The morning was cold. When Revy went out, the sun was still low on the horizon. She had to button her coat up to her neck and put on her brown pinch front hat hat so as not to feel the unpleasant cold. Rock, on the other hand, even asked Dewar for a sweater, but after the dwarf's assurances that it would warm up, he decided to limit himself to just the coat and his hat.
Right after eating breakfast, they saddled their horses, gathered their most important equipment and calmly set off down the gently beaten dirt road surrounded by a thick green forest. Dewar followed them on a wagon that he had loaded up with various goods yesterday.
"So... How long until we get to this settlement?" Revy asked, adjusting herself in the saddle.
"At this speed? About four hours..." He said, scratching his head.
"Fuck, you're kidding, right?" Dewar shook his head, to which she gritted her teeth. "Fucking hell, I can't last that long in the saddle. Maybe we cen speed up?"
"No point in it, you'll just tire the horse faster..." Revy gritted her teeth again, then heard the dwarf's voice again. "Treat this as the ultimate test of horse riding..." Hearing this, she gripped the reins in her hands.
"I'll fucking try..." She said through her teeth.
"By the way..." Rock butted in. "Did you take all this to sell it?" He said, looking at the cart, which was filled to the brim with everyday items, canned food, tools, and many other things that he couldn't see veing put on, and couldn't even tell from under the sheet covering them.
"That's right... I want to take as little as possible to home with me, but I'm not going to let all this go to waste." He said, taking his pipe out of his pocket and lighting it. "It would be better to sell it at half the price, or even give it away, than to drag it to the city." After these words, a slight smile appeared behind the cloud of smoke. "In addition, it is cheaper to rent two wagons for transport than three..." Rock nodded, perfectly understanding the dwarf's logic.
"Aren't you afraid that you will piss off the local shopkeppes from the settlement?" Dewar laughed at his words.
"Believe me, I don't necessarily care..." He replied quickly and then inhaled again from his pipe. "Besides, they can buy it all themselves, to then sell it in their own shops."
"Would it be worth it for them?"
"Of course. The nearest city from here is a two-day journey. True, the trails are relatively cleared, so the chance of a monster attacking transport is low, but there are still bandits, and this is still rather long route. So you have to pay a lot for transporting anything here." Rock, hearing the dwarf, nodded again and looked at the route in front of him. The barely visible path was wrapped in a dense forest, which in many places completely blocked out the sun. He could imagine the number of obstacles that could appear on such a route. "And now imagine that you are such a merchant. You don't necessarily have to import food, because most settlements do farming, at least to some extent, but you have to import tools, clothes, ammunition and everything you can't easily obtain in nature. And then suddenly a another merchant appears in your settlement, willing to sell everything he has for half the price."
"I see..." Rock replied, adjusting his black hat.
"If I were a merchant like that, I'd goout of my way, to buy all the available inventory myself." The dwarf laughed, simultaneously blowing out clouds of smoke. Rock grabbed his chin, complimenting his thoughts, wanting to continue the discussion, but suddenly Revy butted in.
"Are you done talking shit?" She said with sensable irritation in her voice. "Because if I have to listen to you for the next 4 fucking hours, I'd rather shoot myself in the head right now."
"Revy..." Rock turned to her. "Don't you think it's better to find out more? Especially since we'll have to earn our own keep."
"Rock, since we've came here I've heard so much that I don't feel I have to listen to your bullshit now... Besides, isn't it enough for us to collect bounties and kill monsters..."
"Well..." Dewar put the pipe in his mouth. "As a novice hunter, you may not always get the best assignments, sometimes they may not even be one for a long time. So the expenses may be greater than the income..."
"That doesn't change the fact that I don't want or need to listen to your bullshit..." Those words made Rock's face sour. It wasn't so much anger that was visible on his face, but a certain disappointment. Yet Revy didn't seam care. "Rock, we've always managed. Whether it was Roanapur or your fucking Japan. We'll manage now too..."
