The Witch's Fleeting Respite
The night had fallen, yet the streets remained dangerous. People were still immersed in nocturnal pleasures, and night watchmen and guards continued their patrols. Simply walking around would be reckless.
I paused at the mouth of the alley that linked Arun’s house to the main road and quietly unfurled Enholt’s Veil. Light bent around me, concealing my form. As long as I avoided passing too close to anyone, I should remain unseen.
The night in my hometown was quiet. Unnaturally so. The occasional footsteps of the vigilantes sounded hurried, and even at this hour, carriages raced past with lanterns lit, bearing the familiar crest of the Imperial Hospital.
Did some accident occur?
For me, it was a blessing. The fact that the people on the night streets were distracted by other matters meant they had no attention to spare for me.
I quickened my pace. I needed to leave the market district of my hometown as quickly as possible, at least while the spell still held.
My hometown was the Imperial Capital, but that did not mean I had visited every corner inside the walls. The market alleys of the university district—where the Magic Academy and our family bakery had stood—lay slightly to the west.
The northern gate was near the imperial palace, and I had passed through it once when we set out to subjugate the Demon King. The southern road I had only glimpsed from inside a carriage while traveling with Azalea to the Church.
With magic to hide my body and the cover of night, it wouldn’t hurt to explore the unvisited corners of the Capital. After all, if I was going to find Mother, I would eventually have to search every inch of the city.
For my first step, I decided to head toward the eastern gate, a place I had never been.
Beyond the eastern gate lay independent kingdoms that existed separately from the Empire. Farther southeast stretched a vast inland sea connected to the great river of the southern Empire, while to the northeast rose the foothills of the massive mountain range where Kadros was said to live.
To the west lay the ogre plains. Beyond ogre territory, at the far western edge, were other human nations, but encountering their foreign inhabitants was no easy feat.
The north consisted of desolate coniferous forests, mountains, and tundra inhabited by those who had been subjugated by the Demon King. Thus, the Empire’s main routes of exchange with prosperous external regions were the southern and eastern paths.
South by river and sea. East by horse and carriage.
As a fugitive, I could not use magic to create light. The city was not generous enough to have installed magical streetlamps for public welfare. I had to rely on the faint starlight and the occasional glow spilling from house windows, or the lamps of taverns and inns that remained open.
It was not easy, even on the well-paved capital roads of gravel and brick.
I fell several times, rewound the injuries, and even erased the memory of having fallen. After what might have been hours of walking, I finally reached a street where the faint silhouette of the eastern wall could be seen in the distance.
The night was too dark for the wall’s outline to stand out clearly, but I knew it at once. The sound of boisterous drinking drifted through the air. Taverns always clustered near the gates.
I had learned to tell time by the movement of the seasonal stars at the Magic Academy. It was nearly dawn.
Walking through lightless streets in the dead of night, muffling even my footsteps until dawn, was exhausting.
I leaned against a wall and peered through a narrow gap into the first floor of a building. Even at this early hour, loud voices and bright lamplight leaked out. A tavern or inn, no doubt. I wanted to go inside and rest.
It should be fine… right?
It was a dangerously complacent thought for a wanted woman, but I had grown so weary for a hard chair and a cup of cheap fermented wine that I cast reason aside, dismissed the illusion spell, and stepped forward.
One hesitant step at a time, I walked straight toward the open door. Enduring the prickly sensation of freshly cut hair stubble against my nape, I pulled up the hood of my robe and carefully opened the door.
“Welcome in!”
A vigorous greeting from the waiter rang out. I glanced around the interior. For all the noise that had carried outside, there were not many customers. Only a few drunken men and women clinging to one another, unable to control the volume of their voices. The atmosphere was not exactly relaxing, but having already entered, I no longer felt like leaving.
The waiter preparing to take orders and the drunkards who had only spared me a single glance before returning to their own conversations did not seem to recognize me.
Yes. This was good enough.
I set down my backpack, closed my eyes for a moment, and let out a deep breath. At last, I had found a place to rest. If the cheapest room was available, perhaps I could stay the night.
I placed several requests with the waiter—an uncle with a fierce face and muscular build whose sparkling eyes looked strangely out of place.
“Half a slice of black bread and a cup of bread-crumb fermented wine, please.”
While I waited for the order, I opened the book I had kept hidden beneath my robe and read a few pages. Before I could turn many, the waiter slammed down a sturdy chunk of bread and a cup of the wine, accepted a small silver coin from me, and dropped back into his chair with a thud.
I had rewound the ten days of starvation, so I did not strictly need to eat. Yet there was a pleasure that could only be gained by eating, quite apart from hunger.
I took a sip of the fermented wine first.
It’s delicious…
Objectively speaking, it was hardly a refined taste. If someone like Zophy—a noble—had tried it, she might have spat it out immediately. Still, to my palate, it was wonderful.
It resembled what was called kvass on Earth: a drink too weak to truly be called liquor. Father used to make it often from leftover bread when I was young and feed it to me. A nostalgic beverage. …Well, on Earth, giving even a weak alcoholic drink to a child would have been considered child abuse, but this was not Earth.
