Kapitel 215: Princess Isabel and searching for clues
As long as the king wore this crown, all the giants would become his slaves and obey his commands. So, King Eric ordered the giants to return to their homeland and had the vine bridge, grown from the magic bean, severed, cutting off the path between Gantua and the human world.
Finally, the kingdom was safe. Before his death, King Eric took the crown and the remaining magic beans with him into eternal sleep.
After telling this story, Thomas's granddaughter listened with great interest. Excitedly, she asked her grandfather, "Grandpa, are there really giants? Do magic beans and magic crowns really exist?"
The old man stroked his beard, shook his head, and replied, "How could it be possible? This is just a tale. There are no giants, and there are no magic beans or magic crowns. However, there was indeed a King Eric. He is the ancestor of our current ruler, King Brahmwell. Today's royal family is the legacy of King Eric, the heir of his bloodline."
After explaining this to his granddaughter, the old man noticed that Wayne was also listening to the story. He smiled and asked, "Wayne, haven't you heard this tale before? It's quite famous in our kingdom, and nearly all children grow up hearing it."
Wayne smiled and explained that he came from a faraway land and had never heard such a story before. But deep down, he knew that this was not just a tale. Although he wasn't sure of the exact time period, in the saga he knew, the protagonist stumbled upon the magic beans and accidentally planted them, causing the road to the sky to reappear, connecting once more to Gantua, the giants' territory in the sky.
Even the kingdom's princess was accidentally sent there, captured by the giants. Eventually, the crown was stolen from the humans, and the giants launched a massive attack on the land. The hero, by chance, acquired the crown, married the princess, and became the king, bringing the story to a perfect ending.
A rather cliché story.
He couldn't recall the specific details, but he remembered that this event occurred when the princess came of age and was about to be betrothed to the villain. The villain had stolen the crown, and the hero, Jack, obtained the magic beans. He just needed to reach the royal city to confirm the exact time period.
After gathering his thoughts, Wayne took out the golden coins he had prepared, showed them to Old Thomas, and asked:
"Thomas, I don't have your currency. Can I pay directly in gold? If possible, I would also like to exchange some gold for more of your coins."
"Of course, I won't let you suffer. I can pay a little extra as a reward for your hospitality."
…
In the afternoon, Wayne rode a mare and left the Thomas family farm. This time, he was quite fortunate. The first group of locals he encountered were good people. Not only did they exchange some coins with him and sell him a gentle mare, but they also invited him to have lunch with them.
Clearly, the common folk in this world were decent people, unlike those in the treacherous witcher world, where deceit, murder, and theft were rampant.
Wayne rode for two hours, covering more than ten kilometers. As he led the panting horse and approached the royal city of the Kingdom of Albion, this fortress-like city came fully into view.
The city boasted a moat seven or eight meters wide, and a massive drawbridge gate that could be raised, lowered, and retracted. The city walls stood nearly twenty meters high, constructed entirely of solid rock.
Atop the walls of this royal city were four enormous repeating crossbows. Wayne recognized this weapon; it was powerful enough to kill giants. Behind the main city wall was an additional fortification, a secondary wall designed for further defense operations. The entire city was essentially impregnable.
However, in Wayne's memory, the giants were all seven or eight meters tall and incredibly strong. They could uproot entire trees or hurl massive boulders as if they were mere stones. These giants were like living catapults. Human soldiers were like mice in their grasp, and even knights in full armor would have been nothing more than tin cans, unable to inflict any real harm.
The defenses of this royal city might have been adequate against ordinary human soldiers, but they would struggle against giants, and it would be easy for the giants to breach the walls in various ways. In the original tale, if the protagonist hadn't arrived just in time with the crown to control the giants, it's likely that all the soldiers and civilians in the city would have been captured and used as food by the giants.
The entrance fee to the city was modest, only two copper coins. After paying, Wayne led his horse into the city.
Just like the medieval cities he had imagined, there were various shops lining the streets. He stabled his horse and found a place to stay, then wandered around the shops, hoping to find some local souvenirs worth taking back.
