Childhood Friend - Memories
Lena and Leo left Torito early.
Lena wanted to look around the big town she was visiting for the first time, but she packed her bags without a word after hearing Leo’s words, “There’s more to see at the lord’s castle. And it’s a half-day walk, so we have to leave early.”
On the way, Lena chattered excitedly as if she were possessed by a playful spirit.
“The road here is paved halfway!”, “Wow! Look at that carriage! Are those mercenaries next to it?” She couldn’t hide her amazement.
They were exclamations he had already heard, but Leo smiled happily. How frustrating it must have been for her to live in a remote village, suppressing her boundless curiosity.
The only way she could satisfy her curiosity was to listen to the priest’s stories or read books.
‘Should we take it easy on this trip?’
He had to get to the Jerom Holy Kingdom quickly and meet the prince… but it broke his heart to see Lena so happy.
If she became a princess, she wouldn’t be able to wander around like this.
As a princess, she would be cared for in ways commoners couldn’t even imagine, but she wouldn’t be able to live this freely.
Leo calculated the dates again in his head.
It would take about five months to get to Lutetia, and if it took a few months to find the prince and create a connection between him and Lena…
He had at least a year to spare.
Lena would love to travel freely during that time.
However, a counterargument quickly followed.
‘No, no. We don’t have the money for that, and honestly, the sooner the marriage to the prince, the better. We don’t know what will happen when we get to Lutetia.’
Time constraints were always a major issue in every scenario.
Even if he wanted to match Lena’s marriageable age, the limit was three years at the latest.
Considering the time it would take to travel across this vast continent, even those three years were not nearly enough. At best, they could move twice and try something at their destination.
As he was pondering, Lena looked at the vast plain and asked, “That’s the horizon, right?”
The horizon, where the distant plain met the sky, was interspersed with mountains and mountain ranges, so he wasn’t sure if it was right to call it a ‘line,’ but Leo asked her back if she didn’t think so.
“Amazing!”
Lena smiled brightly, as if she hadn’t really wanted a perfect answer.
At the sight, Leo’s face fell.
‘Lena likes this so much…’
But there was nothing he could do. He thought, ‘It’ll take five months just to get there, that should be enough. Let’s help her see a lot of things during that time,’ and let go of his lingering attachment.
And as dusk fell on the jagged horizon, they arrived at the lord’s castle.
They didn’t know much about the outside world in the small and isolated village of Demos, so they just called this place the ‘lord’s castle,’ but when they actually came here, it was a city of considerable size.
In that city called ‘Bospo,’ Lena and Leo found lodging.
The two chatted happily, rubbing their feet, tired from walking all day.
* * *
The next day, the two headed to the lord’s castle.
“Leo. There are so many people here. Are you sure our turn will come?”
“Of course it will. We should have come a little earlier. It’s going to be a long wait.”
Lena and Leo were standing in a long queue, waiting their turn. They never imagined there would be so many people.
The lord’s castle opened its main gate early in the morning and opened a window to receive complaints.
The lord’s castle, which handled both judicial and administrative matters, had a mountain of work to do, and it was Leo’s mistake to think of Avril Castle in the Engagement scenario.
This was because there was no one waiting when Leo Dexter went to Avril Castle to fill out the paperwork to volunteer for the {war}.
That was to be expected, since most of the people living in Avril Castle were from the Einar tribe, so they usually resolved minor complaints on their own or by complaining to the chieftain.
Moreover, Avril Castle was a castle with a strong military purpose, so there weren’t as many merchants as in ‘Bospo.’
Bospo, on the other hand, was a city in charge of trade between the kingdom to the south and the Conrad Kingdom.
Merchants who passed through the gates would stop by this place near the border first, and then either leave after selling their goods or scatter in all directions from here.
So, from early in the morning, merchants flocked to the lord’s castle, pouring out their complaints, “I’m here to get a gate pass,” or “I bought some goods from over there, but they were rotten, so I’m here to report them,” and so on.
Fortunately, the queue shortened quickly thanks to the castle assigning over thirty officials to the windows.
Lena and Leo reached the window when it was their turn. The official at the window was busy shuffling through the documents on his messy desk.
He asked without looking up.
“What brings you here?”
“We’re on our way to the Holy Cross Church to become priests. We’re here to get permission to leave the domain.”
“Do you have anything to prove it?”
“Yes, here. The priest of Demos Village said he put his seal on the letter. He said this would be enough…”
“Demos Village? Demos Village is… let’s see…”
The official picked up another document and scanned it for a while before confirming the name “Demos Village” attached to the end of the document.
‘There’s a church even in a small village like this?’
He compared the seal on the letter with the documents covered in seals and looked up.
“Yes, I will issue you a permit. But are you two traveling together? The one who wants to be a priest, is it this young man? The letter says the name is Lena.”
At the official’s question, Leo shook his head.
“No. This friend of mine is the one leaving. I’m just accompanying her.”
The official, seemingly surprised for a moment, looked Lena up and down. A female priest?
And then he continued.
“Hmm- I will issue you a pass… but actually, there is a mobilization order right now. I hate to tell you this, but pretty young ladies have to work at the lord’s castle for a few months.”
“Huh?”
“It seems the order hasn’t reached Demos Village yet, so it’s not a mandatory request…”
The official explained the situation. In a nutshell, it was this.
A distinguished guest from the Conrad Kingdom would be arriving soon, and since the guest was scheduled to meet with the daughter of the Lord of Gaidan, they were gathering all the pretty young ladies to work as maids.
Actually, although this place was called the ‘lord’s castle,’ it wasn’t actually where the Lord of Gaidan or his family resided, so there were no maids working here.
‘Another headache…’ Leo thought as he scratched his head. Was this an {event} too?
