Ashes and Kingdoms

The city walls of Winnea were splendid in that they would be twice as tall as Nanais. There is no comparison between the whole area. A line of miserable refugees turned their necks back, and each was quite pompous.

Legion soldiers stood at the gate, but there's also no way they're checking the people going in and out. Sometimes, I just take a transit tax from the merchants who pulled the luggage.

"There's no bonfire..."

Oandus snaps. Finn also looked around and frowned. Outside the walls, there is no bonfire. That means that this city is not exposed to Dark Beast raids.

"Why what?

Is it because the city is too big? Or are legion soldiers looking around and carrying out beast exorcisms? To do that, it's odd that a bandit showed up...

The fins came round from the north to the east gate, so they never saw many splendid streets and majestic graves leading to the main entrance on the south side, but nevertheless, the neighborhood was lined with boring graves of ordinary people, and shrubs of clinging to the cemetery blossomed with white poor flowers. Here, it seems, lives lost in Nanais and Tetna are still going on.

When a line approached the gate, the guard with two raised his eyebrows suspiciously. Finn exchanged anxious glances with Nellis and Oandus and others. There's nothing wrong with you, but you don't want to be stopped and you unconsciously speed up your legs.

"Wait, wait, you guys"

The guards lowered their spears and blocked their hands. Finn stops without a choice. I was tired, and there were injured people and children. I can't get bored.

The guard looked at them in a shivering manner and said in an ambiguous tone, not sure how to respond.

"Doesn't even look like a traveler, begging? Do you have a travel document or some kind of ID?"

Normally, traveling from city to city is rarely required to present travel documents. The purpose of the permit is to prevent the escape or entry of the offender, so unless you are suspicious, it can be simple, except in cases where there is a request for a strict interrogation under some circumstances.

Finn, who had never been away from the city where he was born and raised, looked back at his companions unexpectedly, stunned by the begging treatment, although he was neglected by the circumstances around him. Then I drop my shoulder wondering if I can't even do it. No carriages, no horses, no even decent travel costumes, dirty with mud, dirt and blood, hungry.

(Yes, I did... beg. I'm here to ask for help)

With that in his mockery, Finn explored his luggage and retrieved a letter from Masud. Safe. The seal hasn't even come off. Relaxed, he went into his hands with it.

"I'm an army envoy. I'm from Nanais. Behind you is my family and Tetna's survival."

"Special Envoy?"

The guard frowned at the frigid smell, but confirmed the seal of the letter and circled his eyes to his surprise that it was "real". Once again he looked around at a miserable line and asked in the face of confusion.

"You said Tetna's survival. What the hell happened?

"Haven't you been informed? Aren't the legions back?"

"That's... um, Tetna's troops did come back, but I hear it's because there was a convocation. Are you not?"

"Convene? Not the other way around?

Finn inquired confused. Whether it's the need to send reinforcements from Winnea, there doesn't seem to be any reason to summon them to Winnea on the contrary. At least, because you don't have to burn a bonfire outside the wall.

The story doesn't engage. The two guards exchanged confusion and scratched their heads in trouble. After getting lost for a while, they eventually decided to throw the judgment round to the great man.

"Anyway, there's no way a real envoy won't let you through. Do you know where the barracks are? When you knock over the gate, go straight down the street and up the hill heading northwest from Central Square. There's the Temple of Naena on the front right hand side, and you'll see it on your left when you pass there."

"Thank you"

"Oh wait," the guard rushed on to Finn, who tried to walk out thanking him.

"Uh, what the hell, you're the only one going into the barracks. The rest of them would be better off waiting in the temple."

In a tone of inclusiveness, Finn felt dull anger and dismay, but thanked him again without putting it to attitude, urging everyone to walk out.

Haven't we done this with our lives, but this response isn't very much? Do the inhabitants of Winnea really know nothing? The crops have been in there the other day, and so on. It would have affected my life.

As I walked as I dragged my heavy legs, Nellis represented my brother's heart beside me.

"... you're disappointed. I thought as soon as I got to Winnea, the legions would pick me up, okay, I'll take care of it, so I thought you'd go help Nanais..."

The tail shakes, dulls, and snorts. Finn looked down at his sister and agreed in a dark voice, "Oh, me too," he said. The same is true of the children, who look around anxiously with most of them. As long as I got to Winnea, I guess I had no basis for hope that someone would soon welcome me with open arms.

Finn pressed and killed the sigh and raised his face to stare at the goings.

There are only state capitals and lots of people, and everyone seems to be busy. There was also a glimpse of the fins, but no one spoke up. I just frown and turn away immediately.

I hear Khan Khan and hitting the gold floor from afar. The twitching of people, the roaring of robbers, the mouths of those who sell and walk food and candles, all of which made me feel somewhere slaughtered. If you look closely, all half of the people standing on the side of the road frown and look tough. All I'm laughing innocently at is a kid who doesn't even go old, or a bunch of younger sons and daughters whose only home I live in is everything in the world.

