“Tomorrow will be the third day. I want to stop walking.”
“Is it difficult?”
“No, just boring.”
“We’re almost there.”
“How do you know?”
“How about you learn to read a map?”
Reikart said, extending the map. The place he pointed to with his finger seemed to be the path we were currently on.
“I don’t want to study!”
I shouted boldly.
Even if Reikart considered me pathetic, it didn’t matter. I didn’t come this far to study.
I’ve been living a life worse than a caveman in Marron Castle; only now did I finally start to reach the sweetness of civilization, and now it leads to studying.
I’ve been studying all through elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. You want me to do it again?
“Who said anything about studying? Nevertheless, you ought to be able to read a map at the very least. Look at this. If we continue on this route for just one more day, we will be here.”
“Oh, okay.”
I nodded as Reikart explained. I may not know how to read a map, but I could tell we had walked quite a bit.
“This is our destination.”
Reikart pointed to the scribbled writing with his finger. It read “Production City, Selborne.” It was written in the script commonly used by the Three Kingdoms.
Although Casnatura, Niebe, and Holt used the same script, they are slightly different languages.
The language itself had slightly different accents or pronunciations, but fundamentally, it was the same. Like the difference between American English, British English, and Australian English.
How fortunate it is that they use the same script. If the Three Kingdoms used different languages and scripts, wouldn’t the female leads have had to speak three languages when dating the male leads?
Ah, maybe the male leads just needed to learn the language of the female lead’s country. Anyway,
I glanced at Reikart’s face, then at the writing he was pointing to, and then I asked shamelessly.
“What does this say?”
“Production city, Selborne… Hailey?”
“Huh?”
“What’s this?”
He pointed to the writing again and asked. I shamelessly replied, asking how I was supposed to know.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know how to read?”
“I don’t know how to write either.”
“Hailey….”
His voice was filled with a mix of emotions as he struggled to find words. He seemed confused, disappointed, frustrated, and angry all at once.
So this is what he’s like when sad.
I shook him off with the lie that I was illiterate and turned away, pretending to be oblivious.
Reikart silently folded the map and walked ahead. I casually asked him with a natural tone, facing the back of his head.
“How much further?”
“Almost there.”
Our destination was Selborne, a small town where Reikart briefly stopped before coming to Marron Castle.
With a population of only a few hundred people, it seemed more like a village than a city, but since this wasn’t the crazy 21st century, I decided to call it a city.
“But are there any blacksmiths in Selborne? General stores? Bakeries or clothing stores?”
“I’m not sure about clothing stores, but the rest were all there.”
“I don’t have any clothes in the castle.”
The dress I was wearing now was made roughly from a cloak taken from the knights when I was dragged and locked up in the dungeon.
The first dress I wore became unusable in less than a month. The clothes and fabrics in the castle had been left to age for a hundred years, becoming worn and tattered, making them unwearable. Later, Bellflower made me primitive, tribal-like clothes from tree fibers, which I wore to survive.
Reichardt looked down at me and asked.
“If that Dryad wasn’t around, what would you have done?”
“Don’t say horrible things. She’s mine.”
Even if she leaves on her own, I have no intention of sending her away. That bellflower is mine. We would live happily there together forever.
“When you go to the city, don’t tell people you’re Hailey Marron. People will freak out.”
“Don’t say you’re Reikart Winter either.”
One is an evil witch,and the other is the heir of a fallen family. There would be people who recognized us just by hearing our names, especially me.
“How much further do we have to go?”
It seemed like we had walked for quite a while, yet it was still a lush forest. Reikart glanced at me before silently offering the map and pointing to Selborne twice with his finger.
There should be an inn.
What kind of city is this? It’s just a rural village. I thought there would at least be neat streets bustling with carriages and shops lined up.
Selborne was a rural village in the mountains.
Fortunately, there was an inn. After enduring the contaminated land for several days, we rushed to the inn first, booked a room, and ordered food.
However, as soon as the female innkeeper saw me, her eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand.
Then she shouted, “Are you starving?”
It was a voice full of compassion, as if it were addressing a child suffering from hunger.
“I’m not hungry…”
“You must have been hungry for a long time, so we’ll prepare something easily digestible for you. I will make enough preparations for you.”
Reikart answered on my behalf. The innkeeper looked at us alternately and nodded as if understanding.
“Did this brother save you?”
“I am olde…”
“Oh! There have been so many dreadful incidents around here lately that I was worried, but I didn’t expect to see someone as hungry as you. Just wait a moment. I’ll make something for you right away!”
What’s going on?
The innkeeper hurriedly went into the kitchen. There was an old mirror in the castle, so I knew I had become quite thin over the past year, but was I really pitiful enough to evoke compassion from a stranger?
Reikart handed me the room key.
“After you finish eating, go upstairs and rest. I’ll go out to get what we need.”
“Will you?”
“I have no choice. To haggle over prices or read the writing on the price tag, you need…”
“I’m sorry for being illiterate.”
“When you get back, learn how to read.”
I just laughed.
After we finished eating, Reikart left me at the inn, promising to go out and get things.
I wanted to eat the innkeeper’s dish until my stomach burst because it was so delicious, but I had had enough. After savoring the last piece of meat, I set down my fork and rose from the table.
“Not eating more?”
“Later. Where can I find a blacksmith, a general store, and a clothing store around here? Also, could you tell me where the grocery store and bakery are?”
“This town isn’t very big, so the shops are all in the square across the street. The blacksmith also runs a general store, and the bakery sells groceries as well. As for clothing, there’s no separate store, so people make and wear their own.”
“Then how do they acquire fabrics?”
“Traders come from big cities from time to time.”
It felt both good and not so good.
It seemed good because everything could be resolved nearby without going far, but it also seemed not so good because there might not be many items to obtain.
I asked the innkeeper with a big smile.
“Sis, do you have any extra fabric to sell?”
“We’re an inn, so we have plenty of fabric… but… Isn’t your brother going to buy clothes? I saw him wearing really nice clothes earlier.”
The innkeeper looked at the spot where Reikart had been sitting as if reproaching him.
It was a situation that could be misunderstood. He used to be the heir of a noble family and was dressed in high-quality fabrics with sturdy leather armor, while I was only wearing tattered rags.
I decided to clear up the misunderstanding.
“He’s not my brother.”
“Not your brother?”
“He’s the one who rescued me at the forest entrance. You could say he’s like a savior. I want to show my gratitude before we part ways, but I’m not sure how to do it.”
“Oh, I see.”
The innkeeper smiled and curled her fingers.
“There is nothing in the world better than money.”
“Aha.”
A wise person, I thought, and I held out a gold coin to her.
“Sell me some of your extra fabric. And sewing kit too.”
Glittering and shining, it was indeed a real gold coin. It was from the treasury of Marron Castle, so it was probably a hundred years old, but who cares? Gold works everywhere.
The innkeeper took the coin awkwardly, biting down on it with his teeth. Then, looking at the clearly visible teeth marks, he gasped and took a sharp breath.
“My name is Fatima.”
There was no need to reveal her name. She hurriedly ran to her room and started rummaging through her wardrobe to find clothes that would fit me.
Iiih…
Mana lanjutannya…