Vans was investigating why the barrier had broken, but he could not discover anything. The most likely hypothesis was that Mirel had broken the barrier before being killed. Victor did not like the answer, but it was the only one Vans could give, so he accepted it. Even without knowing why she had done it or how the crystal had appeared in the forest.
"How much longer?" Victor asked.
"Not much, I have already sent the golems to the surface, soon we will have images of how everything looks."
Vans touched several crystals, he was careful and all of his movements looked rehearsed. He knew what he was doing, but Niko did not see it that way, and she was holding herself back to avoid making a joke about him.
"Here, we already have some images," he said as he placed them on several screens that were sustained by Niko's mana.
Two golems were walking through a forest, another golem could fly, showing a village about two thousand miles away. The village was small, but it had at least thirty houses, and they could obtain information about the country and even how the continent was currently divided.
Vans had asked the master craftsman to create a carriage for them to use in transporting goods.
With the carriage ready, they departed for the village. The forest was dangerous, but they were all strong enough to deal with every monster that appeared. Niko felt bored, the monsters were weak, even the strongest ones posed no challenge.
"Strength attracts boredom," Lysandra said.
"In a way I agree with what you said, but at the same time I think boredom is better than having to fight a dragon or several other strong monsters," Vans said seriously.
"You did not fight, not even when we needed help with Mirel, you used to be better," Niko said in her usual mocking tone.
"Before, that was cute, your behavior seemed like that of a sulky child, but now you look like a hysterical woman and…"
Before he could finish the sentence, Niko attacked. She conjured several spells at the same time, Vans ran to protect himself and activated a protective artifact, Lysandra slapped Niko and she stopped attacking.
"You just proved that he is right," Victor said.
"I agree, you are much more annoying than usual," Eris added.
Niko began to cry, Lysandra stroked her head and told her to stop, because it was getting strange. Niko quickly changed her mood and gave up.
"Did you hear that?"
An orc appeared, then four more followed. Niko killed all five with a single strike.
They continued along the road. They decided to camp and continue the next day. They were close to reaching the village, but it was already night, and resting was the best option. They took out meat and some vegetables from an item bag, Vans prepared a soup, and they ate it with bread. After that, they slept in tents. Victor raised a barrier, and no one stayed awake on watch.
When they woke up, they noticed some monsters sleeping around them. Niko killed them all.
"Vans, hurry up and prepare our food, I am not going to walk on an empty stomach," Niko said.
Vans took milk and bread from the item bag. Then he took out a pan and used orc fat to fry some orc meat. The meat was sliced thin, they took the meat, placed it inside the bread, and ate.
Niko did not like milk very much, but she drank it.
"Now we go to the village, but I ask that you look more like a merchant, somehow you give off the aura of a great mage," Vans said to Victor.
"Try to look less like a noble, you are just a very rich commoner now," Lysandra said.
"And what is the difference?" Niko asked.
"Think about how Victor usually behaves, now think about the Tower's master craftsman. Can you notice something about the two?"
"The master craftsman wears expensive clothes, but he is not as polite as Victor, and he also seems clumsy."
"Almost. Rich commoners are exaggerated, they want to look like nobles, but nobles learn how to carry themselves from an early age, so it comes across as less forced. Merchants are very rich people, not all of them, but those who are buy mansions and start acting as if they were part of the nobility. That is why there is a difference. If you were a commoner, you would know."
Everyone there was noble. Victor was a Duke, Lysandra and Eris were Countesses, Vans and Niko were Viscounts. But most of the time they did not act like nobles, nor did they refer to one another as such.
"I will try to act more like a merchant."
They arrived at the village. The villagers found the group strange, not because of their appearance, but because of Niko, who was moving the carriage with magic, since they had no horses.
Victor spoke with a little boy who was sitting near a water well. The boy pointed toward the village chief's house.
An elderly man greeted them. The man invited Victor inside. They found it odd, but later concluded that it was common for merchants to pass through the village.
"Unfortunately, we have nothing to offer, this year's harvest was destroyed, I fear we may not even have enough food to sustain ourselves."
Victor said nothing.
"We also have no money to buy anything, we are keeping the village's reserves for emergencies."
"I understand, it truly is a very bad situation, but I can help, as long as you give me information."
Victor was direct, the elderly man reacted in an unexpected way, he seemed suspicious.
"What do you want?"
"I want to know a few things. First, which country are we in?"
The man found the question strange, but he answered.
"We are in the Kingdom of Vorngate, we are close to the trade city of Zhara."
Victor took three coins from his bag and placed them on the table.
"Do you recognize these coins?"
"No, but they are similar to the Kingdom's coins."
"Could you show me?"
The man went to a cabinet and took out one coin of each type.
"Here, the coins are somewhat similar, but the face on the coin is different."
"Could you sell me or draw a map of the continent? I want to know how the countries are distributed."
The man went to the cabinet and took out a map.
"I cannot sell it, but I can show it."
Victor asked Vans to copy that map.
The man began to explain the current division and how the Kingdom was at that moment. Victor listened to everything attentively, he was pleased with the information.
"Now tell me about the current situation of this village."
The man began to explain the period of drought and how it ended up destroying all the crops. Food was running out, and the village's hunters could not supply all the food, since there were few monsters in the area, and there was no way to make up the rest of the diet without vegetables.
"As a reward for the information and for these three coins, I will solve this problem."