CH 159

Norfast

After leaving Oxter, we walked about 4 hours to the south of the town.

When finally, a huge city rivalling the capital itself, came into our view.

“We can finally see it! That’s Norfast!”

“As expected of one of the three great cities, it looks almost as big as the capital. The line in front of the city looks long as well so the inspection is probably strict as well.”

“If anything it was Oxter that was the odd one. Most big cities have a pretty strict inspection before letting you inside! Wait Chris, you’re not carrying poisonous plants on you right now, are you!?!”

“C’mon, of course not……..Ah but, I do have poison potions on me though. Surely potions would be fine? Right?”

“I think so? I’m sure it’ll be fine. As long as they just see it as a normal potion, and not check it’s actual ingredients that is!”

I always carry the Venom Python poison around so I ended up carrying it with unintentionally, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.

It’s completely transparent as well, so I doubt they’d get suspicious of it.

From there, we joined the long line in front of the gate and quietly waited for about 30minutes.

It was finally our turn now.

Just like the inspection at the capital, there were 3 soldiers who checked each of us respectively, and carefully checked the contents of our bag.

My only worry was about the poison potions, and for Snow to get past without much issue.

Ralf and Esta who were ahead of me, finished their inspections safely, and finally it was my turn.

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“I’ll be doing a full body check as well as a bag check, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, go ahead.”

I gave my bag to one of the soldier and raised my arms in a T-shape and let the other two soldiers check my body.

I was slightly nervous deep inside but I made sure to look as calm as possible on the outside—–and soon the inspection ended and my bag was also handed back to me safely.

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“No problems here. Next I’d like to see your ID and………is your pet a monster?”

“yeah. We have it registered as a familiar so I’ll give that ID card as well.”

I took out my own adventurer card as well as Snow’s Familiar card and gave it to the soldier.

He only gave a quick glance on my card, but the familiar card was checked by him thoroughly………but soon returned it without noticing anything wrong with it.

“………..Everything looks fine. Just make sure not let it cause any problems in the city.”

“Understood.”

“Then, go on inside.”

Having both me and Snow passed the inspection, I put Snow inside my bag once again after instructing it once again to stay quiet, and rejoined Ralf and Esta and entered the City of Norfast.

I was expecting a clean and pristine city but………the view in front of me was a lot different than expected.

The buildings seemed all haphazard and all over the place, and instead of street lights there were paper lanterns hanging over the streets.

There were huge amount of street stalls lined about and there were billboards and signboards wherever the eyes could see.

It was like walking into a really crowded and bustling back alley………far from pretty, but it was still a unique and exciting city I could tell.

“It’s hard to describe it in words but, it looks like quite a fun city huh.”

“I know right! Somehow, I feel really calm whenever I’m in this city.”

“It does feel like a bigger version of Realzard after all! I quite like Norfast as well.”

Looks like these two agreed with my impression as well, as they spoke up quickly affirming my words.

Since we had made Norfast our no.1 candidate to move to when we leave Oxter, I was intending to look around and investigate all sorts of things about the city but——I suppose it definitely passes the first impression test.

Now then, we need to gather info on the [Silver Winged Lion] so where should we start……….well, the guild seems like the obvious choice.

They were all Mithril rank, so most adventurers in this city should know about them.

“You two, where can we find the adventurer guild here, do you know?”

“We can lead you there of course. We went there when we came last time as well after all.”

“Yep, right when we were asking around about Carlo……..was when Leon-san talked to us for the first time after we caught his eye.”

The memories of meeting Leon were still fresh, as Ralf looked a bit despondent as he finished his sentence.

A couple months have passed since his passing but that’s not enough time to heal the wounds in your heart it seems.

……….though I’m hardly one to talk. Sometimes I end up recalling Alyazi-san’s dying face at the most random times out of nowhere.

“Is that so. Then, lead me there. I’m sure it’ll be easy to gather info on the [Silver Winged Lion] at the guild.”

“Understood. The guild is deep in the inner part the of the city so let’s avoid the crowded main streets and go through the side alleys to save time.”

“Alright.”

We left the bustling streets and walked through the less crowded side alleys as we made our way deeper into the city.

It might seem like an unnecessary detour but it was smoother to walk through the empty streets and definitely a lot more stress free as well.

“Still, the construction of this city is so complicated. Did you two pass through here last time as well?”

“Yes. By the way if we took a right halfway from where we came, we would have reached this city’s back streets, quite similar to Realzard’s. Since we went there more than a couple times, I pretty much memorized this entire pathway.”

“Ohh, no wonder you seem so used to this place even though you stayed here for not that long.”

“I don’t know anything the way she does. I just followed wherever Esta leads me really!

“You didn’t need to say that out loud, I would have figured that was the case regardless.”

While being amazed by Esta’s memory as always, we continued walking towards the guild.

As we entered and walked through the Guild street with all sorts of guild lined side by side each other, I finally saw the adventurer guild as well.

“Quite a big place huh. Is that the adventurer guild of Norfast?”

It was definitely a old, long standing building but it was about three times bigger than Oxter’s guild.

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As for the adventurers going in and out of the building……….well, they felt more or less similar to the ones in Oxter though.

“I was surprised when I saw it the first time as well. Then, shall we go inside?”

“Yes, let’s.”

Led by Esta, we entered the guild.

Just in case, I activated [Perception Enhancement] [Perception Range Enhancement] [Stealth] [Life Presence Detect] skills, and confirmed if there were any exceptionally strong people here.

Making sure so as to not stand out, I searched around the entire guild.

As expected of the guild of one of the three great cities, the number of adventurers inside was much bigger but………not many really stood out in terms of strength.

There were 2 who had a similar presence to Carlo, and 6 others that were slightly below their level.

The rest, were more or less similar to the ones in Oxter.

“So how are we going to ask around? Last time, we basically asked depending on how they reacted to us or your name by the way!”

“……..Let’s start with talking to the strong ones here. Follow me.”

“Eh, strong people? Okay.”

Saying that to them, I decided to go call out one of the 2 string presences in the guild and ask them about it.

Sitting at the innermost table, it was an adventurer in his 50s whose eyes were following only the females in the building.

His mouth was also partly open, and was so focused on the women that he didn’t even notice us getting close to him but………

He was strong. I could tell from just a glance that this man was genuinely strong.

“I need to talk to you, can you spare a minute?”

“Wha? Tch……..sorry, I’m a bit busy right now, so no, can’t.”

Seeing me who talked to him, realizing I was a guy, clicked his tongue and then began following the other ladies with his eyes again.

Judging by this, it doesn’t seem like he’s a guy who’d be willing to talk much but, I decided to forcibly ask a question anyway.

“I want to know about the adventurer party called the [Silver Winged Lion], do you know anything?”

“[Silver Winged Lion]?………..never heard of ’em.”

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He definitely reacted to the name and began glaring at me but…….

Looks like he’s really not interested in responding properly as he simply feigned ignorance.

If he’s like this, there’s no point in asking anything anymore. I guess I’ll just give up on asking any info from this old man.

We left his table, and then walked towards the other strong presence in the guild.

If only he was slightly willing I would have asked more, but sometimes, these things can’t be helped and its better to just move on.