By the time we turned the corner on the edge of the cliff early the next morning and went down the mountain for five or six kilometers, an indistinct figure was waving in that direction on the other side of the trail.
"What's going on?" Fente jumped to his feet, his nerves, tired from the night ride on the cliff side, strained again.
The man didn't look like a resident of the area, since none of the villagers wore light gray armor like the one who was waving his arms, and the long sword attached to his belt still glittered.
Mountain bandits? No, there was no bandit who would stop in the middle of the road with such a grin, and even if there was, Fente was strong enough to handle him.
Walking to the foot of the mountain was a bit troublesome, but ignoring it would be a problem for Fente's future business, and this man looked like a soldier of the kingdom.
He had no choice but to turn the carriage towards the man, but at the same time he was holding a magic rocket at hand.
After the carriage turned, the person who was waving his hand stopped waving, probably because he noticed Fente walking towards him, but also wasn't going to walk towards him, he had to wait for Fente to approach him..
Such arrogance is rare among villagers or bandits, but if it's a magician or someone connected with the Church, then that's a completely different story.
The arrogant attitude of these two types of people has become commonplace.
Of course, even if it was just an arrogant farmer or a mercenary wanting to fool around, Fente wouldn't get angry over such a trifle; peace and prosperity were the foundation of business.
However, as he slowly approached the foothills and clearly saw the figure of a man, Fente could not help but be confused.
"Knight of the Order .....?".
How could a knight of the Order be here?
It was a peaceful and peaceful south, long free from the evil gods who rebelled, and the Magi who had to be hunted.
However, he was indeed dressed as a knight of the Order, and the holy emblem hanging on his chest indicated that he was an Ash knight in charge of hunting heretics.
"Who are you?"
The knight shouted as soon as Fente approached a distance that was still too great for them to talk.
The tone was proud, as if everyone should recognize him without naming him.
"I am Fente, a traveling merchant, what can I do for you?"
The foothills were very close, and the fields stretching to the south were being plowed by a handful of farmers. Rye grown in the foothills, where the village of Porte is located, is annual wheat, cold-resistant rye, which can be sold at a high price in early spring, when grain is still scarce, and therefore it does not require special care in autumn.
Through the still lush wheat fields, Fente noticed that at the other end of the foothills there were not one, but several knights and a similarly dressed knight, so perhaps the knights were on guard duty.
"A traveling merchant? There shouldn't be any cities in the direction you came to."
The knight proudly held up his silver breastplate, which had a red sacred emblem engraved on it, in a rude manner.
However, the knight's armor was covered only by a short single-layer cloak, which meant that he was just a training knight. To understand the rank of the knights of the Church, you need to look at their scarves.
Blond hair, trimmed to a centimeter, seems freshly shaved, and the physique does not look battle-hardened. Perhaps it is because they have just become knights that they seem alert.
Indeed, a knight of the Church was the best option for most civilians, and as long as they were not sent to the Western Army to fight dragons, it was a good, dangerous and well-paid job.
When dealing with such people, it is important to behave calmly with them so that they do not get carried away right away, and be unobtrusive, giving them all the advantages, but never indulging their temper.
Fente took out the documents of a traveling merchant from his satchel, which were almost impossible to forge with the help of special paper, ink and spells, turned to the cart and handed the young knight an apple.
"It's about half a day's walk from here to the hill to the east. You will see a small village. I went there to trade and came back."
"So that's it. I see you have goods in your basket, is it salt? Or something else." The knight took the apple and the papers, hesitated for a while, then finally wiped the apple, then put it in his mouth and took a bite.
"No, it's furs. You see."Fente said, turning to the bucket and lifting the linen covering. It was a very beautiful wolfskin, and judging by the salary of the knight standing in front of him, it was worth more than his annual salary.
Fente laid out the wolf skins on the surface of the cage with apples, pretending that he had just gone and purchased several large cages of skins in the hunters' village.