“You will be paid sufficiently. This is something Lord Gaidan is paying close attention to…”
“I’m sorry, but we have a long way to go…”
“I’ll do it! Leo! I want to do this.”
Leo was about to refuse, but Lena cut in.
“How much do you pay?”
“You will be paid fifteen silver coins a day. And of course, room and board will be provided by the lord’s castle.”
Fifteen silver coins in the capital wouldn’t leave much after buying three meals a day, but in the countryside like this, it was definitely a generous wage.
“Wow… This is a lot, right? Leo, I want to do this. Please?”
“Lena! You have to go quickly if you want to be a priest.”
“But…”
Lena said, taking out a thin bundle of money from her pocket.
“Mom and Dad gave me all their money. It’s going to be a tough winter for them… Can’t I earn some money here and send it to them before I go? Please? Leooo.”
Leo was speechless at her words. He had no idea Lena was thinking like this.
She hadn’t said anything like this when they were heading to Nebis before. Back then, it seemed like she had resigned herself to the fact that there was no opportunity to make money near her hometown.
But they had to get to the Jerom Holy Kingdom quickly…
As he hesitated, a merchant behind him urged, “Hey, hurry up and move along!”
Lena also pleaded, “The priest said it doesn’t matter if I’m late or early, as long as I arrive. So, a few months…” He couldn’t help but agree.
There was no way he could refuse when Lena pleaded with her hands clasped around the bundle of money, “Please? Please?”
Moreover, she wasn’t even going to use it herself, but send it to her parents…
‘It’s really hard to make a princess.’
While grumbling to himself, Leo began to ask the official detailed questions.
Where would Lena sleep? What kind of work would she do? Would it be hard?
The merchant who had been urging them from behind had to wait a long time.
* * *
That day, Lena and Leo entered the lord’s castle as a maid and a servant, respectively.
Leo wondered if he should do something else while Lena was working, but he was going to leave for the Jerom Holy Kingdom in a few months anyway.
There was nothing much he could do in that short time, so he asked the official and got himself a servant’s position.
Perhaps gathering pretty young ladies was a difficult task, as the official readily agreed and even issued him a pass to the Jerom Holy Kingdom in advance.
Guided inside the lord’s castle, Lena and Leo stood before a young maid leader with a sharp impression.
“You come this way, and you go to the servants’ quarters over there.”
With those swift and high-pitched words, Lena disappeared, following the maid leader.
Naturally, the maids’ and servants’ quarters were separate.
Lena was given a room in the corner of the lord’s castle, while Leo was assigned a place in the quarters next to the stables.
Such was the life of commoners…
The servants’ quarters were a complete mess.
The floor was dirt, and clothes and bedding were strewn about haphazardly. Beds? Such things were not given to servants.
Leo frowned as he looked around the quarters.
A musty and unpleasant smell permeated the air, as expected of a room packed with men.
‘Here comes another period of hardship.’
He was slowly becoming accustomed to a life of hard labor.
The Beggar Siblings scenario had the most financially difficult circumstances, and he had to raise his younger sibling, so he couldn’t avoid working for a living.
The atmosphere in Demos Village, where everyone took it for granted to work diligently, meant he had to work every single day in this Childhood Friend scenario as well.
The Engagement Relationship scenario was the only one where he had some leeway, but even then, he was sweating every day from swordsmanship training.
Grumbling, Leo tidied up his assigned spot.
At that moment,
“Hey, newbie? You should greet us when you arrive.”
Servants covered in dirt, as if they had just finished work, entered the quarters and approached Leo.
‘…This isn’t going to be easy.’
Leo got up from his spot and exchanged names with them. There was a brief period of tension, sizing each other up, and asking about backgrounds.
It wasn’t that they had any ill intentions towards Leo.
It was just a common dominance display among males when they met someone new, and in a nicer way, it could be interpreted as a gesture of wanting to get along well in the future.
‘How bothersome.’
He was a bit annoyed that he had to start building unnecessary relationships when he was only going to work for a few months and leave, but he decided to endure it.
The servants who were trying to act tough in front of him were no match for him, but Leo wasn’t a psychopath who would hit someone first and ask questions later.
The reason he had entered as a servant like this, despite having the ability of a knight-level {Swordsmanship.2v}, was to kill some time while waiting for Lena.
If he joined as a knight or a mercenary, he would inevitably be tied down…
The servants surrounding Leo, unaware that they were showing off in front of a tiger, liked his docile attitude.
However, as the saying goes, a goose egg stands out in a basket of chicken eggs. Compared to the other servants, Leo, with his relatively diverse abilities, stood out even when he tried to hide it.
He was a young man with strong legs from climbing mountains, and when fights broke out occasionally during the servants’ drinking parties, he would pin down the rowdy servant.
As a result, in just a week, Leo had subtly become the leader of the servants. The butler, perhaps recognizing Leo’s sincerity, entrusted him with various tasks.
And then Lena began to look at Leo suspiciously again. The Leo she knew was not the type of person to be anyone’s leader.
Like his father, he always kept a certain distance from people. Except for Lena, of course.
He used to work with the young men of the village, but he was only diligent in his own work and didn’t form groups with others.
To put it in a metaphor, Leo was a lone wolf, not the alpha leading a pack.
His way of speaking had changed, his habits had disappeared, and his relationships had transformed. Every time she saw him hanging out with the servants, her suspicions grew, and Lena finally asked the question.
“Leo, do you remember what we caught in the spring two years ago?”
What she asked about was a memory that the real Leo would know immediately.
I don't understand, why did she ended up suspecting him in this turn ?
ReplyDeleteDue to slow synchronisation, its more Minseo than Leo currently
DeleteShoot. I suppose the higher synchronisation rate was like that for a reason.
ReplyDelete