Encounter
Encounter
About an hour had passed since Mongsun had withdrawn.
After hearing that a guest had come to see me, I went out to greet them. Upon seeing a completely new face, I found myself briefly puzzled.
The person—who didn't look like an adventurer, nor an attendant or servant of some noble house—despite clearly being a face I'd never seen, reacted as if they definitely knew me.
"Hello, Sir Ega. The item you requested has been prepared, so I came to deliver it."
He didn't even introduce himself, and the moment he saw me, he reached into his coat. I reflexively drew up my Magic Power and braced for a surprise attack. Even under normal circumstances, a complete stranger claiming to have prepared something I never ordered and reaching for it like that would've put me on edge—and with all the shit I'd pulled recently, I couldn't exactly react calmly.
But when his hand came back out, I understood the situation at once. To ease the wariness of the guards who had started to grow suspicious at my reaction, I smiled as brightly as I could, spread my arms, and greeted him.
"It was prepared sooner than expected. I thought you would arrive tomorrow."
As if accustomed to such things, the man took my sudden welcome naturally in stride, smiled, and handed me the scroll he had pulled from his coat.
"I was fortunate. I'm glad I could deliver it on schedule."
The scroll—clearly high-grade parchment, but with no seal whatsoever—was the flight permit Duke Lesrom had promised. Well, he couldn't exactly send someone from the Noble Council openly, and he couldn't put his own name on it either.
Even though our prior agreement had been nothing more than the vague promise that he'd send it within a day or two, the fact that he'd gone to such trouble to deliver it as inconspicuously as possible couldn't make me feel purely grateful—solely because the other party was Duke Lesrom.
Still, I had to take what was given.
After a brief farewell, I saw the man off and returned to the mansion, checking the scroll. At a glance, it was densely written in a style that looked like an official document, but since I'd never once seen a real flight permit, I couldn't verify its authenticity. Either way, that part would be easily resolved by showing it to Gies, so I wasn't particularly worried.
Still, wondering if there might be some way to tell, I held it up to the light and examined the handwriting to pass the time. Meanwhile, the trial ended, and Ragnis and the others returned home.
Whether because they could have a proper dinner this time, or simply because things had ended early, their faces looked far more alive than yesterday.
Perhaps because today's trial had also been resolved favorably, the mood was bright. In that happy atmosphere, we gathered together for the first time in a while and enjoyed the evening meal.
"The noble trials... were truly exhausting. It felt like my blood was drying up."
Gies had set out that morning with a solemn expression, but now he looked like a refugee with dark circles under his eyes, spooning up soup. Fortunately, he said his duties were finished after just one day of attending the trial.
"When he showed up as a witness, Eldmia, you should have seen the faces of those Noble Faction bastards."
"Honestly, it was a bit thrilling. The look on Viscount Etabil's face when our eyes met—just remembering it whenever I'm down might be enough to put some life back into me."
Viscount Etabil had indeed been the one who had lent Gies money, then used him. I'd heard he was one of Count Bosha's close aides and had made quite a name for himself in the loan business. At this trial, he apparently tried to play the pitiful victim who'd lost personal assets due to Ragnis's heinous acts of treason, but because we had the real victim with us, he only ended up getting attacked. Truly a good thing.
"More than a few street thugs have borrowed money from him without knowing what they were getting into and ended up on a leash. There are adventurers too who get exploited under the pretense of debt."
"He's a guy I'd love to stick a knife in."
"...Eldmia, don't talk like that so casually. I'm genuinely afraid you'll actually go find him and stab him."
Sheryl spoke with such grave sincerity, no joke at all, and I couldn't help but react as if I'd been wronged.
What kind of being was this 'me' that existed in Sheryl's head? A psychopath who, wanting to stick a knife in someone, would run up to a total stranger and just stab first and think later? If such a madman were walking the streets in broad daylight, wouldn't that be the apocalypse?
"I'm not a crazy bastard, there's no way I'd do that."
"......"
"...Right? There's no way I'd do that?"
Why was no one sympathizing with me...?
Even Gies was looking at me with disbelief, so I glared at him with a deep sense of betrayal. He cleared his throat and changed the subject.
"Ahem, ahem! Anyway, today was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. Come to think of it, Eldmia, you said you have somewhere to go tomorrow. How far do you need to fly?"
"It's not that far. Ah, and this is the flight permit I received. Could you check it for me?"
The subject change was clumsy, but since it was important, I didn't call him out on it. Instead, I handed over the scroll I'd kept in my coat, playing along. Ragnis voiced her curiosity.
