"Next!" The domineering voice of the guard at the gate was mixed with hints of boredom and exhaustion. Given how tiring it was for all the people between the walls to just wait for their turn to get checked, Layn could only imagine how taxing it was for the locally employed soldiers.
"It's our turn. Hurry up or someone will try to take our spot!" Hurrying the archmage up, Irea quickly picked up the pace. By the time the outsider in their group managed to hasten his steps, he was already at the very end of the entire group.
Soon, the checking began. But contrary to Layn's initial worries, it wasn't as detailed as he thought it would be. Instead of doing a full-body check like some of the special forces at the magic airports of the future would, they accepted the token of the group and actually studied its content before cross-checking it with a set of documents that magically appeared from a small room within the gatehouse.
"Something's wrong… You should have one more female and one less male, shouldn't you?" Raising his eyes from above the set of parchments, the guard scanned the faces of the small crowd. In just a single look, his sight locked on Layn's face.
"You, come forward." Pointing his hand at the archmage, it was clear that he somehow managed to figure out that he was the outside of the group.
"Sir, he is…" Stepping forward, the leader of the ancient team that Layn temporarily joined attempted to explain the situation, only to be forced to remain in his place with a single gesture of the guard raising his hand.
"Don't make it any harder and any longer than it needs to be." Moving his sight from the middle-aged man to Layn's face, the guard asked. "Who are you? Where are you from?"
Hearing the questions, the archmage's mind instantly swirled, producing several possible ways to answer. But Layn's situation wasn't as good as it was back on the plain behind. With quite a considerable distance separating him from the barrier, even if he were to madly dash towards it, the chances were that he would be dead before even crossing half of the distance.
This made the problem of answering the question quite vital to not only the situation but also his life.
"Sir, with all due respect. I won't pull your leg by claiming that honestly, I have no idea. Ah, that's for the second question. I'm Layn."
Spreading his out while putting on an embarrassed expression, Layn could only hope that this bit of helplessness that he revealed would soften the stone heart of the guard.
"…"
Instead of instantly lashing at the archmage for how daring if not disrespectful his answer was, the guard limited himself to just looking at his face for a while.
"Eh, let them in. Life writes strangest scenarios." With a wave of his hand, the check was over. Unable to actually believe that it was that easy, Layn barely noticed when his group of ancients pushed him through the long gatehouse tunnel. Only when they finally emerged on the other side of the inner walls did the insane sight that revealed itself to Layn's eyes managed to force him awake.
"What in the disaster…" Freezing in place and staring blankly at the enormous campsite before him, Layn momentarily felt as if he returned to the years of his youth.
The tents covered all the area that his eyes could see. Amongst the fragile cloth of those temporary shelters, many bricked building could be seen. But even those appeared to be greatly different that what Layn knew from his times. Rather than using the common bricks for their walls, they appeared as if they were cut from a single piece of a huge stone, only to be somehow transported and forced into the ground where they currently stood.
"Magnificent…" That was the only word that Layn was capable of uttering after staring at the sight for a moment. Behind him, the rest of the group didn't even bother to hold their laughter. Only after a long while did someone approached the archmage and heavily placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay, now I'm convinced. You really either don't know or don't remember anything. Let's fix one of the major mistakes then." By pulling on Layn's shoulder, the owner of the hand forced him to turn around. Finally connecting the familiar voice to the face of the leader of the group, Layn looked at him with confusion written all over his face.
'Mistake? What mistake? You are a mistake!'
Abhorring this kind of physical, masculine closeness, Layn had to hold himself back quite a lot to not lash at the man with his magic. Thankfully, the years of practising self-restraint, something that was crucial during his time as a member of the hero's party, paid off.
"My name is Karter. As you surely noticed, I'm the leader of this group. Given how he can make the introduction himself, I will do it for him. This one here is Sitra, our scout. Guys, don't make our new friend wait!" As soon as Karter uttered those words with an amiable smile on his lips, the rest of the group pounced at the archmage, instantly bringing his restraints to their limits.
"I'm Besh! I'm Paula! I'm Harre, nice to meet you!" In a single moment, Karter's hand was replaced by an army of palms. It seemed as if every single member of the group had a hidden interest in molesting the archmage while pretending to share their names with him.
"Okay, okay! Just step away for a bit!" Finally snapping, Layn moved to the back himself, while using his reaction speed and manoeuvrability to its limits to avoid even more touchy-feely ancients. Only then noticing how the direct, physical contact wasn't the man's forte, the rest of the group grew some decency to back off.
"Now that the introductions are mostly done, let's stop wasting time. We still need to sell our spoils!" Commanding the group to move out as soon as he noticed how the situation he started didn't lay well with Layn's character, Karter looked sternly at his subordinates before smiling towards the archmage.
"One last thing before we go then." Taking a step forward, he brought both of his hand in front of his body before curling the fingers of his right hand into a fist that he then slapped in the open palm of his left hand.
"Survivor Layn, welcome to the war camp!"
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