Since there was no urgent work for us to do, Karen and I decided to go to the town for the day on rim’s recomndation. To be honest, it was quite a good idea that he had since we didn’t really have the chance to take a look at the town yet, outside of that one ti we accompanied Korwen. We had seen the streets and the fish market that day, but that was pretty much all.
Still, before we could go into town, we had a few things to do. Thanks to Ria’s little situation, we looked like an absolute ss. ssy bed hair, only the minimum amount of clothes to uphold decency and so on. I only noticed afterwards, but we had run outside on our bare feet as well. I’d rather not walk around like that in town.
“Still, this is quite a chore…”
I was sitting in our wagon, brush in hand, and cleaning up my ssy hair. Usually, it wasn’t much work, despite its ridiculous length, but running around had ssed it up a little more than usual. To add to that, I was alone right now. Karen usually did this for .
I an, I know I shouldn’t complain. I still have it easy, I bet…
Heck, in the worst case, I could just ask Karen to cut it and then let it regrow in an instant. But if I did that, I had a feeling I’d get scolded.
I was told before that I should care a little more about my hair, after all.
“Haaa… But still, I don’t want to imagine how a normal person would have to care for hair of this length.”
I picked up so of my hair, looking over it. When I sat down on the bed, I had to take care that it wouldn’t hit the floor and get dirty. Actually, that wasn’t really sothing that happened only now. It was always an issue when I sat down and most of the ti, I didn’t really think much about it…
I bet Sis was just making sure it was clean without telling … I should take more care in the future.
In the end, I should still consider myself lucky that it was only this much. Knots I couldn’t entangle with the brush, I could solve easily by moving the hair itself.
“Nn… This should be good enough.”
It took
a while but I still managed to untangle everything.
“Haa… Now I only need to wash it…”
I took up the small basin I had prepared beforehand and the water elental stone. I cautiously poured mana into the stone, letting the basin fill up.
“Nn, I’m getting used to these, aren’t I?”
Without any fumbling, spontaneous explosions or anything else, I filled up the basin until it had just enough water. Then I put the basin in front of
and began washing my hair. Or, well, the dirty end of it. I only wanted to clean up the dirt from earlier.
“Hm, hmm, hmmm, off the dirt goes, off the dirt goes.”
With nothing else to do, I humd to myself a little.
“Beco clean again, beco clean again, clean and pretty! Hmhmhmmm~”
After washing the rough dirt off with water, I brushed it again until it was nice and pretty.
“Nn, great.”
Then, I dried it with a cloth as best as I could.
“Well then, that’s done.”
Once I made sure that I hadn’t missed anything, all that was left for
was to wait for Karen to co back.
With nothing better to do, I let myself fall with my back first on the bed, arms spread out and stared at the ceiling. The roof of the wagon was unassuming and boring to look at… but it was still there, contrary to Ria’s place.
“Just what the hell was she doing…”
I really wasn’t sure what to think of the situation. She apparently had made quite so progress with her experints, which was great, but blowing up the wagon was a little… amazing. And it hadn’t even been the first ti, apparently, either.
“I doubt the captain’s scolding is going to change that either…”
If it could, it wouldn’t happen more than once or twice. Alas, it seed to be a regular occurrence.
At that mont, the door to the wagon opened.
“Yumi, I’m back.”
“Nn, welco back, Sis.”
I got up from the bed, welcoming Karen.
“Did you get everything?”
“I did.”
Karen held up a small pouch. The contents jingled as she did.
“He said that we shouldn’t carry more than a few coins with us, though, or we’d run into pickpockets. He suggested we should split them up between us as well.”
“Huh… That’s a pretty good idea.”
Even if one of us got their pouch stolen, we’d still have so money left.
“I’d rather not deal with a pickpocket in the first place, though.”
“Neither do I.”
This was our hard-earned money, after all. I didn’t want soone else to just take it from us.
“Anyway, with that, we got so funds.”
“We do.”
Karen split the coins between two pouches and handed
one of them. Curious, I peeked inside and found quite a few silver gleaming coins inside, as well as so that looked like copper.
“Nn, isn’t this a little much, though?”
