When the Main Protagonists Broke Up

The carriage ran and ran through the capital, Harn, and arrived at Peorat, a village on the outskirts.

The country I live in, called Baltheus, was a huge empire in the center of the continent, and the capital was also very large, like a large land mass.

So, after running all day in a carriage, I finally got out of the capital and arrived at Peorat.

As the sun went down, we decided that it was impossible to run any longer, so we decided to take a day off at the inn and set off tomorrow morning.

After a while, the carriage stopped in front of the inn, which at a glance looked quite luxurious.

I dragged my exhausted body inside and went inside.

I’ve never been to another inn, but it wasn’t crowded or noisy, probably because it was an expensive place.

I went up the stairs and passed through a long hallway and came into the room where I will be staying for the day.

The room, much smaller than my room at the duke’s residence, was filled with simple necessities, including a bed, table, chair, and bathroom.

Mary came in after me and helped tidy up.

“Are you hungry? I’ll bring the meal soon, so please wait a little bit.”

I said that and left, and soon came back with food.

“Let’s eat together.”

“No! I’ll go down and eat, so enjoy yourselves.”

I asked Mary to eat with me, but she stubbornly refused.

I sat down at the table without saying anything more.

“My lady, the festival in this town starts today, right?”

“Okay?”

“Yes. That’s why the road we passed earlier was noisy with festivals.”

It’s a festival….

I don’t think Mary mentioned the festival for nothing, so I narrowed my eyes and looked at her.

“Do you want to see the festival?”

“Yes? no. There’s a long way to go, but you don’t have time to delay here.”

“Not necessarily.”

At my words, her expression immediately brightened.

Looking at Mary’s expectant face, I thought for a moment before opening my mouth.

“Can we stay here for another day or two?”

“Can I?”

“I don’t think it would be bad to enjoy the festival.”

“Wow, that’s great. Thank you, lady!”

Seeing Mary liked it made me feel good too.

If you think about it, there was a lot of time ahead.

My parents didn’t ask me to come and go with a deadline, so enjoying the festival for a few days here didn’t interfere with my schedule.

“Then I will tell Sir William!”

“Okay.”

After that, Mary confirmed that I was holding a spoon and immediately left the room.

After looking at her back, I started eating because I was very hungry.

Food wasn’t bad.

It’s not as good as eating at home, but it wasn’t to the extent that I couldn’t eat it, so I scraped it off because the market was a side dish.

After eating, I went to bed right away feeling tired, but for some reason, I couldn’t sleep easily because I had many thoughts at the same time.

So I left the room to look around outside for a while to digest.

Retracing the same way we came earlier, we went down the stairs and came across a restaurant/bar operated by the inn.

People were eating there.

And among them were two faces I knew.

It was Mary and William.

They were eating together.

However, I watched from a little distance, but somehow the atmosphere of the two people was not unusual.

‘Aha.’

So it was.

Even though I asked Mary to have dinner with her earlier, she vehemently refused, citing reasons such as that nobles and commoners should never sit sick together.

Perhaps he was interested in a knight named William and wanted to dine with him.

It seemed like we were going to have a meal together anyway, even though I was told that I would be staying here for a few days.

Originally, he was going to ask Mary to go out with him, but in this situation, there was no need to take her out. 

Rather, it was more comfortable to go out alone.

So I sneaked out of the inn without disturbing the two of them.

The front of the inn was very quiet.

It seemed to be quite far from downtown.

As I walked through the alleys to go to the main street, the more I stepped, the more people’s voices began to grow louder.

For the past six months, I had been going back and forth between Duke Heitz’s residence and Maxius’s residence for my goals, and I had no time to know what kind of world this place was.

I slowed my pace for a moment and fiddled with the inside pocket.

It was to make sure I had enough money. The gold coins that were clumped together in her hand were caught in thick piles.

‘Is this enough?’

After I figured out how much money I had, I dug into people.

