Published at 21st of December 2024 11:07 am

Chapter 638

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

"I treated him so well! I even played mage card games with him during breaks in case he got bored!"

'Isn't that why he ran away?'

Yonaire suspected inwardly but decided not to ask any more questions out of consideration for her relative.

"Okay, okay, be quiet now. We'll take you to the mansion."

"Can't you take my carriage too?"

Gainando pleaded as if he was the most pitiful person in the world.

All his luggage, including gifts for Yi-Han, was in the carriage.

Of course, Yonaire wasn't easily fooled. She looked at Gainando incredulously and asked,

"Who's going to drive it?"

"I can drive a carriage, but..."

Nillia spoke cautiously. Yonaire grabbed Nillia's hand as if to say there was no need for that.

"No. There's no need to bother with that."

"She can drive it! She can drive it!"

"I should add a device to prevent him from grabbing the carriage in the future..."

At Yonaire's muttering, Nillia hastily replied.

"It's not that bothersome. I can do this much."

"Driving a carriage can't be not bothersome."

Although nobles might know how to ride horses, those who could drive carriages were surprisingly rare.

There were coachmen, but above all, driving a carriage itself was quite a challenging skill.

One had to manage and align the breathing and direction of multiple horses...

"How many horses? Four might be a bit difficult, but I could somehow..."

"Eight horses."

"..."

Nillia hesitated at Gainando's answer. Yonaire sighed heavily and asked,

"Why on earth did you bring an eight-horse carriage all the way here?"

"It's cool..."

"E-eight horses is too much."

Nillia became embarrassed. To think she had to take back her words after saying she could do it.

"Of course it's too much. Don't worry about it."

"Can't I try just this once?"

"Nillia. Just shoot him."

Gainando shut his mouth with a 'hup'. Yonaire twirled her hair and said,

"There's only one way."

"Yonaire...!"

Gainando looked at his relative with expectant eyes.

As expected, she wasn't a mage for nothing.

If one couldn't solve difficulties with magic, why be a mage?

"Go to the carriage and pack only what you can fit in a bag. Don't forget the gift for Yi-Han."

"...Uh, what about the carriage?"

"We have to leave it behind, what else?"

"..."

Gainando opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then closed it, and went outside with slumped shoulders.

Then he quickly turned back and shouted,

"If you leave without me, I'll never forgive you next semester!"

"Alright, alright."

Nillia grumbled incredulously as she watched Gainando walk away.

"Look at how he talks. We're giving him a ride, yet he suspects we'll leave without him!"

"Right. He's become more perceptive since attending Einroguard. How did he know?"

"..."

***

Arsil Wardanaz clapped his hands in admiration as he drank the lemon tea Yi-Han had brewed for him.

Alcicle also smiled warmly at the sight of him praising his younger brother's skills.

"Brother. This candied lemon is something I bought from the town."

"..."

"..."

Arsil, unfazed, praised again.

"You're saying the skill in making the tea is amazing? But I just poured water..."

"Wardanaz. Stop. Just stop."

Alcicle found himself intervening without realizing it.

Even though he couldn't understand one side of the conversation, he couldn't bear to watch any longer.

Meanwhile, the meal was served. It was a frugal but heartfelt meal.

Freshly baked bread and jam, rice and eggs, meat stir-fried in oil (Yi-Han's favorite dish), and sardines cooked especially for Alcicle.

While the skill and individual ingredients were excellent, the menu was surprisingly sparse and frugal. Alcicle was surprised to see the two brothers eating as if nothing was amiss.

"Do you always eat like this?"

"Usually, we eat a bit more simply? I usually eat alone."

Today's meal was prepared like this because Arsil and Alcicle had come, but normally, he ate even more simply.

Alcicle looked at Yi-Han in shock.

"You've been eating so miserably like a slave even normally?"

"Ah, no. It's just that I prefer it this way."

The knights were busy patrolling outside, and it would only be burdensome to prepare an elaborate meal just for Yi-Han eating alone.

Arsil nodded and said,

"No, brother. It's not because I'm frugal and kind... It's just convenient to eat this way... You're saying what I made back then was delicious? What are you talking about? That sandwich was just... ingredients placed between bread."

Arsil, undeterred, gave a thumbs up and praised him, saying it was good.

Alcicle realized he had just been mistaken.

'It must have just been Wardanaz being strange!'

He must have eaten simply, saying he didn't have enough time to study magic.

'Surely when he said meals weren't provided at Einroguard, it wasn't something like this.'

If meals were properly provided but he expressed it that way because he couldn't eat due to studying...

Alcicle inwardly thought that if Einroguard students heard this, they would rush over to pluck his feathers.

After finishing the light meal, Arsil began to spread out odds and ends on the table.

A glass bottle filled with unidentified oil, an old notebook, an umbrella with engravings, a pencil case made of tough leather, a jade comb, an inkwell filled with ink that kept changing color, a quill pen, a whetstone, and so on...

Alcicle suddenly wondered why he was taking these out.

"Brother. I chose that cloak. I won't change. You say it's not interesting? It's fine. I like uninteresting things. You say that umbrella summons lightning? No, it's dangerous if an item used on rainy days summons lightning. I'll just use the cloak."

"..."

Realizing what conversation the two were having, Alcicle carefully checked a nearby object.

