square as they entered from the main road, so turning left had them heading back towards the outskirts on the other side of the camp.

Having said that it was the fourth building on the left made it seem like the courtyard was just right there near the central area, but that wasn't the case. There was a large open space where a building would obviously be built some time in the future, but there was nothing there yet.

The three of them spent several minutes walking to where they could see the courtyards in the distance. Each of the houses were built exactly the same. They were small, square buildings with a chest-height wall built around them. There was space inside the walls for a short yard and training space, and there was enough room to drive a single cart in between each wall.

They made their way to the fourth building, the one with a prominent "7" displayed at the gate of the wall - the even numbered buildings were on the right side of the road - and Reivyn used his key to gain access to the building. There was a wooden gate that could be closed at the wall, but as it stood empty, it had been open.

"Ahh, our new home," Reivyn said as he walked into the little living quarters. There were two small rooms off on either side of the central area, and the living space and kitchenette were also fairly small. All in all, the building was about a quarter the size of his parents' house in Magron.

"It's a little cramped," Teilon said with a skeptical look. The building came furnished with one couch, and there was one bed and a chest of drawers in each room.

"More room, and, more importantly, more privacy, than a room at an inn," Kimberly remarked as she also followed them inside, closing the door behind them. "Don't think that I don't know what you've been thinking all the way here," she said with a knowing smirk towards Teilon. "Remember what my parents said to you before we left Haluville."

"Whaaaat? I've been nothing but a perfect gentleman this whole time. Back me up, here, Reivyn."

"Hmmm? Oh, keep your hands to yourself," Reivyn said. Teilon looked at Reivyn in shock with his mouth agape.

"Why does everyone assume I'm the bad guy?" Teilon said with mock hurt.

"Because you are," Kimberly said. She quickly left the two and headed to the room in the back left that she had claimed for herself. "I don't know why you're just standing there in the doorway. You were the one complaining the whole time about getting rid of these packs."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Teilon said. He dashed to the room next to the one Kimberly went into with a glance at Reivyn.

Reivyn just chuckled at their antics as he moved to the back right room to deposit his things.

Home, sweet home, he thought.