Ch.35The City of Three Magic Towers. Ortus (1)

“Finally, we’ve arrived. The city of Ortus with its three magic towers.”

We all stood in awe, staring at the three magic towers that seemed to pierce the sky and the stone walls encircling them below, creating a striking contrast.

I thought that the walls of Rascal would probably be no more than a fence compared to these walls, and we waited in line behind the procession of carriages and travelers ahead of us.

“This is where we part ways.”

“Yes. Thank you so much for everything. If we hadn’t met you, my lord, I don’t know what would have happened…”

What would have happened? They would have died.

Thinking this, I recalled once more the “Boiled Lamb” inn where they planned to stay, as the queue gradually began to shorten.

Finally, our turn came, and we approached the guards with expressions like country bumpkins visiting the city for the first time.

“Halt.”

The guard raised his hand to stop our entry.

The wives and children dismounted, and the heads of the families stepped forward to explain their situation.

“…and so, we’ve come to visit our cousin.”

“Hmm… Very well. Pass through!”

After they passed, I remained on horseback, looking down at the guards.

Seemingly uncomfortable with being looked down upon, one of the guards subtly signaled with his eyes for me to dismount, but with my aching legs, I decided to ignore his gaze.

“Your name?”

“Victor.”

“Victor who?”

“I’m an orphan. I have no surname.”

“An orphan, you say… Do you have anything to prove your identity?”

I took out my adventurer’s license from my breast pocket and handed it over. The guard accepted it, put on a monocle, and examined the license carefully.

“Not a forgery. Pass through!”

Thus, I passed the entry inspection under the guard’s scrutinizing gaze, and putting the returned adventurer’s license back in my pocket, I entered Ortus.

*

So this is Ortus…

Clop… Clop… Clop…

“Prrrr!”

“Oh, come to think of it, you must be starving after several days. Wait just a bit. I’ll find an inn soon.”

I had no particular intention of visiting the Boiled Lamb inn.

Small inns often didn’t have stables, which made it awkward for someone like me with a horse to stay there.

Feeling my horse weakening beneath me after nearly four days without food, I began looking around for an inn.

However, seeing only shops and no inns in sight, I thought of the letter addressed to the Spell School’s magic tower and decided to ask a passerby.

“You there, a moment.”

“Huh..? Me?”

“Yes, you. Is there a decent inn near the Spell School’s magic tower? One with a stable.”

“Ah… If that’s what you’re looking for, if you circle around the magic tower, you’ll find the ‘Greenhouse Inn.'”

“Greenhouse…?”

“Yeah. As the name suggests, there’s a greenhouse on top of the inn. Should be easy to find. Well, I’ll be going…”

Greenhouse.

I’d seen them a few times in Parcival.

They were semi-cylindrical structures made of glass where, if you lit a fire inside to raise the temperature and planted crops, you could get fresh vegetables even in the cold winter—a remarkable structure.

“Greenhouse Inn… Interesting.”

It must weigh a ton, so placing it on the ceiling would be evidence of the building’s sturdiness.

Perhaps they had taken magical measures as well.

I decided to find lodging at the inn before dealing with the dimensional storage and the request, and headed toward the Spell School’s magic tower that seemed to be watching me from afar.

*

“There really is a greenhouse…”

I could faintly see plants growing inside the elongated glass structure rising above.

With the magic tower right next door, perhaps they were cultivating herbs used in experiments?

Full of curiosity, I guided my horse to the stable attached to the inn.

Clank!

“Welcome!”

As the stable door opened, a groom working inside bowed to me.

I dismounted and handed the reins to the groom, saying:

“Feed this horse well.”

“It’s one silver coin, is that alright?”

“One silver coin here… Well, fine.”

I took out a silver coin and tossed it to the groom, who caught it skillfully, tied the reins, and began struggling to move a feed trough slightly taller than himself.

I watched this as I entered the inn, and upon entering, a strange fragrance began to fill my lungs.

“Hmm?”

*Inhale deeply… Exhale…*

I call it a fragrance rather than a smell because it wasn’t unpleasant—it was something like the scent of grass or herbs that filled the inn.

