The morning the group of riders entered Bolden, the sky was the deepest blue Morgan had ever seen.

  Hiding from behind a tree, he observed the townspeople, humans and goblins alike, focused on the new arrivals. Taking advantage of their distraction, he sneaked closer to the multitude, trying to act natural, as if he belonged with them.

  The group’s leader, dressed in luxurious military garbs just like his followers, got off his horse as a middle-aged man in well-fit clothes approached with a young girl shily following him.

  Both men exchanged greeting words and shook hands. “For the mayor to receive him personally... Is that guy such a big-shot?” said someone standing beside Morgan. It was a young goblin woman, based on the green skin and small stature. She looked just a bit older than him and dressed in a modest uniform; a Bolden guard, he assumed.

  As the question seemed directed at him, he nodded. It was easy to identify the man from the sun sigil in his cape. “That’s Ser Ivonn Sol, from the capital military. He is very young but already a Captain.” He was also the main reason Morgan had made his way to Bolden.

  The small woman considered his words and blew a raspberry, very much not the reaction Morgan expected. “Meh. He and his people give off this vibe like they think they are better than anyone just because they are nobles. I don’t like them one bit!” While uncouth, she had a point. You could notice the barely hidden dislike some of the capital soldiers felt while surrounded by commoners. They probably found a little town like Bolden cking compared with the great human city of Rover. ”Besides, our mayor is better!” she said excitedly.

  “Do you think so?” Nice clothes aside, the man welcoming Sol looked extremely average. One would never suspect such an inconspicuous man had saved their country two decades ago.

  Ivonn Sol, a young noble from Rover who had risen to the rank of Captain in time record. And Sigmund Basthed, the mayor of Bolden and one of the four Cardinal Heroes. These two men had now met each other, and Morgan felt like their encounter would leave a mark on history, but if good or bad, it was yet to be seen.

  “Of course. But hey, I’m not surprised you don't know. After all, y’ain't from around here,” said the goblin woman, keeping the same casual tone. Morgan flinched as something sharp poked his back. ”I saw you trying to sneak in; very clumsy job… I think we should talk a bit away from here. Follow me and no funny business, ‘kay?”

  Sometimes, circumstances could go from good to terrible and then possibly good again in a matter of minutes. That’s exactly what was happening to Morgan.

  He stared at the goblin woman, her eyes sparkling as a waitress served food on their table. "So nice-looking like always, and I don’t mean the food,” flirted the goblin woman, looking terribly smug, which gained a giggle from the waitress. Such a friendly person, anyone would think. Not Morgan, though, considering the crossbow she was currently pointing at him from under the table. She turned to him. ”I love Aria's beef stew so much. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll love it too."

  With their eyes on him, Morgan hesitantly took a spoonful of stew. "It's very good." Both women smiled, which made him rex a little.

  In the st few minutes, he concluded that Bolden was a good pce. The nature from the surroundings mixed well with the architecture, modest buildings of only one floor, not unlike the ones in his hometown, but Bolden definitely had a more pleasant atmosphere. Especially because the town was clean and the townspeople were actually nice.

  “Right, I almost forgot, my name is Naga!"

  "'Naga’? Like the half-snake monster?"

  She smirked. "Kinda? The people at the orphanage told me that when I was a baby, a huge snake bit me, and I got mad and bit it back, so they decided to call me that."

  While most would think the anecdote an exaggeration or an outright lie, Morgan took it at face value. There were a bunch of outrageous stories about goblins, after all. "Well, that sounds more interesting than anything I've done when I was that young.” He took a moment to think about it and shook his head. ”Or anything I’ve done recently as well," he mumbled, making Naga giggle. "Nice to meet you too, I guess. My name is Morgan." He bowed. "I'm from Linverd."

  "Linverd? That's a week from here, innit?" He nodded. "You came to Bolden because of that Sol guy, right?" she asked.

  “Captain Sol or Ser Ivonn," he corrected, "and yeah. I wanted to meet him.”

  "I assume you don’t have a horse. So, you've been stalking-"

  "Following."

  "-him on foot this whole time just to... What exactly?"

  He lowered his head, a bit embarrassed. "I wanted to request to join his group."

  After a moment of silence, Naga nodded in understanding.

