Rise of the Blood Sovereign

82  Orsvald

The caravan resumed its trip, and in a matter of a short couple of hours, it exited the forest. The adventurers and mercenaries were overjoyed to finally leave the awful forest behind them and arrive back in civilization.

Some wept silently for their lost friends that had lost their lives during the trip. The casualties for this trip were very low and it could be said that the caravan had done an amazing job making it out with so few dying after being attacked by such powerful enemies, but death was still a death.

Some bodies were not even recovered as the apes had smashed them to bits with their powerful arms. The lucky few that had died with intact or largely intact bodies were taken inside one of the carriages that transported the cores and put there for the time being.

The caravan now slowed down even further. They were out of danger and it was now time for everybody to relax and simply wait until they all reached Orsvald, which would take them about 3 more hours.

They had been traveling for almost 3 days, 3 more hours was nothing really and everyone enjoyed the scenery as they passed through a couple of smaller forests that only had some wildlife inside without any monsters inhabiting them.

Of course, since the system had arrived, the mana had transformed some of the animals and they had become more powerful, but any that showed signs of being monster-like were put down by the soldiers from Orsvald.

The small forests around Orsvald were important as they were used by the villagers to hunt and gather some berries. Some of the healers and alchemists from Orsvald would also frequent the forests and gather herbs that were useful for their potions and healing salves.

It was of great importance that the forests were safe as the repercussions of them not being safe would be grave. That would mean that the alchemists and healers would have to slow down with the production of potions and healing salves, and the hunters and gatherers of the villages would have to stop or slow down with their hunting and gathering, which could lead to the many villages around the city not having enough food to survive.

It wasn't only them that used the forest as hunting grounds either as there were some people from the city that did the same. The forests had high importance to the city of Orsvald which was situated in the middle of an area that was densely populated with smaller forests around which many villages were built.

The very center where the city was, was pretty even and had no forests, instead of that, fields of golden wheat, barley, and other types of grain were grown.

It was a spectacular sight for those that had come to visit Orsvald for the first time as the nearly endless fields of wheat and barley left people speechless and in awe of the sight.

In the very middle of that nearly endless field, a city could be seen rising above the horizon.

Large towers that were placed every 200 meters of the walls rose high in the air and gave a sense of being able to see everything miles around the city. The 30-meter tall walls of the city shone splendidly in the sun and one would feel incredibly tiny and powerless when standing next to them.

Lines of people and caravans could be seen entering and exiting the city, each being checked by the soldiers who were doing their job quite seriously, with some taking bribes without being seen and letting some things pass, as long as they were not too dangerous.

The guards standing guard at the gates were all at the very least Bronze Knights, while a Silver Knight was present as the captain that was responsible for a gate.

High buildings could be seen in the city, rising higher than the walls that surrounded it, but never higher than the towers that were built on it.

Only three buildings were higher than the towers.

The castle of the city lord and a duke of the kingdom, the current head of the Rain family, the father of Harrison, the man Lyle had unintentionally robbed.

The family had ruled over Orsvald for three decades now and their power was firmly placed in the city. Many wealthy and influential figures stayed inside the city, almost all of them being allies of the Rain family.

The second building was one that from afar looked like a giant sword that was stabbed into the ground.

That was one of the three main buildings of the adventurers guild inside the empire. The headquarters were located inside the capital, but Orsvald and another big city had the two largest branches of the guild in them.

The guild was not only located close to the castle but it was also guarded by many Golden Knights, while the branch leader was a Titled Knight herself. There were two vice-leaders that were Titled Knights as well, and together, they formed an incredibly powerful force that was enough to deter most from attacking Orsvald, not to mention the army and the power of the duke that was on the same level as the guild itself.

The third building was the mages guild.

Mages were peculiar folk and they could be seen in most walks of life.

The mages guild was relatively small compared to the other powerful organizations of the empire, but it was in no manner weaker.

The mages guild was actually more of a research guild. The mages there focused most of their time on researching new spells and arrays, rarely leaving the tower and traveling.

On average, the mages that were part of the guild were experts when it came to understanding spells, arrays, and formations, but they were usually weaker than their counterparts that battled often as they were not used to that.

The leader of the guild was an archmage, the only archmage capable of spatial magic in the empire.

He had great renown and his strength was terrifying, to the point of even Ilya being afraid of him back when he was at his peak. The old archmage luckily had no interest in fighting or helping out the empire without having a good enough reason to do so.

Had he been present back when Ilya was ambushed by the 10 archmages, there was no doubt that the latter would have truly died, and the archmages might not have suffered any casualties either.

Other than him, there was one more archmage present in the guild, and the young student of the guild master was on the verge of becoming an archmage. If he was to become an archmage in the next 11 months, he would be the youngest archmage the empire had ever produced.

From what Lyle knew, the man was a good friend of the third prince and they were as close as brothers. Well, when taking into account just how the relationship the princes all had with each other was, Sieg was probably closer to Ikram, the archmages student, more than his own brothers.

The caravan arrived at the gate and they all patiently waited for their turn to enter it. Upon coming to the gate, the caravan leader started talking with the soldiers and had probably bribed them as well.

Lyle took great effort to sense the situation inside the carriage where Ulon was located, only to suddenly find that there was no presence inside the carriage at all. Both Ulon and the other passenger were gone, which should have been impossible since Lyle was able to sense them mere seconds before this.

The guards inspected the carriages, commented about the giant bear that the caravan was transporting, and they even opened all the carriages to inspect them. Upon inspecting the carriages, the soldiers went on as usual, the one that opened the carriage where Ulon was located showed no signs of being surprised by anything.

The whole thing was extremely surprising to Lyle until a couple of minutes passed and they entered the city where he was once again able to sense Ulon and the mysterious second person.

Upon sensing them, he immediately knew that the person that was inside the carriage had to be another mage.

'At least Silver Mage, to cast a spell that not only prevents people from seeing you but completely erases one's presence as if they didn't exist is at the minimum an extremely difficult mid-grade spell.' Lyle thought before continuing on with the caravan.

The caravan would stay at a nearby inn, and it was there that the mission that they took would be considered finished and the leader would pay them the previously agreed wages, well, the second half of the wages as they had already been paid the first half upon starting the trip.

Upon entering the city, however, Lyle could sense that something was off. The atmosphere was a bit weird and it was only when they arrived at an inn that they were able to find out what had happened.

And with this chapter, the first volume of the book is officially finished.

Sorry for the delay of this chapter guys, from now on, we will be entering the second volume where I plan on making the story more focused on the city of Orsvald and all the crazy things that will be happening inside of it.

Some of the things will be connected to Lyle, some will not, some will be instigated by him, but no worries, I will make sure that there will be plenty of fights as well.

TheReign n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om