The horses neighed as the wagon drove further down a stone road at a steady pace. Many other wagons, merchants, and villagers walked to and from the large walls that encircle King's City. It was high noon. Not a cloud in sight, yet the wind carried a pleasant breeze.
Nia relaxed as she watched the passing masses from the passenger seat. Her long hair hovered with wind. Warm sunlight hit her face as her hair fluttered in the breeze. Her hood was down as she enjoyed the weather.
Belze was wide awake and chatted with the silver merchant. They became good friends over their short journey.
The silver merchant held the reins while concentrating on the roads trying not to crash into any other wagons or people.
The sides were filled with stalls of people selling and buying various trinkets. The people were happy here.
Over Nia's journey, there were a couple of stops in the middle. Sometimes, they would stop at a village for a day for food and a room.
While at different villages, Belze would help the silver merchant set up temporary stalls. The silver merchant would try to get some people to buy his items, while Belze was told to "watch and learn". However, Belze and Nia both learned that the silver merchant was a terrible salesman. He had a certain lack of charisma. His prices were either extremely high or low. Both of them were surprised that the silver merchant was still able to survive in the business.
When Belze insulted the silver merchant's sales skills at one of the villages, the merchant placed a wager that Belze couldn't do any better. The silver merchant gave some of his inventory and told him how much each item was worth. If Belze couldn't sell any one of the items that he was given, then he would have to buy one of his items. If he however sold one item, then Belze was allowed to keep the money that he made off of it plus an additional 20 silver coins for each item.
Turns out, Belze was able to sell the items with ease. His cute face attracted customers and his convincing words was able to let him get quite a good amount of money. Soon, the silver merchant just let Belze start selling all of his items as long as they both got a cut of the profits. The silver merchant actually became a little upset, and occasionally pouted "You were just lucky" at times.
The journey was also an eye-opening experience for Nia. She learned that each village had their own set of problems. Some were poor and an easy target for monsters. Nia, although hired as a bodyguard for the silver merchant, became a kind of vagabond during her journey. She helped villagers hunt down monsters and beasts that threatened them like she did at Kyte village. Occasionally, there would be simple errands that villagers needed. Sometimes, there was the occasional bandit or monster blocking the path and the silver merchant would wait for me to dispatch them without even getting up from the driver seat. At least, Belze tried to help by throwing rocks at the monsters, but the silver merchant wouldn't try to fight. But Nia was grateful every time that the silver merchant would create a magical barrier around the boy. Nothing during her journey so far has been as horrifying to her than the white robed monster. That was her most difficult fight, and nothing ever came close to that kind of horror.
It has only been a short time, but she has seen more of the world than she ever has in her entire 130 year lifetime. But nothing distracted her from why she was there. She always remembered Nera and the other villagers. Every day, Nia would remind herself that she needed to rescue them from the dragonslayers, and now she felt that she was close. They had to be at King's City, and now she could see it.
While Belze and the silver merchant talked to each other, Nia decided to listen to what they were talking about.
Belze chatted, "C'mon. You got to know at least one joke or pun. You could use one or two jokes that could land you a customer. You traveled all around and yet you don't know any jokes?"
"I don't know how jokes could 'land me a customer'. Well... I do know one joke," the silver merchant said while his dark eyes watched forward.
"See, I knew you had to know at least one. Tell me."
"A man goes to a doctor and says he's depressed. He says he feels all alone in a cold world."
"I see. Go on," Belze said with uncertainty.
"The doctor says 'Go see the clown - Pagliocci - and that should cheer you up.'"
"I see. I see. So, what's the punch line?" Belze asked with anticipation.
"The man said, 'But doctor... that is only slightly relevant to my problem, a mere momentary sense of relief from my symptoms, and no treatment to the underlying issues of my depression.'"
There was a long silence between the three.
"What kind of joke was that!?" Belze yelled, "That's not funny at all!"
Upon the broken silence, Nia began to chuckle to herself. She was glad that none of them have been hurt during their adventure.
"Hey, big sis! Don't encourage him!" Belze yelled.
As they approached closer, Nia's laughter stopped. Her senses perked up. There was a dragon nearby. She was reminded of her time in the fog, thinking about how her senses perked up then, but she never thought of it as anything but a feeling created by her red blade. She looked back at her sword thinking that it may be the same dragon, but she didn't think so. She looked up at the sky to see if there were any dragons, but the skies were clear. She was glad that there were some dragons still alive. It gave her hope that there were others like herself.
In front of them, the upcoming wagons halted. The silver merchant held back the reins and the horses stopped in their tracks. Nia and Belze were surprised. The silver merchant looked to the side of the wagon in front of him to see what was holding up the traffic.
Belze's head popped out of the wagon towards the front end and exclaimed, "Wh-What's happening? Is there another monster attack?"
"A checkpoint. Some knights are stopping the roads. Seems like they are checking people, " the silver merchant replied.
Nia looked to the side and there was a long line of people trying to get into the city. Many crows cawed as they flew above the crowds. However, the line was so long that she was unable to see the knights at the end of it. Even with her vision being better than humans, she had difficult seeing ahead of the crowd.
"How could you see them from this far away?" Nia asked.
The silver merchant just looked at her with his emotionless and blank helmet.
"Right. Magic," Nia said, "Well, what else can you see? Is there a way around this crowd?"
The silver merchant looked around and said, "The walls are pretty high. There are guards stationed at each corner. We would be stopped somewhere along the way. However, the ones stopping people aren't the usual city guards. They... they're dragonslayers."
Nia and Belze were struck with fear. She should have known that they might expect her to come, but instead of being worried, Nia smiled. Now, she was now certain that Nera was held captive there. She looked at her illusive ring.
"Are you able to see what they're checking?" she asked.
The silver merchant paused for a moment and said, "It's too far to see exactly what."
Nia thought for a moment. She couldn't risk going through the front entrance. There had to be another way inside.
The silver merchant said as if he could read Nia's thoughts, "Every entrance is probably the same. And the entire exterior of the wall is constantly patrolled by guards and... other things. There are eyes everywhere. We should head back and wait for nightfall."
"Agreed," Nia said, and the wagon began to turn around. Crows cawed above them as they stared down at them. The silver merchant could feel their dark gaze over them, but made no sudden movements to alert them. The crows cawed once more and flew away from them as their eyes scanned over the rest of the crowd.
The silver merchant had an easy way to get inside the city, but waited until they got further away from the crowd to tell Nia and Belze.