Three men and one woman stared at me with astonishment for a moment before a guardsman named Frank cleared his throat.

"Are you all right, miss?" He asked me.

No, I wasn't. My body was shaking, my ass hurt, and I was looking at armed guardsmen who had a higher level than me.

[Guardsman: lvl 125]

[Guardswoman: lvl 122]

[Guardsman: lvl 134]

[Guardsman: lvl 118]

One of them was so red in the face that the probability of him attacking me was really high. He must have been pretty angered by me for delaying them. 

Thoughts of escape did not leave me, but its implementation was now completely impossible. I was so scared I was glad I was standing at all.

When I was asked by the guardsman if I was okay, I just nodded.

"Well, people, do your work," guardsman Frank ordered.

The other guardsmen began inspecting Scoreby's wagon and its contents, while guardsman Frank stayed with me. He has the highest level of them all.

[Guardsman: lvl 134]

"Miss, if you want to enter Castiana, you must have an ID card. You don't have it, so we need to ask you a few questions and verify your identity. You may be surprised, but it's our captain's job. I'll take you to Guards Barracks, where the captain will ask you some questions. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some information I could give our captain before meeting you."

"…" I nodded.

"Very well," Frank said. "Liam, I'll take her with me. Nice to see you and say hello to Marlen for me."

"I'll tell her, Frank," Scoreby smiled. "Miss Grey, I wish you good luck in your life."

"…" I just nodded again.

I wanted to tell him more, maybe thank him, but I couldn't do it right now. I was sorry.

"Please follow me," the guardsman told me.

I didn't want to, but I did not have much choice. My steps were wobbly as I followed him. We went through the city gate, behind which we entered a small guardhouse. The fact that no one was inside didn't calm my nerves, and dark thoughts began to fill my mind.

Frank sat down at the table and pulled a pen and paper from the drawer.

"Sit down, miss," he pointed to a chair across from him.

After a moment's hesitation, I tried to sit in a chair, but what followed was an awkward attempt. The back of the chair made it quite impossible for me to sit. More precisely, my wings and tail did. I could have twisted the tail aside, but I had a bigger problem with the wings.

"There's a stool over there," the guardsman pointed to a wooden stool in the corner of the room.

I immediately exchanged it for a chair. Now I was mad at him for not telling me sooner. I could have saved myself this humiliation.

"Tss…" I hissed in pain when I finally sat down.

Yes, I forgot my bruised ass. However, the guardsman didn't comment on that and waited until I was ready for interrogation.

"Can we start?" he asked.

I nodded "…"

"So, miss, from what Liam Scoresby said, I deduce your last name is Grey?" the guardsman asked.

"Korra…" I managed to say out loud.

The man looked at me and then asked. "Korra Grey?"

"Yes"

"Korra Grey, female, Slave lvl 92," the guard muttered as he took notes.

"So, miss Grey, did you come from Arda?"

"Yes"

"Did you come across the Traim river? Is that so?" he asked.

"Yes"

Guardsman frowned. "Didn't anyone catch you crossing the border?"

"Yes," I replied but hesitated. "I mean, I haven't met anyone."

He smiled at my answer, even though I didn't think it was good news for border guards.

"Who was your master?" He asked me.

At that moment, I began to breathe hard, and even a growl-like sound came out of my throat.

"Frederic Dungreen," I said.

Guardsman Frank wrote this name down. "How long have you been his slave?"

"I don't know," I said, sighing. "… Months, maybe more than a year."

"Well, that would be enough. As I said, this is not my job, but our captain's," said the guard.

Then he took a black plate covered with runes from another drawer and placed it in front of me. It was a magical tool. I knew it. I just didn't know its function.

"It's an Identification Tablet. Put your hand on it, please." the guardsman said. "Don't worry, it'll just verify your name and profession, nothing more."

All I could do was trust him. Frederic Dungreen used something similar on his slaves, but the magical tool was not so small and did not have a tablet's shape. However, it showed him all the system information about the slaves.

My hand shook as I placed it on the plate. As soon as I touched it, the runes on the Identification Tablet glowed. Guardsman Frank and I were now watching the text hovering over the plate.

Korra Grey

Slave: lvl 92

The guard took notes again, then took the Identification Tablet back. He folded the notepaper and put it in his pocket.

"All right, miss Grey," the guardsman said, standing up. "I'll take you to the captain."

"Okay," I nodded.

Even though I had to listen to the guardsman, my hands were still free, and my neck was without a collar. I got up from my stool and let the man guide me. Guard barracks were not built near the walls, nor in the city center. They stood somewhere between them. I couldn't pinpoint their position in the city when I didn't see its map.

But we walked through a part of town before we reached the barracks. My expectations weren't very high from the beginning, so I wasn't disappointed. Multi-story medieval buildings of stone or wood lined the streets, on which people moved together with horse-drawn wagons. It was an incredible sight for me, something I only saw in movies or in old pictures.

It was not a clean city, but which city was? As I walked barefoot, I had to watch my steps, not to step on something I would regret. The streets themselves were not lined with sidewalks, so people walked among the wagons. Luckily traffic here was not as heavy as in modern cities, and people on the streets seemed satisfied and happy to me. I envied them.

However, I didn't focus as much on my first walk through the city as I should. My thoughts were more focused on my upcoming interrogation from the captain in the barracks. It was a small stone fortress full of guardsmen.

Well, maybe that was a little exaggerated. There weren't that many of them. But I saw at least a dozen guardsmen on the courtyard. My own guardsman led me to the largest building in the fort. There I found myself in front of a young man in uniform sitting at a table overflowing with stacks of papers. I couldn't get rid of the assistant's impression.

When we reached him, he looked up from the ledger he was filling something into.

"Frank, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the South Gate?" He asked.

"I'm just doing my job, Travis," he replied. "Do you know Liam Scoresby? He returned from Mitta here with Miss Korra Grey. She doesn't have an ID, so I'm leading her to the captain."

The man at the table looked at me and then frowned. "Do you have any information I can give to the captain or just the name?"

Guardsman Frank pulled out a note sheet he had written earlier and handed it to the assistant. He took it, inspected it, and sighed. "All right, Frank, take her to interrogation room number two. Captain is now with the mayor, so it will take a while."

"Sure," 

I was introduced to one of the interrogation rooms, a small room with only a table and two chairs. At first glance, it was not a pleasant room, cold, austere, almost reminiscent of a cell. I lived in worse conditions for months, and this room even has a window. It was barred, but it wasn't in the basement.

"All right, miss. You heard, the captain has a job now. You will have to wait a while,"

"…" I nodded.

"So I'll say goodbye to you here," the guardsman said, smiling and leaving the room.

As he closed the door behind him and locked it, I panicked. It was here, I went right into their arms alone and voluntarily. Not much work for them, and now they had me locked in a cell. All they had to do was put a collar around my neck, and I was back where I started.

I found the room corner as far away from the door as I could, curled up, and waited for my new master to arrive.