Bog Standard Isekai-Chapter 44Book 4 -

One of the things Brin loved about traveling was seeing new things and new ways of living in a world where everything was still unique and exotic instead of the bland and uniform modern cities of his old world. In that respect, Canibri didn't disappoint. The entire town was made with bare stone as if every single house, shed, or pub were its own little castle. And not the real castles of history that would've been covered in plaster or whitewashed.

Only the governor's fort, a tall square tower in the center of town, was actually covered in plaster and painted white. He thought it was funny that the most defensible building in this large town was the only one that didn't look that way.

He looked around the mostly empty streets to try to find something else to distract himself, and when nothing presented itself, he went back to thinking about the upcoming visit to Cadwy's children.

He couldn't seem to stop his brain from going over the upcoming conversation again and again. He tried to picture how they'd react, what he would say in each situation, and he kept finding himself tongue-tied, even in his own mind. Ironic. He'd faced monsters and witches and goblin armies, but a difficult conversation, that's what made him nervous.

A group of laughing, drunken soldiers walked out of a nearby public house, and that was something, wasn't it? There seemed to be an awful lot of soldiers in Canibri, more than was warranted for a minor city more than a hundred miles away from Arcaena. What were they doing here? The inns and public houses were packed with them.

He latched onto the question. He sent commands to his directed threads, ordering them to stop scouring the town for anyone named Baines, and instead try to find soldiers.

There were more than enough to find. Just like in Blackcliff, the ones he saw walking around town were barely the tip of the iceberg. A warehouse and a few grain silos had been repurposed towards bunkering soldiers. These weren't packed in quite so tightly as in Blackstone, and they seemed to have been here for longer, but the overall outlook was the same.

Was there going to be a mass forced enlistment here? From everything he'd heard there was going to be a round-up of Commoners to serve on the front lines, but not until war had officially broken out, and none would come from so far away. And the best of the Rare Classes had already joined the army long ago.

Maybe if there was a mass enlistment, it would block him from being able to find his half-siblings. He sort of hoped that would happen, even if he would miss out on an Achievement for it. He decided to get Cid's thoughts.

"There's an awful lot of soldiers here," Brin said. "Even more than it appears. What do you think they're up to?"

"I can't imagine it has anything to do with us," said Cid. "Have you found the Baines's?"

"I don't know if I can find them with my eyes. People don't exactly write their names on their front doors, and I don't know if I'll recognize them when I see them," said Brin.

"Prinnash has a very dependable bureaucracy. They'll be recorded in the registrar's office," said Cid.

"Then should we come back during the day? I doubt it'll be open," said Brin.

"It will be open to us," said Cid.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Normally, navigating down the main thoroughfares of a medium-sized city on horseback would mean moving slowly through the crowds, but the crowds were frustratingly absent in the middle of the night, and so he and Cid moved at an annoyingly quick pace. He'd planned on using the travel time to figure out what he was going to say, and he still had nothing.

Cid led the way as if he knew exactly where to go, and when Brin asked he said it was because all Prinnashian cities had the same layout. If you wanted to know where the government offices were, go towards the fortress in the center. The government buildings would be nearby.

Cid led him to a squat structure that Brin took for a house at first because of how similar it was to many of the modest dwellings they'd passed until now, but there was a sign near the door explaining it was something else.

Under the Direction of his Lordship Mordelet, the Office of Supervision and Registration of his Citizens and Subjects in Canibri.

"I think this is it," said Cid and pounded on the door with an armored fist. No one answered, so Cid knocked again, and kept knocking.

Brin winced and looked around the empty street. The loud pounding was bound to wake up more than only the occupants of this one office.

"Do you even know if anyone's in there?"

"I don't. But why don't you?" asked Cid.

Brin sent an Invisible Eye inside. Turns out that his initial assessment had been correct; this really was someone's house, with a large office in the front. There was an older man in bed who pulled his pillow around his ears and turned to his side, trying to shut out the knocking. He was a level 30 [Clerk], though Brin quickly shut off his Invisible Eye when he noticed the arms and shoulders not covered by a blanket were lacking clothes.

"I don't think he's coming," said Brin.

Cid kept pounding. After a full five minutes, the door finally opened to reveal the [Clerk], now wearing a sleeping gown and holding a lamp in one hand and an arming sword in the other.

"We're closed!" he snapped.

"Then I'm lucky we found you awake," said Cid. He shouldered his way past the [Clerk] and into the office.

"I'll warn you, I am an officiate of Lord Mordelet himself, and he does not permit any intrusion upon his household by foreign [Knights]!" said the Clerk.

