NOVEL NEXT chapter 29
29 – The Great and Beautiful Tower (3)
As far as I know, a baron is a noble of a certain rank.
If my memory is correct, it will definitely be a great fortune.
I should wake Liana up and get moving immediately.
At that moment, Liana, who had turned her back towards me and was lying down, opened her mouth.
“Eruga-nim, what are you doing?”
“Are you awake?”
“What are you doing right now?”
“I’m touching your chest.”
“Why?”
“Because it feels good to be gentle.”
Liana slowly raised her hand and pushed my hand down.
“Since you’re not familiar with dragons, I’ll show you.”
“What are you showing me?”
Liana opened the sleeping bag and sat up.
Her hair was disheveled and her face was swollen, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.
With that face, Liana looked down at me.
“Touching someone else’s chest usually requires permission.”
“Oh… Is that so…? I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay. You’re a dragon, so you might not know.”
She gave me a cute smile and went out of the sleeping bag.
I could hear rustling sounds, as if she was starting to prepare for the morning.
Well then, should I get up and tidy up the sleeping bag?
As I stood up, I felt something damp on the floor.
The spot where Liana had been lying, or rather, the sleeping bag around her buttocks, was wet.
Could it be that she peed…?
But judging by the lack of smell, it didn’t seem like urine.
What is it? Did she spill water while drinking at night?
* * * * *
After eating the tasteless stew, I sat down for a moment, basking in the firelight, and spoke to Rihanna.
“By the way, Rihanna. I suddenly remembered something about Count Gorda.”
“What is it?”
“Do you remember the wall poster about the recruitment for the mission to obtain the relic of the Tussenu noble family?”
“Did it mention Count Gorda…?”
Rihanna rolled her big eyes and pondered, but it didn’t come to mind.
“What did it say?”
“It was a wall poster recruiting people to bring back the artifact from Cape Tower.”
“Hmm…? Oh! That’s right! Really!”
Finally, it came to her, and Rihanna clapped her hands and became excited.
“That’s right! He was a noble from the Kingdom of Tarda! My goodness! Erna, you have such a sharp mind!”
“If the Count himself made such a proposition, he must be willing to pay a considerable amount. What do you think?”
Rihanna nodded enthusiastically.
“Yes, yes! Nobles are wealthy, after all. The commission fee alone would be tremendous. But…”
“But?”
“If the Count is of such high status, he must have plenty of soldiers. So why would he go through the trouble of advertising and spending money on outsiders?”
That’s a valid point.
There are probably two reasons for that.
First, it could be an illegal activity that he can’t involve his subordinates in, like theft.
Second, it could be extremely dangerous, so he’s using outsiders.
“It seems like Eurga’s guess is correct. Or maybe it could be both.”
“Anyway, shall we go and see?”
“Of course. The more dangerous it is, the more money we can make.”
That’s right. Liana moves for money.
I wonder how frustrating it must have been for her to be forced to become a saint just because she has divine power.
Perhaps she was expelled for being truly busty and slender.
Or maybe she touched the temple’s money.
But whether that’s the case or not, she’s cute, pretty, and hardworking, so I don’t really care.
As long as she fulfills her role as a guide, that’s all that matters.
* * * * *
We packed up our campsite and headed east.
We were confident that if we went east, we would come across something near the western border of the kingdom.
And our judgment was correct, as we continued to drive and a wide road appeared before us, completely different from the narrow dirt paths we had been traveling on until yesterday.
Liana admired the road, saying, “If we follow this road, we should be fine. Most of these well-maintained roads lead to cities.”
“As expected of our guide.”
“hehehe. With just this much.”
As we ran along the road, braving the cold wind, something caught my eye up ahead.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a thick smoke rising high into the sky.
“Eurga, over there.”
“I can see it. Hmm. Looks like a fire in a small village.”
Smoke rose from a cluster of modest, low houses, and people on horseback were bustling around.
Riana’s expression turned sour as she listened to my explanation.
“It seems like a fight broke out. We need to help the victims.”
“Are they fighting against another territory?”
“Or maybe they’re simply being raided by a gang of bandits.”
To avoid getting involved, we took a detour and went around.
As we passed by, we saw humans who had been dragged out of the village being struck down by the swords of the mounted humans.
“They’re killing them without mercy, Riana.”
“Are they really just raiding…?”
Riana stopped speaking and turned back towards the village.
“Don’t we have to go and help?”
“Well…”
“I don’t know for sure, but isn’t it usually an unfair situation when many humans are killed unilaterally?”
Humans kill each other.
They die in battles and are killed unilaterally.
Cases of unilateral killings can be divided into majority killing minority, minority killing minority, and minority killing majority.
