“Thank you for your patronage and please come again.”
“Will do!”
A door opened with a bell sound as a rough-looking adventurer stepped through it. In his hand, he was holding a new magical longsword that he had been saving up for. With it in his hand he felt like the monsters on the deeper levels wouldn’t pose as much of a threat as before. While walking through the forest he quickly unwrapped it to examine it closer. The design was quite simple but the runic symbols on the blade and how his mana was able to circulate through them freely, told a story.
“This is one of the best enchantments I’ve ever seen… Now those damn salamanders don’t stand a chance, can’t wait to see those guys blue with envy!”
His grin was apparent as he wanted to show this weapon to all of his adventurer friends. Previously their party leader had bought a shield from the same shop and after seeing it at work, everyone else wanted an item for themselves. Now he was the second person to get it and he would be sure to rub it in.
However, while going through the road out of the shop he suddenly halted in his tracks. It took a moment for his mind to process a few things but when it did, with haste he bolted to the side to make way. The weapon he was so eager to use made its way behind his back to hide it from view. In no way did he want to show that he posed any sort of threat to the people that were approaching.
“...Whew… that was close… but why is a group of armored knights going to the magic craftsman? They didn’t seem to lack equipment… I should probably tell the leader about this.”
His eyes were filled with fear after seeing the group pass by him. They looked strong and were armed to the teeth. The crest that was imprinted on some of their shields and armor pieces belonged clearly to the Valerian noble house. The fear of nobility was ingrained in the very being of every commoner, he could not help to step away and hold his head down even if he did nothing wrong.
“I hope that store lady will be fine and there was also that young lass at the entrance…”
The man quickly started running, there was nothing good that could happen from staying here too long. Even though he felt bad for the people in the shop, there was nothing he could do there. There were some bad rumors concerning some of the knight orders from this household. They weren’t a unified faction, there were many Valerian siblings and each had their own sub-knight order to do their bidding. He could only hope that the ones that were going for the store, were more of the honorable bunch.
…
“Hey, did the boss say when he will be back? I need him to look at something.”
“Hm, I don’t think he will be back for a few hours, he said he wanted to buy a few things?”
“Aye? Well, when he comes back.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll send him right over.”
“Haha, Missus you’re a lifesaver.”
“Hey, stop calling me that.”
Elodia and Bernir were having a little conversation in the store which left her blushing slightly.
“It’s only a matter of time now.”
“...”
“I’ll head out then, Jorg should be finished by now, have to keep the boy occupied or he’ll get lazy!”
Bernir laughed while leaving the store through the backdoor. The day seemed very peaceful and the weather was fine. After Roland returned from his trial the workshop was ready for a change. His two half-dwarven workers had been given the task of going through their stock and drawing up some plans for more rooms. This time they would be going even further down and even installing a contraption that would somehow bring them down to the lower levels automatically.
“I need to tell Dyana to knock some sense into him.”
“Worf?”
“No Agni, you can’t bite him.”
“Woof!”
Elodia was left with Agni inside the store, the ruby wolf usually spend his days around here and acted as a deterrent against potential shoplifters. The only problem was that he had gotten slightly too large for the inside. That ruby tail of his would sometimes knock wares off the counters and thus he was relegated to sitting behind the counter without much room to move.
On the outside, Marcie was greeting the customers and also waving to them as they left. It actually seemed to work as people entering the store were usually in a better mood after seeing the cute girl outside. If this actually increased their sales were still debatable but at least it made the atmosphere better.
“It’s slow today, usually there are at least some window shoppers around.”
It was strange not to see more people at this time of the day. New adventurers were arriving at the city after the dungeon announcement was made and their clientele began to expand. Yet for some reason, there weren’t that many people appearing today. Perhaps it was just a slow day or some other event was pulling their customers away.
“Grrrr…”
“Agni? Is something wrong?”
Elodia looked at the ruby wolf that just a moment ago had a silly expression on his face. The tongue that was usually flopping out was exchanged by sharp teeth. It was quite unusual for him to act this way and by the growling sound, it couldn’t be anything good.
“Could monsters have appeared in the forest?”
