Chapter 4 - Section 1: Arrival At the Captial

The remaining journey flew away in the blink of an eye, with the end of the greatest threat everyone in the caravan had ever known nothing they faced the rest of the journey even bothered to crop up as anything more than a minor annoyance.

The caravan had long since come upon the capital but even hours after arrival they still sat in the line waiting for their chance to enter into the city.

Even the merchants who'd done this trip many times before were bemoaning about the long wait time as the line barely advanced at all in the hours they'd waited.

By the time they'd reached the city gates, night had already long since fallen and most of the passengers had fallen asleep slumped over the seats and luggage of the wagons.

"Halt! Goods inspections! <Guard >

As soon as they'd moved the few feet forward towards the gatehouse the guards called out for them to stop, and dismount all passengers before everything in the wagons was tossed about, meanwhile, the passengers had been one by one filed away into the gatehouse accompanied by guards for what they called an entrance examination.

When it was finally Satou's turn he was led by a guard who was armed with a spear, into a small stone room which was a bit distressing as there was only a simple wooden table and chairs contained within and the window providing limited moonlight was barred preventing escape.

Almost as if he'd been led into a prison cell or an interrogation chamber.

"That chair" <Interrogator >

Having been pointed to the chair furthest from the door he elected not to mind and took his seat, Kurama who'd accompanied as a minor took up the seat next to him.

The guard took up the chair closest to the door even while seated clutched the spear never letting it leave his hands.

"What brings you to the capital?" <Interrogator >

"Well we'd never been before so figured why not?" <Satou >

"So your business I pleasure then?" <Interrogator >

"Well sort of yeah, we took a job that would take us to the capital but that was certainly secondary, well tertiary even. Our primary reason was to rejoin our friends since our last contract had come to an end, then check out the capital since well I mean it is the capital right, and lastly cause this is where the escort job wanted to go" <Satou >

"Where are you coming from, originally that is?" <Interrogator >

"We had a contract to work the mountains by the outskirts, I think the closest village was Illinto or was it Guardo?" <Satou >

At the mention of the village, the guards face cramped

"You've been to Illinto?" <Interrogator >

"No not for quite some time now, been probably over a year now since we were last there" <Satou >

"Over a year yeah? Well, that's good news then, now last question and for this." <Interrogator >

*Plunk*

Having taken an orb out of his pocket before placing it on the table, the round sphere didn't even try rolling on the table though it was tilted and should roll off and onto the floor.

"Are either of you members of the faith referring to itself as the Hellenics?" <Interrogator >

"Hellenics? That's that new religion that popped up like a year ago yeah, things must've changed a lot in the last year if their spreads reached this far already, even though the capital should be the center of the goddess faith" <Satou >

"Their movement is dangerous, the church officials have laid sanctions down upon the capital and surrounding cities with the approval of the king to stem this growing movement before they cause further heretics to rise up resulting in the goddess and her children descending to lay waste to the land for turning our backs on her" <Interrogator >

While their conversation was going on the guard's eyes never once looked away from the orb on the table, whose colour remained as blue as it was when he'd first pulled it out.

[Must be a sort of truth-telling orb or something, and while what I've said here isn't technically the truth it's also not a lie, so it should be fine without being found out, it'd be worse if I was asked to know the defacto leader of the Hellenic movement which is without a doubt Heracles who is already within the capital and based off the tactics used by the Goddess church, theirs most likely a manhunt going on for him and any of his followers within the city, and anyone caught trying to enter who is a follower will probably be arrested or worse upon being identified]

A few more questions were asked and answered till the guard left the room leaving the pair behind, these questions were all centred around Kurama and her appearance.

They were left in the room, Satou had his menu to distract himself with but Kurama was already beyond tired having stayed up all day on guard and had nodded off leaning against Satou's shoulder a thin trail of drool dribbling down unto his cloak.

More hours passed as they remained in their isolation until finally the door opened and a new guard appeared before them.

"Your entrance has been approved, here is your entrance ticket, you're allowed to stay for 10 days, please renew your entry ticket before the expiry or apply for residency lest you need to pay twice the entrance tax, and should you not be able to pay that you'll be made into a slave." <Guard >

"That seems rather harsh for just overstaying your welcome isn't it?" <Satou >

"The capital has too many people to allow thousands of vagrants to litter its streets causing filth and plague to spread ultimately causing its destruction in the end, now either pay the toll in silver, or I shall escort the both of you back outside" <Interrogator >

Having been left with no chance for further argument Satou grabbed up the required silver coins and placed them on the table before lifting Kurama up to his back in a triangle carry, making his way to the door before taking possession of his entry token and following the route pointed by the guard to finally enter the capital of Joquet.