Among them, there are situations like a brave unit facing a large army.
However, as far as I know, the only reasons for armed minorities killing unarmed majorities are massacres or other negative motives.
There are hardly any instances where the fair common sense and ethics of the human world apply.
If we follow this logic, then the sight we are witnessing right now is abnormal, and from a human moral perspective, it is a bad thing.
Although that moral perspective does change from time to time, it is at least based on universally valid criteria.
Liana, who had been contemplating for a moment, raised her head.
“No, please don’t go, Sir Erga.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t know who is good or bad. It might not necessarily be a clear distinction between good and evil, but everyone’s circumstances could be intertwined. We might only worsen the situation by intervening.”
“For example?”
“That village could be where rebellious peasants live, or they could have committed crimes as a group.”
“But they are unarmed.”
Liana said, looking at me meaningfully.
“The weak side isn’t necessarily good, Sir Erga. Being strong doesn’t automatically mean being bad either.”
“Is that so?”
“Sir Erga, you are stronger than anyone I know, but you are not a bad person. On the contrary, you are a good person.”
Liana looked at the village, hearing screams and crude obscenities, with a bitter expression.
“Of course, those people riding horses could be thieves and bad people. But then what? If we intervene and temporarily subdue the situation, is that the end of it? We might get entangled in complicated matters. And the problem is…”
Liana said, holding the reins of her words.
“In the future, we will encounter many situations like this. Will you help every time? Or will you let some situations pass? What is the criteria?”
“Is that so?”
“We need clear criteria for our actions. But what is right or wrong, bad or good, depends on the person.”
“Then what is your criteria?”
“It’s money.”
It didn’t sound like a joke.
Riana was very serious.
“A gold coin’s value doesn’t change, no matter who looks at it. One gold coin is worth ten silver coins, no matter where you go in the world. If someone receives one gold coin and gives nine silver coins in return, that person is a bad person.”
I understood.
Gold coins have an immutable value that is universally recognized.
But the standards for distinguishing good from evil are all different.
What someone considers a trivial act, can be an extremely wicked deed to someone else.
What I am doing now, rushing in the name of justice and killing all those people, could actually be a despicable act.
It doesn’t mean that I judge everything in the world based on money, but rather that it is difficult to judge and distinguish something to that extent.
Therefore, it means using the universally recognized value of gold coins as a measure to see everything.
I thought she was just a materialistic person who only cared about money, but did she have such meaning…?
“I understand, Riana.”
“You’re really smart, aren’t you?”
Riana smiled and turned her head.
“Don’t take it to heart too much, Lord Eurga. Just think about it this way. Even those armed men have families they love.”
“On the other hand, the people dying also have families they love.”
“Can Lord Eurga determine which love is more valuable and precious?”
I had no answer to that.
“We’re neither gods nor judges. We’re travelers from another country who wander after money. No one will blame us for being indifferent, and we have no obligation to intervene.”
“You’re right, Rihanna.”
We continued running eastward, leaving behind the burning village.
While running, Rihanna pondered over her words.
* * * * *
Fortunately, we were able to reach the city with the castle before sunset.
The atmosphere in the city was quite different from Tuscany’s vineyards.
Armed soldiers lined up, heading somewhere, and carts loaded with grain passed by us narrowly.
“Are they preparing for a territorial war…”
Rihanna murmured, trembling and hunching her shoulders.
The early evening wind was sharp like a sword, so Rihanna insisted we go to an inn to secure a room.
“It’s cold… Too cold… I want to bathe in warm water quickly…”
“Let’s go right away. I’m also hungry.”
As we entered the inn, a staff member welcomed us.
“We have a room with two beds and warm bathwater.”
The staff member seemed hesitant at Rihanna’s words.
“Perhaps you should take a single room with one bed or use a dormitory.”
“Hmm. Is that so? Then just give us a single room.”
With plenty of gold coins in our bags and even belongings from the wyvern’s nest, we always used separate rooms.
So, as usual, Rihanna chose a single room.
Booking two single rooms would cost a lot of money.
“Can we take a bath?”
“Yes, we can. Would you like to eat first or take a bath first?”
“I’ll take a bath first.”
After unpacking our luggage in the room and locking the door, we went downstairs to the first floor.
Most human inns have a makeshift bathhouse behind the inn.
Just as Liana and I were about to go in, a staff member reached out his hand.
“If you use a separate bathtub, each person has to pay. It requires twice the amount of firewood.”
“Oh…? It costs twice as much…?”
Liana glanced at me for a moment and then looked at the staff member.
“Then, if we share one, do we only have to pay for one person?”
“That’s right.”