From the three southern prefectures to Efinasburg, Claude didn't take the temporary path through the Pikleit Mountains. Instead, he followed the national route of Rimodra.
Actually, they could save a few days if they traveled by sea, but the port cities of the former Askilin and Rimodra Dukedoms had all been destroyed and attacked by the anti-Austrian Alliance fleet. Even now, the shipping routes had not been restored.
Even though the war had ended, the fleets of the three former duchies didn't surrender as the navy had expected. A portion of them still followed the Alliance, but they changed their nationality and joined Canas.
The other portion scattered and became one of the countless pirate groups in the eastern seas. They attacked the coastal towns and villages and occupied the islands in the eastern seas.
So, Claude could only take the land route to visit his family. If they were to encounter pirates at sea and they found out that he was an Aueran captain, they wouldn't be able to survive.
Fortunately, he had some money on him. He bought three healthy horses and two draft horses at a low price from camp headquarters and brought the three of them home.
If possible, Claude would've preferred to bring his own mount home. It was the Canasian warhorse he'd captured from the enemy scouts.
Unfortunately, the kingdom didn't allow warhorses to roam among the commoners. Additionally, Claude didn't have the right to own one at his current rank.
If he were to become a field officer, he would be able to buy a so-called retired warhorse.
If he were to become a general, he would even be able to apply for a small team of warhorse escorts.
The road was filled with troops returning from the frontlines. The soldiers were in high spirits. From time to time, folk songs and tunes from various places could be heard. Sometimes, some slightly more straightforward pub tunes about the interaction between men and women would attract a lot of cheers and jeers.
Basically, the most common sight on the road in Rimodra was the bright red uniform of the kingdom's army.
Claude wanted to buy some local specialties from Rimodra to bring home, but he was soon disappointed.
The war had turned all the towns in the Principality of Rimodra into ruins. There wasn't a single intact town along the national highway. There were broken walls and destitute, helpless, and impoverished residents everywhere.
Claude couldn't even find a tavern. When he asked Myjack and the others how they dealt with their meals when they were delivering letters to the royal capital, Myjack said that they had no choice but to eat the bread they brought with them and drink water from their flasks. Otherwise, they would have to spend some money to buy some hot food.
However, things were much better in the Sidins Principality. The relay stations along the national highway basically had taverns. As long as one was willing to spend money, it was easy to eat well and sleep comfortably.
Their heavy luggage made it clear that they were on holiday to visit their family. Quite a few officers in the army were envious of them.
At noon on the last leg of his journey to Rimodra, Claude made himself some hot food in one of the second-line corps resting camps.
A few lieutenants of the second-line corps chatted with Claude and found out that the three of them were indeed going home to visit their family. One of the lieutenants recommended Claude to visit Elfinasburg. It was the largest black market in the kingdom and he might be able to buy some treasures there that were worthy of being taken home as family heirlooms.
The captain said that he had gone to Elphinsburgh on business the previous month, and had found the square full of little stalls, selling the most extraordinary things one would expect to find there.
He asked around, and someone who knew the inside story told him that many of the items here were stolen from the noble and wealthy families of the duchies. Of course, some of them were stolen or robbed by the kingdom's soldiers, and they were all brought here to be disposed of.
He had seen with his own eyes an exquisite little silver pot marked with the name of the famous gold and silver craftsman Evan from two hundred years ago. Unfortunately, he was short of money and could not afford to buy it. He could only watch as the little silver pot was bought by a fat noble lady at a low price that was only one-seventh of the pot's original value.
Elphinsburg was the former capital of the duchy of Sidins. After the kingdom's army destroyed the duchy, Elphinsburg became the main base for Prince Hansbach's army to attack the duchy of Rimodra. At the same time, it was also the supply center for the kingdom's army. It was the first city in the duchy of Sidins to recover its former prosperity.
The troops that were ordered to retreat now needed to rest and reorganize in the barracks in Elfina Castle to recover from the fatigue of the long march.
