k. 02 Ch. 02
Snarl
The forest gave way to fields of tree stumps, then farmland, and Noah encountered more and more people on the roads, from peasants and commoners to adventurers and armor-plated soldiers. Beyond the farms, guarded by walls and fences, about a hundred or so wood and brick buildings were gathered next to the Paleon Channel. Villagers and adventurers, both human and dwarf, filled the open streets without fear of the monsters in the woods.
It was just like the town of Clive, having the same Medieval charm that enticed Noah's inner nerd. Of the four inns in the village, only one had a room left available, and he snatched it up before anyone else could claim it. His horse was fed and tended to in the stable out back, and Noah entered the familiar scene of a crowded tavern. All the tables were occupied, so Noah took a seat at the counter. Behind the bartender were three large barrels full of booze, along with shelves of bottles and jugs. Nearby was the entrance to the kitchen, with two servant girls tending to the customers.
"I'll take the house special and a mug of whatever is in that left barrel." He was given a pint of ale in a mug that wasn't very clean and a plate of burned wolf meat with some wheat porridge slopped on the side. Perhaps he should have asked Mary to make him some lunch for the road. He shoveled it down and left some copper coins on the counter. "Do you know who I can talk to about hitching a ride down to the coast?"
The bartender grunted and pointed his chin to the corner, where a potato-headed bargeman was sitting across from a long line of adventurers, each signing a ledger for guard work. Noah watched from a distance and listened to all the questions asked and answered. From what he could tell, guards were paid for the head of every bandit and monster that attacked the ships, but they had to bring their own food and shouldn't expect a roof over their heads. When things went wrong, any guards who didn't fight would be thrown overboard, or worse. 'Henry,' that was the name he signed with after he got in line.
"There is a shipment of slaves heading out the day after tomorrow. Be at the docks at dawn," said the bargeman.
Noah now had a room and a way down the channel, so the next step was to get a layout of the town. He first went up to his room to leave his luggage, as well as to perform his usual sweep. Every inch of the walls, floor, and ceiling was checked for anything suspicious, the straw mattress was searched for anything hidden inside, living or nonliving, and he tested the reliability of the door. Everything appeared safe, but Noah still hid his possessions under the bed.
Now lightened, he set out into the muddy streets, surrounded by villagers at work and play and livestock either pulling carts or being carried in them. He passed through the market and examined the wares of each merchant, under tents that kept the summer sun at bay. Furs and fabrics, fresh meat and preserved vegetables, weapons and tools for survival, all were for sale and examined and bought by members of all professions. Took's location on the channel made it a prime trading hub, allowing for goods to be shipped directly to and from the capital from deeper within the mainland. Children, either homeless or freed from chores, hid in shadows and blind spots, searching for loose pockets and dropped coins. They repeatedly bumped against Noah, pretending it was an accident, and he'd swat at their thieving hands.
Wherever he traveled, there were certain things he'd keep an eye out for. He'd study the ground, looking for areas with bad footing. He'd step into stores, seeing which of them had back exits. He checked the alleys in search of places where he could ambush others or where others might ambush him. He took note of every way in and out of the village, putting together a mental map of the best routes. If there was anything in this town he could use or had to be wary of, he wanted to know. This was not a habit he had picked up since arriving to this world, rather it was a lesson burned into his mind from chaotic and violent lifetimes.
He made his way to the docks to see the channel. According to the map, it split a small eastern subcontinent off from the mainland, almost perfectly straight. He arrived at a cliff made of hewn logs, where ships were either waiting silently, being worked on, or had their cargo exchanged. What intrigued Noah was how close the other side of the channel was, maybe just five hundred feet of open water, and if the map was to be believed, it seemed to retain that width.
He followed the banks, looking for a place low enough to reach the water. Hopefully out of reach of the contaminates of the town, he climbed down to the water and tasted it. It was brackish, the result of freshwater from the land and rivers forming a layer over seawater deeper in the channel. For such a thing to occur, the very bedrock would have had to be split open, a tectonic crack that was filled in by the ocean. How deep did it go? Whether or not this information could help him, he wasn't sure. It was merely a little factoid to brighten his day. This world was interesting, and interest was the closest he could get to happiness.
