The ship swooshed into the port, and a bridge clanked down to connect the ship and the docks. Then, people poured out from inside like a bunch of excited ants.
Among the disembarking passengers, there was one that stood out with exceptionally pale skin and purple hair.
It was Victoria Beth.
With a proud expression, she strutted towards the port, then gasped when she saw me and Polaris. Her eyes were wide with surprise as she laid eyes on Polaris.
Polaris, unable to hold back, darted towards Victoria, looking like a little kid who just found candy because of her height.
“Pol? How did you get here?”
“It’s a miracle that we met like this. So, Tori. Let’s head back to the capital right now.”
Acting as if she didn’t need to hear any other arguments, she grabbed Victoria’s arm and started pulling her towards the ship.
“Pol? Polaris? Wait, it hurts so…”
“Ah… sorry.”
Polaris jumped back, startled, creating quite the scene.
Huh? Talk about a sensitivity overload. Polaris was practically in a half-panic state.
But then Victoria, noticing Polaris’s state while trying to hold back her irritation, cautiously approached and took her hand.
“Are you okay?”
Looking into Victoria’s eyes, I saw that fear was dripping from Polaris’s face. Her expression twisted up like a dam that just burst. But she quickly pushed it all down and clenched her fist.
“I’m fine. Victoria. We need to go back to the capital. Now.”
But that was where their opinions diverged.
Victoria wanted to head to Bern City, while Polaris was all for going back to the capital.
“I didn’t think you would go home alone, Tori.”
“Uh-oh.”
Victoria looked flustered as she stared at Polaris, but Polaris was hell-bent on dragging her along without a word. I mean, just one more word from me, and Victoria looked even more flustered.
The tangled mess only seemed to keep pulling them in opposite directions. So, I stepped in.
“Uh, Bell? How did you end up here?”
“You went home alone without telling me.”
As I said that, I pulled out the note that Victoria had left behind. Victoria avoided my gaze like a pro.
“First, let’s just talk. This ship situation is out of our hands, so let’s stay here for a day. We need time to discuss things.”
Just trying to make sure we could hang around here for as long as possible.
I had predicted a riot and a bloody scene might go down. But I ignored that and pointed towards the village.
Meanwhile, Polaris was staring at me like I was supposed to lend a helping hand.
Yes.
Sorry, but the events about to unfold in Bern City would be quite warm, you know? That warmth would also seep into here.
2:1.
Eventually, Polaris conceded the argument and headed with Victoria to the inn in the village.
They picked a place that was quite far from the village center.
To make matters worse, there wasn’t a big room available, so the three of us squeezed into one tiny space.
The bed was just one. A terribly cramped and musty single room. Yet, we had paid for a double room.
Why? Because there weren’t many leftover rooms in the whole village.
Right now, folks from afar had come to protest and were staying here.
Any inn in a good location or with decent facilities was completely booked up.
So, after entering that room and closing the door, Victoria turned to us and asked.
“Why is Polaris here?”
Ignoring Polaris’s glare, Victoria looked at me and shot the question my way.
“I came looking for you because you left alone.”
“Wait, how did you get here before me then?”
“I took an airship.”
At my words, Victoria seemed to realize something and looked at Polaris wide-eyed.
“No way! Did Pol rent the airship for you?”
“No, the royal family lent it to me.”
Victoria couldn’t help but give me an impressed look. After all, I had connections to the royal family, right?
“Oh, I see. Then take it back. I’m planning to meet my parents and come back.”
“I can’t. The airship suddenly got torn to shreds by a mechanical puppet, and they shot at us with magic! If we stay here, we might really be killed!”
Polaris screamed like she was losing it.
Victoria looked at her with confusion as if trying to process what she just heard.
“Bell, what does that mean?”
Asking for a third-party opinion, huh?
“Someone doesn’t want people entering Bern City. So, they blocked access to the port and roads and aimed to take people down from the sky using mechanical puppets. If that wasn’t enough, they were planning to eliminate anyone with military weapons just in case.”
To sum it all up, that’s what’s happening.
Polaris nodded in agreement to my words and immediately gripped Victoria’s clothes.
“Tori. We have to go back. Those lunatics didn’t hesitate to attack ships with the royal seal. They’re not sane. And with those kinds of weapons, it means the military is blocking this place!”
Thanks to that, the suspicion that the royal family was behind all this had decreased by half.
I had thought they were trying to make us disappear, but if that were the case, they could just handle it at the military base. My name was known, but my actual presence was practically a mystery.
I wasn’t even a particularly outstanding noble, and if I fell dead at the royal hands, no one would bat an eye.
