Master and Slaves

Around the time the sun began to stain red, we were lined up at the back of a long queue.

A queue for inspection, at the city of Lubeck, also called the merchants’ city and the slaves’ city.

I sat beside Muriel, who drove the carriage, and looked ahead.

Once we drew near the city, the To-Dules and Te-Dules were tied behind the carriage and made to walk, and they were still that way now.

As if to guard them, Rosina and Birga, both A-Dules, were placed at the rear of the carriage.

According to Muriel, if it was Rosina and Birga, both priests, then even with Dules no one would try anything outrageous.

Before, when Tiria and I had lined up for inspection like this in Torrestia, the royal capital of the Torrestia Kingdom, there had been men who touched Tiria, so we had taken this precaution.

And in front of the carriage, Sara stood as escort.

Well, there were plenty of people, and there were guards watching Lubeck’s gate, so I did not think we would be attacked.

Most of the queue was commercial carriages, but now and then there were people in poor clothes.

Worn armor, grimy robes.

Some wore swords at the waist or on the back, and some carried staves.

Adventurers, most likely.

Escorts for the carriages, come to Lubeck for work, or passing through on the way to another country.

On the way here from the royal capital of Torrestia we had often passed commercial carriages and people who looked like adventurers, so the traffic was probably constant.

Even so, it was hard to tell them from outlaws such as bandits, so caution was never wasted.

While I looked ahead, I focused past that, on the city gate where the inspection was happening.

At the new gate in the new city wall, the guards were inspecting the people who passed.

Merchants had the inside of their carriages checked, and if they had Dules, the crests were confirmed.

Everyone else had their belongings checked, and checked thoroughly.

"Last time we came, it was over in no time."

I muttered it under my breath.

We had been lined up since the sun was high, and there were still many people ahead.

"Yes. But it has only been a short while since the Torrestia Kingdom settled down."

From behind, Cathy answered my mutter.

When Cathy, Tiria, and I had visited Lubeck before, there had not been a queue this long.

That was because the guards had finished the inspections quickly, but now, after the emergency of the Torrestia Kingdom’s civil war, they were probably inspecting with care.

The number of people going back and forth between the Torrestia Kingdom and Lubeck was one cause of it too.

"Hah. Yeah."

I answered Cathy, then looked to the head of the queue again.

"Even so, this is something."

"Yes, truly."

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

This time Muriel, beside me, answered the words I muttered again.

"It is larger than when we visited before."

When we visited fifteen years ago, the city wall should have been farther ahead.

Which meant that in these fifteen years they had built the wall in front of us.

The wall was about ten meters, maybe.

Fine enough to match a fortress on the front line.

"Most likely they took in the ’town’ that had formed outside the city."

Muriel looked ahead along the queue.

The ’town’ formed outside the city was a ’town’ made when people who were not allowed into Lubeck settled on their own beyond the wall.

Properly speaking it was outside Lubeck’s autonomy, the law did not reach it, and public order was the worst.

Whether Lubeck had taken it in as the result of chasing profit as a merchants’ city, or out of simple goodwill, to save people from the rampage of the Demon King’s army that had nested in the Torrestia Kingdom, I could not say.

Either way, it was certain that Lubeck was far larger than before.

After all, because we had stopped at the remains of Rade Village, I had thought we would reach the city in the evening, or at worst after the sun set. In fact, we had joined this queue at 2:42 in the afternoon.

Which meant that from passing this gate to reaching the old gate would take more than two hours.

Come to think of it, this area should still have been forest.

Now it was wasteland as far as I could see.

It had changed greatly in these fifteen years.

...

In the end, we were inspected around the time the sun had set and the red sky was about to turn to dark.

Inside the gate, spheres of the magic "Illumination" floated, and only that spot was lit in pale blue light.

Among the people lined up behind me, some were making beds.

Once the sun set, the city gate would close.

We had made it, barely.

About ten guards were conducting the inspection at the gate.

One of them called out.

"Next!"

A loud voice, like a shout.

Tired from inspecting so many people, or sick of it.

I did not want to draw attention, but I got down from the carriage and stepped forward.

Muriel got down too, and with Sara led the two horses that had been pulling the carriage.

"...What are these Dules?"

The guard looked at Muriel, Sara, Rosina and Birga behind the carriage, and the To-Dules and Te-Dules, and asked with a stern face.

"They’re my Dules."

"Don’t lie. No human could have this many Dules!"

The guard did not even try to hide his irritation, and shouted it at me.

"No, they really are my Dules."

"You... anyway, come here. I’ll check."

The guard took my arm and examined the crest on the back of my hand.

"Next, you!"

Then he pulled Muriel’s arm and examined the First Crest on her chest.

"Hm. This one is your Dule. Next!"

"I am next."

Hearing the guard’s shout, Sophia got down from the carriage.

"...What? You, an elf?"

"Yes, that is right. So what?"

The guard looked at Sophia, then glared at me and drew the sword at his waist.

"You, who are you?"

The guard, sword leveled at me, asked me that.

Muriel and Sara moved at once to draw their swords, so I raised one hand and stopped them.

"I am..."

"What is going on?"

As I was about to answer, guards who seemed to be colleagues of the one inspecting us, having sensed something, surrounded me.

With swords leveled, of course.

Should I ready my sword too?

But I did not want to start something here.

"...I am Hiroyuki Asahi. In the Torrestia Kingdom... ah..."

...What was I supposed to say?

"...An exile."

"Stay still!"

When I answered honestly, the guards’ killing intent rose.

As I thought, that had been a mistake.

I glanced back. Muriel had a hand to her brow.

"You, don’t move from there! Hey! Call the magician!"

The one who seemed to be the guard captain threw the order at a subordinate.

The area grew noisy, and the city gate was closed.

From inside the city, more than ten guards came running as support.

And then...

...

"Ahahahaha."

A big laugh echoed through the room.

"No, I am sorry about this. Certainly, there was a mistake on our side as well. I apologize."

The man in front of me, Freit Clam, held down his laughter, wiped his tears, and bowed his head.

Even if he apologized while fighting a laugh, it did not feel like an apology.

Naturally, my face turned sullen.

Back then, the magician who had come running cleared up the misunderstanding (?), and by giving the name of Freit, a notable of this city, the guards had finally sheathed their swords.

Even so, they would not let us move freely until they contacted Freit and Freit himself came to meet us.

After that we were invited to Freit’s mansion, and now we were intruding on the drawing room with the Dules.

I sat in the guest seat. In the seat of honor opposite me sat Freit.

Behind me stood the Dules, except for Lilli and Birga.

Lilli and Birga were in another room, keeping Rine company.

I took a sip of the black tea Lotte, Freit’s A-Dule, had poured.

"Even so, fifteen years ago you had three Dules, and one of them was an A-Dule. Now you have as many as fifteen? And according to Helene, you increased them in only a few months. An elf, a dwarf, a hobbit, and even a monster made into Dules... My, my. I am past surprise, and simply amazed."

Even as Freit said that, he wore a smile that did not look amazed at all, and looked at the Dules behind me.

Told that, all I could do was smile wryly.

Somehow I was just being talked at.

"Well, a lot happened on our side too."

"Yes. I have heard the circumstances around that."

For an instant Helene’s face, grinning, rose in my mind, but it vanished at once at Freit’s next words.

"She also said she wanted you to help her. Well, I was the one who asked for aid, though."