I recalled the ti we had our little day trip in Larfas, the capital. Even then, we didn’t carry this many coins with us.
“Mm… I wasn’t sure if it was enough or not. And we split it between us.”
“Well, I guess it’s better than running out of money halfway through.”
It would only beco even more troubleso if we did encounter a pickpocket.
“Isn’t there anything we can do against potential pickpockets? Like, securing the pouch or sothing?”
It’d be nice if we could do sothing like that.”
“Any ideas, Sis?”
“Mmm… You could maybe secure them with the tentacles?”
“... That’s actually worth a try.”
“But it might get us into trouble at the gate.”
“Or not… Well, I could do that when we’re inside, though.”
Securing the pouches with the tentacles was actually a pretty good idea. It might cause a bit of an uproar if soone witnessed them but that would still be better than our hard-earned money disappearing on us.
“Any other ideas?”
“Mm… We could wear our gear to scare them off?”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. But, should we really go around in our gear?”
We weren’t really working right now. It was our free ti. And our gear was, more or less, our work uniform.
“I don’t think there is an issue with that. I have seen the other rcenaries do the sa.”
“Now that you ntion it… Every ti I see so of them going out to town, they are always in gear. Or sothing that could be easily recognised.”
It’s not sothing I ever really thought about before, though. That said, maybe it was a good idea to do so. ssing with rcenaries took a lot of guts.
“Well, I guess we can ask rim before we head out.”
With that decision made, Karen and I both got into our gear. Or so I said, but we didn’t really put on all the armour. In my case, I just put on the dress I wore beneath. It had a rcenary emblem on it, so it should be good enough.
After a last check to make sure that we had everything—money, our gear, a small bag, mana crystals for an ergency, and so on—we left the wagon.
“It’s still so early…”
The sun was barely above the horizon. It really drove ho how early it was. In my old world, I would have wondered if shops would even be open at this ti. That wasn’t the case here, in my experience.
“Okay, ti to go.”
The two of us made our way through the camp, towards the direction of Auria. We passed more than a few rcenaries still in their underclothes, but the majority were already fully in gear or their work clothes.
“Yumi, look.”
“Nn? Oh, it’s Ria and Alma.”
We wanted to talk with rim first so we were going to the demolished wagon., It wasn’t a big surprise that we encountered Ria there. As for Alma… Well, I hadn’t seen her earlier. Maybe she had slept through everything?
“Ah, Alma’s waving. Should we go?”
“I don’t mind. We have ti.”
We weren’t in a hurry, so yeah.
“Karen, Yumi, good morning.”
“Nn, morning.”
“Good morning.”
Alma greeted us cheerfully. Ria, on the other hand, only nodded towards us, looking exhausted. I worried she might fall asleep while standing. She did that before, after all.
“Out for work?”
“No, we’re going to town.”
“Oh, having so fun?”
“Nn, you could say that. Exploring, I guess. We didn’t really have a chance to look around yet, after all.”
“Ohh! And here I thought I could ask you for a tour! Too bad!”
A tour?
“Do you need sothing from town?”
“Yeah. See, I still have to get those two to the Wooden Sea, right? I wanted to stock up on essentials here. Also, the guards wanted that I tell them about what happened, so I have to do that as well. As much as I don’t want to…”
“Ahhh, I see. Nn, that sounds important.”
If anything, I was amazed that they let her go without questioning her. Was that because of the rcenaries’ influence? If so, that was quite impressive.
“Right? If I don’t go, Dad’s gonna skin
alive.”
“... I do agree that you should go, but I don’t think the captain’s going to be that extre…”
“You have no idea…”
Alma shuddered as if she rembered sothing she’d rather not.
“Is… is that so… Well, you really should do that then.”
“I will. That’s why I hoped you could give
a tour but if you don’t really know the town yet either…”
”Sorry about that.”
“No, no, that’s fine. Just ans you were busy here.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“You should… just go… and get it… over with…”
“I know, Ria! I know! But I still don’t wanna. Those guards are scary!”
Were they? Or rather, couldn’t she literally send them flying if she wanted to? I had my doubts that all the guards were strong enough to keep her contained when the rcenaries couldn’t even do that.
