CHAPTER 28 p13
In the end, with Nelly’s mediation, all the healing items from the loot were forced on Kal, the experience crystals were split between the two of them, and the new armor and sword went to Melissa.
After all that, the sky had completely darkened. Fortunately, they were not far from the post station. They walked along the increasingly flat road, and after Mars and Venus had completely sunk below the horizon, the three of them finally saw a warm light.
After submitting the quest to the inn’s stable boy, Melissa dragged her exhausted feet into the post station, a rare look of fatigue on her face. She rubbed her face and made a gesture to the innkeeper who had come to greet them. “Just bring three hot meals. Some ale would be even better.”
But Kal pulled his hood down, broke free, and turned to walk upstairs. “I don’t need any.”
Although his steps were a little unsteady as he went upstairs, he walked quickly. Before Melissa could stop him, he had disappeared at the top of the stairs.
Melissa slammed her forehead on the table in frustration. “Ugh… he must hate me now.”
Nelly comforted her drily, “Doesn’t he hate me more?”
Melissa turned her face to the side and sighed. “Am I really the hero chosen by the goddess? So weak, and I even drag my companions down. I’m completely useless.”
“No, you’re not. Melissa is very good at taking care of people, and your combat skills are improving every day. You’re definitely not useless.”
Hearing this, Melissa gave a bitter smile that didn’t match her personality. “I guess so.”
At that moment, the inn waiter brought over a steaming cabbage stew and warm ale.
Melissa immediately perked up. She took a few bites and asked Nelly indistinctly, “This is delicious. You should eat, Nelly.”
“Mhm.” Nelly absentmindedly scooped up a spoonful of stew and swallowed it without paying attention to the taste.
Melissa’s eyes flickered as she looked at her a few times, then she said hesitantly, “Um… I really don’t have the face to see Kal again. Could Nelly bring dinner to him?”
“You should go. He won’t let you in his room anyway.”
“B-but even if it’s just a brief meeting at the door, I really…”
Unable to resist Melissa’s whining pleas, Nelly was soon carrying a tray upstairs. After a moment’s hesitation, she knocked on the door at the corner of the second floor of the inn.
After a moment of silence, the door was slowly pulled open a crack.
“I’m here to bring dinner.” Nelly met the red eyes peeking out from the crack in the door and, for some reason, became nervous.
With a creak, the door was pulled open a little wider. Kal silently took the tray and quickly retreated behind the door, making a gesture as if to close it.
“Um… thank you, really.” The words slipped out, and Nelly bit her lip in embarrassment.
The movement of the narrowing crack in the door slowed, but it still closed.
Nelly let out a long breath, rubbed her brow, and turned to walk back to her room.
After a long, tiring day, Nelly quickly fell asleep.
She dreamed of someone. The dream was bitter, and when she woke up, her pillow was wet.
The next day, for a change, Melissa didn’t get up at the crack of dawn. Instead, she waited until the sun had risen before setting out. It was obvious that she was concerned about Kal’s physical condition.
After a simple breakfast, Melissa’s party set off on the road to Canossa again.
The journey was uneventful. After using the experience crystals from yesterday’s reward to level up twice, Melissa’s fighting became much smoother. After dealing with some small monsters like country bandits and demonized sheep, they finally saw the continuous city walls at sunset.
Nafaray was one of the few domains in Wildia that relied on water trade. The coastal and riverside cities had all been preserved after the fall of the old empire. The marquisate’s main city, Canossa, was the second-largest trade center outside the southern Thousand Islands. Handicrafts and spices from the south were continuously transported here, and ships loaded with timber and precious metals from the northern part of the continent set sail from here. The city of Canossa, built near the mouth of the Casa River, was ancient and magnificent. The albatross on the gilded family crest on the city gate held its head high, its spread white wings below a full-sailed merchant ship and the water spray symbolizing the goddess.
Although it was spring, when the coast was breaking up, Canossa seemed quite deserted. There were few carts and horses entering and exiting the city gates. Looking out toward the sea, one could only see a large number of white sails moored in the harbor, with no ships coming or going. This miserable state was naturally the work of the Demon King—the current Canossa was just a besieged city struggling under the Demon King’s tyranny. Even its proud fleet had been destroyed by thirty percent in the great waves raised by the Demon King, and transportation with the other domains had been almost completely cut off.
