The Rumored Black Dragon (1)
Rosaria's suggestion led to the first family outing since they'd possessed this world—leaving the spacious mansion behind at last.
Though he'd never said so out loud, Darian had been drowning in boredom himself, so he agreed at once. Felix, thrilled at the prospect of finally seeing a medieval fantasy village, cheered and threw his support behind the idea as well.
And so the Evergarden foursome gathered and headed for the stables before departing the mansion, intending to take a carriage.
"Whoa… damn…"
"Even theater props aren't this flashy."
"Holy crap."
"……"
When they arrived at the stables and found the carriage they'd be using for the day's outing, their jaws dropped.
The entire carriage was painted gold as if the sun itself had been melted down and poured over it, glittering jewels embedded at every turn. It was enormous, too—only slightly smaller than a compact camper van—and the crest of House Evergarden was painted in lavish detail along its side.
The interior was just as spacious, with a massive leather sofa so plush it could have doubled as a bed waiting to welcome them.
"If we ride around in this, we're going to attract a ton of attention, aren't we?"
"Yes! For the lord of this territory—a Count—and his lady, young master, and young lady to ride in, this carriage is absolutely perfect! The horses that will draw it are of the finest black breed, fully prepared and ready!"
The butler stood beside the coachman hitching the horses, rubbing his hands together and heaping praise upon the carriage with a bright smile.
"…If we just remove the family crest, we could sell this too."
Freya, quietly listening to the butler, muttered that she'd need to add another line to the list of valuables carefully stored in the warehouse.
"Hurry! Let's go already! Move out!"
"Hey, hey! Slow down a little…!"
But Felix—the romance fantasy addict who'd recommended this novel in the first place—was at maximum excitement. He practically threw himself into the carriage, settled into the plush sofa, and shouted. The rest of the family reluctantly climbed aboard after him, and the carriage slowly began to move.
"Hmm…"
"Well, well… living long enough to receive this kind of treatment, huh?"
The carriage carrying the Evergarden family clattered out of the mansion, past farmland that easily spanned several hundred hectares, and soon entered the interior of the Evergarden Territory.
Looking at the scenery around them, they felt as if they'd come to a theme park. Windmills visible in the distance, territory residents bent over hard at work in the fields, smoke rising from houses here and there—all of it made unmistakably clear that this was the medieval era.
For Rosaria, who'd been stuck in the mansion for the past week staring endlessly out the window, it was a wonderfully refreshing change of pace.
…If you ignored the clanking of armor from the escort soldiers surrounding the carriage, that is.
Going out for a simple stroll through the territory with an outrageously expensive carriage and a throng of soldiers surrounding it felt like a division commander visiting his troops. And it wasn't just them who felt that presence. The territory residents visible beyond the carriage would be sweating and working hard, only to bow at the waist the moment the carriage passed—and they'd hold that posture long after the carriage had left, until it disappeared completely from view.
Once they left the farmland and entered the village proper, it got even worse. Everyone who saw the carriage flinched and bowed their heads. Parents walking with their children hurriedly pulled them aside and fled. Behind the pretense of indifference, their gazes were filled with a little curiosity, and a great deal of resentment and fear.
Rosaria wasn't the only one who felt those stares—the rest of the family did too. Everyone except Freya wore distinctly uncomfortable expressions.
"I… wasn't really hoping for this kind of thing… Looks like we really are hated a lot. Haha…"
Felix forced an awkward smile, looking hollowed out. He'd been dreaming of the lively, dreamlike atmosphere unique to fantasy-world villages, so the disappointment hit twice as hard.
"I'd be the same if a division commander rolled up to the base with a convoy of sedans."
"The public sentiment was already poor, and now we're projecting this kind of intimidation—no wonder the looks aren't friendly."
Just as their plan for a relaxing tour of the territory to lift their spirits had turned into something resembling a division commander's inspection, and the mood began to sink—
"…Then how about we just walk around on our own?"
Darian, who'd been silent until now, grinned as he spoke.
"This way we shouldn't stand out too much."
"Right? We look a little suspicious, but it's better than walking around in flashy clothes."
Darian cracked open the hood pressed down over his head, winked, and laughed.
Darian's plan was simple. Get out of the most conspicuous carriage, and instruct the coachman to drive the empty one around the less crowded areas. Then go into any fabric shop, buy enough cloth to cover themselves for the whole group, and once they were covered up, they wouldn't look like nobles and could wander the territory naturally.
Of course, when Darian declared they were getting out of the carriage to walk around as a family, the coachman and soldiers clung to them, insisting they couldn't leave the lord and his family unprotected when anything might happen—but Darian's firm decision left them no choice but to obey.
At times like this, he could be a little grateful that his thug reputation still lingered.
"My lord, wearing such cheap clothes… are you truly all right with this?"