"Revy... Did you notice that we managed because that's what I paid attention to? You focused on shooting, I focused on what you didn't shoot..." Now she was the one who had a sour face. "Besides, back then there was Dutch, Benny, Balalajka..." Suddenly Revy interrupted him.
"Okay, okey, I understand... Do what you think is best..." She replied, then grabbed her hat on head and, grabbing the reins, urged her horse forward a little, but still staying within shouting and sight distance. Rock just watched her as she walked away, then went back to talking to Dewar.
Traveling further into the wilderness, the forest thickened, and the path became uneven and fully overgrown. In some places, where the branches of the trees towering above them did not block the sun, the grass was so tall that it reached Revy's boots, despite the fact that she was sitting high on her horse. At that time, the only indicator of where there is a path and where there isn't was the equally spaced trees.
An hour had passed since they had set off, when the morning chill began to recede and very quickly it became stifling from the humidity in the forest through which they were riding. Rock and Revy quickly felt the warmth of the day, which caused them both to unbutton their coats, and after a while, Rock even took his off and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
The journey itself was unusually peaceful and quiet. The only thing they could hear, apart from the sounds of the forest waking up to life, were the sounds of their horses and the dwarf's wagon. Apart from that, Revy could hear Rock talking to Dewar about various topics from time to time. Topics that didn't necessarily interested her. Rock would tell her what she would needed to know either way. That's why she stayed a little ahead, only turning to them every now and then to ask about the trail. Despite her initial fears that she would be bored to death, on this route, it wasn't the case. She felt a strange peace and a certain kind of pleasure riding through the forest, despite dull pain in lower part of body coused by sitting in sadle.
After another hour and a half of the route, something new appeared on the route. Under a larger tree, among the thick grass, half covered with moss, lay a large, flat stone. It looked almost strange and unnatural. Revy resembled a surfboard, cut in half. Three sides were rounded, and the fourth was notched, as if she was supposed to stand on it. Revy stopped her horse near the stone to look at it.
"What do you have there, Revy?" asked Rock, who was approaching her together with Dewar.
"I'm not sure." She replied, still looking at the rock. "It looks strange. Maybe it's a signpost or some ritual stone..."
"Oooo" The Dwarf reacted seeing what she found. "I see that we're quite close now..." Dewar said approaching Revy. "This is a signpost, as you yourself noticed... A forgotten element of the world from before the Fall."
"Do you know where it leads to?" Rock asked without taking his eyes off the rock.
"Unfortunately, no. And it fell down on improtant side, so I can't read it either."
"Any idea?"
"Well..." The Dwarf scratched his head. "Since one of the roads from before the Fall went this way, it could have led to the capital of the region or to someone's fortress... Or something completely different that was swallowed by the Fall... Or maybe it disappeared befor it, long ago in the depths of history..."
"Maybe to some city?" Rock pointed out.
"If so, then not just some city... Smaller or even medium-sized cities usually didn't erect half-meter-high, polished boulders as signposts. In addition, this one stood here for quite some time." He said, then moved his hand and pointed to the edge of the stone. "Traditionally, these edges are chipped quite sharply, and these are rounded... This boulder stood in the open air for so long that the rain and other elements of the weather softened its edges. This signpost may even be older than this tree..." He said, pointing to the huge tree in whose shade they were standing.
Both Rock and Revy looked up at the tree's crown. Its large branches covered in moss spread out in all directions and towered over the other trees. It looked as if from the entire forest, this tree was the first one. After a moment, they turned their attention back to the dwarf who had spoken again.
"Let's move on... In our case, there's no point in wasting time on things that have been forgotten." He said as he rode a cart pulled by two horses past them. They stayed by the tree for a moment longer, then followed the dwarf.
They spent the next few minutes of the journey in silence. The dwarf looked back and saw a visible expression of thought on the faces of Rock and Revy. Not wanting the rest of the journey to be spent in a dull and awkward silence, he started a conversation.
"I can see that you are very interested in this old, worn-out signpost." Rock nodded and rode closer.
"There's something about it..." Rock replied in a calm voice. Dewar only grunted in response. "Still... I find it hard to believe people would forget what this singpost was for. He seemed pretty important." The dwarf laughed at him.
