Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 15

Caspian had never been to a port town before. Therefore, he had no idea what the docks of one would look like. As he and Elincia stepped onto the docks, he found himself overwhelmed by the amount of activity happening around them.

The two of them were standing on a stone walkway that sat just before a large stretch of blue water far bigger than any lake. Several wooden docks stretched out from the stone walkway, and situated near those wooden platforms that rose from the water's surface were boats. Some of them were small, but most of them looked large enough to carry at least an entire battalion of Peacekeepers. Of course, these ships were not carrying just people.

"It's so busy..." Elincia murmured as she stared at a group of men and women dressed in sailor outfits as they walked down the ramp of a ship near them. All of them were carrying barrels and crates over their shoulders. It looked like they were unloading cargo. About a dozen meters away from that ship, several sailors in slightly different uniforms were loading cargo onto their ship.

"Yeah," Caspian agreed. "I've never seen anything quite like this."

As he and Elincia stood there, not knowing what exactly they should do or how they should start their investigation, an older man with a scraggly gray beard called out to them. "Oy! Get out of the way, you louts! You're blocking traffic!"

"S-sorry!" Elincia called out for both of them as they took a step back, allowing that man and his group to move forward. They were pushing a number of boxes and barrels on a cart that was being pulled by an oxyn, of all things. As they group moved past them, Elincia turned her head to follow them as they disappeared into the crowd.

"Caspian... what should we do?"

That was a very good question, and one that Caspian didn't necessarily have an answer for. He racked his brain. It was obvious that they needed to acquire information about that group who may or may not have the backing of Marquis Hunington. The problem was that he wasn't sure where they would find this group of people. Which of these ships was there's? He had no idea.

"Let's... walk around first and get a feel for the place," Caspian said at last. He really couldn't think of anything else.

Elincia, bless her, nodded along with his bad idea. "Okay."

Keeping their hands locked, the two of them moved through the bustling docks, doing their best to avoid getting in the way of everyone working. Caspian studied the ships as they walked. It looked like the larger ships were docked further out from the port. The docks used to maintain them wasn't wood but stone. There were several such large stone platforms that extended further into the waters and provided these ships with more room to move and transport their goods.

Caspian looked at these docks. Perhaps one of those larger ships was the one that the person last night had been complaining about. As they kept wandering, he noticed something about most of these ships. All of them were having their cargo inspected by a group of Peacekeepers, whom he recognized by their uniforms. The Peacekeepers would open the lids of barrels and crates, inspect the content, and then give mark something on a sheet of parchment before letting the people with the cargo move off.

"Ele, let's look for a ship that isn't having their cargo checked."

"A ship... Oh, yes. I see. That's a good idea."

Despite saying this, it took a long time to find the one ship that wasn't having its cargo checked. This ship sat at the very end of the port. He couldn't say how large the ship was, though it was bigger than most of the ships sitting in the dock, and it wasn't made from wood like a standard ship. Composed of what appeared to be metal, the ship had several large smoke stacks that were emitting puffs of black smoke.