WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ The Wandering Knight and the Moving Castle ◈

Chapter 24: The Wizard's Invitation

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A little while later, the eagle owl flew off.

“What about you, Karas?”

“There are plenty of places calling for me. I’ll be leaving for Roman soon. I’ve wanted to visit for a long time.”

Though he had not distinguished himself in the trial by combat, Karas was already a famous knight. Even if he had been disowned, he still carried the blood of House Cruise. Countless nobles wanted nothing more than to share a meal with him.

“You must’ve earned quite a bit this time, but you’re leaving already? You could enjoy the city a little longer before you go.”

“The world is too vast to see, even if you wander your whole life. While others are tied to one place, shoveling pig dung, I was lucky enough to be born a noble. Shouldn’t I be grateful for that freedom and wear out my shoes while I’m still young?”

Anyone who called his own bloodline nothing more than good luck had to be an unusual eccentric. Karas, too, was one.

“Then we’ll be parting soon. That’s a shame. They say people part ways just when they’ve grown attached.”

“You’ve grown attached to me?”

Karas turned with a startled look.

“Are you serious? Has the alcohol finally caught up with you?”

“I’m not drunk. Even someone like Cressy can stir a sense of mourning in me. With someone like you, friendship is bound to take root. You’re skilled, and we get along surprisingly well.”

“Hey, hey! Why are you making my skin crawl?”

Despite waving his hands in protest, Karas looked genuinely pleased.

“I’ve only seen deserts and jungles in Samur, so now I should ride across grasslands and climb snow-covered mountain ranges. I’d also like to see the Dwarven Underground Kingdom.”

“That last place is one I definitely want to visit too.”

If Bonyard City had begun as a quarry, the Dwarven Underground Kingdom had begun as a mine.

It was far larger in both population and scale, and its mines were still active.

“Benjamin said I’ll receive a mountain of letters. I hope at least a few of the invitations are worthwhile.”

“Don’t get your hopes up too high. Most of them will flatter you and ask you to fight for free. Gather every letter sent by anyone below a viscount and burn them. That’s advice from experience.”

Karas made a disgusted face, as though he had dealt with such requests many times.

After that, they fell silent, enjoying the night breeze and city lights. Only Karas’s whistled tune, a song from his homeland, echoed through the night.

* * *

The next day, Eugene saw Benjamin off. Benjamin’s face was twisted by a terrible hangover.

“Please take this.”

“Ugh! What is this?”

Benjamin accepted the pill with trembling hands.

“It will ease the dizziness and nausea. Take it with plenty of water. You’ll feel much better.”

“Thank... you.”

Even speaking seemed difficult for Benjamin.

“I-I’m not normally this lacking in self-control.”

He was worried that the knight he had taken a liking to would think poorly of him.

“I understand. I’ll take it as proof of how happy you were about my victory. If anything, it makes me proud of myself.”

“If you ever come near Morad territory, please visit! It’s a promise!”

Benjamin gripped Eugene’s hand firmly and refused to let go until his attendant helped him into the carriage.

“Of course. I’ll gladly drink the wine you gave me.”

Perhaps Benjamin had fallen head over heels for the knight before him, because he had handed over every bottle of House Morad’s wine he had brought.

“Uuuugh!”

Or perhaps he simply thought he would be unable to drink again until he got home.

Eugene waved Benjamin off until the carriage disappeared around the corner.

* * *

A few days later, when Fannis came to visit, Eugene and Homi were sorting through letters. They were proposals that had arrived from every corner after Eugene became a Victor Knight.

“Please come in, Chief Constable.”

“Ah, I’m starting to feel awkward with you speaking so formally to me, Sir.”

Fannis beamed at the sight of the knight treating him no differently despite his newfound fame.

“They arrived sooner than I expected.”

“How many places in this world need martial strength? Naturally, they must hurry if they don’t want someone else to get there first. Ah, thank you.”

Eugene poured Fannis some wine from House Morad.

“I came today to help sort the letters. We need to weed out the useless leeches.”

