Chapter 6: Chapter 6 – Straight Margin

When Agham woke me up, it was already bright outside. The sun rose above the horizon, drawing a yellow line on the flatlands. Stone, grass, dirt, nothing. That scenery dragged on endlessly, into the far beyond. What marked the road was just a darker tint of it made on the ground by footsteps and hooves.

The road was a nearly straight line towards the west. And on the other side of it was the Zenar Region. A new start for me, once again.

To me, the constant stream of green grass and gray stones mixed in with the firm brown dirt below made me feel uncomfortable pretty quickly. It was all there was for the past 10 hours or so, as far as the eyes could see. We didn’t even see any animals, nothing. Not a single fly flew around. The only living things we saw were other people laying on the roadside next to tons of baggage.

Tired and broken, either having their plans of going to Casla foiled or having fled from it. Some people’s clothes were torn, and others even had blood on them. They assuredly had their own stories to tell, but not any happy ones. And all Agham and I did was pass them by. My growing discomfort made me want to reach the next town as soon as possible.

“Hey, Agham. How much longer?”

In the end, Agham never woke me up during the night. I didn’t think it was something he would just forget. What remained was the fact that he had been on the reins for a long, long time. Still, that didn’t slow down his response. He talked like usual.

“Hmm…Should be visible soon. Hey, can you pass me some of that whiskey from the rubble?”

Alcohol was among the things he brought with him, but not a lot. But to think about it in the middle of the day, there was something up with him.

“…You’re going to drink, at this time?”

I didn’t look for an answer from him, rather it was just me mumbling to myself. Looking through the supplies, I found a few bottles. Whiskey, rum, and some stuff I didn’t quite recognize. I went up to Agham to hand him the bottle of the so-called Weylan Whiskey, but looking ahead in front of the carriage, I slowly started to piece together what that bottle was for.  

In front was a toll stand. Even I could see that, given the huge sign written in all kinds of languages arching over the whole road. Of course, Angal was one of them. Standing in front of it were two men, probably the guardsmen, clad in armor. A green seal was plastered on their chests, sticking out profusely. Numerous other guards could be seen further ahead, and behind those was a small house with even more inside.

As we approached, one of the men moved in front of us, putting out his hand. Meanwhile, the other prepared some ink and a sheet of paper to write on.

“Halt! State your origins and business.”

Agham acted as if he had done this a thousand times.

“Copper miners from Casla. We wish to traverse the road to travel to Vermas. An appointment there has already been made. We ultimately want to go back to our homes in Edel, of the Inmar Duchy.”

That guardsman filling out his paper seemed to write down anything being said. As Agham proceeded with his story, they were cranking out words from their feather’s ink with amazing speed. Meanwhile, the guard in front kept asking questions.

“Acknowledged. Next, state your full names.”

“Agham Melian and Lenn Polnier.”

Polnier? Who?

Agham picked out a last name for me at random. We never discussed any toll roads on our way here. I wondered how long he spent coming up with that name. Nevertheless, at least the one I got wasn’t too bad. It could’ve been much worse.

The guard in front made way for us.

“Melian, is it? Alright. You may proceed. Go to that house over there, then pay the toll at the counter ahead.”

What he pointed towards was a small building, from which someone waved their hands to us. Before moving forward, Agham had a question for the guards.

“Is it still the same as before? 2000, right?”

Both of them grew a frown on their faces. I looked behind us and noticed the number of people wanting to pass through themselves. The line, however, was non-existent. Many people were simply looking at us, some with a grudge.

“Unfortunately, due to further regulations made by the three arches, it has been increased to 2300 gan. Safe travels and goodbye.”

The three villages, according to the guide, consisted of Vermas, Poles, and Kertis, which make up the so-called three arches. That overarching sign in front of the toll stand was probably an homage to them, and knowing each of these villages wasn’t too far away from here, it fit quite well.  

But 2300 gan…To the people who lost so much in such a short period, the amount was too much to handle. It made me think of how they would go about getting to the region, if not by passing through here.

Of course, given the layout of these lands, something could definitely be done about it. But what actually came to me first were some of the more unappealing solutions. Solutions that would inevitably cause some suffering to others. Really, it made me glad I wasn’t in the same position.

