We made good time arriving in Mahl. Unlike Dacha Fortress, this place was small and had few guards. There were a couple of guards at the entrance and to my surprise, they didn’t ask us any questions and allowed us to pass.

  Maybe Renna and I being children allowed us in without trouble? That or Arsted may have a good reputation here too. Either way, I was glad to get in without a fuss. The first thing we did was drop off our horses at the stable. Arsted handed the stableman a note, which he took before walking off.

  It sucked having to part with our horses. We had enough money to buy one. If we did buy one or two, it would be when we were planning on leaving Mahl. I wasn’t sure what the plan was yet. Going into South Ornea alone wasn’t likely unless we found help here. If we didn’t, then where would we go next? Should we go back to the fortress to hire help?

  The clanking of armor drew my attention to what looked like professional troops. Their armor matched, plated in gold and green with each soldier carrying a sword. There were only twenty and they were marching together. If I was a gambling man, I’d say those were Dracaena soldiers. Perhaps they were here to defend Mahl in case South Ornea attacked?

  We found an inn, which was cheaper than Dacha Fortress. One silver bought us three days and nights, with breakfast included. It felt like a steal, not that I was one to complain! I made sure not to show off our treasure. We walked to our rooms. Renna was staying with me and we got a double bed, while Arsted got his own room next door. He followed us into our room.

  “I’m going to take the treasure and sell it. I’m also going to see if the tracker is here,” Arsted said.

  “Shouldn’t we sell the treasure, and you look for the tracker instead?” I asked.

  “No,” Arsted said while shaking his head. “Merchants will rip you off since you are children. Let me handle that and I’ll bring back the gold.”

  “Are you going to be able to sell it all here?” Renna said.

  “Yes, I know a few people here who will purchase what we found,” Arsted said.

  “All right, we’ll find something to do,” I said.

  “Be watchful if you leave,” Arsted said and left.

  It felt wrong to have Arsted take all the treasure. A part of me was worried he would sell the treasure and leave, which made no sense because he could have done that dungeon solo. If he wanted all the treasure to himself, he could have killed us all and taken it.

  Besides, I trusted Arsted. He was teaching us how to navigate dungeons and fight together. Renna and I learned a lot in the dungeon, thanks to Arsted stepping in only when he thought it necessary.

  The first thing we did once Arsted left was take a nap. It was barely noon. I woke up and was surprised to see Renna doing push-ups. How long of a nap did I take? “How long have you been up?”

  “I don’t know, twenty minutes maybe?” Renna wiped some sweat off her brow. It looked like she’d been working out for a while.

  This was a good time to look around Mahl and see the prices goods sold for. “I’m going to see how much a horse would cost,” I said.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “Do you want to…” I trailed off, unsure how to tell her she might need a quick wash.

  “Do I want to what?” Renna said, then chuckled when she realized why I stopped. “I’ll wash myself real quick, don’t leave without me!”

  Renna went into the bathroom, which thankfully had a door, and she was back out within ten minutes. The smell of sweat was gone. “Let’s go!” Renna said.

  I led the way out of the inn and the first place we went to was the stable. The two horses we dropped off were still there. The stable master noticed us and walked over. “This isn’t a place to play kids, especially near horses,” he said.

  “Oh, we’re not here to play. I was wondering, how much would it cost to buy a horse?” I asked.

  “Horses are rare around these parts. If you wanted to buy one, it would cost you one gold piece and eight silvers,” he said.

  “How much would it cost at a place like Dacha Fortress?”

  “Uh, I don’t know, maybe thirteen silvers or so?”

  “Okay,” I took out the notepad I bought back in Dacha Fortress and added a note on costs. One gold and eight silvers were a lot. That would be nearly three gold pieces, thirty percent of our earnings gone if we did this. I’d have to ask Arsted’s opinion, it was possible this guy was lying to us even if it felt like he was telling the truth.

  “Thank you very much,” I said and walked away.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “How much do you think it would cost to hire some help?” Renna asked.

  “I’m not sure… To be honest, I haven’t thought about how many people I would want to help,” I said as I stared at the blue sky. If we hired too many people, we might not be able to find the prisoners without trouble. A small strike team was likely needed. At least that’s how I thought of it, I would need the opinions of Renna and Arsted before deciding.

  We walked around the town. I talked to all the merchants and noted down the prices. Renna didn’t seem interested in that, unless there was a weapon or magic item involved. There was an interesting set of armor that improved the wearers’ stamina, allowing them to fight longer. The cost was nothing to sneeze at, it was ten gold for just the chest piece! If you bought the helmet, gloves, boots and leg armor, it would cost around fifty gold. That number seemed ridiculous to me.

  The merchant said the armor had been found in a dungeon. He said it was rare to find armor like this. I believed him. I did make note of the price in case we came across something like that in the future. I wasn’t going to let a merchant get something that good for cheap!

  It was beginning to get late, and my stomach growled, signaling it was time to get to the inn to get dinner. I led the way back and put my notepad away. The notes were going to be good to cross reference in other towns. I’m sure some of the merchants I talked to today were exaggerating their prices. The information was good regardless.

