"Next!" Hearing the shouts of the leader of the guards, our entire group slowly moved forward. In the end, crossing the border wasn't as effortless and quick an endeavor as I hoped it would. While I crossed a few borders in my life before the apocalypse when my parents used to take for trips to a bit hotter nations, I didn't expect that in this clearly dieval setting of this world, the problem of border queues would also appear.
Yet, to my unpleasant surprise, the border wasn't filled with queues. It was fucking sward with people trying to get on the other side, no matter which side they were starting with. Given how there was only one huge gate that allowed one to pass through an impressive set of walls akin to the legendary Hadrian wall from the earth, the entire logistic operated on the pendulum principle, with one group having to pass through the gates to the south before another one would be allowed to travel to the north.
"Hello. It's been a while since I last crossed the border, wasn't it?" Taking the leading role for the entire group, Longinus stepped forward. In just a single mont, all my doubts about the way in which would the next event continue vanished when the face of the leader of the guards suddenly covered in smiles.
"Isn't that Mister Longinus!" Raising his eyebrows in a pleasant surprise, the middle-aged man instantly stepped forward before grabbing the young rcenary into a bear-like hug. "What brings you to the central kingdom? A quest? Or maybe you finally ca to your senses and decided to move to a land richer in opportunities?"
Hearing these propaganda-like questions, I felt sothing boiling inside . Even though I was more than used to constant propaganda that the era of information was full of in literally every single place and step, seeing how people in this dieval-like world would also use this treacherous practice instantly degraded the quality of this world in my eyes by a huge margin.
"Stop with that, we all know that it's not true" Bridling at the suggestion, Longinus's face montarily soured, only to explode in happiness the mont later. "But I can't deny this fact. Right now" Taking a look to the back as if he was worried that sothing or soone was chasing them, Longinus leaned a bit closer towards the guard, placing his hand on the middle-aged man's shoulders before leaning over his ear.
"It seems that all my opportunities in the north Are no longer there." Whispering in a conspirational tone, Longinus appeared to cast so kind of magic spell that made the lips of the guard's leader quiver a bit before turning them into an even wider smile than before.
"I'm not going to ask what kind of ss did you find yourself in. You may" Just as the guard was about to let Longinus and the rest of our group pass, a sudden ringing of a bell stirred the entire area up.
"Alarm! Everyone to your posts!" With a soldier suddenly appearing atop the walls that shielded the central realms from the north, everything turned into disarray. In every second, the number of people rushing to the walls seed to double. Yet, as if the entire panicked state of the whole area didn't apply to them, the guard that Longinus was talking with didn't appear to be worried at all.
But what was even more important, the gate embedded in the huge walls remained open.
"What the hell is going on?" Following the atmosphere of the situation, Longinus placed his hand on the handle of his sword while attempting to spot the being that managed to rile up the entire garrison into action.
"As if I have any idea But if you want to pass, you need to do it now. They will order us to close the gates any mont now" Looking up at the walls with a clear worry, the guard moved his hand towards Longinus as if in an attempt to shake his palm. Yet, rather than accepting the touch, Longinus silently stuffed the guard's hand with a sizeable bag, barely holding together under the weight and volu of what was hidden within.
"We will be going then. If I'm not wrong, this entire commotion might be caused by what we are trying to run away from." Patting the shoulder of the guard once again, Longinus then turned around before gesturing at the rest of the group.
"It's a pleasure doing business with you. As always. Make sure to greet Eli once you pass by the capital from !" Not showing any hints of any worry about the ongoing situation, the guardian smile grew even further, threatening to break his facial muscles when he weighted the bag he received in his hand.
"Let's go. We need to hurry." Not daring to waste even a second longer, Longinus rushed forward. Grabbing the straps on which his bags were attached to his bags, he held them in place before jumping into a run. Without any other choice, I could only follow his example.
Thankfully, after more than two hours of waiting for our turn in the queue, passing under the threateningly huge, the stone gate didn't take us much ti at all. After just a few monts spent in the darkness of the gate-tunnel, we finally erged on the other side of the walls.
