Miracle Silver Coin
The armor was black, yet paradoxically shiny. The black handle hanging from the waist was a rapier beautifully decorated.
[When dealing with a guy with a sharp sword, you have to look at his legs.]
I naturally checked the man’s feet. Seeing that even his feet were covered with iron, it seemed that the Fener family really had a lot of money.
Next, I checked the other person’s eyes. Deep and clear eyes, confidence was visible behind the friendly gaze. The man’s eyes were also scanning me here and there. He was not a sloppy person, but a proper knight with blood on his hands.
‘It’s going to be difficult.’
I habitually estimated my chances against my opponent, but it was hard to predict my chances of winning. In this case, I would have to actually fight to find out, but it didn’t seem like it would end well.
“thank you.”
He bowed his head and expressed his gratitude. The other person was a knight of semi-noble birth. There was no need to strain his neck.
‘Why is the knight of Fener here?’
I remembered the story I had heard from Hannah, but if a knight from the House of Fener had entered, there was no way I wouldn’t have known.
“You don’t have to be so polite. Your sword is so clean that I found myself applauding.”
“Sir Ben, what are you doing here! What are you going to do if the escort knight leaves me behind?”
“Miss Vivian is right!”
At that moment, two women appeared next to the man. Among them, the one with the rich blond hair and brown hood caught my attention for a moment. White skin without any blemishes, lively expression, and facial features that looked like a painting. The woman seemed to draw everything around her.
It was a face that anyone staying at Cassidy Castle could not help but recognize.
‘Vivian? Why is the lord’s daughter here?’
As soon as I realized who my opponent was, I got down on one knee. The wet mud felt uncomfortable, but I could bear it.
“Haam… didn’t I say that it was difficult for me to walk around this early in the morning?”
“But, it’s only now, before Father wakes up! And you promised! Even though you slept in thirty minutes! Huh? And this person?”
“I saw you passing by, and I was watching you because you were so good at swordsmanship. But isn’t that your last name?”
The man asked with a playful voice, smiling.
“I… I don’t know all of our last names! Of course, I’m trying to memorize them, but….”
From what I could hear of their conversation, it seemed like the man was the young lady’s escort.
‘Why is the knight of the Fener family escorting you?’
Knights were very precious beings. Knights who could handle the aura were human, but they were beings who transcended human limitations. They were called the sword of humanity that could fight against demons, and it was difficult to put a price on them. It was so much so that there was even a saying that knights had no enemies but other knights.
‘Of course, if you cut his neck before taking out the aura, he’ll die.’
There were two such noble knights at the Castle of Cassadick, and four at the House of Fener. To assign one of them as an escort… It could be seen that the House of Fener had invested a great deal in this young lady.
“This is Aaron, the leader of the 4th company of the Foreign Guard.”
“Ah, it’s you, Aaron! Training before dawn… It’s thanks to your efforts that Castle Cassidy is safe. I express my gratitude on behalf of the Pulpouts family.”
Vivian, who had been pouting until just now, suddenly hardened her expression and bowed her head deeply.
I was momentarily dumbfounded by her actions, which I could never have imagined a noble would do, and then quickly knelt on the other knee. My center of gravity was now more or less aligned.
“Ahahaha! Don’t you feel burdened when you say that, Miss? What a mischievous prank!”
“That… that’s not it… I’m just sincerely grateful…! Ah! You can get up! The floor is all mud…!”
“Miss! Your clothes are getting dirty. Sir Ben! Stop fooling around!”
Soon the man began to laugh loudly, and Vivian blushed and pouted. The woman in light armor glared at the man, then brushed the dirt off Vivian’s clothes.
“If we get any later, it will be time for the lord to wake up, so shouldn’t we hurry and turn around?”
“Ahh! That’s right! I haven’t even been to Mr. Haeson’s bakery yet!”
After a brief moment of noisy atmosphere, Vivian turned around first. A woman wearing shoulder armor stood next to her, looking around with sharp eyes.
“···I definitely thought it was a knight.”
The surroundings became quiet after the man’s subtle emotional muttering.
I got up from my seat a long time after their voices had faded away.
As the day gradually brightened, it was time to go to work.
***
“Haa… Don’t be sleepy.”
Quarter muttered, his eyes half-open, scratching his chin.
I didn’t bother to point it out to him. Pointing it out wouldn’t fix anything, and it’s true that he’s been really busy lately, so it must have been a living hell for the sleep-sensitive Quarter.
“next.”
With a slight gesture, a two-horse carriage slowly approached. Two armed men stood around the carriage with irritated expressions on their faces.
“Oh my, you’ve worked hard, Aaron.”
A familiar man sitting on the coachman’s seat took off his hat and bowed his head slightly. It was John the coachman. He was a man who traveled between castles supplying goods, but this time his cycle was shorter than last time.
“Hasn’t it been a while since you visited?”
“I heard a rumor that people were flocking to Cassidy Castle. So I changed my destination a little bit and brought a lot of things.”