"Well the Fall only lasted almost 200 years or almost 200 years. It depends on how you look at it..." Dewar said as he refilled his pipe that he had just smoked. "Truth be told, during that tumultuous time, and even before it, a lot more was happening than was reasonable to..." He said as he took a drag on his pipe. "The result is these patches in history... Where was which city, what was its neighbor... Are these ruins the ruins of this city or the neighboring city..."
"Wait! You said there was too much going on before the fall, what was that about?" Revy interrupted as she caught up with them.
"Ah yes... I didn't tell you about that." The dwarf said, scratching his head. "A decade before the Fall, a huge war broke out and swept across the entire continent..."
"Wow... That doesn't sound good in combination with the Fall."
"And it wasn't... What the war had damaged, the Fall destroyed, and the darkness of time swallowed. That's why today, a few years after the Fall ended, we still have blank spots on the maps, and blank pages in the history books..." Dewar said this with uncharacteristic nostalgia and a certain sadness in his voice. "Ah, well, you'll see for yourselves in a moment..." Rock and Revy looked at each other, somewhat surprised, but they didn't comment and decided to just see what Dewar meant.
After another 10 minutes, the forest slowly began to thin out, and after another 20 minutes, only a few trees remained, marking the path among the meadows. That's when Rock and Revy saw it. They stopped at the edge of the forest, and saw a building that was rising up on the top of a hill at a certain distance from them. Despite being a kilometer away, if not more, they could see the surrounding bushes, collapsed roofs, and walls.
"Is that what you meant, dwarf?" Revy asked, not taking her eyes off the building in the distance. Dewar only grunted in response. "What is that... Or rather, what was that?" She asked with a uncertainty in her voice.
"Look like a castle to me..." Rock said, then corrected himself after a moment. "Abandoned castle..."
"Well, a castle is the simplest answer..." Dewar said, laughing slightly. "But what exactly it was, nobody is sure. It could have been the home of a local lord who ruled these areas. Or maybe a stronghold of the local militia. Or maybe the castle belonging to an order... Nobody is also sure if whatever it was, perished during the Fall or before it..." Rock and Revy looked at each other, accompanied by a strange feeling of uncertainty. Immediately afterwards, Rock turned to Dewar.
"Really, nothing is known about it? The only building in the middle of nowhere and nothing is known about it?"
"We can only conclude that much from how the building itself looks... All the chronicles, manuscripts are either gone, or are so deep in the basements of libraries that they will be dug up after our times... Now let's not waste time and get going." He said, then spurred the horses of his wagon into motion. "Now these ruins, or at least part of them, are a resting place for travelers, and we and the horses deserve a moment's break..." Rock looked at Revy, who, seeing the dwarf's behavior, shrugged and followed him, and Rock did the same, a moment after.
They kept to the route marked by sporadically growing trees. With each passing minute, they were getting closer and closer to the abandoned building, which was getting bigger, more and more overwhelming and dominating over the local area.
"You said that you can draw conclusions from the building itself, right?" Rock asked the dwarf as they slowly approached the hill. The dwarf nodded in response. "So you have some conclusions about this castle." Dewar sighed and lowered his head.
"I'm not an expert myself, but I once had the opportunity to talk to one of the scholars who dealt with such things..." He said, scratching his beard. "I met him during one of my few trips, just as he was researching this structure... According to him, the castle was built at least 300 years before the Fall and was rebuilt many times. According to him, it was first built as a defensive fort, then underwent many changes and was intended to serve as a residence or treasury..." At this point Revy intervened.
"Treasury? So there could be something valuable there?"
"Maybe... But I doubt it..." Dewar said, shifting in the cart's seat. "Since the last reconstruction was supposed to be a transformation back into a defensive fort, it's unlikely they left anything worth noting, especially not after so many years... Or at least that's what this researcher claimed."
"Do you trust what he said?"
"I see no reason not to trust him..." He answered her after a moment of thought. "The way he was speaking it and what he pointed out sounded authentic and quite reasonable."