* * *

The shopping street was dazzling due to the festival.

Even though it was late in the evening, many people were out on the streets and enjoying the festival.

I was looking around and thinking about where to go first, but then something delicious made my sense of smell excited.

I hurried my steps in the direction of the smell.

Then, a large brazier appeared in front of them, and various skewers were being grilled on it, giving off a delicious smell.

‘Wow, that sounds delicious.’

Even though it hadn’t been long since I had eaten dinner, the stifling smell made my mouth water.

First of all, I went near the furnace and scanned each one with my eyes to see what they were.

‘Meat, potatoes, corn, sausage…?’

There were many more, but that was all I could make out.

“Which one would you like?”

The owner asked me as I was thinking about what to eat.

“Uh…. One sausage, please.”

“Yes, I understand. Here we are.”

The owner handed me a sausage on a thin wooden skewer. I took the sausage and rummaged through the money pocket with one hand.

“How much is it?”

“During the festival, we are giving it away for free.”

“Is it free?”

How can such delicious food be free? ….

At the word free, I took a quick look around.

Come to think of it, no one paid and was taking the food casually.

“Porta Devia.”

“Yes?”

While I was looking around like that, I suddenly heard something I couldn’t understand, so I looked at the owner with a puzzled expression and asked again.

“Seeing that you don’t know this word, you are a foreigner.”

The owner smiled benevolently and suddenly said to me.

“Yes that’s right.”

“Porta Devia is a word that is passed down only in our village and means ‘Today is the happiest day of my life’.”

“For… Tadbia?”

“Yes, that’s right. Porta Devia. Throughout the festival, people live with these words in their mouths.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Then I’m busy. Porta Devia.”

“Porta, Devia.”

As soon as I replied in the same way, the host gave me a warm smile once more.

And, as if he was really busy, he turned around and quickly went to someone else.

I stood still for a moment with a puzzled look on my face, then turned around to leave.

The sausage was as delicious as it smelled.

I couldn’t tell what was inside, but the ingredients and seasonings went well together.

After filling my stomach with sausage, I looked around the streets again.

The streets were selling a lot more variety than expected.

Not only clothes and groceries, but also flowers and jewelry were sold, so just looking at them was full of joy.

After wandering around, it was not very different from the places I knew, so I felt both strange and relieved.

In the midst of walking around the streets like that, I found a lot of people gathered in the corner. 

Judging from the fact that it was surrounded by a circular shape, there was no doubt that some kind of performance was being held inside it.

Curious about what kind of performance it might be, I dug carefully between the crowds.

As my eyesight opened, I realized that the people who were gathering my attention inside were the circus troupe.

In the circle, some people were performing tricks, and some people were paying spectators to perform.

However, among them, there was one who drew the most attention, and it was a young boy.

The child was riding a tightrope on top of a single rope, and at a glance he looked very uneasy.

Above all, a pit of fire was made underneath to give a dramatic tension, so the child could fall into the pit if he stumbled even a little.

‘It’s too dangerous.’

The child’s expression, looking up, was full of fear.

He looked so inexperienced that it was clear he hadn’t tried tightrope walking a few times, or hadn’t done it at all.

Unknowingly, I was watching the child walk the tightrope with a frown due to nervousness and displeasure, but at the moment, the child really stumbled.

“Oooh!”

“Oh!”

Fortunately, the child’s reflexes were not bad, and the child was immediately attached to the rope.

I let out a sigh of relief and returned my attention to the child.

However, it was clear that the child’s whole body was shaking, as if the fact that he almost fell once had brought fear.

“What? No fun.”

“Hurry up!”

“Isn’t this circus properly trained?”

“No way! It’s so bad.”

At first, people thought that the stumbling scene was part of the direction to make the performance fun.

However, after the child could not find his place for several minutes, the reaction did not improve and the intestines began to stir.

“Hey you bastard! Won’t you wake up?!”

