Countries were distinct territorial bodies led by various type of government, and a border was a rigid and clear-cut form of boundaries to differentiate themselves from neighboring entities. Many countries set up defensive structures, as well as stationed a good number of experienced military personnel to monitor movement of people, animals, and goods near their borders. In this day and age, conflict and war between or among countries could occur for petty reasons. Thus, the purpose of all those costly arrangement was to defend their priceless sovereignty from invasion, and failure to do so could lead to dire consequences.
Countries that fell would have its leaders exiled or publicly executed as declaration of their defeat, and enslavement to the citizen was not uncommon. Additionally, they would be defamed and went down in history as 'evil', justified to be forcefully seized by the winner.
People were the only creature capable of committing such atrocity without bating an eye. In beast tamers' point of view, the verocious beasts looked docile in comparison because most hunt due to necessity or survival, not out of malice nor greed.
On the other hand, the term 'frontier' used to describe the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. In the most general sense, a frontier could be fuzzy or diffuse, since most of them used to be uninhabited land or did not belong to any legitimate power.
Countries spent sizeable wealth to actively create villages or towns in the frontier to expand their populated area in order to cope with its growing people, claimed the territory as expansion to their border, and in time gave rise to a more prosperous economy, if successful.
But, it came to realization those said areas had been uncharted for a solid reason, and numerous incidents did happen during the area's development.
For instance, there was a rare case the area turned out to be the home of nocturnal ancient race that feasted upon blood of other creatures, and suddenly building settlement on their precious land was deemed as an act of aggression toward them, causing a whole town to silently disappeared even before it was established. Moreover, tension with that race still continued until today, and any development initially planned for that area was put to a complete stop indefinitely.
As support, frequent assistances were sent by the government to maintain security and public order in the frontier. Unfortunately, even with behemoth size of manpower at their disposal, tending to every problem was far from the definition of feasible. Thus, leaders of countries personally issued special quests to a reputable third party -the Association- asking their adventurers to assist the country's cause.
In relation to such quests, at the moment, Mikaela and Alana, a pair of bewitching adventurers were on their way to investigate a frontier village that had gone silent for weeks.
"Are we there yet?" asked the later in a flat tone of voice, seemingly uninterested to know the answer, despite the one asking.
"For the…. I lost count, we're going to arrive past noon. Stop asking me every quarter of an hour will you?!" replied the former furiously, answering monotonous question repeatedly was, after all, mentally draining.
"I know, just love messing with you heh heh"
Upon hearing what Alana's silly statement, any patience Mikaela had left instantly dropped to zero. In the next moment, the silver ranker conjured several azure magic circles and shot fist-shaped ice projectiles, each with speed comparable to flying arrow.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the emerald ranker managed to dodge them all skillfully, albeit close as she could feel the cold air grazing her nose.
"Tsk, I missed"
"That's dangerous!!!"
Even though somewhat disappointed none of the projectile managed to put even a scratch on Alana, Mikaela was genuinely impressed by her reflexes and flawless movement. Not talent, it was the very embodiment of countless hours of practices she went through after losing most of her ability to use magic.
"Are you listening???"
Mikaela of course did not pay any attention to her friend's comical complaint, who was pouting and waving both her hands on top of the horse. Honestly, Alana's figure looked adorably childish. That being said, that hands could lift a giant sword several times her mass. So, getting hit by that weaponized moving limbs could be painfully damaging.
Instead, Mikaela was imagining what Alana would be like when her magic circuit restored, and the answer might be shown soon enough.
"Come on, let's get going"
"Okay…Hey! Don't ignore me!!"
In early morning, the two alluring women departed from the hospitable city of Brinelight shortly after ensuring all of their belongings and combat equipment were ready, and had a lovely breakfast in the hotel's dining hall.
In truth, the ladies still wanted to immerse themselves in the magnificent hotel's generous facilities and services, as well as went sightseeing at the town. Sadly, all of those leisure activities had to be postponed because they had a quest need to be taken care of, this was especially true for Mikaela who also in a test to acquire necessary qualification to reach higher rank as adventurer.
Today, the journey to their destination seemed unnaturally unhindered, until this moment no encounter with beasts nor bandits whatsoever had occurred.
"…Nothing, huh?"
Alana who constantly alert since she expected hostile encounters during the journey, much like the day before, felt a strange sense of anticlimactic and boredom. Yet, the sensual warrior was not foolish enough to actually wish for something dangerous to happen, and prefer to be grateful about it since this meant they could preserve stamina and arrived faster.
However, the ladies could not shake off the persistent shackling feelings inside their heart, and the dense and dark clouds hovering on the sky like a curtain did not help in alleviating those feelings. On the contrary, the scarcity of ray from the sun successfully emphasized that unsettling feeling even more. Even the horses were unsettled.
Their feelings had been tampered by numerous experiences, and the situation was like the calm before a storm.
Mikaela and Alana would like to postpone the quest if all possible, but no matter how much they wanted to embrace that choice, the brave ladies decided to continue as they also had a reason to finish this assignment as soon as possible.
"It pales in comparison to the hotel's foods"
"True. But, should be grateful we still have food to eat"
".....Are you really Mikaela?? She did not have an ounce of capacity to speak such wisdom! You're a fake, aren't you?! What did you do to the real one??"
"That's unnecessarily rude!! You just want to mock me, didn't you??"
At noon, the two had a simple lunch. The preserved foods managed to quell their hunger, but did nothing to satisfy their taste buds. At that time, Mikaela let out a comment that deviated way too much from her old selfish food-wasting self, surprising Alana, to the point she thought the person in front of her was an imposter.
Then, a friendly argument flavoured with a little bit of soft mockery and lots of hard laughter ensued.
Approximately two hours afterward, the two could finally see a settlement in the distance.
The settlement surrounded by an enormous gate and wall. The constructions were made out of wood, but not an ordinary wood, and it had favorable hardness. Simultaneously, it was designed to have robust appearance, strong enough to withstand attack from common beasts.
There were several hundreds of people from various background living inside with their own hopes and dreams waiting to be accomplished, and to safeguard those people two dozen sentries were guarding the perimeter.
...That ought to be the case. But, all Mikaela and Alana could see was a wreckage from what used to be a village with no sign of life.
At that instant, Mikaela knew this would not be a simple investigation, and braced herself for anything that may happen...