Free Port City (1)
After rescuing Hella and Helena, the carriage raced on without a moment’s rest.
Anyone who had prepared an ambush that thoroughly would certainly come to check whether their targets were dead or alive.
But who was our coachman?
None other than Albert—timid about everything else, yet a wizard behind the reins.
“Somehow I feel your assessment of me is rather less flattering than I expected…”
“Well, you did leave everything to the women and just stood there with your hands behind your back.”
“……I have no words.”
I hadn’t expected much from him as a coachman to begin with. Still, after four days of travel we had grown familiar enough for a little teasing. He knew it too, and a faint smile tugged at his lips.
Hey, don’t smile. You’ll make me get attached.
“So? How much farther?”
“Another twenty minutes or so and it should come into view. See the seagulls up there?”
He pointed. High above, birds wheeled and cried. The sound carried the unmistakable scent of the sea, yet I wasn’t entirely convinced those were seagulls.
“Those are seagulls? Don’t they look more like geese?”
“There are no mudflats around here, so they have to be seagulls. Would a man of the port ever mistake them?”
I didn’t know the difference, but if a local said so, he was probably right. He had grown up by these waters; I had spent my years on land and then on battlefields. He would know far better than I.
The conversation died there. I sat on the edge of the seat and watched the world roll by. A salty tang drifted in, mingled with the smell of oil. Before long the sea itself filled my eyes—an endless expanse of brilliant blue stretching beyond sight.
The moment we reached Free Port City we headed straight for City Hall.
Anyone picturing a municipal office from modern Korea would be badly mistaken. In Free Port City the mayor was practically a king, and City Hall was his palace. Ordinary folk did not simply stroll in and out.
I had once been inside a royal palace back in the kingdom; the atmosphere here felt much the same—ironclad security and dazzling works of art that drew an involuntary gasp from me.
If we sold all of that, how much would it fetch?
“State your business.”
A man of clearly high rank approached our carriage at the gate. He wore armor, yet he was no ordinary guard, and he didn’t quite look like a knight either. What exactly was he?
“Duel. Has anything happened at City Hall?”
Before I could speak, Hella addressed the guard. She and Helena lived here; of course the security chief would know them.
“M-Madam! Why have you returned in a carriage like this…!!”
The guard’s eyes went round as if he had seen a ghost. They had left in the family coach; he never imagined she would return in a battered hired one. His raised voice set the subordinates stirring. Having once worked in a similar line myself, I recognized the look on their faces: Something has gone wrong…
“I will explain once my husband appears.”
Even so, Hella remained cautious. In her position she could trust no one lightly. This was no external attack; the suspicion pointed inward.
“I-I’ll fetch the mayor at once!!”
The man called Duel bolted into the building. Watching his retreating back, I felt an odd pang of kinship. At least he was valued and well paid. I had been an officer, yet on the battlefield supplies never arrived properly. After the war they delayed everything with excuses about unrepaired rails and roads. Looking back, the higher-ups had already been trying to cut me loose. A long sigh escaped me.
What kind of life did I even live?
Thank goodness I had taken the red pill and walked away when I did. If they had dangled a slightly better post, I might still be grinding myself to dust inside the knight order with a cracked skull. Should I be grateful or not?
While I was sighing over that, Helena, who had been sitting beside me, pressed herself against my side. She took my hand and looked up at me.
“What’s wrong? We’re here now—you’re safe. Don’t worry.”
“Are you all right, Lady Esilly?”
“Me? I’m fine…”
What was there for me to fear? If I put my mind to it I could erase an entire legion of the kingdom or the empire in ten seconds. That wasn’t empty boasting; I had already done it once, so I spoke with certainty.
“Nothing scares me, so don’t worry.”
I smiled softly and stroked her hair. Now I understood why Hella kept doing the same.
*
We had been waiting outside the carriage for about five minutes when someone came sprinting from the direction Duel had vanished into. Surely it couldn’t be the mayor himself. A man of his station wouldn’t come running barefoot—
“Hella!! Helena!!”
Apparently it was.
The man racing toward us wore casual clothes and no shoes, his face twisted with raw emotion. What kind of report had he received to make the mayor of a city-state appear like this?
“Darling.”
Hella exhaled in relief at the sight of her husband. No matter how much people called me a monster, nothing could match the reliability of one’s own spouse.
“That’s my father.”
Helena, however, seemed unmoved. She barely reacted to her father’s arrival; instead she clung to my hand and smiled slyly. Yes, Helena definitely leaned that way. Hella said nothing, so she must already know.
“What in the world happened?! Where is the family carriage, and who is this person—”
“I’ll explain everything, so please calm down.”
The mayor was thoroughly agitated—and rightly so. His wife and daughter had returned in a strange carriage instead of their own. That alone meant something had gone terribly wrong.
Hella began her account. At first the mayor listened in silence, but as the minutes passed his expression darkened, and that darkness finally hardened into fury. He tried to cool himself by glancing at his daughter, who was still glued to my side, yet her blank face did little to soothe him.
“Those bastards…!! Trying to harm their own family over a scrap of power!!”
Learning that his wife and daughter had been attacked must have been a profound shock. Worse, the culprits were almost certainly members of his own family. How could he not be enraged?
“Butler! Issue a summons to the entire clan at once—have them gather in the council chamber!”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Tell them that anyone who ignores this summons will die by my own hand. Leave nothing out.”
The order was less for the butler than a vow to himself. The mayor’s clenched fist dug nails into his palm until blood welled. I had brought the two of them safely home; the rest was family business. No longer my concern.
“……Forgive me. To show such an ugly side and such shameful family affairs before our benefactor…”
Once the orders were given, the mayor let out a long breath and sat on the edge of the carriage. Hella and Helena had already painted me as their savior with such passion that he treated me with genuine warmth.
“Not at all. I just left a group that was pure chaos myself, so please don’t feel too embarrassed.”
“For the former vice-commander of the Royal Knights to say such a thing… the order must have rotted through and through.”
How did he grasp it so perfectly? That was exactly what I had wanted to say.
“More importantly… thank you for saving my wife and daughter. To think I would receive such grace from the one they call the kingdom’s hero…”
It really had been pure chance. A little later and the carriage would have sunk completely; I might have passed by without ever noticing.
“I’m no longer with the kingdom—just a wandering elf—so there’s no need to be so formal.”
“I do not know the details of the choice that led you to leave the kingdom, but as mayor of Free Port City I respect that choice.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“I respect it too.”
“My daughter seems quite taken with you. She never clung like this even to the maid who raised her from childhood.”
“So it seems.”
Was it because I was her savior? That might explain the attachment.
“In any case… welcome to Free Port City. Until you leave these walls you will be treated as a state guest. Make yourself at home.”
A state guest. For someone as accident-prone as me, a solid official status was exactly what I needed. I looked so young that people constantly treated me like a child—trouble when I wanted a drink at a tavern, a room at an inn, or even passage on a ship.
“Ah, thank you. And do you happen to know when the next ship for the Western Continent departs?”
“The Western Continent? One left yesterday morning, so it will be at least six days before another arrives.”
“I see. Quite a wait, then.”
Nearly a week. I wasn’t in any particular hurry. I could settle whatever needed settling here and leave at a leisurely pace.