Chapter 32: The Tin Knight and The Mysterious Underground Labyrinth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 32: The Tin Knight and The Mysterious Underground Labyrinth
It was high noon, the sun soaring in the sky.
Basking in the warm sunlight, a line of eight carriages traveled in a procession.
Inside the most luxurious of them—a carriage built purely for passengers, unlike the other cargo wagons—a middle-aged man named Lorentz Halder was lost in thought.
…It feels like only yesterday that I left my hometown with just a single bundle on my back. To think I’d one day be riding in a noble’s carriage, giving orders to others. You truly never know what life has in store for you.
Lorentz was a traveling merchant.
And a veteran of veterans at that, having roamed every corner of the continent for over twenty years.
It was a harsh world.
The ever-changing weather and treacherous terrain, wild beasts and the rare magic beasts, bandits who would rather slit a man’s belly than do an honest day’s work, rural folk who viewed any outsider as a potential thief, and nobles who saw merchants as little more than golden goblins—the very fact that he had survived for so long in their midst was a testament to Lorentz’s tremendous skill and luck.
Even as he marveled at how far he had come, Lorentz couldn’t help but feel a pang of bitterness.
While the Halder Company he led was quite reputable in the southeastern part of the Empire, it was also true that it paled in comparison to the colossal merchant guilds in those far-off, lofty heights.
If only he hadn’t had to climb his way up from the very bottom.
If only he’d had more starting capital and a better background, couldn’t he have reached even greater heights?
Noticing the white hairs that had begun to creep into his own, Lorentz couldn’t suppress the thought.
“Father. I heard this area is underdeveloped, with no clear ruling power. The roads are wider and sturdier than I expected.”
The voice of his son from the opposite seat snapped Lorentz out of his reverie.
He smiled and said, “These are roads built by the kingdom, from a long, long time ago.”
“Which kingdom would that be?”
“The Kingdom of Ionia.”
At Lorentz’s answer, his son’s expression turned peculiar.
“…That backwater country? Besides, how could a nation all the way in the far east build a road here?”
“Well, I’ve only heard bits and pieces through rumors myself, but they say that in its golden age, the kingdom was even more powerful than the current Empire. This area was apparently once part of their territory.”
“Hoh. To think a country that was once so prosperous is in such a state now.”
“That’s just how the world works. When there’s a time to rise, there’s also a time to fall. You should always watch your step.”
“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Though a young man might find his parent’s nagging tiresome, his son nodded obediently without any particular sign of displeasure. A sense of pride swelled in a corner of Lorentz’s heart.
His bright and diligent son, Micks, was Lorentz’s pride and joy.
He was a bit too soft-hearted and naive for a merchant’s son, but that too would improve with experience.
‘Yes, I started with nothing, but it will be different for this child.’
With that thought, his own difficult youth didn’t seem so bad.
He could pass down to his son all the experiences that the wealthy from birth would never have, and the wisdom he had gained from starting at the bottom.
It was best to accumulate as many diverse experiences as possible from a young age, so that he wouldn’t be flustered when the unexpected occurred.
That’s right.
For example, an unusual experience like the one he was seeing out the window right now, a girl running alongside a cargo wagon, an experience to…
“Huh?”
Lorentz rubbed his eyes for a moment.
He thought his health was still fine, but it seemed his eyes were getting old without him realizing it.
When Lorentz opened his eyes again, the image of the cargo wagon and the girl was still there.
In fact, they were closer now, and he could make out finer details he had missed before.
For instance, the horses pulling the wagon were galloping at a speed two to three times faster than a normal cargo wagon. They were running across the plains, which were bumpy and full of obstacles, deliberately avoiding the perfectly good road. A knight in full armor, from head to toe, was sitting in the driver’s seat. The girl running beside him had brilliant blonde hair, and she was holding something like an iron sword in her hand.
‘…Huh? What in the…?’
Lorentz’s confusion deepened.
“Father, those people are coming this way.”
“Wha? Ah, um.”
Lorentz snapped to his senses at his son Micks’s words.
Micks was right.
The mysterious carriage and the Halder Company’s wagons were getting closer.
For an unidentified group to approach during a trade journey was, in itself, a danger.
It would be utterly foolish to let one’s guard down just because it was a single carriage.
When Lorentz pulled a rope attached to the upper part of his carriage, a bell on the outside rang with a jingle.
Seeing this, the driver in the coachman’s box sent a signal to the rear, and the company’s wagons all halted at once, assuming a defensive posture.
The captain of the company’s private guard stepped forward and shouted.
“You there, in the carriage! Halt!”
And the carriage that had put the Halder Company on edge—
Whoosh!
—simply ignored them, continuing to charge forward in a straight line, disregarding the road. The girl running hard beside it was just part of the picture.
“……”
A long silence fell.
The guard captain, who had been about to draw his sword magnificently, flushed red. The other guards, who had been ready to leap from the wagons at a moment’s notice, wore blank expressions.
Just as a heavy mix of bewilderment and awkwardness pressed down on the air…
“The-the carriage is coming back!”
The wagon that had sped past them, ignoring the Halder Company, made a U-turn and approached them again.
Fortunately, this time it stopped without passing by, and the guard captain and the knight in plate armor made eye contact.
The guard captain instinctively swallowed, feeling an unusual pressure from the knight, but the knight said nothing.
Instead, he merely turned his head slightly toward the gasping girl.
“Pant, huff, yes? Huff, me? Huff.”
The girl, sweating so profusely it was painful to watch, finally caught her breath a few times and cautiously stepped forward.
The eyes of all the guards were fixed on the iron sword in her hand.