Feeling slightly elevated, I took a seat, and soon a female server who looked like a spell caster approached me.

“What would you like?”

“Do you have any recommendations?”

“Hmm… We’re still serving the breakfast set, would you like that?”

“What’s in the breakfast set?”

“Onion flower fritters, cube steak… and a mug of lager to drink.”

“I’ll have that, then.”

Onion fritters are onion fritters, but why call them flowers?

Do they fry flowers with them?

And what’s cube steak? Do they cut the steak into squares?

I had many questions, but since I wouldn’t know without trying, I gave her one silver coin.

“Will ya be stayin’?”

“Just one night for now, and please prepare bath water.”

“That’ll be another silver coin, then.”

“Here.”

I’d already spent three silver coins since entering this inn.

For someone extremely frugal, one silver coin could last a week, so I’d essentially spent the equivalent of 30 days’ worth of money.

“Sigh… About that letter…”

With only the Spell School’s magic tower listed as the address, I was suddenly faced with having to search the entire tower.

Had I known the tower would be this large, I wouldn’t have accepted this request, but since my destination happened to be Ortus, I took it without much thought, which was the problem.

“Here ya go! First, a mug of lager!”

Just then, the server with the rough manner of speaking brought me the lager, and I called her back.

“Excuse me, a moment.”

“Hm? Additional order?”

“No, not that… Do you happen to know a spell caster named Marein Chasen? I need to deliver a letter, but I don’t know where he lives…”

“Ah~ That person?”

When she said that, my expression brightened.

Though I wasn’t sure, I thought if even an ordinary inn server knew him, he would be easy to find.

However, my assumption was wrong in an unexpected way.

“Dad!!!”

“Huh?”

“Hey, girl! Watch your volume! Your old man’s ears aren’t deaf yet!”

“There’s a letter for ya, so come get it quick!”

….

They were father and daughter.

And I just learned that the man reading a newspaper at that distant table was the spell caster Marein Chasen.

How should I put it? Today I’m having many rare experiences.

*

“Ah… You must have gone through a lot of trouble to deliver this letter all the way here.”

Saying this, Chasen marked my request as completed.

“What kind of letter is it?”

“Letter, should I call it that… Hmm. Take a look.”

When I asked, he showed me the letter with a mischievous face…

“…It’s blank.”

“That’s right, blank paper.”

“Why would you…”

Even though I delivered it, I didn’t understand.

Why did I have to spend a week delivering blank paper?

“Hahaha. The reaction of non-mages is always refreshing. This is a scroll. You could call it paper with magic cast on it.”

“Ah…”

A magic scroll…

It was my first time seeing one in person.

“Items with magic cast on them can’t be transported by magic. The trees around here are exposed to magical energy from the tower, making it difficult to process them into scrolls.”

“I see…”

I nodded as I said this.

Having nothing more to say, he left me, and soon my now-empty table was filled with onion flower fritters and cube steak.

“Oh, so this is what they are.”

Onion flower fritters were literally onions spread out like flowers and fried, and cube steak wasn’t cut into squares but rather into small dice-like pieces before being grilled.

I took a swig of lager to wet my throat before starting my meal, and both dishes suited my taste.

“Mm. Not bad.”

The sweetness of the onions and the crispy batter, along with the juicy cube steak that fit in one bite, were delicious, and the well-made, chilled lager served as a natural coolant for my heated mouth.

Come to think of it, from Parcival to Ortus, I hadn’t encountered an inn with bad food.

It could be my good judgment, or perhaps just luck, but personally, I wanted to bet on my good judgment.

“Phew. That was good.”

After wiping my mouth, I received a key from the server and went up to my room.

The herbal scent was even stronger in the room, probably because the soil where the herbs grew was right above.

I began soaking my body, which had been rolling on the ground for a week, and carefully cleaned my chain mail, making sure to thoroughly dry the inside to prevent rust.

Although it was still morning, my relaxed and languid body refused any more labor, and hearing my brain’s voice saying I needed to rest my body after a week of hardship, I didn’t hesitate to throw myself onto the bed.

“Ahhhh….”

Extreme comfort enveloped me, and soon I fell asleep naked, without even covering myself with a blanket.