Chapter 14.
Upon successfully running away from home, I flew as fast and as far as I could in case the pursuit squad still followed me. After about two hours in the sky, I realized that I didn"t even know where I was headed to.
I had been flying Southwest, roughly in the direction of the imperial capital, but since I had no map and had never flown so freely like this before, I wasn"t sure how fast I had been flying nor how far I had traveled. All I could feel was that it was much faster than running, so I was in a difficult spot since I did not have anything to measure my speed with, no maps to follow nor any idea about my current location.
I randomly looked around in the air. Fortunately, there was a village nearby. I landed and headed towards it.
There were guards standing at the entrance of the village. They were wearing leather armors, iron covering their vital parts as well as a helmet on their head.
Usually, soldiers in the middle ages were imagined wearing full-plate armor and chainmail, but those were only worn by knights due to the amount of iron that was required to forge them. In reality, the armor the guards were wearing at the gates was the best armor ordinary soldiers could normally wear.
"Stop!"
I looked around after the soldiers blocked the entranceway into the village with spears, but there was only me here.
They nodded when I pointed a finger at myself.
"What"s wrong?"
The soldiers pointed at my left waist. There was a sword hanging on my waist.
"Oh, are weapons a problem?"
"Yes. You have to show me your weapon permit first."
Perhaps it was due to my inexpensive looking attire or my young face, but the soldiers spoke to me very informally. However, there was another problem.
"Oh, I don"t have something like that."
Unfortunately, I did not have a weapon permit.
In novels at least, you could carry around swords like these quite easily.
"No? Then where did you get that sword?"
"Excuse me?"
"I"m talking about the sword. It"s illegal to sell swords to someone who doesn"t have a weapon permit.”
I couldn"t believe that in this age there was such a modern, practical, and inconvenient law. I had slightly looked down on the empire due to its feudal system, but it unexpectedly seemed to be a country that enforced its laws.
Come to think of it, even during the middle ages of my past life, a proper ruler probably wouldn"t have allowed people to carry weapons around without any regulations. Of course, whether or not people followed those laws was another matter.
"I"m not sure because my father gave it to me."
That was a lie. The sword was crafted by the village’s best craftsman after he expended several days on it. Upon receiving the sword, I was told that it was made out of an alloy of Adamantium, Mythril, and Orichalc.u.m, and it could be exchanged for a large estate outside the village.
"Oh okay."
Fortunately, the soldiers did not seem suspicious that this was not the case.
"However, you still have to get a permit first before you enter the village. You need to have a license for the possession of any kind of weapon."
"Where can I get this permit?"
"Well, these kinds of cases happen surprisingly often, so the related officials who handle these situations are located in the building at the back. But they might be off work at this hour."
I checked the clock, it was currently 5:45 p.m.
Public servants get off work this early. Should I become a public servant?
"If they are off work, you can still enter the village if you leave your weapon behind. What do you want to do?"
What should I do?
The sword I had was really expensive, but since it had magic imbued upon it, it would come back to me whenever I called it. However, it could cause quite a stir if someone found out the value of my sword. I should just put it inside my private pocket s.p.a.ce from now on.
The soldier tried to persuade me as I pondered.
"Why don"t you just leave the sword behind? Although this area is considered safe, monsters still appear occasionally. Also, looking at your appearance, it looks like you"ve been camping out for several days. Wouldn"t it be better to find a room and take a good rest?"
Unexpectedly, the soldier seemed like a good man. Well, I wasn"t really worried since I could just run away if I encountered any problems.
"I"ll just do that then."
"Okay. You made a good choice. It would have bothered me if I had to kick out a young guy like you. Hahaha." The soldier smiled nicely.
Although he said I was young, I was an adult now. If I were to include my previous life, I should be over 40 now.
"Then can you show me your identification card first?"
Identification card? Did I have something like that?
"What’s the problem? Do you not have an ID card? Are you not an adult yet?"
The soldier revealed his concern on his face.
It seemed like I couldn"t enter the village if I didn"t have an ID card. Come to think of it, a few months before I became an adult, Hestia gave me some cards that she said were IDs for the empire and the republic. I remembered thinking that it looked different from what I expected.
"No, I have it. Just a moment."
I pulled out my identification card from my pocket s.p.a.ce while pretending to rummage through my pockets. I used magic to change the ID card to one that looked like a resident registration card. It was a precaution in case someone from the village came to find me.
The soldier’s face hardened on the spot when he saw my ID.
