Since there was no urgent work for us to do, Karen and I decided to go to the town for the day on Merim’s recommendation. 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 time 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 mess. Messy 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 messy hair. Usually, it wasn’t much work, despite its ridiculous length, but running around had messed it up a little more than usual. To add to that, I was alone right now. Karen usually did this for me.
I mean, 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 some 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 something that happened only now. It was always an issue when I sat down and most of the time, I didn’t really think much about it…
I bet Sis was just making sure it was clean without telling me… 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 me 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 elemental 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 me 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 hummed to myself a little.
“Become clean again, become 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 me was to wait for Karen to come 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 some progress with her experiments, which was great, but blowing up the wagon was a little… amazing. And it hadn’t even been the first time, 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 seemed to be a regular occurrence.
At that moment, the door to the wagon opened.
“Yumi, I’m back.”
“Nn, welcome 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 some 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 someone else to just take it from us.
“Anyway, with that, we got some funds.”
“We do.”
Karen split the coins between two pouches and handed me one of them. Curious, I peeked inside and found quite a few silver gleaming coins inside, as well as some that looked like copper.
“Nn, isn’t this a little much, though?”
I recalled the time 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 become even more troublesome if we did encounter a pickpocket.
“Isn’t there anything we can do against potential pickpockets? Like, securing the pouch or something?”
It’d be nice if we could do something 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 someone 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 time. 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 mercenaries do the same.”
“Now that you mention it… Every time I see some of them going out to town, they are always in gear. Or something that could be easily recognised.”
It’s not something I ever really thought about before, though. That said, maybe it was a good idea to do so. Messing with mercenaries took a lot of guts.
“Well, I guess we can ask Merim 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 mercenary 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 emergency, and so on—we left the wagon.
“It’s still so early…”
The sun was barely above the horizon. It really drove home how early it was. In my old world, I would have wondered if shops would even be open at this time. That wasn’t the case here, in my experience.
“Okay, time to go.”
The two of us made our way through the camp, towards the direction of Auria. We passed more than a few mercenaries 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 Merim 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 time.”
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 some 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 something 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 mercenaries’ influence? If so, that was quite impressive.
“Right? If I don’t go, Dad’s gonna skin me alive.”
“... I do agree that you should go, but I don’t think the captain’s going to be that extreme…”
“You have no idea…”
Alma shuddered as if she remembered something 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 me a tour but if you don’t really know the town yet either…”
”Sorry about that.”
“No, no, that’s fine. Just means 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 mercenaries 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.”
“Awesome! Just give me a moment then!”
With those words, she dashed away.
“…Awesome? 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 me… 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 welcome.”
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.
“Welcome to Auria! Have a good time!”
The guard waved Alma, Karen and me 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 time to look around last time so I don’t know, sorry.”
“Nn, no worries. Do you know where at the harbour?”
“I remember how the building looked like!”
“...”
Well, at least that was something. But with just this much information, there was no way she was going to find the station anytime 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 come along to the station at least. It might be good to know where it is anyway.”
In case we’d have to escort someone there again. Okay, that hopefully wasn’t going to happen anytime soon again, but with the mercenaries and the guards being neighbours effectively, it was probably a good idea to memorise where the station was. Might come 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 remember 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 me. 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 came to the fishing business. I wouldn’t be surprised if sailors were quite temperamental 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 mean, 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 troublesome woman.
“You mentioned 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 me with a rope and took my weapon away before throwing me 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 me go after I told them that I am a mercenary 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 messenger 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 mercenary currently?”
“Ahahaha! What are you talking about? I have always been with the Dragon Knights, right? Right?”
“...Err, okay.”
We shouldn’t mention 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 some? 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 times the normal price. We were fortunate that Korwen had been with us. Not that we would have bought something 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 me… did they cheat you?!”
“No, but they sure tried to. We wouldn’t have known without the captain telling us, though.”
“Huh…”
Meanwhile, 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 something like that with me!”
“... 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 time.”
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 something similar. Is it weird for nobles to be serious or hard-working?” asked Karen.
“Ehh, kinda depends where you are. In Krohmea, they’re all sleazy douchebags, seriously. Makes me 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 me about the purge, so it might be different now. But anyway, there were some 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 mercenaries, so I can’t comment on them.”
“Huh… And the empire?”
“Similar to Krohmea, just a bit more extreme. 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 time.
“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 moment.
“Wait… Maybe that’s not all that far off. I think the ruling family hasn’t changed in a long time, 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, lemme 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. Some seemed 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 men 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 someone later.”
“We won’t have to.”
I’d like some 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 remembered 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 come 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 mercenary emblem on mine.
“We’re just accompanying her.”
“From the mercenaries. 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 came along.
“Then, Miss Korwen, please follow me.”
“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 me, 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 troublesome. 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, come in.”
And like that, we somehow 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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She jinxed it.
😽