"Wow, so what is it?"
The knight's apprentice raised the apple in his hand.
"Ah, this is a small gift that the villagers brought me, something like a side dish that I left on the road to eat, not really a commodity."
Usually furs such as wolf skins were more expensive than fruits and vegetables, but in the village of Porte they produced juicy and sweet apples, a good cargo that Fente found only once when he got lost in the village.
Things were so rare that only the apple carts that Fente brought from nowhere every fall became a luxury item.
All the other itinerant merchants envied Fente's income every autumn and even sent people after him.
Therefore, it was only natural that Fente came up with several ways of disguising himself to deal with this.
"well. Well, you can go now." The knight nodded and casually waved his hand.
If he had just said "yes," then Fente would have been unworthy to be a merchant.
He turned towards the knight with a worried expression, toying with his satchel.
Right now, Fente just hated himself for not tidying himself up during the journey, otherwise that expression alone would have been enough to kill a young trainee knight who might have never touched a woman since birth.
"What's going on? I don't usually see knights here, do I?".
The young knight, probably offended by the question, raised an eyebrow, and then looked behind Fente at the bucket-or rather, at the only basket of apples that Fente had in the basket-and frowned even more.
The knight seemed to have taken the bait. Fente turned around, took out another apple and handed it to the knight.
Such knights are trainees, outwardly shining in their armor and with swords in their hands, but if you look closely, each of them had slightly different armor and swords.
This is due to the fact that all the knights studying bought armor and swords from the blacksmith at their own expense, and the training period included food, accommodation and training in the art of fencing and musketry, so the two-year training period was not paid.
Therefore, although the trainee knights were well fed with meat and vegetables, the trainee knights were easily bribed with desserts, fruits, and so on.
Perhaps they haven't tasted sweets for two whole years.
That's why traveling merchants call trainee knights sugar people-people who can be easily bought for two lumps of sugar.
"Mmmm... this is very tasty, and to thank you for such a delicious apple, I will answer your question without giving away a secret."
Fente made a fake smile that accompanies business, and feigned great gratitude, bowing to the knight.
"I heard that recently there have been magi in this area who often capture people for sacrifice, so we were ordered to protect this area. Do you know any news?"
Information that has nothing to do with business opportunities, you will not earn on such information.
But it would be a bad game to show an expression of disappointment.
Fente made a worried expression, pretended to think about it for a while, and then replied: "I don't know."
In fact, Fente was lying, and when it came to the witch of the south, he probably only really needed him, so he had to lie.
Although it was no longer a crime for a woman to be literate and cast spells, it was another matter if she summoned demons and made sacrifices.
Fente certainly didn't do it, but until now, one line of the family prided itself on being able to summon powerful demons.
"The witch is really trying to secretly sacrifice demons behind her back, even a shrewd merchant like you doesn't know about her movements, and we will strengthen our guard."
No, the witch here just wanted to empty men's wallets.
Although the knight's completely incorrect statement sounded funny, Fente, of course, did not correct it.
After expressing his agreement with what the knight said, he then said goodbye to him.
The knight nodded and thanked Fente once again for the apple.
But Fente wasn't going to take more apples to share with the knight, after all, apples weren't cheap, one could be sold for 2 silver coins at the Kalafrog Chamber of Commerce.
"The magical priestess ... knows how to guess."
When he finally descended the hill and entered the official road marked with a border sign, Fente muttered the knight's words and smiled bitterly.
Fente knew what the knight was talking about. I have to say that anyone who was here would have known about it.
It wasn't a magical ritual at all.
The locals held it secretly, but it was just a holiday that could be seen everywhere to celebrate the autumn harvest and pray for a good harvest, and there was no need for a special knight to keep an eye on it.
However, in this area the holiday was more large-scale and special than in other places, so the inhabitants of the abbey could make a special report in the city church.
Perhaps it was because of the recent decline of power that the church was particularly sensitive.