Chapter 15: War camp (1/2)
”Next!” The domineering voice of the guard at the gate was mixed with hints of boredom and exhaustion. Given how tiring it was for all the people between the walls to just wait for their turn to get checked, Layn could only imagine how taxing it was for the locally employed soldiers.
”It's our turn. Hurry up or someone will try to take our spot!” Hurrying the archmage up, Irea quickly picked up the pace. By the time the outsider in their group managed to hasten his steps, he was already at the very end of the entire group.
Soon, the checking began. But contrary to Layn's initial worries, it wasn't as detailed as he thought it would be. Instead of doing a full-body check like some of the special forces at the magic airports of the future would, they accepted the token of the group and actually studied its content before cross-checking it with a set of documents that magically appeared from a small room within the gatehouse.
”Something's wrong… You should have one more female and one less male, shouldn't you?” Raising his eyes from above the set of parchments, the guard scanned the faces of the small crowd. In just a single look, his sight locked on Layn's face.
”You, come forward.” Pointing his hand at the archmage, it was clear that he somehow managed to figure out that he was the outside of the group.
”Sir, he is…” Stepping forward, the leader of the ancient team that Layn temporarily joined attempted to explain the situation, only to be forced to remain in his place with a single gesture of the guard raising his hand.
”Don't make it any harder and any longer than it needs to be.” Moving his sight from the middle-aged man to Layn's face, the guard asked. ”Who are you? Where are you from?”
Hearing the questions, the archmage's mind instantly swirled, producing several possible ways to answer. But Layn's situation wasn't as good as it was back on the plain behind. With quite a considerable distance separating him from the barrier, even if he were to madly dash towards it, the chances were that he would be dead before even crossing half of the distance.
This made the problem of answering the question quite vital to not only the situation but also his life.
”Sir, with all due respect. I won't pull your leg by claiming that honestly, I have no idea. Ah, that's for the second question. I'm Layn.”
Spreading his out while putting on an embarrassed expression, Layn could only hope that this bit of helplessness that he revealed would soften the stone heart of the guard.
”…”
Instead of instantly lashing at the archmage for how daring if not disrespectful his answer was, the guard limited himself to just looking at his face for a while.