If there was a plus in having a bunch of people in the same room, it was that you could not possibly oversleep. And indeed, just as the sun began appearing, the room began bustling with such activity that I could not continue sleeping.

Breakfast will be served in an hour, and so, I rushed towards the square courtyard to the side of the inn. Trying to be the first one to reach the toilet, and I did manage to do it. Afterward, I splashed a few buckets of the extremely cold water from the nearby well, dried myself with a cloth towel hanging nearby, and while putting my shirt back, moved to the warehouse.

Unlocking it with the key I kept from yesterday, I moved to the task Reuben had assigned me.

At the start, I doubted why there would be even a need to count the number of crates, but I quickly found out the reason. Having observed only the six wagons under my 'care', I had assumed, mistakingly, that the other six were loaded in the same way. But it wasn't so, if mine had 20 equal crates, then Egon's ones were extremely varied. One only had six crates, but each of them was at least four times bigger than the ones on mine, and so on.

"Probably there were not enough identical crates, and then they began using whatever as laying around" I murmured while finding that one of the wagons was half-filled with sacks and not crates. I even suspected that they contained something else, but after opening one, I found the same verdant mineral as everywhere else.

Half an hour later, I finished counting and confirmed that the papers were right. 170 crates with one barrel worth of fleinor each, 6 crates of four barrels each, 80 half barrel ones, and 10 big sacks marked as a barrel each.

"Hmm, yes, it's okay. A total of 240 barrels of weight divided into 266 'packages'. Good" With that finished, I waited for a pair of minutes and when Egon and the others arrived, we began pushing the wagons out.

Finishing exactly by the moment food was served.

After eating the bland, again, porridge served for breakfast, I greeted Gris and the girls, reported to Reuben, and quickly took another of my bucket showers.

Finishing just a second before the command to set off was given.

***

As we approached the gate, I could only marvel at the people who built the wall. Granted, there was magic in this world, but I am yet to see any spell that makes building stone walls easy, so...

The ten-meter wide and five-meter tall iron bar gate, now opened, was extremely imposing, and the guards standing nearby were none of the less.

There was no queue, there was simply no one entering or leaving at this moment, albeit after giving it some thought, I found it reasonable. I even began thinking why there was a need to build, and maintain such a gate on this side, with a single town, Churg 30 km away, and only a few dozens of houses near the wall.

I did not follow the exchange between Reuben and someone who looked like a commander, the only one without a helmet but wearing chainmail adorned with the blue emblem of the Kingdom as the others. Speaking of emblems, now that I was close, I saw the design of the flags on the towers, being a white sword looking upwards on a blue cloth.

It took about ten minutes of talking, a few papers changing hands, and a purse doing the same before we were motioned to advance.

This did not mean that the guards were doing their work sloppily, no, on the contrary, every wagon that passed through the gates, except the three covered ones, was stopped and the contents counted.

Just for interest, I checked the status of the guards, as well as the commander. And found that not only they were better equipped, with steel weapons, chainmail, and open helmets, but also were trained a lot better than Churg's ones. The guards had their martial skills, well relevant ones to the weapons they carried, at least a point or two over the average, while the commander was pretty impressive!

NAME & TYPE LEVEL (Hiding anything below average) Strenght 13 Force (Martial) 11 Quick (Martial) 15 Close-Quarters (Martial) 14 Slashing (Martial) 13 Command (Special) 11

***

Just after the gate, the wagons turned to the left, and we began following the wall.

"This is the peripheral road, it goes all 'round the city" Seeing me throwing glances around, one of my 'hands' told me. He had introduced himself as Bruno, and from his muscular build and knowledge of what to do without instructions, I took that he was someone experienced on the job.

"Oh, so no cargo wagons into the city, right?"

"Yeah, the aldermen are adamant about cleanliness, so except on market days and special cases, no animals are permitted on the city streets. And even then, if your beast shits and you don't clean it, you pay"

"Thank you" While I nodded in thanks, I mentally congratulated the people behind such laws while thinking "And I am sure they don't have sewage canals in the middle of the streets".

