The Vulnerable Town

Walking on the dirt road is very, very relaxing. I can just walk all day, but I can't just walk forever.

"Satomi, what do you think about Linton?"

"Not much. I only heard it from traders at Hillford."

"Interesting, how close is Hillford to Linton?" I asked.

"I don't know, Sayuri. But, it's close."

"So...why is it still safe?"

"I don't know, Sayuri! I just don't know!" She wailed with a sotto voce.

Looking at her, "I'm sorry. I think I went a bit too far."

"No, it's my fault. For letting myself be like this." She looks at me.

"No...it's my responsibility for you to be happy."

She smiles at me, "I won't forget this, Sayuri." She butted me with her right arm.

I laugh, "Haha, I won't do those things again. Trust me."

"I get it...I hope you do." My eyes see her looking at something in front.

Doing the same as Satomi, I can see Linton's stone walls getting closer and closer with each step we take. By now, I think we're stepping onto where people farm produces or wheat, basically medieval food. Around me, I see lushes of colorful patches of farms down the road. For the first time, I see other people up close.

"Hey!! You two! Where are you from?" I hear some old person's voice from one of the farms. Looking around, I don't know where the heck he's coming from. Satomi seems to be confused too.

"Right here!" Ah. I finally found him. He's just right behind us. How could we miss that?

"Yes?" I spoke to him from a distance. He's wearing some medieval things, medieval wear. I don't know what it's called. But it's definitely medieval if others were to look at him. He's wearing some farming tools like hoes and other things that I can't name.

"Where you from? Travelers?" He spoke in a croaky voice.

I feel Satomi just bumping me to say something. I look at her with a poker face, Alright!

Looking back at the old man, "We're from the Unified States!"

"What in gods darn is that? Haha! You drink too much, eh?" He mocks me.

"Another country that your old brain cannot process! We're from Hillford!" I jeer the old man.

"Hey, hey! You don't need to rude out there! I'm just joking with y'all!"

"Alright! We'll go on our way!"

"Haha! Don't get stopped by the guards at the gate!"

Looking at Satomi, "Alright, we'll continue walking."

I see her nod.

Walking down the path. I see people just staring at us and then going back to their farm work. Creepy!

"These people are sure outgoing."

I picked up on what Satomi is saying, "I guess they are."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

Hearing the sounds of dirt is a bit too intense. It finally stops when we were now at the gate of Linton. I see the two guards on duty staring at us. Rah!!! The town of staring? Well, I do see a big ditch surrounding the castle. Seems convenient for defense.

"Do they let everyone through?" I whispered to Satomi.

"Yes, as long as you don't look like you cause trouble." She whispers back.

"Do we look like we cause trouble?" I whisper too.

"Maybe..?"

"Hey! What are you two talking about?" I heard one of the guards shouting at us with their booming voice.

"Sir! We are just talking about food." I speak to him over a small distance.

"Thank's for your word. Since you two children look easy to spot, I will let you in. Talk inside. You will both get hurt outside by the wild animals coming from the forest nearby. Don't cause any trouble in Linton. Understood?"

"Yes," Both of us said.

I walk past the two guards, with Satomi following behind.

Past the gate comes forth my vision a plethora of people walking and running around, the town filled with sellers shouting their wares, bells ringing, and just medieval life in general.

Phew, that was close. I don't think we were that close?

"We will have to meet with the Baron of this town."

I look at Satomi, "Baron? Why would we meet that Baron?"

"I don't know. It's something that I remembered."

"How would we even meet the baron in the first place?"

"I don't know..." I hear her speak in a softer voice, and she's just had that disappointed look.

"Oh...okay."

Of all of that commotion coming from the town, I hear a faint chatter from the gate, "Are you sure about bringing those two unknowns in? Wesley?"

"Time will tell."

Interesting.

"Sayuri, are you spacing out?"

"No, no! I was just thinking of stuff."

"Thinking of new ways to do things with that device, hm?" I see her smiling at me.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go meet the Baron you're talking about."

"Okay!" She hops past me.

