episode_0018

The second post station, located in the northwest of Praua, is the busiest and most hectic place from the morning. Large and small carts, as well as the drivers pulling the carts, gather here one after another to relieve fatigue from riding all night or to have a meal to start the day refreshed. The mail carriages, which are coming into the post station while raising dust, also have been traveling around the western region and the outskirts of Praua at dawn, so the horses pulling the carts look clearly tired.

The coachman of the post coach stops the horses, opens the locked door, and prepares to move the loaded parcels and letters to the post office located inside the post office.

“Please step aside.”

As the coachman, who was picking up a bundle of individual letters, turned his head to the side, he saw three or four heavily armed soldiers standing in a line in broad daylight.

“… What’s going on?”

The soldier standing at the very front takes a step closer and puts his weight on his shoulder. The coachman hesitates and then takes a step back.

“Due to the administrative district reorganization, the postal service has been temporarily taken over by the Capital Police. Please step aside for a moment.”

The angle of the spears held by the soldiers standing behind him was unusual for a polite request. The coachman sniffed once, thinking that there were many unfortunate events, and stepped away. The soldiers began to take out the parcels and letters one by one, and took out a small knife from their pockets to open the packages one by one and check the contents. In the dozens of years he had worked, this had never happened before, but the coachman could not even guess what was happening before his eyes.

After checking the contents, he threw them back into the carriage in a tattered state and even picked out a few and put them in his bosom.

“The investigation has been completed. Thank you for your cooperation. ”

And then the soldiers start to walk away, making a clanking noise. The coachman sighs as he glances at the mess inside.

“My dear, what a star… .”

“What’s going on? Since morning.”

The coachman, who had re-tied the broken packing strings one by one and had moved the last bundle of parcels to the post office, swore and shook his hands. A woman with light brown hair, who was approaching while carrying jerky, looked at the coachman’s serious face and asked.

“The guys with iron bars all over their bodies stole all our stuff and left. What are the Capital Guards doing here?”

“… … It’s a long explanation, but while you were out and about in Frauah, the country was turned upside down.”

“If the country turns upside down, will my carriage turn over too?”

“Shh, you shouldn’t be so loud. I have eyes to see. You don’t want to see your husband and children at home, right?”

A woman looks around, puts her index finger to her lips, and whispers.

“Oh, speaking of family.”

“Huh?”

As if remembering something, he picks up the bundle of letters he had left on the floor, takes off his gloves, and starts rummaging through them.

“Here you go, okay. A letter from my husband.”

“What’s going on?”

A woman tilts her head as she receives an envelope. One side is torn, but her name is written properly on the envelope. When she tilts it slightly to the side, a rough piece of paper commonly used in the countryside slips out. She chews for a long time, spits out the remaining sinew, and opens the paper to read the contents. Her eyes move from left to right and up to down, and her brows furrow together.

“Why? What does it say?”

“… My son left the village saying he would go to Fraua alone.”

***

“Uh-huh, does this look okay? Hey, Milla. Milla?”

Ray, who was picking up a pair of shiny black boots and examining them, turned to ask Mila, but she seemed not to have heard him as she was looking around and pulling at the rag wrapped around her head.

“Milla!”

“Eek! What? Hey, you called?”

“What do you think of these boots? … Did you steal something yesterday?”

“Stealing? That’s not it. Hmm, umm… If the shoes are too small, it’s a problem, and if they’re too big, they’re really uncomfortable to wear. I don’t think it’s a good idea to give them as a gift. ”

“I see… …. Let’s go look around other places too.”

Ray put the boots he had picked up back on the display stand and walked out into the street. Mila followed him out into the street and hurriedly tucked her bangs that had fallen on her forehead into a cloth. Mila’s nerves were on edge, as if the armed soldiers who had been walking around the street had been quite irritating her.

Gloves, jewelry, scarves, and even a shoe store. Ray realizes that shopping really takes this long when you really think about the person you’re giving it to. He reflects on his past self who was bored when he was led around by Memer’s hand.

“Let’s go in there next time. Mila? Seriously.”

Ray grabbed Mila’s hand as she turned her head away from the soldiers walking towards her.

***

“Please stop after crossing the bridge you see over there.”

“Okay, I see. Oh my goshㅡ”

Ray’s mother pulls the reins and turns the horses to the right. To the left, a police station with a flag with a different pattern than a few days ago can be seen. The neat white bricks of Fraua clack as the horse’s hooves hit them. She had picked up a guest heading to the western gate after only reading the news that her son had left for Fraua. Even after dropping the guest off across the bridge, she wandered the streets without putting up a sign that the carriage was empty.