***

I could not say much about the city as we circled all around it, and so I only saw the houses closer to the wall. Judging from the lack of any signboards, these houses were residential and judging by them being almost identical, there was some kind of law about it as well. Different from Churg, or the houses outside, the walls were covered in white plaster, and all the roofs were tiled. The color of the tiles varied, but the most abundant color was blue. I did not see glass, but the few open windows in view had some kind of semi-transparent cover. Which turned out to be animal horn, like the tubes used for the potions I carried.

It took us about an hour to circle the city and reach a similar gate to the one we passed before. This time, I approached the front, and so did hear part of Reuben and a similarly-looking guard commander talk.

"...Churg's branch, yeah. We are going to Megvuroz"

"So no trade or new passengers?"

"None" Reuben passed one a scroll, and a few moments later we were motioned to move.

The guards again counted the number of crates and sacks, but this time they did not stop the wagons, simply doing it while we slowly moved forward.

"Pick up the pace! We have to reach the 'Watered Pass' quickly, or we will not have enough daylight!" A command came from the front, and on the drivers poking, the oxen began picking up the pace.

From what I knew, the distance between Drogzilg and Bigradh was at least 7 Primordial Steps shorter, but there was a stretch of road that crossed some hilly terrain, which I suppose was this 'Watered Pass' spoken about.

***

Before Drogzilg, and now, the road was paved with stone slabs, while in the city it was with some kind of grey tiles or bricks.

But even though the slabs looked identical to the ones from before, I could note that the road had slightly improved and widened to about 15 meters. Now all the slabs looked identical in size and quality, while each five or so kilometers, a small paved area with a well was present on both sides of the road.

The terrain also suffered a small change. Albeit the right side was occupied by the same lakeshore, the left side of the road was now rockier. There was also less grass, and a bunch of small trees could be seen.

About an hour and a half since we left the city, a very large hill, or plain top mountain, slowly took form ahead of us.

And about thirty minutes later, we reached it. It was indeed enormous, with me hardly managing to see its top or sides, even though we were traveling right near its base!

Covered with short trees from the bottom and up to where one could see, it was truly impressive.

The road had been slowly turning to the right, and so we would be passing in the narrow space left between the lake and the hill.

Still, I did not see any reason for the alarm and urgency that I supposed from the command about picking up the pace, after all, the road continued to be equally wide. But as always, my lack of knowledge was quickly dispelled as the caravan stopped moving, and I inched forwards to look for the reason.

We had slightly ascended during the last minutes, but now, the road started to go down, and there was only water a few meters ahead of the lead wagon!

But after looking carefully, the road did continue a kilometer ahead. And so, I supposed that the 'Watered Pass' meant this spot that was subject to flooding. And why does no one build a bridge?

Reuben left the wagon he was riding in and after nearing the edge of the water, examined something for a few minutes, before turning around and saying

"The water is already receding, so we will have to wait for less than an hour. Let's have an early meal"

The message was quickly passed by the drivers, and the same routine as the previous day's stop ensued. With the slight exception that the lake's water was a bit dirty, and so we would need to resort to canteens. But the oxen and horses would not, so it was again bucket carrying. Four runs with two ten-liter buckets each time wasn't an appalling task, but it wasn't an arduous one either.

***

Reuben was right with his time estimate, as by the time we began to eat, the water had already uncovered half of the flooded distance.

The girls received heartfelt thanks from most of the caravan's people for the meal. And indeed, how could they not, if they had served us an extremely tasty stew? One that from what I learned had been stewing inside the wagon since we left the inn?

And the thanks were not only words, as Bruno and one of Egon's men intercepted the girls when they wanted to go wash the cauldron, and did it themselves while proclaiming that such good cooks did not need to bother with cleaning, and should leave it for the eaters.

***

After crossing the slightly damp basin-like area, the caravan resumed its normal pace and we reached Bigradh a pair of hours before sunset.

Bigradh looked almost like a copy of Drogzilg, except for the wall being slightly lower, and the gate being slightly smaller. This time, we did not stop in the outskirts, but entered the city, with just a nominal check and a few coins of fees.

Passing the gate, we almost immediately made a turn to the right, entering the so-called peripheral road. But this time, Reuben did not command to move out further.

"Hmm?" I tried to guess what would occur now as it did not escape my eyes how the hands, even Bruno, were trying to make themselves remain still, like if they did not want to be noticed. But before I could guess anything, Reuben's command immediately made it clear, both the reason for our stop and why everyone was behaving so strangely.

