Vermillion

Kei’s silent, yet overbearing words made Alexei hang his head in silence. Kei could not see his expression as it was hidden behind his right hand.

“…If we abide by the customs…”

Do you think we can act like it didn’t happen?

A small voice reached Kei’s ears. It was a faltering voice that felt afraid and trembled.

“……Haaahhh.”

Finally, accompanied by a long sigh, Alexei looked up to the sky with a lethargic expression. After glaring for some time, his lips tightly pursed, he roughly scratched his head and answered.

“…Got it. I’ll gratefully accept it.”

Alexei quickly nodded as if he had realized something, and then pulled out his clothes from the pile of luggage, silently putting them back on.

It was as if the earlier undressing was played backwards. He put on his pants, shirt, plated leather armor, greaves and gauntlets. He roughly crammed his purse into his pocket, then picked up his sword and shield and put the knapsack on his back.

And with that, Alexei had returned to what he looked like a few minutes ago.

“…”

He awkwardly averted his eyes, scratching the tip of his nose, just to roughly put on his helmet. He was about to pull down his vizor — but stopped and gave a small sigh.

Then, he pulled the hand off the vizor and extended it to Kei.

“—Thank you.”

Kei accepted Alexei’s firm gaze and returned the handshake.

Alexei’s handshake was…strong.

“There is nothing to be thanked for. I simply did as I pleased.”

“…I see.”

With a bitter smile, Alexei shouldered his greatsword once again and turned his back on Kei and Aileen.

“…It was my loss.”

This was the last line he uttered before pulling down his vizor and walking away at a slow, calm pace.

As he continued north, amidst the refreshing early summer wind, his back gradually grew smaller.

And thus, the young man went on a solitary journey, never again turning around.

“…Now then.”

After Kei saw him off, he grabbed Sasuke’s reins and corrected his helmet.

“We should go as well.”

“Yeah.”

Aileen curtly agreed, and jumped on Suzuka. They heard voices from Holland’s group calling for them, seemingly having finished their preparations for departure.

What a farce.

Despite those cynical thoughts, Kei did not feel bad about it for some odd reason.

While sitting atop Sasuke, he glanced back one last time, looking northwards. Then he pulled Sasuke’s head over, heading in the direction of the caravan members.

†††

With them passing through the city gate and receiving their pay at the Cornwell Company’s branch, Kei and Aileen’s work as escorts came to an end.

They had received six small silvers and a few coppers per person, or if you converted it all into copper coins, it would amount to almost 70 coins. That was the wage for their seven days of escorting the caravan as guards.

Considering that one needed three copper coins a day to get by on frugal meals, it was not a bad pay at all. Aileen started using her magic midway, so they added two silvers as a special compensation for the catalysts.

Incidentally, according to Holland, they would even pay medical treatment, depending on the level of the injury, if an escort got seriously injured during their job.

“Man, I’m so glad we’ve got to work with you two! If there’s another chance, I’d love to work with you again!”

“We have to thank you instead. You helped us a great deal.”

“Stay safe, princess!”

“We’ll eventually meet again, but see you until then!”

Dagmar and the rest of the escorts talked about celebrating their last work day with a drink and headed off the moment they received their pay. Can they not live without alcohol? Kei wondered with a wry smile, but he did not overlook Aileen muttering that she wanted to drink some vodka too.

After that, they quickly discussed what to do with the Grande Urs fur, and then left the branch store.

They could expect to sell the fur for a fairly high price if they found someone knowledgeable about pelts, allowing Kei to choose from two options: Wait until such a buyer turned up, or sell it off to the company at a normal price. In the case of the former, it could be sold off for a high price in exchange for having to wait for an indefinite time, but with the latter, he could get the money immediately in exchange for having the price lowered.

According to the information they got in Satyna, the admission fee at Urvan’s library was quite high, so Kei went with selling it on the spot as he needed the money as soon as possible.

“We don’t know how long we’d need to wait after all.”

“Exactly. But the fur of Grande Urs can be turned into fairly good armor if processed properly, right? So it’d also be an option to use it.”

“I’m fine with my current equipment. But if you want it, Aileen, just holler.”

“No, I’m set. Besides, it’s heavy…”

As they were talking, they headed to the inn Holland had recommended to them.

The main street, connecting the common district, was crowded with people as if buried by a flood in the evening hours. Kei saw a girl with shopping, a slave in a simple, black tunic, and a traveler-looking man haggling with a street vendor…

As he proceeded on the road with its neat paving while holding onto Sasuke’s rein, he noticed that the buildings around here were overall taller than those in Satyna and Yulia. Starting with the buildings at the outer edge, near the wall, all of them had at least three stories. Perhaps due to that, this city appeared more advanced than the other cities, despite the fact that it looked medieval.