So, many soldiers chose to sell their private stash of spoils of war there. To them, shiny gold coins were more worth bringing home.
Officers who didn't have the chance to go to the battlefield came to buy spoils of war to brag about their bravery. There were also many merchants from all over the kingdom who came to take advantage of the situation. As a result, the largest black market in the kingdom was formed.
The reason it was called a black market was because Elfinasburg was under military control. The merchants who set up stalls only had to pay a small management fee and didn't have to pay any taxes.
Claude's interest was piqued by the lieutenant's words. After fighting in the war for more than four years, he didn't get much spoils of war. He did get a set of exquisite silverware for four people, but it was left with Sheerah.
There was also the time when he defeated the allied forces of two duchies in Squirrel Village and obtained a very sharp and beautiful dagger, which Sheerah had taken a fancy to as well.
Apart from that, most of the spoils of war Claude got were fine wine. He had six bottles in his bag that he could use as a gift when he got back. The rest had already been drunk.
It seemed that he would have to make a detour to Elfinasburg and buy some exquisite wares to bring home. He could say that they were his spoils of war. That way, he would be able to show them off to guests in the future. At the very least, he wouldn't have to use ordinary glassware to entertain guests of high status.
After thanking the officers, Claude decided to make a detour to Elfinasburg to take a look.
The last time Myjack and Gemi went to the royal capital to deliver a letter, they took a direct route to Emis and didn't pass through Elfinasburg. That way, they could save half a day.
Claude wasn't in a rush to visit his family. Firstly, he had a long holiday of five and a half months.
Secondly, he could go to Elfinasburg to take a look at the black market and ask around to see if Borkal was still there.
After another day and a half of travel, Claude and the two finally arrived at Efenasburg in the evening. After asking the guards at the gate about it, Claude brought Myjack and Gum to a rather high-class tavern in the city to stay there.
After a rather decent dinner and a hot bath to recover from the exhaustion he felt from the journey, Claude went to bed early in the morning.
The next morning, Claude was woken up by the sound of hawkers outside his window. When he looked outside, he saw that the previously empty street was now filled with countless stalls. The street that could normally fit six carriages had been turned into a four-lane street.
People came and went, making the street extremely crowded. From time to time, there would be peddlers pushing carts to join the crowd.
It wasn't even eight yet, but it was already bustling outside.
Myjack and Gemi had already woken up. Claude brought them downstairs for breakfast.
According to the waiter of the tavern, all the streets leading to the central square were like this, and the central square was filled with stalls. Only the two roads that crossed the central square were still open for carriages to pass through, and the other places had to be walked to see the goods on the stalls.
After breakfast, he read a few newspapers and drank a cup of honey black tea.
Seeing that it was almost half past eight, he decided to go to the logistics headquarters to ask for news about Borkal.
When he met Welikro at the ceremony last year, Welikro said that he met Borkal at Effensburg.
He didn't know if he was still there. After all, Welikro said that it had been almost two years since he last saw him.
The three of them didn't ride horses and instead walked. That was the advice of the worker at the tavern.
He said that there were stalls on both sides of the street and it would be easy for the mounts to damage things if they weren't careful.
There was once a lieutenant colonel who was haggling with a peddler and his mount ended up gnawing on a few expensive plants on the stall next door, causing the lieutenant colonel to pay a huge sum of money. Claude had seen it happen with his own eyes.
Claude went with the flow and decided to walk. It wasn't far anyway. He could reach the logistics headquarters in Elfinasburg in about ten minutes.
When Claude arrived, he asked a few officers in the logistics department, but none of them knew where Borkal's garrison had been transferred to. They didn't even know what the garrison's serial number was. Claude couldn't find out even if he wanted to. In the end, he could only return in disappointment.
After the outbreak of war, the garrison that the kingdom deployed from the rear to the frontlines were classified as garrison troops and their serial numbers were used instead of their original names.