It looked like an ordinary whetstone, but there was magic cast inside the stone. It was magic that made swords attack surrounding enemies on their own.

Including their own master!

'...He doesn't hate his younger brother, does he?'

Alcicle thought this as he raised his head.

However, Arsil was happily recommending this and that object to his younger brother with an innocent face. There seemed to be no malice anywhere on that face.

"You say we should give one to Mr. Pengerin too? That's not a bad idea. Mr. Pengerin. My brother wants to give you a gift. Why don't you choose one?"

"Wait, didn't you say all the items here are dangerous?"

"What are you saying? It's not to that extent. If they were that dangerous, I wouldn't be able to give them as gifts. Come on, come on."

'This bastard! He's offered me up to his brother!'

Alcicle was shocked to realize that Yi-Han had offered him up as a sacrifice.

Because his brother kept trying to give dangerous items as heartfelt gifts, he had deflected the arrow towards him.

"I-I'm fine..."

"My brother is saying you surely wouldn't refuse a gift when you've come as a guest."

"Did he really say that??"

Alcicle was frustrated but had no way out.

As a guest, he couldn't refuse a gift without a good reason. It was also a matter of the other party's face.

'The least dangerous one... Ugh. I wish anyone would come in...'

Bang!

"Hello."

"!"

Alcicle and Yi-Han jumped up at the sight of Yonaire's group entering.

"Welcome!!"

"You've finally arrived!"

"D-did you wait that much?"

Yonaire and her friends were taken aback by the unexpectedly warm response.

It was understandable for Yi-Han, but they were puzzled why even Mr. Alcicle of the Pengerin family was acting like this.

"Was there any trouble on the way?"

"There wasn't any trouble, but aren't there too few people? It seems like there are fewer people than in the mountains."

"Really? Is it to that extent?"

Yi-Han tilted his head at Nillia's words.

It didn't seem that unusual to him...

"Anything else?"

"...You're not just not sending letters to me, right...?"

Nillia looked around cautiously and whispered softly.

"Haha. Of course that's a misunderstanding. I sent one right away last time."

"R-right? I thought so."

Nillia, who had been anxious that she might have been put on the 'people not to send letters to' list because of some unnecessary words, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who is this person?"

"Ah. This is my older brother. Arsil of the Wardanaz family. He speaks in spirit language, so it's hard to understand what he's saying."

"???"

"??!"

While Yonaire and Nillia were shocked, Yi-Han conversed with Gainando.

"What's wrong? You look like someone who's had their carriage stolen."

"It was actually stolen!!"

"What? Why? How did that happen?"

Yonaire and Nillia, who knew the truth, weren't very curious about that.

Rather, they were much more curious about how Yi-Han's brother spoke.

"Wait, what do you mean he speaks in spirit language..."

"What on earth is that..."

"Just a moment. Listen to this first."

Yi-Han calmed his friends and asked why Gainando's carriage had disappeared.

Upon hearing, it turned out the carriage hadn't disappeared. The coachman had suddenly run away.

"Did you perhaps force him to read magazines, use dark magic, pester him to buy snacks, ask him to do your homework, or ask him to play mage card games?"

"...I-I did ask him to play mage card games..."

"That must be why he ran away."

"No, is asking to play mage card games such a big crime!?"

"It becomes a crime if you keep asking. You can go find the carriage later. No one will take it."

Nillia was puzzled at Yi-Han's words.

The town in front of the territory was quite large. And the larger the scale, the more thieves there tended to be.

Even in the towns below the northern mountains, if you tied up a horse without anyone guarding it, it would disappear before long, so why would it be okay here?

"Why? Someone could take it."

"Hoho. You don't need to worry."

Arlong entered, taking off his helmet.

Thanks to Yi-Han's friends visiting, the old knight was in a very good mood.

"The people in this town don't do such things."

"Isn't... isn't it a bit much to just trust in goodwill?"

Nillia asked cautiously.

She was nervous even speaking to this knight she was meeting for the first time, especially since he seemed incredibly strong.

"It's not about trusting in goodwill. It's because of the town's rules. If a problem occurs in the town, the Wardanaz family is now supposed to send someone to resolve it, but the townspeople usually resolve things on their own before it gets to that point."

Arlong explained as he poured tea from the teapot and sipped it.

While there might not be a town in the empire without its own characteristics and personality, Udamhwa Town had an even stronger character and personality thanks to being closest to the Wardanaz family's territory.

Among the great noble families, especially those with deep history and power, it was common to have rights of trial, taxation, and public order in the surrounding territories.

The Wardanaz family was the same.

"The Wardanaz family protects their subjects with one of the lowest tax rates and safest public order in the empire. As such, the townspeople are deeply grateful. Therefore, the townspeople don't stand by and watch thieves disrupt the order!"

Yi-Han nodded at Arlong's words as if he had heard them several times before, while preparing snacks for his friends.

He had heard the story about the Wardanaz family governing the territory well and the subjects not wanting to cause trouble so many times that it was almost tiresome.

"So the townspeople want to repay as much as the Wardanaz family fulfills their duties."

"That's right. Hoho."

At Arlong's words, all the other friends present looked impressed.

Hearing it like this, it truly seemed like a territory full of beautiful virtues.

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