The next day, at the break of dawn, everyone was gathered in front of the Adventurers’ Guild. The building was still closed and there were very few people walking on the streets. The start of the day was a bit later for the city people than it was for those out on the fields.

Liza, Ben and Eliot were wearing their new gambesons and carrying their gear, looking like proper adventurers now. Only Liza had the suitable equipment before, but it was shabby and torn after being used for so long. Fang Chu on the other hand was wearing simple but immaculate travel clothes and carrying a rucksack.

“Morning, everyone. I can see you’re all looking dapper today. I assume the advance was well invested,” said Fang Chu.

“Good morning, Lady Fang Chu,” said Liza with a curtsey.

“Please, stop that. It makes me uncomfortable. Just call me Fang Chu and treat me like you would a normal client. We’ll be traveling together for some time, it would be stifling if you all had to keep proper etiquette the entire time.”

“Thanks, that saves us a lot of trouble,” said Liza, feeling much more relaxed.

Ben kept quiet for most of the time. Apart from a short greeting, he kept his distance from Fang Chu and tried hard to appear natural. He was failing miserably at it.

They walked together to the gate, falling in a formation they’d discussed the previous day. Eliot and Ben walked by Fang Chu’s side and Liza brought the rear guard. Eliot could protect the employer from all but the gravest dangers and Ben could lead her away to a safe place so that they could all fight to their hearts content. Liza kept tabs on everything around them and was poised to shoot at any time.

They waited for the gates to open and soon were on their way. Hours later, the city finally woke up and people poured on the streets for another day of work.

-

Albek was sitting on a long table in the dining room, having breakfast. He spread copious amounts of strawberry jam on his flatbread before shoving it entirely onto his mouth. His old butler brought another tray with a variety of pies to the table and addressed his young master.

“Master, one of the men you lent to lady Fang Chu is here to report. Should I ask him to wait?”

“No need, send him in. When he’s done reporting, give him something to eat from the kitchen. I’m sure he won’t have eaten breakfast yet.”

“As you wish.”

A regular looking man entered the room and approached the table, bowing to Albek. He kept his genuflecting posture and began his report.

“My liege, we’ve done as you instructed. We helped lady Fang Chu to monitor those people and did whatever else she asked of us. She left a note on her inn today, thanking us for the help and dismissing our service. She also left a package for you as a token of appreciation.”

The butler approached the man and grabbed a notebook from his extended hand, bringing it to Albek. The sharp-eyed youth gave a quick look at the pad, identifying as one you could buy in some shops in Kalafrana. He didn’t open it to see what was inside and addressed his subordinate instead.

“Very well, thanks for the good work. What did you discover about those people? Was the interest Fang Chu had for them justified?”

“Not much, my liege. We know they aren’t from around here. The young woman is called Liza, the black-haired youth is called Eliot and the other one is named Ben. Their pet monster is called Boro and is very well trained, from what we could tell. They’re all registered adventurers. It seems they’re short on gold at the moment. We don’t know what for, but due to their occupation we assume it is to buy a magic item.”

“That would make sense, magic items are a costly investment for most adventurers. I don’t remember them having a trained monster though.”

“It is a weirdly shaped serpent, my liege. It keeps coiled around Eliot’s arm and hidden by his clothes most of the time. I assume they don’t want to draw attention and cause panic, that’s why they keep it hidden for most part.”

“That’s smart. Tamed monsters can be a force to be reckoned with, but sometimes they’re more trouble than they are worth. What about that Ben fellow, did you figure out the deal with his voice in the end?”

“We did not. I know you said his voice had a strange quality to it, but whenever he talked it sounded normal to us. The only thing we found odd is that he talks slowly and he’s a weird way of saying some words.”

“Now, that’s peculiar. It almost looks like he doesn’t know the language too well. If he was a dwarf, a gnome, a halfling or someone else from the common races I could understand. After all, they’ve their own dialect and that makes them have a particular way of speaking. But he’s human, he should know how to speak common. Everyone knows common! That’s why we named the bloody thing as such.”

“Yes, me and the boys thought it was strange too. We joked around that maybe he was abandoned as a child and brought up by dwarves.”

Albek laughed out loud and shook his head. He wanted to say how absurd such conjecture was, but in the end this theory could explain quite a few things about the abnormality of that man’s way of speaking and behaving.

