Sitting down, Jeffrey intently watched a white bird slowly build a nest. The convoy had set up camp for the night. Moving around during night time was not a wise idea when they were unfamiliar with these roads.
Seeing the way Lily weaved hard twigs together and repeatedly left to forage more materials was an enlightening experience. He had never had the opportunity to observe the construction of a birds nest. Soon, she finished the outer layer, composed of twigs and hard bark, then moved onto the inner layer, which had leaves, twigs and even feathers in it. It looked pretty comfy. Too bad he wasn't a bird to enjoy it though.
As soon as she finished her nest, Lily puffed her chest out in pride. Jeffrey, not being oblivious to the atmosphere clapped with his fingers, whilst his wrists rested together.
Jeffrey felt like there was some kind of purpose behind watching Lily build a bird nest…
Well, no matter! If he couldn't remember it was most likely unimportant. That was a saying many people used in the Fort City, and it was quite true.
Noticing something in his peripheral as well as an acrid smell, he turned and jumped. When did he get there? Savage was just crouching there, despite how conspicuous he was being and somehow, Jeffrey failed to notice him. No doubt, Savage was skilled in sneaking as well as close combat.
"That's a nice bird," his steely gaze unnerved Lily, as she hopped to hide behind Jeffrey.
"Not many people keep around pets y'know,
"Not that they could tame 'em in the first place,"
After saying his piece, he stayed in his position maintaining total silence.
That was kind of creepy. Backing away, Jeffrey made use of his stealth abilities and silently left.
…
Nonetheless, the journey slowly made pace, though many detours were made to avoid any potential run ins. Active beast locations were avoided, and the scouts placed for monitoring ahead took their jobs seriously this time, allowing them to get the upper hand when encountering brigands.
On average, the convoy should not have experienced that many bandit attacks. The plains weren't lawless after all. It should've been an extremely rare occurrence, but no, just on this trip so far, they had encountered a total of six bandit groups numbering in the dozens. And this wasn't counting the small bandit groups of less than ten they found along the way.
At this point, everyone was seriously wanting to go home.
They lost around a quarter of their original numbers, and some had even suffered debilitating injuries. Overall, this journey was a terrible experience, and because of all the detours they took, it had already started snowing, meaning that they would either have to stay within Joost for spring to come or trudge through the winter snow.
Trudging through the snow would be near suicide, which only left them the option to stay in Joost.
As the convoy neared the city gates, they let out small cheers. The gates here were at least three times larger than that of Tanz City, and there seemed to be a festive atmosphere inside, a stark comparison to how the convoy was feeling.
At this point, someone standing in an open carriage was paraded out of the city and was headed in the direction of the convoy.
They would be stuck at an impasse if none of them moved to the side. However, the convoy sure as hell wouldn't be moving for some fancy prick.
Though with Karls 'encouragement', they made way, reluctantly.
…
Standing atop a fancy open air carriage, Yamada smiled and waved at the people he passed, he was dressed in a shiny suit of armour, that was not only practical but was also very stylish. Surrounding him was a group of elite knights from the Night Knights, which Yamada thought, was a rather amusing name.
It was the King's idea that they parade him around their cities so that the people could witness his being. He was well received in all the cities he passed by, and although there was some doubt among the populace, no moves had been made as of yet.
He was paraded around the whole city and now was the time to move onto the next, as he left the gates of Joost he spotted an armed caravan proceed in his direction.
However, they quickly moved to the side of the road, giving him space to continue his parade.
As he continued the parade, curiosity overtook him and he looked into one of the wagons. Past the iron bars, he saw people. People bound in chains as they stared at the ground with depression clouding their eyes.
Yamada's expression darkened. Looking over at the armed guards, he found black cloaked figures and unwashed brutes. They were suspicious and they weren't even trying to hide the fact.
Slavers. There was no doubt about their identity.
*Ding!*
'Grade C Quest Received !
'Save the Captives !
'Some suspicious individuals are holding people captive, it is your job as the Hero to save them ! There might even be a certain special individual amongst the captives,
'Reward: Appraisal,'
"Stop the carriage," he uttered.
"Pardon me?" one of the knights responded.
"Stop the carriage, or are you telling me that slavery is now legal in this Kingdom?"
This alarmed the knight, he couldn't make any correspondence with stopping the carriage to slavery, but nonetheless, he called the procession to a stop.
Yamada couldn't care less about his image right now, plus it wasn't like he was doing a 'bad' thing. He was saving people from slavery after all. But that was secondary. The main point was appraisal. It was obvious the Hero System wanted him to save these people really bad, thus offering him appraisal.
According to many isekais in his previous world. The appraisal was an ultimate cheat skill allowing one to see everything about a person's status and therefore deduce weak points or be weary of deadly skills.
"Who's the leader here?" Yamada called out.
In response, one of the armed guards hopped off his horse and replied.
"I am, though what business do we have? I don't believe we have met before,"
Striding up to the leader, Yamada started a confrontation. As all responsible Heroes do.