Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Book 2: The Road to the Capital

Chapter 22: Reunion at the Capital

We arrived at Northerntier, and parted with Will as he loaded the next customers on board.

We headed towards the center of Northertier to one of the biggest buildings there.

Nicknamed the Teleport Station, the Teleport Gate Spell Inscription resides here.

Henry: “Alright, first we’ll go to the reception and get our reservation all set~”

Cyril: “Whaaaa~, we rode on the carriage all day, and we’re tired. Why can’t we do it tomorrow?”

Henry: “It’s just a reservation. The Teleport Gate has a lot of customers so you’ll have to wait days before you can use it.”

The Teleport Gate typically has a limit to how many people it can transfer, so in general, all the slots get filled up to the brim.

We’ll go to the reception to get our reservation settled, and we’ll be here in this town for about 2 days. Or so I thought.

Henry: “….what? We can go right now?”

“Yes, if it’s only 5 people, we can schedule you in on the next teleportation in 20 minutes. We just had a cancellation come in just now.”

That was fast…

I don’t know if that was great or poor timing.

We thought about doing some sight-seeing around town, but we can get to the Capital right away.

Henry: “And if we take the next opening after this, when will that be?” “In that case, it’ll be 3 days from now in the afternoon.”

3 days, huh…

Henry: “Lana, what do you want to do?”

This trip is all about Lana. I need to make sure she gets input on how we proceed.

Lana: “Um, well. If we can get there earlier, I think that would be better. It’ll save us the traveling costs, and I told the professor that we’ll be visiting soon, so if we get there earlier, I think it’ll be easier to arrange a meeting with him.”

Henry: “Alright, then it’s decided.”

Cyril: “Yes, I guess we can tour the city on our way back.”

Oh, Cyril, we’ll just take the first carriage back to Flowtier. Carriages are not as booked as the Teleport Gates.

Henry: “Well, in that case, please schedule 5 people for the next teleportation. The luggage is as much as we are carrying right now.

Luggage also costs additional money. They check the amount of luggage during the reservation so we put the majority of our stuff in Teo’s bag.

“Thank you, then…”

We pay the fare, and since there is not much time, we hurry to the Teleport Gate’s Spell Inscription site.

At most, a 100 people can stand on this giant circular area. The complicated inscriptions carved into the ground begin to glow green as magic pours into it and the spell begins to initiate.

And at the end of the large crowd, we huddle together at the far side.

Jend: “Hey Henry, if they needed to fill in those spots in 20 minutes, do you think we could have gotten a discount?”

It’s definitely the way a merchant’s kid thinks, and honestly, as a business transaction, I understand where he’s coming from, but still, don’t be ridiculous.

Henry: “This is run by the country. I don’t think they’ll get too upset over that, but if you get blacklisted by the country, it’ll also affect your relationship to the Grandes Church and…” Jend: “Ah, I get it. Forget that I asked.”

Henry: “I appreciate you trying to help us hold down Our costs. I really mean that.”

For professional adventurers, most come from non-educated backgrounds, so they are prone to mishandling money which leads to trouble within the party and can lead to high interest debt loans…

When I first started as an adventurer, I had no clue about finance, and I almost starved to death at one point.

If you mismanage money, you’ll head straight to bankruptcy. This isn’t limited to adventurers, and for any adults, they need to learn this quickly If they want to survive.

Henry: “Talking about money, didn’t you put Flowtier Ale Kegs in there? You plan on selling it?”

Teo: “Yes, we can sell it at a high price at the Capital, so through Jend, we obtained 10 kegs worth through the Carousel Merchant Association. I’ll take half the profits, and the remaining half will be applied to our travel costs.”

Jend: “If my family’s business had more of a footing in this area, we could have gone bigger, but all the Merchant Associations in the Capital have their own import methods. They’ll let this slip just because we’re doing it on such a small scale.”

I don’t really understand what’s being said here, but wouldn’t Jend do fine as a merchant?

Well, for us, or rather, for our Quest sponsor Mr. Nord, I’m sure he greatly appreciates all these efforts to keep costs down.

Lana: “oh….Teo, are you really going to apply half the profits to the travel costs? Mr. Jend isn’t even benefiting from this at all.”

Teo: “This is for your future Lana, and we’re not going to be traveling to the Capital unless under these kinds of special circumstances.”

