Hakai no Miko

Bornis is a city in the westernmost tip of the Holmeer Country.

Originally, a fortification was erected by the river to give the northern Sorbiant plains a glimpse. Beneath that fort, the peasants who fear Zoan and the merchants and craftsmen who do business with them gather naturally, and only when did it become a city.

In the wake of Zoan's raids as people gathered, a strong brick city wall of five melts high (one melt is about a meter) and three melts thick was built to surround the city. What was a fort with the creation of the city walls is still left as the center of the city after changing its role from a military to an administrative facility.

And the city, which had changed dramatically, had now developed not only to commercialize the produce brought from the northern Sorbiant plains, but also as a commercial city where merchants stopping from Jeboa, the maritime state west of here, to the capital of Holmea.

It was a little after noon that such a Bornis gate was followed by Hopkins' front carriage with an Ethereal Horse.

"All right, next carriage!

Hopkins slowly moved forward with the front carriage, told soldiers at the gate, who were inspecting the people who had visited the city.

"What brings you to the city?!"

"Yes, my name is Hopkins and I am a pedestrian from Jeboa and I have finished my business in a pioneering village around here."

That being said, Hopkins pointed to the merchant guild flag that was being hoisted on the front carriage.

The Merchant Alliance is a union where merchants come together to defend themselves.

Each year, I have to pay the determined amount as a union expense, but if I fly the flag of a merchant guild, I can get a lot of conveniences. Besides, the Merchant Guild never tolerated bandits who attacked subscribed merchants and were known to spend large sums of money on their necks as bounty necks and catching up everywhere. That also leads to protecting merchants from bandits.

"Sure, that's a merchant guild flag. Now, check the load."

"Go ahead, go ahead. Even when it comes to loading, it's worth God's blessing and sells everything, it's empty."

The squad leader, who followed his men with spears, checks inside with the cover behind the front carriage.

"Huh! Isn't that Zoan!

Tension runs amongst his men at the scream of the squad leader who finds Shemr.

"Please wait! It's my nephew's slave!

"Nephew?!"

When the squad leader looked in the front carriage again, he found the figure of a pale horse sitting next to Shemr. In the hands of the Ethereal Horse is gripped a chain that leads to a collar attached to the Shemr.

"This is how my sister's son, who married me to a distant eastern country, followed me to work here as a merchant."

When the Squad Leader looks again, he realizes he does say it's the color of his hair he's never seen before. His face is also flat with few irregularities, and he definitely doesn't seem like a person around here.

"But these days, Zoan and the others have been very active around here, and even though they're slaves, they can't let Zoan into the city."

"Dear Captain, do something about it there. It's my nephew's favorite from far east."

That's what Hopkins made him grip a couple of bronze coins. It's enough money to allow soldiers on this spot to drink one drink at a time after work because they suspect it backwards if you let them grip it too much.

"Mm-hmm. If that's the case, I can't help it. But don't bother. Come in. All right!

The soldiers standing in front of the front carriage also paved the way as the captain raised his voice as he saw his companionship crumble to the weight of the bronze coin in his hand.

"Phew. I hissed..."

After entering the city and making sure it was a long way from the gate, Hopkins wet his cold sweat.

"I'll take care of you"

The Ethereal Horse bows his head sorry. Then I head to Shemr, next door,

"Shemr, isn't the collar painful?

"Hmm. No problem."

That being said, is it still uncomfortable, Shemr is messing with the collar tightly?

It was hard for Ethereal Horse to wear a collar on Shemru and hold its chains, no matter how much to infiltrate the city.

"More than that, the city smells like shit..."

That was agreed with the Ethereal Horse.

After entering the city, what an indescribable smell snorts. The smell of dirt, rotten odours and mysterious stinking odours are intense malodours that are blended together.

From the gap in the cover of the front carriage, dirt and animal carcasses, which were the source of the stench, were left unattended at the side of the road. Besides, orphans blackened by dirt and mud are sitting on top of it fine.

I guess that's no choice because it's an age where there's still very little concept of urban hygiene, but it's a very bad environment nonetheless.

If Shemr, a Zoan with a much sharper sense of smell than humans, this would be quite tight.

"The stench is terrible, but the earth and dust are amazing."

Nor is the road cobblestone, but it is just a stepping stone. In a dry time when it doesn't rain, the dust and dust rise and the city faints yellow. The sight coincided with the house of sun-dried bricks on both sides of the road, as if it were a wilderness town in the Middle East.

The frontal carriage ridden by the Ethereal Horse cursorily progresses on the main streets of the city that connect the gates of the east and west, and is also quite popular.

The outfits of such city people were almost similar.

