399 - Cody's Perspective: Augun Lord Carlotta 1
"......It's strange."
"What is?"
Bandits had come along as mercenaries in Leonardo's place, and even with Jean-Jacques there, I was tense. Leonardo seemed to trust them, but they were bandits. I had no idea when they might remember their true nature as bandits and come to slit our throats.
I was tense at first thinking about such things, but when I talked to them, even bandits were no different from ordinary people. They did not kill needlessly, and Marco's bandit group were apparently what you would call righteous thieves. They did not plunder traveling merchants or villagers.
So where did they plunder from, you ask. They would infiltrate lands ruled by unpopular lords and steal the harvested crops after they had been paid as taxes. The stolen harvest was once stored at their hideout, then they would go to villages short on food and hand out meals. This way the people had paid their taxes on record, and the incriminating evidence of theft entered the villagers' stomachs and was digested.
I am not sure about using plunder as a method, but it was plunder meant to help others. If they truly did not target traveling merchants or the common people, then I had no reason to be afraid.
"It is strange. Something is definitely wrong. Is there something going on?" Letting out that ominous mutter, Jimmy was keeping watch from inside the wagon. Jean-Jacques was riding a horse alongside the wagon and did not seem to sense anything unusual, but was there really something?
"Jimmy-san, if something is bothering you, please tell me."
"......It is strange that we have not encountered any bandits while traveling through the Empire."
"Huh? Is it not always like this?"
I asked Jimmy what was so strange about it. According to Jimmy, it was apparently unnatural not to encounter any bandits at all while traveling through the Zugall Empire. There were apparently so many bandits in the Zugall Empire that even bandit groups would sometimes run into each other while on the move. Most of them were not righteous thieves like Marco's group, so it would apparently lead to conflict every time.
......Do people really encounter that many bandits?
I traveled the Erath continent in a year-long circuit as a merchant, so I had crossed the Zugall Empire many times. I had certainly found villages attacked by bandits and traces of what seemed to be overnight camps, but the first time I was actually attacked was the other day. Thinking back on it, I figured I had just been lucky, but it was apparently rare enough that even Jimmy, a bandit himself, found it strange.
"It must be the blessing of Anatochu, the traveler's guardian deity. I have got a talisman properly placed in the wagon bed."
Saying it was probably the blessing of Anatochu, who guards travelers, Remihio's face briefly came to mind. He had once told me, "Honest people are favored by spirits." I tried to act honestly in my daily life, so surely the spirits had put in a good word for me with Anatochu, the traveler's guardian deity. I wanted to believe that the letter of guarantee the Acting King (Remihio) had given me definitely did not have some outrageous effect, no matter what.
......But having experienced that strange mist in the Divine Domain and all, I could not help feeling it was not completely impossible.
Had I received something incredibly precious from Remihio? Once I realized that, I felt like I had received too much and felt bad about it.
......Next time, I should give him something in return.
Remihio acted for Christina's sake because of Christina's connections, but the letter of guarantee was something I had received personally. It should be fine for me to think of a personal repayment.
Whether thanks to Anatochu's talisman or not, we crossed the Zugall Empire on a journey so smooth it amazed even the bandits. We occasionally stopped in towns and villages to do business, but by the end of autumn when snow began to flutter, we arrived at the region where the fallen kingdom that used the westward-facing Adorutoru as its crest was located. Next on my agenda was business. While selling bobbin lace guidebooks, I would investigate the areas Leonardo had specified.
Based on the documents Claudine had compiled, I decided the order to visit. The region where the fallen kingdom once existed was now divided into sixteen territories, but records showed that the target crest had been passed down in five of them. When the Empire absorbed them, the westward-facing Adorutoru crest was taken from all the territories, but even if they could not use it openly, they might have been hiding and passing it down carefully.
First, I would visit these five territories to search for Christina's whereabouts, and if I did not find her, I would join up with Leonardo and probably take the information back to the Kingdom of Ivizia. I had a feeling Leonardo would say he wanted to stay in the Zugall Empire, but they would still need someone to communicate with Grenore Fortress.
I decided to start with the nearest territory and headed for Augun territory, which I had visited once before on Claudine's instructions. When I showed my face at the fortress on the border, it seemed they remembered my face from last time, and I was called out by name.
