After the arduous journey, I finally reached the main flow of the Rhine River, but that didn’t mean I could get my hands on the hidden piece right away.
“Uh, is that so…?”
“Yeah. We’ve arrived at the Rhine River, but this is still Hervor’s territory. We have to go further down.”
To get to the hidden dungeon, ‘Ruins Beneath the River,’ we had to travel a lot further into the territory of the Kingdom of Rhine.
Would it take about two days by land? That was my rough estimate, anyway.
Of course, crossing the border by land would be impossible.
I mean, it’s not like it’s some random country—this is the Kingdom of Rhine, where Brunhilde would hit you hard from behind if she got the chance!
Even stepping a toe across would immediately get me detected, causing a huge uproar. The elite border guards would swarm in to arrest or kill me on the spot!
So, Friede and I had no choice but to take another route.
To be specific…
“…You want us to rent a boat?”
“Y-yes… that’s right. Our lady wishes to go see the Rhine River by boat. W-we’ll pay whatever it costs.”
So we’d just float along the waterway, huh?
◆◆
At the southern edge of Hervor’s territory, there was a small town by the mouth of the Rhine River. Its name was probably Krepfelt?
The place was small enough that they didn’t even have proper stone walls, just wooden palisades, but it wasn’t a complete backwater either… you know, just your average small town vibe.
Anyway, we spent the night by the riverbank and walked into the town the next morning, passing through the wooden palisade.
It wasn’t difficult. Unless we planned to hide out here permanently, we could come and go freely.
Just think about it—would a tiny town without any walls be strict on inspections? Definitely not.
There was a guard at the entrance, but when I slipped him a coin, he opened the gate without asking a thing. Just like the original description!
Making a decent side income on top of a basic salary while half-assing his job? No doubt about it, he must have hit the jackpot in life!
Seeing him land such a sweet gig, I wondered if he had saved a kingdom in his previous life. Meanwhile, I probably sold my country out to the enemy!
Anyway, that’s how we snuck into the town.
Of course, if that guard had seen my real face, he wouldn’t just let us through; he’d blow a whistle and cause a ruckus. My bounty was posted right behind the palisade, after all.
‘…If he had seen me, that is.’
But such a thing didn’t happen.
Why, you ask? Because…
Swish.
“…Ugh, this dress is really uncomfortable!”
Right now, I was dressed up from head to toe in a completely different outfit from usual.
Instead of my worn armor and padded clothing, I was now wearing a luxurious dress like a noble lady, my long flowing hair pinned up, completely covered by a hat and veil.
Anyone could tell I was just a noble girl on a trip to sightsee the Rhine River. Except for the unusual fact that I had no bodyguards.
“Uh, still… you do look good in that. Lady Grimild.”
Friede, who was holding my hand, quietly said with a smile. She wore a modest dress reminiscent of a maid’s instead of armor and a cloak.
“Yeah, I guess it does look good.”
I lowered my gaze and sighed as I looked down at my waist.
This extravagant noble-style dress was something I had asked Friede to prepare in advance for this little disguise. It looked pretty, but wearing it was seriously uncomfortable.
The corset wasn’t much of an issue since it fit perfectly, but… I had some complaints about the design.
Friede had just picked something suitable, but it was, after all, a dress in this world, and the design was quite bold.
An off-shoulder dress that left my collarbone, shoulders, upper chest, and shoulder blades fully exposed.
It felt like every passerby in the city was glancing at my chest and back, and every time a cold breeze brushed between my breasts, I couldn’t help but flinch.
With every gust of wind, my chest would jiggle, making me think my bare chest might just pop out of my dress. Ugh, seriously, it was stupidly uncomfortable.
And then there was the skirt.
What the hell was up with this flowing, wide skirt? I felt like I was wrapping myself in a curtain around my waist.
To make matters worse, with a huge opening below, it felt like someone was brushing my thigh every time the wind blew, just like the upper part.
Do noble ladies really walk around in clothes like this?
Did they put some tin plate on their face or something? How on earth can they tolerate such bothersome and uncomfortable clothing?
Honestly, I began to respect those noble ladies I had never even met before.
◆◆
“Sig, how long do I have to wait? I’m getting a bit bored.”
“Ah, yes! I’m sorry, Lady Grimild! I’ll do my best to find a boat as quickly as possible!”
“Good, hurry up. I sneaked out for a walk without Dad knowing, and I can’t waste time here.”
Friede and I pretended to be a noble lady and her personal maid as we wandered the town.
I was the spoiled noble lady Grimild, tired of her overprotective father, sneaking out to see the Rhine River, and Friede was the flustered little maid who couldn’t stop her.
That was our concept.
Given that we had passed through the wooden palisade safely, we really didn’t need to be acting this hard… but you never know. You’ve got to be thorough!
During these times, it would raise suspicion for a young woman with her face veiled to stroll around the streets without a guard, but if she were a noble lady sneaking out, it was a different story. Little escapades were not that uncommon around here.
