They'd been so caught up in conversation that they almost didn't notice when the town came into view.
Uni spoke very softly, stopping and starting as she talked.
Jhed looked ahead at the town. Four large towers stood at each of its corners. The entire town was surrounded by water on all sides. The only way in was a bridge straight ahead — the sole path across.
At the bridge entrance stood a large gate, guarded by soldiers in blue armor.
"We made it — there's our town," Maruls said, extending his right hand toward it.
"Thank you, Shine — for telling us about your journey. It'll help us a lot," Metye said.
Shine went a little shy. He smiled and said, "It's nothing, kids." He genuinely liked sharing what he'd learned — though he kept forgetting what that room had tried to teach him.
"Come on, I'll take you to the guild," Asfer said.
"Sure."
They walked to the gate. The soldiers there knew the adventurers well.
"Maruls — and your whole team's back too. Flowers safe today, I assume?" the guard at the gate asked.
Maruls and his team were always assigned to protect that flower forest.
"Yes, Tore — safe as always," Maruls said.
"Good to hear. And who are these two?" Tore looked at Jhed and Shine.
"Adventurers passing through—"
"Well that's something. Haven't seen outside adventurers in a long time." After the war with the Demon Lord, adventurers had become as rare as water in a desert. Many had joined the Demon Lord's side for money and power.
"Alright, go ahead in," Tore said.
They all went inside. The town itself was nothing unusual — wooden houses, a few shops, three restaurants, and one adventurer's guild. Not large, but full of people. This town had never been conquered, which meant food and resources were plentiful. And adventurers were everywhere — passing by on all sides. The reason was simple: this town had never known slavery. Where the Demon Lord's generals ruled, there were no adventurers. Here, they were everywhere.
Shine had already figured it out.
They made their way to the adventurer's guild. After a short walk, they were there.
"I need to register the teleportation card here," Jhed thought to himself.
He looked at the guild's walls. It was noticeably smaller than Mariana's guild.
Night was slowly falling. Lights began coming on across the town.
They all went inside. Jhed looked around — the place was already packed with adventurers, buzzing with noise.
"Looks like the whole town became adventurers," Shine said with a laugh.
"None of them have ever seen slavery — that's why they're all out here playing hero. Some of them probably can't even hold a sword properly. Never mind, that's not my problem. We just need to register the card." Shine thought to himself, scanning for the counter.
"There's the counter, Jhed."
A girl stood behind it — young, probably around Jhed's age, and pretty.
Jhed walked up to the counter.
It seemed like even Shine had forgotten about Nain for now.