"You are the merchant who was selling portraits of the Acting King in the summer, are you not? The lord entrusted me to give you an invitation when you came."
"Eeeh!? An invitation from the lord......?"
Had I done something wrong last time? An unpleasant sweat ran down my back. An invitation from a lord was a summons in the name of an invitation. As just a traveling merchant, I had no right to refuse, and if I ran, they would send pursuers and probably kill me.
"I, I do not recall being worthy of an invitation from the lord......?"
"Ha ha. You do not have to be so scared. Our lord is a kind person. What was it she said... you know, the portrait of the Acting King you were selling. The Acting King in the portrait was wearing beautiful lace, was he not?"
"The Acting King's portrait......"
I was startled by the sudden summons, wondering what was going on, but it was nothing special. I was the one who had gone around advertising bobbin lace. The advertisement had taken effect, leading to this summons from the Augun lord.
The portraits of the current Acting King that I sold were the first of their kind, and they sold really well. It seemed the news that portraits of the Acting King were starting to circulate among the common people had caught the lord's interest, and someone had presented the lord with a colored portrait printed for the wealthy. Interested in bobbin lace from the Acting King's portrait, the lord was apparently waiting for the arrival of the guidebook I had been spreading rumors about.
......Amazing. Everything was going exactly as Alfred-sama planned.
It was going so smoothly that it was a little frightening. But I also hoped it would keep going smoothly, and that Alfred would find the acquaintance of Aurelia he was looking for, or Christina herself. There is a saying about being too happy that it is scary, but is that not fine? It is happiness, after all. If the kidnapped Christina could return safely to Leonardo, there was no need to be afraid of that.
"The lord is waiting, so go quickly," the soldier said, but he still thoroughly checked the wagon's cargo. Since they did not demand any bribes, Jean-Jacques looked bored. It was surprising to see how different the quality was between the lord's soldiers and the soldiers guarding the border.
"Augun territory feels similar to the area near the border."
"Yes, that is right. I suppose it is the influence of the lord."
When we passed through the fortress and entered Augun territory, Jean-Jacques seemed a bit surprised by the surroundings. Augun was a territory relatively close to the imperial capital, but perhaps because the lord managed the territory properly, it did not look particularly dilapidated. Even the expressions of the people were different from the towns and villages I had seen so far on the journey.
"Well, well, Cody. Quite an early arrival this time."
As I entered the castle town of Augun Castle, a merchant I knew immediately called out to me. Normally I spent a year circling the continent, so there had never been a time when I, who had done business here in summer, was back in the Zugall Empire at the end of autumn. It could not be helped that I was viewed with some suspicion.
"......I managed to get my hands on the guidebook I mentioned this summer. As a merchant, I cannot miss the chance to sell it. So this year I am pushing myself and heading back home via a reverse route."
"Which means the contents of that wagon are the rumored guidebook! Let me have a look before you go."
"Sorry, but I have been summoned by the lord. Let us talk business after that."
"If you have been summoned by the lord, then I am certainly not a priority."
"Make sure to stop by later," the good-natured merchant said, and I parted ways with him, heading for the lord's castle. It was a place I would not normally even be allowed to visit, but today I had an invitation. I would first inform someone at the lord's castle of my arrival in town, then wait to be summoned again at a later date.
......No, I had expected to be kept waiting for at least three days.
But when I went around to the back gate of Augun Castle and showed my invitation to the gatekeeper, I was invited into the castle without even being given time to get a room and freshen up. The lord was apparently seriously waiting for the bobbin lace guidebook.
I proceeded through the castle corridors guided by an elderly gentleman who called himself the steward. I pleaded with the elderly gentleman who came to greet me, saying I should at least fix my hair, but he brushed it off saying the master would not mind a bit of dirt. If I was rude to the lord, it would be my head on the line, but the elderly gentleman did not seem to take that into consideration.
"Oh, you are the portrait merchant. I heard you procured that beautiful lace guidebook..."
In the courtyard where the elderly gentleman led me, a tall elderly woman with an elegant smile was waiting to greet me. Her dignified posture and speech made me think the woman before me was Augun Lord Carlotta, but I could not be certain. If this were the Kingdom of Ivizia, I could be sure, but this was the Zugall Empire. There was no way the elderly woman beloved by her people as a good lord would be wiping light sweat from her brow in the courtyard after doing farm work.
It is short, but I am out of time.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.