Usually, they’d get caught quickly and sent back home, right?
If luck was against them, they’d get robbed or caught by some lowly thugs in dark alleys, and worse, they could lose their lives entirely.
Well, that’s only natural.
Even for me, a knight dressed in armor, just walking around alone meant I could run into robbers or rapists almost daily, right?
And these noble ladies, dressed in ridiculously expensive yet utterly useless gowns, had no way to deal with such threats.
It didn’t even take a gang of robbers—just one thug meeting them would turn them into a laughingstock immediately.
Although for me, it was the assailants whose lives ended up getting canceled!
Anyway, Friede and I pretended to be the lady and her maid, strolling through Krepfelt.
We wandered until we came across an old man with a small fishing boat, puffing on a pipe, along a tributary of the Rhine running through the town.
“Sig, my legs are getting tired. Let’s just buy that boat over there.”
As I spotted the old man, I feigned a whiny tone, annoyed. No need to wander around more.
I had only told Friede I was thinking of finding a boat in this town, but honestly, I wasn’t even interested in anyone other than that old man.
The old man himself wasn’t particularly special.
The retired fisherman Mainz.
If this were a game, his name would probably pop up over his head.
He looked like he had a tragic backstory hidden behind a serious face, but that was only appearances.
This old man was just a poor retired fisherman, troubled because his granddaughter was sick and he was debating selling his boat for medical expenses.
As the possessed protagonist in the novel once lamented, he had tried swinging a sword at this seemingly intriguing character, only for the old man to drop dead with a gulp, leaving him utterly flabbergasted.
And that’s why, for us now, he was the perfect candidate.
Given his financial struggles, just throwing some money would get him to hand over the boat without asking any questions.
In fact, no one but this old man was willing to lend us a boat.
What kind of sane person would nod along when two strangers wanted to become passengers? We were outright asking to borrow a boat!
Even worse, we needed to ask to buy it entirely!
If we just wanted to rent for a day, that might be one thing, but we were planning to ride the river straight into the Kingdom of Rhine!
Wanting to borrow a boat under such circumstances was like renting a car and then vanishing with the vehicle. Honestly, that would be outright theft!
So I told Friede to negotiate for buying a boat outright instead of borrowing. It might cost a bit more, but it was better than stealing.
Was it a matter of conscience?
Well, somewhat, but more than that, if we stole a boat, someone would call the guards immediately.
Once the guards started investigating the situation, our flimsy disguise would be exposed in no time.
Rumors about Brunhilde stealing a boat and fleeing down the Rhine would spread within the Kingdom of Rhine, not just to Hervor.
That’s why the best course of action here was to persuade Grandpa Mainz to sell us the boat at a reasonable price.
And so we did.
“It’s fine if you want to sell the boat, but… judging from your appearance, young lady, I assume you’re that noble lady’s maid. You two aren’t really thinking of taking the boat out on the river alone, are you?”
“Um… yes, but… is there a problem?”
Old man Mainz agreed to sell the boat but sighed deeply when we revealed our intention to take it out on the river alone.
“Problem? You call that a question? You’re trying to become fish bait, aren’t you? Do you even know how to steer a boat?”
A noble lady and her maid setting out together on a small boat? His face said it all, questioning our sanity.
I was wearing noble attire, so he might be cautious with his words, but otherwise, he would’ve probably shouted something foul at us.
“I do know! I’ve steered a boat a few times before.”
Of course, Friede seemed unaffected by his demeanor. She nodded calmly, straightforwardly declaring she could steer.
Ah, in reality, Friede did know how to navigate a small boat. While planning our little river venture, I had been worried since I never had steered a boat before, but she insisted I could just leave it to her.
Probably a story from her days with the hero party.
Just because the hero party spent most of their time stuck in underground dungeons didn’t mean they never traveled by boat to cross some rivers every now and then.
“Ahem, well then… seems like you’ve learned more than expected.”
Old man Mainz nodded without pressing further.
It was a bit surprising. Honestly, I thought he wouldn’t believe it at all.
Common sense tells you no one would believe a young girl under twenty could steer a boat.
He’d probably think it was just a boastful claim.
The old man must have known how much his granddaughter’s illness weighed on him.
He probably intended to give a warning, but seeing our looks, he decided not to dig deeper, recognizing that the chance was slipping away, so he let it slide.
After all, a noble lady’s life was worth less than his granddaughter’s.
Of course, if a true noble lady were to buy his boat and then drown, Mainz would end up getting executed on the grounds of selling the boat too.
He probably never met a real noble in his life, so he hadn’t considered that far.
Anyway, we finally managed to secure a boat! We had to spend a significant portion of what we had saved up, though.
If we had been renting, it might have been fine, but to buy it outright needed more money than we expected. Pretending to be nobles meant we didn’t even haggle over the price.
Because of that, we had to pay a whole gold coin for a small fishing boat that only holds three people.
…I can’t help but wonder. That old man, he didn’t just rip us off, did he?
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.