Right away, the central Kingdom greeted us with a slightly warr atmosphere, as if the walls that we left behind our back served as a barrier not only for the people and monsters alike but also for so kind of spell that turned the temperature of the central plain a bit more bearable than the relative coldness of the north.
"I wonder what was this commotion all about" Looking up to the skies, I couldn't shake a bad premonition that we were all forgetting about sothing important. But with how we finally managed to cross to the other side of the walls, I wasn't going to just waste my ti pondering over it either. Moving forward, I quickly turned to be the leader of the entire group given how everyone's curiosity held them back.
And in such a situation, only by pushing forward could I force everyone to move as well.
"Wait a second!" Rushing to , Lonignus clearly overexerted his body, most likely due to his wounds still recovering. "What's the rush? We managed to move through far quicker than I expected so how about we take so rest? Now that the barrier is protecting us, those bastards in the governnt won't have any ans" Hearing the rcenary protests, I felt as if sothing in my mind snapped, finally revealing just what was silently bothering since a while ago.
"I don't think this commotion has anything to do with that republic of yours." Shaking my head in denial, I sent a slightly disappointed look towards the man. Given how I sohow spent most of the journey talking with Hubriel rather than Longinus, I couldn't help but get annoyed at how simple-minded this rcenary appeared to be.
"It's her. Or so I think." As if detecting that my thoughts moved towards him, the middle-aged mage stepped forward before raising his eyes to the skies. "Given her white wings I don't think it will take her long to break the barrier. We really need to get moving right now or we might be suspected as the sabotage group aiming to destroy the barrier." ALerting the two of us in a low tone in order to prevent anyone unnecessary from hearing his words, Hubriel's eyes suddenly squinted.
Looking towards the direction Hubriel was staring at with worry, I quickly recognized a familiar silhouette in the skies, wildly swinging a huge sword against so kind of invisible barrier. Even though it didn't seem that she was likely to succeed, once I took a closer look, I could tell that her sword, whilst failing, managed to move just an inch deeper with each hit of hers.
"Let's move." Without any further ado, I made sure all my luggage was safely attached to my body before pushing forward. Knowing the dangers of remaining stationary in the face of the oncoming disaster, the rest of the group quickly followed. But what surprised , was that although I started at the very front of the group, within just a few minutes I was at the very tail of it!
"How C-can you guys move so fucking fast!" Barely capable of catching my breath despite using all the prowess that my recent spike in cultivation provided, I was simply unable to keep up with the pace those people set. Taking several breaks to get so air within a single sentence was already humiliating enough for , yet Hubriel didn't look like he was going to go easy on either.
"Fast? We are lagging behind because of you! We need to be faster or" This ti, it was Hubriel's ti to have his sentence interrupted. But this ti, it wasn't any sort of alarm. This ti, it wasn't the ringing of bells and shouting of the soldiers that announced that sothing drastic has happened.
This ti, the entire world seed to rumble for a mont, before a powerful wave of magic interference washed over the entire group of mine, sending everyone - included - to their knees.
"She broke the god damned barrier That fucking monster" After a few monts during which I was desperately attempting to calm my inner state of energy down, Hubriel finally spoke up. Yet, due to the injuries he apparently sustained from that wave of magic given away by the huge amount of blood that appeared all over his skin, his voice was rather weak, barely able to reach .
Thump.
With the noise of sothing heavy falling to the ground right beside , I moved my head to the side, only to see two slim legs and a piece of tal glistering in the sun.
"You thought you could leave behind like that?!" Raising my eyes on the girl whose face was in even a greater ss than Hubriel's skin, I felt a shrill traveling down my spine. At this mont, this relatively kind and carefree Teria had the sa look on her face as her fellow winged man who almost managed to go through all my barriers back at that southern battlefield I appeared when I first entered this world.
"Not at all." Attempting to calm the situation, I forced myself to stand up, only to fall right back to my knees and release a huge stream of vomit to the ground. "I just"
"Do you think I'm dumb?" As soon as the rest of the acidic mater left my mouth I finally managed to raise my head on the girl, only to see her already raising her huge sword to a down-slashing attack. "Bad luck!"
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