Going on a Trip

"In a couple of days I plan on going on a hunting trip, it has been a long time in planning but I never managed to find enough time to do so, especially with the never-ending work that keeps piling up." the marquess took a sip of his drink before continuing.

"Now that I finally have some free time, how about you accompany me? Your brother is not here so it's just going to be me, you and the accompanying guards." Lord Ulric proposed.

William thought about it for a moment as he thought "this is interesting, though I don't really care about hunting that much I do want to go and explore this world a bit more, it's unlikely we will go that far anyway so it should not take too long."

After thinking about It, William asked "when are you planning to take the trip and for how long?"

"Three days from now, it would take us about a day to reach our destination as well as a day to go back, adding in few days of hunting, overall we will be gone for less than a week. " answered lord Ulric.

"Why not father, it's a great opportunity to spend some time together, not to mention that with you ahead of the personal guards we will be completely safe. What's the worst that can possibly happen, right?" Answered William after thinking about it with a big smile on his face.

A few moments later though he face-palmed himself. "What's the worst that can possibly happen? What's the worst that can possibly happen? Have I learned nothing, you just raised a red flag, god damn it William" William screamed in his head to himself.

Seeing his son slap himself in the face lord Ulric furrowed his eyebrows and asked "William, are you ok?" perplexed by his son's behavior.

William immediately answered with a random excuse "yeah, it's just this fly that keeps bothering me, I think I just got it though, so everything is fine."

"See what you did William, if this was a novel, this would be the very thing an author would introduce to force an event that would lead the main character to be in a dangerous situation for growth purposes. Let me guess!!! we go on the trip and once we are there we get attacked by bandits. No matter, thank god this is real life so everything should be just fine, I guess, I ….hope."

As he got to the end William sounded a lot less sure while thinking to himself.

After he finished his lunch William once more went with his guards to the business district to tour it. He was extremely tired and would have liked nothing more than a nap but he decided to stick to his plan.

After a long day, William finally called it a day and went back to his room in the castle, he wanted to do a bit of reading since he still had about an hour of sunlight, but his body and mind could no longer persist and William could ignore their protests no more.

He asked Laura to bring him his dinner to his room, after thanking her he simply ate it and went to bed. The moment his head touched the pillow his mind had drifted to the dreamlands.

For the next three days William persisted in his training as he slowly started to acclimate himself to it, it wasn't by much but there was progress nonetheless. He also checked Edmund's story for any discrepancy, he asked around for information, such as when they moved in, what's their financial situation and so on. William found nothing amiss; apparently, he did tell him the truth which was good news to him. He also informed Edmund that he will be "busy" and therefore gave him more time to do his research until he came back.

William also continued his exploration of the city of Landow. He wanted to visit the docks and see what was going there, but the guards and especially lord Ulric refused without compromise, at least not with his measly five guards as an escort.

When William asked how much, the lord simply said a "platoon", which William found to be ridiculous as it would simply mean it would be impossible for him to go in disguise.

After many attempts to "renegotiate the terms" William simply gave up as the marquess had really put his foot down on this matter, limiting himself to the district that was reserved for the wealthy and nobility.

The reason why lord Ulric demanded that William takes a platoon of guards with him if he wished to visit the docks was that it was mainly filled with cheap labor that was used to load and unload cargo; this labor was mainly sourced from the slums that were situated across the rivers and outside the city perimeter.

These dock workers were paid very little for their grueling hours of work, making the whole place more susceptible to crime.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon the day for their departure for the hunt was upon them and the preparations were complete.

That very day they departed shortly after the sun had risen, taking their equipment and a procession of about thirty guards as escorts in case of emergencies as well as about ten servants.

William was allowed to mount a horse and use it, as long as he was assigned a guard to stay near and watch over him in case another accident were to happen, not to mention that they were not planning on hurrying to their destination and instead, take their time and enjoy the scenery.

They exited the city through the gate on the city wall that shielded it in the east; then headed northeast towards the thick forests that populated the bases of the western Daggertooth Mountains.

At the head of the hunting expedition was Lord Ulric, followed by William and his guard, then the rest as they traveled through the dirt road.

After some time William could not help but think.

"The roads are just dirt and nothing more, even though we are this close to the city; either the marquess does not know the value of a well funded and maintained infrastructure, does not have the money to build it or simply does not need it, as the rivers can play that very same role on their own."

None the less William thought that if it were him, he would certainly spend a great deal on upgrading and improving the roads as much as he could, so as to squeeze as high an income through trade. After all, you could rarely screw up by doing so.

As they rode William finally felt a moment of happiness ever since he found himself in this new world, all the deeply buried anxiety and stress that he so unhealthily ignores dissipated somewhat as he breathed in the fresh unpolluted air.

He also as felt the wind on his cheeks as the green plains spread in front of him for quite a distance, dotted by small communities of farmers and their fields, that no doubt supplied the city with some of its food requirements.

It was a truly liberating and breathtaking view, especially for a city dweller like him, who rarely got to see such landscape back on earth. No plane trails in the blue skies, no smoke from factories or cars, no forests of concrete to obstruct his view, nothing but himself and the nature around him.

"This is a virgin world, a world untouched by human industry and though I am proud of what we have achieved back on earth, I feel as if we had sacrificed something in the process and I don't know if we could ever get it back" William thought to himself as he took in the view.