Fannis picked up one of the sorted letters and read it.

“For example, this one is from House Garm. They’re asking you to eliminate a Bugbear.”

Unlike most monsters, which were all muscle from head to toe, Bugbears had bodies so fat that they appeared morbidly obese.

Yet weight meant strength. A club swung by a creature two heads taller than a human was terrifying.

“Bugbears are famous as monsters knights dislike. Their flesh is so thick that swords and arrows don’t penetrate well. Even when you manage to cut one, the blade gets coated in fat and loses its edge.”

“They treat their swords like lovers, so they can’t help avoiding Bugbears. Why do they enjoy kissing the blade so much?”

Fannis laughed at Eugene’s manner of speaking as if knights were someone else’s concern.

“Still, it’s fairly close, and the payment is decent, so I set it aside. It’s better than requests that appeal only to your honor and ask you to fight for free.”

Eugene could simply beat it to death with his long-handled flail, so it did not sound particularly troublesome.

“Please don’t go. Baron Garm has many debts, and his family is notorious for not paying on time. Mercenaries they cheated out of their wages have raided their villages several times already.”

“...We should throw it away.”

Homi tossed the Bugbear hunting request into the trash.

Wage theft, of all things! Gopri had told Eugene it was common, but coming so close to becoming a victim himself was absurd.

“I know quite a lot about this sort of thing. I’ll select only the worthwhile letters for you.”

“How can I thank you for this?”

Gulp.

Fannis drank the wine and smiled contentedly.

“What wouldn’t I do for you, Sir? Besides, this wine is truly excellent. This alone is enough.”

While filtering out hollow letters, they found an unexpected sender.

“Count Andar? Isn’t he the instigator behind this trial by combat?”

“What a shameless man!”

Fannis trembled as he looked at the letter’s seal. He wanted to tear it apart on the spot, but he did not dare do so before Eugene had read it.

“If you wish, Chief Constable, you may tear it up or burn it.”

“Whew. I’ll be grateful just for the thought.”

The sheer audacity of provoking a fight, then sending an invitation to a knight on the opposing side. Fannis was thankful that Eugene understood his feelings even then.

When Eugene broke the seal, the contents were exactly as expected. Count Andar wished to invite the great warrior to his estate and entertain him.

“He must be planning some kind of trap.”

“He didn’t seem like that sort of person.”

Eugene remembered the noble warrior raising a toast with a hearty laugh even after losing.

As a fellow warrior, Eugene had a feeling. Rather than plotting a petty scheme, Andar seemed like the sort to curse at someone’s face and raise an axe.

“I have no intention of going right now.”

For the moment, it was better to firmly make Bonyard City his ally.

‘He doesn’t seem like the kind of man who’d sulk if I said I’d visit later.’

Count Andar was straightforward and generous. Whenever Eugene visited, he would likely welcome him.

“Still, Count Andar showed no displeasure despite losing.”

“The tribute Bonyard City sends him is nothing but pocket change. Rivers flow throughout his territory, and he earns enormous sums through trade. It was the other lesser nobles allied with him who were desperate over their interests.”

That was also why sea raiders had targeted Gord territory more often than Barsia in the past.

Large and small rivers connected to the sea spread across it like the veins of a leaf, making trade by ship flourish.

Those rivers also hindered Barsia from charging in with its powerful cavalry.

There was even a joke that if one searched the bottom of any river in Gord, they would find at least one skull with protruding fangs.

They continued sorting through the letters, looking for invitations worth more than a one-time payment. Invitations that might offer a fief or something equivalent in return.

“Hmm.”

“Huh?”

By that standard, not a single letter remained.

“Influential houses will call for you soon! I’m sure of it!”

Fannis could hardly believe there was not even one invitation from a count-ranked noble.

His gaze drifted to Count Andar’s letter. He looked as though he was considering changing his mind even now.

“That may be so. Besides, this matter is tied to the defeat of the Margrave of Gord. Many nobles may be watching their step.”

“Y-yes, of course. Whether through wealth or strength, he is an influential figure in this region.”

