"Young Master...perhaps it would be best if you returned to the carriage."
Alicia frowned as she held onto the reins of the carriage, looking at her Young Master slowly walk beside them.
Rian wheezed once more, finally signaling for Alicia to stop the carriage for the fourth time this entire trip. They were only about fifty percent of the way to Eisenbran, but had been traveling for at least six hours already.
As it turned out, having the essence of an ancient dragon only improved growth. His base attributes were still abysmal.
[STR: 4→ 7]
[SPD: 3 → 8]
[STAM: 4 → 10]
The average human had around ten of every physical attribute, while knights, who use their bodies more, have around fifteen. Overall, Rian was still slightly worse than the average person, only matching in stamina.
"Shouldn’t you..." Rian struggled between breaths. "...be complimenting me for walking this entire time?"
His feet trembled and he felt like they were going to give out at any time.
"I would," his maid replied, "but we could have reached Eisenbran before sunset if the carriage hadn’t been forced to match your pace. Now we’ll have to camp outside the city."
"You’re remarkably stubborn, but all for the wrong reasons," Charlotte said softly, before peeking her head out of the carriage to look at her exhausted fiancé.
’Hey, it’s hard, okay?! Not everyone is at the same starting line! If I don’t train now, then when can I?!’
And besides, why would he waste his precious lifespan sitting in that carriage? At least walking transformed that lost time into physical strength.
Rian thought about all of that in his head, yet the only thing that came out of his mouth was a defeated sigh.
"Let’s set up camp..."
It was a particularly windy night, so the three of them decided to set up camp near a cluster of trees to act as a natural windblocker. Well, saying the three of them was wrong.
It was Alicia who did everything.
From setting up the tent to building the fire, she singlehandedly took care of all the important tasks. It was also Alicia who was currently preparing a meal for the two lords casually waiting by the campfire.
"You know..." Charlotte closed the book resting across her lap. "I understand that your maid is extraordinarily competent, but two nobles traveling with only one servant is rather strange."
Rian retorted instantly. "I already told you its for our benefit. If we arrive in Eisenbran as nobles, it’ll cause a huge uproar."
"Discretion and understaffing are not the same thing."
"If anyone asks, you’re a minor merchant, Alicia is your attendant, and I’m merely a mage you hired for protection."
"I get it, I get it," Charlotte sighed as she put the book away. "But are you sure your maid is comfortable with that? I know noble’s servants are usually used to things like this, but I personally like to treat them with respect, that’s all."
"And well..."
She looked at Alicia, who was currently chopping up vegetables, then back at Rian, who was watching the entire time, before sighing.
"I feel like I’m stepping into a territory I shouldn’t be in."
Though the maid’s knife paused halfway through a carrot, clearly evident that she had listened to the entire conversation.
"If the arrangement is necessary for the Young Master’s safety," she answered calmly. "Then I will tolerate it."
Charlotte glanced toward the motionless knife.
"Tolerate..."
"She means she agrees," Rian answered, now staring at the campfire absentmindedly. "Don’t think about it too much. It’s not that deep."
THUNK—!
Alicia’s knife split the cutting board beneath the carrot cleanly in two.
"Ah, another one..." Alicia sighed, already grabbing a spare board from her bag and resumed preparing their meal.
Charlotte stared at the broken board before looking back at Rian with newfound caution in her eyes.
"...Is it?"
The meal itself went by quieter than Rian would’ve liked, but it gave him time to think about the plan moving forward.
Rosalia had already gone ahead to Eisenbran, where they intended to meet her. The guise of being a lesser-known merchant company was also thought of by her so that they could get inside without much hassle.
There wasn’t much in the original novel about Eisenbran, at least details-wise. Still, there were two things Rian remembered concretely.
Eisenbran was a prosperous port city situated along Rosenheim’s eastern border, only one city removed from Eidelgard, the Royal Capital. Its position made it one of the safest and busiest commercial centers in the duchy, attracting everyone from merchants to local officials.
On paper, Baron Eisenbran governed it. Yet in practice, the city had been divided between two competing powers for years.
Felix, who held enormous influence over the city’s officials, guards, and all things bureaucracy-related. Rosalia, meanwhile, maintained her position through the merchant guilds that were actually responsible for Eisenbran’s wealth.
To put it simply, it was a battleground in which a power struggle had been raging on for quite a long time now. A proxy war between two Rosenheim siblings.
In the original, by the time Rian passed away and the attack on Eidelgard Academy happened, the officials had already claimed complete control of Eisenbran.
Why? A single reason
Rosalia lost the mana crystal mines to Felix, plain and simple.
Though Rian did promise Rosalia that he would help personally, he never specified what kind of help he would be providing to her.
’Just getting Felix off her back should be good enough, right? As for the mine...well, to her it’s just money and political power. All things that can be gained later.’
"But to me..."
Rian leaned back onto the wooden log, propping himself up straight, the grin on his face so wide that both girls caught it. But for decency purposes, both decided not to comment on the fact.
’I’ll at least be a nice brother and sell her whatever crystals I don’t need at a family discount. I’m a villain, not a monster.’
A voice suddenly called out to him, waking him out of his schemes and bringing Rian back to the present. He realized that the dishes were done, but now there was another dilemma.
Two tents had been set up right next to each other.
A gray tent to the left, where Alicia was standing. And a red tent to the right, where Charlotte was standing.
They both looked at him.
Nothing needed to be said. Rian understood exactly what was being demanded of him.
Screw everything that happened before this moment. This would most likely be the most important decision of Rian’s life.
"Young Master."
"Rian."
Then, in perfect unison, they asked at the same time:
"Which tent are you sleeping in tonight?"
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