Chapter 42: Klaussner "Sei." I heard my name being called from outside the carriage, so I looked out the window and saw Captain-san riding a horse next to the window.
Captain-san looked ahead and said, "You can see it now."
I stuck my head out of the window and looked toward the front of the carriage. I saw a castle standing on top of a hill, a city was laying at the bottom of the castle and had walls surrounding it.
Our destination was the capital of Klaussner.
"Wow ~."
It was early afternoon.
The sun shone on the tiled roofs on a tilted angle from the West and illuminated the orange roofs.
The castle and walls contrasted the city, the structures had a darker hue because they were made of stone.
However, the landscape looked like Europe, the place I wanted to visit but couldn"t, so I inadvertently shouted in joy.
Wasn"t the scenery here the same as the Royal Capital"s?
Sure it was, but Klaussner had a different charm from the Royal Capital.
So I was still impressed by it……
The carriage continued moving while I was impressed with the scenery.
The group I was with exited the forest and entered an open field.
Only a little more until our destination.
We mostly headed straight for Klaussner from the Royal Capital.
We came here because Klaussner was in a crisis, however, there were lots of people on this expedition and we couldn"t rush.
It took many days to reach Klaussner, so we would sometimes stay in cities we pa.s.sed on the way here.
Many things happened during that time.
Klaussner wasn"t the only place that had problems, n.o.bles from other fiefs have also pet.i.tioned the knights for help.
Therefore, whenever I stayed in a city for the night, the feudal lord would ask me to help them out with various things.
I understood how they felt but I refused most of their requests because I couldn"t afford to take my time at each place.
But some n.o.bles were persistent……
I promised those places that I would visit again once we finished with Klaussner and they let us leave.
I was a little frustrated with that.
Captain-san was also frustrated and he told us that we wouldn"t be staying at fief capital cities anymore.
We pa.s.sed through the open plains while I was thinking about this and finally reached the fortress gates.
The horse carriage slowed down probably because we entered the city.
We weren"t stopped at the fortress gate because a message about us arriving had been sent earlier and we proceeded to the castle where Feudal Lord-sama lived.
The city that I briefly saw looked snugger than the Royal Capital, but I thought it had flourished a lot.
Harvesting medicinal herbs was Klaussner"s main industry and I"ve heard that the increase in demons has affected their harvest.
I thought that the atmosphere around here would be gloomy but instead, the people looked cheerful.
Was it not as serious as I thought it was?
Or were the people of Klaussner mentally strong?
I thought and we arrived at the castle entrance.
The horse carriage stopped.
I took a deep breath to psych myself up. I had to behave like a【Saint】from here on out.
I stayed in the carriage as I waited for the door to be opened from the outside like I was told to in the meeting.
n.o.bles mustn"t get out of the carriage by themselves.
I waited for a while and the carriage door opened, letting the light in.
I peeked outside of the door and saw Captain-san. He offered his hand to me as I was getting off.
I learnt this in my mannerism lectures, but I wasn"t used to being escorted so it was a bit embarra.s.sing.
I couldn"t say anything because I had mixed feelings about being escorted and my face twitched.
Yup, let"s smile and play dumb.
I made sure that I wasn"t making a weird face, put my hand on his and got off the carriage.
I looked up and saw a lot of servants lined up at the entrance of the castle. An elegantly dressed man was standing in the middle.
He looked like he was in his late 50s.
His hair was streaked with grey hair and he was a little taller than me.
That"s Feudal Lord-sama, right?
I followed Captain-san"s lead to where that person was standing.
I stood next to Captain-san, who had stopped, and the man spoke, "Welcome. I am Daniel Klaussner, the person who governs these lands."
Klaussner-sama bowed gracefully after his greeting and the servants behind him also bowed at the same time.
The【Saint】had a higher position than a feudal lord, so it couldn"t be helped that he was acting like this but such gestures made me feel uncomfortable.
I"ve always been a commoner, now and in the past.
Let"s end things quickly.
I tried not to twitch my face as I smiled and returned his greeting, "My name is Sei Tanakashi. I will be in your care for a while."
"I"m in charge of the 3rd Knight Order, Alberto Hawk. I"m counting on you." Captain-san introduced himself after me and Klaussner-sama raised his head.
Then Klaussner-sama introduced the butler and head maid.
