It was a little while after Noah had eaten breakfast. He was currently on his way out the door to go walk around the town to see what had happened while he was on his adventure. After he had eaten breakfast, he headed up to his room to get ready. As he was walking through the living room, Luicia called out to him from the kitchen, where she was cleaning up from breakfast, saying "Have a good walk, and make sure to stay safe!"
Noah turned around, his hand on the doorknob, and said "Thank you, I will!" He then turned back around, opened the door, and stepped outside into the town. He stopped just outside his house and thought about where he wanted to go first. 'Maybe I should head to the town square first since that's the busiest place, and it's also where the majority of the shops are. Yeah, I'll head there first.' And with that thought, he began to head over to the town square.
It was nearing midday when Noah arrived at the town square. As he was walking into it, he noticed that there were quite a lot of people walking around, going in and out of the stores that were there, and walking to the different stands that some people had put up. He saw a small group of ladies walk into a clothing store, a couple walking into a restaurant, and even a farmer with a small wagon that had a dead cow in it heading behind the butcher's shop. It was clear to Noah that he had come around here at one of the busiest times of the day.
Noah began to walk around the square. He looked around at the people walking around, and he saw that people were smiling, talking with each other, joking around, and overall having a good time. He went over closer to the stands, and he looked at what was for sale there. The stands were set up around the middle of the square. Each stand was set up and run by one or two people, and everything they were selling was unique to the stand as a lone stand couldn't compete with a store or restaurant. Most people would see this as a reason to not run a stand, but the people in Northspear saw this as an upside as it forces the stand to sell unique products and get creative. Noah saw that most of the stands were selling crafts, which wasn't unusual as it was easier to create a unique craft than most other things. One of these craft stands that caught his eye was one that was selling human versions of animals and magical creatures. This caused him to chuckle a bit as this was something that would only be heard in legends and fairy tales, and he did take notice that there weren't any human dragons. A few of the stands were selling food. The foods that were being sold ranged from a salad with a unique combination of vegetables to having various cooked meats and vegetables put on a stick. The other stands that were set up didn't interest Noah. There was one that was selling various clothes that caught his eye, but he didn't really care for it.
As Noah was walking around and looking at the stands, he noticed that someone was exiting the guard building, the place where people can report things to the guards. As a guard apprentice, this piqued his interest. He watched as the person walked from the guard building to the bounty board that was at the middle of the town square. He noticed that the person was William's mother, and he knew this as he had seen her with William and the apprentice entrance ceremony and seeing them walking together around the town. Noah watched as she walked up to the bounty board and nailed a piece of paper to it, and then she looked around with a panicked expression on her face before walking away. After she had left, Noah walked up to the bounty board to see what she had put up. He saw that the piece of paper was a notice that William was missing. It read that he was missing since yesterday evening. Noah sighed while looking away from the bounty board, realizing that William left without telling his mother. 'This has to be very rough for her, those two are really close.' Noah thought. William and his mother had gotten very close after his father's death. William's mother was the only person he spoke positively of, and the fact that he just left without telling his mother showed just how much he cared about getting revenge. Noah thought about the interaction he had with his mother at breakfast, and he sighed again as he thought about just how much William's mother cared for him. This ruined the amount of respect Noah had for William which he now sees as a revenge obsessed freak who doesn't care about the people around him. Even though Noah lost all respect for William, he felt sorry for William's mother as Noah could guess that William's mother cared about him a lot, and she was probably panicking a lot over the disappearance of her son. Noah wanted to go find her and tell her where William went, but he decided against it as telling her that her son went to go to Spearhead to try to kill Nightmare all by himself with no preparation would probably make her panic even worse.
At this time it was getting to be midday, so Noah decided to go stop by the guard barracks to visit his father for lunch as he was going to take his lunch break soon. Noah was also getting pretty hungry so before he went to go to the guard barracks, he stopped by the stand that was selling the various cooked meats and vegetables put on a stick, and he bought one for 5 bronze coins. He had the money on hand as he carried his coin purse with him everywhere he went.
* * *
It was midday when Noah arrived at the guard barracks. He walked up to the guard that was standing in front of the entrance, saying, "Hello there."
"Oh hello there Noah. What's bringing you here?" The guard asked
"I just want to visit my father for his lunch break. I also want to see what has changed while I was away." Noah answered, "It doesn't look like this job has changed that much."
"No it hasn't, still as boring as ever, but if that's it then you can come right in." The guard responded, stepping away from the entrance. Noah nodded his thanks while going into the barracks.
The guard barracks was a simple building. It only had one large main room and a small room off to the side. The large room served as storage, and this was very obvious just by looking around. There were weapons racks that were leaning against a wall, and they were holding all sorts of weapons which ranged from daggars to large pikes designed to hunt bears with there even being a few shields. There were also armor stands with all sorts of armor on them set up against another wall with the most prominent armor being studded leather which any guard could use, the next most common being chainmail which was reserved for the guards that were protecting the town, there was even a set of platemail armor which the vice commander used, and there were a few sets of armor that were a mix of studded leather and chainmail. There was a shelves setup that had books on weapon techniques, hand-to-hand combat techniques, battle strategies, and more like this. These books were mainly read by apprentices, Noah himself spent a lot of time reading these books, but it wouldn't be uncommon to see a guard reading one of these books. These were the resources that the town provided for the guards, but some of the guards had their own equipment that they paid for themselves. Noah was lucky in this sense as his father got Noah his own equipment once he became a guard apprentice. Guards were allowed to keep their personal equipment in the guard barracks, but they had to specify that it was theirs. An example of this is the vice commander as he kept his platemail here along with his sword and shield. There were also a few tables with a few chairs around them that were set up around the room.
Noah had only been in the smaller room once before as you weren't allowed to go in there without the permission of the commander or vice commander. He could remember that there was a large map of the region with all the cities and towns labeled on it, that there was a rectangular table in the center of the room, and that there was a shelf that had maps of specific areas of the region such as the towns, cities, and forests. The only time he had been in there was for a briefing on a joint mission with the guards of the neighboring towns for searching for bandits and possibly a bandit camp in the neighboring forests.
Noah looked around the main room, and saw a few guards around inspecting their weapons and armor, talking, and reading. He went over and sat at an unoccupied table to wait for his father. After he sat down a guard that Noah couldn't recognize but felt that he was familiar came up to him and said, "Hey Noah, I haven't seen you in a while."
"Y-yeah." Noah said, very confused.
"Oh, it's Jacob." Jacob responded, seeing Noah's confusion. Noah nearly fell out of his chair when he heard this. It was nearly impossible to believe that the person in front of him was the same shy, scared person he knew before he left. The person in front of him had an aura of confidence and leadership.
"You've changed a lot when I was away." Noah said.
"Yeah I know I have." Jacob responded with a smile, "Do you want to hear what happened?"
"Yeah I would like to know what caused this drastic change." Noah answered, nodding his head.
"Well a few days after you left, I was on a patrol." Jacob began, "We were out for a few hours and were beginning to head back to town when we were suddenly ambushed by a group of bandits. It obviously took us by surprise and my master got injured which put him out of the fight. It was just me and two other guards against six bandits. I was forced to fight and I ended up killing one of the bandits. At first I was shocked at killing another person, but I quickly came to my senses and got back into the fight. We beat the bandits back and only suffered mild injuries aside from my master. And because of the actions I performed, and the bravery I showed, I was promoted to a guard." He finished with a smile. As Jacob was finishing his story, the door to the briefing room opened and Sean stepped out.