Chapter 10: New life
Vallerie slowly opened her eyes. Her memory was foggy, but, but bit by bit, she started to remember what happened.
After she surrendered, her and her companions were chained and escorted away. They had been taken away to jail. But the lord had escorted her through his mansion to a cell located in the basement. Once they got there the lord had started to talk to her.
"This cell will be your room for now. As for your underlings..." he stated first.
"They are not underlings! They are my companions!" she interrupted him no longer capable of bearing him insulting her companions.
"Fine, companions, they will enjoy my gaol for the time being. They will be treated well as long as you don't cause trouble."
"Okay," she replied meekly.
"And last. You're not a knight of the Blue order, right?"
"No, I'm not anymore. After, Emily was captured I joined them since I already knew how to fight. I thought they would help me find her because she was clearly captured by slavers. But after two years when I tried to go find Emily the higher ups forbid it. Therefore, I quit, leaving all my equipment behind," she admitted.
"And you thought it was a good idea to replace them with mundane piece of metal?"
"I knew as long as I kept to Viclardie nobody would suspect the armour to be fake, so I had a replica made but I had no gold left to have it enchanted same with my sword. I had hoped the coat of arm would be enough to keep trouble at bay."
"Yet, knowing your equipment wasn't magical, you agreed to this duel?"
"I've heard the noble living in the South were wet blankets, only good at speaking honeyed words."
"You've already said that. How long have you've been in the Southern regions? Not long I surmise" inquired Corantin.
"A few weeks, we spent most of our time in the Central plains. Your town was one of the first one we visited."
This was strange as the Auberron lands were removed and lacked any major city. Nonetheless, Corantin chose to dispel her misconception first.
"In theses few weeks didn't you notice that the Southern regions are safer than the Central plains?"
"Isn't it because the Central plains are more populated that they have more pests?"
"No, it's because most nobles in the South are militarily minded. So, they have more soldiers to catch criminals when they don't hunt them down themselves. Now, you said you came here first why is that? This town isn't exactly near a big city nor close to the central plains."
"It's because of a merchant we encountered by chance. He mentioned a woman who look like me living here so we came to see for ourselves," Vallerie answered, judging there was no point lying.
"Okay, last question. Is your collar comfortable?"