”There we go, a perfect disguise!” Anastacia proudly declared and presented her work to the rest of the group.

King stepped from behind the carriage they had been traveling in. Clothed in whatever spare pieces of clothes Anastacia had managed to get her hands on, the simulacrum looked strange to say the least, but the obvious clues of his identity were well hidden. His face was covered by a makeshift mask that consisted of a wooden plank with some engravings on it and red stains from an unsuccessful attempt at painting it with berries; rest of his head was hidden by a hood of Anastacia’s cloak, which was all too short for him but did the job; under it he had one of Gilbert’s spare shirts, a loincloth made from a sack they had taken for whatever food they needed for the journey; on both his legs and arms were some of Anastacia’s spare socks, that were badly stretched but still managed to cover the glowing lines on King’s armor.

Gilbert was dumbfounded by the sight and had to take a few seconds to recover. “That’s uh… that’s quite something.” He said and gestured for Emilia to come and look.

The priestess just burst into laughter at the sight of the disguised simulacrum. Struggling between laughing and trying to gasp for air, she had to lean against the wagon to stay upright.

“Why are you two so mean? He’s very handsome!” Anastacia frowned and kicked some dirt at them. “He just needs to not look like a simulacrum so we can get past the gates.”

“So what is he supposed to be then? He still can’t speak and honestly, you two look extremely suspicious together. I’d be amazed if we don’t get arrested on sight.” Gilbert said and knocked on the wooden plate on King’s face to make sure it wouldn’t fall off.

Anastacia stared at King for a while but couldn’t come up with anything that made sense. “How should I know?! You’re the know-it-all here, so you come up with something.” She exclaimed frustratedly.

Emilia had finally managed to collect herself again and took a couple of deep breaths before speaking. “I know, he can be a trash golem. You can basically make a golem out of anything, so why not random discarded junk? We could just strap on a few more random things on him and it’d be convincing enough. Anna is already a mage too so even if they ask for proof, she can just toss a few fireballs and we’ll get through.” She suggested, trying her best to not laugh.

“Yeah sure, that works. Anna, if someone asks, you’re now a trash mage.” Gilbert agreed.

“Is that even a thing?” Anastacia asked.

Gilbert shrugged. “Not that I know of, but a rank and file guard won’t know either. I’ll leave the details for you to figure out.” He said and started looking for something in the wagon. “There’s one more thing we need to make sure of though.” Gilbert mumbled before pulling out a coil of rope.

While Anastacia was busy putting some finishing touches on King’s disguise, Gilbert gave a subtle nod to Emilia, who snuck behind the necromancer and grabbed her. Anastacia immediately knew what was happening and began screaming and flailing furiously. The frail necromancer didn’t have event the slightest chance to escape Emilia’s grasp, but she put up a fight for sure. After getting kicked and hit for a while, Gilbert managed to tie the rope around Anastacia’s waist, he then tied the other end firmly around King’s forearm and told the priestess to let go.

“That rope is enchanted, it can’t be burned, and the knots can only be opened by the one who made them.” Gilbert explained while Anastacia screamed and tugged on the rope with all her might. “Now, you can still cut it if you absolutely need to, but I will take the cost of the new one from your share of the rewards if you do that.”

Emilia watched the necromancer try to pull the rope off Kings arm. “How much did it cost?” She asked.

“About what we made in the last month or so.” Gilbert sighed.

“What?! Why would you spend that much on a piece of rope? Enchanted or not.” Emilia asked and added up what they had earned, which ended up being not an insignificant amount of gold.

The old adventurer laughed. “In the last two months, we’ve visited three towns that weren’t even a tenth of this city combined, and yet Anna has gone missing five times and it takes almost the entire day to find her. We’d be here for a week if we don’t tie her down.” He said. “Besides, it’s funny.”

The priestess couldn’t disagree with the reasoning, especially with the latter part of it being hilarious. On the last quest they had visited one of the towns near Valor’s border and lost the necromancer almost as soon as they walked through the gate. They later found her tuckered out by a tree after she had discovered a bakery and eaten too many pastries.

“I DON’T LIKE IT!” Anastacia screamed and tried to tear the rope off like it was actually hurting her. After flailing and screaming some more, she lied down on the road in protest of her fate. “It’s humiliating, take it off or I’m not going anywhere.” She sulked.

Gilbert crouched next to her and gently nudged her shoulder. “This is for your own good as well. You haven’t been out in the real world for all that long, sure you can fight murderous necromancers like no one else, but you don’t know how to handle normal people. You also need to understand that every time you run off somewhere, you make Emilia and I worry. With this we know King is with you and we know he’ll get you back sooner or later.” He explained calmly and gave the girl a reassuring pat. “That said, we can just drag you by the rope if you refuse to walk. So come on now, we have a kid to bring back to his folks.”

Anastacia slowly got up and climbed into the wagon to pout as the party continued their journey towards the city of Merfall. They had stopped by the side of the road a couple of kilometers out from the city to sort out how they’d smuggle King in. Though Gilbert still thought that it’d be a lot simpler to just have him wait outside, but Anastacia was insistent that he needed to be there to see the city as well.

Over the few days they had been traveling, the boy they were paid to rescue had become a bit more familiar with King and could now be in the wagon at the same time instead of the simulacrum having to follow them on foot, though that was more thanks to Anastacia’s repeated attempts to smack the boy every time he even looked at King the wrong way, than the boy actually trusting him more. The boy had also agreed to not blow their cover after some mild ‘encouragement’ by the necromancer.