“Just go…”
“Yes, yes… I will… Haa…”
She sure wasn’t motivated.
“Hey, mind if I tag along you two? At least until the town?”
“Nn? Well, I don’t mind.”
“I don’t really mind either.”
“Aweso! Just give
a mont then!”
With those words, she dashed away.
“…Aweso? I thought she didn’t want to go?”
“Maybe she didn’t want to go alone?”
“I guess so.”
It was better than being depressed, at least.
“Anyway, what about you Ria? Are you… okay?”
“Mmm…? Of course… I am…? Why…?”
“... No particular reason.”
It wasn’t like she got chewed out by Korwen just a short while earlier, right? Alas, if she had already forgotten about it, then there probably was no point in bringing it up again.
Sorry, Captain. I don’t think any amount of scolding is going to help here.
All I could do was send a short prayer to our poor captain.
“Oh…. Right… Yumi…”
“Nn? Yes?”
“You are… going to… town… right…? Then… if you… happen to… see any… interesting… shops… with magic tools… or books… please… tell … about it…”
“Uhh, I don’t mind doing that.”
Honestly, if we found a shop like that, I would probably want to take a look as well anyway.
“Mm… Thank you…”
“You’re welco.”
After having relayed her request, Ria suddenly got up from her spot.
“Then… I will… now go… to bed…”
“... Sure. Good night, Ria.”
“Good night…”
And then she left.
Seriously? It was early in the morning. And she was going to bed now? That didn’t sound healthy in the least.
Then again, she stayed up all night so…
Well, hopefully, she wasn’t going to regret this one day…
“Sorry for the wait!”
“Nn?”
And just as Ria left, Alma returned. Nice timing.
“A bag and… a sword?”
Alma had returned with a bag slung over her shoulder and a sword at her waist.
“I didn’t know you used a sword, too.”
“This? I’m not really good with a sword, to be honest, but it’s better to have it than not in town. Have to protect myself, after all.”
“Huh.”
So she only brought it for self-protection? Well, a halberd wasn’t a weapon you could casually lug around in a town, that was true. But from my perspective, even a sword wasn’t a sight I’d expect in a town…
“Anyway, I’m ready to go!”
“Nn. Shall we then?”
Off to town we go.
“Welco to Auria! Have a good ti!”
The guard waved Alma, Karen and
through with a smile after a cursory check of your belongings. And so, the three of us stepped into town.
“Alma, where do you have to go?”
“The guard station is at the harbour, so that’s where I have to go.”
“The harbour… Maybe where they had the fish market?”
“Err… I didn’t have ti to look around last ti so I don’t know, sorry.”
“Nn, no worries. Do you know where at the harbour?”
“I rember how the building looked like!”
“...”
Well, at least that was sothing. But with just this much information, there was no way she was going to find the station anyti soon…
“I’ll go and ask the guard,” suggested Karen.
“Nn, if you could.”
Not really any other choice.
“Huh? You coming along?”
“Well, we can co along to the station at least. It might be good to know where it is anyway.”
In case we’d have to escort soone there again. Okay, that hopefully wasn’t going to happen anyti soon again, but with the rcenaries and the guards being neighbours effectively, it was probably a good idea to morise where the station was. Might co in handy.
“Hehe, mom was right, you’re really nice girls.”
“...”
Just what the heck was Mrs Korwen telling her?
“Yumi, Miss Alma, I know where to go.”
“Oh, thanks! Then, lead away!”
“Okay.”
With that, Karen took the lead.
“So, is it near the fish market?”
“It’s close by apparently but not exactly. Do you rember the large building Mr Captain showed us?”
“Err…”
If I recalled correctly…
“The sorting hall… I think?”
A large building where they sorted the fish the sailors caught. It was right next to the fish market and quite easy to find.
“Yes. Near the sorting hall is the port administration, he told . And near there is the main guard station.”
“I see.”
Right next to each other, huh? Probably out of convenience. A town like this that lived from its harbour surely had plenty of problems arising when it ca to the fishing business. I wouldn’t be surprised if sailors were quite temperantal as well. Not that I knew any sailors.
Either way, that way, the guards were always near when they were needed in the harbour.
