"Move up in the back!"
"Keep order!"
"You in front! Once you've been checked, get moving!"
"Next in line!"
"You over there, wait your turn!"
"You!"
"Open all the crates and carriages!"
"Enough talk, open them!"
"Hurry!"
On either side of a certain bridge along one of the few roads leading to the ruins of the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Gualdia, a group of Imperial Army soldiers in green armor stood on high alert at both ends of the wooden-and-iron bridge spanning the cliff. They were sternly questioning the merchants and travelers lined up to cross.
They didn't let a single wooden crate, barrel, or carriage go unchecked. Even travelers wearing hoods were harshly ordered to show their faces, each looking a little nervous and uneasy.
"Hey!"
"Sir!"
"Why are our superiors so insistent that we stop those two people in the portraits?"
Watching the merchants and travelers pass through without issue, a junior Imperial officer impatiently pointed to the two portraits posted on a wooden board nearby and asked.
The portraits showed a man and a woman, both young-looking. They had been painted in magical colors and were so lifelike they looked just like the real people.
The man was a handsome young fellow with orange hair. The woman was a beautiful, fair-skinned woman with a spirited look and short, light-blue hair. Both wore similar, peculiar silver ornaments on their heads.
"Tell me this."
"What big crime did they commit?"
If they were stopping people to collect money, then that went without saying—the Imperial officer would have been one hundred percent happy to do it without a single complaint.
But their superiors had specifically forbidden them from taking money, wouldn't tell them what this was about, and had made them question every single person passing by, warning