And then the man on my side, who seemed to be one of the circus troupes, cursed at the child and screamed.

Despite the man’s threats, the child was just hanging on the rope, trying hard not to fall.

“Oops, I’m sorry. Sorry. I’m a new kid, but I’m still not good at walking on a tightrope.”

“Then why are you not ready…!”

“Sorry. There are many more fun things left, so let’s relax.”

However, despite each apologizing to the complainers, no one in the circus troupe thought of taking the child off the line.

As time passed and people’s attention shifted away from him, I continued to watch him.

The child clung to the rope, clinging tightly to it, and that seemed to be the limit.

I couldn’t afford to hold on anymore, so I could see the strength in my hands getting weaker.

I quickly shouted at the circus people.

“The child is about to fall!”

“Leave it. You have to be treated badly so you don’t do stupid things like that later.”

“I beg your pardon?”

I looked at the person who said it with an absurd and absurd expression.

But he just went on with his business and paid no attention to the child.

‘It’s a big deal.’

A little more and the child will fall into the fire.

Even if it was not high enough to die, the fire could cause serious burns.

I hurriedly hid my hands behind my dress and moved them to concentrate.

‘Please, don’t be late.’

Above all, I had to turn off the lights without people noticing, so I needed to concentrate more than usual.

I exercised my strength cautiously.

“Ugh, he’s falling!”

At the same time as someone shouted, the child fell into the pit where the fire should have been burning.

But fortunately, I must have timed it right, and the child fell into an unlit pit with a thud.

As the child fell, a member of the circus troupe approached nearby.

“What, why did the light go out? hey! The lights are out here!”

“What? Did the lights go out?”

It was so strange.

They didn’t care if the child was okay or not, they just cared about the light being off.

I was about to say something about their unreasonable behavior, but a child was creeping out of the pit.

I hurriedly tried to talk to the child if he was okay.

However, a large man who had not been seen before suddenly appeared and took the child with his ignorant hands and disappeared somewhere.

I shook my head, not wanting to be here any longer, and hurried out of the crowd of onlookers.

But it was about the time when I had just gotten out of the crowd and was breathing.

My eyes were blocked by something, and I could tell that it was a person by the hand that held me back.

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

The man who came to his senses and looked up had a tall, slender appearance, but his apologetic voice was also charming with a low resonance.

“Yes I’m okay.”

“Are there any injuries?”

“It’s okay.”

When the man looked at me with a rather worried look, I repeatedly said that it was okay out of pressure.

Then the man seemed to feel relieved, and the hand holding me fell off.

“Then. Porta Devia.”

These were the words I heard from the owner who was distributing the skewers earlier. 

This man seemed to be from this village. 

“Porta Devia….”

When I returned the same words that I now know, the man smiled slightly and moved further away from me.

I looked at his back for a second and then started on my way again.

The festival was getting more and more fun.

But now it was time to go back.

Thinking that Mary and William might be looking for me, I hurriedly stepped out of the festive street and into an alley.

When I left the noisy place, the surroundings became quiet.

Somehow I liked the cool night air and the quiet street, so I slowed down my steps a bit.

It was then.

I was walking down a dark alley, humming a song and enjoying the excitement, when I heard a dull sound from somewhere and a weak

moaning sound soaked in pain. 

‘What?’

Carefully approaching the sound, I soon saw two men gathered in a corner alley.

Upon closer inspection, among the men, a child was crouching on the floor, receiving violent kicks.

‘That child…!’

I knew the child’s face.

The child was a tightrope walker at the circus earlier.

And the men were familiar too.

It was the tall man who had taken the child earlier and the short man who had briefly chatted.

I’m not a person with a strong sense of justice, but the child was an exception.

Regardless of the reason, I couldn’t just go over it even after seeing them assaulting a child who was not an adult.

I strode right up to them.

“What are you guys doing?”