After a few minutes, they were already at the hill. From the bushes surrounding the hill, a stone building emerged. It wasn't large, and its wooden roof was collapsed in the middle. But It was still able to provide shelter for those who needed it. Dewar pulled the wagon closer to the building, then climbed down from it.
"Welcome to the shelter..." He said, looking around with satisfaction, as if he was proud that they had managed to come this far.
"Shelter?" Rock asked, pulling closer to the building and dismounting his horse.
"Exactly..." The dwarf replied proudly. "...A place where any traveler can stop to rest." He said, then looked around, and what he saw made him lose his enthusiasm. "Or at least, that's what it was called when this trail was used more often..." Rock looked around himself. He saw a stone circle, barely visible in the grass, and rotten logs surrounding the stone circle.
"There must have been no one here for a long time..."
"That's true..." The dwarf sighed.
"Who cares!" Revy shouted, tying her mare to a nearby tree. "My ass is already hurting from sitting in the saddle..." Rock looked at her.
"Revy, you know that in the near future, we'll probably be spending even more time in the saddle?"
"Fucking awesome..." She replied, walking past them. "Anyway, I'm going to take advantage of the break and explore the ruins... Maybe there's something of value left in them..." Rock shook his head, then looked at Dewar.
"Go with her..." The dwarf said in a calm voice. "I'll take care of the horses... Just be careful. After all this time, everything that could have collapsed probably did, but you still need to be watch out..." Rock nodded and headed towards Revy, who was already a few meters ahead of him.
Revy was quickly climbing up the gentle hill. The ground beneath her boots was hard, and the grass was sparse, compared to the greenery surrounding her. Looking down, she could see smoothed stones between the blades of grass. A definite remnant of the path that must have led from the road to the building at the top. The hill wasn't particularly high, so after a dozen or so steps she was already at the top. Only then was she able to fully appreciate the size of the castle.
She stood in front of a large wooden door, bound with rusting iron. It looked massive and heavy, and additionally uneven. One wing must have broken off its hinges and was resting solely on the other wing. On either side of the gate stood even higher towers made of stone. One of them was covered from top to bottom with something that reminded her of ivy. Revy, in a daze, scanned the stone structure with her gaze when she heard Rock's voice behind her.
"Wow..."
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" She asked without taking her eyes off the building.
"There are many castles in Japan... But this is different... Looks more European..." He replied, looking up. Revy nodded slightly, then lowered her gaze and looked around. Then she noticed a path leading next to the wall, only slightly overgrown with bushes.
"We can't get through the gate..." She said, then slowly headed towards the passage.
"That's true... They don't look like they want to open, and they're a good 7 meters..." He said, not seeing where Revy was going. "Maybe if we tried... Revy! Where are you going?!" Only after a moment did he see his companion disappearing behind the bushes.
"Come on, don't fuck around na come here! I think I saw a hole in the wall somewhere on this side..." She shouted, leaning out from behind the bushes, then disappeared behind them again.
"Dewar, he said to be careful..." He said approaching the passage, but before he could finish Revy interrupted him.
"We're not children... We'll be careful. Just watch where you step." Rock leaned out behind the bushes and saw what she meant. Behind the line of bushes he saw Revy standing by the wall, where there was less than two meters of ground, beyond which there was already the edge of the hill and a steep drop down. "It's not very high..." She said leaning slightly towards the cliff, to Rock's horror. "...The fall probably won't be fatal... But it will definitely be painful."
"Maybe there is another passage somewhere..." Revy interrupted him.
"Rock, like I said... Don't fuck around and come on!... Or stay there if this is too much for you." She said straightening up, then carefully walked along the wall. Rock sighed then walked through the undergrowth and pressed his back against the wall as he walked towards her. Walking along it, he kept looking down. Despite the fact that he could easily spread his legs on this piece of land, the hills edge a bit further away gave him an unpleasant feeling. Despite this, he kept walking. After a few dozen meters of the narrow path, the strip of land separating the wall from the precipice widened, which calmed him down a bit. However, he continued to move carefully and slowly, which irritated Revy, but before her patience with him ran out, something else caught her attention.
