Swamp Girl! Chapter 22

“Give me one silver.”

The next morning, when I abruptly got up from bed and verified that Leon was in the room, that was the first thing out of my mouth.

“…If I could, then I’d like to start the morning from the customary exchange of greetings.”

Leon’s expression was slightly dissatisfied. Hey, that’s a privilege, not a right.

“Well, after all, you’re already in my room all the time without permission. Besides, the unexpected doesn’t always start with a greeting, you know…1 Now then, good morning.”

Generally, Leon began by making me jump out of my skin, thereby dragging me into his pace. So today, I beat him to it.
I jumped out of bed and really streeeetched out my body. Then, I gave him an unnatural, stilted greeting. I even forgot to make a cursory bob of my head.
I was able to sleep well last night. I didn’t dream, either.

“…Good morning. In any case, why one silver?”

Moving at my own pace, I did some light stretches. Even if I didn’t, this body was in fairly good shape, but on the other hand, my growing familiarity with it was frightening prospect. Knk-knk, I twisted my waist, and then, while stretching out my arms, I answered Leon’s question.

“Mmm, call it an advance on my compensation? You’ve got at least one silver on you, right? This is our last day in Telaberan, so I want to take Aira and Palmira on a tour of the city.”

It was something I decided yesterday, before I went to bed.
I kinda made the decision by myself again, but fact is, I couldn’t bring myself to give the two false hope. What if I told Leon and he refused for one reason or another?
Besides, we were more or less Leon’s guests. So if he turned out to be against it, I figured I’d just have to give up.

“I see, that’s a good idea… Well, I should have thought of it myself, perhaps. My apologies.”

Unexpectedly, Leon readily agreed.
To be honest, I figured the odds to be about fifty-fifty.

“However, during the transition to the new lord, the streets are a little unruly. Therefore, I am somewhat apprehensive about sending three exceedingly beautiful women outside. Would you mind allowing a one-man escort to accompany you?”

I gave his proposal some consideration.
If possible, just the three of us would’ve been nice. We’d be able to take it easy, then.
But since what Leon was saying was reasonable too, I didn’t reject it out of hand.

“Hmmm… I understand. That’s… wait, you’re not going to turn around and say that you’ll be the chaperone, right?”

Well, that would’ve been fine too, but considering that we decided in our talk yesterday to be on guard against him, it would be a little awkward.
Though you could also say that even if it didn’t end up being Leon himself, it would still be one of his people. So there wasn’t much meaning to it.

“It really is a shame, but it won’t be me. Truly, I would have liked to go with you if I could, but if I did, the atmosphere downtown would probably be strange. Moreover, I must see to the final adjustments for our departure tomorrow.”

Yup, a man who could read between the lines, Leon.
Sure, if he came along, he might be enough of a celebrity that people would make a fuss, and that would no doubt make for a weird atmosphere.
If so, we wouldn’t be able to have fun.

“That being the case, I will take care of personnel selection, so… you’ll be going to breakfast, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, let’s have breakfast first.”

With that, Leon rose from the chair. Finishing up my stretches, I found this state of affairs somehow unsatisfactory.

“…What did you have planned for today?”

I asked tentatively.
His expression unruffled, Leon lightly spread apart his hands.

“Nothing in particular. Well, think of it as the usual morning routine.”

…Like I’d be satisfied with just that.

–

–

As we took our usual seats for breakfast, I pitched the trip to Aira and Palmira.
“Why don’t we go into town?”
Leon had an ‘Oh?’ sort of look on his face, but I ignored him. At which point the other two chimed in unison that they wanted to go.

Once we finish eating breakfast, we a.s.sembled in the foyer.

Aira and Palmira were in trimmed, cheap-looking dresses made of thin cloth. They had straw hats in their hands. Pleasantly commoner-like. Palmira looked just like a local kid. That, Leon might have arranged in secret.
As a result of throwing a full-bore tantrum at the maid who brought me my clothes, I ended up in a short dress of white lace and dark red trousers.

I didn’t care about the top, but I was glad I got trousers.

Around the estate, alright, I did wear skirts, and dresses, and whatever else was provided to me, but I didn’t want to wear a skirt if I was going into town. Anyway, it’d make me anxious. About all sorts of stuff.
I also received a straw hat, which I popped on my head. Though summer was nearing its end, the sunlight was still pretty strong.
When I looked outside from the courtyard, I saw huge c.u.mulonimbus clouds floating over the horizon. It looked like another hot day today.

“…Now all that’s left is our chaperone. Who’s coming along?”

I asked Leon, who had come specially to see us off.
Thinking about it some more, I hadn’t heard who would be coming with us. Maybe Irene?

“Mmm, I think he’ll be along shortly. For now, here.”

He handed me three small leather pouches. They were heavier than they looked.
Peeking inside, I saw that one pouch held ten iron coins. Sure enough, one silver.
Leon took care to give us iron coins out of consideration. Practically speaking, if we weren’t buying anything that big, silver would be too large a denomination and too difficult to use.
I honestly expressed my grat.i.tude to Leon for that.

“Yooo, ladies, let’s have a good time today!”

When I was thanking Leon, a voice came from the direction of the barracks. The person who appeared was…

Geh–…Rupert…?

He should have been in uniform, more or less, but this time, he was dressed casually. Ocher trousers and suspenders, a white dress shirt. He had a hunting cap pushed back on his head. The artfully disheveled style of a gutless townie.
Frankly, even if you said he was a military man, nine out of ten people wouldn’t believe it.