  It was the kind of 'understanding' where you still think the other person is a bit dumb, though. Sol was a noble. The chances he would let a commoner like Morgan join his group were almost zero... But ‘almost’ meant he actually had a small chance of Sol accepting him.

  “So that’s it? No criminal or nefarious reason to come here?” Naga looked almost disappointed.

  “None at all,” he denied vehemently.

  "Oh, well." She emptied her bowl and left it on the table, along with some coins. "I'll pay for yours too, so come on, finish it up quickly."

  "Oh, thanks." Once his bowl was empty, it finally registered that Naga wasn't threatening him with her crossbow anymore. "Wait, now what? Weren't you gonna take me to jail to interrogate me?"

  She tilted her head. "You want to go to jail?" He shook her head, energetically. "Good then. Because I don't need to ask you more questions. I trust you."

  "Y-you do?" He asked, grateful but confused.

  "You see, we goblins... can read minds!" Morgan went still, trying not to think about anything. She giggled. "You are so silly! I'm just joking; we goblins simply have very good instincts. So I know you are telling the truth and don’t mean harm. So, follow me! I want to show you something." Morgan hesitated for a moment. "I mean, if you want to impress Sol that much..."

  "Okay, I'll go!"

  "That's the spirit!"

  He didn't notice the red gaze following him as they ran towards the wide two-floor building to the west of the town.

  Morgan's eyes roamed around, staring at some of the guards coming and going.

  Naga expined, "these are the barracks. A bit shabby but-..."

  "What are you talking about? This pce looks amazing." Few would say that about the weary building and meant it, but it was what it symbolized that appealed to Morgan.

  Bolden's defenders lived and trained in such a pce.

  "Seriously, that's what you think?" Naga looked incredulous. "You haven't even looked inside yet. I know I'm not that tall, but there's barely space for anything in my room!"

  Morgan's eyes went wide. "You have a room? Like, only yours? You don't have to share it with some else? That sounds nice," he said, with just a bit of envy.

  Naga looked stricken. "You are making me feel bad for compining. I'll just shut up." He didn't quite understand her reaction, so he just shrugged and followed her to the back of the building, greeting the guards they crossed with. Morgan behaved as politely as he could while Naga was absurdly casual and friendly to everyone.

  A training field soon came into view.

  "Here we are!" Naga's smile was back at full power as they approached the shooting range. Various targets were lined up about 5 meters from each other. "How good would you say you are at shooting?"

  "Not good," he replied immediately.

  "Not much experience?"

  He scratched his head, embarrassed.. "I'm terrible, I think."

  "Don't be silly, you can't possibly be that bad." She gave him a little show, shooting straight at the center of one of the targets. "See? Easy. Bows are a bit harder, so give a try with the crossbow. They are better for beginners."

  Sighing, he took the offered weapon and gave it a try. He didn't disappoint.

  Only one arrow of ten managed to hit the target. "Well, you got one, at least," said Naga, doing her best to sound encouraging.

  "I guess so." To avoid further embarrassment, he didn't mention he wasn't even aiming at that target but the one to its left. "It doesn't matter, I'm better with swords, anyway."

  "Even then, it's important to know these things, you know? What if someone comes at you to kill you and you just have a crossbow to defend yourself?"

  "I would wait until they are close enough to use the crossbow as a mace." His face was serious, he totally would do it if needed.

  "E-eh...? And what would you do if the enemy also has a ranged weapon? They won't approach you!"

  "Guess I'll die, then," he said, unperturbed by the grim scenario.

  Naga snorted, apparently finding him funny. "You are so weird. But whatever, let's do as you want and try with swords. At least you have some actual training with those, right?" she asked while they walked to the open field.

  He opened his mouth and then closed it. "Kinda? I have seen other people training. And practiced myself using sticks or whatever I could get my hands on."

  She looked surprised. "Wait. You haven't held a sword before?"

  Stopping by an equipment rack, Morgan was offered a vest and a wood helmet so he could protect himself a bit. He did not comment on how oversized the helmet Naga was using was.

  "I have. At least a couple of times. I mean, I worked for the bcksmith in my town for some months... He always took the swords away the moment I tried to wave them around, though." He lowered his head at the pile of depressing memories.

