Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

The waiter came to ask for his order but he declined to order his food before the rest of the group arrived, that would be rude. This was likely their last meal on the ship, the next one will be in Voryhrm.

"By the way can I see the kitchen? I have nothing to do before my friends arrive."

"...certainly, sir. It's just that the cooks are a bit busy around this time."

"It's fine I'll be so quiet and quick they won't even notice me. Ah! By the way can I meet to the chef that's been cooking for us?"

"I don't really think tha—"

"Lead the way."

The waiter took him in such pathways and turns that for a moment Aldrich thought it was some kind of maze like in the ship.

But eventually he was taken to a huge kitchen. The cooks and staff moving about in this kitchen made it look like a street market. The smells of cooking foods stimulated his hunger.

Aldrich was lead to man who looked to be in his fifties. The man had no beard but he had an extremely long blonde mustache that grew and was tied to a knot behind his back.

The man was a professional chef in a family of professional chefs, even his two brothers were working in high-end restaurants in Voryhrm.

Apparently this guy wanted to leave the family profession and become and alchemist. He studied day and night and apprenticed in a decent guild.

But he was miserable until one day he started cooking again. Now he uses what he learned to be an alchemist as a chef.

A nice story but Aldrich didn't really ask, this guy was extremely talkative. Aldrich thanked him for all the nice meals he cooked and returned back to his table.

Aldrich ordered sausage, eggs, two bread buns and finally tried some of that sea fruits.

After breakfast they started casually talking about the things they would do after returning to Voryhrm. Some wanted to attend theater plays they missed, some wanted to buy all sorts of things.

"Oh, Aldrich, a piece of advice," warned Orven, "we'll get off at the Dockway port and we'll go through the Dockway district after that, keep a close eye on your coin pouch."

"Really? Even in Voryhrm?" Aldrich questioned in disbelief.

"Just in some districts. There are even worse districts than Dockway, in some of them you might lose more than just your coins."

"Alright, I get it. But I thought big cities uses only paper money these days?" Aldrich inquired.

"Where did you hear that? Paper money is gaining more and more popularity with the imperial bank backing it so strongly but that's not enough for it to replace coins any time soon."

It was Atrio Taelva that said that, he now recalled. He was trying to get the mayor to give him all his coins in exchange for paper money. Lying and distracting. That was his role to distract people lest they interfere in Keld's business.

But was it only for the purpose of distraction? There was another possibility, what if Atrio was trying to make some money while on the job? Surely Atrio didn't think that anything he said mattered in a village of dead men.

Aldrich felt his blood boiling in anger, such people were not beneath any action no matter how deplorable.

But then again this was good information, this meant that Atrio wasn't flawless, he was greedy enough to let some things slip. This meant that the True Saint's Folk aren't a perfectly controlled organization they were just humans too, prone to mistakes.

This thought put a smile on his face. After all, didn't he escape from right under their noses? They will slip again somewhere, sometime and when that happens he will be there.

Aldrich suddenly heard the tolling of bells, a sign indicating that it was about time to dock at port.

Aldrich and company stood at the railing. From here Aldrich could see a wall far way in the distance. As time passed and the ship got closer and closer he began to see how big the wall really was.

The walls cast their shadow on the river from their position high against the cliff edges. The wall in its entirety was covered by Ermitsal which made it shine under the sun.

The walls were so tall he couldn't estimate their height. The river was squeezed between the two cliffs on both sides. There were may ships besides theirs heading in the same direction.

Suddenly Aldrich raised his head and looked high into the clouds, a beast emerged. Aldrich heard high pitched whistling. The beast got closer and closer and that revealed it actual huge build.

Aldrich stared in astonishment, everything was quite at this moment. The beast had the upper body of a giant eagle and the lower body of a giant steed. It was a hippogriff.

Even more mind boggling, the beast was fitted with ridding gear of leathers and straps everywhere. And a man in full plate armor was riding it.

The full body plate armor he wore was nothing usual, it had a unique blue color and green at the joints. His chest piece had the insignia of a tower releasing light from the top.

He was armed with a long lance, but Aldrich could see many other weapons strapped at the sides of the hippogriff. The weapons were a huge crossbow and the other side had a musket.

Aldrich's jaw fell open as the collective cheer from all the passengers not just from their ships but from all the others at once.

When the cheer died down the rider lowered his visor and spoke with a thunderous voice.

"Welcome one and all! Everything is as usual keep to the left for a smooth dock!"

After that he returned high up hidden by the clouds.

"That was... awesome." Aldrich couldn't help but exclaim. Truly an unexpected first sight.

"They're called the Beacon Keepers. Their job is to guide and monitor all the ships that approach Voryhrm. They were named after the great light houses of Beacons point. They are a force that answers only to the city council alone."

"Do they all ride hippogriffs?"

"Most of them do, yes."

"Are they all Crestmasters?"

"Some of them are but most are ordinary people."

Soon the ship approached the port and after a longer than expected wait they managed to descend the ship. Aldrich once thought that the port of Herth was big, he was wrong.

He must've been, because this port stretched as far as the eyes could see. A multitude of humanoids busied themselves here.

Some were carrying cargo, some were hauling ship parts, some were shouting saying things he couldn't make out. A truly shocking thing was the solid Ermitsal ground underneath everything.

Aldrich even had the misconception that the earth here was originally made of Ermitsal.

After looking for a while he discovered that the people here didn't move around chaotically as he first thought. They were moving in order.

This was because he noticed painted boards with signs telling people who had different purposes to follow black dotted lines on the pure white Ermitsal streets.

Aldrich followed Ayemon and the others as they skillfully maneuvered through the crowds of unending people. Finally they reached a faraway place where the traffic was low.

Orven whistled loudly and eventually a carriage stopped.

"Where do you want to go? I can only take you guys as far as Sobruz. I've got work to be done here." Declared the red-bearded dwarf.

"We're going to Nistoch, 6th Harveston street. If that alright with you. If not then don't mind us." Replied Orven matter-of-factly.

"W-what?! Of course not, sir. I-I mean my lord, please. My carriage is at your beck and call." The dwarf immediately started sweating and even took out a handkerchief to clean his hands.

"Sounds like a deal to me." Agreed Orven.

"Let me help you with your luggage. Jimmy! What are lazing about for?! Get down there and lend a hand to the kind lord." The dwarf turned to shout at a human man sitting on the chair besides him.

The man had a short red hat over his eyes and leaned his head to the back before the dwarf yelled at him. After which he jumped down and collected the luggage.

"Hahaah please ignore him my lord this guy is new and doesn't know how things are done here."

Aldrich noticed that this carriage was pulled by four giant blue and yellow dotted lizards, he had since learned that these animals are called giant Geckos. The wheels of the carriage were metallic and there was a grey substance over the wheels.

Aldrich looked back at the way the carriage came and noticed it didn't leave any marks on the Ermitsal street. He guessed that it had something to do with this grey covering over the wheels.

The carriage was clean and smelled very inviting. Aldrich looked at the passing scenery out of the glass windows attached to the doors of the carriage.

Soon he looked at the most interesting thing around, the looming city wall. The wall looked even bigger the closer he got to it. To the point that it resembled a small mountain.

"How big is it...?" Aldrich asked no one in particular.

"Thirty five meters in height. Seventeen in width. There are four levels of encampments at different heights."

"That's insane!" Aldrich exclaimed. As the carriage got closer he could see the army guarding the gate.