Agham was the kind of guy who would calmly go through every solution, no matter how bloody or unpractical they seemed. If it were him…But, that wasn’t what this whole thing was about, was it?

As we passed through the guards, another sign popped up. This time, it read “Payments”. With that, we approached the counter, and some of my anxiety came back, too.

“So, what are we going to do? You don’t plan to use that bottle as payment, do you?”

Agham was as calm as could be. He knew exactly what he was doing.

“That’s precisely what we’re doing. Don’t you worry, it’ll work out.”

Hearing those words calmed me down somewhat. At the counter, the attendant took the bottle without giving it a single thought, and without having even exchanged a single word yet. Even so, when they started to speak, I could tell things were going to be fine.

“Welcome back, Ain. Going right to Vermas, I assume?”

Agham really did do all of this a lot before. He even made some small talk with them.

“Yeah. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Don’t forget to say hello from me.”

“Got it. See ya.”

After passing through the tollgate, we were back on track, with just the single line of dirt pointing forward again. During that time, where we would once again have to go through a bunch of nothingness together for hours on end, I had Agham to thank for not letting me get bored. Telling me entertaining stories from his past, blabbering about.

I didn’t listen to much of it, but they seemed interesting enough. Yet, I also had the feeling Agham only wanted to tell me more of the more trivial stories of his life, instead of the more important, serious ones. In other words, the stories that could’ve told me more about him.

After some time, Agham was also looking a bit down. My gut reaction told me what it was about, silly as it was.

“What, the bottle from before? You wanted to drink that bottle yourself that badly?”

I hit it right on the mark.

“It’s actually my favorite, you know…”

“And the person from the counter’s favorite, too? That’s tough. But hey, you can always drink some more pretty soon. You yourself said it won’t be long anymore, after all.”

“…Yeah.”

Agham’s gloominess wouldn’t disappear for the next hour or so, but his spirits were soon lifted after witnessing a particular sight. The sight of…

An old man in tatters, sitting on a worn blanket on the side of the road.

He had some incredibly wild hair, flailing around with its gray strands. Also, he looked a bit skinny and crooked, as well as sunburned, only wearing some rags above his upper body. Nevertheless, he was grinning like a lunatic, staring off into space, immediately making me think that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t a good idea to interact with him.

Seemingly having heard my inner plead and consciously ignoring it, Agham called out to him.

“Boso!”

The old man came back to life as if from a daze, shooting up into a standing position. He then slowly turned his face towards us. I never met someone who fit the description of “creepy” that perfectly before. Then again, at the time, there wasn’t much in me to begin with.

The old man began to speak, and in a rather high-pitch voice, at that. It only added to the creepiness.

“Eh-heh. Welcome back. Everything has been arranged for you. Mind you have…”

Agham signaled me once again to go get something from the luggage.

“Lenn, go grab a bottle for me.”

I was a little annoyed having to do this again, but not having to look at that old man and possibly catching his gaze was enough motivation for me to immediately go to the back, and start searching.

“Which one?”

Again, there were a good number of bottles stocked up, so I struggled to find whichever Agham was going for. But those worries were eliminated by him.

“Doesn’t matter, really.”

I picked out a random bottle. Then, after handing it to Agham, he too, without looking at it once, went ahead and gave it to the old man, who gratefully embraced it with his thin hands.

“You’re too kind. Be safe…”

The old man cobbled himself up back on the roadside and began to sleep while hugging the bottle. It was a strange sight. But I was getting fed up with trying to think about every single new thing coming across me, so I decided not to question it.

After some more time on the road, Agham said the words I had wanted to hear since we left Casla.

“Vermas. Took some time, of course, but what’s done is done.”

Somewhere along the yellow line in the distance, a particular spot became visible. And from there, all the pent-up fear and doubt inside of me dissipated.

The village covered in unusually lush green roofs oozed out waves of fog, creating a natural barrier between the outside and inside, almost like a bubble. Even though it was a village, it had the appearance of an enclosed sphere, isolated from the rest of the world.

Certainly, this wasn’t what I expected. This sort of magical encounter. And furthermore, to have it stick out like a sore thumb among the humble assortment of flat grass and rubble.

