The trading town is an hour's march from the RazenHeir estate.
Grain, fruits, and spices from the kingdom of Herdial to the west.
Warehoused and sold here to merchants from the Zeppelin port MoraDale, several days' march away, the gateway to much of the continent.
From the other direction, enchanted weapons and armor, exotic materials from the workshops of the spire city in the east were sold here to Herdial merchants, who in turn offered monster parts and farm produce.
Bustling with commerce.
Bricked buildings with tilted roofs.
Paved roads with drainage on both sides.
Lush forested hills in the background.
A stone wall surrounded the town, just tall enough to keep the bears out.
Hikari walked beside Ria on horseback.
Taking baby steps with pauses in between to match a horse's pace.
Traffic funneled to either side of the giantess as she walked.
Men appeared out of their balconies.
Their women dragged them back in by yanking their arms.
Ria rode nervously beside her.
Staring down into the mane of her horse, holding the reins tightly.
She kept quiet.
The ambient sounds of merchants crying their wares.
Their patrons haggled with equal passion.
Badum. Badum. Her heart pounded as she felt the giantess's steps.
"So, Hikari."
She finally blurted out.
The giantess's gaze turned towards her.
Ria's breath stopped.
The overwhelming pressure from the giantess's gaze
"What is a day like for you?"
Ria barely mustered the courage to glance up, meeting Hikari's ruby-red eyes before timidly burying her head again.
"I train"
Simple words said with the force of a giantess.
Ria felt each vibration echo through her fragile frame.
She kept quiet and looked straight.
Her appointment was at a restaurant on the other side of town.
She rode past a watchtower.
A lookout post made of stone.
Three storeys high.
A pair of sentries with the long muskets slung over their backs.
She glanced up at Hikari again.
Hikari was looking straight.
Her massive sword, heavier than her lady's entire body, hung from her belt.
Her musket was the calibre of light field artillery.
"Umm, is that all?"
Ria managed another phrase, but her words were stuck in her throat.
She heard her own words leave her mouth, but she doubted if they travelled far enough to reach the giantess's ears.
Clop. Clop.
She heard her horse's steps against the stone pavement.
She rode past a merchant stand.
It was selling flowers.
They looked fresh sitting in their pots.
The florist watered them as the patrons inspected his wares.
Ria steals a glance at her giantess knight.
No response.
Ria grips her horse's reins.
"Yes"
"Ah, I see. What do you do for training? You must be a great swordsman with all those swords. Did the estate buy those? I think the smaller ones can be made at the estate forge. The house usually equips our knights with lighter swords. That claymore of yours-"
Ria ran out of breath before she could finish her last sentence.
Awkward silence.
Ria met her gaze.
Her breath stopped again.
She just couldn't get used to the piercing gaze.
Thud.
Badum! Badum!
She felt her heart pound.
Thud.
The giantess's footsteps.
Her chest felt tight.
Her hands shook as they held the reins.
"Do you-? Umm.."
She stuttered again.
It felt so uncharacteristic of her,
As a lady, she had spent an inordinate amount of effort practicing her speech.
But before Hikari, she was struggling to string her words together.
"I was thinking-. Maybe you could join me for- umm... lunch later… I want to know more about you if you're…"
Thud!
Hikari stomped her boot in front of her horse.
Neigh! The horse recoiled and backed off.
Ria held the reins tight to avoid being thrown off.
A carriage stopped in front of her.
The horses pulling it were in disarray.
The stable hand scrambled to calm them.
"What's going on here!"
A voice bellowed.
The merchant stomped out of his carriage.
"Don't you know how to-"
The pipe in his mouth dropped to the ground as he looked up at the giantess knight towering over him.
"Terribly sorry. I assure you our giant is well trained and wouldn't pose a danger to the public."
Ria rode up to him, apologizing.
"Ah… I see! The young lady RazenHeir. No worries at all! I was just passing by. Don't mind me. I'm just a humble merchant passing by."
The merchant signals for the stable hands before boarding his carriage.
The pack of horses timidly moved around Hikari's boots.
Ria takes a deep breath.
"Shall we continue?"
She saw Hikari's eyes move.
It was enough of a reply.
She continues down the road.
Thud.
The sound of the giantess's steps.
"Ahem!"
Ria clears her throat and composes herself.
"I'm Ria. I've lived in the estate my whole life. But I haven't seen you around before. Ah, I must have been cooped up within the estate too if I didn't notice you."
