Angor and Tulu successfully reached Yamei Province the next morning. As for Shannon, Angor earlier dropped her at Minous, which was the biggest city of Yamei’s neighboring province, because Shannon was suffering from some serious airsickness and couldn’t stay with them in her condition.
Gondola entered the vicinity of Waterford at dawn.
Waterford was the closest city to Grue Town and was only a mid-tier city in Yamei. Angor always believed this place to be huge since he didn’t travel to many places during his childhood. After all the adventures in these years, however, he could see that Waterford was only slightly bigger than Freighting Town while being a lot duller in comparison to Freighting Town because the entire city was of a dim, black theme where every building was made out of bricks produced in the same, clichéd style.
In a sense, Waterford looked a lot tidier and coordinated, but this could also be seen as too stereotypical.
“Look, Mister Padt.” Tulu pointed somewhere.
Angor was already observing the city, which he always considered to be a fun place before, so he knew what Tulu meant to show him.
The city gate.
There was a crowd of battered people waiting outside the sealed city gate. And when the sunlight of dawn slowly moved to shine upon the city, the city guards opened the gate to let everyone inside.
“Refugees?” Tulu frowned.
“Yeah. The bitter result of war,” Angor replied while using his spirit feelers to eavesdrop on the talking guards from afar.
It seemed most citizens who lost their homes against Heylan were journeying to nearby provinces, while Yamei, being one of the cities close to the front line, became an obvious choice for the evacuees. Many people chose here also because they knew the Morn Family was protecting Waterford.
Telling from all these skinny and starving victims, it was plain to see that the war had strained Goldspink badly.
Earlier, Angor asked Shannon some questions, hoping to figure out how Heylan had gained so much advantage, but Shannon was just as confused as him. Three months ago, when Shannon traveled to Sumai Colony to visit a friend, she heard that Heylan Imperial was still struggling to keep up with the forefront soldiers of Goldspink. Yet in a matter of a few days, terrible news came and told everyone that several provinces along the coastal borderline had been occupied by enemies. And before Shannon could return home, the Inkhorn Province had fallen under Heylan’s control.
“She said the war between Goldspink and Heylan had lasted for seven years and the scale never tipped much to either side. What happened all of a sudden?” Tulu wondered.
“Yeah, something’s definitely not right. But this is not our business for now. We’ll go back to Grue Town first.”
Seeing the suffering civilians only made Angor want to go home as fast as possible. Grue Town was a small place with only a few honest folks. If too many refugees found their way there, it would mean serious trouble.
“Hope the situation isn’t that bad yet...” Angor muttered.
Soon, after flying past several mountains, they saw stretching grassland and the small town located at its edge.
But instead of feeling the rejoice for being home at last, Angor was suddenly struck by a terrible awareness.
“Stop.”
Tulu quickly slowed down Gondola until they were hovering inside a piece of cloud.
“What’s wrong, sir?”
“The town... it doesn’t feel right.”
Tulu tried and failed to notice anything wrong because they were still some distance away. The town was already small as it was.
“No, it’s not something you can see...” said Angor.
Using the trained eyes of an apprentice, Angor somewhat noticed the gloomy air that had covered up Grue Town as if there were pollution. But he could not tell what exactly he was looking at.
Even though he was anxious to ascertain the safety of his home, he still chose to act more carefully by landing among the woods at the foot of a mountain so that they could go to the town on foot.
Angor sharpened his senses as best as he could while approaching Grue Town so that he could see the danger in time. While Tulu, who had no idea what was going on, was simply admiring the sight of nature with great curiosity.
After moving out of the woods, they could see a watchtower at the edge of the town. However, they were still too far to see if any guard was on watch.
There were patches of cultivated farming fields near their position, but no one was working in them. However, they could see that people had been taking care of the crops and removing weeds.
After another five minutes of walking, Angor noticed an armored watchman standing on top of the tower and silently sighed in great relief.
Since a guard was doing his job, Grue Town was at least in order.
Angor had been fearing that Grue Town might have met with the same fate as the burned village. Luckily, this wasn’t the case.
But he didn’t fully calm down yet. Not before seeing his family in the flesh.
The town guard easily spotted the two travelers and kept his suspicious gaze on them, especially on Tulu, who had half his head covered behind that scarf.
“Who are you? What’s your business here?” the guard asked in a relatively friendly tune when he noticed that Angor and Tulu were not escaping refugees.
Angor stepped up to reply so that Tulu wouldn’t raise more suspicions in his foreign accent. “I’m from Conera, mister. I’m visiting a friend who’s living in Grue Town.”
Conera was the biggest city of Yamei.
The guard showed a relaxed look when he heard Angor’s typical nobleman accent common in Goldspink.
Angor wasn’t exactly wearing beautiful clothes that befitted a nobleman, but the guard only took him for a former upper class who was in a poor condition because of some troubles.
“Who’s the friend you’re visiting, sir? I’m the guard on duty today, Jordan. Do you need me to show you the way?”
Jordan... Angor searched his memory and recognized Jordan to be the son of the sheriff. When Angor was still in town, he heard that Jordan was always away attending a school somewhere, so he never met this man before.
“I’m visiting Viscount Padt, Mister Jordan. We’ve been good friends for years.” Angor showed a humble smile. “I need to discuss an important matter with him.”
Jordan’s relaxed expression suddenly froze up.
Angor felt his heart sink. “Is there a problem? Is the viscount currently away?”
Jordan looked around warily and lowered his voice into a whisper. “If you’re looking for Viscount Padt, I highly suggest that you turn away and leave, good sir.”
“But why?” Angor tried not to show his anxiety on his face. “Did something happen to him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s fine.”
Angor saw Jordan unwilling to talk about this matter and changed the subject by asking, “If there’s something you can’t tell me, can you take me to Mister George? When I visited five years ago, it was he who addressed me.”
As Angor recalled, people in Grue Town usually called their sheriff “Old Knight George”.
Upon hearing his father’s name, Jordan wondered whether he should tell Angor that Padt Manor had been closed off and would accept no visitors.
“This way, please. I’ll take you to Old George.”
On their way, Angor saw many familiar townsfolk who greeted Jordan in a friendly manner. However, he wasn’t in the mood to feel the scent of home yet because he knew something was wrong with his family.
And that gloomy aura... did it come directly from Padt Manor, if I’m not mistaken?
Jordan took them to a traditional-looking log house and opened the door.
“Yo, son. Why are yer wonderin’ around instead of keeping yer post? Who’s those two?”
“Dad, they are—”
Before he could finish talking, the middle-aged man in the room gave him a painful whack on the head.
“Call me Sheriff when working, yer little moron! How many times do I needa tell you?!”
Jordan rubbed where he was hit with a sad look. “Mister-Mister Sheriff.”
George nodded and looked at Angor and Tulu. “Who are these?”
“This man here is looking for the viscount, Sheriff, saying that he’s a friend of Viscount Padt. I think he was your guest five years ago, or so he said. Was he?”
George looked at Angor up and down. He unsheathed Jordan’s sword and pointed it at Angor.
“Never saw you before. Who are ya? Whaddaya want here??!”
Jordan watched his father’s aggressive response and didn’t know what had happened.
Angor gave the sheriff a careful look. He then turned around to close the room’s door.
“Mister George. It’s been pretty long.”