The Druid Guardian

Chapter 5: First Encounter

"Hey, kid, we're almost to the city," The carriage driver informed me.

"You hear that, Ayato? We're close to the city!"

"Yeah, I heard you, Dove."

"What was that, kid?"

The carriage driver asked me while looking inside.

"U-uh, nothing. It's nothing."

I tried to play it off to keep the driver from getting curious. The driver then placed his eyes back on the road.

That was close. I need to be more careful about talking to Dove in public.

Apparently, in this world, people who can talk to animals are a rare case. Since there aren't that many people who can communicate with animals, it's going to be difficult when talking to Dove.

If people saw me talking to Dove in public, they would think I'm nuts or something. I'd rather avoid being called crazy at all cost.

Anyway, it seems that we're finally about to get to the city. Three days have passed since we first arrived at one of the towns.

Since then, we've spent the night at a couple of them and continued our journey. We were also able to get a ride on a carriage, as you can see.

While we were traveling to the city, I got some decent information about this world. The city Dove and I are heading to was called Drucrest City.

This city was on the Astril Country, which was on Vadres Continent. The Vadres Continent had seven countries with four territories.

Each of the three countries governed one of the three territories. For the last district, there was only one country that controlled it.

The Country controlling it was Yosia. It was at the center of the Continent and operates as a capital for the Continent.

I heard that Yosia was the first country to be established in this Continent. After that, the people migrated from Yosia.

The reason for the migration was so they wouldn't be under Yosai's thumb. So, they left Yosia to make countries that they could control.

And that sums up the Continent's origin story. End of story time.

"Ayato, I can see the city from here!"

Dove was currently outside the carriage. The degraded vehicle we were on, was covered my cloth to keep water out when it rains.

From inside the carriage, I wasn't able to see what Dove saw from outside. But, it seems that we were close to the city, thanks to the drive also informing me.

"Hey, kid, we're almost at your stop. You can see the place from here."

With both of them telling me to look for myself, I got up and poked my head outside. That's when I saw the city.

The first thing I saw was a gate with a two-story wall. I also noticed soldiers at the top with bows in their hands.

They were all looking at us when we approached the city. It was making me nervous.

I know I have nothing to hide, but it was still disturbing. I attempted to ignore them, but I wasn't able to.

Their glaring eyes were enough to keep me in place. It was as if I turned into a statue.

Geez, they need to stop staring at me like I'm some criminal. I know I have nothing to hide, but they keep looking at me as if I was hiding something.

We finally made it to the front of the gate. When we got there, one of the soldiers walked up to the carriage.

"Please exit the carriage so that we can inspect it."