Chapter 73
That day, the airship landed in a Midland border town . The river that was the border was quite narrow . If you looked upstream from the bridge closest to the sea, you could see a series of arched bridges along the river . There were seven in all .
Edwy, Grudo, and Van were going to take care of securing their inn . And so Maki and Chiharu had come to see the bridges with Kaider and Nyran . Aeris was doing maintenance on the airship .
“It would be nice if we could go down the river from the top . ”
Chiharu said as she gazed at them .
“What is so interesting about bridges?”
Nyran asked .
“What? I think it’s interesting . Besides, you can see the different flowers that are growing on both sides . Imagine relaxing on a boat with the blue sky above you . Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Is it? I think it would be more amusing to swing a sword around . ”
They both looked puzzled . Perhaps here, people didn’t think about having fun after work as much as other places .
Maki and Chiharu stood on the bridge closest to the sea and stared dazedly at the people and carriages that moved . There were no cars, and the carriages weren’t much faster than the people walking . Some were carrying very large bags . There weren’t as many people as in Tram, but as it was the border, there was a decent amount of traffic .
The people also looked the same as anywhere else .
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“Now that I think of it, Norfe and Chouze didn’t look different, did they?”
Maki suddenly said .
“You mean as humans? Well, most people in Midland have blonde hair . Especially close to the royal family . As for Lowland, they have blonde and light brown hair . Highland people tend to have dirty blonde hair . But there is not a huge difference between countries . ”
Nyran answered . As for Nyran, his hair was closer to a very light brown and was cut short . It was just like the small princess, Meiya .
“The land is only divided into three because it is so large . I’m pretty sure they are all equally rich . ”
“Are you talking about inland?”
“Well, yes . Of course, I don’t really know much . As I was mainly in the dwarf lands . ”
Nyran muttered .
“I see . You were raised in the dwarf castle since you were a child, right?”
“I wasn’t that young . I was 10-years old . I had lots of brothers in Lowland, so I wasn’t ever lonely . But I wasn’t lonely in the dwarf castle either . You know what it’s like in the dwarf castle, don’t you Maki?”
Maki suddenly remembered . All those brothers and relatives . They were very friendly .
“Yes . Yes . Not only was I not lonely, but I sometimes wanted to be left alone, I guess?”
“Yes . That’s why Kaider would always go off somewhere else . ”
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“That was until you turned 16 . By then, you got taller than me and became skilled with a sword . I was surprised by how fast humans grew . Still, it was good for us in the end . ”
Kaider joined in .
“We really don’t know much about humans in the dwarf lands . While we might grow slowly in 30 years, they grow in only 10 . They are also faster in their lessons, including swordsmanship . And they become adults . I got to see all of that closeup . Now, no one in the castle will look down on humans . ”
That was the strength of humans . They grew quickly and multiplied quickly .
“However, how are things between humans?”
Chiharu asked . She was thinking about the town of Tram .
“I don’t know since I’ve never been inland . But I felt like there was something special about Tram . It’s similar to other towns in that there are lots of people walking around . But in Tram, there were dwarves, elves, and beastkin . Even birdfolk flew in the sky . There were elf and dwarf merchants that sold goods as if it were the most normal thing . ”
“But I think there are some people who don’t like it . Isn’t it true that there are no airships that go to the inlands?”
Maki continued . Kaider and Nyran weren’t sure how to respond .
They would often travel to the elf lands and beast lands in order to fight in the dungeons . They even went to the human lands sometimes . It was obvious to them that they would meet different people in each place, and those places would have their own customs .
They were surprised that the Maki and Chiharu’s minds would go there after seeing how nice Tram was . In the first place, the inland people didn’t like non-humans . And yes, they didn’t use airships .
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“The inland royals should send their princes and princesses to one of the other territories while they are still young . ”
Chiharu suddenly said .
“Yes . Not just inland . Every country should do that . ”
“You two…”
Kaider and Nyran were surprised . But Maki and Chiharu couldn’t understand why .
“In our country, even common people go abroad to study . Sometimes it’s only two weeks . But it could be for years . ”
“Even more people go just to travel . ”
“Is that true?”
“Yes . Even if you’re young, you can still save up money to go abroad . ”
“Your world seems very rich indeed . ”
Kaider said .
“Well, some places were, some places weren’t . ”
Maki said .
“I think one day, it will become the job of Saintesses to take people with them and travel around the world . And not in disguise . ”
“We can be like tour conductors, Maki-chan . ”
“We can be a Saintess Traveling Agency . No, Saintess Tourists? No, that sounds weird . ”
“And so we need to travel a lot in preparation!”
“Yes!”
Kaider and Nyran smiled at them .
“Uh, we should return to the inn soon . ”
Kaider said . Nyran walked protectively behind the three of them as he thought to himself .
“A Saintess traveling agency… I never thought of anything besides killing monsters . But they are so quick to move to the next thing . Even crossing borders . ”
Chiharu had been laughing about something when she turned around and looked at Nyran .
“Nyran! Hurry!”
She called . I’m not slow . I’m being cautious . He swallowed those words and quicked his pace just enough to catch up with them . In any case, there didn’t seem to be any reason to worry . Besides, he had rested on the ship, so he wouldn’t have much trouble guarding them at night .
The first day of the trip seemed like it would end peacefully . And so Nyran allowed himself to relax just a little .