In her eyes, no matter how much her son grew, he was still a baby. She was bound to the memory of that day, on that warm winter night, when she gave birth to him while her husband was anxious. The child had never left the village in his entire life. The child had no way of knowing how different the countryside and the city were, and how untrustworthy the people who lived on this land were.

What’s more, the first place I went out to was Frauenkirche. And I was alone. No matter how much I tried to shake off my anxiety, it kept growing, and I kept biting my lip, almost bumping into a man and a woman crossing the street.

“Over there! Look ahead and walk!”

She suddenly comes to her senses and is startled by the sound of a horse’s neighing and someone shouting.

“Ah… . Sorry! Whatㅡ”

“Tsk… Are you hurt anywhere?”

A woman talking to a small man who is crouching. Ray’s mother, who had been carefully looking at the faces of all the men walking down the street just in case, also stares intently at the man in front of her. She lets out a sigh of regret at the man’s appearance, who has a different skin color and hair color from Ray’s.

“By any chance… Have you ever seen a boy around here? He’s about… … tall, um… ”

She finds herself worrying so much, yet having a hard time remembering how much her son has grown.

“… … It will be similar to that person. The hair is dark brown and… Ah! The eyes, the eyes are just like mine. ”

As he says this, he leans his upper body towards the man and woman and opens his eyes wide. The two tilt their heads.

“… I don’t know.”

“Oh, is that so… . Okay. ”

I felt sorry for a moment, but it was impossible for me to find my son in such a vast Frauah.

“Huh? Isn’t that the guy from back then?”

“Huh?”

Ray’s mother hesitates as she tries to pull the horse’s reins.

Ray’s mother parked her carriage on the side of the street and wandered around the western gate area for a long time, looking for an inn.

“I think I’ve seen it before. I wasn’t alone, I remember seeing him coming out of a room with some girl.”

People who bumped into Ray’s mother, whose expression was frozen, were terrified by her fierce expression. She went into every inn and asked if there was a son among the guests, and she clenched her molars the whole time as if they were going to break. She hoped more earnestly than anyone else that the man had made a mistake, that what he saw was not her son.

But eventually, when lunchtime came and went without much result, Ray’s mother, with a mixture of regret and relief, returned to where she had parked the carriage. There, an old man and a woman who looked like a nobleman were waiting beside the carriage.

“I wondered what was going on because there was only a carriage left there. Please take me to the southern blacksmith complex.”

“I just came back to run some business. You mean the blacksmith shop?”

She noticed that I was a guest, ran quickly and opened the carriage door.

“Okay, old man. Be careful, your knees must be feeling a bit weak these days.”

The woman reaches out and helps the old man onto the train. The door closes, and Ray’s mother pulls on the reins, and the train takes off towards the southern part of Fraua.

“Whew… What do you mean the letter you just received is a mess? Old man.”

“The string wasn’t tied properly and was frayed. It looked like someone had ripped it open.”

“Really? That’s right. Anyway, since the item is finished, you just need to check it out. It’s okay to send a letter or something. What’s important is whether the stupid blacksmiths who try to do everything the old-fashioned way actually made it according to the specifications I told you.”

Occasionally I feel eyes on me from behind, so I turn around and see a woman sitting in the passenger seat staring at me.

“… Even though it looks like it’s going this way, it’s easy for horses to walk because of the height difference.”

Since there are customers who occasionally pick a fight, she always talks to them even if no one asks.

“No, it’s just that you look a little familiar. There’s a loneliness in your face.”

“Heh… . I can’t help but feel lonely when I live with a reverse horse.”

“I know a place that’s perfect for that. If you go to Happiness Street, there’s a place with a red sign… .”

“Algaet Sir.”

I think that the combination of a woman talking with a face that suddenly looks like she has been inspired and an old man trying to stop her is quite interesting.

“But I don’t go there often. My husband’s face is blurry.”

When I answered with an awkward smile, the woman’s expression slightly distorted as if she couldn’t understand.

“Marriage is just a promise between monkeys. In this world full of suffering, where can there be happiness that surpasses the happiness that flesh gives?”

“Haha… . I think living by your own rules is happiness in its own way.”

“That’s imprisoning your instincts in your own stubbornness. If you’re a species like us who has an empty space inside your body, isn’t it natural to always have a desire to fill it up?”

“… I’m sorry to hear that.”

“No… Well, I’m fine.”

Ray’s mother speaks to her husband, who is looking embarrassed for some reason.