At this strength, it was nearly impossible to become drunk, let alone suffer a hangover. Since I would need to plan my escape beyond the gates tomorrow morning, strong liquor would have been a burden. This was the perfect drink.
With one hand I turned the pages, with the other I tore off pieces of bread, placed them in my mouth, and washed them down with the wine. My heart melted along with the bread.
The chair was hard, stale meat, spices, and various unpleasant odors from the patrons hung in the air, the drunken clamor stabbed at my ears, the mixed company of men and women lent a faintly lewd heat to the atmosphere, and from the second floor—where the guest rooms presumably were—came the rhythmic thumping of bed legs scraping against the floor. But what did any of that matter?
After leaving the little shop in Valdenheim, I could not remember the last time I had rested so comfortably in a warm room with a ceiling. There had never been a sweeter moment than this.
I kept the last of the drink in my mouth while flipping through the book, checking the spells I would need to prepare when I woke in the morning.
The problem was the gate. If I could pass through it—whether by riding in a carriage as I had on the way in or by some other means—the difficulties afterward would lessen considerably.
Since I would have to ask people various questions, I would probably need Saron’s Clumsy Truth, which reduced the urge to interfere with minds and force lies. Also Olberg’s Cute Rabbit, which made me appear a little more harmless, innocent, and charming to others…
After considering which spells to prepare by looking through the table of contents, I called the waiter over. He rose from his chair with a look that asked what I needed and approached.
“Excuse me. Do you have a room available until morning?”
The waiter’s eyes widened.
“Er… you, miss?”
“Yes. Is that a problem…?”
I tilted my head.
“Do you not accept women traveling alone?”
“It’s not that, but… hmm.”
A man who had been flirting with a woman in the corner interrupted, as if trying to help the troubled waiter.
“Little mage lady, do you even know what kind of place this is?”
“Hm? Isn’t it an inn?”
“Hah! So an innocent young lady who doesn’t even know the Eastern Wall District has wandered in. Well, the Magic Academy is on the western side of the city, so I suppose that makes sense…”
The drunkard slurred his words, speaking in a tone that could have been mocking or pitying.
“Miss, from the second floor to the fourth floor, this place is…”
He paused dramatically, as though about to reveal a great secret.
“A brothel! Haha!”
I stared back with a blank expression.
“I… I see…”
It was not entirely unexpected.
The casual way food was served to late-night customers, the strange sensuality I had sensed in the sight of entwined drunken men and women, the thumping of bed legs from upstairs. I was not without adult knowledge; I could have guessed. Still, actually encountering it left me dazed.
“Well, it’s not like this is the only place like that. Miss, do you really not know what district this is?”
“What district is it…?”
I asked as if in a trance. He answered with an incredibly proud face, seemingly unaware of the soft hand of the woman—likely one of the brothel’s prostitutes—stroking his skin beside him.
“Like I said earlier. This is the Eastern Wall District, the empire’s greatest ‘wholesome’ pleasure quarter, officially recognized by both the capital’s market and the Church!”
His tone was boastful, as if he had built the street himself. All while being nothing but a drunk old man who spent his time whoring.
“Ah, I see…”
Well, such districts probably existed. I had only lived in the capital as a small child, so I would not have known about places like this. No parent would ever point out a red-light district to their daughter.
Since the village served as a gateway for exchanges with people from the eastern kingdoms and other races like dwarves, it was only natural that many lodging facilities catering to travelers had sprung up along the well-traveled eastern roads. And naturally, the brothels that served those travelers would gather here as well.
Listening to the man, it seemed prostitution was even legally permitted and licensed by the city authorities… though the rights of the women who worked there were likely another matter.
I turned back to the waiter.
“So, are there no rooms?”
“I can give you a room. But…”
The waiter gave my appearance a quick once-over.
“You look young, miss. Aren’t you a student from the Magic Academy? You don’t seem to have much money.”
I answered in a slightly anxious voice.
“No. I graduated from the Magic Academy several years ago and am currently traveling as a mage… As you said, my purse is not very full. Why? Is it expensive?”
“Haha, is that so? Sorry for mistaking your age. If you’re an adult, I can let you stay, but the fee isn’t just for the room. It’s charged as if we’re renting you out. Since the companionship fee is added, it’s quite expensive for a single night’s lodging.”
I frowned slightly. Having been born into this world, I had never considered buying a woman, so I did not know the exact cost, but from what I vaguely remembered from Earth, the price would surely be absurd for a single night’s room.
“How much is it?”
The waiter answered with a smile that might have been mockery.
“Depending on which girl the customer chooses and how long they stay, it ranges from ten small silver coins to four large silver coins. Ten small silver coins is the price for a short night of half a day.”
Ugh, that’s expensive…
I had been debating whether to simply spend the money and consider it a loss, since I was only staying one night and would leave the Capital tomorrow anyway. Then a single thought flashed through my mind.
If Mother had truly been sold to a brothel in the Capital as Zophy claimed, where would she most likely be?
And… the filthy desire to fall to the very bottom.
“Um… that is…”
I looked the waiter straight in the eye and spoke slowly, hesitantly, yet clearly.
“Can I… work here too?”