Arc | Chapter. 15: Blackcrest (Patreon)

Chapter. 15: Blackcrest

Ceylon spent close to an hour explaining things to me about the next town; Blackcrest. Apparently, it was considered one of the border towns, so while trading was somewhat prominent, it wasn’t really like a city⁠ or even close to that. In a sense, it wasn’t much different from Ranedale, which also sadly meant that I wouldn’t be tasting the best delicacies the world had to offer.

And that was fine. I didn’t want to rush things, nor just indulge in hedonism while seeking out to eat all of the food I could possibly get my hands on, or whatever other pleasure I found throughout my travels. However, I was still looking forward to things, even if it meant that Ceylon would no longer be there.

I didn’t know how many stops we had until we reached the fabled Hermit, but considering that Ceylon had traveled through the Black Forest, her journey was probably over halfway through at this point, and that meant that my mission to her was almost done.

A sigh left me, as Ceylon turned to me.

“Are you alright Arc?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, shaking my head, before looking up. “Do you think they’ll be finished any time soon?” I gestured with my head towards the traders.

Ceylon frowned, looking in the direction. “No, I don’t think so…”

Their discussion had grown heated, and sure it wasn’t too hard to ignore, but the thing is; we had places to be. Yet here we were, waiting for a bunch of people to finish arguing in the Black Forest, the supposed land of death that people didn’t dare to linger in for too long.

The thing with their argument is that it couldn’t be explained; it was in regards to the Hobgoblins, one side seemed to think it was best to ignore the fact that they vanished in a blink, and the other side argued that it was impossible and something must be up. Except, the side of impossibility seemed to be incredibly stubborn and was now escalating things.

I shook my head. “Well, I guess I’ll have to intervene.”

“I don’t think you should…” Ceylon meekly said. “They’ll probably just blame things on you instead…”

I thought about it for a moment, and nodded. “If it makes them shut up and get going, then sure.”

I got a small nod from my companion, and with that I headed towards the small crowd that seemed to be arguing for no reason. A total of five people, three on the side to let it go and two on the side to find out the mystery that had occurred. The argument had no right to last this long.

As soon as I got closer, one of the two annoying people pointed at me.

“It was her fault!” A bald man with a belly screamed. “She must’ve schemed this!”

I raised my brow. “What?”

“Just look at you,” he harrumphed. “You supposedly lured away the Hobgoblin, yet you showed up in no time without bruises, scratches, or even so much as dirt on your clothes, you clearly planned all of this!”

“Why would she even plan all of this?!” The trader leader interjected.

“Because she wants to be paid for easy work!” He bellowed. “I don’t know what tricks she used⁠—”

“That makes no sense,” I interrupted.

The man hearing my retort immediately strode up with a glare, standing the same height as me, breathing on my face.

“I don’t know what you’re hiding, but I’ll expose you, I’ll expose you for risking our lives, and for messing around in the Black Forest, justice will be served, Arc,” he aggressively emphasized my name. “Now let’s stop wasting time and go to Blackcrest.”

With those words he strode past me, his shoulder bumped against mine but I didn’t bulge as he nearly stumbled. The other four people stared with confusion, and the trader woman in particular immediately sneered.

“Talk about wasting time.”

I just shook my head as everyone got ready to depart once more. Finally, I reunited with Ceylon after a minute as she too readied herself to leave.

“How did it go?”

I thought for a moment before shrugging. “Could’ve been worse.”

And at that moment the fat and bald trader passed and spoke to me with hostility.

“I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done and avenge Ronan.”

With those words he marched forward, Ceylon raised her brow as a sigh left me.

“This is going to be annoying…”

“Try not to… kill him,” Ceylon advised from behind.

“I’m not a murderer. Though I hope that I don’t have to use force either…”

I shook my head and began to walk forward into the night, followed by Ceylon.

We traveled for what felt like three hours or so before finally, the trader leader had decided to call it a night and an encampment was set up. I was planning to sleep, though unfortunately I was asked to stand guard, which wasn’t something that I expected, but I supposed it made sense.

After saying goodnight to Ceylon I climbed onto a tree and waited, enjoying the stars as the time passed. I couldn’t rest, but I still found the whole experience relaxing.

