Ch.85Daytime Date (2)

I was kidnapped from early dawn.

Being grabbed by the arm and suddenly loaded into a carriage, being dragged away without knowing the destination—Najin thought this situation was sufficient to be called a kidnapping.

-What kidnapping? If you were determined, breaking the carriage and escaping wouldn’t take more than a few seconds.

‘Well, it’s still technically kidnapping.’

-Oh please. As if someone close to becoming a Sword Seeker would get kidnapped.

I can’t deny that.

Najin exhaled briefly and sank into the carriage seat. Indeed, looking at the situation alone, it was kidnapping, but hadn’t he also not refused?

“……”

Najin silently looked at the person sitting across from him.

There sat Dieta, fidgeting with her knees and slightly lowering her head. She had managed to get him into the carriage, but it seemed she hadn’t thought about what came next.

“So where is this carriage headed?”

“Huh? What?”

“I asked where we’re going.”

Dieta jerked her head up, smoothed her chest, and spoke.

“The Empire’s capital. Camelot.”

“…Camelot?”

“Yes, I have business in Camelot. I can bring one person besides my escort knight, so wouldn’t it be nice to go together?”

The Empire’s capital, Camelot.

Najin nodded slowly.

“But why me?”

“…Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

Dieta sighed and crossed her arms.

“Lord Kapman, who was on the same mission as you, died during the mission. There are all sorts of ominous rumors—a black magician’s workshop was discovered, the Order’s executioner visited… Do you know how worried I was?”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, it is. Why are you looking at me like that’s surprising? Of course I was worried.”

Come to think of it, it made sense.

Wasn’t he serving as a promotional model for the merchant group with all kinds of support? If such a model died in a foreign land, the losses would be considerable.

While Najin was thinking this, Dieta narrowed her eyes and glared at him.

“You’re thinking ‘I’m a model, so if I die, the merchant group would suffer losses,’ aren’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I must be crazy. Yes, fine. The merchant group would suffer losses, but is that the only reason?”

Dieta sighed very, very deeply, as if she had expected this. Then she looked at Najin with a somewhat disappointed expression.

“We’re not just business associates, are we?”

“What do you mean?”

“…Even if not that far, we’re at least friends, right? I thought we were at least that much.”

He didn’t hear the first part, but he could hear what followed. Listening to Dieta’s words, Najin fell silent. Friends. It was an unfamiliar word. For Najin, who was born and raised in the underground city, there was no way he could have friends.

Either competitors.

Or targets to kill.

Otherwise, most relationships were one-sided. Attman was full of people who admired, envied, or feared Najin. The only proper relationships he had were with Ivan, Offen, and Old Man Hogel…

‘But those are more like adults or mentors than friends.’

So what does it feel like to have a friend?

‘What’s the definition of a friend?’

-What…?

Najin rubbed his chin and asked Merlin. Merlin responded with disbelief, and Najin pondered with his head slightly lowered. Friends, friends.

“Don’t tell me you’re thinking about what a friend is right now?”

“…I’ve never had such a thing. Do you have friends, Dieta?”

“That could be a very rude question, you know. But to answer you, of course…”

Dieta also fell silent.

Friends—the word itself seems simple. You talk, shake hands, hang out together, and that makes you friends, right? But what Dieta thought of as a friend was something a bit different.

Someone you can talk openly with.

Someone you can face without wearing a mask.

In that sense, she had never had a friend. She too had gone through a tumultuous childhood. If the man sitting in front of her denied being her friend, it would mean she had never made a single friend.

“…I don’t have any either.”

Dieta suddenly laughed.

Two adults in their twenties sitting together, seriously discussing the definition of friendship. Isn’t that a funny situation? With a faint smile, Dieta spoke.

“I thought we were friends, so I’d be a bit disappointed if you didn’t think so…”

Dieta extended her hand to Najin.

“Shall we be friends from now on, then?”

“What role does this ‘friend’ play?”

“Just someone you can talk openly with. Someone you enjoy being with and can comfortably confide in?”

“If that’s the case…”

Holding Dieta’s hand, Najin thought.

Indeed, he could be a bit more comfortable around Dieta. Though he didn’t know why.

“I think that’s right. Friends.”

“See?”

As she accepted Najin’s handshake, Dieta thought.

In her eyes, Najin had always been a perfect, capable person. Whether it was swordsmanship, disguise, escape, social skills, or combat. As a mercenary, he lacked nothing.