Most importantly, the mechanical puppet.
I could accept that, but what reason was there to kill the crew using one? They could just send in a knight posing as a crew member and take me out.
But instead, they attacked the airship itself and tried to destroy it. It made sense to think there was another group involved.
“So, what? We can’t enter Bern City?”
“Did you see all those people gathered at the front earlier?”
At my question, Victoria nodded slowly. She seemingly remembered seeing them, but maybe not clearly.
“Yeah.”
“They’re protesting because they’re being denied entry to Bern City, just like you want to. They want to be let in.”
At my words, Victoria’s expression scrunched up like an angry potato. Although she seemed to understand what I was saying, she didn’t want to accept it.
“What?”
“You heard me right. It’s dangerous to go in there, Victoria.”
And I knew that this would sound like I was saying that her parents were in danger.
Because I could literally see fire igniting in her eyes.
But it was Polaris who held on to her.
“That’s right, Victoria. For now, let’s go back to the capital. If we bring forth our concerns to the king, we can come back with soldiers. Okay?”
By the way, Polaris looked like a shadow of her former self now.
The confident facade she had shown earlier was completely gone, revealing someone who wanted to run away to the capital. But this was indeed the right thing to do.
Stepping into the flames of hell would be a foolish act.
Sure, she could do it.
“Pol. Let’s head to the capital first. I’ll find my parents. And Bell can come back with me.”
Yes. That made sense.
Victoria would say something like that. With her strong resolve, she thinks only she needs to handle the danger.
To break this cycle, here’s what I could do:
“Are you planning to leave me behind? Morris and Beatrice are likely to take me in. And I can’t bring back the dead, Victoria.”
In the worst case scenario.
If she failed to take me along despite having a chance to save me, Victoria would regret it greatly. And it would be quite obvious which way she would tip the scale—between my danger and her family’s safety.
“Go with me. Bell.”
“Yes. That’s fine.”
That was the right answer.
Meanwhile, Polaris looked at us with a distant expression.
“You guys are gonna end up dead.”
“Rather than regretting not going, I’d rather go and regret it.”
Victoria responded firmly to Polaris’s words. Hearing the words of someone who had faced the worst of circumstances and fought through it, carried heavy weight.
It meant she was ready to risk everything, even if it turned her into a monster.
“Isn’t Bell scared?”
“Polaris Valuin Barrington.”
I would shut down Polaris’s outstretched hand. I was about to shove the merciless reality towards a young girl who couldn’t possibly manage it.
“I am the monster. People should be the ones afraid of me.”
That was the truth. But few would acknowledge that.
And now, our way back was also cut off.
KABOOOM!
From far away, and a bit faster than expected, flames erupted brightly from the center of the village.
Screams and blasts began to fill the now-darkened village. It was easy to guess what had just happened.
The more the protestors gathered, the more soldiers showed up as well. This world didn’t have all its armies owned just by the royal family.
In theory, everything was under royal control, but nobles had their own private armies.
Most of these were referred to as knight orders, but they were different here.
The nobles of Bern City had actual armies, not just knights.
The reason this was permitted is that if the local nobility didn’t possess any soldiers, they’d have a hard time dealing with wild monsters lurking around.
If they restricted that, they were basically saying, “Here, go die to wild monsters.”
So it had been this way for years until the fallout showed its ugly head.
When the royal family asked what was happening there, local nobles could only respond that everything was proceeding normally.
Of course, lies always get found out eventually. So they wouldn’t really lie except when necessary.
If they were saying things were fine, there had to be a reason behind it.
Either they were aligned with the royal family or had something that could counter it.
For instance, those who controlled the industries related to mechanical puppets.
In the faded memories of our world, that would be akin to the international oil companies—massive capital players who sometimes managed to topple histories of government.
“What the heck! What’s going on? Why are there suddenly explosions?”
I looked at Polaris, who was shouting like a maniac, and Victoria, who was trying to calm her down in a panic.
Polaris has hit her breaking point. It’s nearly impossible for anyone to remain calm in such a situation.
Smoke and blasts. Now dark skies filled with the mystical runes appeared in the air.
In this world, even ordinary people could sometimes conjure powerful magic. Living in a village that often faced monster invasions, I’ve learned to wield a weapon decently. There are, of course, some others around who also know how to fight.
When you try to suppress it forcefully, the backlash is even more robust than in the faded memories of my world.
And there were plenty of fallen people around, too.
Hehe.
“Someone’s calling for me, so think twice about running away.”
I left both of them behind and headed straight outside.
It’s time to harvest.