◇ ◇ ◇

The sun rose, and some minutes later, some people began to wake up. It didn’t take long before everyone was fully awake, and that’s when I finally hopped down from the tree.

Ceylon greeted me as everyone else readied themselves to depart, the trader that had been annoying yesterday gave me glares, but he didn’t actually didn’t start a fight or anything of the sort, which was a relief. After everyone packed, we left for Blackcrest, no breakfast to be seen.

The journey was uneventful. Ceylon and I led the traders forward, and eventually I struck conversation with her.

“So, once you get backing from the Hermit, and the Grand Duke backs off, what happens then?”

“Well, that is a bit… I don’t know.” She scratched her head. “It’s not, I don’t know what happens after. I was supposed to be learning politics, and I guess trading in order to be the next successor of the family, though it got shifted as soon as my youngest brother was born about four years ago.”

“So now what are you doing?” I asked, raising my brow.

“My parents are interested in an arranged marriage with a lesser family so we can absorb their wealth I guess,” Ceylon said with a small yet exasperated shrug. “But I’m not really interested in marrying someone I don’t love. There is also the fact that things went south with the death of King Credence, so now I am out here trying to save my family.”

I followed along with her words, but there was something that I didn’t fully understand.

“Do you love your family enough to give your life for them?”

“I⁠⁠— it’s my duty.” Ceylon shook her head. “As the daughter of Arlow I have to give everything to the house that raised me⁠—”

“Do you love your family enough to give your life to them?” I emphasized and Ceylon tensed.

Then there were a couple of seconds of silence, before she finally let out a small sigh.

“I never thought about it. For a noble, something like that is akin to betrayal, so I guess I don’t want to think about it either. Though I suppose I could always give up my name and live the life of a commoner, but it’s not what I want either…”

I watched Ceylon’s behavior, and couldn’t help but wonder. “What do you want?”

“I don’t really know.” She shook her head. “Hopefully I figure it out before the whole marriage thing happens.”

“Right…” I observed Ceylon’s somewhat downcast expression. “Well, I hope you can figure it out, Ceylon.” I smiled at her. “I think these few days you haven’t been exactly living as a noble but you’ve enjoyed them, so maybe forfeiting your title isn’t that bad.”

She nodded slowly, taking in what I had just said.

“I guess so…” she trailed off, before continuing. “I’ll think about it...”

We walked in silence for what felt like ten to twenty minutes, Ceylon had a small frown the entire time, seemingly thinking before a breath left her. Then she turned to me.

“I think, I want to travel with you Arc.”

My thoughts briefly halted before I immediately shook my head. “You’ve known me for three days, maybe four with today, you⁠— even I for that matter. Cannot take life changing decisions in such a manner.”

Ceylon paused and chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. I’m sorry Arc, it was very impulsive.” She turned to me with a meek smile. “You know, all of this is new to me, so I was just a bit self-absorbed. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I think such thoughts sometimes are normal,” I said, shaking my head. “But I suppose as your… friend.” I coughed. “I cannot really allow you to continue those thoughts, for your own good.”

Ceylon slowly nodded, following along. “Thank you Arc⁠—”

“Blackcrest is in sight!” one of the traders interrupted.

We both turned to look ahead, where we saw the forest ending, and off in the distance there were dark town walls that were lined with towers and in the middle of everything was an imposing black gate filled with spikes.

I raised my brow in mild surprise, it was bigger than Ranedale by a margin, not only that but it was a lot more intimidating too. I didn’t bother to pick up the pace, nor did Ceylon, however, the same couldn’t be said about the traders that quickly sped past us.

All of them but one passed, and that was the trader woman who stopped to lightly bow at us.

“Thank you for the hard work,” she said as she handed me a bag of coins. “This is what we could chip in, sorry it’s not much more.”

I blinked, receiving the bag. It wasn't particularly heavy though it did shingle with each movement. And peering into it I saw silvery coins, though I didn’t understand how many of them were there other than dozens, and their value was also unknown.

“Sorry, I know it’s really not much.”

I raised my head to look at the woman who now had a bitter smile, and I simply nodded at her and shook my head.

“This much is fine, thank you.”

She slowly nodded in acknowledgement. “If there is anything you need don’t hesitate to reach out, you’ll be able to find me with the name of Lydia of the North.”

