The first thing Red noticed was how big the township seemed to be. They were a few kilometers away still, but even from here, the boy could tell that the town stretched very far. It sat on an incline, sprawling and growing in size the further downhill you went. The youth recognized what he thought were buildings of all shapes and sizes decorating the hillside, but he had a hard time seeing fine details from this far.

"How many people live there?" He asked.

"Around ten thousand." Eiwin replied.

Red turned to look at her in disbelief. He saw no sort of dishonesty in the woman's expression, however.

"...How?" The youth followed up on his question.

"How what?"

"How can there be so many people in there?"

Up ahead, Narcha chuckled to herself in amusement.

"You'll be surprised at how many people can fit inside a town if you stuff them tight enough." The warrior laughed. "But this is nothing, kid. It's even small when compared to the capital. That one has more than one hundred thousand people all crammed way tighter than in our little shire here."

The boy had a hard time wrapping his mind around that figure. In the mines, he had never seen more than 50 or so slaves in their living areas at one time. In this town, though, the number of people was hundreds of times that, and it was not on the high end for the surface. How did they even find enough food for them?

"Come on." Eiwin put a hand behind his back, hurrying him along. "It looks even better from up close."

Red followed the rest of the group and soon found out she wasn't lying.

As the vegetation around them grew sparser, the finer details of the town were revealed to him. The city had no wall to speak of, and most of the buildings in there were made out of a combination of wood and stone. What caught his attention though, were the larger ruins that stood in the middle of these constructions.

The remains of bigger and more elaborate buildings stood out like a sore thumb, but Red couldn't imagine what they looked like in the past. The town seemed to have arisen amid the ruins, and some of these structures were even utilized in the composition of the newer constructions. At the top of the hill, for instance, there was a large patched-up castle built with many different kinds of materials. However, by far it was the biggest building in the town and the most conserved ruin of what once stood there. All of this made for a bizarre but interesting sight for the boy, and it was as if two different sets of constructions were being built at the same time in the same place.

"People built this town on top of some long destroyed ruins." Eiwin explained. "No one really knows for sure what was in this place before, but some assume it was a temple built to honor the old gods."

"Is that why you haven't torn them down?"

"Well, partly." She answered. "But actually, some people have tried in the past. No one was able to break down what was left of these structures."

"What do you mean?" From what Red could see at this distance, they looked like normal stones, if a bit darker.

"The material of these ruins is actually enchanted." The woman continued. "People have tried to use all kinds of methods, but none work. Not even Spiritual Practitioners were able to leave a dent in these stones."

"How did it get to that state in the first place then?" The boy followed up with a natural question.

However, Eiwin simply shook her head helplessly.

"That's another thing we don't know. But whether it was a natural disaster or a monster, they must have been extremely powerful... But you don't need to worry." She tried to reassure him, noticing how foreboding her words were. "This town has been here for over 200 years already, right around the time we began settling in these lands and nothing bad has happened since then."

Her explanation only brought more questions to the boy's mind, but he noticed something up ahead. A group of people was escorting two wagons drawn by horses. Some of them looked as if they were equipped with armor and weapons too, and they were moving down the dirt road straight in the direction of the group. All in all, there were about 20 of them following the wheeled caravan. Although a few hundred meters remained between them, Red couldn't help but look at Eiwin with an inquisitive gaze.

However, it was Rog that answered his soundless question first.

"Looks like Gustav's group." The man commented while squinting his eyes.

"Great." Narcha grumbled to herself. "Is the man himself there?"

"No." The hunter shook his head. "Reinhart is, though."

The warrior looked even more displeased.

"Let's just get this over with, shall we?" With that, she walked ahead of the group towards the wagon.

Red started to worry if they were about to engage in combat against those people. Eiwin just patted his back in comfort, though.

"Just stay behind me, okay?" She smiled.

The boy was going to do that anyway.

A minute later, and the caravan was just about a hundred meters away from them before it drew to a stop. A man, armored in an intricately designed scale mail and carrying a longsword strapped to his side, stepped down from the wagon and approached Red and the others. He had long brown hair, tied in a ponytail, as well as a short beard covering his face. His features resembled more those of a noble than a warrior like the youth was used to seeing.

"Good afternoon, Narcha." He smiled amicably, extending his hand in greeting. "How fortunate it is to meet you on this fine day!"

The woman frowned and made no motion to accept his handshake. Instead, she looked at the others behind the man. Unlike their leader, these people all stared at Narcha and her companions with unfriendly gazes, their hands hovering over the hilts of their weapons.

