Chapter 9 Part 2 of 3 (Patreon)

Salyn held back any comments as the group of three hundred approached the gates.

Lord Knight Ikeda kicked his horse forward, the rest of his knights flanked him as they pushed through the traders and groups in their way.

People stirred in anger as the group forced their way forward.

“Who dares to butt ahead!” A voice came from a carriage.

Lord Salyn felt a wave of déjà vu.

The carriage opened, revealing a young woman. She was holding up her dress as she looked out of the carriage in a huff.

“Do you think that you are so important!” She stomped her foot looking at the passing knights.

Her eyes pinched together as she seemed to be recalling something.

“You best be aware of who you insult little miss. Do you really want to stand in the way of the Red Falcon Knights of the Ikku Kingdom?”

“So, who is raising trouble in my line?” A group of guards wearing simple but well maintained and repaired armor walked up. Their leader, a skinny man, had a handle sticking up over his shoulder.

He and the guards all wore bored expressions as they looked over the Red Falcon Knights.

“You want to step in our way as well?” Ikeda grinned as he slowly slid some of his blade out.

The young mistress quickly retreated into her carriage as her guards positioned themselves between her and Ikeda’s group.

Salyn faded back, shooting[mc13]  a look.

With a few hand gestures he held the rest of the force back, watching.

People around the two groups were quickly moving aside, not wanting to be part of it.

“Cute sword,” The King’s Hill guard snorted. The others grinned slightly. The atmosphere became sharp in an instant.

“Threatening a member of the King’s Hill guards. Well, we’d be well within our rights to maintain order cleaning up this little mess.” The guard looked over the group of knights with bored disinterest.

“Doubt any of you would increase my level even.”

He spat on the ground.

“What are our rules, Rook?” The man rested his hands on his hips.

“S-sir!”

“I ain’t a sir,” The guard leader turned back as the others all shot a look at the younger looking member.

“You stand in our way, in the way of our Queen’s will!” A Red Falcon Guard yelled.

“Rook!”

“King’s Hill guards will enforce the peace. If you are discovered hurting or attacking people within the Beast Mountain Range, or attacking an alliance member, then the guards will in turn hunt you down. If you cause unrest or rob others, you will have to atone for your actions with repayment or service~”

There was a flash of reflected light, the guard leader held something in his hand in front of the young man. The smile on the face of the Red Falcon Knight who had thrown it faded.

“Shit blade,” The guard’s eyes seemed to open, no longer bored, their hands had been near their weapons as if it was natural.

Salyn could feel the tang of metal and blood in the air, shivering.

The guard leader threw the blade back at the Knight who’d thrown it. He had no technique but he applied his power, the blade punched through the Knight’s armor denting it inwards.

The Knight coughed blood, a tombstone appeared and the Knight slumped off of his mount, his stirrups kept him attached as blood dripped down his red and silver carved armor on to the ground.

The Red Falcon Knights drew their weapons, their eyes flicking to the corpse.

“Didn’t Rook say, we’ll hunt down anyone that attacks alliance members? Guards are alliance members. I don’t like people attacking my Rook,” The guard leader said.

I should give him some advice, with so many watching and these rich looking carriages, it should lower his prestige If I can salvage this then Queen Ikku will surely trust me more.

Salyn cleared his throat and went up to Lord Knight Ikeda, between the weapons.

“Lord Knight, we have a mission to carry out according to the Queen’s will,” Salyn’s voice was just loud enough to be heard by the people who had hurriedly moved away from the two groups.

Ikeda glared at Salyn as if this was all his fault.

“We have a letter for Aditya from Queen Ikku of the Shikoshi Kingdom.” Ikeda announced.

“Lord Aditya gets letters from across the First Realm. Back of the line and wait your turn. No more than ten fighters allowed into King’s Hill unless you are a registered mercenary or guard. Though I’ll allow three.”

Ikeda gripped his sword tighter.

“Or none of you can enter and I add some more tombstones at the entrance?”

“You’re always making friends,” A woman laughed as another group of guards appeared.

“Back of the line and only three of you allowed in, or as my friend said, we deal with you out here.”

Ikeda gritted his teeth as Salyn checked the best way to retreat.

If he gets himself killed there’s no problem. I’ll back away, pass the message to Lord Aditya. Then Queen Ikku will have to fight if for nothing else than honor.

Ikeda put his sword in his scabbard.

“We can endure anything for our Queen,” Ikeda seemed to be talking to his fellow knights but he was staring at the first guard leader.

“Back of the line, three of you allowed in, the rest of you can wait out here. Don’t worry you should have plenty of fun at night.”

Lord Knight Ikeda turned and led the group to the rear of the line. People started to move to allow them back.

