The lady in white
"Hold it", the gatekeeper warned as he blocked the gate with his pike.
She stopped without hesitation. Her body was much too tired to have an argument so early in the morning, not to mention the fact that this is the first man made structure she had seen in a week. The last thing she needs is trouble.
"What is it?" She mentioned in a shallow, tired voice.
"You don't look like you're from around this area." The gatekeeper said.
"Yeah, I don't cause I'm not from this area." She casually responds as she took out a piece of paper from her right pocket of her, already worn out, trousers, "Here, my identifications." She shoved it at the gatekeeper.
"Yashmin van Ilarial, 20 years old, origins-- wait-- this can't be right; It says here you're from the municipality of Wershtrict." The gatekeeper was hesitant and cautious.
"That's right." Yashmin tiredly responded, her eyes were beginning to close on their own and her body was on the brink of giving up.
"But that's about a 2 months' journey by horse, what the hell brings you here?" The gatekeeper questioned, he was becoming very cautious.
"I'm just passing by.....please, I haven't seen a town in a week....I need a proper bath.....and bed." She weakly responded.
"Fine, there's an inn just to the right of the entrance. There should be a room for you." The gatekeeper pointed as he handed back the paper, "Welcome to Capital Steper of Kingdom Grelt."
The town was surrounded by a not-so-thick wall, only enough to be manned not weaponized, and from that entrance the road went straight and the city center could be seen at the end of the road, though just a tiny bit.
Immediately, Yashmin went to the inn named "José's beautiful and grand inn", which was what the gatekeeper told. She didn't bother with the exhilarating name and just went in.
She approached the reception and, "one room for 3 nights and a hot bath please."
José, who was at the reception desk greeted, "welcome to the beau---"
"I know, I'm tired. The key please, I'll pay later." She interrupted.
"Oh... Right. Ehm, here you go then. Up the stairs, the room at the very end to the left and we have ensuite bathroom with warm water." José explained as he handed the key.
"Ensu-- huh?" Yashmin was confused.
"Oh, it means the bathroom is inside the room and we have running water." José patiently explained.
"Oh. Right. Of course. Thanks." Yashmin took the key and rushed upstairs to her given room, having no idea what ensuite means but she couldn't care less as she just wanted to lay down on a bed and then take a bath. The words coming out of José's mouth was mostly gibberish to her ears.
She entered the room, locked the door, threw her stuff everywhere and jumped on the bed and continued to sleep for 16 hours.
-------------------------------
The next day, she was awoken by the sunlight that shune at her face, she was a mess.
She slowly stood up, slapped herself silly and was awake.
"Oof, it stinks here. Oh wait, that's probably me." She talked to herself. She stood up and looked at her bed, what was once a nice and clean bed with white sheets became a messy, dirty bed which sheets had turned brown.
"Right..."
She then went to the bathroom, another room unbeknownst to her. To her knowledge, a bathroom is where people gather to bathe, a public space. But here, it was private. There was a bathtub for herself with a pipe at one end and a hole on the ground next to it and there was a table with a bowl with a pipe on top of it and a mirror.
She opened the valve on the pipe on the bathtub and a stream of warm water came out.
"Nice." She mumbled and proceeded to undress and drowned herself in the warm water and got clean.
-------------
She then put on a fresh set of clothes, well not exactly fresh but not dirty either and went to explore the town.
"Ehm yeah the bedsheets might need some changing and do you know a place to wash my clothes?" Yashmin greeted the receptionist, if that's what you call a greeting.
"Morning! Right, we'll change the bedsheets and we can also wash your clothes. It's on the house." The receptionist, Joel, replied.
"No, no I'll pay. Here---"
"We insist. You came here for a reason right? The lady in white." Joel said.
"How did you--" she got interrupted again.
"Now that you're cleaned up, we know. You took a job here and... given your reputation, it's the least we can do." Joel insisted as he took her clothes.
"Okay..... since you know who I am, where can I get some information around here?" She asked.
