After we were done with our very productive rest stop at Speranza, the knight's 4th order and I resumed our journey to the capital. Our next stop was the City of Glorya, which I was told was the second biggest city in this country after the capital.
Harvey told me that Glorya was just as far from Speranza as End Town. However, since this time we wouldn't be traveling through a dirt road but a nicely paved one, the trip wouldn't last nearly as long as the first.
He was right. The road leading to the City of Glorya was not only nicely paved, but it also had rest stops every half a day of traveling and some strange magical wards I noticed that kept monsters away.
The reason why End Town didn't get that many visitors was clearer to me now.
Thankfully, the trip was only five days, and we didn't have a single monster or bandit get in our way. I did cook all of our meals during the trip because I refused to eat the crap they called "rations," which were just pieces of beef jerky, and it didn't even taste like the good kind of beef jerky.
Besides, all of the knights loved my cooking, so it was a win-win.
After our travels, we finally managed to reach the city, and just like it was described to me, this place was huge.
The streets were bustling with people of all races, the adventurers' guild was full of energy, the shops and streets were luxurious and clean, and all of the buildings were made using some sort of white marble, which just made the entire scenery more beautiful.
We made our way to the inn to book our rooms for the next two days, and I asked for a room with two beds. Harvey seemed confused when he heard me say that, but Jackson knew exactly what that meant. I was bringing Vespera with me.
Vespera had skipped our Speranza tour, saying she needed to go back to her cave and weave more webs for her spiders to be born.
Her plan was to add a few more dozen demon spiders to help and protect End Town while we were gone. In other words, she was even more worried about the town's safety than me. But I didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing.
["Vespera, can you hear me?"] I said, using telepathy.
["I'm here! Not physically, but in your mind! What's up?"]
["We just arrived at the City of Glorya, wanna come check it out?"] I asked, and I could almost see her smiling from ear to ear. Just a few seconds later, an arcane circle appeared, and my familiar Vespera teleported in front of me.
I felt bad for her while we were in Speranza, especially since I had found olive oil and was cooking recipes that I knew she would have wanted to try. So, to make it up to her, I made some fried cutlets for lunch before we explored the city.
"Wooow, it's so crunchy and juicy!" said Vespera with a mouthful.
"Mhm, and we can cook a lot of other meats using the same method," I said as I stuffed myself with some cutlets too.
Vespera looked at me, almost begging me with her eyes to cook all the other types of meat right then and there. To be fair, I would have done it if I actually had any meat other than the boar.
Boar was fine since it was basically just premium pork, but I was starting to feel like I needed some chicken or fish.
The small amount of chickens we had in End Town were only good for eggs. Even if we wanted to eat them, they didn't seem to have a lot of meat in them, so collecting their eggs was the best way to get the most food out of them.
Not only that, but people in this world didn't actually eat chicken. From what Jackson told me one time, there were monsters whose meat was similar to a chicken's, but it was rare, and none of those monsters were located at End Forest.
After we were done with our lunch, we went out to take a walk on the streets. Vespera looked like she was having fun sightseeing, and it was understandable, considering the city was truly beautiful and she had been stuck inside a cave for hundreds of years.
Jackson and Harvey were with us too, which at this point, I didn't know if they just straight up didn't trust me alone in another city or if they genuinely liked hanging out with me.
As we walked on a street next to a river that crossed the city, we noticed a pretty fancy wagon making its way through it. The people waved at it and stopped to admire it as it strolled carefully.
'This must be someone important in this city…' I thought.
Inside the wagon, a silver-haired girl and boy waved back at the people on the sidewalks. They were barely visible, but all of the residents were ecstatic seeing the fancy cart passing by.
"It's Lady Triana and Lord Reinar!" yelled one of the residents as they made their way closer to the street to get a better view.
"Woah! Did they change their carriage?" said another commoner.
'Oh, so these guys must be the nobles in charge of this city… Meh, I don't wanna get too involved with that kind of people…' I thought as the carriage came to a full stop.
