I'm Not a Knight-Errant. Not a Knight, Either (4)
Whatever grating discomfort and faint wrongness Lee Han felt as he looked over the city, the guards who kept it had no such qualms. They simply received the newcomers by the book.
"Let's have a look at that identification."
Lee Han slid the papers over.
"Hm. Checks out. But you don't go in carrying a sword or an axe. You'll have to turn those—"
A second glance.
"Ah. Mercenaries registered with the Mercenary Union? Pass!"
Lee Han went through the main gate without any particular trouble. His identification had already lost its force when the kingdom exiled him, but a realm with nothing resembling a proper records system had no way to check whether a paper ID was still valid, and so he slipped past easily enough. The weapons, which had been the real problem, passed just as smoothly thanks to the mercenary badge.
More precisely, an official Mercenary Union badge.
Caesar, that old man, left me a fine gift.
The Mercenary King had tossed it over in passing, calling it a present. It was an official badge that could only be kept by renewing it every quarter, and because that renewal was so notoriously strict, the thing's credibility ran high—another form of identification that opened most territories like a free pass.
Spared the loss of his weapons, Lee Han crooked a grin.
"That's a relief, my lady. Thanks to that old man, we got through quickly... Ah. Right. You're not here. Of course."
He had turned to the side and spoken out of pure reflex, but there was no one beside him.
"...Habits are a frightening thing."
Lee Han scratched the back of his head. They had parted not five minutes ago, and he had already forgotten. Honestly.
Am I leaning on her too much?
He knew perfectly well he shouldn't be like this already.
I miss her already.
And it was only a brief parting.
Rei had stayed outside. It wasn't that he had separated from her in order to do anything secret.
If he had to put it into words—
"You mean the city looks strange, right? I understand! I'll wait nicely outside for you, Sir Knight!"
"Aren't you uneasy? You'd be left on your own."
"Nope! I've got Brownie, so I'll be fine!"
"...That actually makes me more uneasy."
The dog never showed itself, on account of how it looked, but a two-headed pup was secretly escorting the maid. Even if a knight came at her, there would be no trouble. Knowing that still didn't stop him from hesitating. He couldn't help worrying whether it was all right to leave if he wasn't the one at her side.
And yet—
"Don't worry, Sir Knight! I will absolutely never get hurt."
"There is no such thing as absolutely in this world."
"Even so, I'll be fine. So put your worries down and do what you came to do, Sir Knight. And be careful if you fight."
"...Why are you speaking as if it's a given that I'll fight?"
"If you say it's ominous, then it's certain there's a demon in this city too! So of course you'll fight."
"Why—why would you say something so ill-omened...?"
"Hehe."
And so, his worries rendered pointless, Lee Han was all but pushed into the city alone, as if a hand had planted itself on his back. This time, though, he had no desire whatsoever to fight anything so ill-omened as a demon.
This time, no matter what, I settle my business in peace and I leave. I will!
He didn't want to fight if he could help it. He hadn't the slightest wish to get tangled up with demons. He was hardly some battle-mad berserker...
My lady has the wrong idea.
That had to be it.
...Probably?
Florentia, the city ruled by Count Deniro, was peaceful beyond compare with other territories. From what Lee Han had heard, the count was a man without ambition, one who had chosen to live quietly rather than reach for hegemony the way other provincial lords did. Whether that was the truth or not, the peace here, set against every domain Lee Han had passed through so far, was mild enough that people might have said a fairy watched over the place.
"Florentia can't support itself. The land is barren, and the water lies far off, so farming is difficult. The terrain is hard to use strategically as well. That's probably why the lords of other regions don't pay Florentia much mind."
"So there's no profit in fighting over it, and even the lord has no mind for war. That's why it's peaceful."
"You could see it that way."
Nothing about the city was particularly impressive, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. Lee Han was nodding along vaguely to the light account he received while Giovanni guided him, when, at some point—
"Ah. This way, please."
"...There's a church in a place like this?"
"Well. You know how far the temple's authority has fallen lately."
"Even so. Really..."
Lee Han was at a loss for words. A narrow lane, dank beyond belief, and at the end of it a ruin that looked ready to collapse at any moment. No—however far things had fallen, being told that a house this close to falling down was a church left him speechless.
Wasn't the church supposed to be the heart of the community?
They had done wrong, granted. Even so, the church itself was where people gathered and spoke to one another, and it felt strange that the place had rotted this far.
Knock, knock.
"Corin, it's me. Youngest of the Medici family."
"......"
"I know you're in there. For the record, I didn't come to collect money. Someone said they wanted to meet you, so I only brought them."
"......"
"...I'll reduce your debt. Open the door."
Creeeak...
It sounded like a remarkably cheap conversation, but Lee Han paid it no mind. Or rather, more precisely—
A Briton?
All he felt, confirming the other man's face, was puzzlement.
"...Well, look who it is! Caravan Master Giovanni, the fallen noble!"
"There's no need to welcome me so theatrically. And what exactly do you mean by going out of your way to say 'fallen noble'? Are you trying to anger me?"
"Ahem. N-no, nothing like that. Don't misunderstand, haha..."
The man letting out that awkward laugh looked, to put it kindly, like a pretty boy who lived by charming women, and to put it unkindly, like a mean-spirited swindler. His manner of speaking was thoroughly unpleasant as well.
