Past the Latria forest, was the city of Latran. At this scale, it would likely be considered a small or mid-sized city, but it was quite wealthy due to its copper mines. Perhaps that was why, but even from afar, they could see large, clean buildings.
When Calian, who felt as though he was looking at Astrisha Street, looked at the city with a little admiration. Yan, who seemed to fear that Calian might develop a good opinion of the Lord of this city, opened his mouth,
“Count Hale Latran, don’t you remember?”
“Oh he...” It was a familiar name,
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Calian tried to recall the name, then raised an eyebrow when he realised. He was one of the nobles who had sent a gift to the youngest prince, who had been hurt by Franz’s words during the King’s birthday festival.
“That bat,”
Yan grinned at Calian’s conclusion,
“Before that, he was a part of Prince Randell’s faction, but he turned to Prince Fran six years ago when there was conflict between the warriors of the desert and Tensil,”
Although there were four kingdoms on the continent, the reason why Kyris did not have access to the sea was due to large desserts that flanked its northern and western sides with unknown ends.
The barren place known as the Great Desert had yet to take the form of an established country. Those who lived there believed in their own folk beliefs, not those of Serenti.
Under this pretext, this country had attempted to expand its territory through Tensil and into the northern desert, since Tensil was a country which was declining in both divine and military power. Since they did not have a proper military, Tensil fought under the impression that it would be possible to win.
However, when the war broke out, the warriors that had been gathered by the Great Desert country had been more powerful than expected. Tensil, who was cornered, asked for assistance from Kyris in the name of their relationship, connected through Randell.
Of course, Silica objected, which forced Tensil to step down from the conflict at a loss.
“Even so, it’s a bat that seems to understand when to take a step back,”
Should he view it in a positive light, that such a person had tried to place a foot onto his side as well? Calian laughed briefly at the thought.
While they chatted, they reached the entrance of the city.
Hale, who had been waiting for the Prince’s party at the entrance, was standing there with an over-the-top welcoming expression. Calian sped up on Raven slightly and stepped forwards to the head of their party.
As he got closer, Hale approached and greeted him,
“I greet his highness, Prince Calian; I am Hale Latran,”
“It’s good to see you,” Calian’s answer was always the same.
Now that they had greeted each other, he figured they could head into the city, but Hale’s mouth opened once again, adn the words that followed were endlessly long.
“It is an infinite honour for this Hale to be able to serve the Prince in person. At the news that the Prince would be arriving in this humble city, I have spent many nights anxiously awaiting your arrival. When I had heard the news yesterday that his highness had arrived nearby, the anticipation left me utterly sleepless,” Hale gushed.
At that, Calian briefly turned his head away and pretended to look around because it was difficult to hide the awkwardness that came with hearing such unfamiliar flattery.
This was the shortest route from Kyrisis to Siegfried, so Hale must have said the same thing to Franze last year. His words were laced with honey but said with practised ease.
Calian, who soon turned his head again, replied with a smile. Because of how tired he was, the words that came out weren’t an ideal response,
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“It would have been better if you had cleaned up your front yard while you waited,” Then he turned his head and looked at the man who had attacked them for a moment.
Hale gasped unconsciously when he saw the blood-covered man and asked,
“Does he need medical attention? I’ll get a doctor ready -”
Calian shook his head,
“He’s someone who has been made to not need treatment,”
Hale gasped once again,
What Calian had said now was a euphemism used by aristocrats to avoid harsh words, it normally referred to death row prisoners.
It was not that Kyris did not provide treatment for criminals – but those on death row were the exception. There was no reason to give them treatment since they were going to die anyway.
That man had pointed his sword at Calian, a prince. As a result, he became someone who no longer needed to be treated for his wounds.
“My deepest apologies, your highness,”
Hale nodded when he understood that the man had attacked Calian, and considering his previous words about his front yard, it must have happened while he was within the Latran territory.
By extension, Hale also could not avoid the responsibility for such an attack – to him it must have felt like the sky was falling on his head.
Calian was about to say something, but blinked, as a drop of water fell from the sky and onto the back of Calian’s hand.
Another drop soon followed. And another. Raven made a small huff and snort sound – it seemed water had fallen on his nose.
And just like that, it began to rain.
Yan hurried over and tried to quickly get an umbrella over Calian, who gestured to Hale with his hand that it was okay even as he said,
“It seems you need a roof before an apology,”
By the time they got through to the inner city and arrived at the territory’s castle, the rain had began to pelt quite hard. It was the middle of August, and the rain quickly gave rise to a humid atmosphere.
Calian, who saw the rain, said to Yuran,
“Just hand him over to the soldiers in the castle and don’t give them any other explanation,”
“Yes your highness, I will,”
On his way, Calian had become quite soaked so he headed to the room Hale had given him and washed himself first. He then opened the window of the room wide and the sound of the falling rain filled the room.
The sky didn’t look like it would ease up by today – it seemed he was stuck here until at least tomorrow.
Since he had a long way to go, he had tried not to delve too deeply into what had happened earlier with the man and Sia – but it seemed he got tied up because of the rain anyway.
“Well that’s...” Calian sighed. There was a knock at his door, and Yan came in with the iced mint tea that Calian had asked for, in his hand.
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