22 - Marquis Maron
Episode 22
We managed to escape the border again in just three days and crossed into Nieve.
After working diligently for another half-day, deciding to rest at an inn rather than on the roadside, we finally arrived in front of Grandis, the city we had been aiming for.
Grandis in the Kingdom of Nieve was, unusually, a commercial city developed on a remote border.
It was smaller than a large city but slightly larger than a medium-sized city, and the atmosphere here was very ominous these days. It was because of poachers.
"Well, I'm fine since I'm just an ordinary woman, and if Reikart wears something shabby and a hat... but what about the Lord?"
"Why me?"
"Someone might recognize you."
"I'm going to wear a veil."
"A veil?"
"My original hair is crimson. It's a unique color, so many people know me that way. But look at it now."
"It's jet black. Like a crow."
"Right. So, I need to let my hair down and cover my face."
A veil was perfect. If I bought and wore a hat with a veil, no one would recognize me as Hayley Maron.
Fatima looked at a group of soldiers guarding the city entrance and asked.
"Border guards. What should we say?"
"Say we came to catch a cheating husband."
"Excuse me?"
Fatima was startled and asked again. Reikart seemed dumbfounded and chuckled to himself behind us.
I sighed and continued with a detailed explanation.
"I'm not kidding. Nieve strictly adheres to monogamy. Say we heard that a cheating husband ran away to Grandis with his mistress, so we came to catch him ourselves. Then they'll let us in right away."
This isn't a story I made up on my own. Actually, sometime around this point, the female protagonist used this method when she secretly visited Grandis.
Fatima led the way with a dubious expression.
The soldiers, who were creating a grim atmosphere in front of the gate, looked this way.
"What brings you to Grandis? You're not from the Holt Kingdom, are you?"
"Um... our lady's husband cheated on her and ran away with his mistress, hiding in Grandis. The lady couldn't stand it and came to catch him herself."
"What?"
The soldiers looked at me with dumbfounded faces. I didn't expect to be the protagonist of this scandalous story, so I just blinked blankly.
"No, how could he cheat when he has such a young wife?"
"Who's the man behind you?"
One soldier asked suspiciously.
Reikart was too young and handsome to be someone a wife who came to catch a cheating husband would bring along.
Fatima smiled brightly and said.
"He's our lady's lover."
"Huh?"
"She's going to divorce her husband and remarry him as soon as she confirms the affair. Nieve is monogamous, right? You have to divorce to remarry. Please let us in. We really need to confirm it."
What, I didn't think that far.
This time, I looked at Fatima with a dumbfounded expression. Reikart had already come next to me and was standing very close.
These two are crazy.
"Hahaha! That's right! You have to divorce to remarry! Go on in!"
The soldiers laughed heartily and cleared the way.
Fatima looked at me repeatedly with a proud face even as we entered Grandis. I couldn't get angry at that face, so I just told her she did a good job.
It was annoying that Reikart kept chuckling behind me, though.
As soon as we entered Grandis, we rushed to a clothing store, changed into luxurious clothes, and even bought and wore a noblewoman's hat with a veil.
Then, we went to a jewelry store to have the jewels appraised and exchanged them for cash. The jewelry store owner treated me with utmost courtesy, bending over backward as if I were a noble heiress who had inherited a mine.
We booked the best inn and ate only expensive food. After enjoying a full course with dessert and tea, I thought that people should live in the city after all.
"Bad thoughts, bad thoughts!"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Where's Reikart?"
"He went out for a bit on business."
"There's a rare sight to see, how could he miss it?"
"What is it?"
"'The beginning of summer, a rebellion of Snowbeasts begins in Grandis, a commercial city on the Nieve border.'"
"What is that?"
"It's something. A story I hate."
In the original story, the female protagonist comes to Grandis and meets an assassin called 'Snowbeast Rango.'
The reason he was called Snowbeast Rango was that he was actually abandoned in the mountains near Grandis as a child and raised with white wolves.
Those white wolves were being indiscriminately hunted by poachers these days, and their numbers were rapidly decreasing.
Rango hated humans as much as he loved wolves, so as soon as he heard the rumors of poachers running rampant, he came down to Grandis from the capital.
Then he started killing all those involved.
...that was the story of the novel.
Our precious female protagonist, whom the whole world cherishes, 'coincidentally' learned his story, 'coincidentally' met and saved him, and 'coincidentally' ended up dealing with the poachers.
"Who cares."
It was a story that had nothing to do with me. Even if that amazing assassin repented after that incident and became a priest of the Order, working as a servant under the female protagonist before dying as a disposable extra, it was a story that had nothing to do with me.
"Fatima, let's order one more chocolate cake..."
At that moment, a loud shout was heard from outside the inn.
"A doctor! Call a doctor! Quickly!"
It was a desperate voice. People gathered, murmuring. The inn guests opened their windows one by one and leaned out.
"A man is dying! Bring a doctor, quickly! Are you all just here to watch? What are you doing!"
"What's going on?"
"What do you mean what's going on! Someone's hurt! Bitten by a wolf, no, a bear! Call a doctor first!"
Ah, was it here?
Fatima was so curious that she was fidgeting, so I opened the window for her. Our room was on the second floor, so we could see what was happening outside.
"Save me, please! A doctor, please!"
It was here. Even when booking an inn...
Three or four hunters were collapsed, bleeding profusely. They had come down from the mountain path behind the inn as if rolling down, all with wounds from being bitten by a wild animal.
But no one sympathized with them.
"Get out, you vile Holt poachers! There's no doctor in Grandis who will treat thieves like you!"
"A bear? That's ridiculous! Where's a bear around here!"
"Just die in the mountains! Become wolf food!"
The people of Grandis hated and even despised the Holt poachers. The white wolf was a very precious animal to them.
The number of wolves that could be caught each year was fixed, and only professional hunters were issued licenses. The manager bought the hides at a fair price and sold them to nearby nobles.
To use those precious wolves, which were so carefully managed, to encourage poaching behind the scenes just to appease a wife whose husband had cheated on her. And that too, as a noble of an enemy country.
"We didn't catch anything! Please save us! We couldn't even catch a wild boar, let alone a wolf!"
The youngest hunter pleaded and clung to them. But the experienced merchants of Grandis recognized at a glance that the ornaments hanging from his waist were wolf fangs.
"Snowbeast fangs! Kill those bastards!"
"Just kill them here!"
The anger of the crowd is terrifying. I was watching the scene from the inn window with an indifferent face. It was partly because I wasn't surprised since it was a scene from the novel.
But it seemed to be a very shocking event for Fatima.
"What should we do? There's so much blood. What if those people really die like that?"
"Leave them alone. If you go down and help those guys, you'll be mistaken for being with them and get stoned to death."
"Ah, I guess."
It was the moment Fatima nodded, saying that couldn't be helped.
"Stop it!"
A young man with dark navy hair and a white priest's robe jumped out from the crowd and shielded them.
"God said we must love even sinners. Although these people have wronged Grandis, we must not let them die like this!"