Unfortunately, after an afternoon of browsing, Wayne didn't find anything remarkable. The shops mostly sold common food, daily necessities, and clothing. However, it wasn't a total loss; after exploring for a while, he stumbled upon a bookstore. There, he used some of his gold to purchase several books, most of which were about history and mythology.
Wayne wanted to see if there were any other notable tales in this world besides the Giant Catcher story.
The main reason he didn't buy more books was that the books here were incredibly expensive, several times pricier than those in the witcher world. Perhaps because printing wasn't yet common, nearly all books were handwritten, and the paper was quite thick, making each book a luxury item that most ordinary people couldn't afford.
Fortunately, the text in this world was almost identical to English. With his level of English, he could barely understand the content, allowing him to read through it roughly.
This world might not be as simple as Wayne had initially thought. In one of the books, he found references to the legend of Merlin, Viking warriors from the north, and various myths that were somewhat similar to those on Earth, yet with noticeable differences.
Wayne stayed in the city until evening. As night fell, he found one of the busiest taverns in the city and entered. While drinking, he used his keen hearing to gather the information he sought.
However, it seemed this country had enjoyed peace for too long. Most of the conversations among the tavern's patrons were about trivial matters: whose wife had been unfaithful, who made a profit in business, or which young man had become a knight and earned the favor of the nobles. The information was largely useless.
To make matters worse, this kingdom, now correctly referred to as Albion, was a culinary desert. He ordered the best dishes available at the busiest tavern, only to be served mashed potatoes, fried fish, and a meat pie decorated with salted fish heads.
He reluctantly finished the mashed potatoes and fried fish and drank two bottles of fruit wine before finally overhearing some useful information from another patron.
A strong young man, probably a guard in the palace, boasted to his friends:
"Princess Isabel is so beautiful, and she has reached the age of marriage. She's the only daughter of the king," one of the young men remarked.
"If anyone can marry her, he will become the future king of this country."
"I wonder which man will be so lucky," another mused.
Upon hearing the young man's comment, some of his friends immediately asked with interest, "Brott, you stay in the palace every day. Don't you know which man the king is going to choose as the princess's husband?"
The young man named Brott smiled mysteriously at the question. Urged on by his friends, he lowered his voice and said, "I suspect it's Count Roderick. He's a prominent noble and lord in the kingdom, and he's unmarried. His Majesty the King has always kept him close in the palace and trusts him greatly. I think he's deliberately trying to bring him and Princess Isabel together."
After hearing this, Wayne nodded with satisfaction. At least it was certain that Princess Isabel was not yet married and was of marrying age, which meant that the events of the story he knew were about to unfold.
It was unfortunate that he didn't know where the crown and magic beans were hidden. Otherwise, he could have snuck into the palace directly and found those magical items, sparing him from having to wait for the story to progress as it did in the original tale.
However, this didn't concern him too much. When the time came and the sky-reaching vine appeared, he could obtain the crown and magic beans, deal with the giants, and still achieve the final outcome.
Moreover, he hadn't fully decided how he would handle everything that came next. Of course, he had to acquire the crown. With it, the giants would become his slaves, a formidable group of giant warriors. When necessary, he could bring them to other worlds to fight wars on his behalf.
However, Wayne hadn't yet figured out how to handle the situation with the rest of humanity. He wasn't an evil person; he couldn't allow the giants to massacre innocent civilians, yet he didn't want to relinquish the power at his disposal.
The giants' territory was far above the ground, estimated to be several thousand meters high. Without the bridge of magical vines, he couldn't simply fly to the giants' domain. The number of magic beans was limited, and if he were to cut down the massive magic vines, the falling debris could cause significant damage to the surrounding buildings.
If he wanted to utilize the giants' power in the future, the best approach would be to tame the entire giant clan. At the same time, he would need to preserve the existence of the magic vines, allowing him to travel back and forth between the giants' territory and the ground whenever necessary.
...
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