Chapter 13: Meadowfield Town

Tobias had learned that his village was part of a group of villages which surrounded a town called Meadowfield. It had been one of the non-hunting knowledge he learned from Alex, and he would be lying if he said that it wasn’t useful to know.

So he headed there. Alex had briefly mentioned that in turn, Meadowfield town was only one of the towns surrounding a city, and a city was only one of the few cities around a city called a ‘capital’, and the capital was supposedly the heart of the nation – or something.

But really, all he figured out from that was that he somehow managed to skip not one, not two, but four entire neighboring villages and somehow ended up in Alex’s far-off village. Tobias wasn’t too good with directions – that was Marcus’ job.

The thought of his late friend made his chest feel heavy. He wouldn’t deny that he missed his best friend who somehow befriended his solitary, unfriendly self, and the weight of the responsibility of getting stronger to get him back only made him feel... weary. But it was only two weeks since he started his journey, he shouldn’t give up so quickly.

His next thoughts shifted. It had mostly revolved around what he wanted to do next. He was supposed to go towards Meadowfield Town, and then... what was it again? Get some identification? And then after that, he was supposed to head towards Ordbridge City and become an adventurer.

It was simply the fastest, most morally efficient way to get stronger. (Aside from going into the Bad Lands – but he knew that if he ever does that right now, he would only get torn to shreds.)

He shivered at the thought. And besides, he did remember what happened to him on that battle field. He was instantly defeated, but right when he was about to executed, the enemy was slain by one of his allies, before said ally died from an enemy. It all happened too quickly. If war was something he wasn’t sure he could survive, then what difference would the Bad Lands make?

So he marched on, walking towards the direction where the town was.

***

Just like its namesake, Meadowfield Town was a town in the middle of a... meadow, which also happened to be surrounded by fields upon fields of grass. Tobias had quickly found out that towns had better security than villages. They had low-rise stone walls, and they had large, open wooden gates that were guarded seemingly at all times.

When he approached the gates, the guards quickly looked at him. They turned to look at each other with some minor confusion, and one of them approached him.

“Hey kid, are you lost?” The left guard asked, his head covered by some chain-like helmet of sorts. By his side was a spear – which also had a small axe-head attached to it. It was a halberd, and he idly wondered if he was strong enough to fight win against the guard while using a sword.

Then he realized that he was being stupid, so he stopped that line of thought.

“This is Meadowfield Town, right?” Tobias asked back in response, and the pair of guards looked at each other again.

“It is.” The right guard said, nodding. “Is it your first time visiting this town?”

“Indeed.” Tobias replied. “What do I need to do?” He didn’t know how gaining admission or entry worked, but as long as these guards seemed reasonable enough, then he would probably listen to what they have to say.

“There’s usually an entry fee for everyone, and then if you plan to keep visiting this town without getting charged, then you pay for a traveler’s pass at the main office.” The left guard explained. “But you know what kid, call it your lucky day. I’ll let you in for free, so you go do just that.”

“But why is he allowed to skip the fee?” The other guard asked, his voice pitched high with exasperation and surprise.

“Do you honestly think this kid can pay?” The guard retorted with his own question. Both guards looked at Tobias, staring at him. And then, they seemed to have finally noticed that he wasn’t quite poor as they anticipated.

“He’s kinda... well equipped, don’t you think?” The other guard admitted, eyeing the dark blue coat, along with with his similarly colored scarf, hand knitted by his own half-twin elder sister. But to be fair, it was pretty high quality. His sister spent years practicing knitting, after all. “What made you think that he can’t pay?”

“Oh.” The guard squinted his eyes, and let out a chuckle. “On second thought, maybe I should get those spectacles you kept telling me about.”

“Anyways, you should pay up, kid. I’m sure you can afford that, at the very least.”

“Alright.” Tobias said, and he reached into his pockets. In there, he retrieved a string the length of his pointer finger, with copper coins threaded through the string. It was long enough to carry exactly twenty coins. “How much is the fee?”

