Ordo, the Free City
“At last, at last we’re here…!”
Ordo!
Seeing the city walls that encircled the whole city, Jenny burst into tears of emotion.
The people lined up to enter Ordo pointed at her as she spread her arms wide and shouted at the top of her lungs, whispering among themselves.
“....”
I pulled my hood low and took up a spot some distance away.
“Ah, Kana!”
...She had an annoyingly sharp eye for everything.
She couldn’t even properly notice attacks flying straight at her, but the moment I put some distance between us, Jenny caught on like a ghost and hurried after me.
“Why’s your hood up?”
“...Because someone might recognize me.”
Not many people knew what I looked like, but there was always the chance that one person who did would show up. I wanted to avoid trouble whenever possible.
Even with such a halfhearted answer, Jenny seemed to accept it and nodded.
That said, she’d been moaning like she was about to die just a little while ago, and now she was running around just fine.
“So it was all drama after all.”
“Drama? I really thought I was going to die!”
Jenny suddenly protested in Granic, her fluency having inexplicably improved.
Thought she was going to die, huh.
“I’ve always saved you at the brink of death.”
“That’s not what I mean….”
I’d been so excited when I heard I’d be traveling with Kana, but then all these strange people kept jumping in. I thought Kana would help me, but she just stood there watching... no, she even egged them on like, What are you waiting for? Why aren’t you fighting already? Of course I’m grateful she saved me, but if that’s the case, why not just stop them from the beginning? Where exactly was the intimate date I was imagining...?
Jenny muttered darkly in Arkish.
Her voice was loaded with complaints, and I shook my head from side to side.
This was all experience that would build character, and she didn’t even know to be thankful.
All the way to Ordo, Jenny had been tossed around by Apostles.
Some politely requested a fight, while others simply drew their swords and demanded one on the spot.
There were also a few who launched surprise attacks or fired magic and arrows from a distance, and I handled those people myself.
My goal was to sharpen Jenny’s skills, after all, not to make her suffer.
Of course, when someone openly challenged her to a fight, I let them use whatever weapon they wanted.
One thing that stood out was that after every fight, the Apostles would look at me with that unmistakable expression of hoping I’d hand over something... probably because of the rumor spread by the first Apostle who’d taken a coin from me.
I wasn’t some kind of golden goblin, you know....
After giving a few people coins, I eventually gave up and closed my pocket by offering handshakes instead.
Of course, that wasn’t my idea; I only did it because the Apostles asked for it.
I still couldn’t figure out why they wanted handshakes, though.
Hey, if it saves me money, that’s fine by me.
Ah, naturally, I didn’t do it for Apostles who lost to Jenny.
I’d started handing out rewards because I felt bad for getting in the way of the fights and keeping her from dying, but if Jenny beat them, there was no reason to give them anything.
After that, for some reason, the Apostles who charged Jenny had only grown more fired up.
Just what on earth had Jenny done to make so many people come at her like they wanted to kill her on sight?
“....”
For a moment, Jenny looked at me with eyes full of accumulated resentment.
Probably just my imagination.
Still, Ordo had picked up something strange while I wasn’t looking.
“Next.”
I thought it was odd that there was a long line stretching all the way to the city entrance, but at the checkpoint set up at the gate, the guards were thoroughly inspecting everyone who came and went.
From the occasional people who failed inspection and got turned away, it didn’t seem like this was just for show.
There had been a checkpoint before, too, but they hadn’t restricted entry like this. Had the policy changed now that it had become a free city?
I tugged on Jenny’s sleeve.
“What is it, Kana?”
“That.”
“The checkpoint? What about it?”
Jenny didn’t seem to think it was strange, which meant this was probably normal here.
When I looked up at her, asking for an explanation, Jenny caught on and said, “They’re checking your identity. Like a mercenary tag or a trade license.”
“Hmm....”
As she spoke, Jenny pulled out her mercenary tag.
The gold tag glittered in the dimming sunlight.
A gold-rank mercenary with skills like that? The world was doomed.
No, that wasn’t the important part right now.
“Identity....”
Back then, I’d never had to worry about things like that.
With knights in the Red Flame Knights armor standing in a neat row, who would dare suspect anything?
But I had no way to prove who I was now.
“Next!”
While I was still thinking, the line in front of us vanished, and before I knew it, it was our turn.
The checkpoint inside was rather bleak.
A prison, a desk, a chair, equipment for suppressing disturbances.
It was a place that was really faithful to the word checkpoint.
A guard in a brilliantly polished suit of armor saw us enter and said in a rigid tone, “Would you mind removing your cape?”
“Kana, your cape.”
I took off my hood without a word.
The guard’s eyes widened for a brief, unexpected moment, then quickly returned to normal.
“Do you have anything that can prove your identity?”
“Here....”
“You’re a Liberi mercenary. Confirmed.”
The guard who checked the mercenary tag Jenny handed over nodded.
Then he turned to me and asked, “And this little young lady is...?”