“Who knows, stranger things have happened. You have been working through the nights for the last five days. Have everyone take two days off for recovery.”

“Thank you, my liege.”

Albek dismissed his subordinate and got lost in his own thoughts.

[Fang Chu was right in the end… this group is peculiar. Not everyone can tame a monster, not mention keep it so obedient as was described. That Ben fellow too… could he have actually been raised by dwarves? That’s too absurd to believe…]

“Now, let’s see this so-called reward Fang Chu kept talking on and on about…”

Albek opened the handbook. It was a small pad, around the size of the palm of his hand, with only thirty pages of parchment or so. In each page was a well-made sketch of different buildings and architectural structures, all of which Albek had never seen.

His eyes bulged as he leafed the pages hastily with his trembling hands. All sketches depicted buildings in a very different style from the ones found in Balt. To sum it up in a few words, they were all simple and graceful in form. If Ben was present, he would easily pinpoint its similarity with oriental architecture back from Earth.

“This is amazing! I’ve never seen such beautiful pillars! Look at this… how do you read it? Tori gate? Fabulous!” exclaimed Albek.

-

In another manor in the capital, someone else was receiving news about Fang Chu, but his mood was completely different.

“You bunch of incompetent fools! How could you haven’t noticed that she left the city for so long! Quick, gather a few men and go after her!” shouted Richard at the top of his lungs.

“Milord, remember what happened to the previous guards we sent? I’m afraid…”

“Damn it! Send those mercenaries then! Wasn’t for this very reason that we hired them? To have stronger, but unaffiliated men at our disposal?”

“As you command milord.”

Soon, a group of five horsemen left the city galloping at full speed. Liza and company had a few hours head start, but they were walking leisurely at a constant speed, unaware of the pursuit.

The mercenaries maintained their gallop for the initial stretch before switching to a slower trot, after all they had no intention to injury their horses on this pursuit. They calculated that in an hour or so they should be bumping on their prey. Their prediction was spot on. After traveling for this long they could finally see a small group up ahead that matched the description they were given.

“All right folks, remember. We’re bandits assaulting a group of travelers, that’s all. Our target is a noble lady, so we can’t just capture them using the name of our employer.”

“Hahaha, bandits. That’s serves nicely.”

The others laughed as well. In truth, mercenaries weren’t that much different from bandits. Whenever they were fighting or invading a land in the name of a lord, they would always rape and pillage after the combat, much like bandits would. They were mostly crude and cruel men, used to the violence and living on the edge of a blade.

They broke in a gallop again and rushed at the group. Feeling the trembling of the earth and hearing the sound of horses, Liza turned her head around to see five horsemen approaching them fast, their swords glistening in the air.

“Shit! Bandits! Attention everyone! Boro, get ready to take care of the horses!”

The group stopped walking and turned around to face the incoming enemies. Liza readied and arrow, Eliot drew his sword and Ben dragged Fang Chu away and stood in front of her. Fang Chu watched the whole preparation with interest, keeping most of her focus on Ben.

The horsemen were already a hundred meters away.

“Wait!” exclaimed Liza.

Fifty meters away.

“Wait!”

Twenty-five.

“Now, Boro!”

The dragon slid to the top of Eliot’s shoulders and reared his head back before giving and explosive roar. Even Liza, who was waiting for it, was somewhat shocked. The horses neighed uncontrollably and tried to stop with all their might, their front hooves swinging wildly in the air.

The mercenaries weren’t expecting such reaction and were caught off guard, all of them falling from their mounts. Now that they were freed from their rider’s control, the terrified horses ran away. Liza gave up on her shot and grabbed Boro from Eliot’s shoulder before running after the horses.

“Oh, no you don’t! I’m not letting horses gifted to us run away this time! Eliot, finish them off!”

Obeying the command, Eliot jumped at the mercenaries with his stone sword at the ready. Most of the enemies had the wind knocked out of them when they fell on their backs, with one unlucky guy having passed out after his head hit the ground. They were defenceless.

Eliot crushed their skulls one by one. There was no contest, it was an execution. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before he was on the last survivor. The man had just recovered his breath and was horrified.

“Wait, please don’t kill me! I’m just a nobody who was hired for this! Richard Melis hired me, go take up with him! Don’t kill me please!”