  Once we got to the inn, we ate dinner, which was fish, bread and soup. It was delicious. I couldn’t recall the last time I had such a wonderful meal. The flavor wasn’t quite as good as what I’d had back in my world.

  That made me wonder, when would I stop comparing my world to this one? Ten years and I always found myself comparing the food and technology to my world. Would I even notice when I stopped comparing the two worlds? Eventually I would have to accept this one as my home.

  I didn’t get to dwell on the thought much longer as the inn door opened and in came Arsted, along with a stranger I didn’t recognize. He was a man with short blond hair and an average build. He looked like someone you would pass and not pay attention to.

  “Good, you both are here,” Arsted said. He walked toward us with his companion. “This is our tracker, Esmond.”

  “Nice to meet you, Esmond, I’m Thorian and this is Renna.”

  “If I didn’t know Arsted, I’d have thought he was pulling my leg,” Esmond said, scratching his head. “Sorry, I meant to say it’s nice to meet you.”

  “I thought you went to meet with Esmond, I didn’t think you’d bring him here,” Renna said.

  “That was my plan. Esmond will explain why he came here,” Arsted said.

  “There’s some things you both should know,” Esmond began, his face growing serious. “The conflict with Ornea has escalated. Dracaena has invaded South Ornea. Not far from here, their advance was halted. That’s going to make rescuing any prisoners difficult.”

  Hmm. If the advance didn’t go far into South Ornea, we might be able to sneak across, right? I could see Esmond’s concern, if we were older, we’d be recruited to join the war and not be allowed to pass. I looked over at Arsted. Would the soldiers try to draft a demon or were they exempt from joining wars?

  Now that I thought about it, would Dracaena force conscription? The medieval era in my world was known for forced conscription from the citizens of their nations. Maybe it didn’t work that way here?

  “We’re kids, so we should be fine to travel, right?” I asked.

  “If you’re seen, there will likely be questions. Then again, war always brings orphans, so it might work out for you,” Esmond said. “It’s not uncommon for kids to be used as spies, so you could be captured.”

  “This might make it easier for us to rescue our families if both sides are dealing with a war. Just find them. We’ll take care of the rest,” I said.

  “Battlefields attract monsters due to all the dead bodies,” Esmond sighed. “You have Arsted with you, so that shouldn’t pose a problem. North Ornea is assisting the south with this war. They’ve been raiding Dracaena. This is preventing the forces here from getting reinforcements.”

  “Why did this war start?” Renna asked.

  “Something about being disrespected. I’ve heard plenty of reasons and I’m not sure if any of them are true. The only thing I know for sure is that Ornea decided to take slaves to compensate for whatever was done to them,” Esmond said.

  War is always the same, no matter the world. Someone will start a fight over a dumb reason. It happened in my world all the time.

  “Regardless of what’s going on, we’re saving our families,” I said.

  “Arsted told me you’d say something like that,” Esmond said. “I’ll do the job I’m paid for. It might be many months before you hear from me, so you’ll want to check the guild in Starcrest. I’ll leave any updates there when I can.”

  “When you say many months, how long are we talking?” Renna said.

  “It could take six months; it could be less. You’ll hear from me within six months regardless of whether I found them or not.”

  Six months? I didn’t like the sound of that. Of course, how could it be any faster? Esmond has to travel all over Ornea, all while avoiding capture. Then he has to find a way to send a message or make his way to Starcrest.

  No point dwelling on how long this’ll take. I always assumed this could take years.

  “Not much we can do about it. I appreciate you looking into this for us,” I said.

  “You know, for a little kid you sure are mature,” Esmond patted my head. “I’ll be as fast as I can. Now, are there any questions before I go?”

  None of us did. “Very well, we’ll talk soon,” Esmond said and left.

  Talk soon, my ass. Knowing my luck, we wouldn’t hear from him for six months and likely with bad news. No, no, I shouldn’t think that way. Arsted wouldn’t trust any tracker, this Esmond had to be trustworthy and good at his job or else he wouldn’t have been recommended.

  “Should we take a couple of jobs while we’re here?” Renna said.

  “Not a bad idea. Starcrest is far from here, it may take us three or so months to get there, assuming we don’t run into any trouble.”

  “Starcrest is that far, huh?” I hadn’t thought about where this Starcrest place was. Three months of travel time? At least I’d be focused on doing something rather than waiting for an update from Esmond the whole time.

  “Well, if there wasn’t a war we could get there faster. We’ll have to avoid the armies and scouts of both sides. War makes everything more difficult.”

  I didn’t need to ask to know Arsted had seen his fair share of wars. “Well, we can take a couple of jobs, buy a couple of horses and head that way.”

  “We shouldn’t travel by horse,” Arsted said.

  “Why not?” Renna asked before I could.

  “It’ll be better to get a mule and use it to carry our supplies. With a war going on, there is a good chance our horses would get confiscated or stolen by one of the armies. Horses are a valuable tool in war.”

  I guess that makes sense. That probably explains why it’ll take us so long to get to Starcrest. Another long journey on foot, oh, joy! “Well then, let’s look at the jobs here and see what we can take. Then we’ll head to Starcrest.”