Following the river valley upstream, after a full month of life in the dense forest, the knight squad led by Yevich finally found a place inhabited by humans.
It was a small village. There were no knights in the village, no elves, and no one cultivated crops. The men made their living by hunting, while the women gathered wild fruit from the nearby mountains and raised clumsy great birds that looked much like chickens, only larger and with more brightly colored plumage.
After a standoff and some communication, their languages proved mutually incomprehensible, but through a mixture of gestures and drawings, they barely managed to exchange a little information.
The villagers did not know what country they belonged to, nor could any of them write. They only knew that they belonged to the Stubble Lord and had to pay him large quantities of furs and "Beimu" every year—the Beimu were those colorful giant chickens, whose meat was exceptionally tender and silky.
After paying several colored shells, they found a hunter willing to cheerfully lead Yevich and the others to the town where the Stubble Lord lived.
In the dilapidated castle near the town, Yevich met the Stubble Lord.
After another round of gestures, drawings, and threats, the Stubble Lord, who was barely an Earth Knight, revealed his identity—a Baronet Knight follower of a Viscount follower of a Count follower of a Marquis from the Wind Snow Mountain Principality. He was not from the Eagle Kingdom, but from a principality Yevich had never heard of.
"The Wind Snow Mountain Principality?" Yevich drew his new question on the paper he carried with him. "Which kingdom does this principality belong to?"
The Stubble Lord was dazzled by the white paper in Yevich's hand. He took it, drew an abstract and complicated family crest