Chapter 42: Silver Scale Bay
When the pocket watch hands pointed to seven o’clock, Anse and the other two bid farewell to Emon and set off on the road.
They really didn’t want to camp in the wilderness anymore; Baldur’s Gate had suddenly suffered a disaster, with all sorts of monsters coming out, and it was very chaotic.
At their speed, if they set off early, they could reach the West Coast before sunset.
Anse had Greyhawk go ahead to scout the road; with it there, they wouldn’t stray too far even if off course.
Approaching noon, they finally found the “road,” a winding alley with wheel ruts and footprints of humans and beasts on the surface, clearly frequented often.
After passing through a woodland, endless corn fields stretched before them, half-person high, lush green, full of vitality.
Young and strong farmers patrolled the field edges with dogs; the corn was still far from maturity, mainly to guard against beasts.
The three’s arrival filled the farmers with vigilance, but when Anse removed his cloak, their hostility dissipated greatly, and they answered almost every question.
This village was called Oxhorn Village, with only a few dozen households, private property of the Stelman family from Baldur’s Gate.
Following this road straight west for over ten kilometers led to Silver Scale Bay, famous nearby for its silver scale trout.
Anse and the others simply didn’t rest, ate something casually, and continued hurrying on.
The alley was small but much easier to traverse than the wilderness; after over three hours, a large cluster of low buildings appeared ahead, chaotically filling the gaze, permeated with civilization and the smell of hearth fires.
Farther away was endless blue, sea and sky blending as one; just one glance made the heart feel as if it held the entire world, sweeping away all gloom.
Strands of sea breeze brushed the face, gentle like Tia’s hands, refreshing the mind and involuntarily relaxing.
“Woo-roar—”
Brat shouted loudly, spread his arms, and ran toward the front, as if to embrace the entire Sword Sea.
Anse laughed heartily, lightly patted the horse’s back, and Nolnos happily galloped forward.
“Hey—” Finn grimaced, striding with his long legs to catch up.
As the road extended, the full view of Silver Scale Bay gradually came into sight.
This was a fishing town, low-lying terrain, distributed around an irregular crescent bay, very narrow and long.
If Silver Scale Bay was the eye, the fishing town was a sloppy eyebrow, thick and curved.
The town had no city wall, many roads and entrances, but each major intersection had two or more guards vigilantly watching passersby.
Anse wasn’t surprised; with such a big incident in Baldur’s Gate, lacking vigilance would be too incompetent.
“Look over there, seems like a refugee camp.” Brat pointed to the tents on both sides of the road.
“Mm.”
Anse removed his cloak, revealing his head and face to avoid misunderstanding.
The two guards glanced at him, their gazes lingering on Nolnos for a moment, then cleared the road from afar.
Their main duty was to guard against large groups of refugees and underground creatures, not to invite trouble.
The town was crowded with people, bustling and flowing endlessly, lively unlike a town.
“Why so many people?” Brat said in surprise.
Anse raised his staff pointing toward the bay now obscured by buildings: “Baldur’s Gate is in trouble, the Chongsa River mouth must be clogged with numerous merchant ships, surrounding ports or anchorages are probably all packed; crowds are the normal situation…”
“So many people, yet no one goes to help.” Brat pursed his lips.
Anse chuckled lightly: “Didn’t we run out too?”
“Uh, we’re different.” Brat’s expression froze, somewhat unconvinced.
He was just about to organize words to retort when a commotion arose in the crowd ahead, with many surging toward the west port.
Anse seemed to hear the term fish people, frowning involuntarily.
“Follow them.”
“Okay.”
The town had many boats, nets, and fish, fewer horses and livestock; Nolnos was unusually tall and oddly shaped, so crowds parted wherever it went.
Seeing this, Brat and the other followed behind Nolnos’s rear, indeed much easier.
The three followed all the way to the dock area, unusually noisy here, surrounded in layers by crowds.
Anse stood high and saw far, spotting the dock covered in corpses at a glance: a few human, the rest Kuo-Toa, at least a dozen.
Their ugly appearance and dark purple skin made them unmistakable.
A wooden sailing ship about thirty meters long was docked, hull scarred and patched extensively, bloodstains seeped into the wood in patches.
“What kind of monster is that?”
“Dragon Lake Fleet got beaten…”
“Chongsa River really blocked?”
“We’re done for…”
“…”
Anse listened to the noisy voices around, his suspended heart instead relaxing.
These were all expected; due to information gaps, many hadn’t realized the severity yet.
Breaking the blockade wasn’t hard, just gather armed ships from several families; hard was driving the fish people back underground completely, or the Chongsa River wouldn’t know peace.
He gave Brat and the other an eye signal, and they exited the crowd, returning to a much quieter street.
“Nolnos is too conspicuous.”
The holy symbol on his chest burned hot, but with chaotic gazes, he couldn’t pinpoint the source.
He turned into an alley, unloaded everything while alone, then activated the Amulet of Cooperation.
Nolnos looked at him reluctantly, started to step away but suddenly stopped, lowered its head to tear open the backpack, grabbed the remaining few pounds of frozen crab meat, leaped into the air, and vanished.
“Uh, hard to keep a straight face.” Anse tugged his mouth, seriously doubting Nolnos’s motivation for contracting with him.
He shouldered the backpack, waved his hand: “Let’s go, find an inn.”
“Where did Nolnos go? Will it come back?” Brat asked doubtfully.
“Feywild, it’s a fey, probably returning to its clan. It can come back anytime, don’t worry.”
Provided the holy symbol wasn’t lost, as neither Anse nor Nolnos could open fey passages; the contract remained, but they couldn’t meet.
“That’s too convenient.”
“Is there a Watchers Guild branch here?”
“Probably.”
Anse leveraged his charisma advantage, quickly learned the town’s general situation from a shop assistant, and successfully found the Watchers Guild branch.
Unfortunately, the guild was small and already full.
The three had to go to the largest inn north of town: Moon Shadow Kui Ling, with a typically elven-style name, and even the inn’s interior and exterior decor exceptionally different.
Two six-story wooden houses sat in a large garden; one like a colorful mushroom, the other like a treehouse overgrown with vegetation, surrounded by lush flowers and plants, as if in a fairy tale world.
The three stood like country bumpkins entering the city at the rustic-style courtyard gate, standing stunned for a moment.
“This surely isn’t a private manor?” Brat looked shocked.
Anse looked up at the wooden sign above and the two human doormen at the entrance, then pushed the door first into the garden.
The place seemed right; he was just worrying about his wallet.
Sometimes too much charisma wasn’t necessarily good; maybe that shop assistant truly thought a “tall, rich, and handsome” guy like him should stay in such a place.
“Are the three here for accommodation or dining?” The doorman didn’t move; a waiter in a color-block vest emerged from the greenery, stepping up to them.
“Accommodation.” Anse removed his hood, muttering inwardly if his face would work.
“Gentlemen, follow me.” The waiter led beside them, bringing the three to the mushroom house counter, then left directly.
Behind the counter sat a silver-long-haired female elf, her pretty blue pupils constantly sizing up Anse.
“You arrived just right, two rooms left, one room max two people.” Her voice was soft, eyes crinkling with a smile.
Anse didn’t look at her, but through the glass window, stared fixedly at a familiar figure in the garden.
‘Gais!’
The first assistant instructor who got the original host killed and took Mentor Fabian’s personal relic.
Thanks to all reader lords for your support and suggestions!