"We will be staying in the Guild's Branch, it is located near the North gate. But as it's considered part of the city, the peripheral road rules do not apply... Lindar! Choose a pair for cleaning duty"

Or basically... Shit duty. And why I was the one being shoved the decision-making on? Anyone I choose would definitively not thank me for it. Ahh, shoot, let's just use the ole Earth method.

"Ok, you heard the boss. Two volunteers for the cleaning duty, present yourselves" And no one did. Still, the continuation would change it.

"The stench may be a bit strong and that's not good, so volunteers will get a cup of Witch's Grog from me to help them regain senses"

.

..

...

"Me!"

"No, I was first!"

And so on. From the 8 caravan hands, six entered the fray for the pair of rusty buckets and shovels used for this labor. I suspect that a pair of Churg's guards were also about to, but the scuffle had ended already. With Bruno and another equally massive guy taking the shovels and holding them as a dear trophy moved to the back of the convoy.

Alcohol always was a good incentive, especially for people who would need to save their earnings to permit themselves a cup of something like Witch's Grog. Oh, it was cheap, at least by Zakhar's standards, but the normal price for a single cup (which is about 150 ml) is 2 small coppers! And that's considering that a day wage could go so low as a single copper. Normally the low-class laborers saved between one and three coppers, and once a week went to a cheap tavern. Or watering-hole as Zakhar dismissively called them.

In the latter, the price for a mug (about 600 ml) of their best beer would be around a copper, and if you went for the cheapest... Well, let's just say that you could buy a jug (3 liters!) for that.

***

Bigradh's Guild Branch compound was an almost exact copy of the Churg's one, just organized differently to occupy less street front. The materials were slightly different as well, probably because of the city's laws, but it still had the yellow-colored tile roof and the coin & barrel banners.

The building that faced the street was at least four times bigger than the houses around and had three sets of doors. It was also flanked by wooden gates on both sides, and the 12 open wagons began making a beeline for one of them, which had opened almost as soon as we entered the street.

The covered ones proceeded further down the road, seemingly intent to enter the other sets of gates. I probably would have liked to go and take a look, but I had my responsibilities and so had to center on them.

Behind the gates, a pair of young boys that were waiting for us waved their hands and began running through what could only be described as an alley between the Guild's main building and a house on the other side.

100 meters or so later, the wagons entered a bigger, almost square area, one which west (in front) and south (to the left) were occupied by a pair of enormous, at least twice the previous night's one, warehouses.

After having finished putting in the carts, and seeing how the beasts of burden were being moved towards some kind of stable on the north side of this area, I followed the rest into a backdoor of the main building.

***

The caravan hands, as well as the guards that had been following until now, would be sleeping in some kind of dormitory located nearby, but I along with the girls was told to stay.

But before everyone moved out, Reuben announced that any who wanted could receive their payment for two past days. He did add something like

"I do not care if you drink all of it off, but tomorrow if I catch you on wobbly feet, you get kicked. If you get caught in the night by the guard patrol and end in the cruncheon, well... The only help that you get is being paid off, and then you work for free the rest of the journey. Understood?"

After giving a moment for everyone to acknowledge his words, he motioned towards a scrawny woman in her fifties, probably one of the local workers before saying

"Edwina here will lead you to the dormitory, and give you the coppers if you have decided"

A few moments later, as we three and Reuben were the only remaining people in the room, he pointed a nearby door to the girls

"Behind is the staircase to the rooms. You can choose any of the ones open and marked as 'Clerk'. Lindar, follow me, I promised to introduce you to the local Guild's representative, did not I?"

***

Inside the building was paneled with wood and albeit there was a few rays of sunlight entering the windows, for now, the oil lamps were already on. After following Reuben through a pair of strangely winded and circling corridors, we arrived at a door with the word 'Office' engraved on it.

As my guide in this veritable maze knocked, I heard some kind of rustling before a raspy voice said "Enter".

The man sitting behind a desk in this room hidden in the center of the building immediately broke all the stereotypes I had imagined (and confirmed!) by meeting Reuben.

The local Guildmaster or representative was very tall, as even while sitting his head was almost on the level of Reuben's. He was also very thin, not scrawny, but simply thin as a match. A head full of grey long hair, and a sharp, cleanly shaven face with two slightly slanted eyes.

