Infinite Arrow-Chapter 43 - 41: City of Ordelia (1)

After a day of traveling, they arrived at the city gates of Ordelia in the morning. There were a bunch of carriages that had lots of items and equipment stored inside because most of the people entering were merchants. Before they could even enter, they had to wait because of the long line.

This is why the most optional thing to do is gather information from the merchants. Although Cliff doesn’t have that many points on Charisma, his being a noble is an advantage.

The lad left his carriage and went to the side where most of the merchants were staying outside to see if the line was moving or not. Some of them were looking pretty pissed based on their foul expression.

Time to brighten their day~!

Cliff jogged towards an old merchant wearing green clothes. They wear a green hat with a red quill stuck on the side, signifying a higher status in life as a merchant "Greetings! What a busy morning we have, huh?"

The merchant turned his head to look at the one who seemed to be calling out for him. With his judging eyes, he observed the kid’s appearance and outfit from head to toe, and he slightly smiled.

"Lad, calling it a busy morning is underestimating it. From how they’re inspecting every cart, the sun will be high up in the sky and we’d still not move an inch." His head tilted and pointed towards the gate where most of the guards were checking the carts by removing every single item inside and putting them back in.

"Isn’t that a little unnecessary?" Cliff commented on how the guards were handling the situation.

The merchant sighed and put his palm on his face. "I wouldn’t blame them based on how things have been lately in the kingdom." His eyes drooping low, it is obvious that this man has not been sleeping.

"Is that why you look so tired? What’s the tea, sir?" The lad curiously asked, but before he could notice it, the merchant was already smiling. Cliff noticed it and sighed, he fell for a trap.

The merchant laughed. "Boy, you gotta pay me first if you want valuable information! That’s how we merchants work, ya know?" The old man puts his hands together and rubs them, waiting for the wealth to drop on his palms.

Should’ve known better than to trust merchants, ugh...

The lad grabbed his pouch of coins from his back pocket and poured five golden coins onto his palm. "Five gold coins, that’s big enough for information, right?"

The merchant rubbed his chin with his fingers for a few seconds before finally taking the coins out of the lad’s palms and pocketing them inside his bag.

"Pleasure doing business." The merchant smirked before walking towards the lad closer and whispered to his ears, covering his lips with his hands.

"...I’ve heard that a war is brewing between ours and the western kingdom. I do not know why but the reason they are searching every cart is because there are rumors of spies invading our kingdom..." After whispering the information to the lad’s ear, the merchant took a step back and smiled.

"That would be it! Only a few merchants know that kind of information, so don’t you dare give them up for free!" The merchant warned the lad to keep his mouth shut, though his threats fell on deaf ears.

That info is worth five gold coins? You can threaten me all you want, I can do whatever the fuck I want with that info!

Cliff couldn’t show his disdain towards the merchant and put up a facade instead. He smiled softly and raised a thumbs before returning to the carriage with the news. He pushes the cloth aside to the left to enter the carriage, only to see his allies preparing themselves.

Both Arnheid and Reinar are gearing up with their suits of armor equipped and worn on their bodies. With them looking like that, surely the guards will allow them to pass without an inspection. After all, these two are high-ranked knights.

"Wanna hear the intel I gathered? The reason why security is tight is because there’s a rumor going around that war is brewing and that they are searching for spies from the Western kingdom. Any thoughts?" Cliff informed everyone inside the carriage, including the princess who can be seen sitting on a box.

Enrid yawned before responding. "Why would the western kingdom wage war on the central kingdom anyway?" Indeed, in lore, there is no reason for the Western Kingdom and the Central Kingdom to be at odds with each other. Yet it still happened during the process of finding the next suitable heir for the central kingdom.

On the wiki, it was vaguely explained how the war started. However, the results were pretty detailed... surprisingly detailed. The two kingdoms lost most of their major military power and the war only ended after 10 years and the result was a stalemate.

Fortunately, this would happen after 4-5 years. Most of the events that happened in the past haven’t happened yet, it seems that the things going on are just leading up to it.

Reinar stood up and held his hammer. "In any case, as long as we, the knights, present ourselves to the guards, they’ll let us in. Most of them know that we’re coming, but it seems that we’re a day early. We should probably pay you guys more plati–" Enrid and Esther’s eyes brightened but were quickly put out by Arnheid’s interference by shouldering Reinar’s stomach. "OOF–"

"I apologize. Please do not mind him, he is somewhat... impulsive sometimes." She replied, before wearing her helmet and strapping it on her head so it wouldn’t fall off easily. An awesome swordswoman, and a gigantic tank of a man. Both are part of the knights of the central kingdom, they are the one of the strongest.

Despite being the strongest, they both have interesting personalities that make them no different from other people. Truly, the knights of the people.

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It didn’t take that long before it became their turn to be inspected. The guards were about to search inside but the two knights of the kingdom went outside and showed their qualifications. A platinum dog tag with their names sculpted on it.

"O-oh! We apologize! We thought you’d be arriving tomorrow!" One of the soldiers commented they were holding a spear. Like normal guards, most of them were given standard chainmail armor and steel spears.

The eleventh shield of the kingdom shook his head. "We encountered a traveling party of adventurers and they helped us get to the city sooner. I assume we’ll be fine to move now?" Short, straightforward, and concise. There are no more words needed, they’ve explained what they wanted to say and that would be all of it.

The guards trembled, a towering man holding a giant shield and a Warhammer strapped on his back. Who wouldn’t be scared?! Because of their fear, they couldn’t answer his question.

Then, a fully suited armored man came out of the walls and went to the entrance where the knights and their carriage could be found. They looked and it seemed that this man was higher up than the guards.

Suddenly, the man bowed in a 90° arc "Welcome to the City of Ordelia, dear knights~ I apologize for the manners that my subordinates showed. Please, enter the city. We wouldn’t need to inspect your carriage." His voice is soothing to listen through as if listening to it is like being laid on a bed of flowers.

A proper show of courtesy, this man has class.

Reinar thought to himself before nodding and signaling the warrior who seemed to be maneuvering the horse to carry onward. They got inside without encountering any problems.

"Told ya that they could handle it. Authority is respected around here, especially in a military-focused city." Cliff bragged to Esther and she just sighed disappointingly in response to his shameful bragging.

You’re not even a knight, why are you the one bragging?

The carriage moved onward, it moved on the paved road with city lanterns that can be seen on the side. However, they’re currently not on because it is still sunny. The adventurers and the knights went on to find a nice inn, while the guards at the entrance started gossiping with each other.

The man with fully suited armor gazed at the carriage, his eyes focused on the goal.

Suddenly, a shadow from behind appeared.

"...Sir, they’ve entered the city. Permission to follow them?"

"Permission Granted." Then, the shadow disappeared and the man held his sword. Tapping it slowly before increasingly speeding up as he goes back inside the walls, where a bunch of guards with snarky smiles and scarred faces can be seen holding their spears and wearing chainmail armor.

"Are you guys ready to hunt down some rabbits~?"

"YES, SIR!" The ’guards’ shouted in sync.

The man smiled.

"Let the hunt begin~"