After two days on horse back, Vincent and Collective could see the edge of Maylin city, the largest and heart city of Clifford domain, the green meadows gently sloping down towards the shore where the bright white rays of the rising sun meets the golden grains of the sand beach, it was serene refreshing sight to behold, the salty ocean breeze tickled their noses as they approached the great gray stones of the city walls,
Vincent golden hairlocks fluttered with the sun as his gray silvery eyes were died with the warm hues of the sunrise,
He drowsily talked to Collective as their horse was galloping gently down the slope,
"This is Maylin, the east most point of Gaelatia, the so called protectors of the eastern sea, I will help you meet with the margrave once we are in the city afterwards, we each can go our separate way"
Vincent wore a brown fur coat since the weather was getting colder with the approach of Crytonus season, Collective who was buried inside his fur coat had only their head of raven hair visible, they raised their line of sight and looked at Vincent with their gray eyes and gave an understanding gesture,
As the city gates became clearer and clearer they could hear a sound of an argument, as they approached they could see two towering figures drabbed in white fur garb and silvery blue armor, one as tall as a pram and a quarter and one whole foot length taller than a pram, to put how large they are into perspective, the shorter one was a full head taller than the city guard they were arguing with, and by no means where the guards short in stature,
"What do you mean entry is a full 3 Dera if we don't provide identification, we are not carrying any imperial coin, can we pay with silver nuggets, its the same thing is it not ?"
The taller one with the deep raspy voice agitatedly argued with the guards, his patience almost reached its limits,
"Listen here you northerner pagans, me's a simple gate guard, I was told to only take 3 Dera Coins in case someone cannot provide imperial identification, provided you's face is not on the wanted list, If I take your silver nuggets my boss'd kill me, so back off, and come back when you have coin"
The rough city guard would not pend with the argument or the red headed foreigner, the woman with the giant redhead clutched her head in pain,
'I'd thought to exchange the silver with imperial coin once we got inside, we did not stop at any city as we were rushing to Maylin'
As Vincent approached, the woman heard the gentle galops of the horse behind her, looking back she could see a blond man a little shorter than her slowly making his way to the gate on his brown horse,
The man hawk like eyes were an interesting feature she thought, she never saw an imperial with such sharp looking eyes, as the man made his way behind them he opened the buttons of his brown coat and out popped raven haired child, the child cat like eyes brightly studied the surroundings as if it was the first time for it to see so many people all at once, everything was a new experience, Vincent carried the child as he unmounted from the horse, he took the rains and approached the arguing three,
'So small .. how old, about 2 years old?'
Vincent noticed the tall woman's eyes stuck to Collective as he approached, he looked at the guards as if patiently waiting for someone to notice him,
The guard brushed off the redheaded giant and addressed Vincent,
"Ey sir traveler, do you carry imperial identification ?"
Vincent reached out in his shirt and took out a leather pouch that was hanging over his nick, inside was a metal circular object that had the insignia of a lion on its back, on the front side information regarding Vincent were inscribed with his name birth place and some other information,
Vincent took out a small knife and cut his thump and placed it on the metal object and it glowed with faint red light,
The guard seeing this looked at the child and gestured,
"and the kid do they have identification ??"
Vincent answered the guard,
"This is the first time I am taking my child to a city, so they are not yet registered"
The guard looked at collective closely and smiled as he patted collectives head,
"Ohh little guy its your first time in the city, enjoy your stay"
Vincent breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed that the guards were not suspicious of him and collective, he could attribute this to both of them having the same eye color, Vincent gestured his gratitude to the guard and was about to step inside the city walls when he heard the tall woman speak to him,
"Good sir, I am sorry to disturb you however can you please lend me a minute of your time"
Vincent felt a headache as he had an idea why the woman called out to him, he thought about ditching the scene and carry on towards the city however collective was already walking towards the tall woman as they stood proudly waiting for her to talk,
Both the woman and the guard could barely contain their laughter when they saw the child seriously willing to listen, Vincent placed his left palm over his face in shame,
"Col .. The lady was not talking to you"
Collective looked at Vincent, once they understood that the speech was not directed to them they fumbled quickly and hid behind Vincent with shame, their faces were blushed in red,
"Eyy little one has a great attitude there boss"
laughed the guardsman as he spoke to Vincent,
Vincent laughed wryly, now that Collective forced him to make eye contact with the lady he could not ignore her any more,
The lady smiled apologetically behind her hood,
"Good sir, Me and my cousin here are from the northerner Falhalen region, we have some business in the city however in our rush we forgot to bag imperial coin, now we are in a bit of a pickle as you can see, if you would as graciously make a transaction with us so we can get some coin enough to pay our entrance fee"
Vincent sighed inwardly as he took out a pouch of coins he tossed six Dera's into the guards hands, the lady smiled at him gratefully as she took off one of her earrings off from under her hood, the earing was made of gold in the shape of a dragons claw holding on to a red blood ruby,
"You can use this good sir as a collateral, once we have coin inside the city we will pay you back"
Vincent raised his hand in a refusing gesture, he calmly told the lady,
"I am not spending the day inside the city, we are here to get my child some identification then we are leaving, I cannot accept this as a collateral, and I cannot wait for you to get coin, treat this as a token of good well, if it bothers you much, you can give them back if our paths ever cross again"
The lady in white could see Vincent's adamant refusal, she knew these kind of people would not be swayed no matter what so she backed off,
"Good sir, since you are going to register your child you will be going to the governor's office right, we will meet you there with the coin"
Vincent had a troubled look on his face as he replied,
"my lady, I will not be waiting for you there, If you cannot catch me over there then do not wait for me long, I would already be on my way out of the city"
The woman smiled in agreement, as the four of them entered the city of Maylin,