Count Andar himself did not seem to care in the slightest, but others could easily misunderstand and assume he was furious.

Eugene patted Fannis on the shoulder and sent him on his way.

There was plenty of time. With his abilities, Eugene would have other opportunities, so there was no need to rush.

“Did I expect too much? I thought people everywhere would be eager to invite me.”

- We’re at the edge of the continent. It will take time for your reputation to spread.

Homi wrote her response as she learned letters from Eugene while sorting through the mail. Her handwriting was an odd mix of roundness and crookedness, unbearably cute.

Perhaps to comfort Eugene, another letter arrived late that night.

The messenger, however, was highly unusual.

Whoooom!

An eagle owl flew in and settled on the windowsill.

“You’re the one from before?”

It was the one that had glided over the balcony on the night of the banquet. A letter was tied to its ankle. Eugene had never even heard of someone sending letters by a bird of prey, much less an eagle owl, instead of a pigeon or crow.

The owl calmly entered the room and hopped onto the table.

Tap. Tap.

Then it tapped the table with its claws, as if telling Eugene to take the letter.

“What in the world are you?”

There was no caution in its yellow eyes, only the clear intention of making him take it quickly.

When Homi tried to aim her crossbow, Eugene stopped her. She pointed at its claws and mimed a bite with a snap of her hand.

Having lived at the foot of the mountains, she knew well how dangerous eagle owls were. Their large talons were strong enough to crush a fox in one strike. This one was far larger than an ordinary specimen as well.

“It doesn’t look like it intends to attack.”

Eugene slowly approached with both hands raised to show that he meant no harm.

The owl looked at him with half-lidded, pitying eyes.

Tap. Tap.

It once again tapped the table with the foot tied to the letter. It was an arrogant gesture, as if saying it would not scratch him, so he should stop being afraid and take it already.

“All right, all right.”

When Eugene held out his hand, it even lifted its foot to make the knot easier to undo. Who had trained it this well?

He learned the answer soon enough.

“That’s an unusual seal.”

In this era, letters were sealed by dripping red wax onto the envelope and pressing a seal into it.

This letter’s seal, however, was shaped like lips, as if someone had applied rouge and kissed it.

When Eugene touched the seal with his finger, the lips moved.

< O knight who holds mysteries >

A voice like a whisper on the wind.

‘!!!’

Homi jumped in surprise and rushed over.

“It’s all right. Calm down.”

The voice was distorted because it did not come from vocal cords, but it was clearly that of a young woman.

After the brief greeting, the seal drifted away like a dandelion seed and disappeared.

“Was it sent by a mage? How fascinating.”

Whoooom!

Its delivery complete, the eagle owl departed. It slipped into the darkness without the sound of flapping wings. It truly was the king of the night.

Eugene sat on the edge of his bed and unfolded the letter. It was written in Continental common script.

‘I, Varda of the Emerald Forest, send this message.

I have heard your name, praised by the city. I offer my respect for your splendid victory and honor.

But that is only half of your true nature. I am certain that it was you who prayed in a remote village not long ago.

I speak of the Eucharist, so magnificent that it seemed capable of holding God’s flesh and blood within our world.

Someone precious to me has become terribly weak. No medicine or magic has worked, but your blessing may be different.

So, clutching at this fragile hope, I invite you. Seek the mansion at the heart of the Emerald Forest.

I, too, will repay your help with a reward worthy of it.

I look forward to meeting you soon. My precious one does not have much time left.’

That was the end of the letter.

Its direct tone and elegant handwriting made the sender seem like a young lady who had received a strict education.

The magnificent Eucharist mentioned in the letter must have referred to the time Eugene blessed a field mouse’s blood and gave it to Maria.

Yet only Eugene knew of it, and he had told Homi about it directly. How could a mage living in the forest know?

“Either way, she must be an exceptional mage.”

Excitement made Eugene’s heart pound.

The mage had not come to the city, but she had invited him to her residence instead. Eugene’s wish had come true in an even better form.

Footnotes:

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