Tharcia and Karchidon

"Why I need to drive this wagon in such a harsh conditions, while you staying within it?" Igor shouted toward Vaterian, who currently sitting within the wagon.

Igor wore a thick cloak covering his body and a wooden mask protecting his face. Hardly anyone can identify him just from his appearance.

"If you can pay more attention during the mathematics class, you won't need to suffer outside." In front of Vaterian was a pile of documents, he held a quill pen in his hand and flew quickly across the papers. He replied to Igor and put the work he just finished behind him.

"Furthermore, you are the one who choose to be the head of the caravan. Saying that we will always take the first hit if anything happens." Vaterian continued his sentence until he realized the ink was almost finished.

"Seems like that was all my work today, at least until we stop and take a rest." Vaterian stretched his body and climbed out of the wagon. He took his seat beside Igor and looked at the sky.

"We might take a short rest soon, it had been more than 6 hour since we left Talismania. Those horses deserve a reward for their hard work." Vaterian put his hand out and gave the following wagons a sign to stop.

"I never expected getting out of the city was so anti-climatic, I expected a chase and fight at the castle gate." Said Igor.

"Those guard won't pay much attention to the caravan leaving the city, they couldn't gain additional income from it, wasn't like we need to pay for our leave." Vaterian didn't have a wild imagination as his friend did, he was not surprised about the easy escape.

____

The entire rank was stopped and the wagons were placed in a round; it's a common formation called a wagon fort. It was born during the uprising in the Carpathian Empire, it has been proven effective throughout the time.

Igor went out to feed the horses, while Valerian stayed in the crowd. He might know how to ride a horse, but not how to feed it.

Vaterian walked toward Valenciano and tap on his shoulder. "Mister Valenciano, may I ask you if you had more ink for me to spend?" Valenciano turned around and looked at Vaterian.

"You already finished all of it? How fast did you do those works?" Valenciano wasn't expecting all those tasks to be completed in such a short period, the young prince definitely not the same as those play boys he knew in the empire.

"Just finished right before we stopped, not as quick as you thought. All of them was placed behind my seat, you can check it one by one." Vaterian didn't think it was such a great achievement, he took the seat beside the crew around the campfire. They were cooking their meal.

"Hey boy! Want to have some?" Asked the crew. Vaterian looked into the pot, within it was porridge made from millet, ham and beans, not a desirable food to put on the table, but there is nothing much you can ask for when traveling.

"Why not? It's always good to have a meal." Vaterian replied to the crew, he took a bowl of porridge and started eating it. The flavor was hardly acceptable, but the hot porridge warmed the body effectively.

"You all came from Ostia? Or some of you from other cities?" Vaterian asked the crews about their background, they seems surprised that Vaterian would talk with them.

"Most of us came from Ostia, some of us came from Ujvaros. This young boy, however, came from Karchidon." The eldest crew pointed at the younger crew member.

"What are you guys talking about, do you mind me joining in?" Shouted from the far, was Igor. He just finished feeding the horses and came back with new clothing.

"Why not? Maybe you can tell him about our destination." The elder crew replied to Igor questions and let the younger crew talk about the city they were going to.

"The city I came from was a member city of the Mathar league. The Mathar league was a union of city states formed during the thirty years war, led by the merchants in the city of Masasilliya and Tharcia." The crew started to describe his hometown in detail.

"Aren't Tharcia just a part of Karchidon?" Asked by Igor, a question that confused the outsider a lot. "Karchidon was founded on the island of Tharcia, located at the middle of the bay of Karchidon. The Tharcian island also was the place that most of the upperclassmen live in, also where he gain his name at the beginning." The young crew answer his question

The crew later turned his head toward the teenagers and continued his sentence,"Karchidon was just a name for the Hellandic community along the bay at the beginning, but as the war at North go further, more and more mercenaries from Helland came to Tharcia. Eventually the name 'Karchidon' slowly became the new name of the city."

"Interesting fact. And what about the 'protectorate'? How did he get into the city?." This question came from Vaterian, who usually answers those questions.

"The Carpathians came back after the war, but they had no power to start a war again after the 4 decades of conflict from North to south, internally and externally. So they just put a protectorate as a sign of their overlordship." The young man stretched his body and went back to the wagon.

"I think it is about time for us to go again, Mister de Montferrat has ordered us to go back to Karchidon quickly." The rest of the crew stood up and went back to their position.

Vaterian pushed Igor in order to let him back to reality, "Did that remind you about Charleston? If the answer was yes, I believe you will get used to the life over there quickly."

Vaterian walked away, Igor stood up a second later and followed him.