Chapter 357

The images in Ray's mind was a haze, he could remember bits and pieces here, but it wasn't enough to remember much. 'Did I really used to know a black Dragon?' he thought. Dragon's tended to come in all sorts of colours, but their colours also indicated their strength and ability. Most dragons a specific colour were only able to use a certain elemental ability. Ray, however, as the Red dragon Sen, was able to use all types of magic all apart from one. But he couldn't remember what magic this was. This was exclusive for a sperate race of dragons even before Ray's time. He had never met one in his life before, or at least he thought he had never met one. However, the strange valley town had jogged his memory of when he was younger, indicating that he might have. "Are you okay Ray?" Jack asked, feeling a little concerned, as Ray hadn't said much ever since they arrived. "Yes, just this place reminds me of something." Wishing to change the subject, Ray asked a question of his own. "What about you Jack? Has seeing this place managed to jog your memory at all." The two of them were currently still riding the carriage, while Jack was steering the thing down the single path, Ray was lying down on top of the roof, taking in his surroundings. It was truly a nice secluded area. Covered by humungous trees and hills. "Well, I remember coming here as a child and studying here, but nothing else." Jack replied. Ray never had any hope for Jack in the first place, the goal was to see if anyone in the town could remember. They had finally arrived at the front entrance and unlike all the town before it, there were no walls. Instead, there where two small towers built out of wood, each with a guard inside. While they also had guards stationed on the ground floor. "ID please!" The guard said in a loud stern voice with his hand held out. "I'm afraid we lost our ID travelling to a bunch of ravaged beasts, we were hoping we could take shelter in your town for a few days," Ray explained. When the Redwing kingdom was created, each kingdom went through a new registration process. Usually, this wouldn't be the case, and only the kingdom that had been created would have to issue new IDs, but the Empire forced all the other kingdoms to reregister their citizens. This was to see who would be part of the Redwings and who would not. Ray thought it was amazing how much effort they were putting in to get rid of the Redwings, when it seemed like they didn't but in half the effort against the shadow. "No ID, no entry." The guard replied. "Oh don't say that, I'm sure we can arrange something, as you can see we are very wealthy merchants," Ray said, pointing at their specially designed carriage. Jack was impressed by Ray's words, it was the first time he had ever seen him be able to talk so smoothly. Where was the regular brut Ray who would bash his way through? What Jack didn't know was before Ray had left, Slyvia had done her best to give Ray as many socialising lessons as possible. It took many tries but eventually, they had gotten somewhere. Thankfully, Slyvia was quite smart, she planned what scenarios and troubles they might have come across during their travels and decided to just focus on them. Ray then offered his hand and proceeded with a grin on his face, it was perfect, exactly what Slyvia had told him to do. Right now inside, Ray's hands was a set of ten silver coins, which would be around a months worth of pay for a guard at a town like this. It was a bribe sure to work.

'What's with that evil grin?' the guard thought. 'He must be planning an attack.' "Everyone, seize the intruders!" Four guards had quickly surrounded the carriage and drew their weapons. Jack, who was watching the whole thing going on, was shaking his head. He could see that Slyvia's lesson had worked wonders, but she was unable to change his facial expression. When Ray had tried to give a friendly smile to the guard, his face looked like that who was scheming an evil plan. Not wanting to cause a ruckus or a scene, Ray lifted his hands and surrendered. Fortunately, Ray had been told what to do in these situations as well. Knowing that he might fail. If the Empire were to know of the Redwings were in a strange town, they were sure to investigate. The guards begin to escort not only Ray, But Jack and the carriage as well. However, they struggled to figure out how to start the thing. There were no horses to push it, and it seemed to also be heavier than a regular carriage. "I can help if you want," Jack said.?"I promise I won't run away, we would have tried that by now." The guards allowed Jack to climb on top of the vehicle and ride it into town slowly while they walked by the side. The town was full of small buildings here and there, not many things were higher than two stories. It wasn't like the cities they were used to, and everything seemed a lot quieter. However, there were still the usual stalls out and about on the streets selling food and clothes. The school that Jack had gone to was no longer a knight school owned by Avrionn but now had turned into a public school. Still, they were able to see children practising swordsmanship with some of the town guards outside. What did happen as they went past with their new vehicle, it seemed to be causing quite a stir in town. Whenever they would walk past a new place, people would stop what they were doing and started to follow the vehicle. "What is that thing, How is it moving?" "It must be some type of magic." "Only royalty would be able to afford something like that?" "Don't be a fool, can't you see their hands are tied up, they must be prisoners." Ray looked at the head guard. "As we said we are merchants, we are trying to introduce this new technology to wealthy nobles in hope they may invest further so we can mass produce these items on a large scale," Ray explained. Just then, a large fat man had come out from one of the sides and started rushing over. His eyes went straight past the guards as he ran up to the vehicle. "What is this, this beauty! Who created this, who owns this!" The large man said. "I demand to know at once." "This vehicle belongs to these two prisoners." The head guard replied. The large man then walked up to the guard and smiled. He then placed out his hand and gave it a shake placing one gold coin. "If they are prisoners then I believe this vehicle will be seized goods. I wish to take this off your hands and get rid of it for you." The guard smiled back and bowed down. "It would be my pleasure." Jack was then taken down from the front of the carriage while one of the fat man's men had got on. Since Jack had already filled it up with a beast core, it was able to still run for the moment. "You see Boss." Jack said. "That's how you bribe someone."