"Rock look! We've got it!" Rock stopped and raised his head, looking in her direction. Then he saw her pointing at something that looked like a pile of stones lying right next to the wall. "Move, Rock, we're close!" She said, then ran towards the pile of rubble.
"Revy wait!" He shouted at her, but she paid him no attention. He sighed and then, with a faster step, still holding on to the wall, he followed her.
Revy ran to the pile of stones and looked up. Right above it, there was a huge hole in the wall. That's what she was looking for. Wasting no time, she began to climb up the stone blocks, which had probably once been part of this wall. Despite the fact that the hole was huge, Revy still had to climb 3 meters up the pile of building materials. However, after less than two minutes she was already at the top of the pile. Standing on it, a view of the interior of the fortress opened before her eyes.
The large stone walls, from the inside, made an even greater impression, only then could you see how thick they really were and how it looked as if it was ready for a world end. Right by the wall itself, there were stairs to the top of wall, in five places, and these were only the ones visible from her perspective. Next to them were buildings, also made of stone, they looked as if their presence was an indispensable part of the construction plans. Unfortunately, the roofs of these buildings had long since collapsed.
Revy took a step forward. Approaching the gap, she was able to see more. She looked around, then she noticed the gate they had been standing in front of a moment earlier. The huge doors were half covered by rubble and pieces of rooting wood. A path lined with flat stones led from the gate itself, which clearly separated itself from the densely growing grass around it. The stones led along the wall, like veins, reaching every building and stairs inside the fortifications. In the middle of the courtyard, in front of the gate grew a large, overgrown tree. As if equally spaced from all the buildings. Further on, the path led to wide stairs that led to an elevated area, which was already level with Revy was standing on. She looked inside for a moment longer, through the gap, when she heard sounds coming from behind her.
She looked back. She noticed Rock, who had just reached the foot of the rubble and was starting to climb. She leaned towards him, then extended her hand to him. After a moment, when Rock was close enough, he grabbed it. Revy quickly helped him up, pulling him up.
"Thanks..." He said, dusting the dust from the stones off his pants.
"Sure, no problem..." She said with calm voice, then returned her gaze to the view inside the fort.
"Wow, quite a view..." Rock said, as he also turned his attention to the interior.
"Right?" She replied with satisfaction in voice. "Alright, let's see if there's anything valuable in here..." She said, then took a step forward, passing the walls.
They spent the next few minutes exploring the ruins. In addition to what they were able to see from the breach in the wall, they went deeper into the ruins, where they saw even more buildings. Many of them were even more impressive than those located right by the gate. The further into the castle they went, the more buildings there was, built in the center of the courtyard and near the walls, between which ran numerous paths paved with stone. Looking at it all, the density of the buildings and their quality, resembled an old city, despite the fact that within the boundaries of these walls they counted a maximum of 23 buildings. Unfortunately, all of these buildings, no matter how impressive they looked, had already been pass their best days. Each of them was damaged to some extent. Collapsed roofs or walls, and those that were still standing were overgrown with moss or ivy, and in some buildings, where the floor had long since rotted, on its remains grew bushes, no smaller than those outside.
Rock was sitting on one of the stone blocks. Behind him was a pile of similar, equally arranged blocks, next to which lay rotten remains of a wooden structure along with remnants of ropes that had not yet fully rotted away. He sat and watched the ruins of the castle in silence. Overgrown, forgotten and abandoned. He waited for Revy. She was searching one of the nearby buildings, despite his strong opposition. After a few minutes, since she entered the building, her scream was suddenly heard.
"Fucking yes! I have it! Finally, fucking, something!" Rock stood up and approached the building.
"Revy! Do you need help?!" He called inside.
"No! I think I'll do just..." He heard, then a bang came out of the building's windows and doors, then dust rose. "...fine myself..." She finished after a moment from inside, then coughed. Immediately afterwards, she stood in the doorway of the two-story building she was searching. Her face was covered in dust, and she was holding a wooden chest in her hands. "It might be something valuable... Help me open it!" She said sitting down on the stairs leading to the building and placing the crates in front of her.
