Arrival At The Imperial Capital

After riding our horses toward the Imperial Capital for several days, we finally managed to bring the Outer Gate of the Imperial Capital into view.

We had spent the past few days in an atmosphere that was nothing but dark and oppressive, so finally arriving here felt deeply moving. The knights had been nothing but depressed, angry, or grieving—nothing but negative emotions.

Well, it was understandable. Losing the princess of a neighboring country who was supposed to marry the prince they were escorting—depending on the nation, it would not be strange if everyone involved were executed.

And the Empire was a country where executing everyone was entirely possible.

“Hey… shouldn’t we just run away after all?”

“Run away where? Anywhere inside the country, they’ll find us.”

“Then we leave the country.”

“…Can you even cross the border? And what about your family? Are you going to run away alone?”

I heard the same conversation again, one I had heard many times over the past few days. I could not say I liked the Empire’s knights, but they were prisoners of their country as well…

“It’s fine. We haven’t failed yet. We’re going to start searching now.”

At the words one knight muttered as if convincing himself, everyone else showed expressions as though they were clinging to that hope.

“We are the knight unit that went to receive Princess Henriette of the Albanell Kingdom. An emergency has occurred, so allow all of us to enter immediately.”

When we reached the gate, a serious knight said that from atop his horse to the gatekeeper. At those words, the gatekeeper hurriedly stepped aside and gave us passage, and we were able to enter the city without any inspection.

With things like this, powerful people could commit fraud as much as they wanted. Judging from the gatekeeper’s reaction, the status of a knight was overwhelmingly higher than that of a gatekeeper.

“Luca, Rebecca, we will head straight to the royal palace to report. Since the two of you are outsiders, we cannot take you to the palace.”

“Understood. That can’t be helped. We’ll rent a room somewhere and wait, so please let us know when you depart to search for Lady Henriette.”

At my words, the serious knight nodded honestly, then hesitated slightly before speaking again.

“My name is Ernesto. I will inform the gatekeeper from earlier of the departure date. I’ll tell him to relay the date and time to any adventurer who comes asking for my name.”

So the serious knight’s name was Ernesto… Somehow, being told his name made me happy, and I lifted the corners of my mouth slightly.

Unlike the other knights of the Empire, he did not have that condescending attitude toward others. Something about him felt different.

“Ernesto, right? Then we’ll check the gate frequently.”

“Yeah, do that. See you later.”

Ernesto and the other knights rode off toward the royal palace, taking the horses Rebecca and I had dismounted from with them.

After seeing their backs disappear into the distance, I finally relaxed, the tension leaving my body now that we were apart from the knights. Staying on edge the entire time was exhausting after all.

“What do you think will happen now? Do you think the knights who went to report will come back?”

“…Fifty-fifty, I guess.”

When I answered Rebecca’s question with a complicated feeling, she turned to me with an equally uncertain expression.

I basically didn’t like the Empire’s knights, but after spending days acting together with them, I could no longer feel completely indifferent to the possibility that they might be killed.

“I thought so too… So what should we do now? I think we should gather information first.”

“Hmm, maybe we should start by going to the Adventurer Guild. It probably isn’t functioning normally, but maybe we can at least get some information.”

“That’s true.”

From here on, we had to investigate the reason the Empire had become so strange without drawing attention. We had a reason to stay in this city until we went searching for Ann with the knights, but after that, staying long-term might seem suspicious… so it would be best if we could resolve things quickly.

Thinking about it that way, it might have been fortunate that we ended up searching for Ann as part of the flow of events.

Anyway, the first thing we had to do was learn the reality of this country. Once the knights returned, it might also be possible to question them while heading out to search for Ann.

Over the past few days, the knights had been far too tense for it to feel like the right moment to talk to them.

“I wonder where the guild is. Or rather… the city is even more ruined than I expected. The atmosphere feels gloomy. Are there even any inns?”

At Rebecca’s words, I looked around the surroundings. The ground was uneven and damaged, and many buildings were collapsed or had their doors broken.

Trash-like debris was scattered across the roads, and there were even people sitting directly on the ground.

“There’s a chance the inns aren’t functioning.”

Actually, could money even be used in this city? The information we had beforehand said the Albanell Kingdom’s currency could be used as is, but from what I could see, there were no places that looked like shops.

Now that I thought about it, a country where strength was everything probably couldn’t sustain commerce… If someone strong wanted to steal something being sold, it would simply be allowed.

If someone displayed goods for sale, it would practically be the same as saying, please steal these.

“Anyway, let’s try going to the Adventurer Guild. We can ask that gatekeeper for the location.”

Though bewildered by how much more dangerous the Empire seemed than we expected, we started walking toward the guild.