It was the middle of the afternoon, so Noah returned to the inn. There was still work for him to do. He locked himself in his room and began pulling out all of his gear and possessions. It was time for the part of adventuring that stories were never told out: maintaining equipment. His blades had to be sharpened and oiled, clothing and anything else made of leather or fabric had to be cleaned and mended, and he had bags of harvested plants waiting to be turned into useful concoctions. He worked while invisible, not wanting a chance to train escape him. The first task he tended to was checking the burn on his back. The area was sore, but the ointments were doing their job and he just needed to change the bandages.
The setting sun and his rumbling stomach eventually pulled him from his room, and he made his way downstairs for dinner. The tavern was packed with townsfolk and adventurers, all eating, talking, laughing, and arguing. Servant girls maneuvered around the crowded tables with trays of food and drinks. There was an open seat at the counter, adjacent to a cloaked figure. He sat beside them and ordered himself a plate. This wasn't like a modern restaurant with a menu—everyone ate whatever the cooks happened to have on hand. Dinner was bread, sausages, and a baked potato.
While eating, he listened in on as many conversations as he could to pick up scraps of information. 'Ogre', that word was being muttered. Apparently, one had been found prowling around the streets before dawn, a scout checking the town's strengths and weaknesses. It had been slain immediately, in hopes that it would ward off the rest of the tribe. As always, Noah went to bed that night with a knife under his pillow.
-----
The crying of a rooster, such an ugly sound, but every sound is atrocious when it pulls one from a pleasant slumber. Noah sat up in bed and yawned, finally enjoying a full night's sleep since leaving the last town, or at least, something close to it. Despite being a teenager so many times, no amount of experience could alleviate his adolescent circadian rhythms. He had to exhaust himself every day so he could have any hope of falling asleep before midnight. Living without screens helped.
He got out of bed and splashed water in his face from a nearby wash basin to pry sleep's tight fingers off his mind. He pulled on his clothes and gear and left his room. The employees of the inn had just woken up like him and had yet to even light the kitchen flames. Breakfast was not on his mind right now. He left the inn and stepped out into the street, yet to receive the direct light of the sun and devoid of all but the earliest risers. Noah stretched and then cast both of his spells. He set off in a jog, using his depleting mana as a timer.
For an adventurer, running was usually done to chase down prey or escape a predator, so Noah did his workout with all of his weapons and anything else he might carry in the field. He ran through the town, putting into practice everything he had learned the previous day and testing out every escape route he had concocted. With both of his spells going at once, his fatigue accumulated several times faster, but he pushed through. He had reached a wall in his magic training, one he was sure he hoped to break through it with enough practice.
Out in the village outskirts, his strength finally left him, and his wound was throbbing. He sat down beneath a tree growing at the side of the road and closed his eyes. Meditation, it seemed to be the best method of restoring his mana without falling asleep or the use of potions, and Noah was closing in on the breathing pattern that would rejuvenate him the most. The sun had fully risen and the birds were making their presence known, each one screaming in their desperation to have sex. It reminded Noah of high school.
His stamina was slowly replenishing, like a glass under a dripping faucet, and his altered breathing no longer required his focus, allowing his mind to wander. His thoughts drifted to that dinner at the farm, and the words of the bandit he had interrogated, how they spoke of gods. In every reality he lived in, Noah had searched for a hint of the divine, whatever power my help him understand his reincarnation ability. Over a hundred lifetimes of searching, all of it fruitless, yet this world offered him some small hope. To claim that magic came from the gods was no different from any other faith declaring the influence of their deities. On the other hand, since no other realities had magic, then perhaps his search had not yet lost its meaning.
