The Journey To The East

The sun is setting, the light coming through the country, lying beside his wife, he started opening his eye.

"Hoammmmm" The sound of Arden yawning from a long and refreshing sleep, ready to do whatever he needs to do.

For some reason, he has this habit of waking up at 5 am in the morning if he is in the city of Atlan. Meaning it's still very morning and most people is not awake yet.

He changed and got himself ready, before going out from his room to get some breakfast only to realize that Theo is not awake yet.

'6 am now, the pub should already start serving customers at this time' Arden remembered the time local pub would start serving customers.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of a door being slowly opened and surprisingly, his new page and the future squire came out from the room.

With a nice cloth, indicating he is going out to do something. When they saw each other on the eyes, they both are just shocked and then proceed to make the sign of not to make any noise by putting their index finger in front of their lips.

Both of them slowly walking outside the house, trying to not make any noise while doing so and the got to the outside.

Once outside, the 13 years old boy turned to Arden...

"What are you doing at this early time of the morning, sir?" The boy said in confusion.

"Well, what are you doing at this early time of the morning?" Arden turned back the question to the boy.

"I was going to get some things to cook for my father" The boy answered bluntly with himself making eye contact with Arden.

"That's good, I'm going to get something to eat too, care to follow me?" Giving a question at the end of his answer.

'"Answering the question and then giving another question at the end will make you sound polite."At least that's what they said in the book' He thought of the things he read in his free time.

"Sure, where are we going though, I don't know a good place" This 13 years old boy never went to the local pub before.

"Let's go to the local pub, they start serving customers at this time" Arden said and then start walking away, expecting the boy to follow behind him.

He did and they both got to the pub after 5 minutes of walking. Many empty tables can be seen with a few other people at some table.

'Hmmm, where to sit? I'm gonna sit at the corner then!' The corner is the best place for people to have a conversation and also the best place to hide from the crowd.

With his good cloth on, a waitress should attend to them shortly. And so a waitress came and hand them out the menu before going to attend to other customers.

"Just order what you want, it's on me" Arden said this with a smile to the boy and the proceed to see what food to order.

After some time, the waitress comes back to them and took their orders...

"I'll have the cheapest meal" The 13 years old boy said this and then Arden interrupted.

"Woah Woah, you need to eat some better food" And then turning to the waitress and sign her to come closer so that he can whisper something.

"2 secret meal, tell the chef" The waitress came closer and heard this line, her expression changed to serious expression and then go back to the kitchen.

"What did you tell her sir?" The boy asked in confusion and got "nothing" as an answer.

"By the way, I haven't know your name, what is your name?" Changing the topic as best as possible.

"My name is Maverick, nice to meet you" Maverick responded with this short sentence.

They have some small talk while waiting for the food to come. The food came, not being delivered by the waitress but by the cook itself.

He put down the food on the table and turned to go back to the kitchen and then Arden said...

"The food you cook is the best, Bam" The chef's eye widen and then turned back to face them.

"I knew it was you!! Long time no see kid, almost a decade past since you went missing" The chef then proceed to take a seat for himself at their table.

They have some small conversation before the chef is called back to the kitchen. Maverick look confused and then asked.

"Who is that sir?" With curiosity painted all over his face, Maverick asked Arden.

"Just some old man, he helped me at the past" Arden answered before going back to eat the meal.

The secret meal itself is made of using simple ingredients but tasty and have a lot of nutrients in it. Only some people knew about this meal since it's only been shared to the closest and trustworthy friend of the chef.

Bam, he is the person that let Arden stay at his home for some years after taking Arden from the streets. He made this food for Arden on rare occasion.

Usually, he is not at home because of this work, so when Arden needs to go, he couldn't meet him for the last time and can't say his goodbye.

But the past is only the past, now Arden needs to gather information about this so-called kingdom "Tadashima Shogunate".

That's when the pub's front door is opened by a person. Maybe merchants judging from their clothes?

They ordered their food and then start talking. Arden heard a little over their conversation and heard them mentioned "Tadashima Shogunate".

So Arden told Maverick to stay at his place and stand up. After that, he approached them.

"Fellow merchants, I heard you mentioned "Tadashima shogunate", could you please tell me how to go there?" With the hope of them answering this question.

"It's a great kingdom in the east, a kingdom with many islands, the easiest way to go there is by getting a ship from the province of Eglega at the east of this kingdom." One of the merchants answered and then told Arden all the things they knew.

Arden then goes back to his table and then finish his food, after that he left 3 Rens, which is 30 Ens on the table then proceed to leave the pub.

That 1 hour in the pub sure is worth it. Then Arden and Maverick proceed to go to the market place to buy the ingredients for the thing to cook at Theo's house.

Arden met a lot of people he knew before he was gone from the city. Many people remembered him too and gave him many discounts.

One hour is spent exploring the market place and getting many things. Arden also bought some food for him and his party's journey.

When they reached home, they are greeted by Theo that now is awake. Maverick proceed to the kitchen and start preparing the meal for his father, perhaps the last one before he will go and start his adventure.

At noon, everything is ready and they are about to go, Maverick gave his last hug to Theo before going and then said is goodbye.

Eventually, they exited the city and started going east. This would be the first time they tried to go to the east and it would be hard.

The thing that separated the eastern province, Eglega is the thick forest and the rows of mountains. There is rarely any village in the way, the city would be rarer to be encountered.

Half a day into the journey and it's almost dark, Arden decided to stop and going to spend the night at the place he chose.

He then proceeds to build a tent and while at it, teaching Maverick how to do it, this is a useful survival skill to be taught.

At first, Maverick is confused but quickly understand after trying making his own tent, A fast learner.

They spent the night there and then continue their journey in the morning. There is plenty of animal in the forest so it's not hard to find foods to eat if the ran out of food.

Another 3 days of the same activities being repeated again and again. Not even a single village on the way.

Then another 3 days, and then another 3 days. At this point, they thought they lost their way. But then, they can only continue forward.

Eventually, they saw smoke at the sky coming from the distance. If there is smoke, there is a fire. If there is a fire, it meant someone started it.

They rushed and then got to the open field, the green grassland and a village at the distance. Being located at the foot of the mountain, it's a perfect place for a settlement.

They approached that village and then entered it, the villager's expression showed that they are shocked. Some of them greeted Arden and his party.

"May I ask? Where is this and how to go to the province of Eglega?" The villagers told everything they knew.

"There is a tunnel that leads to Eglega but only the party of a Baron are allowed to use it, I heard there are some villagers that used that tunnel and they are captured and never to be seen again" The villagers told Arden about this.

He is shocked there is actually a tunnel that connects the eastern province and the middle of the kingdom, then he thought.

'I'm a baron so this would not be a problem' He the proceeds to go, some villagers tried to stop him but he insisted.

They just sighed and send a middle-aged man with them to guide them, after 3 hours of entering the tunnel, they finally saw a glimpse of light at the end.

And it got brighter and brighter, to the point they could see the sunlight. The end of the tunnel is near. The 3 of them rushed out from the long tunnel with the wood wall.

His party got out from the tunnel and smell the fresh air of Eglega, that middle-aged man is nowhere to be seen though.

It's actually a great land with nice scenery, but then. 10 men using light armour and riding a horse approached them...

What would happen to them?