She was finally able to project her voice properly.
Thud. Thud.
She felt Hikari's eyes turn.
"The hills."
"The hills? You mean the area behind the estate? It's a beautiful area."
"I live there."
"That makes sense. It would be difficult to house you properly within the main estate or even the barracks. But I heard the woods are inhabited by bears. That's why no one else lives there. But I doubt they are a problem for you."
Thud. Thud.
The sound of Hikari's footsteps.
A group of warehouse workers crossed the road in front of them.
The lady and her knight stopped to make way.
As they crossed the road, they turned their heads and looked up at the giantess glaring down at them.
Their legs kept moving, but their eyes stayed glued in a direction that was not the same as the one they were moving in.
Crash!
They bumped into the warehouse wall.
They fell over each other, burying themselves into the boxes they were carrying and cursing out loud.
Ria cleared her throat.
"Let's continue."
There was not much they could do for them.
"Say, with all those weapons, you must be a monster hunter."
"Yes"
"What do you slay? Dragons? Titans? Mystical beasts?"
"No."
"I'm just joking. I glanced through the ledgers since I'm starting to take on some responsibilities. Swamp trolls, rot hounds, Dire ents, and wyverns. The monthly inventory of monster parts. So it was you who had been slaying them"
"Yes."
"Recently, the wyverns had started prowling the trade routes from here to Herdial, dragging men and horses off with them. It's unusual; the wyverns don't normally fly so far away from their nests in the Wyvern Peaks. There were never-ending requests for escort missions. Did you happen to take those missions?"
"Yes."
"So you marched the length of the Wyvern Pass? Does it get cold out there? What about the wyverns? What if you get attacked?"
"You fight."
"That's incredible. I don't think I will ever be able to face a wyvern head-on. I'll just become its next meal."
They reached the restaurant.
It was a classy open-space restaurant.
A table in the middle of a grass clearing covered in pristine white cloth.
A pair of fine dining sets rested on each end of the table.
Wine glass. White ceramic plate. Silver fork and spoon.
"Greetings, young lady RazenHeir. Your reservation is in order."
A waiter greeted her as she approached.
Another one placed a stool to help her dismount.
Ria approached the table.
Hikari stopped right outside the grass patch.
The weight of her boots would ruin the carefully cured grass.
A wooden cart full of jars rolled off a slope, barreling straight towards Ria.
Ria froze in fear as she turned her head and saw the wooden cart speeding towards her.
Hikari placed her boot in the way of the rolling cart.
The wooden cart crashed into the wall of wyvern skin.
"My lady?"
Ria took a moment to recover from the shock.
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine. Thanks."
The cart had been stopped, but the jars of tomato sauce it was carrying spilled all over Hikari's boot as the pottery shattered against the hard wyvern skin.
"Oh dear, this won't do."
In the heat of the moment, Ria took out her handkerchief and started wiping off the sauce.
The handkerchief barely made a dent in the thick puddle of tomato sauce.
"Lady RazenHeir, may we help you with that?"
The waiter grabbed a tablecloth and rushed to her aid.
Her petite handkerchief had little chance of cleaning a boot the size of a table.
"Oh! Umm... much appreciated!"
Ria blushed red. She didn't know what came over her.
The waiter offered to wash her soiled handkerchief.
It had been soaked through with tomato sauce that matched the color of her face.
What was she thinking? Using such a delicate piece of silk for a task meant for a tablecloth.
One piece of tablecloth wasn't even enough;
Another waiter rushed up with a second as the first one left plenty of obvious red stains on the black wyvern skin, even as it was overwhelmed.
She shook her head and made her way to the table, leaving the embarrassing episode behind her.
Ria took her seat.
The waiters served up appetizers.
"It would appear that our guest is late. "
Ria mumbled to herself.
She tried to compose herself.
It hadn't been long since she came of age and began taking up the duties of meeting with members of merchant guilds and other houses.
"Typical. Just another noble from the north; he's just here to discuss details of a shipment of our house's weapons enchanted with our flames. We have already committed our army to the front, but we still have to ship yet more weapons."
She stared into her plate.
An appetizer.
A terrine made from exotic vegetables shipped from Herdial.
Shavings of whale meat on top.
An expensive delicacy that even knights could not easily afford.
She notices a shadow to her left.
It belonged to Hikari.
Standing behind her, she casts a shadow that covers just under half of the grass patch.
"Lady Ria!"
A voice called out from behind her.
Ria stood up from her chair.