⌈The wasteland town Buranbeina⌋
Before long, a town built atop a small hill next to the highway came into view. A stone wall surrounded the town and I could see the roofs of several box-shaped buildings peeking over the wall from here. Unlike other cities I’ve been to there was almost no decoration to the city, but the impression it gave off was more sturdy than impoverished.
I’d say the town looked more like a fort than anything.
The only patch of greenery in the reddish landscape was around the hill. There was an area of farmland around the town and there were barely any people maintaining it. Compared to the size of the fields, there weren’t enough human silhouettes around to properly maintain them.
“Let’s stop for a bit and ask for some directions.”
“Well, it looks like the road started to lead north before we noticed……”
I didn’t really notice until now, but the direction of the road had changed substantially. It was easy to lose sight of your direction when you follow a meandering road without a compass.
Without expressing a bit of my impatience, I turned off the road and headed towards the town.
The town walls were five meters high and made of clean stone, and atop the wall were the figures of guards.
The large front gate was wide open with only a single guard standing watch. When he noticed us the guard straightened his shoulders and stared in our direction.
When we reached the guard I extended my hand to him and began speaking.
“I know it sudden, but there’s something I need to ask you. We’re trying to get to a city called Lanbaltic, does the highway lead there?”
The guard looked puzzled at my question before turning to Ariane and looking her up and down. Ariane’s true form couldn’t be seen since she had hidden her face with her cloak’s hood.
When he was finished, the guard looked back at me and answered the question.
“No, I’ve never heard of a place called Lanbaltic around here. Of course, I’ve never left this town so I only know of nearby villages……”
The guard looked embarrassed by this and started scratch his head.
Even in the modern era, you couldn’t simply go to a foreign country and expect to immediately get directions a remote town.
“Hum, we’ll have to ask for directions in town then. How much is the entrance tax?”
I asked the guard that question as I reached for the leather pouch tied to my waist, however, the man just moved aside and urged us to pass.
“There is no entry tax for this town. Not enough people visit such a remote town to make an entrance tax profitable. Oh, but there a small fee for leaving.”
The man chuckled a little and welcomed us inside.
“Welcome to Buranbeina.”
We thanked the guard and set foot inside the town.
Despite being so early in the morning, there were a lot of people inside the city walls, completely different from outside. All the buildings were box-shaped and crowded together. The narrow gaps between the buildings created a complex maze of backstreets and alleyways. Thanks to the pieces of cloth hanging on the multiple clotheslines it was difficult to peer into the depths of the maze.
In the midst of this bustling town, multiple armed men with sleepy looking faces were walking around. Adventures were filtering into their respective inns while people with farming tools were coming out of private residents and heading towards the gate.
After walking against the flow of the crowd for a bit we came across an open marketplace. “Kyun!” After weaving through a group of housewives, Ponta caught the scent of something good and cried out, starting to wag her tail.
Ponta was staring at a street stall that was emitting the savory smell of roasted beans. Though not all that large, the beans looked similar to lentil, which needed to be roasted before eating.
She was probably hungry because she didn’t eat much in the capital. Because Ponta was crying out from atop my head the stall vendor noticed us in the middle of the noisy market and started to laugh.
“Hey, mister. How about it?”
“I’ll take two servings.”
The vendor said “Anytime!” in a booming voice as he took a wooden cup in his hand and scooped the beans into the leather pouch.
When I was about to ask for directions to Lanbaltic the stall owner chimed brought up a topic of his own first.
“Mister, are you here to hunt the Sand Wyverns?”
The question caused me to remember the Wyvern attack for before.
“No, are Sand Wyverns appearing frequently in this area?”
“Oh yes. Recently they’ve started to stray from the wastelands in large numbers and carry off a number of cattle.”