“···Well, there have been a lot of visitors recently. Let me show you some of the items.”
“Yep hehe.”
John jumped down from the stable and walked back with a hurried step, taking down the tarp covering the cart. It was mostly food, like milk and flour. I nodded, and John covered the tarp again.
I gave a signal to Quarter with my chin. Quarter sighed softly and stepped forward.
“Haam… Chief. Just in case, shouldn’t we also check under the cart? I heard that there are cases where people smuggle things under the cart.”
Quarter had an expression on his face that showed he didn’t want to do it, but he still acted realistically. It was an obvious forced action.
Even when checking the items being brought into the castle, they didn’t even open the soles of the carts. If they were to open the soles of all the carts and carriages entering the castle and make a mess of them under the pretext of checking, how many people would want to come to this castle in the outskirts?
Of course, the merchants will find a suitable solution.
“Hmm… I see. Well, he’s been acting a bit grumpy lately. I know John isn’t the type of person to do that, but….”
“Oh my! That’s a given! Of course I should check it out! But my heart is too heavy to add such trouble to our guards who work day and night for the castle.”
As expected of a carriage driver who travels around the castles without a care, he noticed right away and carefully put something in my pocket. It was a shiny silver coin.
“Right? I’m John the coachman, known for his good credit! Trust me! They say that among faith, hope, and murder, faith is the most important.”
“Hehehe. I won’t let you down!”
I laughed, John laughed, and Quarter smiled faintly. How could a single silver coin make such a close relationship? It was indeed the silver coin called the bone of God.
“What are these guys?”
“Ah, these are the mercenaries I rescued from Byzant Castle. There have been quite a few ominous rumors going around recently, so I took the trouble to rescue them. They are hard-working friends who have even registered with the mercenary guild.”
“Ominous rumors?”
“That… there were several incidents of carriage theft around Byzantine Castle. Since carriages of commoners like me disappeared without any affiliation, Charlotte House didn’t really do much of an investigation, so I had no choice but to pay for them myself. There are also rumors that it’s the devil’s doing….”
John spoke in a whisper, looking around. After all, it was a world where all sorts of things happened. The nobles wouldn’t care if a few commoner carriages disappeared.
“I see. Hey! Guys! Stop making faces. You already have a fierce face like a bandit, so wouldn’t people be surprised if you make a face like that? Just smile.”
As I spoke, the two men bit their lips and glared at me, but soon their expressions relaxed and they smiled. They were mercenaries with collars on and it wouldn’t be a big problem to let them in.
“Yeah, our castle is a bit chaotic these days, so be careful of your actions. If you look closely, you’re smiling, smiling brightly! Pass!”
As he waved his hand and stepped aside, John bowed his head and climbed onto the coachman’s bench, slowly driving the carriage forward. The mercenaries next to him followed him, forcing smiles.
After that, I continued my boring work at the gate. Perhaps because it had been raining heavily for several days, the inside of my leather armor was covered in sweat in the humid air.
It was wise to let Hans go. If he had stood there for half a day in this weather, smelling like a corpse, he would have lost consciousness in no time.
Sadly, none of the people he checked after John were friendly visitors. Most were bare-armed tenant farmers, and the rest were women who fed them.
‘I heard that the 3rd group of people made a lot of money during the week, but they’ve been having no luck lately.’
When guarding the city gates with the outer wall guards, receiving bribes from carriage drivers was an unwritten rule among the guards, and a way of survival.
It was as natural, gentlemanly, and sacred as tipping a waiter, and it was the secret to surviving on a meager security guard salary.
Rumor has it that in another castle, some madman failed to recognize the noble emblem and demanded it from a noble carriage, and ended up having his eyes gouged out.
After that, on one side of the guard, the emblems of noble families were painted crookedly. It was also because of this that I recognized the emblem of the Fener family.
After some time, when Quarter was leaning against me and starting to snore loudly, a large carriage approached. I quickly poked Quarter in the side and woke him up. Quarter jumped up and roughly wiped the drool from his mouth.
It was a fairly large carriage for an individual to operate, so I checked around, and found a goblin holding a silver coin drawn on the right side of the carriage where the lantern was attached. It was the symbol on the top of the hat.
A man with a plump appearance, who looked like he might open a bakery, was sitting on the horse’s back. However, he was not the upper class Mozart I knew.
“hello.”
The man who had slowly stopped the carriage took off his stylish fedora and smiled faintly.
With his sad eyes, long sagging cheeks, half-bald hair, and polite demeanor, he had a warm impression and a respectful attitude that naturally gave me peace of mind, but when I looked at him, my mouth felt like it was chewing sand, and I felt uneasy.
“Ah, Dornoah. You’re back again soon.”
The quarter that had been sleeping since a while ago, for some reason, greeted me first with his eyes more than half open. It was strange. It was strange that a guy who didn’t open his eyes even when a beautiful woman passed by greeted me on his own.