“If you give up your spot, you’ll lose it till tomorrow!” The second guard leader had followed with her group. People stopped moving and lowered their heads. Trying to keep their identity secret.

The Red Falcons stored their comrade’s body, they talked in low tones of the revenge they were plotting out.

“Salyn, Hiraga, you two will come with me. The rest of you find a place to stay for the night,” Ikeda said after some time.

He seemed unruffled by the whole incident, as if it had never happened.

Just because you ignore it, doesn’t mean that information won’t get back to the Queen. As her Red Falcons, you are her authority. Salyn bowed his head in understanding and waited.

The rest of the group moved out of the line.

Salyn studied Hiraga, one of the few Red Falcon Knight’s who were women. She sat as straight as a spear, her eyes roving between people. She barely talked, and had a simple appearance, making her easy to miss.

Salyn turned his attention forward. Guards from King’s Hill patrolled up and down the lines, making sure that no one was causing trouble. Some people were sent away or returned to the back of the line, few others dared to get into conflict with the guards.

“You might be wondering why I didn’t do anything more after confronting the King’s Hill guards,” Ikeda’s mouth didn’t move but through a spell Salyn could hear his voice.

“You can just nod, don’t try talking back. I was testing their ability. Fernard didn’t have any family connections, no one to come avenge him. A good tool to test the guards. They had the one guard unit patrolling. The second guard unit was back up. They also had people move on the walls, ready to defend or move out as needed. The first guard leader must be about as strong as Hiraga. Though none of the others revealed anything about how strong they are. Which makes me think that they are weaker than they appear. If they revealed their aura then it would have suppressed everyone. Instead they let out their killing intent. One can gain a lot of killing intent killing beasts and people even if their overall power isn’t that high. This King’s Hill and outpost alliance is stronger than I thought. It would be best if we gather more information on their forces and who they are working with. They have resources and power; as I have heard about. Don’t be arrogant here, remain calm and collected, it will allow more people to divert to you instead of talking to me.”

Lord Salyn nodded as he was inwardly shocked. His evaluation of Ikeda rose rapidly.

Using his own people’s lives to gain information on other’s strength, that was all an act? He is guiding people to talk to me with all of the attention focused on me. Hiraga is hard to notice, the best kind of person to gather information.

They reached the wall quickly. Salyn looked at the wall where there were deep scratches and grooves left in the wall from beasts.

“Gets a little lively out here at night,” The guard waiting to take their money said with one hand resting on his blade.

“No violence or crime inside the walls. Forty coppers, each.”

“Each?” Ikeda’s voice rose.

“Its what everyone pays, makes sure only the strong and capable can enter the city. If you’re weak you’ll just turn into beast fodder.”

Ikeda dug out the one silver and twenty coppers and passed it to the guard. He put it into a box and waved them forward.

They passed through the large gate and into the city.

It rested on a hill with the original city at the crown of the hill and the second extension reaching a third of the way down the hill. The massive hill stood well above the tree tops of the Beast Mountain Range, in the distance one could see the mountain ranges that created the Beast Mountain Range. Roads travelled through valleys, over rivers, mountains and forests to connect to the outposts.

All of the buildings in the second extension of King’s Hill were a mix of stone and wood.

Most cities just use wood because it is so much easier and cheaper to use.

“The guards are pulled from the military units, originally they were from the different outpost’s guards. It made them a neutral force. Every guard watching the gates will take a little something for themselves. We raised trouble and they didn’t charge us more. Even when I was trying to annoy him.” Ikeda talked freely now there weren’t people all around them.

“You sound impressed by them?”

“Our cities are guarded by the personal guards of the ruling family or families. The Army is made up of people that have a sworn oath to the Queen and bring their personal guards and some of their people to support her. Few have training and all of them are really coming to get part of the loot from the fighting.” Ikeda turned his head, looking Salyn up and down. Salyn tried to look as non-threatening as possible.

Why is he telling me all of this? He can’t trust me. Is he putting the fear into me that if I don’t tell him everything then he will know?

Ikeda looked ahead at the road that led towards the inner city, leaving Lord Salyn to stew in his thoughts.

They travelled through the city, passing the ‘school’. People were lined up, wearing the crests of different powerful families to gain entrance.

They passed through another set of watching guards as they entered the inner city. The administration buildings took up a full quarter of the inner city, walled off with their own guards. Most of the outpost leaders lived there, creating the heart of the Beast Mountain Alliance.

They rode up to the entrance, the gates were closed with guards waiting.

“Do you have an appointment?” A guard asked.

“We are on official business from the Shikoshi Kingdom under Queen Ikku’s orders!” Ikeda’s voice was low and threatening.