And sure enough—
"More than that, the Medicis must be doing well. Walking around with a mercenary that size."
"Watch your mouth, Corin! This man is my benefactor!"
"Oh dear, my apologies. I didn't know that, haha!"
A sarcastic tone, and an expression that hid nothing. It was the sort of exchange that announced he was a man who lived exactly as he looked.
Lee Han spoke.
"Didn't expect to find a Briton exile in a place like this."
"......"
"Or are you not an exile, but a deserter? Hm. No. Looking at your condition and your hands, you know your way around cards a little, but you've never held a sword. A wastrel, plain as day."
"Ah, n-no, hold on..."
"Not an exile, not a deserter, and yet a Briton is here, so there must be some circumstance. What would that circumstance be?"
"......"
"...A woman, then."
Corin went rigid.
"Hm. An affair? Adultery? Or did you put your hands on another man's woman?"
"Wh-what are you even—!"
"...You put your hands on another man's woman. Trash."
The blood drained from Corin's face.
"Chief. Is it really all right to ask this bastard anything?"
It was only common sense to treat a man who picked a fight at first meeting exactly as he treated you.
Lee Han's game of hitting the truth—the very one that had made even a grand shaman shake with fear.
It succeeded in bleaching the face of the man called Corin white as a sheet.
...The strange part was what came after.
"Chief. So is this the guy? However I look at him, he seems a long way from wise."
"......"
"Chief?"
"......"
"Why is your face that pale?"
"I-it's just... I'm realizing all over again that you are no ordinary man, sir."
"?"
"...Haha."
Giovanni forced the awkward laugh, but his back was already soaked with sweat, and his pupils trembled. He looked like a man who had come face to face with a ghost in a horror story.
"I-I'm the apprentice priest, C-Corin. M-my master is away at the moment..."
Sure enough, making it clear that the priest Giovanni had meant to introduce was someone else, Corin introduced himself with his spirit thoroughly crushed.
"Impressive, sir. To subdue that rude, mannerless Corin within three minutes of meeting him."
"A minor knack. And that much doesn't even count as mannerless. That's practically cute."
"...You can say that with a straight face?"
"I can."
Set beside hex-peddlers and cult frauds, that was nothing but a personality with a twist in it. And besides—
Is he just a coward?
Lee Han could tell the sharp tongue was self-defense. The man had come alone to a foreign land without a single countryman beside him, so that kind of defense was, at a glance, understandable. Unfortunately, Lee Han had no mind to comfort him. They had only just met.
What mattered now was something else.
"Then when does this master of yours get back?"
"I-I don't know exactly either. Once my master goes out, he doesn't come home easily."
"...I see."
He had wanted to finish his business quickly. Should he simply go to another city?
"Sir. Why not leave it to Corin, just this once? He may look like that, but he's capable in his own way."
"Him?"
"Before he became an apprentice priest, they say he was the disciple of a renowned sage."
"...Him?"
"I know it's hard to believe, but yes. It's true."
At the finger Lee Han pointed, Giovanni nodded again and asked to be trusted. Corin, sensing that he was being handled strangely, put on a sullen face and knitted his brow.
"...Hey, isn't this too much, saying it right in front of the man himself!"
"What?"
"W-well. Perhaps it is."
He had been subdued in an instant. Lee Han still didn't find him trustworthy, but he decided to trust Giovanni. They hadn't known each other long, yet from what he had grasped of the man's character, Giovanni was not the type to run a scam. If a man like that had introduced this person, Lee Han might as well take the risk of being fooled and—
Thud.
"This thing. It doesn't work. You happen to know how to use it?"
He held out the compass. Corin, seeing it—
"...A Sacred Relic?"
"Oh. So you're not entirely without an eye."
"H-how in the world do you have this!?"
Corin stared at the compass with a face that said he could not believe what he was seeing, his pupils shaking. Laying eyes on a Sacred Relic seemed to have shocked him. Regardless, Lee Han asked.
"The thing's strange. It only looks like an ordinary compass. It doesn't even take me where I'm going."
"......"
"And if I follow the direction it points, I keep running into demons and witches, oddly enough."
"......"
"...Why's your face like that?"
The longer Lee Han's questions went on, the stranger Corin's expression became. That look—how to put it. A face that seemed to say, Why is a man who should have died long ago still breathing? An unpleasant face.
Just before Lee Han quietly closed his fist—
"—By any chance, have you met demons or witches everywhere this compass pointed?"
The question came out of nowhere. Lee Han nodded on reflex.
"I met them. Rotten luck."
"...No. It isn't rotten luck."
"...?"
"This Sacred Relic, if my guess is right, is the Pilgrim's Compass. A Sacred Relic left by a saint who walked every pilgrim road in the world. They say that with this compass alone, anyone can reach mysterious places no one in the world knows—however."
"......"
"The problem is that this compass also reacts sensitively to demons. So in a sense, you could call it a demon hunter's treasure."
"......"
"J-just for reference, I'm asking—how many demons did you meet on the way here?"
"......"
"...Hello?"
Bang!
He realized he had been swindled, and he entered a new name in the death ledger he kept in his heart. Once again, Lee Han was made freshly aware of a truth the world never failed to prove: no kindness comes without a reason.