Jend: “Yeah, my family is just wondering if we’ll get lucky and run into any good business partners in this area, so it’s just a low-success, exploratory investment so don’t worry about that.”

Wow, these guys are well settled and mature for their age. If I think about what I would do with the same godly equipment and business connections, I’m a little ashamed of how small I think.

As we were finishing our small talk, a worker from the Teleport Gate made an announcement with a loud voice.

“Thank you all for your patience. This will be the 5th teleportation from Northerntier to the Centralio Teleportation Gate. We will be initiating the teleportation spell shortly. For those of your traveling, please remain inside the spell inscription, stay calm, and you will all be teleported shortly!”

10 mages surround the spell inscription and start chanting to cast the spell.

Spell chanting has been going out-of-style on the present battlefields, but for these kinds of large-scale spellcrafting, it is still the main methodology.

10 First-Rate mages pour their magic into the spell, and magic fills the entire Teleport Spell Scription and the room.

…..but honestly, it’s more frightening that Cyril has just as much magic contained in her alone as what’s being done here.

Cyril: “Ohhhh! Look! It’s starting to glow!”

Henry: “Stand still.”

Bright light springs forth from the 10 locations where the mages stood, and the entire spell inscription is now brimming full of light.

A bright flash.

Our sights go white, and we feel ourselves fall into the depths and then rise into the heavens. Strange sensations like these overwhelm us.

And we depart from Northerntier.

<<<<>>>>

But the weird sensations only lasted for a moment.

As we blinked at the bright light, the light faded as fast as it appeared.

We stood in a room very similar in atmosphere to the Northertier’s Teleportation Gate.

Cyril: “…..oh, did we arrive?”

Henry: “Yeah, we should have arrived. I know it feels different to travel this way, but we’re already at Centralio.”

Cyril: “Aww… I thought it would be more like ‘WAHHH!!’ or ‘WHOAAA!!’ or something really intense, but it was kind of a let down.”

I don’t understand Cyril sometimes or what she’s trying to say right now.

Well, we’re done with the teleportation, and we want to leave, but the door to outside gets jammed packed right after we arrive. We wait for the crowd to thin out.

Jend: “Wow, that Teleportation Gate is something else. If they were to use that in more places, there would be a revolution in imports and exports.”

Jend speaks from a merchant’s point of view.

Henry: “Apparently, there are a lot of technical hurdles that would make distribution of those Gates impossible to spread to more places right now. But you can leave that problem to the scholars, and oh! We have Lana here who may become a world renown scholar soon enough.”

Lana: “Oh…um, spellcrafting is outside of my expertise. I could only understand a third of what was on that spell inscription Just now. I saw that the spell inscription was double-layered too. I’m sure there was another layer of spell inscription underneath in the ground out of sight. I wonder if it’s to keep the formula of the inscription confidential…?”

Yeah, this girl… holy smokes, she is something else. She was able to understand part of that gargantuan jumble on the ground.

Henry: “Oh, well, let’s get going. There isn’t much of a crowd anymore.”

What she said did make sense. The technology behind the Teleport Gate would be a national-level top secret. I always wondered if they were okay with the public seeing it, but now I understand why.

Lana resolved one of my longstanding doubts, and we walked outside.

As we stood at the entrance of the station, Cyril and Jend let out a gasp.

Cyril: “Wow~, we really did arrive in a different city!”

Jend: “So this is Centralio.”

Even though it is part of the Four Corner City area, the Northerntier’s northern region from the Alvenia Kingdom’s perspective is way out in the rural country. Compared to the north, here, we see more modern architecture spread throughout the city.

And as we exit the Teleport Gate’s building, we see the castle standing in the distance before us with all its glory.

This… is the Capital.

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Teo: “….the Teleport Station is several times bigger than Northerntier’s…”

Henry: “Of course. Northerntier is only connected to Centralio, but the Capital is connected to all 4 Corner Cities.”

The Teleport gate has a set of a two teleport types: a sending and a receiving one. So Northerntier only has two inscribed, but here, there are 8. Because of that the station will also be equally large.

“I see,” said Teo and nods with agreement.

Cyril: “But there are so many people! Henry, is it always this busy at the Capital?”