The girl looked momentarily dazed, but then, as if realizing what they were looking at, she flusteredly sheathed the sword.
“S-sorry! I was holding it during training, so I just… unconsciously… I-I swear I wasn’t thinking anything strange!”
Training?
Running next to a moving carriage with a weapon in hand?
More questions arose, but at least the atmosphere didn’t seem like an imminent attack.
The guard captain asked, “What is your purpose?”
“Pardon?”
The girl tilted her head.
The guard captain was also perplexed.
“Uh, well. Weren’t you the ones who told us to stop? The knight said he was just going to pass by, but turned back because it seemed you had some business with us?”
With an indescribable expression, the guard captain’s mouth snapped shut.
The girl, for her part, just blinked, looking as if she had no idea what was going on.
It was Lorentz, the head of the company, who broke the awkward standoff.
“Ahem, it seems there has been a misunderstanding. We thought you were charging toward our company, which is why we told you to stop. We didn’t have any particular business with you.”
“Ah.”
The girl nodded, as if she finally understood the situation.
Her large, violet eyes sparkled in the sunlight, giving her a truly cute and bright appearance.
‘Huh? Violet?’
A sense of dissonance flashed through Lorentz’s mind.
It felt like something important was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t quite grasp it.
“Well then, we’ll be on our way—ah, wait a moment.”
The girl, who was about to say something, suddenly turned her gaze to the knight.
To Lorentz and the others, the knight was merely sitting in silence, but the girl nodded as if she had understood something.
“Excuse me, do you happen to know the way to the Taros Labyrinth? We know the general direction, but it would be better if we knew the exact location.”
A few of the company’s employees flinched.
The destination of the Halder Company’s current trade journey was none other than the Taros Labyrinth.
The cargo wagons they were leading were packed with useful items for adventurers, such as medicinal herbs, spare weapons, and lodging equipment.
Lorentz’s eyes narrowed as he mentally recorded the names of those who had just reacted.
It was one thing for inexperienced newcomers, but it was unacceptable for veterans with years under their belts to reveal their intentions so easily.
As long as the other party’s identity and true purpose were unknown, it was crucial not to give away even the smallest piece of information.
“Oh, that’s great! We happen to be heading that way too. Would you like to go with us?”
…Son, what are you saying?
Lorentz somehow managed to swallow the words that almost escaped his throat.
Lorentz saw it.
His son was trying his best to act nonchalant, but he couldn’t hide his flushed face.
The way he couldn’t look the girl straight in the eye, his gaze darting around and his body fidgeting, was the textbook behavior of a teenage boy.
Whether he knew it or not that training against honey traps had just been added to his heir-apparent curriculum, Micks eagerly invited the girl to accompany them.
“I hear there are a lot of magic beasts around here, and the security isn’t very good. Many people fall victim to bandits.”
“Is that so? That does sound dangerous.”
The girl’s words meant that it would be dangerous for the bandits, but Micks understood it as her agreeing with him.
With a much brighter face, Micks said, “Yes, so it’ll be safer if you travel with us!”
The gazes of the company staff turned lukewarm.
An episode they could tease the young master about for years to come, once he was old enough to drink, was unfolding right before their eyes. How could they resist?
The girl’s gaze once again turned to the knight.
The knight nodded, and the girl trotted over to the wagon’s cargo bed, hopping inside with a little leap.
A faint voice could be heard, suggesting she was talking to someone else inside the cargo bed.
A moment later, when the girl emerged from the wagon, her hands were full of what looked like bundles of dried herbs.
“Um, our leader said it’s fine to travel together, but he doesn’t want to slow down, so he said to feed this to your horses. If you don’t, he said to just forget the whole thing.”
Lorentz let out a dry laugh.
Even if technology had improved since the old days, horses were still a precious means of transportation and a valuable asset in their own right.
To be told they couldn’t travel together unless they fed their horses some suspicious herbs was a proposal not even worth considering.
Besides, they were travelers with a single cargo wagon. His side was a merchant company that, while not exactly dominating the continent, was quite well-known in the southeastern Empire.
The ones who would benefit from traveling together were them, not him.
‘Anyone watching would think they could slaughter a whole band of bandits on their own, or that they had gold bars stacked in their carriage. The height of arrogance.’
Perhaps realizing that he couldn’t make this decision on his own, Micks began to sneak glances at Lorentz.
It was a relief that he hadn’t completely lost his sense of judgment. If he had tried to accept this offer, even Lorentz, who doted on his son, would have found it hard to suppress his anger.
Lorentz took a step forward.
Although the other party’s attitude was quite unpleasant, the girl before him was only relaying another’s message, and his son seemed to have taken a liking to her, so he intended to refuse politely.
Lorentz looked down at the girl looking up at him with a calm expression.
Brilliant blonde hair and violet eyes. She was certainly cute enough for his son to fall for her, but—wait.
Blonde hair, violet eyes?
Lorentz’s body stiffened like a block of wood.
The suspicion that had failed to surface before now struck his mind with full force.
“…May I be so bold as to ask for your name?”
The girl answered without any particular hesitation.
“My name is Adelaide von Lennart.”
A moment of silence fell.
Those who didn’t understand the situation were puzzled by the company head’s sudden use of honorifics, while those who did turned as pale as Lorentz.
Lorentz’s gaze shot toward the cargo bed of the wagon.
Someone who would make a girl from the Lion Duke’s bloodline run alongside a carriage like that, and on top of that, order her around like a servant, had to be in there.
Feigning composure, Lorentz said, “Please, give us the herbs. We will gratefully accept your kindness.”