  "So you are a total rookie?" He nodded after a moment. "Well, I'm not sure if I'm any good at teaching sword fighting.” She handed Morgan a wooden sword and grabbed one for herself, then they moved some meters away from each other. ”But I think you should be able to learn at least a couple of things sparring with me... Though People don't like to do that too much." She chuckled awkwardly while Morgan frowned, suddenly realizing this could be a huge mistake.

  He imitated Naga as she assumed a defensive stance. He felt nervous, especially as some other guards stopped to watch them. "Huh? Your posture looks good enough. Let's test it." She approached slowly. "If I do this..." She sshed at him. It was a slow attack to test the waters, so Morgan easily blocked it with his sword, both cshing for a short moment before Naga back-stepped, creating some distance between them.

  She grinned. "Okay, how about this then?" Approaching again, now a bit faster, her attack was again blocked by Morgan, but this time, she immediately followed with a second and third attack, each one blocked with ease. "You have some good reflexes!"

  Naga's grin widened, her now visible sharp teeth creating an expression strangely menacing. She continued attacking, wildly growing faster and stronger with each ssh, giving Morgan no time to strike back.

  As their swords locked, Morgan felt himself be pushed back by the strength of her opponent. It made him remember that, as small as she could look, Naga was still a goblin, and they were known for their physical strength surprisingly greater than the average human.

  As he tried to create some distance, Naga pursued him, putting all her strength behind a downward ssh intended to finish the fight. So it took her by surprise when, for the first time, Morgan didn't block but dodged instead, making her stumble for a moment. Morgan took advantage of her mistake to finally attack, lightly hitting the side of her helmet. That was enough to make the unnecessarily big head protection whirl around, blocking Naga's eyesight.

  "Oi!" She dropped her weapon and clumsily tried to correct her helmet position, causing the ughs of some of the people watching their mock combat. Once she realized what she had done, her face reddened. It was a peculiar sight on a green-skinned face. "Guess that's your win...?"

  "It was?" Morgan couldn't help but smile a bit. Better to ignore the fact that Naga’s st attack would have likely broken his bones if he had tried to block.

  "Anyway, you lied, didn't you?" she asked, her face almost pouting. It didn't quite have the effect it should have when the person doing it almost cut him in half a moment ago. "No rookie would fight like that!"

  "I didn't lie, though? I always practice by myself; no one trained me. And I have no real fighting experience." No soldier or swordsman showed any interest in training him. But he still worked hard by himself to get as strong as he could, even if sometimes his body hurt so much he felt like giving up.

  He also tried to get as much knowledge about swordsmanship as he could, even if that meant he had to spy and stalk any soldier or adventurer he crossed paths with. He didn't care if it got him in trouble; he wasn’t going to stop. Not as long as he was pursuing his dream. "Hey, was I really that good?" he asked, feeling insecure.

  "Yep." She nodded. "Between us," she approached and muttered secretively, her eyes on some of her colleagues, "you could easily kick the ass of anyone here." Then she added quickly, "except mine. I wasn't fighting seriously, of course I wasn't!"

  Blushing slightly, Morgan couldn't help but smile gratefully. "Thanks."

  She stared at him weirdly for a few seconds. "That charm is wasted on me, buddy."

  "What?" he asked, confused.

  "Nothing, nothing!" She lightly shoved him forward. "How about I get you another sparring partner? Do you feel like training more?"

  "That would be nice. If it's no bother...?"

  "It's not! Besides, you still pn to approach that Sol guy, don't ya? You look like a stubborn one." Disrespect toward the captain aside, she was right. Even if Sol decided he didn't want Morgan to be part of his group, he still pnned to take the chance to learn as many of the nobles’ techniques and tactics as he was able to.

  “You aren't wrong.”

  "Then you could stay with us guards in the barracks!"

  The offer surprised him. "Can I? Y-you sure?"

  "Yeah, why not? You have no money to rent a room, do you?" He shook his head. "It's decided then! This is gonna be fun, I can feel it! With you here, I may even see one of those city dumbasses getting crushed! Oh, I can almost imagine their dumb expressions!" She seemed a bit too excited about having him beat people up.

  She wasn't wrong about it sounding fun, though.

  But once again, red eyes focused on Morgan. This time, he felt them, hard like drills in the back of his head, but as he turned to look behind him, he found nothing.