"Then you may introduce me to him as Lord Trevorrow or sir Gurthcid, as you please," said Cid. "Now, I was hoping you could help us find someone. A family, rather, last name Baines."

"Then you can come back at a reasonable hour! And there are two-hundred and twelve men and women with that surname in Canibri," said the [Clerk].

"We're looking for the grown children of..." Cid snapped a couple times, trying to remember.

"Cadwy Baines," said Brin. "Sorry for the intrusion, sir."

The [Clerk] sighed and dropped his sword in an umbrella holder, and then shuffled over to the shelves that covered the wall. The shelves were all covered in little boxes with what looked like index cards from a pre-internet library.

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He flicked through a few and asked, "Is Cadwy Baines still living in Canibri? What's his Class?"

"He disappeared more than a decade ago. He was a [Scout] in the army," said Brin.

The [Clerk] abandoned the box he was looking through and found another closer to the floor. "Let's see. I have Cadwy and Myfanwy Baines, now Myfanwy Price. Their sons are Gerin and Lan and their daughter is Nesta."

"Does that sound right?" Cid asked Brin.

"I don't have their names, I was only told two sons and a daughter," said Brin.

"Then it must be them. Where can we find them?" Cid asked.

The [Clerk] licked his lips. "You should know that I log every inquiry, unless I have a good reason not to. Should any trouble befall these people–"

"No trouble, only news of their late father. No secrecy is needed or desired," said Cid. "Now, as to their location?"

"Gerin left town years ago. He's now a [Scout] like his father. He is stationed at Fortmouth presently. Nesta is now Nesta Mere. She lives nearby with her husband. Go down High street two blocks and they'll be the third house on the left after the canal. Lan Baines lives in a boarding house on the other side of town near the water mill."

"Thank you for your time." Cid tossed the [Clerk] a silver penny.

The [Clerk] caught it, and gave a polite nod, his attitude shifting somewhat. Though he still followed Cid and Brin to the door and closed it behind them firmly.

"I can't believe he was right in Fortmouth this whole time. We might've passed him in the street on a day off. If we'd ever gotten a day off in Fortmouth."

"It's a small world, for sure," Cid said.

"Now I'm wondering if it's even worth bothering them. If I can't get the Achievement today, then I don't see the point," said Brin.

Cid rolled his eyes and started walking towards High street.

They reached the house all too soon. If there was a chance that everyone in the house was asleep, he would've insisted on leaving and returning in the morning. Unfortunately there was the distinct light of a lamp hitting the curtains of the front window. Brin didn't want to pry too deeply, but a quick scan with an Invisible Eye told him that two adults were awake in the living room, and that three children were asleep upstairs.

He knocked softly on the door.

There was a shuffling sound and then the door opened to reveal a man. [Inspect] informed Brin that this was Lew Mere, the husband of his half-sister, and that he was a level 25 [Battle-hardened Stoneworker].

Lew raised his eyebrows in alarm to see two knights at his door. "Can I help you, sirs?"

He wore pajamas, but had thrown a fur-lined overcoat on top of it and was standing as if to block the entire doorway.

Brin found himself a bit tongue-tied. He'd been imagining that Nesta would answer the door and wasn't prepared for what to say if it was her husband.

Cid said, "We apologize for the late hour. We have news for your wife, Nesta Lew, regarding the death of her father."

"Has something happened to Master Price?" asked Lew.

"No. This is about Cadwy," said Cid.

"We don't know any Cadwy--" Lew started, but a female voice interrupted him.

"That's the name of my birth father."

Lew looked to the side, and then nodded. "You better come in."

The home was homey on the inside, rather than the stone castle that it appeared from the outside. They'd strung up cloths to cover the walls in place of wallpaper. They weren’t really decorated or anything, and seemed to really only be there to liven the room up and perhaps keep the stone from sapping all the room’s warmth.

Lew gestured them to sit on two wooden armchairs near the fireplace, and sat opposite them on a sofa.

Nesta entered soon after, bearing a tray with tea. She set it down on the side table between Cid and Brin and then said, "You won't mind if I sit?" Though, she didn't wait for an answer before sitting down next to her husband.

It was impossible for Brin to tell if they looked like they were related or not. He'd always been good at picking out relatives between other people, but even as Mark had a hard time noticing it in his own family.

What struck him most of all was her age, at only 23. Of course Cadwy's other children from a previous marriage would all be older than him. She was young, but also old. People grew up fast in this world, and she didn't in any way look like she wasn't mature enough to be a mother of three.

"You say you know something about my father? I'll warn you, this likely won't be news I want to hear," said Nesta.