"Where did you find this?" He asked walking over to her and handing her a cloth to wipe her face.
"It was under the remains of the floor that collapsed..." She said wiping her face. "...but not fully so I managed to pull it out. Now all that's left is to open it." Rock looked at her find. It was a small wooden box with metal fittings that had long since rusted, and the wood itself had long since started rot. It didnt have a lock, but the amount of rust made it impossible to open it easily. Revy finished wiping her face and handed the dirty cloth to Rock. "Okay, let's get to it..." She said then began to struggle with the chest.
"Revy, wait..." However, before he could finish, Revy ran out of patience.
"The damn thing won't open!" She kicked the wooden chest, sending it down the stairs. It bounced off each step, clattering loudly, only to shatter with a bang as it hit the stone pavement. Suddenly, two dark glass containers rolled out of the remains of the box. They both stood up and walked closer. Rock looked into the remains of the box, and Revy focused on the containers. Both were made of dark blue glass, through which the contents could not be seen, the cork was tightly pressed into the neck.
"The fuck is this?" She asked, picking up both containers and looking at them.
"Dyes, I think..." She heard Rock's voice. She turned around and saw a yellow powder in his hand and inside the box. "You must have found a box of some painter's dyes..." He said, rubbing the yellow powder on his hand, coloring his gloves with it.
"I was counting on gold..." She said after a moment of silence, saturated with dissatisfaction. "What do you think, is it worth a damn thing?"
"I have no idea... I'll take them, we'll ask Dewar..." He said, taking out the intact containers from the remains of the chest, then he took the two from Revy's hands. In the meantime, Revy sat down on the stairs, clearly dissatisfied.
"What a fucking piece of shit. After what that dwarf said, I was hoping for some valuables... And here's just this shit... Ehh... Let's check the other buildings, maybe we'll find something."
"No way! This one was in the best condition of them all, and you still had to move some rubble to get something out... We better get back." Rock threw the bag over his shoulder and slowly walked in the direction they came from.
Revy looked at him with reluctance, then after a moment she supported her hand on the ground to stand up. Then she felt something round under her hand, standing out from the surroundings. It only took her a few seconds to find coverd with moss gold coins, laying among the grass. Revy's eyes lit up seeing the gold. Suddenly she heard Rock calling to her again.
"Revy are you coming?!" He asked standing at the corner of one of the distant buildings, looking at her.
"Yeah, just a moment..." She replied, glancing at the coins. She was about to tell him about them, but before she could, he spoke again.
"By the way, don't you feel weird here?" He said, turning his head and looking at the half-collapsed building in front of him.
"What do you mean?" She asked, looking in his direction. "Rock, don't you start with another moralizing speech..."
"No, that's not what I mean!" He replied quickly. "It's just, it feels weird here. All these buildings, this castle. Whatever was here, or whoever lived here was definitely important…" Revy looked around. The huge stone ruins cast a shadow over her. She could still feel the majesty, power, and wealth of whoever had once used them.
"So?"
"There's nothing left of this here… Just a pile of stones, whose purpose… No one knows or remembers… When I think about it, I feel strange…" There was a deafening silence, disturbed only by the sounds of the wind that stirred the few leaves of ivy growing on the forgotten walls. "You know what?" He spoke again. "Never mind what I said… I'll wait for you by the hole." He added and disappeared around the corner of the ruined building.
Revy looked for a moment in the direction Rock had disappeared. Then she looked at the ruined stone buildings that had once been something. And finally, with confusion, she looked at the gold coins in her hand.
A little over an hour had passed since they had mounted their horses again. In that time, Rock, Revy and Dewar had managed to get through another, much smaller, forest, a valley and cross a shallow and calm river. As they rode up the hill, Dewar was leding them. When he reached the top, he shouted to his companions behind him.
"Well... We're finally here!" Hearing this, Rock and Revy hurried their horses, and after reaching the top, they saw a large village bellow them, consisting of at least a few dozen buildings, and beyond them, fields and pastures stretching into the neighboring meadows.