The butler and the head maid also looked like they were in their 50s. The butler was slender and tall while the head maid was shorter than me, she was a plump woman.
It appears that I should talk to these two if something happens.
I was relieved because the two looked friendly and easy to talk to.
I was shown my room immediately after the brief greetings.
We will be talking about the situation in Klaussner after resting for a bit.
They were probably concerned that we would be tired from our long journey. I was thankful.
We did rest during our journey but riding on a carriage all day was tiring.
The room that the head maid guided me to was a big room with plenty of sunlight.
The colour of the furniture was calming and I could feel its age. The wallpaper and curtains were emerald green.
The room had a great atmosphere.
"Please use this room."
"Thank you."
The head maid was probably busy because she left as soon as she showed me where my room was.
I sat down on the sofa as soon as I saw her off.
I leaned against the backrest and lazed around.
Please forgive my poor manners.
This was my first long trip and I was feeling pretty tired.
"Can you change into your normal clothes?"
"Okay. Will I be meeting Klaussner-sama again?"
"This is what I"ve been told."
"Then, is this fine?"
"You"ll be changing clothes again when you meet Klaussner-sama, so he hopes that you would change into something more comfortable for now."
"I-is that so? Then I"ll go change."
The person who I was talking to was Marie-san, the maid who came with me from the Royal Capital.
She came with me because we might be staying here for a while and I still didn"t know much about n.o.ble society.
I could do things by myself and would have been fine, but I didn"t know what to wear when I met other people.
Marie-san helped me with the n.o.ble side of things.
There was also that; it was problematic for the people at the Royal Palace if the 【Saint】didn"t have a maid.
Another maid came with me from the Royal Palace.
The other maid was sorting out my baggage while Marie-san shifted through it to get me clothes to wear.
I got off the sofa and took off my robe.
The gorgeous robe that I was wearing was the one that I received when I had my audience with the King.
I wore the same robe the court mages wore during the journey, but I changed into something more gorgeous because I was meeting Feudal Lord-sama.
It wasn"t tight fitting because it wasn"t a dress but I still got stiff shoulders from wearing it.
Hmm?
"Will I not be wearing these robes when I meet Feudal Lord-sama?"
"I will prepare another set of robes for you so please change into that. Or would you rather wear a dress?"
"No! I"ll wear a robe!"
"Understood."
I thought that I would be wearing a dress since I"ll be meeting with Klaussner-sama, so I asked about it but it seemed like Marie-san would prepare a robe for me.
I was a little upset because I nearly brought unnecessary trouble to myself.
Marie-san and the maid chuckled when I refused politely. They knew that I didn"t like tight fitting dresses.
What can I do? I"m not used to wearing dresses.
Nope, I"ve never even thought about wearing them daily.
The maid showed me another robe while I was changing into casual wear.
It was also gorgeous.
It was light blue and had colourful embroidery on it.
According to Marie-san, they had brought many other dresses with them too.
Is it alright for them to only prepare gorgeous dresses……?
They could probably guess what I was thinking from the look on my face and said, "This isn"t much if it"s something worn by a 【Saint】."
Airchan also had many dresses like this because the Crown Prince had gifted them to her.
The maids secretly told me that when Marie-san found out, she warned him not to do so.
After I changed, I talked with the two while they sorted out my luggage and then someone knocked on the door.
Marie-san went to the door and it as the head maid from before.
She had brought tea.
"Thank you." I gave my thanks to the head maid as she set the tea set on the table in front of the sofa and returned her cheerful smile.
"It was my pleasure. Please take your time and rest."
Marie-san served the tea and the head maid left the room once again.
The tea colour was pale and smelt like fragrant herbal tea.
As expected of a major medicinal herb production area.
I feel like I"ve drank this before in j.a.pan. What kind of herbs did they use?
I thought and reached out to the apple that was served with my tea.
I chewed it thoroughly and a refreshing acidity and sweet taste spread in my month.
Sweet things are good for when you"re tired, aren"t they?
Then the sky outside got darker as I spent time relaxing while talking with Marie-san and the other maid.
Huh? When am I meeting Klaussner-sama?
"Is it still not time for the meeting?"
"I haven"t heard when the meeting will be. Shall I go check?"
"Could you please?"
Yup, someone knocked on the door while I was talking to Marie-san.