Chapter 573: Part II Epilogue: A New Era, in that City
My name is Charles Grants. It has already been a week since I arrived here in Polka. The transportation is not convenient, but the price of accommodation is reasonable for a country town and considering that this place is already more attractive than many tourist spots in the country, it is even unbeatable. Although it is only a day trip to the entrance, you can also enter the elven forest (You have to get a recommendation from the baron or clan leader, but in my case I got one right away thanks to a letter from my uncle) and get in touch with their deep culture. It is also true that the miraculous spring is said to harbor healing miracles. I am in good health, so I don’t really feel it when I drink the water. But when you hear firsthand the stories of people who have recovered from serious illnesses and old wounds and see with your own eyes the incredible health of these once crippled people, you can hardly laugh at their bravado.
There is also another town along the Small Snake Mountains to the southwest.
“It’s a long way from over the mountains to Polka, so why didn’t you take the route that stops at that town?”
I couldn’t help but pout, but the person who told me about it, Andy Smithson, gave me a wry smile.
“It’s a town with some very special people. About half of the residents still can’t speak Trot language well enough”
“……Isn’t that why they’re Celestians……?”
“Celesta is the same language as Trot”
“Then they are elves”
“Elves have forests. Why would they jump out and build a town that far away from their studies?”
“……Please don’t give me any riddles”
“Hahaha. I, I’m sure you don’t have any materials to guess it. ……Or rather, even if you ask, you probably won’t know what I’m talking about”
“……?”
I’ve studied abroad in the Southern Great Plains and I think I’m well-informed. I am not amused by such an attitude that says, 「I am sure your narrow-mindedness will not allow you to believe it」.
“There are some Kalwin people who immigrated here a few years ago. There are some here in Polka, but the majority of them congregated over there”
“……Kalwin? I’ve never heard of that country……immigrants? To Trot?”
Oops. I really didn’t understand. But a foreign power immigrating to Trot? What on earth does that mean?
“I guess you’ve never heard of them. It’s becoming quite famous around Renfangas……”
“Wait, Renfangas?”
The conversation went off the rails again.
“You told me about an adventure involving the Supreme Sword Saint, the Elf territory and the previous king……well, you know”
“Yes. Well, that’s as far as it goes. The reason why this town became mixed with elves and Celesta people. But after that, there was an adventure that involved Renfangas, the demon territory and even Lapal”
“……Will it be long?”
Honestly, I think I was listening to half of what I said earlier with saliva in my eyebrows, but it seems like there’s more to this ridiculous story.
“……I wonder if 100-man commander Grants would talk to you at all about that sort of thing”
“I think my uncle has a lot of secret work to do, but……”
“You can find out more about what I said by asking 100-man commander Grants. That man is involved in many places”
If I’m honest, I sometimes think that confirming what this man told me with my uncle might make my serious uncle question my sanity. It is quite an interesting story if you think it is a fiction and in fact, I am even thinking of writing down what I heard as an adventure story and publishing it to reluctantly confirm whether it is true or not from the repercussions. Although I have also casually confirmed this with Arthur Bonaparte, who is close at hand for a drink, I cannot deny the possibility that he and Smithson-san are carrying me along, given his personality. I was in this mild state of doubt and anguish for a few days, but I felt that a kind of truth in journalism could be found here. And even if it is true, if it is too ridiculous, the reporter may have to push forward knowing that he or she will not be believed. A sensation is like a joke. I may be known as the great seeker who first discovered the truth and made it known to the world. Or I may go down as the rare clownish buffoon who swallows fiction and makes a big deal out of it while continuing to study and broaden my horizons. Yes, I know. What a little man I am. How I have wandered so far in my quest to have my name spoken of with perfect honor in future generations.
“Well, if you want to go and see, I’ll do you the favor. You´re 100-man commander Grants´s nephew after all”
“It’s convenient……but you’re probably a blacksmith”
I refrained from continuing, you are a great womanizer. The only thing in his story that I find credible is his relationship with women. The fact that he has a bunch of lovely elven girls he’s had relationships with during his adventures and that he has several children with different mothers……with their blessing, is something that, if he had made it up, the girls would not have been able to listen to it with a straight face. This can be seen from the fact that after a week of asking around about his reputation, everyone’s assessment of him was almost unanimous. There was even a time when an elf man who seemed to have his girlfriend stolen seriously emphasized to me how dangerous he was. I quickly ran away from the scene because it was not a good idea to get involved in other people’s affairs, but when I thought about it, I could have backed up my story about the adventure if I had had a good talk with him. He was not dressed like an aristocrat and his face was ordinary to the extent that I thought he was more attractive than I was. On that point, I would like to ask him to tell me on behalf of the people. But that’s beside the point.