"A place to go? A flight permit?"
"I was actually planning to bring it up today if I had the chance, for everyone's enjoyment."
There was no reason to hide good deeds, and good deeds deserved praise—so why wouldn't I talk about the one that was the intersection of both, screwing over Count Bosha? I racked my brain to cut out the boring parts and emphasize the amusing ones, concisely laying out all the numerous events of the past few days.
An enemy's suffering is clearly an ally's happiness, and yet after listening to the whole story, Ragnis pressed her fingers to her temples and muttered.
"How on earth do you go around dragging events that would fill a week into such a short time? I really can't understand it."
Ragnis at least could voice her impressions—perhaps, with everything that had happened in the Empire, she'd gotten used to my knack for action without even realizing it. Even Sheryl had an expression of utter disbelief, and Gies seemed to doubt his own ears.
"What kind of life are you living...?"
"A life true to myself?"
"If you were that true to yourself twice, the country might disappear, wouldn't it?"
"Nah, it's not that bad."
After all, this life was my second, and seeing how the country was still standing, I'd say that much.
Naturally, Gies only produced countless question marks over his head; he didn't understand my answer.
Regardless of the questions filling his head, I simply informed him that the flight permit was genuine.
◈
Riding a horse at dawn was quite hard.
Moreover, with winter right around the corner, it was cold enough to feel a genuine threat to your life, like freezing to death on horseback.
It was the kind of weather where, if you flew on a wyvern unprepared, you'd be incapacitated by hypothermia or the like.
"I've felt this before too... You seem strangely accustomed to flying, Eldmia."
Even though it was winter, I was bundled up in so many layers and a cloak that I'd be sweating even if I moved normally. Gies looked at me and tilted his head as if finding it newly curious. Beside him, Asilie, who shared a similar sentiment and was dressed much like me, seemed quite puzzled that I'd dressed myself warmly without any advice from anyone.
"Right? Isn't this your second time riding a wyvern?"
"What's so surprising? In this weather, even riding a horse makes you shiver from the cold. I just figured it'd be even colder on a wyvern, so I came prepared."
"Usually, people take the temperature change from altitude very lightly. And the nerve you showed in the air last time, too—aren't you unexpectedly suited to be a wyvern pilot?"
"What's the point of being suited? Without royal permission, I can't fly freely, and feeding a big beast like that costs money."
It was a hugely attractive means of transport, but I had no interest or lingering attachment because you couldn't just ride one freely unless it was a state-approved profession. If I could raise one without worrying about such cumbersome restrictions, I'd consider keeping it as both a pet and a means of travel.
"Anyway, our target is a mercenary company on the move. The biggest challenge is that we don't know exactly where they are. But according to the intel, they're not the type to bring horses along."
The aides might ride horses for convenience, but since they all moved together, it was clear it wouldn't affect their speed much. I unfolded the rough map I'd gotten from Zikmel again and handed it to Gies; he glanced at it briefly, grasped it, and nodded confidently.
"It's in the direction of Raviel. The roads around there are well-maintained, so without horses, they'll spend most of their time on the road. It looks like the location marked on the map was predicted based on that as a campsite."
"You can tell all that just from this rough map? Do you have the entire kingdom's geography memorized?"
"It's a kind of occupational disease. Since I spend more time flying in the sky, I might get lost in a city, but I can find things like this easily."
Since I couldn't think of any example to empathize with or accept Gies's statement—spoken as if it were the most natural thing in the world—I just decided to go along with it.
"You remember how to ride with two people, right?"
"Of course."
Basically, the wyvern saddle was designed for two, so to ride three, we had to give the pilot as much room as possible and sit close together in the back seat. The pilot steered almost with their whole body. Since it was at the level of a skilled pilot managing not to fall, if we clung on half-heartedly, we'd lose balance and be in danger of falling off in no time.
I climbed onto the wyvern with a motion I couldn't honestly call familiar, settled in, and helped Asilie up to sit in front of me. She said in a slightly excited voice,
"I might be a little nervous?"
"Riding the wyvern?"
"No. Riding with Eldi. When you were little, I sat behind you, remember? Now that our positions are reversed, I’ve always wanted to go for a ride together like this on one horse. I never thought we’d ride a wyvern together before a horse."
Asilie’s shoulders bounced with delight, and the sight was so innocent that I was left speechless. For a moment, it made me want to earn whatever passed for a wyvern pilot’s license and take her flying myself.
"Then we’ll be taking off!"
At Gies’s shout, echoing across the empty Ogatorf training yard in the early morning, the wyvern spread its wings.