“One man’s hell might well be another’s paradise.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

In the end, the convoy reached Paradise on the evening of their fifth day in the Forest of Despair. Reinhardt had wondered why they had yet to run into a clearing to camp for the night on that evening, since they ran into conveniently located ones on the nights before, only to discover that he had arrived at his destination instead.

The city of Paradise was not exactly impressive, at least until one considered that said city was merely two decades old and was founded in the very center of one of the most inhospitable regions of Alcidea. The place itself was surprisingly built without walls or fences of any sort, though given the nature of its populace, they were not exactly afraid of beast attacks, Reinhardt guessed.

Wooden shacks and houses were built in a roughly circular pattern, in a rather haphazard manner yet one that left enough room for a caravan to easily pass between blocks of the buildings. There weren’t many people living there, maybe only a couple thousand or so, at Reinhardt’s best estimate, and they were quite active even in the late hours of the evening.

Some people were building more houses on the outskirts of the city. Reinhardt saw a group of adults that were likely a family working on two such houses together, with at least a couple of them being necromancers, if the skeletons that walked to and fro while carrying logs were any indication. Not too surprising given how the Lichdom was known to be a staunch supporter of the Unliving.

A couple of guards approached the caravan and politely asked Reinhardt about where they were from and the purpose of their visit, all in a businesslike manner. To be honest, he felt that the guards were superfluous, given how some of the undead which helped in the house construction just a stone’s throw away were more than threatening enough to scare enemies off.

Some of those undeads – probably bone golems of some sort he thought – were larger than even Mischka, which was no small feat to say the least.

“Huh, got to admit that this is a first,” said one of the Unliving who stood guard, a broad-shouldered man who looked like he was still in his mid-twenties. The man stood with the ease and poise of a trained warrior, one that Reinhardt noticed immediately, which was no surprise given how long most of the Unliving had lived. He would be more surprised if some of them actually had no idea on how to defend themselves after such long lives.

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“What do you mean?” Reinhardt asked back, uncertain of what the man said.

“First time someone came looking for the Silver Maiden to get healed, I mean,” replied the man with a smile as he unlimbered the two-handed axe he carried from his shoulders and rested the weapon’s head on the ground. “We don’t exactly get many visitors here as you might be able to guess. Merchants from Knallzog pops by to visit a few times a year, at most. For most people it’s probably not worth braving the Forest of Despair just to visit our little city, you know?”

“Well, in our case we did get paid handsomely to escort some people here, so I’d say it’s worth the time and trouble,” replied Reinhardt with a chuckle. “Besides, the road’s pretty safe anyway. We didn’t have to deal with all that many critters along the way, and even then, what we had to deal with didn’t exactly give us much trouble.”

“I can guess, yeah,” noted the Unliving man with a smirk of his own. “Could tell from a glance that your people know how to take care of themselves. Whoever hired you must really want whoever they’re sending to get here safely.”

“Can’t blame them, it’s their own daughter after all,” replied Reinhardt offhandedly. “Do we have permission to come into the town? Or should we set up camp in the outskirts for now? Not sure if you people bothered to build an inn given the location here…”

“Yeah, not even enough houses for everyone to have their own yet, especially since we keep getting more of our kind coming over,” replied the man nonchalantly. “You can enter the city, no problem. There’s a large clearing we’re planning to turn into the city center in the future around half a kilometer ahead, just set up camp there if you’d like.”

“As for looking for the Silver Maiden, I’d say you will need to wait a while. She went on another delve into the forest just last week, though she usually doesn’t take too long with those,” the man continued. “If you don’t mind waiting a week or two she should be back in town by then.”

“Much appreciated, and many thanks,” said Reinhardt as he nodded towards the man. “Any local rules we need to keep in mind during our stay?”

“Not much, really. We’re pretty lax here still,” answered the man after he gave the question some thought. “At most, just don’t be an asshole to others and you’ll be fine. If someone is being an asshole to you though, feel free to smack them in the face. That’s just asking for it.”

“A good rule to have,” nodded Reinhardt in agreement.

He led the mercenaries in an orderly manner in the direction given to him by the Unliving man, and sure enough, after only a short while they came to a large, round clearing in the middle of the city. There they parked their wagons and set up camp, something the locals seemed quite used to seeing. Likely the Knallzog merchants did the same thing when they came to visit the city.

To wait another week or two was no big deal, as that was well within their expectations. What Reinhardt had been most worried about was if the Silver Maiden had been off on her wanderings, in which case it would be difficult to pinpoint when she would return. He naturally relayed the good news to Astra and Ze’phane as well.

As for whether the Silver Maiden would be willing to help them or not, that would depend on themselves.