The weather in mid-November remained warm and pleasant in the Stantin Duchy, where people could still stroll about in light clothing. In the Murto Mountain Ranges on the border between the Lampari Kingdom and the Sark Kingdom, however, it often meant the depths of winter had already arrived.
Three days earlier, heavy snow had begun drifting down from the sky. It had continued on and off for three full days, and only that morning had the sun finally emerged from behind the thick clouds, bringing clear skies again.
As soon as sunlight touched the ground, Taklin Town, north of the Murto Mountain Ranges in the Sark Kingdom and barely thirty kilometers from the border, immediately sprang back to bustling life after several days of quiet.
Convoys arrived one after another from the distant north of the Sark Kingdom. At the same time, more convoys crossed the Murto Mountain Ranges to the south, traveling even farther from the Lampari Kingdom to reach the town.
Countless people speaking with Sark Kingdom and Lampari Kingdom accents gathered in the small town, instantly filling it with prosperity and activity.
Ever since the Lampari Kingdom and the Sark Kingdom had reached an agreement over four months earlier to establish Taklin Town as a free trade zone between their two countries, the town had remained this lively. It was as though it had suddenly transformed from an ordinary little town into a prosperous city.
Countless merchants from both kingdoms brought large shipments of goods here to trade, driving the development of the entire town in the process.
In just over four months, more than twenty restaurants and inns had sprung up like mushrooms after rain, providing the people around the town with abundant jobs and even opportunities to make their fortunes.
Even ordinary farmers in the