Soon enough, Merfall appeared in the horizon and getting to see a new city quickly made Anastacia forget the leash around her waist. At about the same size as northern Valor, Merfall was one of the three biggest cities of the Welcatian empire and was definitely a sight to behold. From the outside, the most striking detail was the half-complete wall surrounding the city. Before the nearby machine fortress was activated, the empire was more or less unchallenged in the area and there hadn’t really been a reason to fortify most towns and cities, but now things were different, and the lords gathered every worker they could find to build at least some walls and forts around the major settlements under their rule. They wouldn’t offer all too much protection from the simulacra, but with the empire’s army tied to the areas immediately around the machine fortress, the bandit activity in the rest of the empire was on the rise as well and even the simplest walls went far when trying to avoid raiding.

They passed through the encampments of the builders working on the wall and Gilbert stopped to exchange a few words with some of them. He quickly made friends and caught up on some of the more recent developments in the city. They were also told to leave their wagon in the stables outside the gate to avoid getting pointlessly searched.

“Anna, remember that this isn’t Valor, no one knows who you are and will react accordingly if you cause trouble. No matter what happens, do not attack anyone in the city, not even in self-defense. If anything happens, you and King run away and leave the city. Am I being clear enough?” Gilbert said to the necromancer before they were within earshot of the guards.

“Yeah yeah yeah…” Anastacia dismissed his worries and headed to the gates.

They tried to pass through without causing a scene, but those hopes were quickly crushed when one of the heavily armored guards lowered his spear to block their way, quite possibly because a creature seemingly built from scrap clothing and trash walking a horned child on a leash is not something a guard should allow to enter the city without a quick check.

“Halt.” He said in a stern and commanding manner, making the other guards per up as well. “What’s going on here?”

“They’re with us.” Gilbert said before Anastacia got the chance to open her mouth, which was probably for the better. “We’re just a party of adventurers, here to return this kid to his parents.” He explained and pointed at the boy.

The guard looked at Gilbert from head to toe and obviously scanned for anything out of the ordinary, he then moved on to Emilia, whose spotless uniform probably gave the party most of its credibility. After coming to a conclusion about the two, he turned to the boy. “Is that true? What’s your family’s name?” He asked while keeping an eye on the supposed adventurers.

“Y… yes. My name is Micah Leinwand, my family runs a store here in the city.” The boy said with a wavering voice and avoided the guard’s gaze.

“Leinwand, Leinwand…” The guard repeated and tried to remember whether he had heard the name before or not. “Oh! The one by The Fall? I think the missus buys all of our linen from your shop, it’s top notch.”

“Thank you, sir.” Micah responded without looking at the guard.

“So we can go now?” Anastacia asked because she was getting impatient.

The guard remembered the two weirdos and stiffened up again. “The kid, the priestess and the old guy can go, you two I’m still undecided on. I need to know what in the name of all things holy is going on here.”

“Now just wait a second-“ Gilbert started before Anastacia pointed for them to go.

“Just go, I can find you when we get through.” The necromancer smiled.

After a bit more encouragement from Emilia, Gilbert sighed and agreed to leave Anastacia and King to deal with the guard. He figured that the worst-case scenario was them not getting in and having to wait outside. In that case, they would just have to skip the sightseeing and leave as soon as they were paid.

The guard watched them clear out from the gate before turning back to the couple of oddballs. “Speak.” He ordered sternly.

“He’s not much of a speaker, considering I conjured him from a pile of rubbish. I’ll answer whatever questions you might have. The name is Anastacia by the way.” The necromancer lied and bowed to the guard.

“So he’s a magical construct then? And you’re supposedly a mage? We have some mages in the city and I’m fairly sure you’re nothing like them…” The guard pondered.

“That’s because I’m the only trash mage in the world!” Anastacia declared looking awfully proud about her fake title. “I can do a few other things too though.”

The guard squinted and seemed to doubt her explanation. He spun around his spear and used the blunt end to tap King’s chest to see whether the supposed golem reacted in any way. A disguised human would have flinched at the very least, but King didn’t move an inch and passed the test. Luckily King being a disguised simulacrum didn’t even cross the guard’s mind, since they weren’t known to work with humans. He was more concerned that Anastacia was trying to smuggle a wanted criminal or something akin to that into the city, or that she and her golem were somehow dangerous to the citizens.

“I see… What about the rope? Is there a reason you’re bound, maybe it’s just your thing? There’s a whole street for folk like you in here, just follow the red lanterns from around the corner – though you do seem a bit young for that.” The guard said half-jokingly, continuing the interrogation.

Anastacia had no idea what he meant. “Yeah, I hardly go outside without at least this much, just doesn’t feel right.” She lied, innocently assuming that being tied up was a custom somewhere in the world or something, and the guard was talking about a street with a lot of people from that part of the world.

Slightly surprised by how openly the girl spoke about something so personal, the guard stared at the happily smiling adventurer awkwardly. However, her honesty did put his mind at ease. The mage seemed to just be a regular crackpot and not the dangerous kind. After all, it was common knowledge that the people who took up adventuring as their profession were often the weirder ones that didn’t fit in with regular folk, so she seemed to match that description as well. “Okay, you’re free to enter the city – maybe don’t go close to the children though, they’d have questions their parents don’t want you to answer.” he laughed and rested his spear against his shoulder.

Anastacia didn’t understand but wasn’t going to linger around the guards for any longer than needed, so she bowed politely and ran off to find her friends with King in her tow.

The guard shared a look with one of his colleagues, who had overheard the conversation. “The youngsters these days, they’re far too grown up. When I was her age, I was busy fighting with by brothers and such… explicit stuff hadn’t even crossed my mind.” He shrugged and leaned against the wall.