Chapter 4: Sazion

Sazion: an old city establish the once great king of an ancient kingdom, El Joss of Carne, since then, the city grew and saw many historical events outside of it's walls, blessed by the majestic river of Norpor that flows from the great mountain range of Fortis, but the blessing of Fortis was not exclusive to Sazion, the great mountain range stretched from the human dominated part of the continent towards the land of the mixed races in the western part of the continent.

Fifty years after the last war, Sazion saw five decades of peace and prosperity, the city, connected with the famous red silk road that spans across the continent's major cities and capitals, brought foreigners and talented individuals that helped the city to achieve it's current state.

The city of Sazion was housing around 40,000 people, located beside the great river of Norpor, on a hill that overlooks the river and the civilian district, two rings of walls were located, the place where the castle of Sazion stood housing the House of Sazion of the Duchy, as well as other buildings and houses built for governance offices, military headquarters, upper class district and many more.

The trip went without any problem for Klaus and his group, their carriage were stopped and inspected before crossing the great river, a small stone made fort stood, as it protects the long stone bridge that connects the two parts of the duchy that were separated by the river, the bridge was an impressive 100-meter bridge made of stones and marble with a width of 15-meters, a very impressive piece of architecture especially in this age.

The small convoy of Klaus and his group waited in a line until it was their turn, five guards approached them, all wearing the same type of equipment, a thick leather armor with an iron chest plate, iron kettle hat , iron arm splints, dark leather pants and a brown hide boot. They also wore a yellow and dark surcoat with a white cross in the middle that represents the House of Sazion.

The soldiers approached them, Albert at the reign of the carriage greet the guards with a light bow, "Good day gentlemen, I am Albert the butler of my master inside this carriage, is there anything we can do to help you?"

The guards bowed back appreciating the formal greeting and respect given to them, "Good day Sir Albert, I am Enzo the inspector, before you cross the bridge, we must inspect your identification first and your belonging to ensure your convoy does not hold illegal items or smuggled items."

"Ah well, you see Sir Enzo, we escaped from the home my master due to the ongoing conflict there and were not locals here, would be it a problem?" Albert asked.

Enzo the guard shook his head, "Not at all Sir Albert, as long as your group are not a group of criminals it should be fine, if you don't have any identification with you we can make you one, we have a clergy man entrusted by the duke to handle such thing, but you need to pay around one silver and twenty coppers per individual, but it seems you have a lot more company, I think the clergyman will offer you a discount."

Albert clasped his hands, it saved him some trouble by using mind control magic to the poor guy, "Excellent! Then please feel free to inspect our carriage Sir Enzo."

The guards then proceed to inspect the items Klaus and his group had, which were mostly food and some gift Chief Carl gave them, the guards opened the carriage doors and saw a young handsome man with a scar on his left cheek and perhaps the most beautiful women they had laid eyes upon, the group of guards were stunned by the beauty of the two women, Klaus greeted them and woke them from their stunned state, the flustered guards greeted back and closed the carriage doors, they could only gulp in envy to the young man, perhaps he was a former noble they thought.

When the inspection was done, the group proceeded to a small office where a clergyman dressed in brown robe and a cape was put to work for their identification, same with the guards, the clergyman was utterly stunned to see the two maids that it challenge his faith for the god he was serving, in the end, the clergyman wrote their identification while flustered, he had to pray silently every time not erase inappropriate thoughts.

Klaus was only charged with five silver as the clergyman shooed them away to not further fall from temptation. Crossing the long and beautiful bridge, Klaus and the two maids were awed by the scenery, in hell and there was a shade of black, red and blood, completely opposite to what they are seeing now.

The group then reached the end of the bridge where another set of guards verified their identification briefly, finally entering the city, their first saw the city's outskirts, the whole land was filled farmlands and livestock while being tended by thousands of serfs owned by the lord.

The fertile lowlands of the city of Sazion ensured that the city is fed and money comes to the pocket of their lord, finally arriving in the city itself, Klaus and the two curious maids poke their heads on the windows, observing the buildings and people around it, the road was merely an ordinary dirt road, a common sight in medieval cities, almost every houses have the same western style patterns, most of the houses were made out of wood and stones, there were a handful of second story houses here and there but mostly only at ground level.

The locals in the dirt path they crossing were giving curious glances on them, some mistook them for nobles, while other's were entirely focused on the two women looking outside or at Klaus himself with a somewhat handsome apperance.

They were currently heading in the Town's center to find an inn, the carriage just rode straight and they finally stumbled upon the city square, on the left side was a large church, it has a detailed and beautiful architecture, on the right was a big three story building, the adventurer's guild, meanwhile the center of the city itself, a bustling market was located.

This is the busiest part of the city where the common folk buy their good and merchants sell their wares, a place where also adventurer's gather to do quests and buy their equipment, a handful amount of men in wearing the same outfit with the clergymen they met was doing some preaching here and there, where the people listen and gives donations from their little money.

Further north uphill of the city square was a paved road leading to the hill where the castle of city is located, it was protected a set of ringed walls guarded by thousands of guards, if not more. The houses of wealthy individuals and nobles were also located in the walled castle known as the Elite District.

Along the paved road towards the castle were stores shops selling rare and expensive wares primarily targeting the elites who have deep pockets. Their carriage turned left towards the inn that Enzo recommended to them, another minutes of their ride and they finally arrived at the location, the inn building was surprisingly... simple. It was a four story building primarily made out of wood.

As Klaus and two maids went outside of their carriage, two young kids greeted one, one is a boy and another is a girl, they both had brown hair, wearing simple brown tunic, short pants and a hose, meanwhile the girl was wearing a simple blue gown, however, what stood the most for Klaus and his servants was that the tow kids have a pair of wolf ears, sharp pupils and brown tails on their lower backs.

"What are you?" Klaus muttered.

The two kids got flustered and bowed deep, "Honorable guests we welcome you to our humble inn, I am Noah and beside me... is my sister Amanda, were slaves owned by the inn owner, we are tasked to tend for your needs...?" The boy, Noah had to stop talking as the group slowly approached them and inspected the boy, finally, guessing their source of curiosity, the boy introduced his origin.

"Ahh, it must be your first time seeing demi-humans like us, we are a different race unlike humans, unlike them, we had a many animalistic parts such as our ears, eyes and tails, we are also physically stronger, has strong sense of smell and better eye sight! We are originally from an faraway kingdom known as the Kingdom of Midgia, unfortunately were sold as slaves because of some circumstances." The boy expertly said as if it's now new to him, though was solemn when he said the last part of his introduction.

Klaus and his curious bunch nodded in understandment, for Klaus, this was new to him, other that the devil born who have mostly human features in terms of apperance, the other races in hell were... not so good in the eyes, some of them chimeras, ugly demons or mangled mess of flesh, it's his first time seeing a creature with ears and tails to be this adorable.

"I apologize for our curiosity Noah, it's just it's our first time seeing your race and to be this adorable," Klaus said while smiling while Noah smiled in appreciation and his sister blusing in embarrassment, the boy then helped Albert the three squires to deliver the horses in their stables while the carriage in an designated park.

Klaus and his two maids entered the room, guided by the young girl, Amanda, as the door opened and they got inside, the guests that were eating in the dining hall gave the three a curious glances, the men especially shoot their eyes on the two maids; Polka and Persia meanwhile gave the men cold glances along with the magical pressure, the men shivered from aura the two maid sported.

They then reached the inn clerk, after the clerk introduced himself, Klaus immidiately ordered to rent eight room for each of them, after charging him, they were brought in their rooms with their keys as Albert and the three squires arrived not long after.