He followed Ragul towards the gate, looking like a child hiding in his shadow because of the height difference.
"Mr. Chester, if it doesn't bother you, there's something I'd like to ask you, does it bother you to walk next to you?"
It wasn't the safest thing to do, standing next to someone he thought had the strength to break his neck in a single move, but it was something he did instinctively. He hadn't realized it until he told him, at the time he was reviewing a few things about what to look out for on the journey. It was true that the walk looked a bit strange. He didn't need to say what was on his mind.
"It's just that your stride is bigger than mine, you walk a little faster, big man."
After pausing for a few seconds to let Chester catch up, they were side by side. He had slowed his pace.
"I didn't realize."
These walls, which grew in his eyes as he got closer, looked as if they had been built by pushing the limits of modern engineering. He had to lift his head so high to see the end of the walls that his neck would have hurt. The walls were just as thick, it would be wrong to call them gates, they looked more like a short tunnel. Ragul had noticed his interest in the wall and spoke up to break the silence.
"The great Wall that Splitstar built. I've heard that even the Wizard kingdom of Dukaarl doesn't have such magnificent walls."
Chester decided to jog his memory for a moment. If he remembered correctly, Splitstar was one of the three kings of the country. It was strange that he personally worked on the construction of the wall. Dukaarl was the name of a kingdom on the borders of this country. He could remember its location from the map, it was west of the continent. Thanks to Ragul, he had just learned that it was a place of sorcery and magic. He could do research here as his second plan.
Without waiting too long, he gathered his thoughts and replied to Ragul, who was waiting for his comment.
"They must be short of workers."
Ragul laughed loudly in contrast to his thin speaking voice.
"It's too costly and laborious to be done without magic, so we can say that the king has stepped up to the plate."
After walking a little further, they came to the entrance of the tunnel. There seemed to be no serious control of those leaving the city. There was only a soldier and his bodyguard sitting in a simple hut. They asked where they were going and why, took their names and let them through without checking anything else. He was looking at the line of people coming through the tunnel. As far as he could see, there were various people in the line. Wagons and various merchants, travelers, some refugees who seemed to have fled the war, and busybodies like himself.
"The line is quite long."
"Invaded and plundered villagers prefer to seek refuge in the city at this time of year to avoid winter hunger. The temples are obliged to care for the needy."
He sounded a little sad.
"It looks even busier this year."
"I thought there was no war."
"I heard that soldiers are massing in the Deep Valley borders and they are not telling anyone why."
"I think that's why there are problems with internal security."
"Not really. Merchants say there's no problem along the busy routes and around the big cities, but the further you get from the city, the more it changes. The savages and wild beasts are out there. Even if you manage to evade them, it's quite normal to be killed and robbed by bandits or captured and sold into slavery. It happens all the time, but they say there is more of this cycle."
The place he was going to was no more than a village, and at best he would be fine halfway there. The idea of an easy job was instantly erased. Along the tunnel, a few soldiers were standing guard back and forth, and two people were thrown out of the line by the soldiers for some unknown reason. One of them managed to evade the soldiers, and the creature, which looked like a bird, was easily caught as it flew at full speed towards the exit and, after being severely beaten, was dragged into a room inside the wall.
It was a bad try, he thought, if he were in his place he would have found out the day before the frequency of patrols and whether there was a place on the wall where he could hold on, and at night he would have used these points to rest if necessary, and then he would have flown quickly to the top of the wall. It was a short thought, but certainly better than this foolish action. Eventually he reached the end of the tunnel. A group of armored soldiers, a crystal giant covered in steel, a tiger-like creature riding a dragon were waiting in a corner on the outer wall of the city, chatting among themselves, looking for people and vehicles entering. They were clearly bored and obviously placed for intimidation. Chester turned his focus to the great hills.
He was immediately struck by the huge expanse of fields and vineyards, some inns for lodging and food, a station that seemed to provide security but was clearly inadequate. When he looked a little more carefully, he saw a huge area of stables, tanneries and black-smoked ovens and furnaces, and opposite this area, a huge area of tents and poor people living in them. There were probably settlements going on behind small hills. It was indeed a capital. They were moving towards the area of the convoys near the gate.
