Episode 35. Moonflower Inn
Binaeril’s group decided to resupply on necessary items before the sun set.
They bought depleted food provisions, picked out clothes, and procured medicinal herbs….
The purchased goods all went into the magic pouch that Dean Yulio had gifted them.
“The more I look at this, the more amazing it is.”
Even an armful of items shrank arithmetically in volume and decreased geometrically in weight the moment they entered the fist-sized pouch.
However, the leather purse that held their travel funds hung from Rike’s waist.
Rike liked walking with a purse of gold coins dangling from her.
She said she liked hearing the jingling sound with every step, or something like that.
“You’re buying all this?”
“Yes. How much is it altogether?”
While Binaeril and Silbia were picking out items at the general store, Rike sat on a bench across the street, dangling her legs.
Street children flocked around her.
Rike liked talking with children.
“That’s ten silver florins.”
“Huh? That’s too expensive, miss!”
“Oh my, look at this young lady. I’ve already given you a huge discount! If I sell it at this price, it’s a loss, a loss!”
Haggling over prices was mostly left to Silbia.
She had a tenacious side to her and possessed an innate talent for driving down prices, to the point that it was hard to believe she hailed from the royal palace.
“Please take just three.”
“How hard are you trying to knock me down?”
As a result of persistent haggling, the general-store auntie and Silbia reached a dramatic compromise at four silver florins.
It was the fruit of adding a solemn promise that they would return to buy more if they needed anything else.
“You really wouldn’t starve to death no matter where you went.”
It was Binaeril’s plain impression after watching the long, tense negotiation.
“Is that a compliment?”
Watching the two bicker, the general-store auntie asked,
“You seem like travelers, but where are you going with all this luggage?”
“We’re heading to the capital.”
“The capital—you mean the imperial capital?”
“Well, it’s not a short road if you’re going around Hohenberg. But still, you have quite a lot of luggage? There are quite a few villages along the path that circles the mountain range.”
“We’re going to Edenbere by crossing straight through Hohenberg.”
The nosy general-store auntie’s eyes went wide, as if she’d heard something she shouldn’t have.
“We’re cutting straight across the mountain range.”
“Oh my, these kids must be crazy. Don’t you value your lives?”
She suddenly launched into a lengthy speech about the dangers of Hohenberg that no one had asked for.
“You can’t go there. It’s no place for young travelers like you. The mountains are so high and treacherous. If it were just the rough paths, that’d be one thing, but after people stopped going through, no one knows what kind of monsters live there. It’s been so long since even the empire gave up on the Hohenberg mountain range, you know?”
Of course, these were things they already knew well.
“Yes, yes. We know.”
“Young ones who don’t even know to value their lives… Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Rather than idle meddling, the tone felt like genuine worry, so it didn’t leave a bad impression.
To avoid the nagging, Binaeril changed the subject and asked about Bruno.
“You say there are so many monsters in Hohenberg, yet the city of Bruno here is unharmed?”
“Well, that’s because….”
Instead of answering, she looked up at the western wall.
Bruno’s walls were of an unusual shape.
The eastern wall that Binaeril’s group had entered through was old and low, whereas the western side facing the Hohenberg mountain range looked twice as high and sturdy as the east.
Perhaps because constant repairs were being made, the wall itself had a smooth, glossy sheen.
“We keep our defenses strong in the direction of the mountain range. And this is a secret.”
“A secret?”
“In this city, there is a mage who protects us.”
“There’s a mage?”
Silbia asked with a puzzled expression.
Unlike near Elfenbain or other regions outside the empire, it was extremely difficult to find mages within the Albrecht Empire.
This was because of a long history of persecution.
“Yes. The soldiers all keep hush-hush about it, but everyone knows—that a mage is protecting this city!”
“…How fascinating.”
Tales of Elfenbain’s formal mages, or perhaps wandering mages, were countless, but stories of mages who had settled down and made a home were rare.
That was because a considerable number of mages had lost their lives in battle against monsters, and those who survived had returned to Elfenbain.
In fact, it was also the first time Binaeril had heard of such a thing.
“Is it someone famous?”
Binaeril asked subtly.
If it were a famous mage, there was no way they, being from Elfenbain, wouldn’t know of him.
And if it were a mage who wasn’t famous, they thought it would be difficult for him to protect this large city alone.
“His name is Sorisimon.”
Binaeril and Silbia looked at each other.
It was a name neither of them had ever heard.
‘Don’t make a fuss. He could be a skilled mage even if we don’t know him.’
‘I didn’t do anything.’
Having traveled together for some time, the two had reached a point where they could hold conversations with their eyes alone.
“Lord Sorisimon overflows with dignity. Even the talisman hanging in this shop was made by him, you know?”
“A talisman?”
In one corner of the general store, there really was a talisman hanging with messy red writing scrawled on it.
“Of course! It’s a talisman that wards off monsters. There’s probably not a single house in this city without Lord Sorisimon’s talisman. He makes these things for a mere ten silver coins each!”
Coincidentally, that price matched exactly the original amount she had demanded from them.
Binaeril couldn’t shake the reasonable suspicion that the auntie had been trying to squeeze talisman money out of them.
But suspicion was only suspicion. There was only one thing for certain.
‘He’s a fraud.’
‘It’s a scam.’
