Chapter 16: Spring Day (3)
Thud-thud-thud.
The tall, white cliffs of Ethelred’s shore.
An old road went next to an unending sea.
Carriages proceeded gently along the grassy route as the spring sun shone brilliantly.
Creak━.
Cain opened a tiny wooden pane in the carriage door.
He chuckled as he leaned out and squinted in the bright sunlight.
“I just picked you up, but I didn’t know you could drive a carriage so well.”
The young squire sitting on the coachman’s seat turned around to scratch the back of his head.
It was Asher, the common knight, who had lent Cain the sword.
His tanned skin showed in the sunlight that filtered through his straw hat.
“My father was a merchant’s driver. He often let me ride alongside him while he was driving an empty carriage.”
“He must have been a good father.”
“…….”
Asher did not respond immediately.
He avoided Cain’s glance, as if disturbed, but responded with an uncertain smile when Cain’s gaze persisted.
“He wasn’t that good. He was a little eccentric at times.”
Thud━.
Cain fixed Asher’s straw hat, which was slightly crooked.
“Well, I guess you can judge that better than me.”
He met Cain’s violet eyes with a hint of curiosity.
Cain’s black hair flew in the sea breeze, and his eyes, which appeared to absorb all the hues of the universe, gave him an odd sensation.
“Usually, when I bring this up, people say, ‘He’s your father, so you should speak well of him’……”
“That’s Cloyd, right?”
Asher smiled.
It was sometimes nice to know that the other person understood what you were thinking, even if you didn’t respond.
Cain clicked his tongue.
“That guy is so soft-hearted, yet surprisingly stubborn. He’s too old-fashioned.”
“Please don’t hate the commander too much. He’s trying his best for Ethelred.”
“Tsk. He has good subordinates. I don’t hate Cloyd. I don’t.”
Cain turned his head away.
He could see a small fishing community at the end of the road where the horses were headed, as well as the flat, blue sea beyond the horizon.
And then there’s the northern coast from here.
The landscape is harsh and impenetrable, even from the cliffs above.
A place where no one could reside.
Ethelred, the closest territory to the continent in the kingdom, but unable to trade. Being a count’s fief, was more backward than a baron’s fief.
7-Star Dungeon in Ireland.
It was where Edmund, the strongest swordsman in Airian and the Count of Ethelred, had gone alone.
Cain opened his mouth.
“Asher.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Not all children get along with their parents.”
“……!”
“That’s because they’re human. And that’s what adults are.”
Asher was momentarily breathless.
Cain’s casually thrown words pierced his heart deeply.
Cain was a few years younger than him, but at the time, he felt like he was staring at an older brother.
Cain chuckled as he closed the door, but then murmured through the crack.
“I don’t know if your father is a good man, but I know you’re a good knight.”
Creak━Thump.
The wooden window on the coachman’s seat closed.
Just a small amount of relief.
A small portion of the frozen lump in his chest that he had been unable to remove had thawed away.
The melting fragment.
“My eyes hurt so much…….”
It prompted Asher to wipe his eyes with his sleeve.
The knight didn’t want his master to witness his tears.
🔹🔹🔹
Inside the carriage.
The carriage was small enough to fit on the narrow route above the cliff, but the inside was cramped.
The luggage was stowed under the seats and in the back, although part of it had to be stored inside.
That meant fewer people.
“You can say nice things, too.”
Princess Oleciren sat across from Cain.
She had been dressed like a princess in the Count’s castle, but now she looked like an adventurer who roamed the quest shops in the area.
“I just said what I thought.”
Cain shrugged.
On the front lines of the snowfields, a diverse crowd assembled.
Of course, everyone had a narrative and carried a sword.
Those words were natural to Cain, who had been around those kinds of people for ten years.
“That’s not very noble.”
Oleciren grinned softly.
“If you said that in a social circle in the royal capital, they would immediately start a fight, saying you were insulting their family.”
“Even if you mean it in a good way, they’ll always twist it around.”
“Well…….”
Cain trailed off.
He never anticipated he’d be able to chat with Oleciren so freely.
He had come to realize she was a good person and a good woman, but the image he had of her from his previous life was so vivid that his words were barbed.
“Have you ever been to a debutante?”
Debutante.
A social gathering and battlefield that noblewomen held on their eighteenth birthday.
It wasn’t just a normal birthday party; it was also quite competitive, and Cain felt like he was on a battlefield because he had to join and endure the fighting among the aristocrats.
“Of course not. Who would send a debutante invitation to a successor from a rural territory like this?”
“Even if they are marquises, it’s a count’s territory, one of only five, so you’ve never been?”
Cain’s eyes shifted upward.
It was a memory from long ago, and he wasn’t in a position to care about such things back then, so he couldn’t remember.
“No.”
“I went often because I’m a princess, though?”
“Incre━dible.”
Cain’s snarky response.
Oleciren glanced out the carriage window at the little sea, unconcerned by her status as a princess or witch.
“They dress up in fancy clothes, speak in unnecessary formality, and pump out their chests, both men and women. They call that kind of thing noble.”
Cain’s eyes moved slightly.
He understood why Oleciren was saying this.
“So you’re saying I’m not noble.”
“You sure know how to turn a compliment around.”