To the City III

To Shirly's question, Carolyn responded, "Well, for certain reasons, I, I mean, I had to leave the village cus I wanted to see the city."

"Don't force yourself now. So you left your village? Did you tell your parents?"

"My parents... Yes, I told them."

As there was no reason to expound more on her response, Carolyn gave Shirly a simple answer.

"I see. Well, if they allowed you to go by yourself, then they must really trust you. Can you say what city you're heading to?"

"Yes, Vernum City."

"Ah, there! Neil, isn't that where Vina's son went?"

Despite throwing wisecracks at Robert with Carlos, Neil was quick to answer Shirly, proof that his ears weren't shut from their conversation.

"Ah, that guy. The one who said he wanted to become a merchant, right?"

"That's the one."

"Yeah, I remember that being the place, but who knows if he's still there. Apparently, Vina hasn't heard from him lately either."

"Is that so? Welp, his name is Andy. If you see him in the city, then you can mention us and ask for a favour."

"Really?"

"Yep. We might have just met, but it doesn't sit right with me to let a young lady like you go without offering some help."

"But you've already done so much by offering me a ride."

"That's just proper manners. Anyone who would leave a cute girl like you on the road just ain't human. Am I right, Robert?"

"You right, Shirly!"

"See."

Carolyn knew that her quest would be dangerous, so she was hesitant to drag these kind people into it, but she was grateful for Shirly's offer.

"Thank you, Shirly."

"Don't let it bother you. I'm just doing what any adult should."

Carolyn continued to make small talk with Shirly and the others. It was already clear that there were some gaps in her understanding, so she asked them about their village lives so that she could better assume her role. Fortunately, their daily lives weren't very different from what she was expecting, and she was able to pick up various details regarding the current affairs in the region. Hanson had given her a summary of the major events that had taken place in the nearby territories, but it was still valuable to listen to the perspective of the villagers.

"That young lord never kept his promise about fixing the road."

"You really believed him? Ah, you youngins' are too trusting sometimes. Promises like that aint worth the horse dung it's said around unless they can benefit from it."

"Stop acting all wise-like, Robert. We all know that you were hovering around the entrance waiting for him to come back."

"You're wrong! I was just, uh, patrolling. Gotta keep the village safe and all."

She wasn't able to participate most of the time, but it was still an interesting experience.

"Look! There's the border."

Suddenly, Robert shouted and pointed at the tall structure that came into view further down the road.

'That must be Fort Hamridge.'

From the Walker domain to the Amber domain, there were three possible routes. Through the swampy jungle to the east, the thick forest to the west, and Fort Hamridge, which sat in between them. There wasn't much surveillance on the other two routes, but bandits and dangerous beasts were prevalent in the areas, so there was only one choice an average villager had.

Fort Hamridge was rarely mentioned in the history of war, but new soldiers were often sent here for training, so the facility was relatively well-kept. The entrance of the fort was blocked by a giant wooden gate, embedded in a stone wall that was tens of feet wide and over twenty feet tall. As they got closer to the fort, Carolyn sensed the gazes of the sentries on top of the fort wall. The attitudes she picked up in those gazes were varied: some focused, some apathetic, some tense. She wasn't able to read more than that, but it didn't seem like they would run into trouble right from the start.

When they reached the giant gate, they were stopped by a pair of male soldiers acting as guards.

"Halt! Descend from the carriage and prepare for routine inspection."

Carolyn followed the others off the wagon and watched as one of the soldiers searched it. She found her bottom hurting more than expected after leaving the wagon, but since no one else appeared to be affected, she acted the same. Even though it wasn't her wagon, Carolyn was still a little nervous as she watched the guards, but her fears were unfounded. Once the soldier confirmed that there was no contraband in the wagon, he went to the villagers and asked for identification papers.

"Ah, here you go, Mr. Soldier."

As the coachman, Robert provided their proofs of identity, which came in the form of parchment documents. As long as they didn't plan on staying long or moving to the Amber domain, there was no need for all of them to have any sort of ID.

"All is in order. Let them through!"

Once the soldier confirmed that Robert's documents were real, he returned them and ordered for their group to be allowed entry. By the time Robert's group and Carolyn returned to the wagon, the gate was raised through some mechanism, and they were ushered into the revealed stone passage. Once the wagon was past the gate, the gate was lowered once more. There were no lit torches inside the passage, but they had no issue seeing because there was light coming from the other end. Once they exited the passage, they found themselves on a path that cut through a flat dirt field within the fort's walls.

There was a group of soldiers training on the dirt field, but Carolyn tried not to stare at them since experienced soldiers were sensitive to being watched. After going through the field, they left through another wooden gate guarded by a different pair of soldiers and finally reached their destination.

"Ah, here we are! The Hamridge Camp!"

Right outside the fort was a collection of tents used by civilians and merchants. Some tents would stay longer than others, but though none of them made this a place of permanent residence, it was never empty. Few of these campers were residents of the Amber domain, but merchants had to pay taxes to sell goods, and many of them travelled to the Amber domain with their wares, so while not officially approved, they were allowed to linger. This would be impossible if there were hostile circumstances at the border, so it was proof of the Amber domain's longstanding peace with its northern neighbours.

Once they made it to the camp, Robert drove the carriage to an empty spot, and with the use of a coin flip between Neil and Carlos, it was decided that Neil would stay back. Despite its prosperity, the guards did not have an obligation to maintain order here, so everyone was encouraged to watch over their goods.

"Alright, we'll be doing some business with the food merchants. What about you, Carol?" asked Robert.

"Oh, I need to get a pass so that I can enter Vernum City. Right now I just have an introduction letter from my village chief."

"In that case, head to the biggest red tent you see near the fort. There's some officials in there, so just give them that letter, and they'll take care of it."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

"I hope we see each other again some day," said Shirly.

"So do I."