The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 315: An unexpected meeting

Chapter 315: An unexpected meeting

A/N: this is the regular Chapter of today.

A/N: Please don’t buy the privilege. They are not written well. I need to revise them all. My apologies to everyone who lost money on this.

These notes aren’t a permanent thing. I will only do so when I have multiple bonus Chapters to release, which I secretly hope is always.

Bonus Chapters owed: 2 out of the 4.

Thank you for reading and supporting me. Please continue to do so.

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Without the burden of the victims, Hex could finally enjoy the sight of the city. He walked with Elize and the captain, making their way toward the Merchant Hut.

According to Elize, the Merchant Unit held all the resources up for sale in the city. They acted as the administrator of everything that arrived from the ports. Sterling had gone there to gather information for his plans.

Hex was in no hurry to visit the place. He wished to experience the city as much as possible. With no objection from the captain, Elize obliged. She took a roundabout way toward the Merchant Hut.

The scope of the city left him speechless. A city was large, he knew that. But this city was built on a tree. And not even on the main trunk. It was just one of the cities on the tree.

At first glance, the city didn’t seem too large. But very quickly, he learned that the city wasn’t limited to the buildings, squares, and side branches he saw when he rushed toward the Healers Hut.

The lower side held a few thinner branches that held smaller and lighter buildings. In these parts, the ones who held a lower status inside the city lived. The slums, Hex called in his mind.

Not surprisingly, these places were inhabited by people without a Blessing or a weak Blessing. They were regular people in charge of daily maintenance and operations of the city.

After that, Elize led them to the main square of the city. The square was nothing else than the densest part of the connecting branches. It functioned as the place where people gathered and relaxed in their free time.

Rows of vendors stalled their wares at the side of the square. A delicious aroma wafted from the stalls. Curious, he walked over.

The stalls offered many snacks and delicacies. Some sold salted fruits, roots, and snacks. Others offered salty food such as salt-roasted fish, salt-cooked birds, and salted moss. The moss they offered wasn’t just any moss. It was something Salt Leaf City farmed during the rainy periods inside certain branches.

"Is everything salted because of the name of the city?" Hex asked, amused and intrigued after hearing the vendors shout out the names of the food on the menu.

"No, is the other way around," Elize replied. She explained, seeing Hex look at her in confusion.

"Certain branches here are connected to roots that absorb the salt water from the surroundings, causing random leaves around here to have a lot of salt inside them. They dry out quickly but are edibles that can be preserved for a long duration of time."

"And those leaves are the reason behind the name of the city," Hex understood why she said it was the other way around.

He spent some time tasting several snacks and food from the stalls. Wrixians used the regular coins. Hex lacked coins due to everything he went through. The captain didn’t have any either. Luckily, Elize was with them and offered to treat them as newcomers.

Overall, the vibe of the city was relaxing. He did see a lot of the so-called Druids. They were easy to recognize. Markings and ruins littered their bodies and faces.

Some markings and runes were easy to decipher. Their vivid descriptive nature revealed the effect. Some Druids even went as far as adding paint to their body to highlight their abilities. Others did so with the clothes they wore.

"What are the common jobs people inside the city perform? And how do the people govern this place?"

Regular towns and cities appeared and developed over time in a place with plenty of resources to make a living off. Most of the time it also involved a source of water and land rich with natural resources.

In a tree, those things became harder to secure.

"Hunting and fishing are the main sources of income for everyone," replied Elize. "Harvesting the Salty Leaves is another job. They are quite in demand overseas. The nobles seem to love it...a lot. Hmmm, let’s see," she said, pursing her lips as if deep in thought.

"And they are also working for the merchants on their docks and their ships. The Merchant Hut should be livelier than here."

"The docks are the right way to enter Wrixia, right?" Hex verified.

"Yes. The docks are busy throughout the day, even when no other ships arrive. They also have an area to sort and clean the fish."

Hex learned quite a few tidbits as they made their way to their target.

It took them an hour of browsing through the several shops before they got near the Merchant Hut.

Similar to the Healers Hut, the ’building’ of the Merchant Hut was a stumped branch. Unlike the Healers Hut, it wasn’t a branch that grew horizontally. This branch came from down below and bent toward the sky, ending in an abrupt stump. The branch itself was at least twelve meters wide and from what he could see, a hundred meters tall.

From a distance, he saw the large crowd around the branch, which was nothing surprising. He was used to seeing most of the people gather where merchants were.

But as he got closer, he heard the sound of fighting. A duel of sorts. And he recognized the grunts of one of the participants even before he laid his eyes on them.

’Gronke.’

Flex Step

He didn’t push through the dense crowd between him and the entrance, where he guessed that the fight was happening. With his Flex Step, he took the skies and rushed toward the now-visible two figures battling.

The contrast between the fighters caught his eyes at once. One towered above most and looked like a giant beast while the other flickered around like a butterfly. She had a small build but carried her sword with ease.

Gronke stood in his semi-transformed state, launching himself at his petite opponent. The Star Sword, on the other hand, seemed agile. She dodged as her sword flashed as if she wielded light itself.

Seeing her, Hex immediately looked toward the crowd nearest to the battleground. As he expected, she wasn’t alone.

He found a few familiar faces. But the most recognizable one was Elron. He had seen and acted against this man ever since Grindeston, yet like a pest, the guy survived.

Elron was one of the few survivors of the band his grandfather had gathered and named, the Dawnbringers. He remembered Elron calling himself their Chef. What he really was, was a crazy researcher who liked to study and create the vilest things to exist.

They met in Notresol too. Even there he was studying Heartless and serving the Divine Lord.

’Wait. If he is around then the air...’

Hex landed on the ground, just before the crowd, causing a few gasps and cries behind him. He ignored everything else and focused his senses on the air around them.

Elron, alerted by the noise from the crowd, turned toward Hex. A grin appeared on his face as he mouthed a ’hello’ and ’welcome’ to Hex. The smile on Elron’s face was the only one he hated more than the one Sterling wore.

’Found it.’

The bluish light on the back of his hand glowed. Ice elements swirled into the air and soon chunks of charred pieces fell to the ground. A single was too small to elicit a reaction. But once the sound of thuds surpassed the noise from the crowd and the ground filled with black pieces encased in Ice, the crowd turned silent.

Not only that, the two fighters came to a halt, too. Both seemed shocked at the sight of burning wood around them.

Neither was dumb. They realized at once what transpired. The Star Sword turned toward Elron, annoyed.

"I thought I was clear. No ganging up." She didn’t shout, but the evenness in her voice and her grip tightening of the hilt showed how close she was to attacking Elron instead.

"You were clear," Elron grinned. "I didn’t gang up. The embers in the air were used against both of you. I mean, you could suffocate too."

The Star Sword seemed to share Hex’s aversion to his smile because she swung her sword at him, almost slicing his head off. Almost. She stopped as the point touched his throat. It only served to widen his grin as he stared without flinching.

"Hex?"

As Hex contemplated whether he should attack them or not, he heard a voice call him. A voice, he recognized anywhere. A voice he didn’t expect to hear here, though.

With a start, he turned toward the entrance, from which a group led by Ella Moneiwell emerged. The person who called him, broke free from them and rushed toward him. She looked as she had. Mature, beautiful, and concerned over him.

"What are you doing here, Hestia?"