The soldiers' eyes darted back and forth, tracking my descending hand.
Their expressions were entertaining enough that I decided to stop toying with the poor guards.
My hand passed the scabbard and landed on the coin pouch.
"Here."
"What do you think you're......."
"Don't be shy. You too."
After pressing a silver coin into each soldier's palm, I tied the pouch back to my hip.
"......What's this?"
"What do you think? It's identification."
The soldiers groaned as though mulling it over.
But they had no talent whatsoever for hiding the twitching corners of their mouths; even an infant could've guessed they were pleased.
"Ahem! Right then, confirmed. You may enter."
Since time immemorial, nothing has been easier to settle with coin than a lowly soldier. And so I managed to walk right through Brüs's gate, bold as could be, without any identification.
More money was always better.
After Eladin and Luxeon had vanished, coins, nothing more than lumps of cast metal, had been playing the role of my life's purpose rather convincingly.
Brüs wasn't on the level of a major city, but it was by no means small, either.
To think the atmosphere could change this much just from crossing one gate.
Well-maintained tiles lined the streets, a sizable marketplace sprawled through the center, and the laughter of children mingled endlessly with the shouts of hawking merchants.
Not even the lingering dampness and the smell of mud could mask the character of Brüs.
"Not half bad."
Yes, in a word, it was a city that felt very much lived in.
I wandered the square for a while, idly scanning the goods laid out by the merchants.
The square was easily the liveliest spot in Brüs, yet strangely, not a single person tried to hawk anything to me.
The reason revealed itself before I'd walked more than a few steps.
"Hey, I'd like to see a dagger—"
"Shoo! Get lost!"
No sooner had I opened my mouth than the weapons merchant waved me off.
"......Is this how you treat your customers here? Swatting them away like flies?"
"Customer? Oh my, I thought you were a beggar. Sorry about that."
I stood rooted to the spot for a while, unable to utter a word.
True, I hadn't bathed in months, and yes, a few days ago I'd been drenched in wolf entrails, but I was at least wearing armor, wasn't I?
To be treated as a beggar despite the iron helm on my head left me more than a little rattled.
"Do I really look that dirty?"
"Hm? Well. I wouldn't exactly say you look clean."
In the end, I completely overhauled my plan to buy clothes first and then head to an inn.
Even if it was a bit more trouble, I'd wash up first, then come back to buy what I needed.
"I'd like to know where a good inn is."
The weapons merchant pressed his index finger and thumb together to form a circle.
Money, naturally.
"......How much for this dagger?"
"Give me three silver."
It felt a touch expensive, but I paid without protest.
I figured the information fee was baked in, and in any case, I wasn't in a position to haggle.
Only after pocketing the silver did the weapons merchant open his mouth.
"First of all, don't go to the Golden Lion further inside. It looks good because it's in the city center, but the owner got caught by the soldiers once for selling fake liquor."
The weapons merchant went into elaborate detail, complete with gestures, as he guided me toward a good inn.
"From there, go a bit deeper and take a right, and you'll see a cathedral. Behind it is a small inn called the Red Lynx. Normally I wouldn't tell travelers about this place, but I'm making a special exception for you, pal."
He suddenly dropped his voice to a whisper.
The air of a man about to reveal some tremendous secret was so convincing that I found myself growing serious too.
"The innkeeper is an absolute beauty. Her husband's scared stiff she'll run off with some traveler in the middle of the night, so he put his foot down hard."
An utterly deflating secret.
I asked about something else instead.
"You said there's a cathedral. Which order?"
"Hm? The Ecclesia Order, obviously."
Ecclesia was the state religion of the Empire.
I gave the weapons merchant a light nod.
"Thanks. Oh, do they have a stable there, by any chance?"
"Hmm, probably. I've only ever gone there to see the owner's face; I've never once seen a horse."
With the weapons merchant's directions in hand, I headed straight for the inn.
Along the way, I glanced at a few other merchants out of idle curiosity, but the looks they gave me were hardly welcoming, so I quickly gave up.
A small inn behind the cathedral.
[The Red Lynx]
"Here it is."
I pushed open the wooden door.
The first thing I saw upon stepping inside was a bustling crowd.
Each of them held a drink, chattering away raucously, yet they all kept stealing glances in the same direction. The weapons merchant hadn't been exaggerating.
"One room."
As for the innkeeper, well.
After so long that even my aesthetic sense had been ground away by the winds of time, she looked no different from anyone else to my eyes.
"Five coppers a night."
"Cheap. I'll need wash water and a change of clothes as well."
"Water is two coppers, clothes are two silver."
If a room was five coppers and a set of clothes two silver, the garments had to be exquisitely luxurious.
"Use any room you like on the second floor."
The innkeeper counted the coins I'd paid, then indicated the staircase with a glance.
Up until that point, I'd assumed her invitation to pick any room I liked was a joke.
"......."
But the second floor was genuinely empty.
'To think that with the first floor so packed, not a single person is staying the night.'