Once rested, he returned to the inn and grabbed a quick breakfast, then went back up to his room and pulled off his gear. For the rest of the day, he performed an exercise routine that he had cultivated over several lifetimes, incorporating yoga, calisthenics, and various other techniques. It developed specific muscle tissue, oxygenated the blood, and purged his body of lactic acid and any toxins. Being an adventurer, muscle mass accumulated naturally, though not always in the way he needed it to. Adding this workout would push his body in the right direction.
Like during his run, he performed the routine with both spells activated, wringing every drop of mana out of his body. The floor became damp from his pouring sweat, and its evaporation fogged the nearby window. When he ran out strength, he'd meditate like before. This was how he spent his time from dawn to dusk, stopping only to eat and run errands. Sleep came easily that night, and the sunrise, all too soon. He left the inn with breakfast stowed in his pocket and headed down to the docks. He had already sold his horse and all of his riding gear, as well as anything that he couldn't carry on his back or in his ring.
The morning was foggy, and the clouds overhead meant it wouldn't clear up any time soon. At the docks stood four adventurers, consisting of an adult man, two young men, and a young woman. Farther off, he saw the cloaked figure from the inn, carrying a rucksack over one shoulder and a cloth-wrapped bow over the other. Beside the dock, a ship was being loaded with supplies. It was about a hundred feet long with triangular sails, a barge with what Noah guessed to be two levels below deck.
"You guarding this ship too?" The question came from one of the adventurers, a teenage boy with a short sword from his belt and a shield on his back. The words and his expression were friendly.
"That's right, I'm Henry. I'm guessing the four of you are a party?"
"Fought through thick and thin for over a year now!" said the young woman beside him. Judging by her robes, she appeared to be a mage. "I'm Jen, and this is Pinot, Steven, and Jock." Steven was taller than Noah and a few years older. He was armed with a crossbow and a confident grin. Jock, the final member, had a thick beard and a mace, but looked friendly.
"You folks ever do guard work like this?"
"I've guarded ships on the open sea. These three have never guarded anything bigger than a train of wagons," said Jock.
"I'll have you know that that train of wagons attracted every monster in the area and we fought tooth and nail to keep it safe," Steven replied.
"I know, you brag about it in every bar we go to."
"That's because it works. Women love adventurers' scars."
"The women you meet just love adventurers' money," Jen said.
Noah detached himself from the conversation, which was quickly devolving into an argument that had probably already happened several times in their group. It was ended by a crowd approaching the ship, though most of its members were bound in chains. Slaves, they were the cargo being transported to the capital. Slavery was common in these lands, though the four adventurers still went silent at their approach, or perhaps because of who was leading them. A gruff man with a scarred face and missing fingers, as well as numerous kills under his belt, judging by the look in his one good eye. Accompanied by soldiers to keep the slaves in line, he approached Noah and the adventurers.
"I'm going to say this quick. I'm the captain of this vessel, and you don't need to know my name, but you do need to know my rules. First rule: none of you go below deck for any reason. I don't care what falls from the sky, be it rain, hail, snow, or arrows, you stay up top where I can see you. Second rule: unless I say so or we come under attack, you will remain at the stern for the duration of this voyage. I don't want you getting in my men's way. Third rule: if we do come under attack and I catch one of you trying to hide or avoid the battle, you're going overboard, either on your own or with your pockets filled with stones. Fourth rule: you won't get any food from us, so for your sake, I hope you packed well. Fifth and final rule: your job is to guard my ship, my men, and my cargo, and should any of them receive so much as a scratch, I will hold all of you personally responsible. Am I understood?"
"Yes, Captain," said Jock, the only one to reply.
Men, women, and children, they were brought below deck, and Noah noticed something as they passed by. Many of them weren't entirely human. Animalistic features, such as tails, scales, feathers, and canine or feline ears decorated many of their bodies. Beastmen, Noah had heard of them before, but this was his first time seeing them in the flesh. They were the result of humans dabbling in shamanism—magic that channeled the spirits of nature through the body, allowing the caster to take on animal characteristics. This faith opposed the worship of the elemental deities, adding another level of complication to Uther's war of expansionism.