"That's preposterous! I have a family to feed!" I hear a man shouting. I look over and saw him directing it towards the food seller. I stop and eavesdrop on them.

"Sorry, I can only accept a shilling." The seller looks dead on the inside. I can only believe that this often happens here.

"That's almost a week's worth of pay! Fine! Here's your roll!" I see him slam the coins on the wooden stand and grab the loaf of bread before leaving. A week's worth of pay for bread? That's expensive. Looking at the seller, I see him sigh.

I feel someone tugging on my left arm, "Sayuri, what are you doing..?"

"Nothing, I'm just looking around."

"O-okay."

I just walk around trying to see which part of town looks the richest of them all and the most defended. That would be where the Baron resides. As I continue walking with Satomi, I can see parts of the buildings starting to feel a bit cleaner in a way. Like, properly maintained, and it's just dirt-free. We did get some stares or some people just heckling out at us with some questionable comments at the stone streets of this town.

I can't find anything. So I will just use my glass tablet.

"You're using that?" Satomi asks me.

"Yup."

"Okay..."

Swiping to Intelligence Initiative. What could go wrong?

In the ability, the layout is kind of the same as Material Formulation, but this one...this one got Google Maps! God! What made you put Google Maps on this? It even shows a satellite view of the town! Dang!

I swipe on the tablet while hearing the loud environment of this town, which makes it feel alive in a way.

Okay, based on what I'm seeing, this town is decently big. The blue dot with an arrow is supposedly us...and if I were to find where the inner part of the town is.....on our left! I pocketed the glass tablet and looked at Satomi.

"On your left."

"Oh! It's on my left!"

"Yes, your left." Both of us look to another set of stone walls and a gate.

"Well, I think we found it, Satomi."

"Yep!"

I'm walking to the gate. I see that there are around two guards posted there. Hm. I should walk past them.

I'm just holding my breath as I walk past the guards. I share some glances with them.

Okay...I'm past the gate...I look behind, and I see Satomi following me, and she's not stopped either. Phew! I breathe a sigh of relief.

Walking towards the big part of the town is this moderately big castle. It's not grandeur like those castles, but it's pretty sizeable for any siege defense.

Looking at another gate, which leads to the castle, is posted by another two guards. This time, they look tougher in terms of equipment. The opening is also more extensive, and there's a tunnel which leads to another set of the iron gate. A wooden drawbridge adds a nice defensive compliment to it.

In the inner walls, there are more specialized trades than in the outside. I guess that you get more defense for doing admirable things. Blacksmiths, masons, craftsmen. I hear the clinking noises now!

"Hey! I don't think the Lord gave you two permission to enter inside his castle." I hear one of the guards talking to us.

"Can we ask for one?" Satomi barged in. I don't think we can just ask for one.

"Luckily, the Lord is present in his castle. We will ask him for his insights." I see a guard pacing inside the castle. Okay.

"I guess we'll wait here?" The other guard is just eyeing both of us. How long will you take?

"Hey, you, why are you staring at us like that?" I'm genuinely curious.

"The only thing different on my duty is you two. So, I'm just looking at you." Alright. Makes sense, but you don't have to go stare at us for a long time. Soldiers of the modern world typically stare at vast wastelands of sand. Haha.

"Alright." I peered my eyes into the inner walls of the town. It doesn't look like much, but it's basically another town, but built with more stone.

'H-hey, can you ask him to look at somewhere else?" Satomi whispers into my ear.

"What?"

"Please..."

"Fine."

I look at the guard, "Is it possible that you can stare at something else?"

"Alright." I see his eyes just staring at another thing. To make sure, I stared at him too. Wow!

"Thanks." She whispers back.

"No problem."

After a while, he's pretty much staring at something else. That's good.

I hear sounds of boots coming from the castle, and I see that it's the guard who told us to wait here.

He stopped right in front of us, "You may see the Lord. This is only for one time. Follow me."

"Alright."

I walked behind the guard. Inside of the walls of the castle, it's kind of a big house. We went through a door, and the walls are damn thick. The windows are kind of iffy, as it's warped to hell. The distance between here and to the window is like, a meter? It's probably more than that.