“Are you a noble?” I asked, more confused than anything.

“No, it’s just a nickname.” She chuckled, before nodding at me. “I have to get going now, I hope to repay you sometime, Adventurer Arc. See you.”

I paused, but before I could say anything she was already walking away. I simply blinked as Ceylon gave me a small nudge from behind.

“Well you got your first payment, congrats Arc!”

“Well… I guess?” I said stuffing the bag into my pocket, barely paying attention. “I don’t even know anything about currency, for all I know the coins in there could be pennies.”

“Pennies?” Ceylon asked in confusion. “What are those?”

I shook my head and smiled, already beginning to walk towards the town gates. “Don’t worry about them. Explain currency to me later, okay?”

“Ah, yeah!” She enthusiastically nodded as she followed after me.

Then, at that moment I paused as the bald fat trader glared at me from the gate with hostility. His eyes narrowed as they met mine.

“Arc?” Ceylon asked with confusion.

I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

And I continued walking.

◇ ◇ ◇

Getting into town had been a new experience, since apparently they required a fee, but showing my adventurer’s identification seemed to solve that. However, unfortunately Ceylon still had to pay to enter.

After that, we headed to an inn and just relaxed, all while Ceylon explained currency to me. Which wasn’t actually that complicated, it followed precious metals ⁠— because apparently they were a thing here just like server rooms ⁠— their order was, copper, silver, gold, cobalt, and platinum.

Though, I was sure cobalt wasn’t actually a metal, but I didn’t give it much thought. I simply accepted it, and decided to nap, much against Ceylon’s wishes. She woke me up at night, when it was time for dinner, except…

“We are not having dinner here.”

She blinked. “But I already paid…”

“It’s fine, it will be on me.” I nodded. “But for now, we have to leave.”

I extended my hand towards her, Ceylon paused, her eyes widened for a moment before she sighed, her golden locks of hair dangling.

“Do we really have to do it?”

“Of course.” I smiled. “Always.”

An exasperated breath left her as she grabbed my cold hand, and with a nod, I used my skill.

“[God Step].”

And we vanished from the room, appearing on a random alley in Blackcrest.

◇ ◇ ◇

It hadn’t been too hard to arrange a meeting spot, and now…

I clapped my hands with a smile as Ceylon just stood gaping in the middle of a large warehouse. At the center of everything, was a large table filled to the brim with delicacies and strange food.

Meanwhile the trader, Ronan, stood to the side with an amicable smile.

“I’ve done my best to procure everything Blackcrest has to offer Miss Arc.”

I nodded with a smile.

“I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Ronan left the building, and then I took a breath smelling the wonderful aromas that filled the large space we stood in. A large glass chandelier loomed over the entire table, all for a beautiful vibrance, and at one end of the table there were two chairs. I stood there for what felt like minutes, until finally, my companion spoke up.

“What is… this…?” Ceylon blinked. “What⁠—”

“It’s fine, I’ll explain later.” I interrupted her with a smile. “Let’s just enjoy this to our hearts’ content.”

Ceylon slowly nodded, as I also excitedly stepped forward. It was a bit weird to realize it, but my heart was rushing. It was an incredible excitement I rarely if ever felt, it also strangely ran in parallel with the adrenaline I felt whenever my life was in danger⁠— it was thrilling. Looking at all the food was a thrilling thing for me.

I sat down with a smile as Ceylon followed, and the first thing that was in front of me seemed to be some sort of steak. Its juices dripped, all while displaying a wonderful brown crust that sheened to the lights on the ceiling, and it smelled amazing.

I gulped a mouthful of saliva as I grabbed the utensils too afraid to freeze the food. And slowly, I cut a single piece of the unbelievably soft piece of meat and brought it to my mouth. It was steaming hot, and for a moment, I was awe-stricken to its pleasant smell.

This is everything I could’ve asked for and more.

I brought it into my mouth⁠—

A shrill sound echoed, the chandelier fell on the table with an explosion of glass and food⁠. My eyes went wide as the doors of the warehouse exploded, a war cry echoing in my ears.

“It is time for your death, Arc!”

And at that moment I clenched my teeth and the fork in my mouth shattered into pieces as I saw red.