Sword Edge is a city from far west in the continent of Victorian. Well, it is a collection of mutiple cities and towns gathering near the sea but it has two major cities. First is the Maverick City, home to the alleged "Queen" of the entire Sword Edge force. The second is the Sword Port, responsible for gathering or trading supplies from the other Continents.
It was said that the Queen was the one who led the people and created the kingdom of mercenaries, where the people can do all kinds of work in exchange for money. There are not much information about the Queen of Sword Edge, except that she was once a Sword Saint candidate before the pandemic happened. She might be one now, meaning there would be a total of atleast 4 Sword Saints on the continent. A Sword Saint! People who attain such a status will be hailed as heroes for generations and yet, in the current Era, there are four Sword Saints within a century!
Their forces are made up of just mercenaries for hire but i have found that they have quite a deep loyalty to the Queen even though they are mercenaries. People who move and kill for money. How she managed to create such a kingdom that is built on the premise of getting money in exchange for labor, is a mystery, even for me, as genius as i.
They are quite near the infamous Forests of Depravity, which houses those madmen from Arkvem. I found out from a secret source of mine that the Sword Edge Army is pushing inside the forest, presumably trying to make contact with Arkvem for a diplomatic alliance?
Well, with the threat of the Church, maybe an alliance with the other forces will keep the entire Sword Edge safe. After all, even the Church will hesitate to attack if they know they are surrounded by like allianced forces. i do hoped they back down for now and give the continent a few more years of peace. We had just gone through the pandemic, nay, participating within it! It would be wise if these forces work together to find a cure to the disease....
Though i have heard of rumors that somewhere on the south, a vaccine is created to prevent the spread of the disease. I would need you to confirm if these rumours are true, and if so, we must take this opportunity to be the ones to circulate these vaccines to the continent and thus, maximising our profits and reputation!
Anyhow, enough of that. My current plans are to enter Arkvem, the infamous city deep within the center of the forest of depravity. I have been trying to sneak inside Arkvem for a while now. I tried to become a refugee to sneak inside, but sadly, they were able to discover my many valuable books and accessories. Good thing i wore a mask and escaped with the other vagrants before i got captured. They are quite strict when it comes to the safety of their people, the guards themselves hesitate to help people from not within their community. This could mean that they do not really trust outsiders that much.
That is all i have for this issue. I'm currently trying to sneak inside the city of Arkvem and act as if im one of them. Shedding light to Arkvem's mysteries will surely increase my fame and my unbounded curiosity towards such an interesting force shall be satiated once and for all!
—Excerpt from a letter for Mathew Grits from Ingraf Bellper—
In a campsite, countless tents were made with a small campfire at the center of the tent. Beyond the camp were large trenches encircled around the camp. A few meters away were corpses of beasts that were left behind.
"Oh, another one." One of the hunters muttered while grabbing a crossbow.
A beast that had large antlers with a beaver like head snooped to the trench, it moved its nose for a moment before trudging the path carefully, afraid to get the attention of anything that would eat it.
It finally arrived at the edges of the trench, looking around for a moment, it found the source of the smell just a few meters across the trench.
It huffed before looking around.
Then it positioned itself to jump across but suddenly, a whistle sounded out and just before the beast could react, an arrow was stuck to its head, digging through its skull with ease.
The beast flinched before letting a howl of pain and tried to run but its brain suddenly enlarged.
Its head burst like a balloon, blood splattered around the area as brain bits followed after.
The beast swiftly fell down to the ground without even a hint of struggle.
Its body twitched for a moment or two before it fully stopped.
Seeing that, the hunter put down the crossbow and grabbed a rope with a hook attached at the end.
He aimed for a moment, spinning the rope around in circles before tossing it.
The rope landed at the beast's belly and pierced its skit and stuck to it.
Feeling the rope secured, the hunter lightly pulled the corpse and it soon fell down the trench.
He moved the rope around, finally managing to remove the hook from the corpse before pulling the rope up.
A hunter turned to look at him and whistled, "Whew, you snagged a big one."
The hunter nodded his head with a grin, "Yeah, and a mixed herbivore type beast too. One less beast to worry about."
The hunter chuckled before a woman in black armor walked towards him as the two of them dropped everything that they were doing and saluted to the woman.
The woman, obviously seen everything, marched up infront of them and turned to the hunter who caught the beast.
She pulled out a small notepad from the inner pockets of her armor and a pen.
"What kind of beast was it?" She asked as the hunter stood at attention.
"It was a mixed herbivore type beast, maam. A mix between a beaver and a deer."
She wrote what he said before writing his name above the written note and looked up at him.
"A mixed beast, huh? Its been a while since we've last seen those types."