Walking through the deep corridors of the castle, I realized that it's lit up by tons of candles, not by torches. It has this weird cozy feeling that I'm experiencing here. It's just stone and some pieces of wood. The door frames are noticeably big.

As the guard opens the door, "Please sit down." I followed his word and walked into the room. What comes forth is some wall of art on the walls, wooden chairs, a wooden table, candles lighting the room, and some person sitting at the center, which I think is the Baron of Linton. He looks a bit wide and is wearing almost the same style that the regular folks down in the town are, but with some distinct colors of dyes. I was expecting a lot more, but this is appreciated.

I lay down my S1 underneath the table., and I sat down on the opposite side of the Lord. Satomi sits on the chair next to me. I see the guard standing by at the door if we were to do unexpected things. Today's your lucky day, we might.

"I wasn't expecting you two to look like this close up. Actually...you look like twins. The eye colors are a bit off." The Baron speaks with an orotund voice.

"Huh?" I replied.

"Sorry for my rude manner. You two simply stick out in this town from the view up here. Your clothing and that blue armband on your shoulders is a pretty unique style here. Interesting map projection, eh. You want some water?"

"No thanks." He looks at Satomi, "Water?"

"N-no, thanks." She responded.

The Baron looks back at me, "Hm...where are you from? Women typically don't expose this much of their legs in public."

"Unified States."

"Unified?"

"Unified States."

"Unified States..." He leans back on the wooden chair. His eyes look like he's staring up at the heavens.

He looks down at me, "I've never heard of that. Care to explain?"

"Well, to put it briefly, a large superpower."

"Superpower? The whole world of Oyerat would've known that superpower that you're talking about! Especially the Central Powers! Why would this world be the flag of your country?" He looks a bit annoyed.

"No, no. It's from a place far away."

"Ah, I see. But, what methods did you use to get here?"

"Horse and boats."

"Okay..." He looks at me with his fierce investigative eyes.

"Tell me, how long did you two get here from this Unified States?"

Uh, I gotta be reasonable.

"Around a week. I hope this world uses the same weeks as we do on Earth."

"Ah...that's way fast for a made-up superpower, Eh? It seems to me that you're lying. Travel time is around a couple of weeks to several months to get to Linton." I see him fiddle his pockets for something and dropped a small rock on the table. It looks like a purple crystal that is glowing red.

"Every time you lie, this crystallite glows red, and it emits some form of heat." He leans on top of the table.

Interesting...lie detection?

"Nice. May I say the thing's that I've said, again?"

He looks a bit surprised, "Again, you would want to say your lies!?"

"No, I would make it more unbelievable."

"Alright...go ahead."

"We simply walked here to this town of Linton from nowhere in a matter of minutes."

I look at the crystal, and it's not lighting up red. Phew.

"You're taking that out of context, are you?" He claims.

"Nope."

"For a lier, maybe. I'm just trying to confirm if the information is correct. Skoaria is in disarray. Spies are very hard to catch here."

"S-Sayuri, should we tell him the truth..?" She gulps.

Looking at Satomi, "Fine."

"Hoh, the truth?" The Lord says.

Looking back at the Lord, "I'm the leader of the Unified States. In my powers, I'm capable of eradicating your town with just a single bomb. If I were to die here, my subordinates do what I've mentioned to your town." Literally.

Looking at the crystallite, it didn't lit up with some lying red colors.

The Lord, seeing that his crystallite or something didn't light up with red, "Ahem...s-so...what leader of this great nation would go into this town that's unheard of in the politics of this world?" He's speaking now with a cautioned attitude. That's right. I think he does have some sense of what a bomb is.

"Not much, I was just visiting, and I happened to find your town first."

"Thank you." He stands up and bows his head."

"What's this?" I'm wondering why he's bowing?

"I hereby ask that we, Linton, Baron Lysander Camden, ask to be under the protection of the Unified States. " He continues bowing.

"Sorry. I can't. Our nation doesn't permit for foreign intervention across its continent." Why is he asking for protection?

He exhales and sits back down, "Sorry to bring this upon you, but have you heard of what happened in Hillford?" He asks with a low voice. I guess he's getting serious now.