“Ah, sorry. My younger sibling doesn’t speak Arkish.... She’s from a little mountain village way out in the boonies, and this is her first time in Ordo. I’ll vouch for her, so could you make an exception?”
“Hmm... if you’re a gold-rank mercenary, your guarantee is fine. But let me confirm one thing. What was the name of the village you lived in?”
“Uh, um... what was it again... ? No, I’m not lying, I just forgot because—!”
As the guard began to look suspicious, Jenny panicked and flailed her arms wildly.
From the way things were going, it looked like my identity was causing the problem.
Something that proves who I am...
Ah, I do have one thing.
Suddenly remembering what I’d forgotten, I rummaged through my clothes.
It took a bit of digging since I’d carelessly tossed it between the empire coin and the Grasis commemorative coin, but I eventually found what I wanted and held it out to the guard.
“Will this do?”
“Hmm? This is....”
The guard narrowed his eyes and studied the object I handed him.
Seeing how seriously he inspected it with a low murmur, I thought this would all go smoothly after all.
Clang!
“...Huh?”
I was thrown into the prison cell on one side of the checkpoint.
* * *
No!
Jenny nearly spat fire.
Not literally, of course, but she shouted with enough fury to make it look like she might.
“You really are a bad, bad... um....”
After Kana was locked in the prison, Jenny, who’d been kicked out of the checkpoint, was in the middle of fiercely protesting her innocence when she suddenly froze.
Memories of all the hardships she’d gone through flashed through her head.
After wavering for a moment, she came back to her senses and raised her voice again.
“...She’s not a bad girl! She just forgot the name because the village was too remote!”
“If you keep making a scene, we won’t be able to guarantee your safety, even if you are a Liberi mercenary.”
“No...!”
No matter what she said, all she got back was the same rigid response, and for Jenny, who had suddenly been separated from her companion, it was enough to drive her mad.
Whether she knew Jenny’s heart was burning to ashes or not, the chat was too busy laughing and joking around.
As she was glaring at the chat with a resentful look, the guard who’d been standing there with a stern face finally spoke.
“It’s not because of your identity.”
The guard had seen the item Kana presented.
Though his station was too low for him to fully recognize its true nature or value, he could still tell it was not something a mere country girl should have been carrying around.
From the moment he first saw her face, he’d thought there was something unusual about her, but when the girl boldly presented an object bearing the crest of the ruined Grasis royal family, her appearance was no longer the issue.
Even if the kingdom had already fallen, using the royal crest carelessly was not something he could ignore, so after locking the girl in the prison, he immediately reported it up the chain of command.
If she had been using the crest without understanding what it meant, then though it was regrettable for someone so young, she would still receive a not-insignificant punishment.
But if the girl was someone connected to the royal family....
No. That can’t be.
The guard rejected his own thought.
He didn’t know every member of the royal family, but he had never heard of a girl like her.
Besides, people who had died in the Dimensional Beast invasion or fled into exile to the Empire were now visiting Ordo? What in the world would bring them here?
I’d sooner believe Garid-sama came back from the dead.
That man had truly loved Grasis.
He clicked his tongue at the bitterness rising in him, thinking of a man with a long scar across his face whom he had once seen from afar.
Come to think of it, I’ve never heard anything about who became commander after Garid-sama.
With the commander’s seat left vacant, someone must have taken it eventually.
But all there were were vague rumors—he was such a complete piece of trash that he’d kill enemy and ally alike without hesitation, he was a giant twice the height of anyone else, he once even knocked down royalty....
...Nothing had ever been clearly established.
At one point, he’d asked the superior he’d had back in the Red Flame Knights, but his superior had refused to answer with a face full of fear.
If even his superior, whom he already found terrifying, reacted like that, it was only natural to think the rumors might be true.
...What a pointless thing to think about.
Grasis had already fallen, so what was the use of dwelling on the past?
Honestly, life now was better than it had been before the fall, so he didn’t particularly miss the old days anyway.
After shaking off the last of his stray thoughts, he pushed Jenny aside with a firm attitude.
“If the investigation shows no problem, we’ll let her out, so please leave now. By the rules, I should detain you as well, but I’m letting it pass because you’re an Apostle of Lady Edel.”
“If you’re going to let me pass, at least let Kana out too...”
Jenny grumbled, but the guard’s sharp glare sent her tucking her tail and running off.
“Shut up! And this isn’t running away, it’s a strategic withdrawal! It’s not like staying there would magically come up with a solution anyway!”
Like before, and like now, Jenny could only sigh as situations kept drifting in directions she’d never expected.
Of course, even then, she still didn’t think Kana was in danger.
The Kana Jenny knew would probably smash half the city apart and walk out if her sword were taken away and her life were truly on the line.
That said, Jenny didn’t want to end up a fugitive herself and spend her time being chased around.
“What on earth was it that Kana handed over...?”
Every time she thought she had started to understand Kana, something she didn’t know would pop up. And just when she thought she understood her again, another thing would appear....
What a truly onion-like kid.
With that complaint lingering in her mind, Jenny moved her feet.
All the while thinking of a way to free the little bird locked in a prison cell.
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