It was said that this was mainly to prevent the enemy from secretly retaliating. After all, the role of these local guard camps was to suppress the resistance and riots of the natives of the newly occupied land. Sometimes, the suppression methods adopted were very cruel, and it was easy to make the local natives hate each other.
More than a hundred years ago, there was a serial murder case that shocked the kingdom. More than ten families were wiped out.
In the end, it was discovered that the exterminated families were retired officers and soldiers of the former local garrison. Twenty years ago, they participated in the kingdom's expansion war and carried out a cruel suppression operation against a riot in a newly occupied native town. It was said that more people died that time, and less than one in ten survived, and most of them were elderly and children.
As a result, after more than 20 years, the surviving children had grown up. They still remembered the name of the local garrison and used all kinds of methods to come to that place to make a living. They also paid attention to the former officers and soldiers of the garrison who had participated in the suppression of the riot and made friends with them.
Then, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the riot, they launched a bloody revenge operation, wiping out the entire families of more than a dozen former Garrison Camp soldiers.
After the case was solved, it shocked the entire kingdom. A total of seven murderers were arrested, and they were all children who had survived that year.
They said that they had seen their loved ones beaten to death right in front of their eyes. It was a nightmare that had haunted them for more than 20 years. It also made them remember the name of the garrison.
When they grew up, they tried all sorts of ways to make a living there just to take revenge on the murderers of their loved ones.
Now, everyone was finally free.
Since then, whenever the kingdom mobilized the local garrison camps to the frontlines to stabilize the order of the newly occupied territories and suppress local riots, they would be given new serial numbers as soon as possible to replace the original names of the places.
For example, Captain Durioro's local garrison was originally called Leicester's local garrison, but now it was changed to Garrison Force Sequence 03778 Mountain Crossing Road's local garrison …
Claude didn't know that Bongilia's garrison would be given a serial number when they were sent to the frontlines. Without that serial number, he wouldn't be able to find any information about Bongilia's garrison at all.
That was because all the serial numbers of the garrison troops were registered at the headquarters. For example, how much supplies 0125 needed to replenish when they were deployed from one place to another.
Claude didn't manage to get any useful information even after half a day. All he could do was wish Borkal's garrison camp good luck.
After that, he brought Myjack and Gum to the market in the central square.
When Claude and the other two were having dinner at the tavern, they met a few second-line officers who were also there to buy some souvenirs and spoils of war. The officers who had been to the black market a few times complained that the prices of the black market had risen by a third during that period. It was likely due to the withdrawal of the kingdom's army that affected the black market and the merchants were making use of the withdrawal to make more money from the soldiers who wanted to buy souvenirs and spoils of war, so they raised the prices in unison.
The worst part was that there were more and more fakes appearing in the market. Many of them were said to have come from famous noble families, but they were actually fakes.
The peddlers spared no effort to fabricate one touching story after another for these fakes to convince the customers that the thing in front of them was the real thing.
A military officer said that Grand Duke Siddings, who had been exiled to the north of the continent, had always carried an obsidian pipe in his hand. He had found more than fifty of them in the market, and every vendor who sold them claimed that their pipe was the one that Grand Duke Siddings was carrying.
In just one afternoon, he had heard seven stories about how the obsidian pipe went from the hands of Grand Duke Siddings to the stall in front of him. The most amazing thing was that each of the stories was different, and they were all very reasonable …
Claude recalled that he had been sold the same pipe in the afternoon, but he wasn't interested.
If his father, Morssen, was still around, Claude might have bought him a pipe. Unfortunately, he wasn't around anymore, so he could only buy some gifts for his mother and siblings.
Claude spent two days shopping at Effenasburg's black market and spent around five hundred crowns on quite a lot of things. In the end, he ended his shopping spree under Myjack's reminder.
Because there were too many things, he had no choice but to buy a carriage that could be used for both passengers and goods. After stuffing all the purchased goods into the carriage, he set off again and set foot on the road home.