"You are a n.o.ble?"
The soldier gave an unexpected reaction.
Did a commoner and a n.o.ble happen to have different ID cards?
"Yes, I am."
I answered as if it was obvious. Well, I wasn"t lying.
Since Uncle was a marshal of the imperial army, I was also a n.o.ble as one of his family members.
"Excuse my rudeness. You are free to go in."
The soldier"s reaction took a 180-degree turn. Well, I guess there were no harms in the change...
"Oh, but what about the sword—”
"You are free to just enter. n.o.bles are free to carry around weapons anyway."
Oh yeah?! Cheers to n.o.bility!
"I"ll go in then. Have a good day."
I waved my hand as I entered the village. At that time, I was not aware that my ID card was only given to high-ranking n.o.bilities above the rank of count.
The story of me finding that out later and struggling to forge the identification card of a lower-ranking n.o.ble to become a public servant was a story for another day.
-o-
In the heart of the empire"s capital, home to over a hundred n.o.blemen, a large hawk flew into a certain mansion. A small tube containing a letter was attached to its leg.
b.l.o.o.d.y Blade, owner of the mansion and marshal of the imperial army, opened the letter that had come directly from his hometown with a little bit of excitement.
For the past half-year, he had spent his time protecting the region bordering Demon’s Territory, so it had taken a long time for his letters to reach him. However, after returning home, he was able to receive them right away.
To guard the northern border in b.l.o.o.d.y"s stead, a marshal from the Dragon Tribe had been sent to the border region of Demon’s Territory, but b.l.o.o.d.y was still happy.
Half a year later, she would have to switch her spot with a marshal from the b.u.t.terfly Tribe, and a year later, b.l.o.o.d.y would have to head back to Demon’s Territory to replace this marshal.
The letter started off with talks about the season as usual.
To Uncle b.l.o.o.d.y,
It"s around the time when buds start blooming flowers.
Here in Olympus, deer are still biting ogres’ necks to death, and demons are making the village flourish.
It felt as if there had been something wrong with Hestia"s emotions when she wrote the letter, but having been raised in the village, b.l.o.o.d.y couldn’t help feeling nostalgia.
However, he had no choice but to become serious as he continued reading the letter.
A few days ago, Father decided on his successor. Oh, just in case you are wondering, Father is still healthy so please don"t worry about that.
Before I explain why he announced his successor so early, Denburg Blade was chosen as his successor.
Denburg was chosen because, during Father"s unique teaching method, he defeated a dragon by himself without Father"s help.
If it had been anyone else who had told me that, I would have dismissed it as a lie, but I have no choice but to believe it since it was Father himself who told me.
Anyway, Father was planning on making Denburg his successor, but the day before his coming of age ceremony, he told Father that he wanted to go settle in the Archipelago.
Father was then forced to tell him about his intentions of making him his successor.
Denburg accepted, and during dinner that evening, Father told everyone that he was planning on making him his successor.
I had never considered the position in the first place due to my weak body, and Leisha had given up as well since she had chosen magic as her specialty instead of martial arts.
I hadn’t been sure about Gawain, but I had thought that Gallahad would have at least protested Father"s decision. Instead, he gave a big round of applause, perhaps due to being frightened away by Father"s pile of doc.u.ments.
I, at least, can’t imagine Gallahad living buried under a pile of doc.u.ments.
That"s how we ended up congratulating Denburg, and the next day, during his coming of age ceremony, Father gathered all the elders and announced that Denburg was his successor.
We were about to start the ceremony after that but found out that Denburg had left a letter and run away.
We sent out a pursuit team with 1,500 men to capture him. But after 3 days of pursuit, he succeeded in escaping.
As you know, Denburg is a very powerful magician.
As a magician who can defeat a dragon in Olympus Forest, we judged that with the exception of Father, no one would be able to catch him.
However, due to an incident Father caused when he was young (Uncle would know more about this than anyone else), he cannot leave the forest without causing an international problem.
I want to ask Uncle for a.s.sistance in catching Denburg. He is probably headed towards the imperial capital right now.
If by any chance you happen to make contact with him, please let me know.
Your lovely niece,
Hestia
b.l.o.o.d.y’s face hardened after reading the letter.
If it were true that Denburg caught a dragon at age twelve, he definitely deserved to be named Doomstone"s successor.
Who else other than such a talent could lead the Crow Tribe of Olympus?
But someone like that ran away?
A monster that could use magic to kill dragons in that forest?