The Festival of Flowers and a Night Without Beds
Anyway, all that was left was cleaning up the scattered pieces of corpses around the shelter.
If we didn’t tidy up the scene, travelers passing by later might get startled, and monsters could catch the scent and come sniffing around. It was something that absolutely had to be done.
“And I just had a brilliant idea. Let’s make them do the cleaning.”
I pointed at the bandits. Only then did it occur to me that it was a good thing I hadn’t killed all of them and had left some alive.
“Are you serious?”
“Do I really have to go around burying the ones I killed too?”
“……Jeanie.”
“I know my own name, thanks.”
And Jeanie Crowell doesn’t listen to anyone weaker than her!
Dragging the bandits along made progress painfully slow. Even though we rode hard, we arrived in the city three hours later than expected.
“There’s the gate up ahead.”
“Phew, thank goodness we made it before they closed.”
The city of Daniz, situated between Moran and Heidricke, was strangely enough a city that belonged to the Elan Empire.
Given that it was attached to Moran—where eighty percent of the entire country consisted of mountains and jungle—the place was overflowing with greenery. Its most famous specialty product was, of course, tea leaves.
It mainly produced high-quality tea leaves for the nobility, but it was also renowned for its flowers and herbs.
Because of that, all kinds of flowers bloomed year-round, and it was a tourist city that frequently held festivals turning those blooms into merchandise.
I suddenly remembered that Teacher Iel had once mentioned it as one of the cities he wanted to visit.
Maybe I should buy some tea leaves and send them to him. He’s probably met up with Einy by now.
“I’m going on ahead!”
Most cities closed their gates at midnight, so I urged my horse forward first.
Once the gates were shut, they wouldn’t open again except for messengers or nobles. Ordinary travelers would be forced to spend the night stuck outside.
Since Ash and Chad were slowed down by the string of bandits trailing behind them, I quickly pulled ahead and reached the gate first.
The gatekeeper blocked my path with his spear. His attitude was firm, his voice businesslike.
“Welcome to Daniz.”
“How much time is left before you close the gates?”
“It’s festival season, so we’re keeping them open all night.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Please show me your identification tag or credentials.”
My traveling experience wasn’t that long, but I had grown fairly used to inspections by now.
I pulled out an identification tag from my saddlebag and handed it over. It was a silver one—fairly high-quality, intended for quasi-nobles with solid identities.
“Name?”
“Koku.”
“Occupation?”
“Mage.”
“Origin is Kikura in Dmitry. Is that correct?”
I nodded and dismounted.
The gatekeeper glanced back and forth between me and Rai, then applied ink to the tag, stamped it in the visitor log, and handed it back to me.
The identification tag contained all the information the gatekeeper had just asked about, along with my gender.
And of course, the tag wasn’t actually mine.
I had borrowed it from a royal palace mage I’d helped with communication before, since I needed it for traveling. Hansen’s was for a man, so I couldn’t… ahem, borrow it.
“Thank you for your cooperation. Please make sure your dog doesn’t wander around the city alone.”
“Will do.”
“Are those people with you?”
As I took the tag back, I looked behind me and saw Ash’s group almost at the gate. They were shouting desperately in my direction, looking extremely worried.
“Wait for us!”
“Hey! I told you not to go off alone!”
“Run away!”
“Ugh, so noisy.”
“Your companions seem very loyal. It’s touching how worried they are about you.”
This gatekeeper seemed to be misunderstanding something. He apparently hadn’t heard Lox yelling at me to run.
“Well… shall we go with that?”
“Daniz is a city with excellent public order, so you can relax. Have a pleasant stay.”
The gatekeeper’s attention quickly shifted toward Ash.
He must have spotted the line of bandits tied behind the horses. I heard Ash shouting something as I leisurely entered the city.
Since handing over the bandits was obviously going to take time, I planned to go enjoy the festival first.
No one can stop me now!
Even though I had a terrible memory involving a kidnapping at a festival, I still liked them.
The abundance of delicious food overpowered that nightmare.
A kidnapping was a kidnapping, and food was food.
It wasn’t as massive as the festival I’d seen in Elan before, but this one was still worth seeing.
Whether it was because there were so many beautifully dressed women or because flowers were being sold everywhere, the whole place smelled wonderful. That seemed to be this festival’s signature charm.
Amid the fragrant scents, I somehow zeroed in on the smell of grilled meat like a ghost and headed straight for it.
Thanks to the bandits ruining even my late lunch, I was absolutely starving. I’d had a bowl of soup earlier, but that hardly counted as a proper meal.
Before long, my beast-like senses led me straight to the food alley.
Master, you’re not actually bad with directions, are you?
“Call it instinct? The instinct for food.”
Chicken skewers, fried snacks, simple breads, and fruits preserved in honey filled the stalls.
There were countless skewers of the kind I loved. Fish skewers, grilled scorpions, even fruit skewers.
I felt so happy I was almost dizzy. I claimed a spot at the nearest stall, tossed the owner a silver coin, and immediately started eating whatever I could grab.
After filling my stomach for a while, it belatedly occurred to me that Ash and the others must be hungry too.
“Could you wrap everything from here to there?”
“Excuse me? All of this?”
“All of it!”
