episode_0182

“Okay, next carriage… Ah…?”n Robert, one of the soldiers guarding the capital’s gates, had just finished inspecting a carriage heading to the blacksmith guild and was immediately met with a very strange sight.

“Ooh~ Is it finally our turn?”n “It feels like we’ve been waiting for 30 minutes.”n “Can we go in now?”n “…?”

Two travelers with their hoods pulled so low that you could barely see their noses.

It’s winter and the wind is strong, so wearing a hood deeply isn’t particularly unusual, but the problem is the animals the three travelers are riding.

“… Reindeer?”

A large reindeer, a little smaller than an average horse, but not quite pony-sized.

A real, living reindeer, not just meat or leather.

Robert was frozen in place, blankly staring up at the travelers who appeared on animals rarely seen in the capital.

“Oh~ They recognize a reindeer right away, even though they’re city people?”n “Right? Everyone else just calls them big deer, maybe it’s because the capital is guarded by smart soldiers?”n “Ah~ that makes sense.”

“Ahem…”

Robert belatedly came to his senses at the sight of the travelers looking down from atop their reindeer, chatting and snickering with each other as if he wasn’t standing there dumbfounded. He cleared his throat and straightened his back.

“Excuse me, but please remove your hoods briefly for identification.”n “Ah, right, I was wondering why you were just standing there blankly.”n “Ah… I don’t want to take off my hood outside…”n “Nadezhda, take it off quickly if you don’t want to go to jail.”n “Hmph…”

After a brief squabble, the three travelers simultaneously removed their hoods, revealing their faces to Robert.

“Is this good enough?”n “Huh…?”

What appeared were three elves.

Robert personally had a question or two he wanted to ask about the fact that they were riding reindeer instead of horses, but he held back and continued the inspection.

“… What are your names?”n “I’m Stefan, this is Pavel, and this girl is Nadezhda.”n “Stefan, Pavel, Nadezhda… Where are you from?”n “Uh… our region is… Ah, Karelia! We’re from Karelia.”n “Karelia? I know that’s the northernmost part of the empire, a land where only moss and grass barely grow, you’re from there?”n “That’s right, everyone else went down south to live in better conditions, so we’re almost the last tribe left!”n “Hmm~”

Robert’s face softened slightly as the question of why they were riding reindeer instead of horses was answered, and he recorded the information the three travelers provided.

“What is your purpose for coming here?”n “I heard they sell cool clothes in the capital, so I came to learn how to make them.”n “Hmm… Do you know the name of the store?”n “Wait a moment, uh… we’re going here.”n “Ah~”

Robert tensed up slightly at the traveler’s hand suddenly reaching into their robe, but when a very famous elf’s painting from the capital was revealed, he nodded and smoothly moved to the edge of the road.

“Confirmed, within the capital, riding animals is prohibited outside of roads, and animals and carriages can only wait in designated areas, so please be careful.”

“Okay, thank you!”

The three elves, having heard a simple warning from Robert, who gestured that they could enter, pulled up their hoods, thanked Robert, and steered their reindeer into the capital.

“Wow… I’ve seen some amazing things in my life…”n Robert muttered quietly, staring blankly at the departing elves, feeling both joy and bewilderment at the fact that he had one more story to tell at the bar. He then moved on to the next inspection target.

_n It was dusk, and everyone was busy preparing to leave work.

“Excuse me.”n Just as I was tidying up the workbench and about to tell everyone they could go home, the hooded trio burst in.

It was the first time anyone had entered so rudely since the Devonshire dukes, so I stood there dumbfounded. The hooded trio turned their heads and scanned the interior of the workshop.

“Is this Atelier Liberatio?”n Then, turning to Marie, who was standing closest, they asked in a cheerful voice.

“Yes, it is.”n “Wow~ We finally found it! The capital is too complicated, it took us ages to find it! Who’s the owner here?”n “That would be me.”n “Huh? Surprisingly, it’s a human? From the ads, I thought that forest shrew over there was the owner!”n “……”

An unbearable level of energy and the rudeness of openly calling Katerina a forest shrew.

My already tired mind felt even more exhausted at the sight of these crazy people I had to deal with right before leaving work.

“Haa…”n I sighed and scratched my head.

Then, with half-closed eyes, I looked at the hooded trio and opened my mouth.

“So, what brings you here at this hour?”n “About the ad you guys posted recently! We loved it so much that we came looking for you, can we talk? Are we too late?”n “We can always talk, but…”

I trailed off and frowned.

They weren’t asking me to make something right away, just to chat, which I could do anytime.

Even though they were a bit rude, I could generously understand that they were just tactless rather than bad people.

But coming at this late hour and wanting to talk with their faces covered was a bit too much.

“First, take off your hoods and reveal who you are, I’m not really comfortable talking to people I don’t know.”n “Oops! Sorry, sorry, it’s just a habit to cover our faces in human cities.”

I was prepared for some resistance, but the hooded trio readily apologized, considering how much they were trying to hide their faces, and took off their hoods.