As Leon saw us on our way, the four of us began to descend the hill. For a while, we followed an ordinary gravel road with nothing of interest. When we arrived at the edge of the edge of the streets, the city was visible on the other side of a low wall rising out of the dark green undergrowth.

Ambling along, we gradually had to raise our heads to see the roofs of the city’s neatly lined houses. When I looked up, I saw the gate at the end of the hill road, with two gatekeepers on duty.
When we pa.s.sed through, they hailed Rupert with a “Thanks for your hard work.” When they recognized him, they straightened their postures and saluted him.
…They actually paid proper respects to him. I didn’t see that coming.

“So, where to?”

Once we were past the gate, we were on the main thoroughfare.
If I recalled correctly, there were three major streets in the city. The Great North Gate… the gate we went through on our first day here, led to the trade district. Heading to the harbor from there would take us down the main road to the warehouses on the docks. Then, there was the somewhat smaller East Gate, which opened onto the road to the residential quarter.

And we were currently in the residential quarter. Even when I looked around, all I saw were rows upon rows of very ordinary homes. Nothing to write home about, no reason to go over for a look.

“Wooow, these houses are so big, aren’t they?”

But to Aira, it seemed, they were worth taking a look at. She repeatedly raised her voice in wonder as she looked at the buildings on the streets.
Oh, Aira was born in a farming village, wasn’t she? She said she was just like a slave, so this might be her first time in a city like Telaberan to begin with.
From that point of view, the houses looking out onto the large thoroughfare were certainly impressive. For the most part, they stood two to three stories tall.

But that was because they faced the main street.

In other words, you could call this place, where the houses all look out onto a major street, the best neighborhood in town. Of course, that was excluding the mansion of the city lord and Leon’s estate.
That was why the wealthier cla.s.ses lived here, and why the homes were so big, too.

But from this road to the secluded inner areas of the district, that gradually changed. The homes rapidly grew shabbier and shabbier… ultimately, you’d arrive in a slum where it was impossible to tell if a given building was a home or a ruin.
This layout fundamentally didn’t change at all, no matter the city. In terms of public safety and the like, Telaberan is still one of the better places, but going into those slums was usually asking for trouble. On the flip side, walking on the big streets wasn’t much of a problem.

“C’mon, let’s. .h.i.t up… shall we go to the North Gate, Mister Rupert?”

I was about to speak as I usually do, and come to think of it, he didn’t strike me as the stuffy sort, but I changed my mind. This was our first time speaking, so I polished my tone some.

“Haha, it’s fine if you talk to me that way, you know? And you can drop the ‘mister’, sweet lady.”

With a nauseating wink, Rupert put a stop to that with a few self-important words.
Well, he would say something like that. I mean, I did use my usual tone at the meeting.

“Alright, Rupert. And don’t call me ‘lady’. Chris is fine.”

“…Hearing that tone of voice again gives me a thrill.”

Rupert’s expression was a little excited. Is he a pervert? Is that it?
I put a little distance between us.

“Please call me Aira, Mister Rupert.”

“Palmira. Regards.”

Perhaps getting no danger signals from the perv, the other two made their simple self-introductions at this critical moment.
Rupert happily pumped both his fists in the air and said,

“How great is this? Today’s my lucky day. Come on, why don’t we head over to the North Gate?”

–

–

“Excuse me, Mister Rupert, what’s that?”

“Mmm… That’s a water fountain. There’s plenty of water in this city. Is this your first time seeing one, Airi?”

“Yes! It’s my first time! The water’s shooting up, it’s so pretty.”

We walked through the residential quarter to the center of the city. Along the way, country mouse Aira found things she’d never seen before and asked about them. And in response, Rupert diligently answered each of her questions. Before I knew it, Aira and Rupert had gotten excessively close.

Even so, it didn’t necessarily mean he had other things in mind.
By this point, actually, my opinion of Rupert had improved considerably.

Sure, he didn’t seem to take things seriously, based on the way he spoke and behaved, but as walked along leisurely with his hands stuffed in his pockets, he took care to match his pace to ours. The main road, being what it was, was packed with carriages coming and going, but from our point of view, we naturally found ourselves walking along the side of the road.2 And despite all that, I could tell that he was keeping a close eye on our surroundings without breaking from his fairly natural demeanor.
And what’s more, there were no gaps in his defenses.
He looked unarmed to the casual observer, but he had two daggers at his waist and kept his hands stuck in his pockets, almost never moving them away.
Even his ambling walk was a calculated movement in itself.
Was he merely the Second Platoon Commander in spite of all that?

“From here, we’ll be in the trade district. So, where do you want to go, Chris?”

Somehow, Rupert had lost a fair amount of his diffidence towards me too.
Thanks to my tone and att.i.tude, he no longer considered me a target of the opposite s.e.x, right? Well, that was for the best.

The trade district.

Generally, this was the image a city had in the eyes of its outside visitors. By day, stalls upon stalls lined the streets; by night, the taverns filled with hustle and bustle, the lights in the brothels would never go out.
Even when I came here before, it was the same. The first time, it was also when I first set foot on this continent. The second came a few years later. As a result, it was a kind of nostalgic place for me.
And there was the place in this city that I wanted to go to, no matter what.
While showing Aira and Palmira around the city was my primary objective, there was somewhere I personally wanted to go.

“The Adventurers’ Guild,”

I crisply informed Rupert.

Footnotes
1. Just need a check: それに案外何時も挨拶なんかじゃ始まってないぞ ↵
2. Guessed: 自然と俺たちからみて道路側に立って歩いていたりする ↵