Noah, Pinot's group, and the cloaked figure were the last to get on board, and as the ship left the docks, they took their place in the very back of the deck, out of everyone's way. There was no current to carry them south, only a persistent wind was coming in from the west that filled the sails. Unless something happened, there was nothing for Noah and the other adventurers to do but try to make themselves comfortable for the voyage.
Noah glanced at the stranger from the corner of his vision, keeping their distance from everyone else and not making any movements, allowing them to blend in perfectly and slip from people's memory. He had been watching them since he arrived at the docks, noting their movements. The large hood did well in hiding their face, and what it couldn't conceal, they compensated for by subtly turning their head or looking away from everyone else, controlling what angles they were seen from. Even Noah had barely caught a glimpse of their complexion, and the gloves on their hands offered no clue.
Whoever they were, they were good at avoiding detection, which, ironically, is what interested Noah. Stealth measures allowed one to hide from those weaker than themselves, but it drew the attention of those with equal or greater skill.
"So, Henry, what brings you down to the capital?" Jen asked, pulling his focus from the stranger.
"I'm just traveling, you?"
"The three of us are enlisting in the Utheric Knight Academy."
'Now we're talking,' Noah thought. Information on the academy had been spotty during his travels and to meet these youngsters was a stroke of luck.
"This will actually be our second attempt," said Pinot.
"What, did you get kicked out, or something?"
"You could say that. None of us managed to pass the screening program last year. That's how we met. We decided we would train together and give it another shot."
"What's the screening program?"
"Well the only way to get in is to receive a letter of recommendation from a noble," said Steven, "but there isn't a limit on how many letters they can give out, so plenty of lower-ranked nobles will back a large number of applicants in the hope of increasing their influence and power. The academy needs to weed out the weaker ones or else they'll be overwhelmed."
"What did they have you do?"
"Tests of strength and mana, that kind of stuff. Ugh, I still remember the laughs of those rich kids when I was given the boot," Jen groaned.
"Most nobles send their own kids if they can, but the upper-ranked don't have any kind of screening. It's more like they just buy their way in."
"Not true," said Jock. "The situation is actually improving from how it used to be. The academy was originally founded for noble houses to earn prestige and titles, or at least something to brag about. Those who graduated just returned home with their ceremonial swords and no real experience. However, when Uther started growing its borders and its list of enemies grew, the regular army could no longer deal with all of the internal and external threats, so something had to change.
Around twenty years ago, Adwith Tarnas warned the king that our military strength was severely lacking and that the academy had to be reformed. No one knows why the king listened to him, this man who came from nowhere, but authority over the academy was taken from the nobles, and all graduating knights fell under the direct order of the royal family. Likewise, the training methods were drastically harshened to create a new, stronger league of knights.
Fighting on the front lines for king and country turned the knighthood into a more respectable profession, one based on their merits and abilities for earning prestige. If not for that, the nobles would have pulled all support from the program or outright rebelled into a civil war. Rather, it galvanized them into making their children as skilled and powerful as possible before even reaching the academy, to give them a greater head start for when they became knights and made names for themselves.
No one, not even future dukes and duchesses can get in and graduate without adequate abilities. Still, the great families fight tooth and nail to hold onto their influence in the academy to get their children preferential treatment. Just opening it to the public with the condition of being backed by a noble nearly started a bloody coup."
"Is this common knowledge or should I applaud that explanation?" Noah asked, prompting Jock to chuckle.
"I was too old to enter the academy when it was reorganized, so I tried to join the knighthood by first serving in the military, but the life of a lowly soldier wasn't for me."
"And this year, things are really getting exciting," said Pinot. "I heard one of the Zodiac twins is going to be teaching, so anybody who's anybody is going to try to get in and train under them."
Noah thought back to when he arrived at Took, how crowded it had been. Most of those adventurers were probably like him, riding the channel down to the capital to enter the academy. He looked over to the hooded figure, sitting away from all of the others and keeping so still that it was easy to forget they were there. Perhaps they were also planning on entering the academy as well.
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