But seeing him seriously contemplating and being unfamiliar with the word “friend”…

It felt fresh to encounter a new side of him. He was unfamiliar with relationships. Well, he had always seemed like someone who lived facing a wall.

‘So he’s weak in this area…?’

Dieta gulped.

Isn’t it a virtue of a merchant to slip into people’s psychology and exploit it? Even if she had never made a friend before, this was her area of expertise. Dieta looked at Najin with greedy eyes.

‘If I cook him this way and that.’

Couldn’t I make him look only at me?

Friends visit each other daily, greet each other, eat together, and then…

“Friends.”

While Dieta was turning these thoughts over in her mind, Najin suddenly spoke. It was a murmur, but loud enough to catch Dieta’s attention. Looking up at the sound of his voice, Dieta saw Najin’s face.

Najin was wearing a faint smile.

As if he liked the sound of the word “friend.”

The moment she saw this, Dieta’s mind went completely blank. She quickly turned her head to look out the window. Pressing down on her rapidly beating heart, Dieta struggled to steady her breathing.

…In human relationships.

No, in relationships between men and women, they say the one who falls in love first loses. If that’s true, she had already entered the battlefield with the mark of a loser on her forehead. It would take extraordinary resolve to reverse the positions of winner and loser.

‘This won’t be an easy battle.’

So, let’s start with friendship.

They say well begun is half done. Having started means we’re practically there. If we’re halfway there, we’ve come a long way. So today, let’s just relax here…

“……”

Dieta’s escort knight, Passion.

As he drove the carriage, he glanced back and shook his head. Whatever conversation they had inside, judging by his mistress’s state—with ears flushed bright red—things seemed to be going poorly.

Hang in there, Lady Dieta.

Muttering this inwardly, Passion drove the horses onward.

2.

It took quite a long time to reach the Empire’s capital.

Even as the carriage moved, Najin remained vigilant, his senses heightened to their limits, which seemed strange even to Dieta. He looked like someone being chased or cornered.

His sharply opened eyes.

His hand always resting on the sword hilt.

He looked just like when Dieta first saw him.

After all, Najin sitting in that alley back then had the same appearance. Dieta was about to bring this up but decided it was too early and held her tongue.

“No matter who it is.”

After several days of travel, as they approached the Empire’s capital, Camelot, Dieta looked at Najin and said:

“No one will be able to harm you in the Empire’s capital. If someone were to attack and make someone bleed in the middle of the imperial city, he would certainly not stand idle.”

“He?”

“The Sword Master, Lord Gerd.”

Advice to relax his guard.

Hearing this advice, Najin blinked. Belatedly realizing that his vigilance had been noticed, Najin gave an awkward smile.

“…Is it that obvious?”

“You keep your hand on your sword hilt not only when talking but even when sleeping—how could it not be obvious?”

Dieta smiled bitterly.

“We’ll talk about this later.”

Saying this, she stretched out her arm and pointed ahead.

“We’ve arrived.”

Where she pointed, there was a massive gate.

“At the Empire’s capital, Camelot.”

* * *

Camelot, the capital of the Briton Empire.

Passing through the massive walls surrounding the capital, what comes into view is the center of the Briton Empire, steeped in myth. As soon as he got out of the carriage and his field of vision widened, Najin gasped.

A place called the center of the world.

Looking up, what enters his vision are towers rising high into the sky. Seven magic towers surrounded the Empire’s capital, but they never cast shadows. The specially treated tower walls were translucent, allowing sunlight to pass through, and sunlight fell equally on every part of the Empire.

A vast, endless city.

At the center of this city, at its highest point, stood the imperial palace. A massive palace covered in platinum. Looking up at the top of the imperial palace, there was a hole in the sky above it.

The center of the Empire and the center of the world.

A hole pierced right in the middle of it.

Even in broad daylight, the hole in the blue sky was as dark as the night sky. But it wasn’t dark. Because there was a star beyond the hole.

A constellation made up of thirteen stars.

The first emperor of the Empire and.

The rightful owner of Briton.

The great hero, King Arthur’s star.

Arthur’s star always shone in the middle of the Empire, regardless of day or night. Overwhelmed by all these sights, Najin couldn’t help but let out a short exclamation.

-It’s been a while since I’ve been here.

Looking at Camelot through Najin’s eyes, Merlin gave a bitter smile. It had changed so much from the Camelot she knew.