Henry: “….no. It’s busier than usual. I wonder what’s going on? Lana, we’re gonna head to the inn, but please don’t get lost in the crowd.”

We and the other teleporters from the station are trying to head into the city, but there is a sea of people blocking our path.

What IS going on? I’ve used this Teleport Station several times in the past, but it’s never been this crowded and busy.

Henry: “I wonder if some celebrity bard is coming to the capital…”

There a some bards who are not limited to singing at taverns in the shadowy corners of the city.

There are some who are young and popular, and sing on large stages, are interviewed in newspapers, and fans will follow them around.

We call these bards, *idols.

{{Chonky Note: i.e. Japanese Idol groups are mainly the Boy and Girl Bands that sing and dance on TV}}

There are region or city-specific idols as well.

Cyril: “Oh I see… so we may get to see someone really famous?!”

Henry: “Maybe. I’m just guessing.”

Cyril: “But I would really like to meet them if that’s true. I, the Flowtier’s most renowned Melodious Songbird, will determine the quality of their talent.”

Henry: “Renown where? Known as what?”

Besides, aren’t all your songs spells?

Those that know that would be terrified watching you sing on a stage and run for the hills.

Henry: “Lana, would it be okay if we wait and see who comes through?” Lana: “Yes, if it is someone famous, I would really like to see who.”

Oh, she’s rather more into pop culture than I thought.

I’m really not interested in that aspect of our society, but that’s possibly one of the reasons why I don’t have much luck with women either.

Jend: “I don’t mind waiting either, but let’s get out of the way. We’ll run into them if we keep standing here at the Station Entrance, and I don’t want any trouble with someone that famous.”

Henry: “Yeah, you’re right.”

I heard it’s best to keep a formal distance with idols as courtesy. If we keep standing around at the station, we may be mistaken for one of their really passionate fans trying to ambush them.

It’s really bothersome if that happens, but avoiding those situations in the first place is the best way to avoid making enemies too.

So as we try to relocate, the next Teleport Group arrives, and inside the station gets noisier.

Henry: “Alright, let’s merge in with the crowd.”

I take everyone, and we blend in with the crowd.

But we were a little late. Everyone started bustling and yelling as the person they were looking for came through.

“WHOOOOAAA!! It’s the Black Dragon Knights! You guys rock!!”

“You’re the pride of the nation, Hero Grandezel!”

“Welcome back to the Capital!”

The crowd gets rowdier and begins to excitedly yell and scream to welcome whoever it is they were looking for.

….wait, what did they just say? They were all yelling things all at once, so I couldn’t hear it really well over the blended yelling of the crowds, but…did they say the Black Dragon Knights and Grandezel?

I look back at the Teleport Station entrance to see if what I heard was right.

….they were all wearing black armor. They raise their hand to greet the crowd, and 20 large men walk through.

They are all wearing their helmets and face masks, but I still recognize many familiar faces.

And it was my fault for turning around and getting caught.

One of the Knights recognized me.

I can see him whisper to the knight next to him, and that person says, “Hey! It’s Henry!”

OWEN, YOU BASTARD! Just stay quiet, idiot!

And soon enough, the leader of the Black Dragon Knights, Grandezeal….Sir Ezeal picks me out of the crowd.

“Oh, OHHH!! Well if it isn’t Henry!!”

His voice roared over the crowd, and the Hero of Legend very purposefully walked with long, manly gaits over to where I stood.

I gave up hiding.

Sorry, everyone. We just arrived at the Capital, and got some unwanted attention.

Ezeal: “It’s been too long! It’s been a while since you left Ligaleo, but I’m glad to see you looking well! We’ve been doing well too smacking around those demonic critters!”

He smacks my back heartily several times.

He isn’t a bad person, but he speaks loudly, and everything he does is so rough and exaggerated…

Henry: “Hello… it has been a while, Sir Ezeal.”

This is the Black Dragon Knights – the Alvenia Kingdom’s strongest and most powerful of all Knights, and they currently reside at the foremost city, Ligaleo.

And the captain of the Black Dragon Knights, the leader of the eight Heroes of Legend designated by the Grandes Church, Grandezeal Vandelstein.

…..We adventurers and the different Kingdom’s Knights have cooperated on countless occasions fighting the demonic hordes, and it was an unexpected reunion.