Chapter 188: The Border (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 188: The Border (2)
The next morning.
Before leaving the manor, I received an unexpected boon from Baroness Reginald.
When she heard we were crossing the border, she wrote us a letter of recommendation.
I hadn't expected her to write one for us, since we hadn't even proven our identities, but I suppose it was her way of giving change for the gold coins I'd given her last night.
I already had a letter from the Hessler family, but more is always better, so I didn't refuse.
Besides, once we crossed the border, we wouldn't have any use for them anyway.
“Um, Sir Hyun-woo? Aren't we going to hire a carriage...?”
“They say it's only an hour or two on foot to the checkpoint. What do you want to do? Should we hire one?”
“N-No, it's fine!”
Iris shook her head frantically, as if remembering what happened yesterday. Amelia, who had been keeping at least five paces away from me all morning without so much as a glance in my direction, seemed to agree, looking at me with pleading eyes.
To be honest, I never planned on hiring a carriage in the first place.
Given the current situation, finding a carriage for hire wouldn't be easy. Besides, there's a city just a short distance past the border.
It would be better to hire one there if we needed it.
But their reactions were so amusing that I pretended to think it over for a moment.
In the end, I pretended to give in to Iris's charming pleas, and we left Villen on foot.
After about an hour of this unplanned hike, I spotted a rather large gate nestled between the dizzying mountain ranges in the distance.
“Is that the Gallian mountain range?”
The Gallian Mountains, a natural fortress that formed the border between the Veilhaven Republic and the Nivia Kingdom.
Even in these times, quite a few people were trying to cross the border. The line in front of the checkpoint was as long as those we'd seen in the cities.
Needless to say, I had no intention of waiting in line.
Before heading to the checkpoint, I approached Amelia to cast a spell on her.
“Miss Amelia.”
“Y-Yes?!”
But at the sound of my voice, she jumped and stumbled backward, causing Sylvia's gaze to sharpen even more.
She looked like a detective staring down a suspect.
“...I'm going to cast a spell on you.”
“Ah...”
Only then did Amelia hesitantly approach me. Her face was so red you could have mistaken it for autumn maples from a distance.
I'd considered making her invisible at first, but I ultimately decided on perception-hindering magic.
Normally, you receive a pass after going through the checkpoint.
According to Baroness Reginald, it was nearly impossible for a foreigner to even enter a city in the Nivia Kingdom without a pass, so it seemed necessary for Amelia to get one as well.
“Pardon me.”
“Hk?!”
I took Amelia's hand to cast the spell.
I focused on her most striking features: her blue-gray hair and blue eyes.
Before long, Amelia's hair and eyes had turned black, just like mine.
Of course, she was still beautiful enough to turn heads anywhere she went, but that couldn't be helped.
I had focused the magic on concealing her physical traits, just as I had with Iris and Sylvia.
“All done. Are you feeling any discomfort?”
“I-I'm fine...”
The moment I let go of her hand, Amelia pulled her hood down low.
It seemed she was still uncomfortable making eye contact with me. Nothing I said right now would probably help.
Trusting that time would sort things out, I started to step back.
Tug—
Amelia grabbed the hem of my clothes.
“...Please speak.”
“Sorry?”
“Please... speak to me casually...”
Amelia mumbled in a voice as small as a crawling ant.
“...Amelia?”
Even as I said it, I wondered if I was being too informal, but judging by her reaction, it seemed to be the right answer.
I could see her lips, just visible under the edge of her hood, trembling slightly.
Iris watched us with a pleased smile.
Sylvia, however, was glaring, clearly displeased.
I walked past Sylvia, who looked like she had a lot to say, and headed for the checkpoint.
The people already in line didn't say a word to us, not even sparing us a glance.
It goes without saying, but the level of education in this world is laughably behind that of Earth.
Paradoxically, however, that meant people were remarkably perceptive. It was like a survival instinct.
Others have been breaking their backs waiting in line since dawn, and you just ignore all that and walk to the front?
Nine times out of ten, they'd assume you were a noble or someone of similar standing.
It's a simple concept, but surprisingly, many on Earth don't get it.
There are too many people who don't understand that sometimes, might makes right.
“Halt. State your business.”
The soldier broke into a cold sweat as he watched me approach with a commanding presence.
He seemed worried about making a mistake and suffering the consequences.
“What other business could one have at a border checkpoint besides crossing the border?”
I handed the letter of recommendation to the soldier, my tone mimicking that of a mage.
After glancing at the letter, he immediately saluted me. His posture was flawless, sharp as a blade.
“Sir! If you'll just wait a moment, I'll fetch the director right away!”
The soldier hurried inside the checkpoint.