At the entrance, we were requested to give up our shoes and socks, to be withheld until our leave. Apparently, it was mandatory to walk around with your bare feet. The woman at the front desk then sent us through a small gate, from which there was a small opening in the barrier to let us enter the village.

The small streets unfolding before us were as clean as a blank slate, the stone pavement warm and the humid air calming. Exotic plants were all around, further soothing the atmosphere. It smelled a bit of lavender. Looking up, the sky was blocked by the barrier, creating a foggy, greenish light permeating through the terrain. There seemed to be a lot of smoke going through here.

Truly, this was the village of rest the guide must’ve referred to.

However, here, at the entrance to the village, there were no people walking around nor any particular sounds to be heard other than the quiet fizzling of smoke. The houses we passed by had their windows and doors shut. If it wasn’t for the nice ambience, I would have had the impression of walking through a ghost town.

Had the news of Casla reached this place already? Most likely. In that case, they were being really cautious.

Agham took me further down to a sizable plaza. There, a monument of a silver maiden was placed in the middle of a fountain. The maiden wore an elaborate dress and had her long hair hidden behind her large, baggy clothes. The monument was adorned with dozens of doves, resting either on or beside the girl who was sitting on the ground. She looked peaceful towards the sky, while caressing the birds around her. Agham began to explain.

“That’s Maiden Verma. You could say she’s the person who built this place. She was called the envoy of peace during her time, resolving huge conflicts without shedding a single drop of blood. At least, that’s how the story goes.”

“Wow. That is quite admirable.”

While I took a closer look at the statue, Agham reached out to his pockets.

“She’s pretty important, so you better show your respect. Here.”

Agham opened my hands and placed a half-rusted gold coin in them. I already knew what a gold coin was worth, so I was visibly surprised.

“…Are you sure? Don’t we kind of need that money? This is like, 4000 gan…”

But Agham didn’t seem to mind. Rather, he really wanted me to throw it in.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. We’re not going to throw it in there and call it a day. It’s getting purified. Come on, go ahead.”

Following Agham’s instructions, I went up to the fountain and slowly let it sink into the water. From that short moment I had my hand in the water, I could tell the fountain water was indeed more than just clean. It had something else to it.

The coin sank to the bottom, where it was barely visible. We waited for around half a minute. Then, Agham said this.

“Should be about time. Let’s take it back.”

I put my hand into the water, taking out the coin. And when I looked at it, I noticed. It was as good as new, shining a bright yellow. As if it really was purified.

“I’m stunned. How does that work?”

Agham was getting more enthusiastic.

“It’s some kind of long-lasting magic Verma herself must’ve placed in that water at some point. At least, that’s the most common answer. Awesome, right?”

Magic? There was magic?

“I wonder if that kind of thing works with things like clothes…”

As I went into deep thought, Agham was already on his way elsewhere.

“Hey, let’s go. We have our appointment ready.”

I remembered what he said at the toll stand.

“Huh, really? Wasn’t that just something you made up on the spot? Like my name?”

Agham contained a smile, probably thinking of the name he gave me. “Polnier”. Did it have some kind of meaning I wasn’t aware of?

“Part of it, yes, but it’s true we’ve already got our rooms here set up. We’ve got to thank my pal for that.”

What we went to next was towards the direction of the smoke enveloping the village. According to Agham, there, in the center, was also where the inns and more public places would lie, such as the baths. He really, really wanted to go into one of those, but on that, the feeling was mutual. We were pretty dirty all around, and going without a bath during all this time made my skin itchy.

As we got closer to the center, the village finally became livelier. Here, the houses also seemed more colorful than before. One of the bigger buildings was adorned with red flags that depicted some kind of produce. I wasn’t quite sure what kind, but it looked pretty cool.

The people had pretty light clothing on, and some even…lighter clothing. Sometimes, it made me avert my gaze, especially when it came to the women. Agham, on the other hand, didn’t seem impressed.

We went to the inn we apparently had an appointment in. The receptionist was an old lady who happily showed us to our rooms. It was pretty big for a room at an inn, and well decorated. The smell of lavender was there, too. The room even came with its own private bath. I felt right at home.

I decided to go and hop into the bath, while Agham was already too tired for anything. The moment he brought in the last bit of luggage from the carriage, he collapsed on the bed. Even with that strength of his, he was pushing himself. Yet, he decided to do it all himself and refused my offer to help on a frequent basis.

