The carriage ran without stopping for a full day, descending the mountain road.
The brief carriage journey down the mountain continued without pause, save for a single rest along the way.
The forced march along a narrow mountain path barely wide enough for two carriages to pass each other finally came to an end when a village appeared in the distance.
Through this carriage ride, I was able to truly feel just how deep in the mountains the Prah territory where I had been born had been established.
At the same time, I also came to understand indirectly just how great a temptation it was for humans to be able to possess land of their own, which was why people came there in such numbers despite that.
“Ugh! We finally made it somewhere open, huh? Carriages are comfortable, sure, but sitting still for hours makes your whole body stiff.”
“Thank you for your hard work, coachman.”
“Not at all, young master. As I am a servant living on the wages of the family, how could I possibly call this hardship?”
When we arrived at the entrance to the village, I thanked the coachman and tried to hand him a tip, but he firmly refused with his hand.
Then he immediately turned the carriage around, lifted the hat he was wearing, and bid us farewell.
“Thanks to the conversation the two of you had in the carriage, it felt as though this old man’s ears were opened. Thanks to you, I reached the destination without boredom.”
“What! You were listening to everything like some sly old fox?!”
“Haha, please think of it as a small pleasure for this old man who must keep driving the carriage, and forgive me. Then, from afar, I shall pray that the road ahead for the mage and the young master will be smooth.”
“Tch! Shouldn’t I be the one getting paid? Do you know how priceless the knowledge I shared was?”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The coachman glanced at the grumbling mage and me as I bowed beside her, then soon disappeared down the road with his carriage.
Rattle, rattle, rattle.
Once he had gone far enough that we could no longer hear the sound of the carriage wheels striking the dirt road, we looked at each other and spoke.
“For now, shall we go into the village and rest? This village serves as the gateway to our territory, so there should be an inn.”
“Shall we? I’ve been sitting on a hard seat all day, so I do want to lie down on a soft bed. The day is almost over too, so let’s leave early tomorrow morning.”
“Yes.”
Having decided our schedule, we walked slowly toward the guards standing at the village entrance.
There were about five or six people lined up at the entrance, but when they saw the clothes I was wearing, they simply bowed and made way for us.
No one stopped us from going ahead without waiting our turn.
“Those luxurious clothes of yours really do serve as proof of status, don’t they? This isn’t a sight you’d see in the capital.”
“Around here, the only people who could wear fine clothes like mine are nobles. My clothes are a kind of identification… and so is my untanned skin, since I don’t do labor.”
“Oh-ho.”
At my explanation, the mage looked me up and down with an interested expression.
To her, who had come from the capital, it seemed rather fascinating that one could let others know he was a noble without saying a word, solely through appearance.
“You don’t seem used to this sort of scene.”
“In the capital, commoners and nobles alike dress well. So it’s hard to distinguish them by appearance alone. There are quite a few commoners who eat better and live better than nobles.”
“I see.”
A sort of gentry class, then.
A class below the nobility, often translated as gentlemen, but socially successful people.
It seemed the capital, just as I had read in the newspapers, was at least a century ahead of this place in terms of culture and society.
The territory where I was born was medieval, while the capital she described sounded, at the very least, like the period of the Industrial Revolution.
Was it because this was a fantasy world that such extreme differences existed by region?
“Please halt. This is Grand House, owned by Baron Burkin. State your identities.”
“Hello. I am Bell Daisy, dispatched from the capital.”
The mage greeted the guards blocking our path and took out a small identification plaque from her breast.
The plaque she produced was made of black wood that looked luxurious at a glance, with what seemed to be a complicated name and crest engraved in gold.
—Bell Daisy, certified mage affiliated with Academia.
And beneath the name, a massive tree split into nine branches, seemingly some sort of symbol, displayed its presence.
At the identification plaque, something one did not often see, the guard looked startled and glanced back and forth between the mage and me.
“Y-you’ve come from the capital? May I ask what business brings you…”
Feeling sorry for the guard, who seemed rather intimidated, I opened my mouth beside her as she stood silently.
“It is late, so may we rest here? We will be leaving around dawn tomorrow, so I doubt we will be able to meet Baron Burkin, the lord of this territory.”