“Grange……it’s a long way to go to the new town on foot, isn’t it? The monsters around here are often cleaned up by various forces, so it’s safe to camp out, but it’s better to have a vehicle”
“I’m ashamed to admit that I’m a little rusty on horses”
I thought he was offering to lend me a horse, but Smithson-san laughed and waved his hand sideways.
“Not a horse, not a horse. ……Yes, I’m sure……Emma! You’re there!”
“Yes”
Smithson-san raised his voice a little higher and out of nowhere a beautiful girl came shuffling down. This is in front of his mansion, so she must have been waiting on the roof to come out as soon as she was called. I was a little thrilled to see her appear as if she was a spy from the East.
“If you’re available, could you give him a lift back to Grange?”
“Okay”
The silver-haired girl, who looked to be about 14 or 15 years old, complied with Smithson-san’s words, as she probably should have.
“I’d be happy to show you around with me, but people are so picky these days when I leave Polka”
“Because they’ll do something dangerous right away”
Smithson-san looks like a mild-mannered young man……or should I say middle-aged by now? But is he surprisingly reckless? I am also a person who, out of curiosity, ventures into the back streets and I have many dangerous experiences.
“Herman and Neia are also at the Grange. I can leave the guidance to them”
“Give them my regards when you get there”
I was a young man myself and I wondered if he would ask such a girl to take me home alone. I don’t have any ill feelings toward him, but I think he is a little too defenseless. He likes women so much that he might have no choice but to ask a woman to pick him up.
“Nice to meet you. I am Gilbert Grants’s nephew and my name is Charles Grants……”
“No need to introduce yourself. I know most of what you’ve been doing since you arrived in town”
Oh, my God. Did I just get the hot seat without even knowing it?
“My name is Emma. I serve Andy-sama”
“Serving……”
I wondered what it was like to work for a blacksmith, but Angelina-sama also served as a maid at the blacksmith’s shop.
“Shall we get on with it?”
Emma stepped out of the path and into the snowfield and as I tried to follow her in a hurry, she stopped me with a hand. ……Suddenly, a huge silver dragon appeared in front of me.
“Uwaa!?”
“Please get on……no, I don’t need to put you on my back if you’re alone”
I was so cowardly that the silver dragon picked me up carelessly and took off without a hitch.
“Ah, ma, maa, awawawaa, hieeee, uwa, awawaaa”
I could only make a pathetic sound. But it was a dragon. It was not a flying dragon like Celesta uses. A real big dragon was flying through the sky, grabbing me. There was no way I could remain calm. When I came to Polka, a black dragon flew through the sky. I heard later that it was carrying a whole carriage of visitors to the city and that the dragon itself assisted Smithson-san in his adventures, but I never imagined that another dragon would appear just to carry me alone by horseback to the city on the second day.
“You’d better keep your eyes closed. We will be there in just a short while”
The voice echoing from the dragon was indeed Emma-san’s. I closed my eyes and did as she said. Even with the knowledge that dragons are not stupid beasts, once I saw those huge jaws, I couldn’t help but imagine a future where I would be devoured. As I squeezed my eyes shut, the time in the air passed by really quickly.
The city of Grange was much larger than Polka. The beautifully planned townscape was so geometric and beautiful that I almost forgot that this was a town with the special circumstances of large-scale immigration.
“What’s going on? ……Emma, judging by her physique?”
“It’s about time you learned to recognize a dragon by something other than size. ……Herman, this is Andy-sama’s guest, Charles Grants-san, nephew of Gilbert Grants-san. I heard that he was interested in this Grange”
“Grants, no, that Grants. Do you use a sword?”
“Ah, no……”
The young man who greeted me, Herman, had a somewhat rugged-looking face and a somewhat frivolous smile on his face and held out his hand to me.
“So you’re a scholarly teacher. If you’re related to that Grants, it wouldn’t be strange if you were good at either literary or martial arts”
“I’m Charles”
“I’m Herman Kidd. Head of the city’s security force. Let’s get to know each other”
“……Y, Yes”
“Herman. I’m telling you, you can’t forget civility. This is not Kalwin, but a new place deserves an attitude befitting a new tradition……”
“It’s enough for the princess to be preachy. It’s okay, just be friendly to the sightseeing guests”
“……You’ve been under too much bad influence since you came to the outside world
In her dragon form, Emma-san sighs and sags.