The bath was encased in flat stone, leaving only a small crevice in between the bath and the floor that sucked in any warm, overflowing waves. The edges sparkled in a silver fashion, while the green waters were so murky that it made them hard to see through. Not having my eyes be strained by a constant stream of bright light was a very nice change of pace.

Coming out of the bath was a dozen times harder to do than entering it. Submerging yourself in these waters felt like being healed from the inside out. I couldn’t let go of it easily.

After about an hour or so, I finally picked up the courage to come out and dry off. Even the towels given to us were smooth as silk. Clean and dry, both mentally and physically, I collapsed onto the bed, dozing off instantly.

We came to the village before noon, and now it was somewhere during the evening. The only thing left to do for the day was to go and grab dinner. Agham was especially hungry. I also wanted to know if there were any news from Casla.

Whether the situation stabilized or not, what happened to this person or that thing…Anything, really. Anything to calm my heart a little, the one part of me that just couldn’t be at peace right now.

Agham said he knew a good restaurant, and dragged me with him. Outside, the sky looked almost the same as when we arrived, if only slightly darker. That thick haze worked its magic. I still wasn’t used to walking on my bare feet, but having the reassurance of walking on clean grounds made it not so bad.  

At the restaurant, I noticed that even at this time, not too many people were around.

As Agham ordered some stuff for the both of us, I caught the eye of someone in the background, looking at me. That person was quite far away, so I couldn’t make out much of them, but they just kept staring at us, though I wasn’t sure whether he looked at me, or Agham, who from that position was directly behind me.

They were wearing some kind of leather outfit, completely unsuitable for this type of environment. Wasn’t he hot? Sure, it wasn’t too warm, but the sheer humidity would be too much for anyone wearing a tight fit.

My attention would shift when our meals and drinks arrived. Agham absolutely decimated his steak, while I took my sweet time with mine. It somehow tasted worse than I thought, but Agham sure had a great time. After all, he got to drink his favorite drink here, whatever the name was, again.  

After we were done, Agham went up to the staff and asked a bit around. He seemed to have connections within the restaurant, too. When he came back, he had some interesting news to share.

“Casla’s fine now. It was only that one night. The Brigade got it under control, they say.”

“I see…How many dead?”

“A few dozen. Less than expected. One of these guys in black was captured as well, so we can expect to hear more pretty soon.”

“…You sure do have some good networking skills.”

“Really, you think so? Thanks! But there’s more…”

A clump formed inside my stomach. Agham was taking a long pause, and the silence was killing me. His face turned dead serious.

“…W-What?”

“I-I’m sorry to tell you this, but…”

“What…is it?”

Agham leaned into me and whispered right into my ear.

“They say the public bath is closed.”

“I see…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

I was ashamed at myself for thinking Agham had something bad to say here. Sometimes, he would act just like that, especially when it came to the strangest of topics. What was even worse was that usually, he wasn’t kidding, either. The public bath must’ve been pretty important to him, and he also must’ve been pretty excited to show it to me, but…Yeah, I still wanted to hit him for that.

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Still, that was some reassuring news, if anything. There was still a chance something bad happened, with a few dozen dead, but given the sheer number of people living in the city, it was a minuscule amount.

“Well, my heart’s at ease for now. Thanks, Agham. I guess I owe you one more. Let’s do our best getting to the Zenar Region.”

“Y-Yeah. I’m counting on you. But Lenn, the bath-”

I was already detaching myself from that conversation. Talking about how much of a shame it is not to be able to go to a public bath wasn’t something I was bent on.

“Lenn?”

But a saddened Agham wouldn’t stop dragging me into it.

“Yes, yes. It’s too bad, but let’s just do it later. We’ll come here again somewhere in the future, okay?”

“Oh, yeah. Alright. Sure. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Agham took out some notes and wrote down some lines. I had a bad premonition.

“What, you’re going to memorize for us two to eventually go into the public path of Vermas?”

With a nonchalant attitude, Agham replied.

“Yeah.”

He grew much calmer in that split second. Weird ideas came to me, ideas that were best left buried.

“A-alright then. Anything else?”

Agham put away his notes and looked up.

