On the dirt road along the edge of Graysea Marsh, two figures walked at an unhurried pace.
The man on the left had an athletic build and a light step. His long black hair was tied behind his head with a simple leather cord, and a face veil covered everything but a pair of exceptionally beautiful eyes.
One-eyed Barrett was far more casual. He patted Kale on the shoulder.
"Don't look at me like that, Kale. I know this place is so remote it feels like a corner the gods forgot."
Kale did not reply. He merely surveyed the desolate landscape around them.
"The territory was only recently settled. Naturally, the lord is a little short on funds," Barrett said, defending the liege he was about to introduce. "But he's a good man, a real scholar, nothing like those pigheaded nobles we've met before. This place has potential. I promise you."
Kale finally stopped and pointed toward the horizon-a dark outline above broad stretches of green fields laid out in a grid.
"What's that?"
Barrett narrowed his eye.
"That's Newborn Town's wall... the Stone-Skinned Soft Vine I told you about. What do you think? Impressive, right? And below it... those look like Sea-Salt Potatoes. Damn, they've planted that much already!"
As they approached, the dark outline grew clearer and taller.
It looked less like the defenses of an impoverished frontier town and more like the ramparts of a border fortress, standing silently over the wilderness.
Kale raised his eyebrows slightly. A lord short on funds could not have built a wall like that.
Just then, a faint swell of noise drifted toward them from the town.
It was neither an alarm bell nor a battle cry, but wild cheering, as though some grand celebration were taking place inside.
The two