Hugging a yellow paper bag stuffed full of skewers to my chest, I walked happily toward the guard station. I was in such a good mood that I was humming without even realizing it.
It had been almost an hour since I entered the city when I finally spotted the three of them trudging out of the guard post with slumped shoulders.
They must have been stuck doing the handover the whole time. Good thing I ditched them early.
I ran straight over to them.
“Yay!”
“You! You damn woman!”
“Kyaa, why are you so angry? Did you get the bounty?”
Chad was furious.
This body is so cute and—wait, correction—adorable, you know.
“Jeanie! Where on earth did you disappear to?”
“Obviously she ran off because handing them over was too much hassle!”
“You!”
“What!”
“Correct answer!”
One chicken skewer as the prize.
When I pulled one out and offered it, Chad took it and ate it anyway. He was angry, but apparently still hungry.
“Haa… We were worried, you know.”
I handed Ash a skewer too and wiggled my eyebrows.
“Worried about who? Me? Or the people in the city?”
“……Both.”
“Honest, aren’t you. Don’t worry! I don’t touch normal civilians. Probably?”
“You can’t end that with ‘probably’……”
I guess I was just as honest.
Finally, I handed Lox a skewer too, and the four of us stood side by side, peacefully munching away.
Now that the bandits had been properly handed over, I felt incredibly light.
It was like climbing another small mountain. Traveling really was just one thing after another.
“It turns out these bandits were quite infamous. They had a hefty bounty on them for viciously attacking shelters.”
“Really?”
“Yes. We couldn’t collect the bodies, so we didn’t get the bounty, but the leader alone had five gold on his head.”
“……Oh my god, did I just kill five gold?”
“If you’re going to regret it at that particular point……”
“Wait! Could we have brought the bodies? I thought you didn’t get paid if they were dead?”
Ash, are you avoiding my eyes right now?
I trusted you! How could you do this to me!
Just as I was about to get angry, Ash grabbed my hand.
More precisely, he placed a pouch in it. He lifted the hand that wasn’t holding a skewer, gently opened my palm, and set the pouch down. The spot where our hands touched felt strangely noticeable.
“It’s easier to verify their identities when they’re brought in alive, so it’s better for collecting the reward. It wasn’t a complete lie.”
“Why are you giving this to me? Use it for inn expenses.”
“Because you’re the one who caught the bandits, Jeanie.”
“That’s true, but we should all share it. Because……”
Maybe he thought I had some sense of camaraderie.
When I saw a faint look of emotion cross Ash’s face, I quickly added more.
Wouldn’t want any misunderstandings.
“You guys were the bait.”
“What did you just say?”
“W-well, that is……”
In all my years, this was the first time I’d heard such terrible news.
My expression must have twisted horribly. The one who delivered the news, Lox, immediately started trembling and fidgeting with his neck while carefully watching my reaction.
“The city… is in the middle of the festival… so there are no empty rooms at the inns……”
“So you’re telling me I have to sleep outside again!”
“Hic!”
“Do you want to die?!”
“Hey! That’s enough! It’s not Lox’s fault there aren’t any rooms.”
Chad, who was acting unusually polite, seemed suspicious.
“Be honest. You couldn’t find any either, right?”
“……Sleeping inside the city walls is still better than sleeping in the forest! It’s safer!”
“You call that an excuse?! Argh, you useless bunch! I can’t even kill all of you!”
I had offered to pay for the inn if the three men found us a place to stay tonight, but every time they came back it was with bad news.
Normally it shouldn’t be this hard to find rooms.
“When you say it like that it sounds like you really mean it! You can’t go around killing people and then say stuff like that!”
“What’s wrong with that?! I have my own philosophy when I kill!”
“A villain’s philosophy is the most troublesome kind!”
“Villain?! I’m the most… in this area……”
“……Most?”
“Most temperamental woman, perhaps?”
Ash seemed to have figured out early on—thanks to the hints I’d given—that I was the Saint Jeanie Crowell everyone was talking about. Lox had realized it unintentionally but was desperately trying to deny reality.
Only Chad remained completely clueless, probably because he possessed such a pure brain.
He probably wouldn’t even consider it until I told him directly.
That might actually be one of Chad’s strengths.
“There you all are!”
We were gathered under a spindly tree in the corner of the plaza. In the distance, I saw Ash waving at us through the bustling crowd.
The city was so packed that even walking down the street was difficult.
Whether it was restaurants or the streets, everywhere was overflowing with people, and that hadn’t changed even now with the moon high in the sky.
It seemed we had underestimated the festival season.
Depressed by the sad reality that we probably wouldn’t find a room, I was leaning limply against a wall when Ash came running up, gasping for breath, and shouted before he could even steady himself.
“Good news! I found an inn with rooms available!”
“Really?”
“Yes! I found one!”
Ash only used polite speech when talking to me, but his face was lit up with a childlike smile.
I quite liked it when he made that face.
“Kyaa, Ash! You’re the only one I can count on!”
I can sleep in a bed!
When I excitedly threw my arms around him like I was clinging on, Ash froze up as if he’d seen a medusa.
This guy was great in every way except for how overly formal he was.
I’d told him to speak casually, but he never listened. Even now, his hands were stiff as he awkwardly tried to peel me off him.
This world doesn’t even have that strict a divide between men and women.