Chương 19: Journey to the Melvinger Arena
[Melvinger City
Distance: 154 Miles
Description: Melvinger City is known throughout the continent as the [City of Knights], due to its huge arena, attracting countless hedge knights into competing with each other, in hope of proving their skills and be hired in a noble household. For knights, entering a noble family means access to unique knight techniques, some of which are necessary to further grow in their knight cultivation]
Soon after his conversation with Magus Kroft and Merlin, George disguised himself, wearing a complete heavy armour set, and joined the nearest city on his horse, a fine [Porfield Stallion], a race known for its endurance. There, he had joined a merchant's convoy, as a mercenary. His task was simple enough: protect the convoy from enemies, or more accurately, protect the noble lady who was leading it.
'Such a massive convoy...No wonder Melvinger City is actually prosperous', George evaluated.
There were twelve carriages, all filled with spices, common goods, paintings, and other valuables. The amount that could be made from selling those carriages would probably be in the hundreds of thousands of gold coins. Even if there were no amount of gold coins capable of matching an acolyte's wealth of magical crystals, this was enough to match the income of noble families.
The leader of this convoy was Lady Azareth, the heiress of a Fallen Noble family. In this age of war, countless households would ultimately fall in wars, leaving their heirs and heiress to a commoner's life. Still, Lady Azareth was a source of inspiration for all fallen nobles, as she had created her own merchant union, the Azareth Union, which possessed several branches in numerous cities. It was beyond prosperous, and this carriage was the proof of her success.
"Sir...Here is your meal", Lady Azareth came over, with a bowl of porridge. Although it was nothing much, the gesture proved that the woman knew that the mysterious knight who had joined her convoy was stronger than he looked.
George subconsciously bowed, and extended his hand as thanks, but quickly regretted his action
"So you come from the Sarad Kingdom, huh?", Lady Azareth laughed, "Probably a fallen noble as well, from what I can see. Commoners do not know proper etiquette after all"
George stayed silent
"I won't bother you much. Now that I know your origins, the mystery has clarified. Feel free to join the rest of us around the bonfire", the young lady said in a cheerful voice
George, however, grumbled: "I prefer the presence of my horse. Who knows what kind of bandits we might encounter on the route"
'Lady Azareth, huh? She truly is a strong woman...'
On the journey, George had expected to fall victim to bandits, dire wolves or any threat. After all, a convoy of this size was massive enough to attract greed from nobles themselves. However, the Azareth Union was just too powerful, having gathered hundreds of soldiers, several knights and possessing connections all over the Sarad Kingdom. Besides a handful of boars and wolves, the journey had been rather uneventful.
'I guess main characters from novels do encounter more danger than the rest of us side characters...', George analysed, getting bored from the travel.
As they arrived to Melvinger City, George was a bit taken aback. The city was divided into three areas: the Outskirts of the city, where the lowlives lived in slums in utmost poverty, resulting in a high criminal rate and diseases. Then, you had the inner city, protected by walls, with soldiers patrolling in the streets to reassure the inhabitants and drive out anyone without identification, mostly thugs from the Outskirts of the city who had somehow bypassed the gates impersonating travellers. Last but not least, you had the City Core, a zone that you could only access if you belonged to a noble household.
After parting ways with Lady Azareth, George spent a couple hundreds of gold coins, and purchased a villa. Since there was still time before the Knight competition, he might as well spend it comfortably.
James, the head butler of the [Golden Lion Villa], as it was called, bowed upon seeing the new owner of the villa.
"Welcome to the Golden Lion Villa, Sir George. There are currently 24 servants at your disposal, and 15 soldiers patrolling in the garden, to prevent any intruder from taking a step into your new dwelling", James spoke with elegance.
Obviously, from his white hair and soothing voice, the man has had a lot of experience. He had probably dealt with dozens of young masters already, and probably assumed that George was different, due to his attire mainly.
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