“Yes. I went back all the way to get the things I forgot to bring last time. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but my mind is a bit fuzzy. Hehe. By the way, who is this handsome man?”
The man answered softly with a warm voice that matched his appearance and looked at me and asked.
‘He was a good guy.’
I haven’t slept much lately, so I was tired and thought I misunderstood. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, so how could someone with such a wonderful window to the soul be a bad person?
“Ah, this is our team leader, Aaron. Team leader, this is Dornua, who has been assigned to the upper Cassadic branch of Mosak. I found out about him a few days ago when I was working the inspection.”
“You’re the manager! Oh my, you’ve worked hard. It’s thanks to these hard workers that businessmen like us can have a comfortable life.”
The man, who was smiling sadly again, reached out to shake my hand. I didn’t really want to hold his hand, but I quickly grabbed the pocket that was vaguely visible on his palm.
‘He was a good guy.’
The bag I was handed was as thick as the man’s cheek. My face instantly turned pale.
“Ahahaha! It was Dornus Au! You work so hard that your shoulders are all stiff!”
I smiled and rubbed the man’s shoulder. The man tried to pull back, perhaps bewildered by my sudden change in attitude, but he was so fat that he caught me right away. The man’s meat was so soft that I suspected it was the kind of high-quality pork that nobles ate.
“Haha… You don’t have to go this far….”
“Stay still! How could I just pass by and see my tired Dornoah brother!”
‘tattoo?’
As she rubbed the man’s shoulder, the man’s clothes, which at first glance looked luxurious, were pushed back slightly, revealing a tattoo drawn between the man’s nape and shoulder. It was a subtle tattoo that looked like either a spider or a snake.
Tattoos were common enough among mercenaries to have their entire bodies covered in drawings, but there was something about the man’s tattoo that caught his eye. It was like looking into a dark cave…
“Oh my! How dare I get a massage from you, brother!”
At that moment, the man skillfully took my hand and made a sad face. Then, he quietly handed me another pouch, which was just like a dream.
I studied the guy’s face carefully, looking for any similarities with mine. I don’t know who his parents are, but judging by his excellent personality, he could be one of the five who survived after giving birth to ten. Or maybe he’s a half-brother.
‘Are the lip colors somewhat similar?’
It’s a little ambiguous.
“The brother I’ve been looking for is here!”
I wanted to hug him, but no matter how much he was my brother, a handshake was the best I could do. I held his plump hand and shook it several times.
As the wrinkles next to Au’s eyes deepened, Quarter stopped me. Au looked quite embarrassed, as if it was his first time receiving such a strong welcome.
“Did you give me anything back then?”
“···Oh, that’s what you’re talking about. It should be somewhere around here.”
My brother, who had come to his senses at the question of the quarter, searched through his bosom with his usual lively smile. It was funny to see him wearing a suit while pulling a carriage, but I controlled my expression to respect my brother’s taste.
A moment later, what Awoo took out was a small, clear glass bottle containing something like candy inside.
“Oh, thank goodness. I ate this and slept so soundly that I didn’t even dream. As soon as I closed my eyes, it was the next day. How much did it cost?”
“Haha, what price does it cost between us? And since it costs almost nothing, you can take it without any burden.”
The man stubbornly refused to pay the quarter. He was so desperate that it seemed as if the man might have been cursed to die if he took the money.
In the end, Quarter took the glass bottle without paying for it. That was the first time I saw Quarter smile brightly.
Judging by the similarity in lip color, it was definitely my brother, but I still had to pretend, so I opened the carriage door. Then, I had to hold my nose at the overwhelming stench.
The large carriage was filled with dead goat carcasses with their tongues bitten off. They hadn’t even skinned them or drained their blood, as the floor of the carriage was soaked with blood.
“Ugh, it stinks… Oww, if you drag it around like this, the meat will go bad and the carriage will go bad too. You’ll have to pull it around on a separate cart or something.”
“Ah, that’s… a butcher I knew recently got kicked by a horse he thought was dead and couldn’t get up… but I couldn’t let the meat spoil, so I brought it here in a hurry.”
My younger brother hesitated for a moment, then explained with a sad smile. A butcher who died after being kicked by a corpse… It was a story that would get you cursed at even if you told it at a drinking party.
“Anyway, let’s go in and take care of this as quickly as possible. If we keep doing this, that luxurious lady’s body will smell bad. Women are so sensitive to smells, and if that fat body smells bad too… it’s horrible.”
“Fat···? Okay··· Okay, I understand.”
My brother nodded with a subtle expression, then slowly drove the carriage back inside.
A while later, another group of kids came to take their place, their faces filled with irritation. Suddenly, I felt better and said a few words of encouragement to them.
“Ah! Just go! How can a gentleman just go!”
I turned around, satisfied with the sight of the bastard blushing and spitting.
“Then fuck off.”
As always, the moment of changing shifts was the most enjoyable.