Binaeril and Silbia met eyes once more.
Confirming that their opinions matched, they silently agreed to keep it to themselves.
“Rike, pay for this, would you?”
“Ah, yes.”
Rike pulled out the coin purse and counted out the silver coins.
“Um, we need to buy a bit more food.”
“Huh? We bought plenty. Don’t we still have dried meat left?”
“Well….”
Rike pointed at the children she had been mingling with.
The street children were eagerly sharing something to eat.
“We have more than enough money anyway, right?”
“Sigh, fine.”
Thanks to the special agreement taking effect, Binaeril’s group purchased more food from the same place, then made their way to lodging for the night.
“Kids, take care.”
One child hugged Rike tightly as they said their goodbyes.
“Yeah, pretty lady. Safe travels!”
The children waved and saw them off.
Located on one side of Bruno was the inn, Moonflower.
Binaeril’s eyes for choosing a place to stay grew more discerning by the day.
Places that were too large and flashy were eliminated; she knew there was nothing to be gained from showing off that young travelers had money.
Places that were too shabby and old were also eliminated. Though Rike didn’t show it much, they needed somewhere that at least guaranteed the minimum facilities to accommodate a princess.
They avoided places with too many guests because disputes arose frequently, and if the innkeeper looked unfriendly, they avoided that too….
In that regard, the Moonflower Inn was the perfect lodging—it was moderately clean, moderately sized, and even refreshingly quiet.
However, there was one final thing. The innkeeper’s cooking skill couldn’t be judged from the outside, and inns were notorious for varying wildly—simply put, it was a toss-up.
“Lodging only? Or will you be having a meal as well?”
Gulp.
“We’ll have some simple bread, stew, and pie, please.”
“Will do.”
Binaeril watched the middle-aged male innkeeper with a tense expression as he disappeared into the kitchen.
Now the rest was up to heaven.
Having traveled westward for a long time, the group had been suffering from a thirst for delicious food.
Pickled vegetables and salted meat had been charming enough when eaten for a day or two, but once it stretched past weeks, it gradually began to turn their stomachs.
Binaeril looked at the two girls sitting at the table with similar expressions and declared in a grave tone,
“The dice have been cast.”
Nod.
The two girls nodded their heads simultaneously as if they had made a promise.
Binaeril also sat at the table and quietly waited for her fate.
“What do you think about what she said earlier?”
“The mage?”
“Yeah.”
Silbia rolled her eyes upward and stroked her chin.
“It’s a name we’ve never heard, right?”
“I’ve never heard of him either.”
“What are you talking about?”
Binaeril explained about the talisman-selling mage.
“He wards off monsters with a talisman?”
“There’s no way that would work.”
Artifacts imbued with magic weren’t things that could be made so easily.
They required a skilled mage, materials, and an artisan to refine them.
They weren’t items a single mage could whip up casually.
Moreover, a talisman that wards off monsters? They’d never even heard of an artifact that reeked so strongly of fraud.
“If such a thing were possible, they’d have hired mages to subjugate monsters in the first place.”
“Then what should we do? Should we tell the people?”
“And explain what? ‘A fake mage is emptying your pockets!’ Like that?”
It was a pity, but it was none of their business.
He hadn’t emptied their pockets.
“Let’s not get entangled in something where we don’t even know the person and can’t take responsibility until the end. The talismans might be fake, but he could actually be a mage.”
Through their short journey, they had learned not to meddle in things easily.
“Here, the food is out.”
The innkeeper appeared carrying plates through the heavy mood.
“Wow.”
First, the smell passed. Compared to his crude appearance, the food served looked quite decent.
“This is potato stew, here’s bread. And this is venison pie.”
Binaeril cut off the corner of the pie with trembling fingertips and tasted it.
Jackpot! Today’s fortune wasn’t so bad.
“It’s so delicious, boss!”
“Mister, aren’t you too good at cooking?”
The innkeeper responded with a hearty laugh at the excited girls’ reactions.
“Hahaha! Back when I lived as an herb gatherer, my cooking skills were the only thing that improved from making meals for myself! Even back then, everyone who tasted my food said I should quit being an herb gatherer and open an inn.”
Eating warm, delicious food after so long was enough to bring tears to their eyes.
Binaeril gave a thumbs-up, sending high praise for the ex-herb-gatherer boss’s skills.
She was so moved that she felt like giving him a standing ovation.
“Eat up. If you need anything else, just say so.”
“Wait, if it’s this delicious, why don’t you have any guests?”
“Don’t jinx it. This city doesn’t have many travelers. Inns can barely make ends meet. Ever since the passage through Hohenberg was blocked, people stopped coming through entirely.”
Come to think of it, aside from the travelers they’d met at the village entrance, there hadn’t been many people inside.
“Once you’re done eating, I’ll have baths ready for you, so take your time.”
Binaeril called out Eden and let it taste the freshly baked bread.
Eden also made a content expression, clutching a piece of bread the size of a finger joint, and enjoyed the meal deliciously.
—None for me?
‘You ate your fill of mana stones not long ago.’
—Hmph. So only your mouth counts as a mouth, while mine is just a beak?
The sulky voice butting in on the pleasant dinner was lightly ignored.
Binaeril held her full stomach, which hadn’t been full in a long time, and was able to fall into a peaceful sleep.