If you're a man, you're tying a one-piece jacket with a leather strap around your hips with your hem all the way up to your knees, and you're wearing pants underneath it. If you are a woman, the hem of the piece will be long to the side of the tibia. I don't look like a pale horse, but my pants are just for men, and women wear nothing underneath them.

"How many people are here?

"Don't be surprised to hear it. How dare you say more than 10,000? What do you say, a great city?"

Hopkins brags about it, but the Ethereal Horse had no choice but to return it with a complicated grin.

In modern Japan, when it comes to the population of 10,000, it is only about the size of a town or village. But it's a pretty big city in this world.

In attacking this city, the Ethereal Horse was concerned that he didn't see much of the soldiers he had to check first.

"You don't see a soldier better than I thought."

"That's right. Most of the soldiers are packed by the gates and the city walls."

"How many soldiers are there?

"Right. There will be four hundred or five hundred."

"That's surprisingly little."

"Really? I think so."

Soldiers are non-producers.

Since they themselves do not produce wheat as a single grain, other humans must feed them in order to secure soldiers as a standing army. Naturally, if the ratio of soldiers to the population is higher, that too will be burdensome.

It is also the magnificent young men who become soldiers, precisely those who are supposed to be responsible for production and logistics. To say more soldiers would not merely increase the burden, but would also deprive people who are supposed to be responsible for production and logistics and reduce their power.

For this reason, the number of soldiers who would become standing armies in this world was approximately two to four percent relative to the population. Soldiers in this city are never too small.

"Mr. Hopkins, what do you want to do now?

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm in the city, so I'd like to grab a drink at some tavern and then go say hello to the guild."

When I heard about the tavern, the curiosity of the Ethereal Horse quarreled.

Among the games and fantasy novels known to Ethereal Horse, a liquor store in the city was a place for exchanging information. In a dim tavern with the smell of alcohol and the purple smoke of cigarettes, the adventurers of great skill speak of Adventure Tan and the merchants who dream of winning a thousand bucks exchange information.

"Can I follow you to the tavern, too?

"It's useless if you're going to watch me snitch about you guys. I'm still a merchant. I'll do my best to receive the money. And I don't want to lose my wife and son."

"No, I'm interested in this tavern."

"I don't mind if I do, but I can't take your daughter with me."

To Hopkins' words, the Ethereal Horse panicked over Shemr, who was clearly grumpy.

"Shemr, could you keep an eye on this military fund? If they steal this, it's tough."

It's never a safe place, so it's like telling me to steal the military money I took out of the fort if no one's left in the carriage.

Shemr also understands that we have to.

But Shemr, not reluctant, albeit slight, to leave the Ethereal Horse in a city where we do not even know when we will be surrounded by human soldiers, spilled one stupidity.

"Soma, aren't you treating me any better?

The Ethereal Horse inadvertently let his gaze wander into the universe.

◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆

He was a pale horse who swelled his chest into the tavern with anticipation, but that was a lot different than what he had hoped for.

A coarsely made table arranged narrowly, scattered with food and juggling with alcohol are people who look no different than they saw in the city, with no adventurers such as the formidable warrior wearing the same weapons and armor they had hoped for or the suspicious sorcerer with the magic wand.

Hopkins lowers his back to the chair with the Ethereal Horse when he finds an empty table.

"Hey, come here!

Hopkins shouts and calls for a woman's salary so she can't beat the hustle and bustle of the tavern. Hopkins first hands over a piece of bronze coin when a woman's salary comes with a transverse attitude that doesn't say a word of "Welcome".

"Drinks and food."

"A drink is a dinus. Two dinas for food."

Besides, Hopkins put three more bronze coins on the table.

The Ethereal Horse looks around the tavern wondering if there is a menu of orders, but apparently nothing like that. In the meantime, the Ethereal Horse asked for the same thing and gave out three bronze coins.

But the women's pay doesn't try to walk away, staring down at the Ethereal Horse.

Besides, I remembered that Hopkins gave me the bronze coin first earlier. The Ethereal Horse, who had heard on television and other stories about Japanese people who did not even have a chip custom in modern times, rushed out another piece of bronze coin. Then the woman's salary picked it up and went to the kitchen without saying anything.

I'm not familiar with modern Japanese pale horses, but chips are essential when shopping in this world.

As a matter of fact, these women are not being paid by the store. The chips they get from their customers are what they earn. So instead of offering the girls a place to get a chip, the store is helping them.

"Isn't there an adventurer or something here?

Until the food arrived, Ethereal Horse asked Hopkins that he didn't look like an adventurer.

"Adventurer?

"Uh... he's the one who gets paid to exorcise monsters, take requests, and hunt for treasure in caves"

"You say funny things. Is that a day job or a mountain master?

To Hopkins' answer, the Ethereal Horse felt expectations squeeze.