A short while later, a man who appeared to be the director came out, adjusting his hat.
He saluted me, beads of cold sweat on his brow, and led us inside.
While we sipped tea in a sparsely furnished reception room that seemed to be for show, the director took care of our passes himself.
His attitude was far more subservient than I'd expected, making me realize once again the power of a letter of recommendation.
In the end, it took less than thirty minutes to get our passes and leave the checkpoint.
“...I don't get it.”
As we headed toward the Nivia Kingdom's checkpoint, I couldn't shake the question nagging at my mind.
“What's wrong?”
“The director. He issued our passes after just hearing our names, without even checking our identities. Didn't he even consider that the letter might be a forgery?”
Hearing this, Iris let out a short laugh.
Sylvia looked dumbfounded, and Amelia...
“Hk...!”
...seemed busy avoiding my gaze.
“That's only natural. It's a matter of a noble's authority.”
“Authority?”
“Yes. To suspect that someone has forged a noble's letter of recommendation could be seen as an act of disrespect toward that noble's authority.”
When I still looked confused, Iris explained in more detail.
“For example, even if a swindler forges a viscount's seal, that's a matter for the viscount's family to resolve, not for an outsider to interfere in. To even suspect that a mere swindler could forge the seal is, in itself, an act that undermines the viscount's authority.”
“...That's hard to wrap my head around.”
I understood it intellectually, but it was difficult to accept with my modern sensibilities.
However, I managed to grasp it somehow by recalling an article I'd once read.
Surprisingly, politicians and business tycoons often remain silent even when they've been scammed.
For those with high social standing, the financial loss is nothing, but the stigma of being duped by a mere swindler is a problem they cannot ignore.
“They live by honor and die by honor. That is the essence of a noble.”
*
Having saved time at the Veilhaven Republic's checkpoint, we headed straight for the one in the Nivia Kingdom.
Honestly, I expected to pass through here just as quickly and without incident.
However.
“What?”
“Proof, sir. Proof. I can't very well issue you a pass without any proof that this letter of recommendation isn't a forgery, now can I?”
The director, a bastard with a ridiculous mustache, was making trouble.
It was so absurd, but I decided to try and resolve it calmly through conversation first.
“There were no issues at the Veilhaven Republic's checkpoint. If you're so suspicious, why don't you inquire with them?”
“Haha, as if I could trust a foreign agency.”
His tone was openly mocking, and I heard something snap inside me, but I held it in for the moment.
“...Fine, then forget the letters.”
I was saying I would just get in line and apply for a pass like everyone else.
Fortunately, unlike the Veilhaven checkpoint, this one was still relatively quiet.
It was a hassle, but waiting in line for an hour or so would be fine.
“Hmm, how suspicious.”
But that rat-like director didn't seem to have any intention of letting us go peacefully.
I swallowed the seething sigh that rose in my throat and spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“Isn't it odd? Someone who presented two letters from noble families just gives up so easily? I find that hard to believe.”
His words left me momentarily speechless.
He nitpicks the documents I submitted, so I try to get a pass another way, and now he's finding fault with that too, calling it suspicious?
This meant he was after something else.
'...A bribe.'
One look at his greedy face, and I pretty much had it figured out.
I couldn't imagine what gave him the nerve, but thinking about it rationally, it was actually a decent plan.
Carrying letters of recommendation from noble families meant we weren't nobles ourselves. More importantly, from the director's perspective, the nobles who wrote them were foreigners.
On top of that, according to Amelia, checkpoint directors were usually people in ambiguous positions, like the third son of a low-ranking noble.
'So his plan is to see me as an easy mark since I'm not a noble and line his own pockets.'
A dry laugh escaped me.
Normally, I might have tossed him a few coins as an act of charity, but I wouldn't waste a single copper on this bastard.
'Tsk, I have no choice but to go back to Villen and ask Baroness Reginald for help.'
It would take some time, but for now, it was the most reliable method.
Dealing with that director could wait.
There were plenty of eyes on us now, but if his lodgings were to burn to the ground in the middle of the night, whose fault would that be?
“We're leaving for today.”
I rose from the sofa.
In that moment, his cause of death was confirmed: death by fire.
“Haha, what's the rush? The matter of the forged letters can be cleared up easily enough, can't it?”
“What?”
“For example, if the beautiful lady here were to have a little chat with me...”
The color drained from the director's face, and his body went rigid, cold as a corpse.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down the nape of his neck and fell silently to the floor.
His lips, drained of color, and his fingertips, cold as ice, trembled like an aspen leaf.
The director collapsed on the spot, swallowing even a scream.
“Hey.”
It was terror.