Briton was not originally an empire.

And Camelot was not so vast.

Originally, Briton was merely a shelter established by Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table for refugees who had lost their homeland. What is now called the capital, Camelot, was originally just an old castle.

-They’ve grown it so much.

That Briton had now become an empire that commanded the continent, and Camelot, once an old castle, had become a massive capital with seven magic towers. With complex emotions, Merlin exhaled deeply.

“This way.”

And Dieta pulled Najin’s arm.

Led by Dieta, Najin arrived at a street lined with all sorts of buildings. Each building had a flag hanging from it, engraved with emblems representing various families or specific groups.

And among these buildings.

There was also a building with the emblem of Dieta’s merchant group. Smaller and shabbier compared to other buildings, it was an unremarkable structure with only a flag hanging.

Tap.

Standing in front of this building, Dieta turned to look at Najin. She was smiling, a smile that suggested she was quite fond of this building itself.

“This is our merchant group’s building.”

She stamped her footprint in front of the building.

Opening the door, Dieta beckoned.

As if telling him to follow her in.

Najin followed Dieta’s steps.

The inside of the building was still barren, with furniture not yet filled in. It wasn’t fully cleaned either, with dust gathered here and there. Following Dieta up the creaking stairs, Najin headed to the top floor.

The top floor was only the third floor, but still.

At the highest point of the building, Dieta flung open the window. After opening it wide, she gestured to her side. Unable to resist her tapping on the windowsill, Najin stood right beside her.

“This is the merchant district of Camelot. It’s incomparable to the merchant district in Cambria, right?”

“Indeed.”

“Just having a plot of land here means you’re considered a successful merchant group. See those flags hanging there? Lockteed Merchant Group, Cornelhilde Merchant Group… these are the continent’s leading merchant groups. They’re incomparably larger than my current merchant group.”

Decorated with flags and emblems.

Buildings stacked up to great heights.

Pointing at these buildings, Dieta said:

“Still, starting from the City of Opportunity and establishing a building in the Empire’s capital—our merchant group is the first to do it. Meaning I’m the first. Isn’t that an amazing achievement?”

“Is it?”

“Yes. Though it’s just this unremarkable building now.”

Dieta turned her head to look at Najin.

Looking at Najin, she smiled.

“Later, I plan to devour that building.”

Pointing at the tallest building in the street, with the Cornelhilde family’s flag hanging, she smiled.

“Just like in Cambria, I’ll swallow up this entire street and make it mine…”

And next is over there.

She stretched out her finger and pointed at the imperial palace. Around the palace were five tower-like structures rising high, which people referred to as the Empire’s five pillars.

The Empire’s five pillars.

Towers given to the five greatest in the Empire apart from the Emperor, who support the Empire. Najin knew that Sword Master Gerd occupied one of those towers.

“Becoming the owner of that tower.”

Pointing at that tower, Dieta said:

“That’s my goal. Najin, it’s a goal I’ve been able to dream of thanks to you.”

Dieta’s eyes, looking at the tower, gleamed bright yellow. They were the eyes of the Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins, and they were Dieta’s eyes.

“There’s no special reason I suddenly brought you to the Empire’s capital. I just wanted to see it with you. What do you think? Looks incredibly difficult, right?”

“It doesn’t look easy.”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

Dieta smirked.

“Your goal is over there, isn’t it?”

Dieta gestured with her eyes. Even without her pointing with her finger, Najin could understand what she meant. Najin looked at the star hanging at the top of the imperial palace.

The star hanging at the highest place.

The greatest star, Arthur’s constellation.

Looking at that star, Najin suddenly smiled. The thought that he had such a long way to go crossed his mind.

“We have a long way to go.”

“Me too. I need to knock down all those flags before I can rise there, and I’m already sighing at the thought.”

Dieta turned around. Leaning her back against the window, she brushed her hair back.

“So.”

She reached out and grabbed Najin by the collar.

With a firm grip, she pulled on Najin’s collar. Though it was a slender finger and a force he could shake off at any time, Najin allowed himself to be pulled by Dieta.

At close distance, Najin and Dieta’s gazes met. A distance where their breaths could almost touch.

Sunset-colored eyes met bright yellow eyes. Looking closely at Najin’s eyes, which had regained some vitality, Dieta whispered:

“Don’t be too hasty. If you are, even things that could happen won’t.”