"Hey, what are you looking at? Be careful, or I'll smack you." The old knight, drenched in sweat, had just pushed a broken box onto the carriage and turned to angrily shout at the peasants watching from the roadside.
On the King's Path leading to Hotam County, a queue stretching more than a mile had formed.
Dust flew and settled into eyes, livestock mingled, children ran wildly between wheels and hay, with adults anxiously yelling behind them.
"Move quickly, move quickly!" The knight wearing a blue cloak embroidered with the Golden Finch urged these people onward with a crack of his whip.
The main body of these travelers consisted of peasants and artisans from the Kongdai Territory, while some were refugees fleeing the kingdom's civil war.
After the civil war broke out in the kingdom, thousands of refugees fled into the Thousand River Valley, one of the few places not affected by the flames of war.