Melissa’s playful demeanor from the journey was gone, and her expression became serious.
After reporting to the guards at the gate, the three of them entered the city without any hindrance. The ground floors of the two-story stone houses along the streets of Canossa had originally been home to various shops, but now most of them were closed. As far as the eye could see, there were only beggars and miserable-looking vagrants wandering around, making the scene even more desolate. After a short walk up the winding road, the spires of the main city’s castle appeared behind the clustered residential rooftops.
“Alright!” Melissa clenched her fist and silently encouraged herself, but she didn’t forget to turn around and ask Kal, “Do you want to rest for a bit?”
The mage’s pride was clearly hurt by this question. The white-haired young man’s lips tightened, and he refused in a flat voice, “No need.”
Melissa scratched her hair and gave a few awkward laughs. “Then let’s go for an audience with the Lord Marquis directly.”
Canossa Castle was built on an island formed by a natural river channel. From the eastern curtain wall, one could directly look out at the magnificent waves at the mouth of the river. Below the high, gray walls was a moat, connected by a drawbridge, with tall, circular arrow towers at each of the four corners, making it easy to defend in an emergency.
A knight was already waiting for the hero’s party at the castle’s drawbridge. He gave an elegant bow. “The Lord Marquis has been waiting for a long time. Please follow me, Your Excellency.”
Melissa straightened her sword and walked across the drawbridge with her head held high, passed through the high, deep gateway, and entered the castle’s courtyard.
The sound of blacksmiths forging weapons and the noise from the stables immediately rushed toward them. In stark contrast to the deserted city, Canossa Castle was a bustling scene of war preparations.
“The Lord Marquis has already summoned all the nobles in the domain and is ready to fight the demon army to the death at any time.” The gentle-looking knight proudly raised his chin, his tone firm and powerful, a bright light in his pale blue eyes.
Melissa nodded seriously. Nelly glanced at Kal unintentionally and saw that he had his hands clasped over his hood, looking around, a rare look of curiosity on his face. The customs of Karinthia were completely different from those of the north, so it was natural for him to find it novel. But he keenly sensed Nelly’s gaze and immediately pulled his gaze back, a look of “nothing happened” on his face, but he forgot to pull his hood down to hide his expression.
For some reason, Nelly felt a little like laughing.
The main hall of the castle was brightly lit even during the day. The walls were hung with newly polished ancestral armor and weapons. In the firelight, these heavy pieces of equipment seemed to have come to life, ready to charge into battle with their long-dead knights and taste the flavor of blood at any moment. At the end of the long hall, on a high platform, sat a man in his fifties, dressed in magnificent clothes. It was the Marquis, Baldwin.
Seeing the hero approach, Baldwin stood up. He was not tall, but he was well-maintained and not at all fat. The lord, with his graying temples, stood on the high platform and looked down at the crowd with a smile, exuding a kind and smooth air that matched the image of a Nafaray merchant. But his gray eyes also held the coldness and sharpness of one who had fought against the waves for many years, and even a certain coyness that came naturally from being well-traveled.
“Welcome to Canossa, fated hero. May the three goddesses be with you.”
Melissa and Nelly knelt down to bow. Kal seemed to be stunned for a moment, then followed suit.
Baldwin immediately helped Melissa up and began to speak his set lines with a smile.
Nelly already knew the dialogue between each major character by heart, even the intonation and pauses. She couldn’t help but start to zone out.
After accepting the marquis’s welcome, the hero would leave Canossa by boat the next day and hurry to Halga’s Keep on the southern coast. On the way, they would encounter a sea monster, and it would probably be another tough fight… In Halga’s Keep, the hero would first receive the temple’s blessing, then officially change their class and choose a weapon, and with a pass from there, they would cross the Thousand Islands Sea to reach the royal capital, Mez.
This was just the beginning of the official plot. The journey was long, and there was no telling where the end was.