"Lindar, let me introduce you Sidharth Cutton, a senior member of the Cadowden Merchant Guild, and Baronet of the Realm"

"Sid, this is Lindar. We met in Churg as I was preparing for this unexpected run. He is acting as an overseer and accompanying me to Megvuroz" Reuben introduced us to each other, and albeit I was slightly surprised to hear that the man in front of us was a noble, the fact that he wasn't introduced to me as 'Sir' or 'Lord' meant that probably the Baronet title in the Kingdom wasn't considered so high "Same as on Earth, huh?" I thought while shaking the offered hand.

"I see, and what brings you two here. A courtesy visit? To say the truth I was planning on calling you later anyway, but right from the road? The ten spare me from having to deal with a hungry you" Albeit his looks were almost the opposite to someone with such a sense of humor, Sidharth's said with a smile.

"Haa, I thought we already had that buried" Reuben sighed, and then turned to me

"Sidharth and I go a long way back"

"Yeah, we do. Speaking of which, I heard that the old man is being recalled from Churg? And with the position empty, you will be the new Guild's representative there?"

"Yeah, Cyprian said that he will retire from all his posts, and just move back to the Videllin estate. He will leave Churg as soon as I make my way back"

"Oh, then congratulations are in order! Still, mind telling what I can do for you two?"

Reuben did not hide anything, and quickly explained the reason why he had brought me and the contents of the favor he had promised.

"I see, regretfully I will be unable to help with that. At least this week"

"Huh? But aren't the Archives open for any guest of a noble?" Reuben asked while frowning.

"They are, except during the times when the tower is in use"

"You don't mean!"

"Yes, the Royal Hounds entered the city, and will stay here for a week"

"The Ten protect us!" Reuben quickly made some kind of movements with his hands, but as I was standing to his back, I only saw a small part of it.

"Oh, there is nothing for you to worry about. The incident happened to the east, on the Chubu's road"

"Oh, thank the gods"

"Anyway, I can not help you with the Archives, but I can fulfill at least part of what you promised"

"Hmm?"

"Lindar, right? I take that your interest lays in the map and information about Lieade and the Kingdom itself, yes?"

"Yes. I am somewhat in the dark about some things, and knowledge is always useful when you are searching to earn without cleaning stables" I tried to not say much, but considered that a materialistic reason would be the best bet.

"Leave us for some time, I had to discuss something with Reuben, and if we agree, then probably you will get a chance to obtain both"

"Thank you, Sidharth"

"Oh, at last someone who pronounces my name right from the start!" Sidharth looked at Reuben with a slight grin.

***

As I waited in the corridor outside, I decided to spend the time organizing what I learned, heard, and the new questions that had popped up. Granted, I could try my luck at eavesdropping, but somehow I think that Sidharth's office has at least some protective measures. Because if it didn't, then why did I feel a mana flow?

First, it seemed that I was wrong to first assume that Reuben was a simple clerk (at Zakhar's introduction) and then wrong again at assuming he was the acting head of the Churg Guild (from seeing how he acted, ordered around, etc). The latter will turn true shortly, so let's consider that I was almost right.

Second, there is some kind of special unit or something called Royal Hounds. I do not think that's their official name, but judging from Reuben's reaction, they are not a bunch of guys that I would want to meet.

Third, Sidharth has some kind of deal (shady?) to offer Reuben, and it seems it's connected to information brokering or something like that. If not, why would he say that if it happened, I would have access to what I am searching for?

Fourth, I am now sure that the colors of the Guild title are ranks. Reuben's is something like bronze, while Gris and now Sidharth's turned out to be silver. So, silver is a senior member?

And a random assortment of questions on terms like cruncheon (a dungeon where you are crunched? hah), noble titles amongst a dozen others...

Sidharth's stats are also kinda interesting, so I will record them for future reference. Not only my first noble, but he is also the first person I see with a Talent/Trait!

NAME & TYPE LEVEL (Hiding anything below average) Cadowden Merchant (Title-Guild) - Kingdom of Neverc, Baronet (Title-Noble) - Speech (Social) 16 Manners (Social) 15 Education (Social) 12 Persuasion (Social) 15 Deceit (Social) 17 Negotiation (Economics) 16 Economics (Economics) 17 Merchant Eyes (Economics) 12 Investigation (Talents&Traits) -