Chapter 109 Highway Robbery Part 1 (1/2)

Shaar and Ruhr entered the territory of Byzantine Empire with their followers. After crossing the frontier, they first reached Denzel town which was located not far from the north of frontier region. There was a total resident population of about 10,000 people, but because of its location at the frontier region there were also a lot of rural-urban migration occurring and the town’s security was often left in chaos; however, the trade at the frontier region had brought the town a lot of vitality.

Due to the war with Odin people, the temporary army from the military area were all set here.

There was Wildfire Town, which was not too far away from Denzel Town. Basically, it needed either a two day ride or one whole day of fast riding to reach the town.

Although Denzel City was just a small city, the scale of its landscape was twice that of Wildfire Town, with broad and tall walls, showing one of the military strategies onto this frontier area town for war preparation. Once a war began, this town could be immediately be transformed into military fortress. According to the empire’s military law, the wall was built according to the level of the military fortress. It was six meters wide, eleven meters high, with four corners built with protruding tower corners.

Tursh came to Byzantium for the first time, and it was also his first time to get to see such a big city, so his eyes were quite busy looking around. Compared to Wildfire Town, Denzel City had was much more prosperous than the anarchy of Wildfire Town. There were infantry armies wearing high standard armor vests, with the royal flag, and army flag flying ferociously at the side of tall wall.

The building in the city was obviously much bigger than those in Wildfire Town, this making Tursh did not stop of looking around and desperately stared around the city when he walked into the city.

Denzel City was more civilized, people who walking in the street all had nicer clothes and their clothing styles were more pronounced with Byzantine features: Men were mostly dressed in long linen robe with long and slightly tilted pointed boots. The waist cut that narrowed the robe cutting could perfectly manifest a man's strong physique. Some men were armed. There were some people dressed up like warriors, with cheap leather or iron breastplate, and wore warrior's badge. But all these were less prominent in Wildfire Town.

There were various kinds of shops at the side of the road: the blacksmith, the pub…. Yet there was one prominent thing, Byzantine women. These were apparently more conservative than those in Wildfire Town, and they mostly wore cloaks and capes, not just to keep out the wind, but also to cover their face. Their body-wear was relatively conservative. Only a few of the women dressed luxuriously in silk robe, with few servants following from behind to look after their mistresses. These mistresses were mostly to be seen entering some clothing stores or cosmetics shops and other similar places.

Denzel city was occupied by troops. Soldiers that dressed in military uniform could be seen everywhere in the city since the war ended, as though they began to rest. Sometimes drunk men lingered around on the street after having a drink at pub beside the street. Shaar frowned after having a look at all of this. This kind of slack was impossible to find in the thirteenth corps.

Denzel City was not only a city that had a large scale of land, but the area was also larger than that of Wildfire Town’s. There were a lot of small villages with large farmlands surrounding the city. Denzel city administratively was belonged to the Moore County at the north of empire and Moore County was the most important grain producing district at the north of Byzantine Empire. And what was more, this city was still directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial central and it had not been included under the authorized strength of Terma military area command. After all, here was one of the frontier region. Even though there were a lot of frontier trade for oil, water and grains, whenever a war against Odin people began, it was the first place to be affected by the threat. So, those assholes in the army did not ever wish to grab this district. One word...... The so-called military governors of Terma military, they had installed themselves as aristocratic warlords.

The commander of the temporary military theater was General Clark who was from the Imperial Army of the empire. He was a firm Therma military system advocate. His family owned a Therma military region in the south-east of Empire which had been passed down for two generations and General Clark recently served an important position in the Empire’s military headquarter. But when Shaar and Ruhr came to temporary military headquarter at Denzel City, General Clark did not show any unfriendliness even though Tursh had caused a lot of troubles to the army.

However, General Clark acted in a very hasty manner, he held a very brief and simple award-conferring ceremony and gave a gold badge of courage to Tursh. He neither personally awarded Shaar in a formal etiquette nor gave him a military salute. The whole process was only witnessed by several adjutant and then he left in a hurry as though he were afraid of getting trouble if he were with Tursh for longer period.

Ruhr was not really satisfied of all this.

”Damn, if today was to award that silly man, he should have welcomed him with more warmth. Inviting all the noble people in the city to come to the ceremony with bands playing music and with the red carpet adorning the floors... I'm afraid this ceremony is the most cursory ceremony that I have ever seen.”