Chapter 18: 16 – [To the capital]

I sat in a rather shaky and uncomfortable carriage, I should instruct some dwarves to begin studying ways to improve these things so I can build a comfortable one for kingly occasions. Sat in the carriage with me was a portion of my royal guard, who were dressed as plain adventures in iron and leather armor. The armor looked normal but was levels above even what an average A rank adventurer used in terms of defense and imbued skills. Luckily I had assigned these men to the adventurers guild shortly after we finished construction. Not to function as spies, of course, I planned to visit human lands as a normal citizen whenever I could so I had them train to be adventurers in shifts. They would spend a week performing their normal duties guarding me and then switch places with another team of guards who had been adventuring for a week, this way I could appear to be a somewhat wealthy dwarf who was traveling with adventurer dwarves that I was paying for protection.

Given the culture I had decided for us dwarves we could interact just fine, since the only time I cared about them treating me like a king was when I was being one. Otherwise they treated me like any other dwarf, although with slightly more respect. We could still joke and rib each other just fine. The other member of my party would still jump and stutter whenever I attempted to interact with her, but she had finally stopped referring to me like a king. She still interacted with me like I was a powerful noble, but that wouldn't cause as many problems if she was still acting like I was a king.

I am talking about Miss Elvinia of course, she was bumping along with us in this carriage. To my pleasure she got along well with the rest of my gang, they were all steadfast adventuring partners who didn't miss a chance to spar or drink whenever we stopped to make camp. I heard a whistle come from the coach stand while I was wondering away the time, and I found upon leaning out my window that we were finally nearing the walls of the Traisanian Royal Capital after nearly a month of travel. I reached into my storage bag, one that was created by the dungeon with nearly limitless capacity, to retrieve the gate pass I had been granted by Duke Lucan. I made sure he procured one that would not attract attention, so this one merely indicated that I was a trader who had permission to travel the royal lands without entrance taxes.

Luckily the gate we were approaching did not have any lines for entry, most likely given that we were approaching the capital from the west and there were only farming and ranching towns along the path to the mountain from here. As we rolled to a stop just before the entrance I could hear the guards making a slight fuss over our dwarven driver. It seems that they had been briefed in detail regarding us dwarves, and given their pleasant interactions with our coachman they had been instructed how valuable dwarven relations were to their kingdom.

"Greetings fair dwarf, I am Lieutenant Lester, I apologize that I am unable to address you by name. And I will also apologize for any inconvenience, but we must subject the carriage to an inspection to ensure that no contraband is being carried within. Could we ask you to inform the passengers that we have prepared a waiting room for your party's use until we have finished our inspection?"

Oswallt was our driver for this trip given his welcoming attitude towards others, he was a good fit to have on this trip since his job had changed to Steward. Which made him a perfect butler and secretary. I felt the carriage shift slightly as he dropped from the coachmen's stand to the ground.

"Certainly lad, my name is Oswallt and there is no need to be overly formal with one such as myself." Oswallt knocked lightly on the carriage door. "Boss, the guards would like us ta take a break while they inspect our cargo."

Ah, my time to shine. My clothes were not astounding for this visit but were something only a wealthy merchant or low noble who be able to afford. I couldn't have others looking down on me after all. The door swung outward to allow me out and I was the first to disembark, I turned to take in the sight of the city before me while the rest of our party climbed out. The guards appeared surprised that our almost entirely dwarven party had a beast-kin but didn't have any outward appearance of racial bigotry that you usually hear about in these stories. Though from my time speaking with King Traisan while he was visiting I already knew that his kingdom was multiracial and has even had members of their royal bloodline who were beast-kin.

I turned to the Lieutenant I had heard speaking with Oswallt, he was about average height and build for a human. With dark brown hair and eyes, he appeared rather normal if you ignored the thin scar traveling along the top of his right eyebrow.

"I am Anwirn, a humble trader here on business for the royal families of Traisan and Brimstone. I thank you, sir, for preparing a location to rest, as this carriage has been murdering our muscles for the last few weeks."

I guffawed and thumped the short decorative cane I was carrying against the cobblestones.

"Thank you for your understanding Sir Anwirn, I am Lieutenant Lester. I shall show you to the waiting room, if you would please follow me?"

I nodded and began following the man with Oswallt and the head of my guard company falling in just behind me. The only one who looked nervous was Elvinia but that seemed to just be her natural state around me.

—————

We had spent roughly half an hour enjoying the snacks and tea that they served while asking Lester various things regarding the town and what we could expect. According to him, the entire city was still abuzz with rumors about the dwarven nation that their King had announced as a new ally and neighbor. He advised us that we could expect many curious gazes when in the city, as most people only knew of a dwarf's short stature and not much else, so people would be trying to learn anything they could about us.

I waited for the rest of my party to board the carriage again before turning to the Lieutenant and giving him a slight bow of my head.

"Glad to have met you Lester, I look forward to you visiting Brimstone in the future."

The man bowed as I boarded the carriage and it began rolling through the gate. Our first stop would be the inn that the Duke had advised us to stay at, the Lieutenant had confirmed for us that the Crimson Turtle Inn was directly ahead of us within the west quarter's square.

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