“Ah! Understood. Please rest comfortably before you go.”
At my words, the guard’s expression brightened, and he politely stepped aside from the entrance he had been blocking.
And so, feeling the gazes of the people around us, we quietly entered the village.
“…What kind of magic did you use? I expected the usual—where the guard gets flustered and tells us to wait while he summons someone important.”
“Baron Burkin, the owner of this place, is probably not present. That’s why the guard was troubled and showed reluctance. So I told him exactly what our purpose was and when we would be leaving. In other words, we have no intention of meeting Baron Burkin, and since we’ll be leaving at dawn anyway, even if the baron hurried over now, we wouldn’t be able to meet him. If you give them that information, the guard won’t have to worry about being reprimanded, and we don’t waste time either. It’s good for both sides, right? Just simple phrasing.”
“Ooh, is it because you’re a noble after all? You solved such a tangled situation with a single statement.”
The mage looked around at me with eyes that seemed to see me in a new light.
At her gaze, I smiled wryly with an awkward expression.
As we walked along the large road running through the village, we arrived at the village square.
Near the square, we were also able to find an inn where many people were coming and going.
“…Looks like this is the place. The inn’s name is Cheese Hole? What kind of name is that?”
“There should be wide farms around here where they raise cattle by grazing them. Our territory receives some every month as well, so perhaps they used the village’s specialty as the name?”
“Phew, the countryside. No sense at all.”
“Haha.”
I led the grumbling mage into the inn with “Cheese Hole” written on it.
Jingle!
Perhaps because this was a large village after all, a small bell was attached to the inn door as well, informing the owner when guests entered.
Bells and such were rather expensive, so the fact that they had installed one indirectly showed just how prosperous this place was.
“Welcome. You’ve come to the Cheese Hole Inn.”
When we entered the inn, a girl standing at the counter greeted us.
There was no way they would employ a young girl of that age as a worker, so she was probably the innkeeper’s daughter.
“Is it just the two of you in your party?”
“Ah, yes. Do you happen to have any rooms left?”
“Ah, you are honored guests. Welcome to our humble inn.”
Had she been given some kind of hint?
After hearing my answer, the girl bowed deeply and displayed the utmost courtesy.
It was the most formal greeting commoners gave to nobles.
At her greeting, I quickly waved my hands and had her straighten up.
As someone with the mind of a modern person, I found it extremely uncomfortable whenever people treated me this way for no other reason than that I had been born a noble.
Should I say it made me feel as though I, who was nothing special, had somehow become someone important?
It wasn’t as if I had become a noble because I was outstanding.
“Please stand. You don’t need to observe that sort of etiquette, so just be at ease.”
“…Really? But Father told me that if I saw nobles, I absolutely had to do this…”
“You don’t need to do it with us. We would rather quickly enter a room where we can relieve our fatigue than bother with such empty formalities.”
“Ah, understood.”
Had my words gotten through to her?
The girl nodded at what I said and straightened her bowed waist.
“So, are there any rooms left?”
“The rooms we have left right now are one sixteen-person room, two eight-person rooms, the four-person rooms and single rooms are all taken… and there’s only one two-person room left. What would you like to do?”
“Hmm, all the remaining single rooms are gone.”
“Yes. Because of the hunting tournament being held by the baron, the lord of our territory, many high-ranking people and their households came here. So we don’t have many rooms left.”
After listening to the girl’s explanation, I turned to the mage, who was staring fixedly at me, and asked,
“What should we do? Should we look somewhere else?”
“For your reference, the other inns will probably be about the same as ours. This two-person room only just became available, so if you leave now, other people will quickly—”
“That’s fine. Give us the two-person room, little lady.”
“What?”
At her words, I looked at her and asked back without thinking.
And seeing my expression, she smiled brightly and answered playfully.
“Why? Were you planning to fulfill a noble’s duty with me?”
“No, that’s not it, but still—”
“Then it’s fine. I’ll pay, so we can share a two-person room for one night, can’t we? Do you perhaps have a woman in your heart?”
“…No.”
“Then there’s no problem.”
With a light smile in her eyes, she passed by me as I stood there dazed, handed the money to the girl, and took the room key.
Clink!
For some reason, it felt as though the sound of the key she shook rang especially loud.