“I’m going to meet up with someone shortly, so I’ll be out for a while. You can just go back to the inn. It won’t take long.”

“That’s fine. Is there anything you want me to do?”

“Hm…”

Agham’s head sank back to my height. 

“Oh, actually, there is…”

After parting with Agham, I went over our conversation one more time. The part I remembered the most, of course, was the one about Casla. In fact, it got me heated up so badly that I couldn’t wait to put in some work myself.

Burning with newfound determination, I went back to the inn. While Agham would be away for some time, I was to go and gather the supplies that we, or rather, he painstakingly carried into our room. Everything needed to be carefully sorted out.

With minimal lighting and a dark sky above, I had to squint my eyes to get a proper look at what was in front of me. It was my first time writing with ink since I could remember, but it didn’t go so badly. At the very least, I could read it.

It took me around an hour to get through everything, reaching into nighttime.

With nothing else to do, I went to bed. I wasn’t exhausted, but I had a feeling that I would need extra sleep. Also, going out alone at night in unknown territory wasn’t my style, no matter how safe this place looked.

Still, I couldn’t sleep at all until Agham returned. The attack on the inn, then that night at Maya’s place, the inferno…fear remained inside of me. Maybe another attack would happen, maybe not. Maybe Agham wouldn’t come back. Those kinds of thoughts riled me up while alone.  

But Agham came back, safe and sound, and with nothing in particular to report. He only said he met up with an old acquaintance. Thinking back to a little while ago, I asked.

“Did they wear some leather outfit?”

Agham’s face couldn’t contain his surprise.

“What the-Are you some kind of psychic? How did you know that?”

Then, I explained.

“…You do realize they were staring at us for quite some time back at the restaurant, right?”

“Wait, really? Oh…okay.”

While talking, Agham checked up on everything in the room, one by one. He seemed calm enough, but him fidgeting around like that was a little ridiculous.

“Anyway, is that some kind of guy I’m not supposed to know or something? He certainly isn’t acting that sneaky around us. Surely, he would have no problem if you introduced us.”

Agham stopped for a moment.

“No, it’s fine. He’s just someone I know from way back. He doesn’t really have anything to do with our trip, so it’s alright even if you don’t get to know him. I’ve got the feeling he and you wouldn’t get along, either.”

I only meant to probe Agham on how he would feel if the two of us were to meet, but maybe leaving that matter alone was for the best.

“Is that so? Well, okay then.”

With that out of the way, another night would pass. And so, we would move on from Vermas, and go to our next destination.

On our way out of the village, we visited the Verma fountain again. It wasn’t my idea, but Agham’s. He didn’t pray to it or anything, but he made sure to get a good stare. Then, without saying a word, he hopped back on the carriage.

Coming out the other side of the barrier, a stark brightness started assaulting me. It was almost like I forgot that sunlight was even a thing, even though I spent not more than a single night in that village.   

Our shoes were returned to us, and with that, we went out to clear the second half of the road. It was going to be even more of the weeds and stones along the brown, flat line, a scenery I had grown tired of again after just about two minutes.

Along the way, though, a peculiar thing happened. Sitting on the side of the road was an old man, and Agham called out to him.

“Boso!”

That hair, that body, that thin sheet he was sitting on…it was him. But how? Getting this far on your bare feet didn’t seem possible for a weakly senior.

He stood up from his worn-down blanket and asked once again.  

“Eh-heh. Welcome back. Mind you have…”

“Lenn, a bottle.”

“What, this again?”

I picked up a random bottle from the supplies and handed it over to Agham, who flung it over to the old man. Surprisingly, he caught it without any problems.

“You’re too kind. Be safe…”

Boso cobbled himself up and began to sleep while hugging the bottle. Viewing it a second time, it didn’t get any less strange.

“Hey, who even is this guy?”

Agham gave a cheerful reply.

“Oh, that’s Boso. Isn’t he great?”

In what way, is what I thought. But in front of a good-spirited Agham, I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I didn’t want to make that mistake again so soon. There was no point in saying it out loud, anyway.  Instead, I asked another question.

“Do you know where he comes from, or what he does, or…”

“Well, not really. He’s just a nice old fella, really. This road is kind of like his home.”

“His home, you say? How does he get by?”

“Receiving gifts from other people like us. Well, that and…other things.”

