Chapter 13: Gates of Eldaria (Part 2)

***At the gates of Eldaria***

"Number of people?"

"Five."

The guard looked inside the caravan confirming it for himself while the rest of us stared at him. Once his inspection was complete he walked back ahead to Luca. "Names?"

Luca first pointed to himself and then towards us. "Luca Adaleigh, Elaina Évreux, Sylvie Bransford, Ren Kaizel and Liam Everhart."

"Purpose of visit?"

Luca showed his adventurer's tag. "We are adventurers. Here to register as a party with the guild."

The gate guard's took a moment to note it all down and then waved us forth. "Alright you may proceed. Welcome to Eldaria."

Luca nodded and spurred on the horse. As we slowly entered through the gates of Eldaria, Luca turned back to us. "Alright we are here, what do you wanna do first?"

"Let's first head to the inn, check out our rooms and keep our bags in there. Then we'll go out around the town." I replied.

"Fair enough."

Then it dawned on me. "Oh no, I forgot to ask Lance where we are staying or where the inn is."

"It's fine. We were already staying at the inn, waiting for everyone to get together in Eldaria before coming over to your estate." Sylvie said ruffling through her bag.

She took out a map of Eldaria and started looking for our inn.

"It's at... I think... uh... where... Ren..." defeated she looked at Ren pleadingly to help her out.

Ren sighed, then sat up straight and pointed to a part of the map, a few blocks to the east of the town hall. "Silver Swan Inn. It's a pretty decent place, better than where I was staying at before. As Sylvie said it was also our gathering place before coming over to you."

I looked over at the map for a moment, checking out the establishments around Silver Swan. Surprisingly lots of inns around that area along with restaurants and taverns. It was also well close enough to the adventurers guild, which itself was surrounded by armor shops, weapon shops and the general infirmary.

"Ren was already here in Eldaria. When did you guys arrive?" I asked.

Sylvie spoke up first. "I was the first one to arrive. Ren was second, I don't know how, I thought he was already supposed to be there. But he gave me this map!"

"I was already at Eldaria. I was just sorting some stuff out at the previous place where I was at."

I turned to him. "Did something happen?"

He waved it off. "Nah, nah. Just a small store for maps, old books and stuff. The old man let me stay in the small room above the store in exchange of me helping him out at the store every morning. It was close to the guild house, so, very convenient for me. I had to wait until his son returned before leaving, couldn't let the old man be alone. By the way I'll get you all maps of Eldaria as well if you want."

Sylvie laughed and moved closer to Ren, patting his head. "See, Ren is a good boy."

"Hai hai, thank you so much." Ren smiled as Sylvie got back to her place, then he continued with a slight laugh. "As for Luca here, Ms.Michelle showed up at my room two days later, carrying him all tied up and told me to take good care of him. Apparently he was hard to catch and I shouldn't let him run away."

Luca snorted at the unpleasant memory but said nothing, but I gotta admit even me and Sylvie laughed at it.

Once we all calmed down, I looked at Elaina. "And what about Ms.Évreux here?"

She shrugged. "I have been to the inn but haven't seen the room yet. I arrived just this morning from Baryon to meet up with everyone before Mr.Dias came to pick us up."

I was shocked, really. "Baryon? Seriously? That's not even in Asella. You have been travelling this entire time?"

"With all those bags as well, our stuff is already at our rooms. All that... That's all her." Luca pointed out.

I only had one large bag and a small one for all my essential stuff. As for Elaina, she had three bags almost as large as mine... Hmm...

She glared at Luca for a second then looked at her bags as if she could see nothing unusual with having three bags of this size.

"Aren't you tired from the travel? Would you like to rest first? We can go around the town later on." I asked.

Elaina shook her head. "Thank you but it's alright. Don't worry about it. Ofcourse I would like to head to the room first, take off my armor, wash up for a bit and then I'll be all ready to go as well. I want to look around as well, especially the weapon shops."

Sylvie perked up to Elaina. "The rooms also have a shower each. With the option for hot water if you pass some magic through the heating rune. I absolutely love it."

Elaina didn't react extravagantly but I could see a glint in her eyes and a smile on her face. "That's nice, I look forward to it."

Just then our caravan came to a stop and Luca looked back at us. "Alright guys we are here."

We all got down and took out our belongings. Once we were all off, Luca turned to us again from behind the reins. "I'll park the caravan and get the horse to the nearby stable. You can all head to your rooms. I'll join you guys soon."

Ren replied with a nod and Luca rode off.

With a sigh I turned back to face the Inn bustling with activity.

"Silver Swan Inn."