Chapter 1050 - 867: Stone Crown City (Part 2)

The Duke did not refuse and accepted it naturally.

He certainly knew that Lloyd’s invitation was not just to express gratitude.

A stranger capable of taking down a Level 1 Peak Demon with a single blow suddenly appeared in a remote village in the Earl’s Territory; any Knight Captain responsible for border patrol would not be at ease letting him roam freely within the territory.

Rather than letting him act in the shadows, it’s better to bring him into the open, where one can keep an eye on him and respond as needed.

But for the Duke, acquiring a local identity was equally beneficial.

The societal structure of this territory was far more mature and stable than he had previously imagined. The hierarchy among lords, knights, villagers, and adventurers was clear and strict, meaning a wealth of intelligence and information was entrenched within this network of social relationships.

An official adventurer’s identity would allow him to openly enter towns, contact various forces, and gather information about the key and the lord, much more efficiently than blindly exploring the wilderness.

Lloyd turned around and walked to the body of the demon leader, drawing her Longsword from her waist.

The blade glinted with a ghostly cold light under the moonlight. She struck quickly, precisely inserting the sword tip into a bone seam at the back of the demon’s neck. With a twist of her wrist, she pried out a dark red gland the size of a fist.

She casually took out a thick piece of oilcloth from her saddlebag, wrapped the gland, and handed it to the adjutant behind her.

Then she made a quick incision on each side of the demon’s chest cavity with the tip of her sword, cutting out two palm-sized bone plates, wrapping them in the oilcloth as well.

Its eyeballs were also gouged out in the same manner.

After finishing, she stood up, used a coarse cloth to wipe the blood from the Longsword’s blade, and turned to give the old village chief a few instructions.

She said the rest of the meat should be divided among the villagers; the meat along the liver and spine sides was the best, could be cured into salted meat for the winter, but the glands at the demon’s rear neck and chest plates should not be touched in the future, as they are alchemy materials designated for the Earl.

The old village chief nodded repeatedly, committing every word to memory.

After disposing of the demon, Lloyd mounted her horse and gestured to a knight behind her.

The knight led a sturdy gray horse from the rear of the team, handing the reins to the Duke.

Lloyd looked down at the Duke and asked if he could ride.

The Duke took the reins, expertly mounted the horse in one swift motion, showing that he was clearly experienced.

Lloyd didn’t ask further questions, turned her horse, and led the way out of the village.

The Duke spurred his horse to catch up, riding alongside Lloyd at the head of the team.

When the Duke rode past the village entrance, the old village chief leaned on his wooden staff, standing with the entire village on the inside of the fence, deeply bowing in the direction he departed.

Uncle Tie knelt on one knee, placing his right hand on his chest in a knight’s salute.

Ella stood by her father’s side, and instead of pursing her lips and stealing a laugh as usual, she seriously curtsied to the Duke’s back, her pale golden long hair slightly fluttering in the morning light.

The villagers knelt one by one, their foreheads pressed to the dirt, bidding farewell to the traveler who stayed for only one night but saved them all in the simplest yet most solemn manner.

The Duke pulled on the reins, turned on horseback, nodded slightly toward the village entrance, then gently nudged his horse’s belly. The sturdy gray horse snorted and galloped forward to catch up with Lloyd’s team.

As the team slowly advanced, dawn gradually rose from the east, turning the entire wheat field golden.

In the morning light, the outline of a city slowly emerged from the horizon.

The first thing to catch the eye was the towering city wall, constructed entirely from large blocks of gray-blue stone, its surface rugged and heavy, without many decorative reliefs or emblems. Only rows of varying depth longitudinal chisel marks neatly lined each stone, the original marks left by stonemasons.

The wall appeared to be over twenty meters high, with the Earl Cadwell’s territorial flags erected intermittently along the top of crenellation, gently billowing in the morning breeze. The dark blue background embroidered with a silver-gray lion with its head held high.

On each side of the city gate, a man-sized dark red Crystal Stone was embedded in the stone pillars, precisely the kind of eyeball Uncle Tie excavated from the ordinary demon’s sockets last night.

The over twenty-meter-high city gate was slowly opening, driven by a winch, the two heavy ironwood doors sliding inward, with a low, long rumble resonating far in the quiet morning air.

The Duke and Lloyd rode side by side, glancing up at the heavy gate arch as they passed through.

The inner side of the arch was engraved with rows of dense rune patterns, somewhat similar to the Defense Magic Array of a Wizard Plane, but with a rougher stroke, evidently an independent rune system.

After passing through the city gate, the view cleared suddenly.

The wide stone-paved main street was broad enough to accommodate several carriages side by side. The buildings lined the street mostly two to three stories high, constructed with a mix of stone and wood, the base uniformly made from large blocks of stone, the upper part filled with deep brown wooden frames and gray-white plaster.

On each building’s street-facing side, the stone door frames were inscribed with their shopkeepers’ names or family crests.

People passing on the street, whether men or women, were dressed in tailored, figure-hugging garments. The fabrics were primarily made of coarse woolen cloth and tanned leather, with an occasional passerby seen wearing dyed fine linen, their fabric’s color being noticeably brighter than the surrounding coarse woolen, probably wealthy merchants or low-level officials.

The Duke noticed that these city-dwellers were noticeably taller and more robust compared to the villagers of Iron Tree Village, with their average height towering over those he met in the village the night before. Those referred to as "strong men" in the village would only be considered moderately thin on this street.

Compared to these city residents, the villagers of Iron Tree Village seemed almost a different species in their smallness.

Lloyd pulled up in front of a stone building along the street.

Above the building’s main entrance, a deep blue line of common language read: Osseron Kingdom Adventurer’s Guild Stone Crown City Branch.

She dismounted and signaled the Duke to follow her inside.

The guild hall interior was quite spacious, with a row of wooden boards pasted with various commission task lists against the wall. Scattered throughout the hall were some rough solid wood long tables, where a few adventurers in leather armor or Chain Armor sat around, drinking ale.

Lloyd walked straight up to the counter, placed her riding crop on the countertop, and said in an official tone to the registrar behind the counter, "File an adventurer’s status for him, have me as the guarantor."

The registrar, a tall and lean man with copper-rimmed glasses, looked up and down the Duke through his lenses, seemingly to suggest "this little fellow could also be an adventurer," but when his gaze fell on Lloyd’s face marked with old scars, he wisely shut his mouth and began the registration.

The registration process was simple and efficient, taking only a moment.

Just after the Duke pinned the adventurer’s badge to his chest, a messenger wearing a dark blue uniform, with a silver-gray sash, strode quickly in from outside the guild door, stopped by Lloyd’s side, and whispered a few words.

Upon listening, Lloyd’s scarred face showed no surprise.

She turned and walked up to the Duke, straightforwardly saying, "Count Cadwell wants to see you."

The Duke tucked the adventurer’s badge into his chest, raised his head to look at Lloyd.

He was not surprised by the invitation.

Since leaving the village last night until now, Lloyd had taken him on horseback for such a long ride, neither fast nor slow, stopping at several intersections to exchange messages with patrolling knights.

He had ample time to relay last night’s events back to the Earl, and the Earl had the time to react after receiving the message.

As for why the Earl wanted to see him, it was likely due to several reasons.

A strong person capable of casually taking down a Level 1 Peak Demon suddenly appearing in the border territory would compel any lord responsible for the territory’s safety to want to meet him in person.

Besides, perhaps the Earl had more information, which was why he showed interest in the Duke.

After some thought, he nodded in agreement.