"Not much. All I know is that it appears to be raided and looted dry to the brim." I think I removed this from Satomi's memories. It should be safe to talk about this.

"Alright. In further detail, what happened is that the Scanosians from hell raided the fuck out of that town. The traders from Hillford escaped the blockade and managed to tell us the news here. I thank them. Excuse my language, ladies." How nice. I'm a man, you know? Satomi is a girl, though.

"Hm...so, you needed our protection against these Scanosians you're talking about?"

"Yes! That's all I'm asking. You can take all of our resources and the crystallites!"

"There's no need for that. We already have everything we need."

He appears to be in shock, "There's no way that your nation has everything they need. Surely, there must be something you need. Right?"

"Nope. Trust me all you want."

I see him look at the crystal, which didn't light up, "Wow..." His exhalation is heard from the other side of the table.

"Just curious, mind telling me what's happening here?"

"I thought you didn't have any need, haha!" He laughs.

"Not that kind of need. It's for personal reasons."

"What kind of information do you want?"

"Just tell me what's happening here."

"Alright..." He stands up and pockets the crystallite, and I see him grab some paper roll from the shelves."

He rolled down the paper roll and shows a map of which I presume is, Oyerat. I see Satomi leaning forward to have a closer look.

He points to a big blob of green patch on the map, "This is the Grand Forest. On the left of that is where we are, which is Linton. The Grand Forest contains a ton of dangerous creatures. Our town guard is capable of holding them back if the need arises. From this town, south of the Grand Forest, to the coastline, up below Griburgh was Skoaria..."

"Hm..? What happened to Skoaria?"

"Civil war. Tensions between the southern and the northern Skoarians have reached the breaking point. That was after the royal family was pronounced dead."

"I see..."

"With this conflict, we aren't under any armed protection against a major attack from the Grand Forest for a couple of months now. In fact, we are independent of the two sides of the conflict. This town can be its own country if I want that to happen. I decided against that, as it would cause problems with the ones in the civil war. Linton is darn lucky to still be alive. I believe that our luck might run out soon."

"Is that why you asked our protection?"

"Yes, that's part of it."

"Okay...have you sought help from the other countries?"

"I'm afraid I can't...no army in history could ever march through the Grand Forest without making it out in pristine shape. The only time that happened was during The Eternal Central Wars. It was a big bloodbath! Besides that, the countries that can interact with this town are basically Skoaria. Esnia is out of the picture as they're too far. Our only security concern is the Scanosians and the lurking bandits. They're wrecking up the towns and cities that are near the Grand Forest, and I predict that we're gonna be next."

Trying to process all of this information, what? "Alright. When will it be?"

"The truth is, we don't know. Does your nation know?"

"I can check." I pulled out my glass tablet and was surprised that I was still on the Intelligence Initiative application. Searched up "When are the Scanosians invading Linton?" and got the results. Tomorrow 0839. That's precise. It even has more details if I wanted to. Neat. Nice!

"Ahem, what is that fine glasswork you're holding? Why is that emitting light?" Lysander asks.

I look up and see him in awe of what I'm holding. Cmon, it's just a tablet!

"It's a device that is beyond your understanding. To say it the least."

"To be saying that to a Baron, that's quite formidable of you." He laughed. He would've been asking us to get the hell out of his town if he doesn't know who we are.

"Are you a capable magician?" He asks.

"No." Magician? Is that what Satomi said to me back then?

"I have powers, but I'm not a magician."

"I see...I will still consider you as a magician. Your nation has produced such marvelous use of crystallites. I-I didn't know that can be possible, the one that you're holding."

"Alright."

"H-hey...what's the country on the other side of the Grand Forest?" I see Satomi pointing to that yellow blotch of paint, which I presume is meant to be sand.

"The one on the other side...the Grayad Empire...luckily, the Grand Forest is keeping them at bay."

"O-okay..." Satomi sits back down.

"So, speaking of protection, how combat-ready are your guards?"

"Combat-ready? If you're talking about how prepared we are, not much." I jolt from the loud bang from his fists, striking the table.