“Twenty copper, as is standard.” The guard said, with some measure of amusement in his face. When he received the length of string with coins, he only gave it a light shake, the coins clinking together, before nodding. “So, yeah. Welcome to Meadowfield Town, and enjoy your stay.”

Tobias walked inside the town, leaving the guards who bickered with one another, while one guard was berating the other guard for judging him by appearance. But really, Tobias believed that it was good to be considerate of others.

So he went inside the town without much more fuss.

There were well-constructed buildings ahead of him, and streets which had different turns and signs every now and then... Then he looked at the ground.

...

The town’s streets had excellent square tiles! Time to make sure his steps never touched the lines again. And with a very pleased hum to himself, Tobias officially entered the town.

***

Tobias had quickly figured out where the main office was; people answered his question fairly easily, and they pointed in the correct direction. So now, he was inside of said office.

It was really just another building made of stone, with wooden-lined windows. It was also a building that had glass for windows; ‘main office’ sounded pretty important, after all.

The inside of the office was well lit, with the glass windows here and there letting in generous amounts of light. The room was fairly clean – with white painted walls and sunlight streaming through the glass windows. There was a table in the far corner, with ‘reception’ labeled on it. There was a woman with spectacles sitting behind the table.

He approached her. In response, the woman turned to look at him. She wore black hair tied into a singular ponytail behind her head, and had black rimmed-spectacles to match with her black-colored eyes. Her face expressed some confusion at his appearance.

Tobias briefly thought that her parents must have really liked the color black, so they must have prayed to a god to make their child’s hair and eyes black. (He wasn’t a scholar, nor was he a doctor. He didn’t know how these things worked).

“Hello there, maybe you’ve come to wrong place?” She asked.

He shook his head in response. “This is the main office, right?”

She blinked, then nodded. “Oh, then, welcome to the main office. What can I do for you?”

“How can I acquire a traveler’s pass?” He asked in return.

“Oh.” She said. Then she looked around the empty office. “I would ask you questions to fill out your information, would that be acceptable?”

“That is very much acceptable.” Tobias replied, nodding with a small smile. The woman looked at his smile, and gave him a bigger smile in return.

Then, the questioning began. He had asked if they usually conducted the questioning in such an open space, then the woman said that there was a designated room for it, but it was fine to conduct it outside because there wasn’t anyone else in the office aside from the two of them.

Then the questioning really began. His name was the first, followed by where he came from. When he described the village, she told him the name of the village he came from. It was called ‘Goldenfield Village’, and Tobias let out an unsatisfied sigh at the knowledge.

People weren’t very good at naming places around these parts, huh?

Ten, maybe fifteen minutes passed by, and the woman said that the information about him was complete. “Thank you for your cooperation! Now, your pass will be produced within this day, so make sure to return here to claim it, alright?”

“You are welcome.” Tobias said, nodding. “Oh, and how much does it cost?”

“Oh right, I almost forgot about that! Dear silly me...” She said, then coughed to herself. “It would be fifty copper coins, is that alright?”

“Does the pass ever expire?” He asked. It was somewhat of a steep price to pay, but it all hinged on whether or not it lasted indefinitely.

If it had to be renewed annually – maybe monthly, then maybe it wasn’t as worth as he thought...

“Expire... You mean become invalid? Then I don’t think so, as long as you don’t hold a criminal record somewhere.” She explained, then Tobias nodded. It was worth it, if that was the case.

“Here you go.” His hand slipped to retrieve three strings of copper coins. Each string was long enough to carry twenty coins. For the third string, he snapped it off, and took half of it. Then he gave it to the woman.

“Ah yes, I see. Thank you.” She said, after she counted the coins. There was reason why copper coins had holes on them – so that they could be stringed into easily-countable variations. He was given about ten strings of twenty coins apiece, and the basic necessities were usually purchasable in denominations of twenty, or even less.

“Before I go, can I ask where I can pass my time? Maybe an information source as well, really.” Tobias asked, and she blinked.

“If you’re fine with anywhere... then I would suggest heading to the local tavern.” She replied, although a wince was on her face, as if loathing the suggestion. “But do be careful you hear?”

“Thank you.” Tobias said. “I will return later.”