The sudden voice drew the men’s attention to me.

“What?”

Among them, the tall man who dragged the child away quickly glanced at me, then looked at me with a sly look and said,

“Looks like an aristocratic lady, so don’t worry and go on your way.”

The man laughed mischievously in a snarky tone.

It seemed to mean what you could do.

“Honey, are you okay?”

“Oh, hey, go on your way. Who are you to intervene in other people’s household affairs?”

“Are you guys from the circus troupe that was performing over there earlier?”

“You must have been a visitor to our circus. You’re right. That’s right. Then, as you may have seen earlier, this guy was not very good at walking on a tightrope, so he was being disciplined separately.”

“Isn’t that assault under the guise of discipline?”

“Assault?! You talk too much!”

The short man jumped up with a displeased expression at my words. But to me, the child curled up on the floor, moaning in pain, caught my eye first.

At that moment, I met the eyes of the child who barely lifted his head slightly.

‘Ah….’

I felt like I was out of breath for a moment, and at the same time I cried.

Those eyes were eyes I knew.

The image that only a person left alone in the world could know, that he had seen every time he looked in the mirror, overlapped with the child.

So it must have been.

Unknowingly, the words I had been thinking about spontaneously came out of my mouth.

“I will take that child.”

“Yes?”

“This child is a valuable asset to our circus troupe. I can never give it up.”

“Property?”

“Yes that’s right.”

The man who said people were property responded to me with a dignified attitude.

“Who would just give away their property?”

“You’re right. I don’t know if you can give me some money. Hehe.”

The two men agreed to each other’s words, and said with an air of meaning as if they were asking for money.

Buying people with money was beyond my understanding.

But he knew that this was a world where slave markets existed. That’s why they say that they buy and sell people for money without hesitation.

“Then I will buy it.”

“Are you buying this kid?”

Instead of answering, I nodded.

When I said that I was buying a child, the faces of the two men instantly lit up.

Then, they went to a corner and chatted among themselves about how much they should be paid for this child, and quickly returned to me.

“Hmm. I will take 20 gold coins.”

“Twenty gold coins?”

“Yes. Ahem, this child had a very promising future, so we areselling at a loss. That’s why it can’t go below that.”

To be hopeful….

I saw earlier that he couldn’t even ride the rope properly, but the man was blatantly lying.

But I took 20 gold coins out of my pocket and handed them to the man.

I don’t know exactly how much 20 gold coins are worth here.

Even when I was looking around the streets earlier, I didn’t buy anything in particular, so I couldn’t tell.

However, I had several times the amount of twenty gold coins in my pocket, and more than anything, I did not want to see him bargaining with his life in front of the child.

So I readily gave them the gold coins.

I could feel their eyes fixed on my money bag.

I quickly opened the pocket and tucked it under my clothes.

“So the calculations are over?”

“Yes yes. Whether there is hey! wake up! He is your new master. Say hello.”

A large man treated the child harshly and tried to raise him up.

“Stop.”

“Yes?”

“Now this child belongs to me. So don’t touch a single hair.”

“Yes? Ah yes….”

At my words, the men hurriedly backed away.

I approached the child cautiously.

“Will you wake up carefully?”

Contrary to the blunt and cold attitude she used to treat men, her soft voice came out when she faced Ai.

I held out my hand to the child and he stared at my hand.

“Come with me.”

“….”

But the child still did not respond or move.

“Hey you bastard! Japanese-!”

When I coldly glared at the short man who was recklessly cursing at me despite being warned not to touch the child, the man immediately shut up.

“Let’s go.”

To break the child’s guard, I smiled slightly.

And as if it worked, the child finally reached out his fern-like hand and took my hand.

“Thank you.”

I thanked the child for holding my hand and gave my strength to raise the child up.

Up close, the child seemed to be about twelve years old.

Little by little, I turned around, but the two men were still staring at us.

“Aren’t you going?”