She was a person that spent a big chunk of her life at the adventurer guild. It wasn’t that strange for stray monsters to wander through these areas. Most of the time they tended to evade large human settlements or even this reinforced house area. They could somewhat feel the magical energies coming from this place that activated their preservation instincts. This mostly worked on the weaker monsters but stronger ones would ignore such signs and instead be attracted to the potential prey.
“Marcie, come inside.”
Even though Agni could have been reacting to a person this didn’t mean that they weren’t in danger. With haste, she walked out from behind the counter to go outside. If something dangerous was there, then the child that was greeting customers was in danger. Even though they had a person from the adventurer guild act as a guard there, it was better for to her go inside.
“Is there something wrong, Big Sis?”
“Just come into the shop for now.”
“Um… okay?”
Marcie didn’t really ask many questions as she moved away from the spot she was standing. She was old enough to know when Elodia was being serious. Just as she was going through the door she noticed Agni moving in closer which made it harder to squeeze through. The ruby crystals on his mane weren’t the softest and could even cut a person.
It was clear to Elodia that something got Agni spooked as he was placing himself in front of her and Marcie. The adventurer that was on guard duty today was not someone that she knew too well. Grisalde and the rest of the group that arrived at the city with Roland weren’t here today. They had set off to the dungeon to earn some money and get involved with the new part that housed stronger monsters.
This man was someone that she loosely knew from her old guild days that was considered somewhat trustworthy. If a monster attack did happen he would not flee in fear unless the power differential was astronomical. Luckily the whole area was outfitted with magical turrets that had been repaired after the incident with the Lich. If something like that appeared then she needed to get everyone to safety and use the hidden escape route.
‘Roland can’t be far away.’
Elodia thought back to what he had mentioned to her in the past. The area was outfitted with strange magical devices that he called sensors. She had no idea how they worked but Roland assured her that if something happened he would be able to tell. If a monster was wandering around the forest then perhaps he was already running back to be of assistance.
“Is this the place?”
“Yes, Lieutenant. This is where the Runesmith lives.”
“Good, move according to the plan we discussed, and be careful, you never know what you can find at a magic user’s home.”
“Yes Sir!”
Finally, they showed themselves, the trouble that arrived was a lot more grave than she expected. It was not a monster but something entirely different and worse. From within the forest, a group of knights emerged. They weren’t hiding their conversation and she was quickly able to pick up the reason that they were here.
‘What do they want with him? Does it have something to do with his noble roots? But that crest, it’s the Valerian one, could they be Lord Arthur’s men?’
The thoughts raced through her head quickly as she tried to grasp the situation. Her heart started racing as more of the armored men emerged. One person from the group looked a bit different, he was wearing light armor and a robe over it. With the staff he was caring on his right side she knew that it was a rare magic user and not someone that Arthur Valerian should be able to employ.
A conversation that she had with Roland a few days ago popped into her head. Then they discussed the Valerian Household in its entirety. Arthur was only one of the many sons of Duke Alexander Valerian. There were usually only four of the sons that were considered valid heirs.
The first one was called Julius Valerian, the oldest of them all and the one with the most backing. After him was the second son Theodore Valerian that had his base of operations in a region nearest to Arthur. The third one Ivan Valerian was known for the fiasco during the Abyssal Cult outbreak not so long ago. Then the fourth one was Tybalt Valerian that had rumors circulating about making some bold moves into Ivan’s territory after the blunder was made.
‘Could it be one of them? Roland mentioned that something like this could happen.’
Elodia was aware of the worth of the rank B dungeon. It wouldn’t be strange if it became an asset for the siblings to fight for. Normally Arthur Valerian had all the rights to it as it appeared in his territory that was given to him by Duke Alexander. The brothers were supposed to use these given resources to widen their influence and prove themselves. While he had the rights, this didn’t mean that he couldn't sign over the rights to one of the siblings or even work together with them.
‘I need to calm down, if they are with the other nobles then they are here for one thing…’
The situation was quite nerve-wracking but escalating anything wouldn’t help. There were more than fifteen soldiers here and some of them looked like professional knights. Even if she didn’t want to, there were certain rules that needed to be followed. A knight wasn’t truly part of the noble cast but something in between. Yet one thing was certain, as a commoner she needed to heed their orders. There was no way to know what they could do to her or the people around her, with powerful nobles backing them, the knights here were the law.