"The guild or the bar would be a great place to start, though stay inside before noon cause it's when it starts." Joel answered.
"When what starts?" Yashmin wondered.
"You'll know soon enough."
Yashmin proceeded to go to the guild. It was located in the city square and it was damn packed with adventurers looking for jobs to do.
As Yashmin got closer to the guild, some adventurers recognized her and became silent as they watched her walk by.
She was used to the stares by now as she is unique in her own way, with the combination of her short wavy red hair, blue eyes and pale skin with her clothes from her shirt, outer all the way to her shoes were all off-white and with her signature lever action rifle on her back; people knew it was her. The lady in white, the ruthless huntress known throughout Verilia.
Why was she at Grelt? Who's about to die? Everyone wondered.
Everyone gave way for her to enter the guild and watched as she approached the guildmaster.
"Welcome, we've been expecting you." The guildmaster greeted.
Yashmin nodded in reply.
"Come, have a seat. I'll explain everything." He continued.
They sat down and everyone quietly watched.
"A gathering is held by the queen to find a potential suitor for her daughter." The guildmaster started.
"The queen took her position after her husband died unexpectedly on his bed. Some say it was poison and plenty more speculations are around. But that's not the important part. The job that you were given, was to protect the daughter right?" He continued.
"Yeah, I knew something was up since it was the only sentence in the job description followed by a huge sum of money." Yashmin replied.
"After this, you should go to the queen's office. She should explain everything. But heed my warning--" he came closer to her and whispered, "do not trust anyone. Nothing here is as it seems."
Yashmin nodded in acknowledgement and left the guild.
The queen's office, luckily enough, was very easy to spot. The only building on top of a hill at the other end of the city.
She approached the gates and was greeted by four guards, unlike the ones at the gate, they were heavily armed holding a long rifle as well as double swords on their hilt. They had thick armor too, either they are too committed to the job or the queen is scared of people. There was also watch towers around the queen's office watching every inch of the hill.
"She must be extremely paranoid." She thought to herself.
"Welcome, the queen is expecting you. No weapons." One of the guard said.
She left her weapons at the guard's station and was escorted inside.
At the door, two more guards were awaiting, this time they were both wearing light armor with a longsword and shortsword in their posession. The tall, heavy doors were opened and a passageway was the first thing that she saw leading straight to the governor's room.
The passageway stood tall and wide with marble pillars as the foundation.
The governor was already waiting along with her daughter.
The guards stood back but did not leave.
"Welcome Yashmin, I expected you to come sooner. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Allysa, Queen Allysa." She said. She seemed to be in her late 40s based on her hair and skin.
"And this is my daughter, Sana." She continued and Sana bowed.
"Yashmin van Illarial, huntress." She replied.
"You must be curious as of why I chose you to guard my daugther. Firstly, she is your age and secondly, well, you ARE a very reputable huntress who always manage to finish her job." Allysa mentioned.
"What does age have to do with anything?---nevermind. What is it that's so urgent?" Yashmin swiftly replied.
"Ever since my husband died, a lot of people have been trying to get the throne. Its nothing new really, this is what people do when there is absence in power. You know about Grelt right? And the richness that it holds here?" The queen asked.
"Yeah, famously known for the vast amount of saltpeter in its mountains as well as charcoal. This kingdom makes money out of ingredients for war." Yashmin responded.
"Come on now, its not like we induce war." The queen cynically replied.
"Uhum." Sana coughed, hinting for her mom to continue.
Yashmin was not buying her reply.
"You took the job anyway, money must be more important to you at the moment. Anyway, we're a small kingdom with only 3 big cities and an army of just 5000. Naturally, rulers from across the realm would want to get their hands on infinite saltpeter and charcoal and today, all of them will be here. Even from waring kingdoms." She began to be serious.
Yashmin nodded in understanding.
"The job is simple, just stand next to my daughter and guard her with your life should anything come. The hall, as we speak, will house 50 potential suitors from big to small empires, along with their escorts. Our kingdom will be packed for the next week."