"I was about to say the same thing to you. It's a difficult story," said Brin. "Cadwy Baines died just under three years ago."

She searched his eyes. "Only three? And you're sure?"

"I witnessed his death," said Brin.

She abruptly stood up. "Let me fetch my brother. He deserves to hear this, too."

Before he could respond, she'd shrugged a long coat over her nightdress and was out the door. Brin sent an Invisible Eye after her. Canibri looked safe enough, but he worried about anyone traveling alone with all those soldiers about.

Lew smiled at how Cid and Brin stood when she stood and sat back down again when she left. He flicked his finger up and down. "Is that an Ollandish thing?"

"It is. And a Frenarian thing," said Brin. Really, it was an upper-crust thing. No one in Hammon's Bog would stand up just because a woman was standing. He was only doing it here because Cid was doing it.

Lew looked at Brin. "Frenarian? Really? You don't look it. You look like you could've grown up right next door."

"Yeah, I always stood out," said Brin.

"Yes, it was your black hair that made you stand out," said Cid.

"I'll admit, I'm more than a little curious. Nesta calls Master Price father, and has told me very little about Cadwy. But it's best to wait for her to return before jumping into that pile of gravel, not so?"

"That makes sense," said Brin.

He sat for a moment, trying to think of some other kind of idle conversation he could start up, but he really didn't want to talk about anything else.

"Nesta must worry for her brother. Is it true he's a [Scout] in the army, preparing to attack Arcaena?" asked Cid.

"Gerin? Yes and no. Yes, he is, but no we aren't as worried as we might be." Lew leaned forward and lowered his voice into something conspiratorial. "From what we hear, there isn't going to be a war."

Brin met Cid's eyes, both of them sharing the same alarm. "How do you mean?" asked Cid.

"I have a friend who works in the Mordelet household, and according to him, the whole affair with Arcaena is soon to be called off. The grand army of Prinnash is happy to posture along the border, to make a show of strength, but how can they leave the country when they're needed here at home?"

"How do you mean? Needed for what?" asked Brin.

Lew leaned back. "You've been traveling across the land, have you not? As knights? Tell me, have you seen any goblins?"

"A few," said Cid. "Though none recently."

"That's because they're grouping up. They're organizing, forming an army. It's all Lord Mordelet can talk about, to hear it said. He was warned by the legendary [Knight] Lothar of the Order of the Golden Ivory, who's been hard at work to organize a defense to repel them. And according to the [Heralds], Lord Mordelet has petitioned the High Council to retract the army, and the lords of six other cities have joined their voices with his."

"Goblins don't build armies. They're animals. They can't stand to travel in groups larger than a hundred; they hate each other more than they hate us," objected Cid.

"Maybe that's how it was, but they're changing," said Lew.

"And where is this mighty army of goblins?" asked Cid. "Do the [Heralds] tell you that?"

"No. They don't want to throw the nearby villages into disarray," said Lew.

"A likely story," said Cid.

"You can listen to the [Herald] himself as soon as the sun rises if you don't believe me," said Lew.

"We believe you," said Brin.

Cid crooked an eyebrow. "Really? You of all people will take the [Heralds] words at face value?" Brin had already let slip that he was the kukubaru guy.

"No. But it makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s an open secret that Arcaena is using the threat of undead to make Frenaria too afraid to commit their forces. It makes sense that she’d do something similar here,” said Brin.

“Yes, but the threat is different than a capability,” said Cid.

“Lothar says there’s an army. He wouldn't lie about that," said Brin. "He's a lot of things, but he'd never knowingly tell a lie."

"You... you speak as if you know him," said Lew.

"We've met once or twice," said Brin.

Lew looked starstruck. "Really? You must--"

They were interrupted by the opening of the door, and two people stepped inside. Nesta and Lan, and yes he could tell that they were clearly brother and sister. They might be fraternal twins, except that where Nesta seemed soft and weary, Lan was stern and alert. And come to think of it, Lan looked a lot like his father.

He was younger than his sister, only nineteen, and he was a level 23 [Paver]. That Class itself spoke to the kind of life this family must’ve lived. It wasn’t a Class you took because you wanted it, but rather one that you took because it gave you immediate, guaranteed work. It was a Class for someone without a lot of options.

Nesta was a more respectable [Painter], though that made Brin wonder what she painted. She took her place next to her husband while Lan stayed near the door.

“Oh, have a seat please,” said Nesta, and while Cid and Brin sat, Lan remained standing.

“Now,” said Nesta, “you were saying that you knew our father.”