novelraw Chapter 26 : The Town Before the Wilds
Chapter 26 : The Town Before the Wilds
Our caravan rattled into a frontier town just as the sun dipped low. It was no capital, no polished jewel of the Empire. The streets were muddy, the buildings scarred from repairs, and the smell of smoke and steel hung heavy in the air.
People glanced up as our wagons rolled through. Their eyes widened at the crest of Valemont still painted faintly on our banners—then narrowed with pity, even contempt.
“Another noble sent to die there, huh?”
“Heh. Won’t last a year.”
“First the border beasts will eat them, then the bandits will finish what’s left.”
“Shame. They say the Lion’s cursed. Guess even pride rots in the end.”
The words buzzed like flies in my ears. Selene sat stiff, her face unreadable, though her hands trembled in her lap. Father’s jaw was set like stone, but I noticed how tightly he held the reins.
Elara’s fists balled at her sides. She looked ready to leap from the wagon and shout at them all, but one glance at Father’s back kept her still.
I peeked out from the wagon, and what I saw made my breath catch.
The streets weren’t filled with simple farmers and merchants like the capital.
Here, men and women walked in heavy armor, their weapons carried openly.
Shields scarred by battle, swords nicked from countless clashes, cloaks smeared with travel dust.
And not just humans.
An elf woman with long ears and emerald eyes sharpened her blade at a roadside forge.
A beastman with a wolf’s ears and tail haggled with a merchant over pelts. A dwarf stomped past, his armor heavier than his frame should allow.
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The HUD flickered faintly:
[Adventurer – Common Rank: Bronze]
[Mercenary – Rank: Silver]
[Frontier Guard – Status: Wounded]
Everywhere I looked, strength walked openly. The air itself smelled of danger.
I swallowed hard. So this is the borderlands…
Where the Empire sent nobles to die. Where warriors of every kind gathered to make their fortune—or their graves.
And now, this was where the Valemonts would live.
After days of travel beyond the frontier town, the wagons creaked to a halt at the crest of a hill.
“This is it,” the imperial escort muttered, almost with pity.
I leaned forward in the wagon, eyes wide.
The land stretched out before us—vast, scarred, and unforgiving. What should have been fertile plains was riddled with claw marks and charred earth.
Blackened trees stood like skeletal fingers clawing at the sky. In the distance, I saw movement—shadows darting between rocks, too fast and too twisted to be human.
The HUD flickered faintly:
[Corrupted Zone Detected]
[Threat Level: High – Beast Activity Frequent]
Even my tiny body shivered.
Selene’s lips pressed tight, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the land. Her hand stroked my baby brother’s hair as though shielding him from the very sight.
Elara stared, jaw tight, her fists clenched so hard her knuckles bled. “This… this is no farmland. This is a battlefield.”
Father dismounted his horse slowly, his frame still proud despite the curse eating him from within. He looked over the ruined soil, the jagged horizon, and the endless expanse of danger.
And then—he smiled.
“Good,” he said quietly, his voice carrying in the wind. “A lion does not need golden halls. Give me wild lands, give me enemies to guard against… and I will carve a home from it with my own hands.”
Selene turned to him sharply. “Darius—this is exile, not honor. They mean for us to wither here, to be forgotten.”
“Then we’ll live so loudly,” he growled, driving his sword into the ground like a banner, “that even the wilds will remember the name Valemont.”
The guards said nothing. Their orders were complete. By dusk, they rode away, leaving us at the edge of the corrupted lands.
The wagons felt too small, our belongings too meager, and the land too vast.
But this was where we would remain.
Our exile. Our den.
The birthplace of the legend that would one day call him—
the Monster on the Farm.