"Hm?" The man noticed her strange expression and looked behind himself at his subordinates. "You morons, you weren't supposed to give it away! How are we going to take her by surprise when you guys can't even pretend to be friendly?!"

His subordinates stared at him in confusion, but he had already turned back to the woman in front of him.

"Sorry, can we just pretend that didn't happen?" The same smug smile returned to his face. "So, how are you doing today, Narcha?"

"I was doing pretty well until a few minutes ago, Reinhart." The warrior replied in an unfriendly tone, still looking at his subordinates. "What, do you really want to fight right outside of town?"

"Never!" The man seemed shocked by her question. "We aren't quite at that level yet. It's just that my men have been a bit jumpy as of late after we received some news from the plains..."

"What do you mean?" Narcha asked.

"Well..." At that, Reinhart seemed to hesitate. "I would like to tell you, but it's confidential information, unfortunat-"

"Stop fucking around." She cut him off in anger. "Tell me what you want already."

"Hm, you see..." The man was about to reply, but something seemed to catch his eyes. As he looked behind the woman at the rest of her companions, his gaze eventually came to settle on Red who was a good way behind the others. "What do we have here? Another stray to join the party?"

The boy didn't know how to respond, but he suddenly felt Eiwin's body tense in front of him.

"None of your business mongrel!" The younger woman snapped at him in anger.

At that, Reinhart's subordinates stirred into movement, as the majority of them stared at Eiwin with ugly looks in their eyes. The woman didn't back off either, and in fact, she stepped ahead as if ready to meet the lot of them in combat. This seemed to give the soldiers some pause, but none of them stepped back either.

"That's okay, people!" The leader of the caravan raised his arm, telling his subordinates to back off. "I apologize, Eiwin. I forgot this is a sore spot for you."

She didn't seem to believe his words, but under Narcha's gaze she backed off eventually. The warrior looked back at the man.

"What do you want?" She asked again.

"You see, I was about to ask you what you had learned in your recent visit to the forest, but suddenly I find myself more interested in something else." Reinhart's gaze came back to Red again. "Tell me how you found this kid. Last I heard, you weren't planning on going out to any villages."

"We found him alone in the forest." Narcha didn't hesitate to answer.

"What, that's it?" For the first time the man frowned, annoyed with her explanation.

"That's it." The warrior affirmed. "I wish I could say I was hiding something from you on purpose to see you upset with something, but that's all that happened."

Reinhart stared at her for a few more seconds, hoping to see a crack in her expression. However, nothing seemed to indicate to him she was lying, so he simply shook his head.

"I assume you found out nothing about the monsters?" He asked.

"What do you think?" Narcha didn't bother to hide her impatience while dealing with the man. "Now tell me, what news did you hear?"

"Normally I would say that what you gave in return is not worth it, but I'm sure some people in your guild will tell you about it when you get there." He smiled. "We received news from the plains a day after you left town... They say there's an incoming monster tide from the Skycrown Mountains."

Her expression worsened as she tried to absorb the information. Red looked towards Eiwin for an explanation, but the woman seemed occupied with processing the news too.

"How long until it begins?" The warrior asked, her voice tinged with concern.

"You never know with these things, but they say that it could happen anytime between a month and a year." Reinhart shrugged. "Depends on how eager the horde is to find new territory."

"...Is it gonna reach here?"

"The Sects say it's a manageable number this time around, but we have both faced our handful of hordes in the past." The man continued. "They might be able to hold the bulk of it at the border, but there's always a lot of them that manage to slip through the cracks. We can only hope it's going to be something we can handle."

Narcha didn't respond, silently pondering to herself.

"Now if you'll excuse me." Reinhart moved back towards his carriage. "Mister Gustav is intent on securing his sales on the plains before everything goes to shit, so I have to be on my way."

"I hope you get caught in the middle of it." The warrior said as she moved out of the way and signalled for her companions to do the same.

"Now, wouldn't that be something?" The man laughed. "Unfortunately for you, I've survived much worse."

Whipping the horses, Reinhart once more set the caravan into motion with his subordinates following behind him. The boy moved out of the way, staring at the large animal and the armored people throwing him ugly glances as they moved by.

The leader of the caravan smiled at him as he rode by.

"Watch out for Hector, buddy." He spoke. "He's not one to be trusted."

Red frowned, but Eiwin had already put herself between him and Reinhart before he could even respond, throwing an unfriendly gaze at the man. A minute later and they had all passed by the group. The younger woman turned to look at the youth with a concerned expression.

"Don't listen to him okay?" She said. "He's not a good person and Hector has always taken care of us."

Red simply nodded. Deep down, though, he didn't even need the man's warnings in the first place.

He never trusted anyone at face value.