Still, the soldiers' desperate pleas that they couldn't completely abandon the nobles of a count's house meant they agreed to take one soldier along. Freya muttered that since they were bringing someone anyway and didn't know the area well, thinking of him as a guide would be fine—and so Darian's half-forced negotiation concluded.
And so, among the soldiers selected by Darian's gut feeling, a young man named Hanson became the representative. He'd stripped off his armor and stood staring at the hooded Darian, completely at a loss.
"Ah, right. How much for all of this?"
"Oh my…! How could a lowly woman like me dare accept money from the Count…! I'll simply consider it an honor and accept!"
When Darian briefly removed the cloth covering his face and asked the shopkeeper the price, she just slammed her head to the floor and prostrated herself, saying she couldn't take money.
Darian's reputation was already rock bottom. If he insisted on paying, she figured he might find some excuse to behead her entire extended family—so she just wanted no money and for Darian and his family to leave the shop as quickly as possible.
"What kind of nonsense is that? If you buy something, you pay for it. Do I look like some thug who goes around shaking people down?"
"Eek…! I-I'm sorry!!! I-I didn't mean it that way at all…"
"…About this much, then?"
But Darian, who had no desire to freeload off the precious fabric of a small business owner working desperately every day, pushed back—and watching the shopkeeper tremble from head to toe as if she might faint, he decided further conversation was pointless. He dug through his pockets and pulled out a single coin.
"Pardon…? N-no…! I couldn't possibly accept this much money!!"
Even after begging so abjectly, when Darian still offered to pay, the shopkeeper cautiously lifted her head, saw the gold coin in his hand, and waved her hands frantically with her eyes rolling back.
For commoners, a month's living expenses for a family of four was about 320 dinars—roughly three hundred dollars. And considering the tax rates in Evergarden Territory, where prices were higher than elsewhere, it meant people in other territories lived on even less.
But the single gold coin Darian offered was 1,000 dinars—about a thousand dollars, a small fortune.
For commoners, ready-made clothing shops that sold pre-made clothes weren't the norm; buying fabric and sewing clothes at home was common sense. So what the Evergarden family had put on were hoods in name only—really just cheap cloth with simple stitching that amounted to little more than cloaks, totaling maybe 241 dinars all together.
And then he shoved a gold coin at her. At this point, the shopkeeper wondered if the vicious noble in front of her had developed a taste for tormenting her.
"Um, honey? One gold coin seems like way too much. I don't think the person receiving it would feel right about it either."
"Yes, my lord. For lowly folk like us, it's far too generous an amount. Both I and the shopkeeper live under your protection—simply leaving would be more than enough."
"Is that so? Still, getting it for free feels a bit…"
Freya, who through paperwork and administrative duties had roughly estimated commoners' living costs and market prices, and Hanson, a commoner living in this territory just like the shopkeeper, both opposed casually handing over a gold coin. Darian hesitated, the hand he'd extended to give the gold coin faltering.
"Then how about this. Madame? How much cash do you have on hand right now?"
"Pardon? Ah, yes yes! Just a moment, please! I'll bring it right away!"
"What? Not content with freeloading, you're going to shake her down completely?!"
"Whoa. Da—I mean, Mother… I never thought of you that way…"
"Corporate tyranny… shudder…"
When Freya stepped in to solve Darian's dilemma, smiling as she asked the shopkeeper how much cash she had, Darian and the siblings looked at Freya with indescribable expressions—interpreting it as I don't want to give you a gold coin, so I'll just take all your money instead.
"That's not it… sigh. We'll give you a gold coin, and in exchange we'd like the clothes we're wearing plus whatever cash you have on hand. We didn't expect to go out like this, so the only money we have is gold coins, which puts us in a difficult spot."
"Spending gold coins freely would also be problematic, so we need some cash we can reasonably use for about a day."
Receiving her family's scorching stares, Freya felt a little dejected as she continued, and only then did the people around her nod in understanding.
"Ah… so that's what it was? Well, even if our dear wife used to be an annoying office drone in the past, she's not like that now~"
"I was wondering what that was about… I thought the arrogant overlord nature that only a conglomerate heir could possess was finally showing itself."
"Aw, boring."
"Kids? Was my reputation really that bad…?"
And so Freya, wounded by her partner's and children's teasing, successfully left the fabric shop with a pouch of silver and copper coins. A few transparent tears welled at the corners of her eyes, but they were hidden by the hood, and no one noticed.
"Th-then, where do you plan to go now…"
Hanson glanced at the deeply hooded Darian and asked.
"We've got clothes on so we won't attract stares, and we've got money we can actually spend… There's only one place to go, right?"
"Pardon?"
"What else? First things first—let's grab a drink and get started."
Looking at Hanson, Darian made a drinking gesture with his hand and winked.