“Other things, huh...”

A few more hours in, I started getting comfortable again. A light breeze was blowing, and the rhythmic sounds of hooves tapping on the ground grew pretty relaxing.

Still, there was something that caught my attention. A weird sound came from somewhere in the carriage. It was faint, but very annoying once I was aware of it. Almost like a beeping sound. Unable to take it any longer, I stood up and started searching through the whole wagon.  

Yet, I found nothing. With a sense of defeat in my heart, I went back to laying down, trying to ignore the sound to the best of my ability. But unfortunately, that didn’t work either. The only thing left to me was to just bear with it until we would arrive at our next stop.  

“Agham, how long will it take from here?”

“Don’t worry, we’re already halfway through. If something bad could ever happen on this road, then we’ve already escaped it. From here on out, it’s all good.”

Coming this far, I didn’t even think about the possibility of bandits or hagglers roaming around. If we didn’t encounter any for this long, we wouldn’t come across any at all. At least, that was my thinking.

The guide mentioned it before. Some mercenary group that keeps away the baddies. “Red grains”, or whatever. That building in Vermas was probably theirs. In the end, we never encountered any of those, either.

Coming to a fork road, Agham briefly stopped the horses.

“Hey, Lenn. How about we stop by Poles?”

“Poles?”

The village of trade. But didn’t we have enough supplies already?

“Yeah, I thought it might be worth checking out for you. It’s only for a short bit, anyway. We’re not going to sleep there, just take a look around.”

If we were only going to take a look, why go at all…But I didn’t have it in me to refuse. The day was still long, and refusing Agham one too many times would eventually end up badly for me.

“Hmm. Alright, that doesn’t seem so bad. I just hope it isn’t too much of a detour.”

“I can assure you it’s not. Poles isn’t far from the road itself, that’s what makes it so great. You’re going to like it, I promise.”

Reaching a well-signposted junction with all kinds of advertisements on them, Agham took us away from the main path and to the left, towards Poles. Shortly after, stands could already be seen in the distance. They were glued to the roadside, forming a long line. The well-treaded dirt of the road looked much darker than the one beneath the shops, giving them a bit of a clean aura.

Every shop was very distinct, having its own color and shape, as well as its own self-made packaging. Some wrapped their products in simple cloth, others in leather…with unique emblems put on each one of them. But most importantly, the place was full of people, a welcome change this time around.

Still, as for the prices…I didn’t even want to look at them. For a city of trade, the goods were being sold at a ridiculous rate, twice, no, thrice as much as in Casla. If I ever bought something here, I would end up bankrupt instantly.

There even was a shop regarding the Red Grains, selling armor and medicine. Their shopkeeper was tall and rough, almost beastly in appearance. Contrary to that, his demeanor was rather timid, giving his personal thanks to any customer who bought something and even taking a bow whenever he did.

I thought of a mercenary group to be more intimidating, but looks can be deceiving.

As we dug further into the long-lasting line of monetary pitfalls, the village itself finally became visible. Well, it looked more like a burg, given all the walls and towers, but to be fair, they had these golden lines on them which did make it look a bit more business-like and wealth-oriented. I was probably grasping at straws here, but it was something. At the very least, that imposing view made the village seem important, if anything.  

The open gate was almost as massive as the walls themselves, reminding me of the one that Casla had. A true bastion.

When it came to the inside, it was cramped. The space in between buildings was minimal at best. Bridges had been constructed all over, connecting house to house in all sorts of places. Honestly, it made me feel a bit adventurous as well, wanting to cross all of these paths that hang around on all kinds of floors.

That is, if they weren’t just about a meter in length. That’s just how small the distance between buildings was.

Of course, a street going around the edges of the village was there, too. And in the middle of the village, a small plaza could be accessed from it. Other than that, one would have to do with going from building to building or squeezing through the claustrophobic alleyways. If some alleys in Casla were small, these should be called tiny.

We took a leisurely break at the plaza, eating some snacks we grabbed from one of the stands outside, and then…it happened again. But this time, there was no excuse for what I was seeing. It was too unreal. Yet, Agham reacted to it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Boso!”

The old man was sitting there right beside us, like a shadow popping out of nowhere.

“What the-How?! “

“Eh-heh!”