“Please say hello to me on the way home. I don’t mind if it takes a day or two”
“Eh, ah……”
“It’s okay, dragons are long-winded, so just take it as she says. It’s not about you anyway, she’s just doing it to get praise from Smithson-san”
“Ha, Haa……”
Still in fear of dragons, I’ll be walking through the streets of Grange with a strangely familiar man on my shoulder. ……Ridiculous, huh? Was I just trying to protect myself, my common sense, my world, by cutting off Smithson-san’s adventure story and throwing it away? Yes. Perhaps it was an unwitting escape. If I tell myself that it is a made-up story, a fairy tale, a funny story……, I can minimize the 「Insanity」 from trampling on the worldview I have created. We can pretend to be 「Intellectuals」 who know more than others. But knowledge and information cannot be like that. It is not something that can be cherry-picked and discarded to protect an old and fragile foundation, turning a blind eye to the facts. ……The punchy experience of being transported by the dragon was a wake-up call for me. The facts are here.
“Now, here is the central square. Over there is the administrative building where the princess is. Even though she is a princess of an exiled country, she is trying to live in a luxurious place, so she has a nice face. And over there is a park and there is the new specialty, the Grange branch of the steamed bun shop Lyndon. Delicious, right?”
“E, Emm……I don’t really know how this exile came about in the first place”
“What? Haven’t you heard about that from Grants?I thought it was about time that Trot became famous……”
“I don’t know. In fact, I only found out a month ago that this remote area was treated as an autonomous region”
I was determined. I had been so oblique and reserved with Smithson-san, but now I was going to make sure I saw the truth about this place and put it in a book.
“Please tell me. Tell me what happened before this place came into being”
———————————————-
On a bench in the plaza, he told me the story of a kingdom with a strange fate, the 「Heroes」 who protected it and a girl who showed the courage to destroy the wrong kingdom, even though she was a 「Hero」.
“Well, we all didn’t believe that happiness was out there somewhere and that you couldn’t just conveniently……get there, that the world was a flat zero. There are still half a dozen people left in the valley clinging to their shabby lands with that belief. ……But you can get what you want wherever you want and it may be worth it, but happiness was something you could get as much as you wanted, just by changing the rules”
“What do you mean by that……?”
“Kalwin was a joke. You couldn’t choose who you were going to be. You could either die a pauper, or else you could be a hero and be eaten by monsters. You could be executed for the slightest thing. You were not free to have children, nor could you raise them as your own. Do you know why? Because in times of famine, they might be eaten. They lived under such rules in a land that was so thin and withered that it could not be properly harvested”
“……This is unimaginable”
“But now, what will be neither kings nor nobles are completely free……but they can choose to some extent. The institution of marriage has finally become popular, people have started to raise children and you can even go out with……girls as you like. I love girls. What was I doing protecting that shitty country for? I’m willing to go to any lengths to show a girl how good I am, but now I can’t believe I was about to become a martyr in that crazy country because 『I’m a hero』”
“………..”
It’s hard to believe that this young man lived such a heroic life. But it’s probably true. That Emma-san also said that she had changed quite a bit.
“I am grateful. ……To Smithson and to Neia”
“……I would also like to meet the person called Neia-san”
“Ah, I see. Thats right. It’s about time she came……itaita, you”
Herman-san showed his jaw with a clenched fist.
In the middle of the square stands a stone statue. It is a statue of a woman wearing a broad hat and holding an oddly shaped sword with a strangely wide blade in her hand. In front of the statue stands a woman with a small child in her arms. The woman with golden hair, pinned up with a silver hair ornament, looks rather young, with elf ears. But somehow I recognize her. She is……..
“Hey, Neia. ……He´s a guest of Smithson. He wants to talk to you about Kalwin”
She turns at the sound of Herman-san’s voice. She is a girl with a haunting beauty……and yet a mysterious motherly quality.
“Yes. If you can talk to me”
“……E, Emm……”
I was speechless. I was speechless because her smile was so beautiful and soft.
“Don’t fall for it, okay? That was Smithson’s handiwork, too, you know?”
Herman-san whispers to me, but my palpitations do not subside and I look for something to talk about…….
“Th, That stone statue……is you, isn’t it?”
I was just saying that. It was a resemblance. But she kept smiling.
“……It’s my mother”
She looked up proudly and her young child cackled and waved. ……That? In Kalwin, as I recall, you can’t get married and you can’t have a parent-child relationship…….
“Master. ……Well, maybe it doesn’t matter”
Herman-san complements me with his legs spread sloppily on the bench. Neia-san nodded.
“For this child, she’s a grandmother. ……It’s a new era. The era of being deprived of the fact of who the parents are is over”