"Ah!" Satomi, stop squealing. So, I bumped her. She bumped back harder. I guess she doesn't like that.

"Tsk. Those northern and southern Skoarians in their petty war let us rot out here. When we declined allegiance, both of them took most of our stockpiles of weapons, food, and essential resources for the winter as a tribute for not joining them. How could they do that to their own citizens that they say they're fighting for? My township is starving down here! Sorry for scaring you two."

"That sounds quite harsh, Lysander. However, we can provide that."

"W-what! There's no way-" He calms down, and I hear him breathe.

"I get it...as long it's for the good of my people, I will gladly accept your aid."

"I was going to give you aid anyways. Under our laws, we can provide you resources that you need in the guise of humanitarian aid. You will be quite surprised with how much we give you."

"I extend my appearance of acknowledgments."

"No problem."

Well, I can probably make a skyscraper worth of corn. What an interesting thought I have.

My lips form a smile, "Back to what we're talking about, the Scanosian invasion will occur around the morning of tomorrow."

"I trust your words...may I ask for your name?"

"I'm Sayuri."

"Saheri?"

"Sayuri."

"I got it. Sorry for my pronunciation."

"Anyways, how many men do you have?"

"Fifty men. All of them are well-trained and are partially equipped with plate armor, and are on foot. One-hundred-twenty for policing Linton or for town militia."

If a town with around that size of men cannot defend against the Scanosians, what can? I don't know! It's probably some interesting things that made it out that way!

"Based on our estimates, we could survive around a week under siege. That darned tribute makes our problem worse."

"Okay. Just as I said, we will provide for that." That is definitely not a lot for this castle. I can't imagine surviving a week under siege.

"I understand, but what makes good aid when we're being surrounded without your help?"

"I will try to send our military in for help as a peacekeeping mission." It's possible, but I can just make food out of thin air. Because there's no nation, I can just send in a whole division to garrison the town if I wanted to.

"That's a lot of magicians at your disposal, Sayuri."

"Yes, most citizens of the nation are capable of being one." Literally.

"What! How is that possible?!" He called.

"Our great advancement of technology. However, it doesn't use crystallites."

"How-"

"Anyways, the peacekeeping force from the Unified States will be arriving at your town with a blue armband of Oyerat. Don't be surprised."

"Yes, yes. We will be expecting that. But-" Lysander stops.

"Sorry to ask this, but why are you asking for basic knowledge of what's happening in the world? Somehow, you know when the Scanosians are going to siege my town?"

Oh...I should've just searched it up anyways instead of making him explain it. Ah...I don't know what's going on in my head. Well, he makes sense.

"I'm just curious. We'll be taking our leave. Thank you for your time, Lysander." I stand up and grab the S1 under the table.

"No, no, no! I thank you for your time in having us talk here, Sayuri!" He looks at Satomi, "Wait... I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Satomi."

"Alright! Thank you, Sayuri..." He bows down at me, "and Satomi." he bows down at her.

"No problem," I reply.

Satomi stands up and basically walks ahead of me out the door. Alright, so you're going without me?

I walk out the door and into the hallways of this stone castle. I see where Satomi is and rushed up to her.

I leaned on Satomi, "It's time to bring our forces here."

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"Are you sure her claims are true, considering that you aren't using the crystallite for the rest of the conversation, my lord?"

"Even if I were, the crystallite would die out."

I lean back on the chair, "Since the beginning, I can tell that they're speaking the truth. I was demonstrating our power until I've stumbled upon a great tiger. Go down to the center and inform the other guards that the blue armbands are high-ranking visitors and be treated accordingly. Do not let them have a disdain on this town and protect them at all costs until their army arrives."

"Yes, my lord!"

I see him close the door as he walks out of this room.

I need that help! We're on the verge of collapse from the Scanosians, stockpile shortages, and the beasts from the Grand Forest.

I stand up from the chair, and I peer into one of the warped windows. Looking down, I can barely see the two blondes with their distinctive clothing and their blue armbands.

"This world will be changing a lot since the war on this continent." I chuckle as I look away from the window and walk to the hall.

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