Chester was about to ask why, but Ragul beat him to it.
"We didn't know how long to wait, so we left the mounts with the groom."
Unlike the other places, it was smaller and more neglected, a mix between an animal market and a stable. A pet shop for the creatures would be more accurate.
The various creatures used for riding were cared for here by a groom who resembled a moth with his huge eyes and fluffy brown fur. In his overalls, covered in dust and dirt, she stood up from the column she was leaning against and approached Ragul.
"It's about time, these yarpans of yours have become very vicious. Their skin has turned black from feeding them grave root."
It showed six creatures slightly shorter than itself, resembling a glowing, hairless, hard-skinned dog in blue and black.
"Well-"
"You should take better care of them, poor things. I'd say they've just come to their senses. Anyway, turn left at the back door, there's my apprentice, stamp the seal of delivery and take them, they're taking up too much space in my barn."
Ragul turned back to Chester with his mouth open.
"I'll take care of it Mr. Chester. Will bring the wagons to the front gate quickly."
Chester stood still, studying the other creatures. In his mind he could feel Mag begging him to come closer, even though she wasn't speaking. But instead of approaching, it wouldn't be so bad to get some information from the groom.
"Finally. They've been camping with their wagons next to my yard for days."
She stopped for a moment and began to stare at Chester.
"And you, sir? Are you a friend of the hoofed? Would you like a Yarpan? Or a Kurla for lightning-fast travel? Or perhaps a Kalbazgara for large shipments?"
She kept saying one thing after another, and before she had finished one sentence she was saying something else. While Chester was still trying to comprehend what she was saying, two apprentices of the same race as the groom came from the back door and led the mounts to the wagon. At that moment Chester was not able to decipher the language well enough to understand what she was saying. Maybe she was just swallowing words too fast. She was like a hyperactive child.
Finally, groom fell silent, and after a few seconds of staring, she spoke again.
"Sooo, are you going to stand there like an wall, are you going to say something? I'm not good at reading minds."
"I'm not interested in mounts right now, I'm the bodyguard of that big buy."
"Ha! Guard duty for a taurran? Anyway, give me a shout if you like anything, I have work to do in the backyard."
She added as he headed for the back door.
"And please look farther away, you scare my animals with your strange eye."
Chester spoke after the groom had gone out the door.
"You heard what she said, Mag, back off."
"But Chester, these creatures are an uncategorized species, we need to get samples of them."
"We've talked about this before. We don't need to, they're just fucking creatures. You'll have to make do with their photos."
Chester paused, then continued.
"But now that you mention it, I realized something."
"What's that?"
"Even without speaking, you can be a nuisance to others."
"-NO NEED TO FLATTER- So does that mean I can talk now?"
After a deep sigh, he nodded.
"All right, you can blabber, but no talking to the others."
Chester stepped out of this barn-like place and waited for Ragul to bring the wagon. It took a little too much time for a few minutes, but eventually Ragul and his family arrived with a wagon filled to the brim with supplies and household goods.He saw the displeasure on his wife's face for a few seconds, but it was quickly erased. He could not see his children, they were probably in the carriage.
Like Ragul, his family were also taurran. His wife was a little shorter than Ragul, but physically she was not much different from him. She stood in front of him like a child.
"Are you the one from the guild?"
"Yes, I'm Chester from the busybody guild, your bodyguard."
"I hope you can protect us, little man, because we have no intention of dying."
"Tersan, there's no need to be rude."
It was not unusual for a mother to worry about her family. Chester ignored it and continued.
"Hope has nothing to do with it. I don't leave things to chance. I will get you and your family there safely, Mrs. Tersan." Chester looked around a little more and then went to the carriage where Ragul was and sat down next to him.
"Where's the rest of the family?"
"My children are sleeping in Tersan's wagon, Mr. Semder is staying in a nearby village, we will pick him up on the way."
They were going to travel on this carriage, which looked sloppy and flimsy. It would be a miracle if it didn't split in two in the middle of the road. But at last they were on their way. They took a road that ran parallel to the walls of the city. For now the roads were paved with stone, and they looked good and clean. They even had carvings. A tunnel built parallel to the road and a tall tower resembling a skyscraper caught Chester's attention. The tunnel and the road went together all the way to the horizon, and there was probably more. At the entrance to the tunnel, a line of wagons and a group of soldiers was waiting here. Several different buildings were also located here. In a low voice he said what was on his mind.