Perhaps the drink sales were so good that the room rates were kept relatively low in comparison.
With the innkeeper's beauty as the finest drinking snack, the beer must have gone down easily.
I settled into the room closest to the stairs.
I considered unpacking while I waited, but then realized I had nothing to unpack.
Left with nothing to do, I sat on the floor until a knock came at the door a short while later.
With the water the innkeeper left behind, I scrubbed every corner of my body clean, then removed the leather armor and folded it neatly.
The new clothes were, unsurprisingly, plain cotton garments of the sort you'd find anywhere. They also smelled of cheese.
In any case, it was still better than smelling like wolf innards, so I changed into the new clothes without complaint.
By the time I came back down to the first floor, a good number of the patrons had already trickled out.
"......Um, sir knight?"
"What is it?"
I felt the innkeeper's surreptitious gaze on me.
Once caught, she dropped all pretense and stared at me openly.
"You're going around like that?"
The innkeeper pointed at her own head as she asked.
Only then did I realize she'd been looking at my helm.
"Casual clothes with a rusted great helm, your taste is...... quite unique."
I'd changed into the clothes the innkeeper had provided, but I was still wearing the helm.
"......There are reasons."
Fortunately, she didn't pry further.
Seizing the moment, I swiftly changed the subject.
"Do you have a stable?"
"You have a horse, too? It's around the back. A bit small, though."
Good news, for once.
I left the inn and headed into town.
After a long stretch of wandering life, you naturally start craving transportation between towns.
I, too, regularly bought and rode horses.
'Though the last one ended up as minced meat after a ghoul chewed it apart.'
My previous horse had died in a ghoul ambush while crossing a gorge.
That was roughly five years ago, so it was about time I started thinking about transportation again.
This time, I intended to pamper my new horse and ride it for at least twenty years.
The horse merchant was located deeper inside the town compared to the other vendors.
He'd need a large space for the horses, so it wasn't unreasonable.
"Hey."
"Yes sir, welcome."
The merchant scurried over and ushered me toward the horses.
"What kind are you looking for?"
"......Sturdy would be a good start."
At that, the merchant trotted off at a brisk pace.
His animated gestures were hard to keep up with, so I followed a beat behind.
"This one's the sturdiest of the lot. Biggest, too."
The horse he showed me was a fine steed that more than deserved to be called magnificent.
Its sleek black coat, gleaming in the light, was especially striking.
"How much?"
"Just twenty-five gold, sir."
A far less striking price by comparison.
After a brief deliberation, I gave up on that horse and pointed to the lean one beside it.
"That one?"
"Yes sir, five gold."
Even out of politeness, no one could call it sturdy, but wasn't a horse a living creature, after all?
Feed it well enough, and its frame would fill out in no time.
"I'll take that one."
The merchant led out the horse with the rough mane.
I stroked its flank.
"Your name is now Plibentorinus II."
There was no special significance to "the Second."
It was simply because the horse that had become a ghoul's lunch had been Plibentorinus I.
I had handed the gold to the merchant and was checking Plibentorinus II's condition when it happened.
The area around me suddenly grew noisy, and I turned my head.
"Out of the way! Clear the road!"
The instant someone shouted, the atmosphere of the street transformed.
The sound of many boots marching in lockstep, all in the same direction.
The clinking of chain links connecting shoulder guards and breastplates.
People parted, and a dozen or so soldiers filed into the gap.
After the squad of soldiers, a single horse slowly came into view behind them.
"......."
Its bearing, the complete opposite of Plibentorinus II's, left me momentarily speechless.
Atop it sat a man.
Everything about him announced that he was the lord, plain for anyone to see.
An impractical breastplate weighed down with excessive iron plating, and a banner embroidered with his house crest in golden thread.
It would have been stranger if he were not a noble.
"You there."
The street fell silent.
Partly because the lord had spoken, but also because the one he'd singled out was none other than me.
Instead of answering, I simply watched him.
"Remove your helm."
Perhaps because I hadn't spoken.
Whether he took my silence for defiance or disrespect, the lord looked thoroughly displeased.
"Did you not hear me? I said remove your helm."
I'd drawn the wrong kind of attention, it seemed.
His focus was entirely on me now, and it didn't look like he'd let me slip by quietly unless I complied.
"Do you not understand what a grave offense it is to wear a helmet before the lord?"
One of his guards glared at me and stepped forward.
His gait was like a third-rate actor in a cheap stage play.
After watching that for a moment, I drew the sword at my hip.
"Hk!"
A sudden hush fell, and the already quiet street turned to thin ice.
The guard approaching me had gone rigid mid-stride.
It was clear from his face that the possibility of a drawn blade hadn't even crossed his mind.
The first to break the silence was the lord, grinding his teeth.
"You must truly be out of your mind to wish for death."
The lord's face twisted hideously.
He reminded me, somehow, of the wolf that had bitten into my waist.
"You draw a weapon? Before me? You're begging to die."
I watched the guards scrambling to level their spears at me, and neither confirmed nor denied it.