Why had she never felt that guiding a hero through the whole process was so long before?
She resisted the urge to sigh and reflected on her own abnormality.
It’s all… it’s all that certain Demon King’s fault. She was on edge at all times now. How could she have the concentration to work hard and complete the mission?
In that moment of distraction, the exchange between Baldwin and Melissa was finally over. The Lord Marquis invited the hero to a farewell banquet in the evening, and the hero naturally accepted with pleasure.
“I heard that the fish soup in Nafaray is the best on the entire continent! I’m so excited!” As soon as they left the main hall, Melissa turned to Nelly and whispered excitedly.
Lord Hero, can your focus be a little more promising?
Nelly replied helplessly, “Yes, yes! And the fish pies and shrimp and crab bisque are also specialties here, you know? Melissa should enjoy them before we leave!”
“Nelly and Kal have to come too!” Melissa smiled, but her face was one that brooked no refusal.
“I refuse.” Kal, as expected, refused in one go, pulling his hood down to his chin.
But Melissa put her hands on her hips. “How can you? You have to come with us.” She rubbed her chin. “The lifelong pursuit of a mage from the Sage’s Tower is to acquire new knowledge, right?”
Kal didn’t answer, so Melissa took it as a default and continued cheerfully, “That’s right. You’ve come all the way from Karinthia to Nafaray. How can you say you’ve been here if you don’t try the local specialties? The food of a place can reflect the character of its inhabitants and the characteristics of the place. This is also very important knowledge! It’s not an exaggeration to say that food is the most common and ordinary magic.”
Kal seemed to want to retort, but in the end, he was drowned out by Melissa’s loud voice. “It’s decided then.” She turned to Nelly with a triumphant look and winked. “Done!”
After resting for a bit in their temporary rooms, the three of them came to the main hall again.
Like most domains, the banquet in Nafaray was seated according to status.
The protagonist, Melissa, was naturally invited to the long table on the high platform to have dinner with the marquis’s family. Melissa also took the opportunity to announce Kal’s identity as a mage from Naxier, so he naturally became a guest of honor. The way the white-haired young man was half-dragged, half-pulled toward the high platform of the main hall… was unspeakably miserable. He was like a black, frightened rabbit, wishing he could disappear completely into the hem of his cloak.
Perhaps the mage from Naxier had caused a small sensation, and the guide sent by the goddess was temporarily forgotten. Nelly went with the flow and hid in the crowd, finding a seat near the back, happy to be free.
Dishes were continuously brought to the long table. Although they were definitely not as exquisite as those on the main table, the large bowls of steaming fish soup were still fragrant and tempting. Especially the Nafaray specialty, almond wine, which was refilled pot after pot. With food and wine in their bellies, the table was soon filled with laughter. The guests stomped their feet and clapped their hands to the bards’ songs, sang along, and flirted with the maids who moved between the long tables, completely free of the restrained etiquette that the guests at the main table might have to follow.
Nelly held her wine cup and took small sips, and she couldn’t help but be infected by the happiness of her tablemates. She leaned against a wooden pillar and smiled. Even with the Demon King pressing down on them, a cup of wine could still bring joy. It couldn’t be said that this wasn’t a kind of happiness.
“This beautiful lady, may I, Bryde, have the honor of knowing your name?”
A drunken come-on pulled Nelly from her thoughts. She raised an eyebrow and sized up the brown-haired man who had approached her. He was quite handsome, and from his clothes, he was probably the son of some minor lord. Nelly was really not interested in having a romantic encounter, so she moved away from him without a trace.
But he approached her again, leaning his elbow on the hall pillar and winking at her quite dashingly. “Hmm?”
The effect of a single, upward-inflected word also depended on the user. When a domineering CEO said it, it was wicked and alluring. When a drunkard said it, it was just the overwhelming smell of alcohol.
Nelly’s mouth twitched, and she was about to make her escape, but to her surprise, he actually grabbed her shoulder and, mumbling, was about to kiss her.
Nelly struggled a few times but couldn’t get away. But at that moment, a heavy, hardcover book came crashing down, hitting Mr. Bryde right on the forehead.