Chapter 1642: To Threefort City
Ning woke up to some nudging and opened his eyes to see Shara moving him. “What?” he asked in a sleepy voice.
“It’s morning. Aren’t we leaving?” the girl asked.
“Just 5 more minutes,” Ning said and turned to the other side, trying to sleep.
Shara shook him again. “Not 5 minutes. We need to leave,” she said.
Ning felt the shaking and woke up a little more, enough to fully remember what was happening. He hated that he had to wake up, but did so anyway.
He opened his eyes and saw a notification in front of him.
‘I see,’ Ning thought. The man had made his decision. He had put what his daughter wanted above what he wanted. His daughter had left this world, knowing that his daddy would be happy again, instead of leaving while he was still sad.
It was a difficult decision to make, and it appeared the man had made it.
Nijng went to freshen up and changed into the new clothes he had bought in Whitebridge before leaving yesterday. He went to find the captain but found him asleep leaning against the side of his daughter’s old bed, fast asleep.
He saw no reason to wake him up.
Of the crewmates, two had remained behind to help take care of the captain’s chores. One of them made some breakfast for Ning and Shara and gave them some answers to a few questions the two of them had.
There were many cities that one could go to from the Galebow city, but they were all around the size of Whitebridge. A truly grand city that was close to Galebow was the Threefort city, a city that lay right at the border of the Grand Duchy of Moliya, the Kingdom of Lenes, and the Golhlog Empire.
There was no ship that led to that city, so one had to travel through carriages or on foot. And it took people nearly a week if not more, to reach there in carriages.
The idea of going there on foot was simply ridiculous.
“No carriage will take you directly to Threefort City,” the man who made their breakfast said. “You will have to go from city to city until you reach there. I don’t know where the captain keeps his maps, but you should be able to buy one in the city, around where the carriages are kept.”
“I see,” Ning said.
“Although, if you do find a Caravan, it will be much easier. The distances are huge and bandits roam most of the area in between the cities, so it’s better to be with a number,” the man explained.
“I see,” Ning said. “Thank you for answering.”
“Haha, anything to help,” the man said. After a while, Ning and Shara left the house. They wanted to say goodbye to the captain, but they left the man to sleep.
For once, he should be sleeping in peace, without the thought of his dead daughter haunting his nightmares.
Ning and Shara walked over to the city where they bought those maps and then found a carriage. Ning had hoped to find a Caravan, but he had been told that there was no Caravan ready to leave. Neither would there be one for an entire week.
So, they had to get on the carriage.
From city to city, Ning feared the ride was going to take much longer than he had hoped. Even though it took more than a week to get to Threefort City already, with the added time of having to stay for a week and change carriages, the time would go up to more than 2 weeks. Ning wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t reach the place in a month.
He got onto a horse-pulled carriage that could accommodate up to 10 people at once. It cost the two of them a silver coin in total to go to the next city over, which Shara paid.
Then, around the time when the sun was halfway to the zenith, the carriage moved.
Ning’s carriage was not the only one. There were 5 carriages in total that left at the same time. Ning’s carriage was the fourth one, second from the last.
These carriages were truly afraid of the bandits it seemed as the driver at the front told them that if they were to be attacked by the bandits, they should try to do nothing to endanger the people.
Apparently, there were warriors onboard the other carriages who could help them. He also mentioned that the chances of bandits being in the area were quite low, as they liked to be further and further away from where the duchy could easily send soldiers to fight them.
Ning stayed in the carriage and watched as they drove past some scattered houses, then past large paddy fields, and finally into a sparse forest that was well-used thanks to the tracks he could see left behind.
According to the driver, it would take them at least 8 hours to reach the next city, so there wasn’t much for Ning to do. The passengers in the carriage didn’t seem to have any Spirits either, so he couldn’t do much with his free time.
So, he just rested his head on the soft, cloth wall of the carriage and closed his eyes to catch some sleep.
* * * * * *
The guards arrived at the Captain’s house a few hours after Ning and Shara left.
“What is it?” the captain asked. “Has the date for her judgment been decided?”
The young guard that had come shook his head. “We are here on a different business,” he said. “That young man and woman that were with you yesterday, I came to see them.”
“They’re not here. They already left,” the Captain said.
“Left? For where?” the man asked.
“For Threefort City,” the captain answered. “Why do you ask?”
“It… it appears that the young man is a kidnapper, who stole the young girl from Whitebridge yesterday. Someone there saw them getting onto your ship and contacted us. I will have to relay this information to the others now.”
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