“Well, off to the guard station then. We have a convict to deliver.”
“A convict?! I didn’t do anything bad!” protested Alma.
“That’s what they all say.”
“I’m saying the truth, though!”
“They say that, too.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle seeing Alma so flustered.
“Jokes aside, the sooner you go there, the sooner you’re done.”
“Ugh… You’re pretty an, you know that?”
“Nn.”
The opportunity presented itself, so I couldn’t help myself.
“But jokes aside, the earlier you finish, the earlier you can take it easy.”
“Yeah, I know… But I still don’t really want to go there.”
What a troubleso woman.
“You ntioned the guards were scary but were they that bad?” asked Karen.
“Well, yeah! They all surrounded us with their weapons when we arrived, you know? They bound
with a rope and took my weapon away before throwing
into a cell! Of course, they’re scary!”
“...”
No, wasn’t that your fault for arriving with a phantom ship in tow? They probably thought that was her doing…
“They only let
go after I told them that I am a rcenary from the band outside town and that I had nothing to do with that ship following us! And even then, it took forever…”
Oh, they might have sent out that ssenger after she told them that. We camped outside, so confirming that information probably took a short while. With that said, I wouldn’t have been surprised if that had taken even longer.
“Miss Alma, aren’t you a solo rcenary currently?”
“Ahahaha! What are you talking about? I have always been with the Dragon Knights, right? Right?”
“...Err, okay.”
We shouldn’t ntion that to the guards. No need to invite trouble. It wasn’t exactly wrong anyway, with her being the captain’s daughter.
While we were talking, we had already arrived at the harbour. Auria wasn’t as large as the capital, so arriving here didn’t take long.
“Looks like they are having another fish market, Yumi.”
“Nn, looks like it.”
Did they open the fish market every day or only on specific days?
“Fish, huh? Maybe I should buy so? But fish doesn’t keep well for a long trip… Mmm… Decisions!” murmured Alma.
“Just don’t let them cheat you out of your money.”
They were quick to try, after all. When we were here, one of the hawkers tried to sell us a fish for several tis the normal price. We were fortunate that Korwen had been with us. Not that we would have bought sothing so overpriced.
“I won’t, I won’t. I travelled alone long enough, you know? I can deal with them.”
“That’s good.”
“Don’t tell … did they cheat you?!”
“No, but they sure tried to. We wouldn’t have known without the captain telling us, though.”
“Huh…”
anwhile, Karen led us past the market, towards the large sorting hall we could see.
“Wait, I thought you weren’t here yet? And suddenly I hear my dad took you out to town? He never did sothing like that with !”
“... We were here to visit the governor.”
Also, we weren’t little children…
“Really?”
“Really. Taddick was with us as well. We only went to the governor’s place and went over to the fish market on our way back. Nothing more.”
“Hmmm… Well, I’ll believe you this ti.”
It was the truth anyway…
“So, how was the governor?”
“Err… A very serious man, I guess?”
“Serious? The governor is a noble, isn’t he?”
“As far as I know, yes.”
“That’s a little bit surprising.”
Was it?”
“Mr Taddick said sothing similar. Is it weird for nobles to be serious or hard-working?” asked Karen.
“Ehh, kinda depends where you are. In Kroha, they’re all sleazy douchebags, seriously. Makes
wonder if Aryn’s really the child of a noble, even. Honestly, I’d bet she isn’t actually related to that asshole.”
“That’s pretty harsh…”
“It’s the truth! The small local lords are usually not that bad but the higher ones are all useless.”
How did that country even function if they were useless, though?
“On the other hand, Lafria is a bit of a mixed bag. Ahh, but dad told
about the purge, so it might be different now. But anyway, there were so really nice ones and a whole bunch you could drown in the latrine and nobody would miss them.”
Woah, talk about brutal.
“Aldreigh is a bit hard to judge since the notable families don’t bother much with rcenaries, so I can’t comnt on them.”
“Huh… And the empire?”
“Similar to Kroha, just a bit more extre. The local small ones tend to be fine, the ones in the capital wouldn’t even bat an eye about cutting down a child. Or do worse.”
“...”