He was still smiling like a lunatic. I was so caught off-guard that I inched away from him as much as I could. However, this didn’t sit right with Agham.

“Lenn- “

“B-But we just passed you! This isn’t happening. Are there multiple Bosos or whatever just roaming around here? Stop giving me the creeps!”

I looked towards Agham again, who wasn’t happy with my attitude.

“Lenn, that isn’t very nice. Ah, don’t take it to heart, Boso, he’s just a random amnesiac I picked up.”

It was as if Agham was trying to score points with the tattered man. Yet, I still wasn’t done venting my surprise.

“I’m sorry, but Agham, you can’t tell me that this person arrived here before us! No way that could happen!”

Boso stretched over towards me at amazing speed, yanking his body back and forth. Once he was next to me, I noticed his smell. The smell of alcohol, and decay. To that, I instinctively turned my face away. But, seeing that this only added to my disrespecting the old man, I quickly turned around again, trying to think of what to say. Firstly, I needed to apologize.

So, I closed my eyes for an instant and quickly thought of a way to smooth all of this over. But when I opened them, Boso was right in front of my face, staring right at me. Then, he spoke with a confusing tone.  

“Poor you. Amnesiac, was it? Hurry and fix what you’ve got. Maybe later, you’ll lose it. Eh-heh!”

His hands slowly moved onto my legs, and I could feel his disgusting breath all over me. I needed to say something, anything. What came out was this.

“…Thank you for your heartfelt advice, Mr. Boso. I also have to apologize for my rude behavior from before. However, what I would most appreciate right now is to regain some private space, if you don’t mind.”

Boso gave me a big smile, then made a slight glance at Agham before backing off, standing up straight, and preparing to leave. His posture was much better than what I expected from an old man like him. He turned around one last time and said:

“Hmhm, it’s good to be brash sometimes. Well then. We’ll meet again.”

With his hands behind his back, Mr. Boso left the plaza. What was left was the lingering impression that I might have gotten myself into something again. All of it could’ve been avoided, but once again, I didn’t keep my mouth shut. Now, the only thing I could do was pray nothing would come of it.

After Mr. Boso made his exit, Agham came up to me looking apologetic.

“Lenn, sorry for not telling you. Boso’s actually…well…”

“Yeah, that was my bad. Sorry. Let’s just move on, if you’re okay with that. Better not stay here.”

“Alright.”

Fortunately, nothing happened on our way out of the village. I kind of wanted to talk to that Red Grains member, but that was yet another thing I would have to save for later. Before too long, I would have to make a roadmap of all the places I had to revisit.

At sunset, we arrived at the border. The border to the Zenar Region, and in this case, the entrance to the Tolun Duchy, as Agham called it. Not our final destination, but just another checkpoint. Even so, knowing we made it this far without difficulty was a blessing.

 

-End of Chapter 6-

 

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Harc Manem: A tour around Oulayn, year 505

 

Page 17 excerpt: The Zenarian Duchies: The Tolun Duchy

One of the largest Duchies in the Zenar Region, the Tolun Duchy is heavily shaped by its immediate connection to the Road of Promise, featuring endless flatlands.

It is well-travelled by adventurers, tradesmen and others alike. As the focal point of connecting the Road of Promise that reaches over to the three arches, Casla and the Northern States, and the other side including the rest of the Zenar Region, Marin and the west as a whole, the Tolun Duchy entertains by far the highest number of tourists every year out of every Duchy found in the Region.

In particular, the old Colosseum located in their capital Harp is a popular spot for sightseeing, featuring paid shows every night, usually dramas of old. Also, The Tolun Duchy is known for the creation of all kinds of new brands of beer, wine, rum and other alcoholic beverages, for example the “Wood’s cradle”, a famous wine available in pretty much every restaurant here.

But this is where the particularities already find their end. Taking up so many people from all over the world has massively infringed on the Duchy’s own personality, instead catering to as broad of an audience as possible. In other words, while to an extent everything can be found in the Tolun Duchy, none of it carries any charm. A perfect place to stay overnight, but not to stay in any longer.

This is purely my biased opinion, but the Tolun Duchy is by far the least interesting one to walk through. However, this also spreads some good news. It allows you to have more time to explore the other ones! And I am here to do just that for you.

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