“I suppose I should expect this much from the capital…”

As he was darting his eyes around like a country bumpkin, they reached their inn. It had a peculiar signboard with a deformed beetle hanging from a beer mug that said “HangedBug”.

They left Sasuke and Suzuka to the maid at the entrance and opened the green entrance door. As a bell rang, they got a glimpse at the interior.

“Oh, good evening.” A young woman greeted them while holding neatly-folded sheets.

She had a well-tanned light-brown skin, shoulder-length flaxen hair which was bound together by a bandana, and a lovely pair of black eyes, looking at them full of curiosity.

“Are you here to dine? Or to stay over?”

“We’d like to book a room.”

“‘Kay. Give me a moment.”

With an amiable smile, the woman disappeared inside the inn, carrying the sheets away. “HangedBug” was a regular inn, meaning it had a bar and dinery on the ground floor. Round tables were lined up in the large room illuminated by lamps, and a middle-aged man was polishing a glass behind a bar counter. He had a muscular build and a ruffled mustache that would make you think he was a dwarf, though that particular race did not exist in the game, and probably not in this world either. Later, Kei found out that Aileen was thinking the same at that moment.

“Hey, sorry for making your wait. Now then…”

As soon as the woman returned, she opened the reception book. Her eyes alternated between Kei and Aileen.

“…Are you fine with a shared room?”

“…Yeah.”

Kei nodded as if it was nothing, trying hard to not get worked up about it. He felt like Aileen’s existence next to him was getting hot and distinct.

“How many days do you plan to stay?”

“We haven’t decided yet, but what’s the minimum amount of time required?”

“I mean, even just one day is fine. But it’d be a bit troubling if you keep extending it day by day. It’ll be a bit cheaper if you book in weeks, though.”

“Is that so? Then let’s go with a week for now.”

“Mhm, ‘kay. Then your room will be #203.”

Kei accepted the key and paid for both the room and the horse feed with a silver coin. “Take your time~” They heard the woman’s voice from behind as they headed upstairs.

Room #203.

It was a snuggly room with a sense of cleanliness. A small table at the window, armchairs with cushions, a wooden chest with a lock, and two beds near the two walls — as Holland had claimed, the quality of the furniture was quite high here compared to other inns. The window was a simple sliding storm shutter, but since it was facing the other side of the street it offered a relatively quiet environment.

“Hurray, a bed!”

Aileen threw her luggage on the floor and dove onto the bed. Unlike the one in Satyna, the beds here had proper padding so the mattress cushioned her body.

“Ahhhh~~~ I’m melting~~~”

“Yeah, we’ve just been sleeping on clothes spread on the ground these past few days.”

Kei also put down his luggage and took a breather. The pleasant firmness of the mattress caused his cheeks to slacken. He enjoyed their travel quite a bit, but continuously sleeping in tents had made his entire body stiff. He was truly happy to be able to sleep on a comfortable bed.

Truly…Happy.

“……”

Before they knew it, the room had fallen silent.

They were currently not in a tent made out of cloth but a tightly sealed room with proper walls and a ceiling — and that emphasized the fact that they were alone now. Even their relaxed emotions brought about by relief, a sense of accomplishment, and exaltation from having reached their goal, spiced up this feeling even further.

Kei tried to silently distract himself from this fact by doing random things such as removing his armor, sorting his luggage, or confirming whether the window shutter worked as intended. But as he racked his head about possible topics, the atmosphere of the room was only getting more and more saturated.

“……”

Running out of things to do, Kei glanced back, and he saw Aileen gazing back at him while hugging a pillow who flinched in response.

“Ah, right.”

As their eyes met, Kei opened his mouth as if he had suddenly remembered something.

“I…I forgot to ask Sir Holland something. Mind if I head out for a bit? It’s just a little something, so I’ll be right back.”

“Ah, well okay? I’ve got no problems with that.”

Aileen blinked in surprise and nodded while hugging her pillow.

“Okay, I’m off then.”

“Sure, leave the key here~”

“There you go.”

He flicked the room’s key with a finger and Aileen caught it skilfully.

“Be careful and see you soon.”

“Yeah, later.”

Kei glanced back at Aileen, who smiled behind him and then returned to relaxing by lying back down again, and left the room.

*step* *step* *step*… Aileen carefully listened to the sound of Kei’s boots gradually growing distant..

Eventually, when she was convinced that Kei had definitely left the inn, Aileen suddenly got up.

“Hmm…”

With hands on her waist, she looked over the room that was neither spacious nor cramped. Then her gaze fell on her luggage in the corner of the room, and she pinched the shirt she wore with her fingers.

“…Okay, let’s change.”

She muttered to no one in particular, and then started rummaging through her things.

†††

————————— End of Part 2 —————————