"Wait, week?" Yashmin asked.
"Yes, did you really think this would be over in just a day?" The queen replied. "Oh and I believe your prince will also be joining."
"Of course he's coming, its him after all. That damn son of a ----." Yashmin was about to curse.
"Hey now, you dont need to mind him. Just do the job and you'll be paid well at the end of the week. Oh and your things are already brought here, you'll be staying in the palace until its done." Queen reassured. "I'll leave you with my daughter, we still have 3 hours before it starts. You can watch from the balcony to see the arriving guests."
The queen left, Yashmin and the princess slightly bowed as she walked out the hall.
"Shall we go to the balcony then?" Yashmin suggested.
Princess Sana shyly agreed.
----------------------
As they stepped to the balcony, they could already see the long queue forming at the gates. Then the sky above them suddenly became dark. They looked up and saw airships with different designs and flags arriving at the skyport of the capital.
"Where's the skyport located?" Yashmin started.
"Oh, its at our highest mountain, above the clouds." Sana replied.
They then turned to the seaport where galleons are beginning to dock as well. Yashmin saw something odd on the far side of the sea, there were an unusual amount of ships docked far.
"Ehm princess, look over there. Isn't it odd that there are more ships standing by far away." Yashmin mentioned.
"Yeah, probably from the waring kingdoms, passively asserting power. If there are ships that far, we should assume that there are also airships standing by." Sana calmly replied.
"You don't look worried, your majesty." Yashmin wondered.
"Please, just call me Sana, and I'm worried. I just don't show it. My mother is giving me the choice on who to pick as my husband, I just can't seem to grasp the feeling yet." Sana firmly replied.
"Right." Yashmin didn't comment further.
‐--------------------------
To put it into perspective, Grelt is an island kingdom, located in the middle of the ocean. Its rough and mountainous terrain only allows partial part of the land to be inhabitted.
After the discovery of Saltpeter — which is the ingredient to power engines and ammunition — Grelt prospered through trade and tehcnology, quickly becoming the richest kingdom in Verilia.
Of course this didn't come without any difficulties. Empires would often attempt to attack Grelt but always resulted in their loss due to Grelt's mastery of Saltpeter, allowing them to invent new weapons and machines.
As a result, the only way for the kingdoms to rule over Saltpeter production is by marrying into the family.
With so many hidden agendas, the princess would need to sail through the storm in order to find the best suitor with a bearable agenda
----------------------
Two days passed.
So far, the princess met 10 potential husband, and none stood out.
Then, one entered from the municipality of Norm.
"Greetings your highness and princess." He greeted "My name is Julian Twexityl and I come bearing gift." He signalled his squire to bring forward a large wooden box with golden engravings.
The box opened and it was filled with gold coins, enough to feed the castle for months.
"You know that we're incredibly wealthy already, do you not?" The queen exclaimed.
"Well---yes your highness, I am fully aware. However it isn't just the gold that I'm presenting but rather what's inside it." Julian gracefully replied.
"Reveal it to us." Sana said.
"The gift is this." Julian slowly took out a smaller box, the size of his hand. He proceeded to open the box only for it to contain a handcrafted bomb.
"This is for my city and my people." He shouted as the bomb exploded.
It happened so fast, no one had time to react to it. Of course, besides Yashmin.
Shrapnels and flame engulfed the room as the blast shattered windows, shaking the entire city. Every activity came a stop as every guard rushed into the castle.
Sana opened her eyes but was disoriented due to the blast. Her ears were ringing, vision was blurry, body was violenty shaking and had difficulty breathing. But oddly, she was unharmed.
As she came to realization, she saw that Yashmin is covering her with her rob, taking the blast.
"That hurts." Yashmin uttered while weakly looking at Sana as she began to cough blood and fell down to the ground.
Questions arise because Grelt was at peace with Norm. This cannot be their own doing.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top