Right now I am at Timberville, a town just south of the sacred forest. After traveling for two days from the Northwellen territory, I now come back to this place.
The letter that was sent by the Lockway house contained many things. First is the formal congratulation for my promotion as a count. They also talk about the situation in the Lockway territory. And the last one is about my fiancee from the Crowstar family.
Crowstar family is another count family that neighbors the Lockway family. Crowstar family specializes in magic, they are known as a family with many magical achievements. Many kinds of magic technology were the result of their magician.
Both Crowstar and Lockway families have had a relationship for many generations. Sometimes a daughter from both families will marry a second or third son from the other family to deepen the tie between families. My case is also the same, I got engaged to the daughter of the Crowstar family. In the letter, it is said that the engagement will continue despite I am not in the Lockway family anymore. Both families have discussed it and decided to continue the engagement. Following the decision, she is moving to Northwellen right now. And looking at the date of the letter, she should arrive in Timberville town in no time.
Her name is Silvia Crowstar. Educated in the Crowstar family, she is also a great magician.
So my goal in Timberville is to meet her and then bring her to pass through the sacred forest.
"How is it? This is your first time coming to this town right?" I asked the two boys that I bring along with me. They are Lief and Gauvain. I decided to bring both of them to let them experience another town. With this experience, I hoped that they will have an image of a town.
Both of them are looking at the bustling main street of the town. The main street is surrounded by many stone houses, some also become a shop, on both sides. It spans from north to south, with a branch that led toward the port on the lake. There are many people walking or riding a carriage along the main street.
"There are many people here…" said Gauvain.
"Yup, I have never seen a place with this many people," added Lief.
I smirked seeing their reaction. "Wait until you see the bigger city in the kingdom. This place is no match to these cities. The royal capital, for example, has more people than you can imagine."
Compared to the Northwellen, this place is packed with people. But compared to other cities in the kingdom, this is only a small town.
While walking along the main street, Lief asked me, "Master, where is our destination today?"
I keep walking toward the biggest house in this town. "We are going to the baron's house."
* * *
I knocked on the front gate of the baron's house.
A few minutes after, an old servant opened the main gate. She looked at our clothes before asking, "Good evening, sir knight. May I know where you are from?"
I remembered that I still used my old knight clothes to travel. I actually have clothes typical of a traveling noble. But I decided to use this one, That is because these clothes are the perfect clothes for traveling. It is also easy to bring a weapon in this kind of clothes, an important item to pass the sacred forest.
"Good evening. I am the Count of Northwellen, we are traveling to this town to pick up our guests from the Crowstar family. I believe we had sent a letter three days ago using a messenger bird." I explained my situation.
The servant realized something, "Please wait here for a bit, I will check with lord Adrius first." She then moves inside the house.
A few minutes after, she comes back and guide us inside the house. We are taken to a big room with many chairs lining in front of a desk. I can see many decorations in this room that show the wealth of this baron. This room should be the room to receive a guest.
A middle-aged man is sitting on one of the chairs. I can feel an intimidating aura coming from him. This man should be the baron of this town.
"Welcome to Timberville, Count Aquila of Northwellen." The middle-aged man greets me and pleased me to sit in front of him. "Pleased to meet you, I am Adrius Fleamma, the baron of Timberville. I have read the letter from the Northwellen and we are happy to be able to entertain you today."
"Pleased to meet you, Baron Adrius." I greeted back the baron and sit on the chair. "I really appreciate your hospitality to let me stay here for a few days. I will pay you back for this matter."
"Don't think about that too much. I decided to host you here as I wanted to know more about the new count of Northwellen." He paused for a bit before asking, "Is there any news from the North?"
When a noble or a knight stays in another noble house, it is a normal thing to trade information. The traveling noble will change information in exchange for a place to stay and food for the night.
"Just like what I wrote in the letter, there is no information worth sharing from the north. You should already know that Northwellen is isolated, there are no travelers to share information." I apologized as there is no info that I can share.
"That is not true… I want to know about the situation in the sacred forest. Are there any anomalies in the forest?" The baron tried to extract any information that I have.
He asked me many other things to me. I tried to answer all the questions, but too bad, there is really not that much info that I have.
"Thank you very much, feel free to rest in the room. I will bring a servant to guide you to your room," said Baron Adrius.