Remedios agreed and sent a paladin up ahead.
The knight went to the gate of the Nation of Darkness and then came back.
“Commander, I let the guard know. They welcome us.”
“Okay, got it. Then let’s go! Flag up! Chests out! Don’t do anything that would shame the Sacred Kingdom’s Paladin Order!”
With that shout to start them off, the party had their horses slowly approach the city.
Soon they were able to clearly see the gate and the giants working around it.
The giants were stabilizing the statues and doing maintenance work, cleaning up the carvings to make them even more beautiful.
The giants had pale-blueish skin and white beards and hair. They wore primitive clothing made from some sort of beast skins along with sophisticated mail shirts.
“What kind of giants are they?”
Neia’s superior hearing meant she could listen in on the conversation at the head of the group.
“I imagine they’re probably the frost variety.”
“Hmm.” She heard Remedios’s vague reply. “Are they strong? What kind of powers do they have?”
“…Seriously? Give me a break… Frost giants live in frigid regions and have perfect resistance to chill. But they’re weak against fire.”
“I see. So we should attack with fire if we have to fight them.”
“Well, yes. Mythril-rank adventurers should be able to beat them with minimal hassle. But some of them are trained like us and have warrior abilities. So you have to be careful.”
That’s what giants were like.
Warrior training, caster training, thief training. Humans weren’t the only ones polishing their skills. Superior races tended not to train in that way, but some did put in the effort to acquire skills, thus becoming extremely challenging adversaries.
Neia’s father always said, A beast you can tell by looking. Powerful enemies you can’t gauge by sight alone are the toughest.
“Hmm, I’ve never fought a giant. Well, ogres are a different story, but…”
“You’ll offend them if you lump them in with ogres. According to the sea giant, it’s like thinking humans and monkeys are basically the same—although I heard that secondhand from a bard, so I don’t know how true it is.”
“Hrm. So Roebel wasn’t able to hire the sea giant, but the Nation of Darkness has hired frost giants? Which type of giant is stronger?”
“Mm, I don’t know details like that…”
The commander was probably hoping that the sea giant was superior, but what was important in this case was how the frost giants were treated by the Nation of Darkness.
Were they here on friendly terms? Or had they been forced into submission? Or was it a mutually beneficial exchange of goods, services, and money?
Just looking at the silently laboring giants, it was impossible to tell.
But wow, giants sure look like fantastic workers. The Sacred Kingdom cooperates with subhumans, too, but if we could expand the races we work with, I’m sure we could accomplish all sorts of things. Of course, it’s probably impossible for us…
Roebel had a long-standing cooperative relationship with mermen, but they were an exception. The Sacred Kingdom had also gone to war with subhumans, so they would probably never be widely accepted in human society.
Did the Nation of Darkness only accept giants? Or did they welcome all different kinds of races? If they encountered subhumans like the ones attacking Roebel, would Neia be able to suppress her hostile instincts?
I mean, I’ll have to, but…
For instance, what if snakemen showed up? What if snakemen, from lands Roebel had no contact with, were living in harmony with humans in the Nation of Darkness? Raising one’s sword against a snakeman just because there happened to be some in a hostile force attacking her homeland was surely a dangerous line of thinking. It would probably be impossible to simply say, Don’t give in to antagonistic feelings, but in this case, they had to abide by the rules.
Neia looked with some concern at Remedios up ahead.
Would their leader be able to do that?
Neia shook her head internally. It’s disrespectful of me to worry about Remedios like that. She’s working to save the Sacred Kingdom as the head of the delegation. Surely she can suppress an emotional response. For someone like me to doubt her is awfully rude.
“Is it fine for us to keep going like this? Should we head for a different gate?”
The gate was open, but they wondered if the giants would pay enough attention as they worked to not step on them.
“Straight in is fine. They would laugh at us and our country if we switched gates because we were scared of some giants.”
“…Understood. Then we’ll follow your lead, Commander.”
The party continued on toward the gate.
Thankfully, the giants took one look at the humans and paused their work so the smaller beings could pass safely. Neia got the impression that rather than fondness for humans, the giants had some feeling about them as visitors to the Nation of Darkness.
Usually a group would be stopped at the gate, but since they had sent someone ahead, they were led into the magically illuminated city by a human who seemed to be a guard.
The war-trained horses snorted uneasily in the unnatural light.
“Welcome to the Nation of Darkness’s city, E-Rantel. Is this your first time here?”
“Yes, it is.”
“I see. Then, if you’ll excuse me asking, could you please come off your horses?”
Are they going to inspect our luggage? wondered Neia. For them to inspect the bags of a group visiting as messengers from another country seemed a bit lacking in courtesy, but it was probably the right move.
Having dismounted from their horses without complaint, the group followed the guard who guided them with a “This way,” to a door off the side of the gate. Common sense told Neia it must have been an observation tower used as barracks for soldiers and a defense base.
“Please go in here for now. Our country is quite different from the kingdom or the Theocracy, etc., so we have first-time visitors receive a lecture here.”
“A lecture?”
“Yes, to avoid any unnecessary trouble. You won’t be permitted to enter the city until the lecture