Even though it's a fantasy world because of it, adventurers like games and novels don't seem to be in this world.

"If you're asking for a day job, you can pay the owner of the tavern to advertise."

When Hopkins looked at the one pointing out, there was a plank of wood that was erected unwrought on a sun-dried brick wall. Wooden boards are nailed with many pieces of paper that appear to be advertisements.

The paper depicted illustrations such as' People waving tsurhashi in the mountains' and 'People with crates', underneath which several vertical bars were pulled. I guess it means that the illustration shows the content of the job and the number of people the vertical stick is looking for.

"Maybe this world has a pretty low literacy rate?

"Shikijiritsu? You think you can read and write? If you're not a scholar or an official, you can't read or write. Even I know a few simple words to use for business."

Since it was not the letters but the illustrations that were depicted in the ad, I thought maybe, but the literacy rate in this world still seems pretty low.

The woman's salary earlier there was silent, and she left some vessel or kettle on the table. Modern Japan doesn't have a customer service attitude! and an attitude that is going to be furious, but Hopkins doesn't seem to care either, so I guess this is normal here.

"Come on, let's eat"

Arranged in front of the Ethereal Horse are those in which the example round bread is divided into three quarters, and a small enough pot to grab it with one hand, a wooden jar with juice.

A peek inside the kettle filled it with brown liquid with bubbles and garbage scum on the surface.

In the broth, it's a simmering soup. A bump of boiled fish and vegetables floats in a muddy water-colored soup until it almost stops keeping the prototype.

"... What's this?

"Bread, ale and soup."

When it comes to ale, it's a familiar drink in fantasy pieces. It is a type of beer made from barley malt and fermented with yeast. When it comes to beer in modern Japan, it means lager beer, but until lager beer became popular, it was so common that it referred to ale when it came to beer.

"Duh, how do I eat..."

Among the front carriages, I thought, the bread in this world is too firm. The surface is as hard as a pancake, and inside it is worn out with chunks of flour just through the fire.

"Yale can blow through the surface debris with his breath before drinking. Hit the bread in the soup, soften it and eat it."

As Hopkins taught me, breathe the debris floating on the surface and put a horrible mouth on Yale.

……

In the mouth of the Ethereal Horse, the flavour spread that was difficult to exhaust on the brush tongue.

That was nothing like the beer my father snuck me to drink when the Ethereal Horse was celebrating, etc. If you can say so, it's a raw beer that's sour, tastes like eggs, smells like medicine, and has lost carbonation.

Yale in this world had an acidity that had further fermented and an ecliptic taste coming from impurities because the technique of filtration of impurities after brewing was not yet sufficient.

And the smell of medicine belongs to the herbs put in to suppress germ breeding and make ales last longer.

It feels like carbonation has fallen out because there is still no technique for adding carbonation to ales, so only a few carbonates born in fermentation are dissolved. Moreover, because the storage state is poor, its carbonation is almost eliminated, which is all the more so.

The yearning for ale, which the protagonists had previously arguing with their companions in several fantasy novels, collapses with a sound in the pale horse.

Still got my mind back on it and now I decided to try the bread and soup.

But I tried to tear the bread off to hit the soup, but it was too firm to do so. Seeing Hopkins, he was hitting the whole bread in the soup.

The Ethereal Horse also tried to imitate and hit the bread in the whole soup, but the body melted and became only bone in the jaw. Only the head meets the white, cloudy eyes of the small fish that remain firmly in place, causing it to become barometric.

"Ku...... You can't screw this up here!

Driven by an unintelligible sense of purpose, the pale horse hit the bread into the soup.

The bread softened after sucking and sprinkling the soup, but the sight is not very appetizing.

But still, I never speak of it with my will.

……!?

A standard soup served in a liquor store in this world is exactly a simmer.

I just smash the ingredients I bought on the market that day and simmer them on a salty note. No such thing as a predetermined recipe exists. Because ingredients bought in the mood of the cook on that day are used, the flavor also changes depending on the day.

Furthermore, the soup is not re-made every time. When the contents of the soup pan are reduced, the water and ingredients are added thereto to continue to be used.

The stock of various ingredients has been boiled over the years, so it is complicated, but the tannins, bitterness and clutter of the ash juice (aku) that came out of the ingredients did not suit the tongue of the Ethereal Horse, who is accustomed to the delicate dishes of modern Japan.

"Fa, fantasy dreams collapse..."

The Ethereal Horse fronted the ale and soup, and nodded disappointingly.

Unfortunately, in this world, when it comes to sumptuous cuisine, it was a level of round-roasted pork. Even in the original world, in times when eating is the best, we can't help it because it was like this.

But if he were to be summoned anyway, he was a pale horse who sincerely regretted wanting the food to be a more developed world.