Chapter 139 – The Fleeing Orc

He thought he might be surprised when he saw a real griffin, but he didn’t think he’d be so blown away that he couldn’t speak.

Because this guy is really pretty ……

Unlike the curious out-of-town onlookers, both those horses and the stagecoach workers just silently watched the griffon fly up into the night sky without any surprise or additional discussion, and turned their heads to get busy with their own chores.

If it’s so common, why haven’t I seen it since I was a kid?

As a child he had seen griffins passing high in the sky, but in the same way that he used to see an airliner passing in the sky on the ground, it wasn’t technically “seen”.

Perhaps it was because of the war, the griffins coming and going here had become more numerous in the past two years, and Jace had been in Stormwind all this time.

One by one, the onlookers dispersed, while Jace remained nailed to his spot staring at the white dot in the dark red dusk.

“Are all griffins this big?” Jace asked.

“Cintron’s is a bit smaller, it’s the snowy mountain griffin of Otterland, not as numerous as Cintron’s.” Grid took his head and said, “I’ve rarely seen this kind of griffin either, beautiful behemoths indeed ah.”

“Wait until we get to Cintron and show you a good time, Jess.” Grid said, “Let’s get back over to the stagecoach, it does look pretty crowded to me, so don’t fail to grab a spot.” Jace nodded and followed Grid back again, but the white monster was on his mind.

At some point a man in a thick coat followed the two men, wearing spectacles and carrying an old tome in his arms, and just as he came over he asked, “Gentlemen, just off that goblin merchant ship, got a consignment for Stantholm?”

“You talk to him.” Grid poked Jace with his elbow.

There were a lot of these agency-like guys at the stagecoaches in Lordaeron, who were either professional agents or hired by merchants to pick up work, and although Jace had never dealt with them before, he had known of the existence of such people in the King’s City before.

“Not goods, people, is there a bus to Dalaran available tomorrow morning?” He asked.

“No more.” The other party replied, “I’m sorry, sir, but wagons to the west and north have been suspended for the last two days. The kingdom has called for a four-day suspension of freight and passenger transportation, which won’t resume until the day after tomorrow. Right now the only ones still going are the ones going in the direction of Arash, Stensom, and Daronmere. Perhaps you might consider taking a detour …… from there since we don’t know if there will be a change in policy after the day after tomorrow, so if you’re in a hurry you could try to go through Otterland.”

“Is something wrong?” Jess asked.

“You didn’t know?” The man clamped the book shut, lifted his glasses, looked at him and the dwarf, and said, “Ah, you’re just back from the south, no wonder you didn’t know. That orc leader escaped, from the underground prison in the King’s City, I really don’t know what Minethil does for a living. How long was that guy in jail? A year? I’m afraid his ass isn’t even warm yet. Of course, I’m just hearing things from hearsay, the only thing I can say for sure is that the army closed the road for two days, the rest is up to your own judgment.”

“The head orc?” Jace asked, “Is it Orgrim Doom?”

“How do I remember all those strange names of the orcs.” The agent bowed slightly and said, “Since you two still need to think about it, I’ll go ahead and ask the others, I’m very sorry.”

After that, he hoofed it off to find other business toward the east, and Jace was going to ask for more.

The orc leader who escaped from the King’s City, was it Ogrim?

If it’s Ogrim Doom, that would mean he wandered the forests and mountains of Lordaeron for ten years until a new chief of the Horde came of age later and finally met with him?

No wonder the Ogrim afterward was far from the heart that had led the Horde all the way from Stormwind City to Quetzalcoatl, the long life of wandering and fugitives, and of course a little bit of fading of the influence of the evil energy, was enough to wipe out his temperament ten years ago.

It’s just that Jace doesn’t quite understand this policy of road closure, if it’s because the orc chieftain has escaped, it shouldn’t just be a four-day closure, is the Kingdom of Lordaeron sure that they can catch him in four days?

The truth, of course, was that Lordaeron hadn’t been able to capture Ogrim Doom again for four, not to mention four days, four years, fourteen years, and thinking about it, Jace had a vague feeling that it might be something else.

Now, the two of them sat on the side of the street next to the post and rested for a while, looking at the people in front of them, a bit confused. At least they knew why this town was so busy, the caravans wanting to go to Dalaran, Gilneas and Lordaeron were all backed up here, it was busy!

Of course, you can still go by boat if you want to go to Gilneas, and there’s no trick at all to get to the King’s City.

Technically speaking, it’s not really a lack of tricks at all.

Taking a boat was also possible; Jace had checked the route before, and it was theoretically possible to take a boat from Southsea Town to Dalaran and the King’s City.

It would only take another month to bypass the Gilneith Peninsula, follow the shores of the Silver Pine Forest to refuse to reach the Arivas River south of Tirisfa, and swim upstream to reach the port of Lodenmere to enter Lake Lodenmere.

The whole process takes less than two months, with a side trip to the complete coastline scenery of the entire peninsula of the Kingdom of Gilneas.

Jace scratched his head and said, “That’s too bad, just in time for a road closure?”

“The war just ended not long ago, Jace, and the entire continent of Lordaeron is unsettled.” Grid pulled out a cookie from his bag and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it as he said, “I’m not at all surprised that something like this would go wrong, and it just so happens that this ship arrived a few days earlier than we thought, so it’s just about time to get moving on schedule, and have a few days of fun in Southsea Town on the side.”

“Do you think the road was really closed because the orcs escaped?” Jace asked.

“Or it’s because of something.” Grider said, “We just got here, so whatever the people here say is what they say, I guess.”

Jace rubbed his eyes and sighed helplessly.

“What if we’re not allowed to leave the day after tomorrow either?”

“Then let’s walk there.” Grid said: “Across the Otterland Valley, I roughly calculated, if you hike across and then down the mountain to Dalaran, is almost six days time, walking a little more urgent just in time for the exchange meeting. After the event, we can go to the royal city of Lordaeron, it’s not so bad that the boat ferry at Lake Lordaemir has to be closed, right? It’s not like the orcs are going to build a dock over there to rob it. After you meet your parents, in a few days we will go to Cintron a little later.”

Jace looked to the north, and behind a forest of pines, he could vaguely already see the snow-covered mountains glowing blue at the end of his vision.

“That’s as good as it gets, hopefully everything returns to normal the day after tomorrow.”

Grid glanced at him and said, “We can’t do anything right now, why don’t we go to the tavern in the back and have a drink, don’t waste the money we earned on the ship.”

“That’s okay.” Jace stood up, chewing on Grid’s words feeling weird, “What kind of no waste of money is that ……”

“In case the money isn’t spent, we’ll let the orcs Karma us the day after.” The dwarf compared his neck with his hand knife and said, “That would be a waste.”