Chapter 432 (1/2)

Chapter 432: An Encounter

Translator: TransN Editor: TransN

Since his trip was kept confidential, obviously there would be nobody greeting him.

Therefore, Otto did not plan to go straight to the castle, but to first spend one or two days looking at the prince’s territory before turning to local rats for information, as a picture was worth a thousand words.

He walked out of the cabin and onto the trestle, and was immediately astonished at what he saw.

This is… really a borderland wharf?

The dock areas were built with russet colored bricks within several hundred paces from the river bank. Trestles were built at certain intervals, with a sign where the trestle and the dock connected, on which there was a number. Otto counted them roughly. There were 26 in total, all of which were neatly displayed like tentacles extending from the bank. Some were covered with snow while others revealed the tawny planks beneath. This indicated the town’s wharf was well taken care of even during the Months of the Demons.

In comparison, the trestles at the dock of King’s City were less than half the ones here in terms of both length and number!

However, what stunned him more was the boats at the wharf.

A line of colossal gray boats he had never seen were at berth not far away. There were seven or eight in total, each of which had a shallow waterline with no sail or mast. Nonetheless, they were definitely too big to be operated by poles. One unique feature of these strange boats was the giant wooden tire on either side and the bulky iron pipe in the middle. They looked different from any inland river boats.

Otto stood there and watched them for quite a while. He was still trying to figure out how these weird “tire boats” were operated when it began to snow.

He brushed the snow off his head, put these thoughts behind him, and decided to follow the crew to the town.

Apparently, Otto was not the only passenger on the “Downwind” from King’s City. He watched the crew unloading cargo and piling it up at the wharf. Several guards wearing black uniforms were jotting something down on the paper. They seemed to be examining the goods, as they picked out a couple of bags every now and then.

“Who are those people? The mercenaries hired by buyers?” Otto went to ask the captain.

“Huh? Mercenaries?” The captain beamed, “Those guys are patrollers in Border Town.”

“Patrollers?” He was puzzled. Weren’t they the same as bandits? He remembered the first time he left King’s City, the patrollers there blackmailed him for two silver royals, which he later learned was actually a common practice everywhere. These patrollers were sort of the rivals of underground rats, but they basically did the same thing. The difference was they charged more and often charged for nothing. However, to Otto’s surprise, the captain seemed pretty relaxed, still smoking his pipe leisurely without any intention to stop them, nor did he thrust them silver royals or ask the patrollers to leave.

“I thought the same thing when I came here for the first time.” The captain explained, seeming to have read his mind, “The patrollers here are different. As long as you follow their rules, you don’t need to pay anything before entering the market.”

“Patrollers’ rules?” Otto doubted, frowning. “Even the bandits here talk about rules, and they also note things down. They probably write nothing but wriggly symbols, but this is already more than enough to blow my mind.”

“What are they recording?” he questioned.

“The types and numbers of goods… especially wheat,” the captain answered, throwing up his hands. “Goods will be checked after being delivered to the market. This is to prevent you from selling them to others halfway. The food here can only be sold by the lord. Of course, I don’t have wheat in my cargo, so it’s going to be fast.”

All the bags were loaded to the carriages and everybody departed from the wharf, ready to set out for the market. Otto was suddenly dazzled by the scene.