Souta followed Lumilia's suggestion so before they reach the Fersch Dukedom they split up with old man Jared.
Old man Jared went inside the dukedom with caravan while Souta and co went to the inside from the other gate of the dukedom.
"We're here," Souta said to his comrades as he looked up at the fifteen-meter tall gate of the dukedom.
The people that were going in and out of the dukedom could be counted in two hands. It wasn't a famous place so this sight was natural for this dukedom.
Souta and co. went forward before the guards stopped them on their track.
"Who are you? And where's your identification ID?" The guards asked them. They looked at their face and found that they were not from here.
Souta looked at his comrades and said, "Show them your adventurer's ID." He then took out his ID and showed it to the guard. Lumilia, Bryan, and Brando followed his instruction and showed their ID to the guards.
The guards took a look at their ID. They found that Souta and co were just adventurers.
"I'm a C-rank adventurer from the Hebrei Kingdom and this is my party," Souta said to guards as he introduced himself and his party members.
"C-rank?" The guards were surprised when they found that Souta was a C-rank adventurer. There were only a few C-rank adventurers in their dukedom so it was surprising to see a C-rank adventurer coming in their land.
"Sorry to bother you, Sir. And welcome to Fersch Dukedom. I hope you enjoy your time here." The guards bowed their heads and said politely. They gave back the IDs in their hands to Souta and co.
The guards finished checking their identity so it's not a problem for them let to them inside the dukedom.
"Okay, thanks," Souta said and thanked them before he started to walk. He stepped inside the dukedom along with his comrades.
Brando turned his head and glanced at the guards. He then looked at Souta and asked, "Why are they polite to us? Their attitude towards us turned completely one hundred eighty degrees."
"It's not that surprising. I'm a C-rank adventurer and we're from the Hebrei Kingdom. The power level in a land like this is actually low as most of the people that reach the level of C-rank went to the huge countries like Hebrei Kingdom." Souta paused for a moment before he added, "Small territory like this one is very weak. They were all afraid of the power of the large countries and the people there. C-rank in Hebrei Kingdom isn't a very big deal but here in this place, they became someone powerful."
"There are countless C-rank in Hebrei Kingdom and even the elite guards of the noble households have the power of a C-rank," Lumilia added. The C-rank was just the minimum power to become an elite guard in noble households. She knew this because she was the daughter of a noble head.
"I see…" Brando nodded his head in understanding.
"That's also one of the reasons why a place like this wouldn't grow into the level of Hebrei Kingdom. The C-rank wouldn't be able to contain themselves and head to the large countries for more benefits." Souta said to them.
"Those large countries are silently pressuring every small country near them. Silently taking every valuable treasure in front of them. That's why no countries right now rose to the level of large countries. No, there's one country…" Lumilia didn't even manage to finish her sentence as Souta said the answer before her.
"The Mechanic Country. Twenty years ago since the Mechanic Country was founded and in that time they managed to reach the level of the large countries. And right now it is one of the most prominent countries in the entire Giza Continent." Souta said.
"Let's talk about that later. We should find an inn first before we worry about something else." Souta shook his head and said to them.
"Okay, let's go!" Bryan said.
Souta looked up in the dark sky. It took almost twelve hours of their time before they arrived in this place.
Traveling using caravan or carriage was really too slow. If he was in the Mechanic Country, he could use those advanced technologies like on earth. It would only consume one or two hours of their time before they in this place if he used that technology.
'I'm not in the Mechanic Country right now so there's no point in thinking that things.' Souta shook his head and decided to focus on upgrading his Mage Class so that he could learn a high-level spell from the skill tree. If he had the teleportation spell then this wouldn't become a problem.
Regarding this, Souta had two choices. One was to learn it manually while the other one was to learn it by using skill points.
Lumilia stopped walking and she turned her head. She glanced at the guards of the gate. She heard the guards talking about them.
"Those people came from Hebrei Kingdom!"
"Yeah, we should report this to our lord!"
"Why they are here to our land?!"
"I don't know. They are adventurers so I think it's related to their quest."
…
The group checked in inside the inn nearest to the city gate. After checking in, Souta and the rest head towards the Adventurers Guild of this dukedom.
The vibe of the Adventurers Guild here in Fersch Dukedom was the same as in the Ladro Institute. As expected of the Adventurers Guild, no matter what place it is they were still the same rowdy bunch.
Souta smiled as he could hear the loud voices of the adventurers outside of the guild.
"The adventurers never change." He said in a low voice before he opened the door and stepped inside the guildhall.
The group entered the guild and the adventurers inside glanced at them for a second before they went back to chatting to each other. Well, Souta and co were new faces here so they were a little bit curious about them.
From time to time, they would glance at Souta and co. They saw that these four people were wearing adventurers' clothes and were young at the same time. But they immediately got bored when they found that Souta and co didn't even greet them.
'Well, they were just brat.' All of them thought and they didn't bother themselves anymore.
Souta looked at his party and said, "Find a vacant chair and sit there."
Lumilia and Brando nodded at him before they looked around. Bryan simply followed the two without asking any questions. Well, Souta asked him to keep quiet and don't say any unnecessary things while they were here in his place. He's just following Souta's instruction.
Souta went to the quest board and looked at all the quests that were posted on the board. He saw one quest that he could do inside this land.
He picked it up and looked at the details of the quest.
The quest was about materials gathering quest. The quest said that he could find the materials in the sewer of this land.
Souta closed his eyes and decided that he will do this to avert the things that they will do inside this land. They were going to investigate the lord so this quest was suitable for the fake front.
They already took the Duke's attention the moment that they entered this place. They wouldn't be able to avoid it if someone monitor their movements. This quest was the perfect excuse when they started to investigate the Duke's mansion.
Souta smiled and he went towards his party who were sitting around at a round table. He placed the quest on top of the round table.
"What's this?" Bryan asked.
"A quest," Souta replied to him.
"I see… We're going to make this our front. I guess coming from the Hebrei Kingdom really gathered the attention of the Duke." Lumilia said as she looked at the quest on the table.
"I want the three of you to complete it while I'll go to the Duke's mansion and investigate him," Souta said in a low voice that only his party could hear. He also used his mana to distort the sound that coming out of their table. He could use his mana to amplify his voice so it's natural that he could distort the sound using his mana.
Mana has a lot of uses as long as a person could properly control it.
"Okay, we'll do it. I don't want to get bore so I want to do something and this quest is perfect to quench my boredom." Bryan said as he looked at the quest with an excited expression.
Souta looked at Bryan and Brando before he said, "Bryan, Brando, you'll follow Lumilia's instructions while I infiltrate the Duke's mansion. Did you two get it?"
"I understand Souta. I'll follow Lumilia." Brando nodded at his words.
"Me too. I don't have anything against it." Bryan said.