Fauna whispered to her husband beside her as she walked watchfully at the rear of the line to see if the children would fall off.

"It's kind of smelling here, too."

"Oh. He said summon... no way, you're not going to go south soldier"

Oandus roared. While the pain of the wound and the harsh daily causes the frown wrinkles to deepen. I'm sure the longitudinal wrinkles will disappear neatly.

"I don't know... the Sardas are attacking again."

"I don't know. But it's obvious you're not going to send soldiers north. Damn it!"

And Oandus cursed, and the absurdity of his speech frightened the child that was near him.

The Sardas, who live in the Purma Mountains, are the same people, but live hunting and gathering as their main occupation in a harsh natural environment, a minority. Minerals and rock salts that can be harvested in the mountains are used as trading currencies with the lower boundaries, and they come down from the mountains very occasionally, but rarely leave their territory. And at the same time, strangers are not welcome to step into the mountains.

While living peacefully divided is good, when the weather conditions and disasters cause food distress, the Sarda people rely on old-fashioned methods. That is, plunder from the rich lower realm. Even though it was incorporated into part of the Diatius Empire, essentially, the mountains are still regarded as the domain of the barbarians.

It was mainly the beasts of darkness and this Sarda tribe that the armies stationed in the province of Vitia have fought over the last few decades. Long ago, we also fought the northern Vitian tribe, which refused to be imperialized, but in the generations of Oandus and others, we can't even imagine the times when we were not citizens of the Empire.

Anyway, if the opponent was Sarda, it seemed unnecessary to gather even soldiers from the north side. In the life of Oandus and Fauna, although we have heard rumors of several Sarda attacks, they were all repelled by the army alone in the southern part of the state.

Something bad is happening.

With vague anxiety, the two sighed together.

Just then, I saw the Temple of Nena in my way. The temple dedicated to the goddess of the earth was located in the middle belly of the hill. It would have belonged to Deia, the patron saint of the Empire, to make it a god in the sky, that I could see at the top from afar.

"Uncle, aunt"

Finn called back from the beginning.

"Please wait here. Everyone, please. I'm sure you'll be able to handle the wound, just fine, if I can talk to you about Nellis... I'll deliver this to the Legion Leader in the meantime."

"Okay. Be careful."

As Oandus raised his safe left hand, Finn nodded and walked further ahead on his own.

My back, which I should have been used to, is cluttered up and seems like someone else. Oandus dropped it off with a slightly blurred face.

"... he was a man at some point"

Fauna grinned on the side for a soggy twinkle. The adoption of Finn made Oandus' position in the family totally presbyterian, but at his actual age he is only in his thirties. It's a little too early to feel a generation change in my son's growth and get old. Fauna slapped her flashing Oandus' shoulder "I don't like it, no more".

"You're a much better man."

…………

Mm, somewhat roaring low, Oandus looked around at the children to deceive them and ascertained the number. I have eyes to eyes with Nellis with a chilling face, and he hurries to cough up his sins.

"All right, well, let's wait here until Finn gets back. There must be a sanatorium in the Temple of Nena. Let's go."

Oandus hurried to turn his back like a blindfold and walked out into the temple.

Nellis looked at Mac and his face, whatever it was, and stood back from each other and clasped his shoulders. But that mood, when I crept through the temple gate, mysteriously faded and disappeared.

The moment I entered the premises, I felt something change in the air. It's a clean or quiet, yet powerful space.

Nellis breathed unconsciously deeply and looked up at the main hall of the goer. A majestic building - in which a statue of Nena's divine statue can be felt resting. The statue is only a statue, a work of art, but not more. But Nellis could also tell from a remote place that there was some other power there.

All this time, I felt like I was wandering through a wilderness without any servants. This is the first time I've found a door that needs to be curled. Walking through the temple of reality, Nellis gently touched its door with another perception.

A new sensation opens up. Nellis slowly, gently pushing the door...

- For a moment, something completely heterogeneous broke in.

Dancing flames, red-dyed skies, screams and curses, screams of despair. Strength falls out of your body. Cold, everything gets cold, and the icy darkness traps the world.

The blue light lit up a little. A joy full of bottomless hatred and malice pushes him into a dark wave.

"Nellis!"

When he grabbed his shoulder and returned to me, Nellis knelt down on the cobblestone, nodding. My body and mind cut cold as if I had been hit by an ice rain overnight, my tooth roots didn't fit and it rattled.

Unconsciously she looked up and looked far north.

(Dear Fianella)

Shortly after I tried to stop it, tears spilled. There's no reason, it's just "okay."

"Nanais..."

It was best to say all that with a faint voice to the parents and children surrounding him. Nellis slapped her hands against the stone and let herself slip into a fierce whimper.