"What the hell is this?"
Mag took it seriously and responded.
"I'd say there could be an observation tower and an army road, but that would be a ridiculous assumption this close to the walls."
Chester didn't hesitate to ask.
"Do you know what this place is?"
Ragul replied after some awkwardness.
"A tunnel of travel. I know they're quite fast, but they're also expensive. It would probably save us a couple of weeks."
It was good news for Chester.
He could travel on a vehicle like a motorcycle, or he could run the whole way in his armor. It was a believable excuse for fast travel, but if the focuser gave him trouble or the scale of pluses wasn't heavy enough for minuses, he could probably jump into one of these with his after-work money. But while he didn't know how long these tunnels were, it would be naive to assume they were thousands of kilometers long. At most, they extended to the nearest city. And according to the map Mag showed him, there was no city or settlement within a thousand kilometers to the north. It was a really old map.
"Hmm, now that you mention it, this tower looks like some kind of high airflow chimney."
Unlike Mag, Chester didn't have to guess.
"Can you tell me how it works?"
"I've never been on one so I don't know much about it, but from what I've heard, you travel on a boat above the water in a dark tunnel."
"My guess is that it is a specially designed sailing tunnel that takes advantage of the low friction of the water and the high air flow. How -ABSURD - creative and interesting."
He agreed with what Mag said. It was interesting, absurd and expensive. It would not be wrong to call it a train line running on water.
"Do we have a definite place to camp?"
"Not really. I know a few places, but usually the good places are always full. Patrols often complain about smoke of the campfires."
"What do they say about people camping right next to the road?"
He could feel Ragul getting angry.
"The patrols don't like it! They say road don't look good, littering with dung on the side. They usually have the camps packed up in a hurry."
Actually, on second thought, it wasn't such a good idea. Camping on the side of the road would increase visibility too much. He wouldn't know if every person it passed was a threat or not. In a more remote location, it would have been easier to consider anything that approached him a threat.
"Calm down. I'll try to find a good place if necessary. By the way, how far is this village?"
"I think we'll be there around noon."
He was talking about a journey of several hours. It was obvious that this creature called a Yarpan pulled faster than a horse. Two in the back and one in the front.
"The harness is a bit strange, doesn't it interfere with the rhythm in front?"
"Not really, the yarpan in front is the herd leader and the ones in the back are the followers. Do you see the color on his back?"
The front one had green paint on its back.
"Yarpan herd leaders have pale green backs, but the real herd leader is now pulling my wife's wagon, so we painted his back green to fool the yarpans in the back."
"It's quite a unusual."
"Yes, but it's quite effective, the only problem is to wipe off the green paint before removing the straps, otherwise they fight with the real pack leader."
"I'm very curious about something, Mr. Chester, where exactly do you come from?"
It was a reasonable question, it gave the impression of a man who didn't even know the basics.
"I come from far away, you could say I'm trying to earn enough money to go back home. I may look a bit clueless, but I'm not like that in combat, don't worry. In the end, the goal is the same everywhere."
"You are right, the method of killing someone is the same wherever you go."
"That's the way life is, some things don't change."
Mag had intervened and was involuntarily speaking in an audible voice.
"Chester, since when were you so philosophical? My eyes—sorry, eye—got all teary."
"Mag, you're like a monkey. Shut up."
Ragul was about to open his mouth to speak, a little surprised, when Chester felt the urge to make a quick explanation.
"Sorry, this is Mag, my assistant."
"An enchanted companion? That's unexpected but nice. Nice to meet you, Mag."
"See, Chester? Unlike you, this gentle taurran makes me- What exactly are you doing?"
Chester poked her mechanical eye. He knew it didn't hurt, but it was enough to shut her up. He could see the annoyance.
"Ha-ha, how very mature. Okay, talk to you later."
"She flattens my head."
Raul was smiling.
"At least one of us is having fun, Mr. Chester."
"I'll expect a tip at the end of the road, then."
"We're not even on the road yet, but if we arrive safely, why not."