"Ah, it seems the Duke's children are doing some shopping," said Jackson.
Apparently, having the Duke or any of the Lords visit your shop was one of the biggest honors a merchant could have in this city since it basically endorsed their stores to the rest of the citizens.
"Good for them…" I said with a completely uninterested tone. I mean, why the hell would I care about some rich kids going shopping? Most nobles were just stuck-up assholes with big egos, so the last thing I wanted was to get their attention.
I was already on a trip to meet the king with a bunch of knights who were also nobles, so I was sure my "dealing-with-nobles-meter" was at an all-time high.
Although, to be fair to the knights, they had been pretty friendly with me lately. But that probably had to do with the fact that I defeated that troll and fed them every day on the road.
I turned around to leave the area when I heard a woman screaming, and a dozen hooded bandits came out running from the alleys then surrounded the noble's carriage.
The two knights that were escorting the carriage began clashing swords with the bandits, managing to keep them from opening the carriage for a short time.
At first, I wanted to help, but that would attract way too much attention, so I started rooting for the escort knights to beat the bandits.
'Come on guys, you got this… probably…' As I doubted their abilities, Harvey and Jackson stepped in and began fighting the bandits too.
'Hey! I understand Harvey stepping in, but what the hell is Jackson doing!?' I groaned and held my head with both my hands.
"I got her!" yelled one of the bandits who had snuck up from behind and pulled the noblewoman out of the carriage through the window.
"Sister!" yelled the young noble boy while stretching his hand towards his sister, who was being held by a beastkin bandit that was at least 200 cm tall and was as wide as an SUV.
The man had the animal features of a gorilla, which explained the size of his muscles that were clearly too big for him to be able to wear any normal shirt, so he was wearing none.
All I could do while watching the scene unfold was let out a sigh of disappointment. The beastkin holding the noble on his shoulder was now sprinting full speed toward me, the guards were fighting along with Harvey and Jackson, and the young boy kept yelling and asking for help.
'It doesn't matter how much I try to avoid it… Man…' I complained to myself.
"Vespera, go help Jackson and Harvey. Oh! And don't kill any of these guys."
"Alright!" Vespera said with a smile before quickly appearing next to Harvey and Jackson, then using her "Master Weaver" skill to trap and tie up with her spiderweb all of the bandits fighting them in less than 3 seconds.
"Aaaarrrghh, move, you weak trash! Out of my way or die!" yelled the beastkin as he kept sprinting towards me with the noblewoman on his shoulder.
It sounded like his warning was for the general public, but it was definitely targeted at me since I was the only person blocking the middle of the road.
As soon as he was just a few feet away from me, I jumped forward and kicked his chin up while grabbing the noble woman from his shoulder, so she wouldn't fall back with the bandit.
The beastkin slammed the ground with his back, and Vespera quickly held him in place with her spiderwebs.
I ended up standing in the middle of the road, carrying the noble lady as if she were my bride, with all of the bandits on the ground tied up by Vespera.
When I glanced at her, I noticed her different colored eyes, one emerald, and one light blue, but it wasn't the color that surprised me. It was a sudden surge of energy that I could feel coming from them.
When I realized the position I was in, I quickly put the lady's feet on the ground and apologized for carrying her like that. It must have felt strange for this girl, who seemed to be around 18 years old, to get carried princess-style by a kid.
"T-Thanks for saving me…" said the girl with a somewhat dazzled expression.
'Ok, I get it, sure. It's rare for a kid to beat down this big dude so easily… I should just get outta here before it gets awkward...'
"Yeah, no problem. Anyways, be careful out there!" I said, quickly turning around with Vespera and walking out of the scene when I felt someone grabbing my shoulder.
"Wait, kiddo, we are gonna need to talk to the guards and tell them what happened," said Harvey, who had stopped me from leaving.
"Can't you do that!?" I shot both Harvey and Jackson a begging look, but it didn't seem like I was going to be able to skip the whole ordeal.
'Man… So much for trying to stay out of trouble…'