“You probably can tell, but you don’t choose who to talk to based on race, do you?”

When they took off their deeply pulled hoods, what was revealed was fresh green hair, long ears, and slightly sharp, beautiful faces.

Elves.

“Elves?”n “Not just any elves, we’re prairie elves! Don’t lump us in with that shrew over there.”

Prairie elves who live much further north than the Hume Count’s territory.

“Ah… why did it have to be prairie barbarians…!”

Thanks to the trio of prairie elves who were very cheerfully spouting sudden insults, I heard Katerina grabbing the back of her neck in the corner.

The murderous intent in her voice made me feel like Katerina and the prairie elf trio would start fighting if I left them alone.

“Um… Emily, please take these people to the lounge.”n “Yes.”

So, I had Emily separate them first.

“William, don’t accept this! We have no clothes to give to those barbarians!”n After Emily led the elf trio away, Katerina, glaring at the door with blazing eyes, came up to me, bursting with resentment.

“Still, shouldn’t we at least hear what they have to say? Katerina, please bear with me a little, okay? You usually call prairie elves barbarians anyway.”n “I at least don’t do it to their faces! I didn’t even do anything and they started calling me a shrew to my face!”n “Well, I’ve been beaten up and dragged away halfway, so…”n “Uh… wasn’t that half your fault?”n “Ahem, ahem… Isn’t the important thing that it happened?”n “Ha…”

Since I was so shamelessly spouting nonsense, Katerina let out a hollow laugh and leaned against the wall, as if all her energy had drained away.

“I’ll try to talk to those elves nicely, so please just bear with me once, okay?”n “Haa… Alright, if this happens again when we meet again, I’m going to shoot those barbarians with arrows.”n “… I’ll talk to them firmly.”

I felt a shiver down my spine at Katerina’s very intense gaze and swallowed hard, nodding my head.

I definitely need to make sure Katerina never runs into them again…

_n “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.”n After instructing the staff to leave work, I immediately walked to the lounge and gave a formal apology with a slight bow to the elves who were sitting at the table, munching on cookies.

“Huh? No~ We came late, so it’s fine.”n The elves waved their hands casually and chuckled, glancing at Emily, who was standing demurely in the corner, after they had been served refreshments.

“And the owner’s wife took good care of us, so it wasn’t boring at all.”n “Pardon?”n “You have a really lovely wife? She’s also good with her hands, seems good at managing the house, and looks like she’ll have healthy children… I’m so jealous~”n “Uncle Stefan, can I tell your wife you just said that?”n “Why? Is it wrong to praise another man’s wife?”n “You said you were jealous.”n “Oh crap, I’m screwed.”n “???”

I was too bewildered by the incomprehensible remarks to say anything.

I glanced at Emily, wondering what on earth had happened in the short five minutes. Emily shook her head, her eyes wide with confusion, indicating that she didn’t understand either.

I rubbed my throbbing head and sat down across from the elves.

“First, to correct a misunderstanding, Emily is not my wife, she is a maid who helps me with household chores.”n “What? You entrusted such an important task as greeting guests to someone who’s not your wife?”n “What’s a maid? How can you entrust housework to someone who’s not family?”n “Isn’t that like a concubine?”n “No, that…”

These people’s common sense was so twisted that the conversation was sinking deeper and deeper into a quagmire.

How do I explain what a maid is to someone who doesn’t know what a maid is?

No, more importantly, how do I explain this to someone who can’t imagine relationships outside of family?

“Yes… she’s like a wife, she’s someone I trust like my parents, so I entrusted her with welcoming you.”n “Ah~ I see.”

I just gave up.

I couldn’t think of a faster and more effective solution than coolly admitting it.

Thanks to that, Emily’s face turned bright red, but I’ll just have to bow my head to the floor and apologize later…

“So, can we stop talking about my wife and move on to the main topic?”n “Ah, yes, yes, we talked about another man’s wife too much, sorry.”n “Thank you.”

They weren’t bad people, just didn’t have a filter in their brains, so we were able to quickly wrap up the Emily topic.

“Hoo… So, you said you came after seeing our ad, which ad did you see?”n “The leather clothes you recently put in the newspaper, it was so cool, it was an outfit that contained the spirit and style of elves living on the vast prairies, you know?”n “I… see.”

I felt a strange discomfort after only hearing harsh criticism for weeks and then suddenly receiving such excessive praise.

I wondered if they had come all the way from the prairie to make fun of me, but they didn’t seem to be, judging from their sparkling eyes, so I suppressed my discomfort and nodded.

“So, you’re saying you want us to make that outfit for you?”n “That too, but it’s not easy to come back and forth to the capital every time because of that outfit, you know?”n “That’s… true, it would take several days just to get here.”n “So, we came to see if you could tell us how to make it or what materials to use!”n “Um…”

I made a sullen expression and fiddled with my neck.

What an audacious request.

“Tsk…”

My head is getting complicated.

Haa… what should I do about this…