Arcadia's Ignoble Knight: Dark Elf Arc

Chapter 61

Fas Sheras was located within the Sacred Forest, which bordered Helheim to the north and Elysium to the west. Arcadia itself was shaped something like a deformed circle, with numerous inlets, peninsulas, bays, and various geographical deformations that kept it from looking completely like a perfect circle. The Sacred West could be found in the far north-west corner of the continent.

To get there from Wakefield, they had to cross the barren northern landscape that bordered Helheim. The frigid weather was enough to chill the bones. Their land dragons, which were cold-blooded reptiles and therefore ill-suited to traveling in this kind of weather, also ended up becoming useless, meaning they couldn't travel by carriage. This left them little choice but to take the trains.

Thus far, their group had avoided the trains. While they could hide using Elincia's ability to have Loki cast an illusion on them, they felt it was better to be cautious. According to her, the illusion would be disrupted if they came into contact with a Knight, the newly formed magical automaton that Duke De'Falco had created to combat the "evil" sorceress' Murakumos. However, for the moment, at least, they had no choice and took several trains from a small city called Masidonia all the way to Silvaguarde.

Silvaguarde was a surprisingly large city for one found so far up north, but that was because Silvaguarde was built close to a fortress whose job is protecting the border of Arcadia from elf intrusion. While none of the one, two, and three-story buildings were closely packed together like Axium or Cassadinia, they were all quite large.

After hopping off the train, Caspian and his group, disguised to look like a large family and their servants, traveled to the nearest inn and rented out three rooms. Once again, Caspian and Elincia shared a two-bed room with Erica, Derek, and Tiffania. Christo, Cassidy, Collafloore, and Maddison shared a four-bed room. Sylvia would have normally had a room to herself, but the inclusion of Dranor meant she was sharing a two-bed room with the elf.

The evening sun was setting by the time they were finished putting their stuff inside of their rooms and met up in the tavern below the inn.

"Has anyone noticed how every inn has a tavern?" asked Christo as he sipped on a mug of ale. "I never understood it. Why does an inn also have to have a tavern? Is it some kind of unspoken rule that every inn must also be a tavern?"

Caspian almost rolled his eyes at his friend as he picked at the stewed rabbit a waitress had brought them. "It's obviously because travelers who lodge at an inn are generally hungry and tired from their travels. If an inn can provide both a place to sleep and good food, then obviously the traveler will choose to stay at the inn and spend their hard-earned drachma here instead of somewhere else."

"Oh ho! Using common sense, I see!" Christo said with a chuckle, while Caspian just sighed.

"I hate to interrupt your fascinating conversation, but perhaps we should discuss how we're going to sneak past the fortress," Maddison suggested.

"Good idea." Christo bobbed his head emphatically.

While this conversation was going on, Erica was fussing over Tiffania as she made a mess of herself. The sight caused Collafloore to glare at the sorceress. However, the most unusual look was Dranor, who seemed like he couldn't figure out what to make of Erica. His expression was the kind someone had when they were staring at a puzzle they couldn't solve.

"The Fortress of Imperium Prae only guards one section of the Sacred Forest's borders," Sylvia stated. "Slipping around the fortress shouldn't be a difficult task. The problem is not slipping past the fortress, it's bypassing the guards who patrol the borders between Arcadia and the Sacred Forest."

The Sacred Forest was massive, spanning about 1.2 million square kilometers--at least, it did according to the maps. There was a lot of the Sacred Forest that was unexplored because it belonged to the elves. All the maps made were purely guesswork based on surveys made by traveling around the the Sacred Forest. No one truly knew how large it was.