Free Web NovelChapter 252: Chapter 252 - Some Ferry
The ferry moved at a steady pace down the river, and with nothing demanding their attention, the group settled into the easy rhythm of people with time to fill.
The other passengers were a mixed sort. A few were clearly tourists, identifiable by two main factors. One was their levels, which were rather low, averaging below 20. Second was the fact they wore regular clothes, no armor or weapons visible.
Oh, and there was also the fact that they brought children. There was a family with two young children occupying the rear corner, the children periodically pressing their faces against the window glass to watch the riverbank pass.
A small cluster near the front of the upper deck looked like adventurers, equipped practically, talking amongst themselves in low voices.
The broad man from earlier, the one who had made the mistake of asking about Lena, had relocated slightly down the bench, which was understandable.
His companion, the younger one, was less cautious and had apparently decided that the passengers were more interesting than the scenery. He leaned across the aisle after a few minutes of quiet.
"You’re headed to Golden Hall?" he asked, directing it loosely at the group.
"That’s right." Lumi said.
"Same." He settled back. "First time in Yunhai for most of you, I’m guessing?"
"For most of us." Lumi confirmed.
"What brings you out this far? It’s not a short trip from the west."
"Guild registration." Lumi said.
The young man raised his brows slightly. "Guild registration. That’s serious." He glanced at the Lumi with a more considered look than before. "You need to be third rank for that, don’t you? You must be pretty good."
"That’s only recommended," Lumi said. "Not required."
"Hm." The young man accepted that without pushing further, though the look on his face suggested he had his own thoughts about the group in front of him and arriving at uncertain conclusions.
"What about you?" Eden asked.
The man shrugged. "Well, just work, you know? That said, my friend over there," he nodded toward the broad man, "has family contacts in Golden City. We’re making a trip of it." He paused. "Also I want to see the martial exhibitions. They hold them twice a year and we happened to time it right."
"Martial exhibitions?" Lily asked, unsure if he could speak. Though Lumi gave him no strange looks, so he supposed it was fine.
The man smiled and responded. "They hold open combat exhibitions in the city square. Anyone can enter, ranked or not. The locals treat it like a festival. The fighters are something else. Even watching them warm up is worth the trip."
Lily absorbed this answer quietly. Foreign regions were so interesting.
From the other side of the deck, one of the adventurers had been listening without pretending not to, and eventually gave up the pretense entirely. She was a woman somewhere in her late twenties with worn out equipment.
She raised an eyebrow and spoke. "You said guild registration. What kind?"
Lumi turned to her. If a native was showing interest, he wasn’t about to turn them down. "Everything, though a focus on combat. We do plan to go against the Wings of Darkness." There was no point in hiding it. They were travelling with Eden, with Sol blatantly visible.
The woman eyed Lumi’s equipment. She shifted her gaze to Eden, then Lena. The three clearly had top-tier armor.
She was interested. "What region are you planning to operate in?"
"While we’ll be spread across the world, given that we won’t force anyone to live near the guild base," Lumi explained. "We’ll establish the building in Mantel Island. "
There was a simple reason for that. In general, it had the weakest enemies. That made construction, expansion, research gathering, and all the like very simple. Not to mention, most players started there, and thus would subconsciously regard it as their home. freewёbnoνel.com
She held his gaze for a second, then nodded once and returned to her own conversation, apparently satisfied with that answer or at least finished with her questions about it.
Lena, who had been quiet for slightly longer than was normal for her, turned to the young man across the aisle. "The mantis watches the shrimp, unaware of the oriole behind."
The young man blinked. "A... shrimp? I don’t think that’s how it go-"
"And they all died!" Lena slammed her hands on the desk and yelled. "But the ORIOLE is completely unaware, no, all three are unaware, a meteor is about to crash and destroy all they know!"
"Lady..." The man was baffled.
"You." Lena pointed. "Are the Oriole."
"..."
Lena turned her head. "If you ever feel mounting dread over the future... join our guild."
"..." The man was visibly confused. He looked to the others, looking for an answer. They had none.
"Never mind," Lena said pleasantly, and turned back to the window.
Lucy looked at the ceiling.
Lily looked at his hands.
The young man looked at the broad man, who gave him a look that said he had tried to warn him.
...
The river outside widened gradually as the ferry continued east, and the landscape along the banks shifted from the denser urban edges of Yunhai City to be more open.
The vegetation shifted as the trees became taller and more spaced. Through gaps in the treeline, occasionally, hills were visible in the distance.
One of the children in the rear corner said something loudly to their parent about a bird they had seen out the window. The parent responded with tired patience. Sol, on Eden’s arm, turned to look in the direction of the window nearest to them with some interest.
"Do you think Sol would get along with other birds?" Lena asked Eden, watching Sol watch the window.
"I have no idea," Eden said honestly.
"What about very large birds?"
Eden looked at her. "What other birds are large?"
Lena gave him a large smile. "Phoenixes."
"..." Eden was stupified. "But..."
He got closer to Lena, whispering. "I thought, like, Sol was the last one?"
"Caw!" Sol screeched out, half annoyed, half emotional.
Lena let out a wry smile. "Last Imperial Phoenix." She tilted her head, and smiled at Sol. "Aww, did you think there weren’t any more Phoenixes? Even if they aren’t like you, they are almost similar." She reached out a hand to pet Sol, only to immediately get burned by the flames.
Sol didn’t even do it on purpose. How could you casually try to touch a phoenix? He was on fire constantly. Only Eden would be unharmed.
"A-ahhh! Sorry!" Eden immediately apologized for Sol.
"Caw..." Sol was visibly annoyed, but gave an apology too.
"Sol..." Lena replied, slowly.
"...caw?" Now Sol was worried.
Lena looked up at it, salivating. "Your fire hurts so damn nice~"
"..."
Eden and Sol froze for a bit. Eventually, Sol turned his beak, hiding its entire face behind Eden.
Lumi said nothing, but filed that away as something Lena had clearly already thought about in the context of what was coming.
The young man across the aisle, who had been quiet since the guild recruiting incident, realized he didn’t really mind the strangeness. He tried once more to socialize, directing his next question at Lucy, perhaps reasoning that she looked like the most straightforward person in the group.
"Are you all from the same city originally, or did you meet along the way?"
Lucy considered this briefly. "Along the way."
The man asked. "Known each other long?"
"Mn." She turned to the others. "No clue how long the others been together. I’m new to them. Been alright so far. Why?"
"Just curious." He shrugged. "You’re all establishing a guild after all. Normally, that’s between long-standing friends."
Lucy glanced at Lena, who was now explaining something to Eden about the structural differences between various types of bread, with a focus and specificity that suggested this was a topic she had opinions about. Eden was nodding with the expression of someone who had learned that nodding was the correct response.
"I get it." Lucy said. "I’d like to be their friend. I’m more of just an employee right now."
"Ah." The man nodded. "One of those situations."
...
The ferry rounded a long bend in the river, and Golden Hall came into view.
The Golden Hall was not one building. It was a complex, spread across a raised platform of stone that elevated the entire sect above the surrounding city, connected to the lower districts by a broad staircase wide enough to march an army up.
Within the raised platform, multiple halls and pavilions were visible, arranged around a central courtyard, with smaller structures filling the spaces between them. Everything was in the same palette of deep red and dark tile, with gold trim at the rooflines.
"That’s the place?" Eden asked.
"That’s it." Lumi confirmed.
Eden considered it for a bit. "It’s bigger than I expected. I was under the impression it was just for registration"
Lumi lightly shook his head.
