The caravan journey continues. The goal is getting closer.

Tomorrow your caravan's journey will continue. You got up early in the morning and had breakfast.

You then checked on the rookie guards under you. You gave the necessary orders on how they should keep their armor and their weapons clean. You've had some training with the weapon.

Soon your caravan continued along the road to the north.

In the middle of the day you have already seen the high walls of the dwarven fortress city of Dreygrul. These walls were created from black granite. Because of this, the appearance of the fortress was somewhat frightening and created a depressing impression. You assume that the dwarven architects who created this fortress wanted to achieve exactly this effect: to instill terror in any potential enemy.

Your caravan approached a deep moat of water that had been dug in front of the walls. You heard the clanging of mechanisms. The huge lift gates slowly lowered.

Finally, the work of the mechanisms invisible to you has completed. The drawbridge lowered so that your caravan could now cross the moat and enter the city.

For an hour, one cart after another passed over this drawbridge. You saw how at this time the merchant Jodaz communicated with some dwarf warrior. Jodaz was showing this dwarf some documents. You understand that Jodaz is **** to pay a fee again for the caravan to enter the city.

You mentally chuckled and thought, “It’s a good thing I’m not a merchant! If I were a merchant, the amount of taxes and duties that need to be paid would drive me crazy!”

Finally, all mandatory requirements were fulfilled. All the carts of your caravan drove into the city and you, along with the rest of the caravan guards, accompanied these carts. You looked around the streets of the dwarven city and you were amazed at their architecture and appearance, which was completely different from what you saw in human cities.

You heard the words that the dwarf Belknab said to the merchant Jodaz: “It’s high time our boys rested. After we leave our carts in the protected area, which belongs to the Commission of Trade Control, we should settle at the nearest inn. It’s nearby, we need just cross to the other side of the road. I've been there before, although it was a long time ago. I hope our boys will like the fact that on the ground floor of this inn there is a tavern with a large assortment of alcoholic drinks! Ha! Ha!"

You do not understand what Commission of Trade Control is. You could only assume that this organization is somehow connected with the peculiarities of the government of the dwarf state called the Despotate of Yalann.

Indeed, you and all the other members of your caravan were accommodated in the rooms of the inn, after the carts with goods belonging to your caravan were placed in large warehouses under the guard of dwarven warriors.

It was already evening time. You took off your plate armor and you left it in your room, which was located on the second floor of the inn. You were relieved that you didn't have to wear that heavy armor for now.

You went down to the first floor of the inn. You would like to have some fun and dispel the feeling of fatigue and tension in your body.

You saw the dwarf Belknab sitting at one of the tables with the merchant Jodaz. The table is filled with clay vessels of various shapes. It’s easy for you to guess that these are alcoholic drinks of a wide variety of types. In addition to drinks, you see plates with fried wild boar meat, vegetables, sausages, and cheese on the table.

You hear Belknab making fun of the merchant Jodaz and offering him another competition to test his body's resistance to ****. Jodaz smiles politely and refuses, he tries to eat sausage and cheese more than drink ****.

You look around. Mostly dwarves sit at the tables. Almost all of the humans who are here now are guards for your caravan. The exceptions are some local merchants: among them there are also humans and even half-elves.

You would like to stretch your muscles. So you're glad that there are a couple of musicians here who start playing a simple dance tune.

So the dancing began. You are happy to join these dances. What you liked even more was that, in addition to the short female dwarves, several human women took part in the dances. You performed energetic dance moves and you looked at these women with interest.