“You there, Woman.”
“Yes, can I help you with something, Sir, Knight?”
While Elodia was racking her brain for some answers the leader of the group that they referred to as the Lieutenant pointed out to her with his finger. He was wearing a full suit of armor with part of his face sticking out through the visor. There was a certain grin on the man’s face as she was replying with a proper bow. The way that he was looking at her was similar to some of the drunk adventurers with ulterior motives. She was not the only one that noticed as Agni’s growls became even louder.
“Wench, quiet your beast down.”
“Y-yes, my apologies.”
One of the armored men shouted out from the side while putting his hand on the hilt of the sword. Elodia instantly started trying to push Agni back into the shop to keep him from attacking the overbearing soldiers. If he actually attacked one of them it would be over, not even Roland would probably be able to diffuse the situation then. As it stood now, they probably wanted to take him in for questioning. He was an official member of Arthur Velerian’s side and in a sense part of the household. There was no reason to fight as everything could be resolved in a peaceful manner.
“He just gets excited when he sees new people.”
While trying to laugh it off, Elodia managed to push Agni back into the store. It wouldn’t be possible for her to force him in but the ruby wolf was well-behaved enough to listen to the order. Soon the door was closed and both Elodia and the adventurer were left behind with the group of armored men. It was clear to her at a glance that the man would probably not do anything if things got rough but she couldn’t really blame him for it. One wrong move and his life could be over.
“We came for Wayland the Runesmith, where is he? Is he inside? Our Commander doesn’t like to be kept waiting”
“My apologies but Wayland is out on an errand… but he should be back soon.”
“He isn’t here? Are you serious?”
She wasn’t sure what the problem was but the leader of the group looked annoyed. Ever since arriving at this place they were all acting strange and looking around. Their gazes also landed on the magical turrets that were pointing in their direction. It was surprising as most people that arrived here had no idea what these magical devices were.
“Lieutenant, what if the wench is lying?”
“Yeah, what if they just want to buy more time, the commander will be angry if we don’t bring the Runesmith over in time.”
“That is true…”
“W-what are you.”
The group of knights continued to walk forward while talking, they found themselves at the doorstep. Elodia was far too stressed to move out of this spot, she was afraid that if she actually started running that something could go wrong. In the past she heard about stories where knights abused their power, some would seek for the faintest excuse to exert force against a commoner.
“Please stop… why are you doing this?”
“Now that I’m this close, you aren’t half bad why don’t you join me for tonight.”
“Haha, look at him go, he does this in each city.”
“I bet he will get rejected again.”
The Lieutenant towered over Elodia who was stuck standing in front of the store. The adventurer on the side started backing away as he knew that this didn’t look good. The knight grasped her chin between his thumb and index finger while forcing Elodia to look up to him.
“... Should we be doing this, won’t the Runesmith be back soon?”
“Newbie don’t be a stick in the mud, this is the best part of being a knight, just relax. The Lieutenant is just being a bit playful, just keep your eyes peeled at those things, you know what kind of place this is.”
One of the knights that was standing in the back voiced some concerns about the whole situation. He was shot down by another one from the group and told to just watch. Instead of looking at the woman that was being harassed his gaze fell toward the runic turrets.
“Please…”
Then suddenly the situation escalated further. Elodia’s body reacted on its own by trying to push the hand holding her chin. The Lieutenant’s grinning face contorted into something ugly as he felt the resistance.
“You dare strike me. A Valerian Knight? You? A worthless whore? I think someone needs to be taught a lesson.”
Elodia didn’t even know when it happened but a metallic taste entered her mouth as she found herself down on the ground. Her cheek was red and her head was spinning. The men that were around her were constantly laughing and the man that initiated the hit was doing the same.
Yet this wasn’t what started the trouble as soon after the sound of glass on the side entered her ears. It was followed by a ferocious growl of an angry dire wolf that quickly tossed himself at the man responsible for the injury to her cheek.
“Agni… NO!”
She could only look in horror at the armored men going for their weapons and shields. The magical devices that were meant to protect her and the hose began glowing as the battle that she was hoping to avoid unfolded before her and there was nothing that she could do to stop it now.
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