The hunter nodded his head with an obvious proud smile on his face, "Yes maam, we see them once in a blue moon."
The woman stared at the proud hunter for a moment before shaking her head and sighed.
"You did well, hunter. But don't let these achievements get into your head. To survive in this god forsakened world and protect our love ones, we must never let our emotions control our actions!"
The hunter, knowing he was being chided by the commander, meekly pushed his head to his collars.
"Do you understand, hunter?"
"Yes maam."
"Good." The woman nodded her head before walking away. "I will report your capture of a rare specimen to the First Hunter."
Hearing that, the hunter's face beamed in joy. "Thank you!"
He bowed deeply, as too his friend on the side.
The woman just waved her hand and walked away.
***
"Commander, may i enter?" The woman softly said as she flapped the cloth of the tent.
A moment later, a loud thunk and thank sounded from the inside before silence. Then a cough sounded out with a resounding yet embarrassed tone, "Yes, do come in."
The woman entered the tent, then turned to her right to where Klein Hielms sat. A large table at the center of the room with a huge map of the entire Victorian Continent. There were countless x's and circles marked on the map using charcoal.
The woman placed a piece of paper from the large folder she was carrying, prompting Klein to turn his head down and grab the paper.
He moved his eyes for a moment, before chuckling.
"How lucky." He muttered with a smirk as the woman let out a giggle.
"Incredibly so."
Klein put the paper down and turned to the woman, "Jess, give our lucky hunter some contribution points."
"Affirmative." The woman nodded her head and turned her heels. She left the tent, leaving Klein alone inside.
Klein watched her. He then pretended to do something but his ears were in full force. Upon hearing that no one was near his tent, he bent down and grabbed a bottle of wine from under the covers of rags.
He let out a smile and wiped the tip of the bottle.
He also grabbed a glass from a drawer of his table and placed it down before pouring the wine to the glass. After everything was done, Klein grabbed the glass of wine and took a sip.
He tasted it for a moment, letting the wine swirl in his mouth with his tongue, he swallowed it and let out a satisfied gasp.
"This wine is amazing. How did they make the wine to perfection? Outsiders do have better wine making skills than ours."
Muttering to himself, he suddenly flinched as a woman was staring at him from his bed.
"Good afternoon, Klein."
Seeing that, he slowly grabbed the wine bottle and pushed it down, desperately hiding the bottle from the woman, nay, from the Lady.
"M-Marivic! What brings you here?"
Marivic just chuckled as the bottle that he was hiding suddenly appeared in her hand, she smiled and stood up from the bed.
She then grabbed his glass and poured herself some wine and drank it slowly. She savored the taste for a moment before her eyes widened.
"Oh, how delightful." She muttered as Klein nodded his head in silence.
'Now that bottle isn't going to be mine anymore...' Thinking that, he turned to the woman who suddenly barged inside.
"Now that you had a taste, kindly give it back to its owner—"
"You jest! This exquisite wine is now mine."
Klein tried to convince her to give back to wine only for his words to be cut off by her. Marivic chuckled loudly as she poured another glass.
Harrumphing, he grabbed a cigar from the table and lit it up. He then took a breath before exhaling the smoke, while he was doing this, his hands grabbed an ash tray from somewhere and he rested the cigar on it.
Smelling the smoke, Marivic's eyebrows deepened but she ultimately didn't try to stop him from doing so, after all, if he wanted to die old with lung cancer, she wouldn't stop him.
Who was he to make her convince him to stop?
"Anyhow, why is the very benevolent lady doing in the Crown's frontyard?"
Marivic stared at him while sipping. Klein waited for her to finish as he watched her put the glass down and wipe her lips with a handkerchief.
"Im here to scout out the area for a while."
"Scout the area? Why so?"
She poured herself another glass while she continued, "One of my contacts asked me to find a horn of a herbivore type beast, something about their tissues being a great source of blood."
"Great source of blood? Wouldn't that be the heart?" Klein asked while taking a puff.
Marivic nodded, "Yes, but this child specifically asked me to get a horn, the bigger the better. Honestly, i don't buy her excuse but she does pay me lots so i have no choice."
Klein chuckled, "Then you must be quite lucky today. One of my men found a mixed type herbivore beast with deer antlers. That should be sufficient for your request?"
"Yes, of course." Marivic nodded her head while downing another shot.
Nodding his head, Klein stood up and walked to the front of the tent to call for someone, "I'll have someone get that for you. Anything else?"
He then froze as Marivic pulled out 3 more bottles of the wine she just finished, looking at him with a grin while holding the bottles, "And these 3 too, thank you~.."
Klein looked on in horror.