It was fortunate for us that we weren’t there anymore.
“What about the Federation?” asked Karen this ti.
“Bruven? They don’t really have any nobility. I heard that if you don’t like the guy calling the shots, you cut him down and take his place. Can’t imagine any nobility surviving for long in that kind of system. That’s just what I heard, though.”
“Well… If they’re strong nobles they might survive.”
“Ha! As if!”
Almac scoffed for a second, before pausing and thinking for a mont.
“Wait… Maybe that’s not all that far off. I think the ruling family hasn’t changed in a long ti, so they’re probably quite strong.”
So there was a ruling family, at least.
“Ugh, either way, don’t know much about Bruven. I could tell you more about the countries beyond the Wooden Sea even.”
“Oh? That’ does sound interesting.”
“Hehe, you wanna know?”
“Nn, I do.”
I heard there were people beyond those vast forests but I didn’t know much more.
“Yumi, Miss Alma, I think you should postpone that discussion.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Ahh…”
Right, we were here for a reason.
“Did we arrive, Sis?”
“Err, we should be nearby. Miss Alma, do you recognise this place?”
“Uhh, lem see.”
Alma looked around, taking in the buildings surrounding us. Since we had the chance, I decided to take a look around as well.
We had passed the sorting hall while we were talking and were now surrounded by a number of large buildings. So seed to be warehouses, but a few were clearly important buildings with stairs leading up to them and fancy decorations around the windows. One especially large building even had several columns rowed up in front of its entrance and you could spot n coming in and out of the building. It was about as large as the sorting hall, which was quite amazing for an office building.
“I think we passed here on our way out… I can’t guarantee anything, but I think it was over there.”
Alma pointed past the fancy building, towards an unassuming alley.
“... Are you sure?”
“Pretty.”
“... Well, we can always just ask soone later.”
“We won’t have to.”
I’d like so of that confidence she had.
Either way, we went into the alley and arrived at another road, one far less travelled than the previous one.
“This is the right place, I knew it!”
“... I am impressed.”
“Ha! I rembered the port office, after all.”
“Port office?”
“The fancy building. Well, the main building, at least.”
Oh, so that was the main office? No wonder it was so big.
“Then, the guard station is…”
“It’s that one.”
Now she pointed at a building a little down the street. It wasn’t quite as fancy as the previous ones but it was still quite notable. Especially with the two guards standing in front of it.
As we approached, the two guards stepped in front of us, blockading our way in.
“Halt! Who are you people? What business do you have here?”
“I’m Alma Korwen. I was asked to co here because of the ship incident.”
“Ahgh, so you are that girl. Then, these two are?”
The guard looked at us with a suspicious gaze. His gaze wandered over our clothes. They widened in surprise when they saw the rcenary emblem on mine.
“We’re just accompanying her.”
“From the rcenaries. I see, thank you very much. We will take over from here.”
“Nn.”
I had the feeling he misunderstood our purpose. We weren’t escorting her to make sure she didn’t run away or anything. It was just a coincidence we ca along.
“Then, Miss Korwen, please follow .”
“Yes, yes. Let’s get this over with.”
With a sigh, Alma followed the guard into the building.
“Well, that’s that then.”
Convict delivered.
Or so I would say, but another guard appeared from the inside, calling out to us.
“Excuse , young ladies. May I have a word?”
“Nn? With us? Why?”
“We just have a few questions in regard to Miss Korwen.”
“Well…”
That was a little troubleso. We weren’t here on official business.
“We were just accompanying her. I don’t think we can answer anything.”
“I see. That is unfortunate. Ah, do you wish to wait inside until we are done?”
“Huh?”
“We shouldn’t take too long. I believe it would be more comfortable for you as well than waiting outside, right?”
Yeah, he absolutely misunderstood…
I glanced towards Karen, hoping for her input.
“I don’t mind either way. It might be a good idea to take him up on it.”
“Nn… Well, I guess you say so.”
I turned back to the guard.
“Then, I hope we don’t intrude too much on you.”
“No, no, please, co in.”
And like that, we sohow ended up inside the guard station.
That’s not how I expected our day off to go. Let’s hope we won’t end up in a cell.
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