Chapter 128 – The Great Palatine Conqueror

It was finally the day of departure.

Jace told the Kid to keep an eye on his pocket watch and wake himself up when it was 5:00, however he woke up at 4:00 or so, after all, he had gone to bed early the day before as well, and he had very important things to do today, so he simply couldn’t afford to take a nap or anything.

Heading out the door with his packed bags, making sure to lock the door over and over again, and waking the landlord up before he left, reminding him once again to help keep an eye on his little rented house and not to privately re-rent it before the rent was due, before heading for the harbor.

Dawn was getting later and later, and at five o’clock the sky still looked like blue steel ink, and there was no one on the street except the drowsy guards on duty.

Once we got to the dock, though, everything was completely different.

Even though it was still only dawn, the harbor of Stormwind City was already overcrowded, so it was no wonder that when the Alliance was preparing to launch the Northern Expedition afterward, they needed to target the harbor for expansion.

Of course, it’s probably also because it’s Winterfest coming up.

Isn’t this the time of year when people like Jess, who normally rarely come to the harbor on business, get involved in crowding the harbor?

Unlike the usual Stormwind City accents that dominated the streets, the harbor was filled with humans with accents from all over the world, with Lordaeron accents predominating, and even Kul Tiras.

In complete contrast to the game map, Kul Tiras is actually closer to Stormwind than Lordaeron, and the island it is on is located in that part of the ocean just beyond the Gulf of Palatine, from which it only takes about a week to get to Port of Pelarus by boat.

Even then, he rarely saw Kulthiras, and this time he was meeting several Kulthiras soldiers in green with a golden anchor emblem on their shoulders, tall men with broad chests and shoulders like a pack of hyenas, talking at the top of their lungs about something in a barely intelligible common language.

There were some large ships hovering outside the harbor, seemingly because the docks were almost full and unable to enter the harbor, and the dockmaster seemed to be urging the sailors to get underway and make room for the later ships.

As he made his way through the crowd, Jace looked out over the harbor at the so-called “Great Palatine Conqueror,” which, if Grid’s words were anything to go by, was a relatively large ship and should have stood out.

While looking into the distance, but ignoring the nearness, Jace accidentally tripped over something slippery and nearly fell, looking down it seemed that he had just stepped on a sea fish, and I don’t know where a middle-aged man was cursing and swearing, but the crowd quickly blocked Jace’s view, and there was no way to know where the talking was coming from anymore.

While checking his shoes for any damage anywhere, a strong hand suddenly grabbed his cloak ……

“Holy shit!”

As soon as Jace pulled on the hood at the back of his neck, he almost thought a thief was trying to rob him of the most expensive thing in his entire body, only to turn his head and see that it was Grider. “Hey kid, lost, huh?”

Gred wore a dark brown leather tunic with arms, wrists, and waist chained with thick metal harnesses.

He also had a light green yellowed headband tying up his dark brown, nearly black hair and tying it to the back of his head to form a ponytail.

Jace had never seen him in this outfit before, not in the same style as before, not even with all the dwarves in all of Stormwind.

This one was almost unrecognizable.

Grid looked at him staring at him in surprise and said, “Isn’t it very beautiful? This is the suit I brought with me from the Eagle’s Nest Mountains, Jace, and even though I’ve left the Order, they haven’t taken it back. I’m going to return to Cintron in this Brute Hammer Battlesuit and remind them of the existence of my number.”

“Very recognizable indeed.” Jess nodded.

“Follow me.” Grider said, “The Baradin what’s-his-name is over there, not far from here.”

He was right, the Great Baradin Conqueror was docked in the small fjord at the far north end of the harbor, and it was indeed a large, dark brown ship with a name written in the old runic script, carved into the bow like some sort of magical rune.

Grid and Jace arrived here just as a couple of burly dockworkers were taking a step on the planks toward the ship with a large crate covered in cloth and rope. More intriguing to Jace than the crate was actually the little thing that was yelling down there – the goblin.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this was the first time he’d ever seen a goblin at such close quarters, and the little monster’s presence instantly rendered the entire plain medieval-style dilapidated dock fantastical.

“Fuck!” The goblin pointed at the panting workers and yelled in very fluent Common, “If your king hadn’t kept the ogres out of the city, would I have paid you losers? If you dare to break the guests’ things, you’ll die, the law of Storm City doesn’t explicitly say that trolls are not allowed to come in! Not only are trolls stronger than you pink-skinned monsters, but they’re never picky about what they eat.”

The goblin is almost slightly shorter than the gnome, but the proportions of his head look as if they are more exaggerated, mostly because of his long ears that are held back high and his extremely exaggerated fluffy red hair.

His green skin was very rough and dry, his pair of dark yellow eyes were ADHD-like as they flicked back and forth, looking here and there, his mouth bursting with sticky drool as he spoke, and his withered limbs wobbling like a frightened mouse.

“Faster! Faster! Hurry up! Didn’t you hear that bald guy rushing, we have to leave in two hours, and now the guests haven’t finished loading their cargo, I’m so fucking impressed with you stupid big guys.”

However Jace and Grid had just gotten close enough to see the goblin only glance at the brute hammer dwarf and cough unnaturally.

“Ah, are you two guests of the ‘Great Paladin Conqueror’?” The gnome smiled, his eyes squeezed out by the green wrinkles on his face, “Just give your names and you can get on board, we guarantee that we can leave in less than two hours and we won’t leave behind the luggage of any of our important guests, the quality of our service is known to no one from Treasure Bay to Twilight Town!”

“Jace Sesso.”

“Oh, let’s see, Mr. Jess Sesso, welcome!!!”

“Grid.”

“Greed …… what?”

“It’s Griddle, what else?”

The gnome scratched his head and said, “Grid is a not uncommon dwarven name ah, this Mr. Grid. You must provide your family, otherwise I can’t be held responsible for letting you get away with it!”

Grid frowned and said, “Thunderfist, Grid Thunderfist.”

“Lord Greed of the Thunderfist family name right here!” The goblin pointed to the roster in his hand and said, “My name is Gazik, first mate of this ship, in charge of all the shit that the captain doesn’t bother with, and we’ll have half a month together from now nah, it’s nice to meet you both! Come aboard, please!”

The two men followed the group of workers carrying the large crates onto the ship on successive feet, and Jace saw the goblin’s face, which had been smiling, grimace for a moment as he continued to stare at the workers as they broke into a fit of rage. He looked to the Gnome, who was walking with his head down and sulking, and asked, “The Thunder Fist family of the Eagle’s Nest Mountain is known even to me, and if it wasn’t for this outing I wouldn’t have even heard you mention it at all.”

“Nothing to mention.” Grid stood and looked around the deck and said, “No matter how loud the family name is, it won’t be loud when you’ve got hundreds of kinsmen all over the world, especially if you’re the most useless one in this big group of inexplicable kinsmen brothers.”