Sara recalled how Lati had been the same as Nelly, with a lot of mana and difficulty controlling it.
“You know how wonderful it is to be able to find what you want to do with your life. Let’s give thanks to everyone and see them off with a smile.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
All Ed’s time spent supporting Lati as her husband wasn’t for nothing. Ed was doing good work here.
“I’ll make sure to come back at least once a year.”
“You’d better. We’ll be waiting for you.”
With a tearful farewell, their journey finally commenced. Incidentally, the group was actually taking a carriage this time.
The cheerful gate guard saw them off, and when they’d made it to the road, Ann let out a heavy sigh.
“I don’t have to bring as many people with me, thanks to you guys not coming in a carriage of your own.”
There were two carriages, one with their group and the other with luggage and servants. The only servants coming were two young coachmen and a maid, so there were at least no more than three. When Sara thought back to her travels with Ri, he’d definitely brought more servants with him. Not just for the journey, but to help out at the townhouse as well.
“So you’d still be taking two carriages even if we didn’t come to get you?”
“Yeah. Seriously, though, why would I even need so many servants?”
“There’s nothing strange about it. A noble lady would never travel alone. You’d need guards as well.”
Elm explained, since he knew a thing or two about the nobility. She’d been able to cut down on guards because their group was serving as her security.
“Plus, it’s fine and all if they want to come with me, but people from Gardenia don’t tend to want to go to the capital. It takes time to make the journey, and if you stay for a long time, you’d be separated from your family, right? I feel bad asking them to come.”
“Yeah, that might be awkward. I don’t think you need to worry that much about it, but I get where you’re coming from.” Sara nodded in agreement.
“The maid you’re bringing looked pretty young.”
They’d been introduced to the servants who would be accompanying them.
“She’s sixteen, so I guess she just became an adult. She works at the mansion, but she was real upfront about coming with ’cause the pay’s good. She said she’s excited to buy her siblings souvenirs in the capital.”
Ann laughed when she talked about her, so she seemed to have a good relationship with the maid.
“I know staying at the mansion and doing what I could there would cause the least amount of trouble, but I want to get out more and do something that helps people!”
Ann clenched her fist. She hadn’t changed at all from the girl she’d been two years ago.
“I didn’t think this would become such a big deal, though. I’m really sorry about that.”
She deflated, but Haruto said cheerfully, “Well, we Invited are supposed to have the blessing of the goddess in this world, right? No matter what we do, it tends to end up being a big deal. Your treatment is pretty typical for an Invited, other than being outside of the capital.”
“It is?”
Haruto had told Ann she didn’t need to worry about being polite with him since they were around the same age on the inside.
“Sara’s an exception since she was dropped on the Dark Mountain.”
“I really am.” All Sara could do was agree with a wry grin.
“That reminds me! There’s something I want to do first when we get to the capital.”
Sara waited for her to continue, wondering if she meant something other than joining the knights.
“Umm, I want to get a license at the Hunter’s Guild.”
“A license at the Hunter’s Guild?”
It was so unexpected that Sara reflexively took her own Guild ID out of her storage bag.
“One of these?”
“Yeah! Can I see it?”
“Sure.”
Sara’s Guild ID was nothing more than a metal plate the size of a business card with her name engraved on it. It didn’t change color depending on how strong you were or list a rank or anything like that.
Ann took Sara’s ID with both hands like it was very important and looked down at it, all smiles.
“I’ve wanted one of these ever since you told me about yourself, Sara.”
Sara wasn’t sure there was anything enviable about her story. As far as she was concerned, it was just dealing with a bunch of monsters and getting roped into trouble.
“I wasn’t told I should join the knights at any particular time, so I was thinking when I got to the capital I’d save up some money and get my Hunter’s license.”
“Ah, that part.”
Now that she thought about it, back when Sara had been earning money for her Hunter’s license had probably been the hardest her life had been but also the most fun.
“I actually had plenty of money back then, though. If the Apothecary’s Guild had bought my plants from me, I would have gotten my license right away.”
“Well, I have money that Ed and Lati gave me, but it feels wrong to buy it with that.”
Haruto crossed his arms thoughtfully. “I’m guessing you just want to do that because you have Sara as a reference. I got it with the money from my guardians myself, since I didn’t think anyone would expect a twelve-year-old to work. They bought me weapons, armor, a carriage to go to the dungeon, and people to go down in there with me.”
“Well, look at the little lord!”
“Pretty much,” Haruto said with some chagrin. At this point, he probably regretted letting himself be so spoiled.
“That was only obvious for me too, so I’m not sure I get where you’re coming from either.”
Elm was another rich kid.
“Even in Japan, it takes money if you want to get lessons in something or do club activities. If you’re twelve, your parents would pay for that, right?”
Sara had been in the go-home club, so she hadn’t cost her parents too much money, but Haruto was right. From what she knew of her brother and her friends, at least, that sort of thing did cost money, and it naturally fell to the parents to pay for it.
“When you think of it like that, it’s sort of like everyone’s nobles in Japan, isn’t it?”
“True.”
Everyone else seemed convinced that using her guardians’ money was fine, but Ann was still putting up a fight.
“But this isn’t Japan, and I’ll only have one chance to work my hardest to get into the guild!”
“I guess that’s true.”
Haruto seemed to be on the fence, but it was more likely that he just didn’t care.
That was when Kuntz, who’d been silent this whole time, spoke up. Incidentally, Allen didn’t seem interested at all in the conversation.
“What do you think about what Ann wants to do, Elm?”
Sara wasn’t sure why he’d asked, since she thought Elm had already spoken up, but then she remembered he’d only said he didn’t understand where she was coming from.
“I don’t understand how she feels, but I think Ann should do what she wants to do.”
“Really?!”
Oh, I see. Sara understood what he was getting at and gave Kuntz an impressed look. “Wow.”
“It’s nothing like that. It’s simple, really.” Kuntz scratched his nose, embarrassed. “Everyone’s got their opinions, but Ann’s guardian is the only one who has a say about what she does.”
“Oh, right...”
Everyone was giving her their opinion to try to save her from going to too much trouble, but they were just being busybodies if she’d already decided what she wanted to do. If Elm, her guardian, had no objection to this, then she could do it, end of story.
“Sorry for meddling like that.”
Sara couldn’t help wanting to protect a girl who was younger than her, but acting like this, she was no different from the overprotective Lati.
“Oh, no! I know you’re saying it for my sake. Besides, I’d do what I wanted even if everyone else was against it anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
Ann had decided she wanted to join the knights, even going so far as to convince Lati to let her. There was no need to worry about her; she’d find her way with or without anyone’s help.
The group enjoyed a fun chat after that until they reached the place where the green grass locusts had swarmed, and Sara asked if they could stop. She didn’t want to see locusts or anything; she just wanted to see the landscape that had been utterly covered in them before.
“Ugh, it’s totally destroyed...”
It was the beginning of spring, but there was still far too little greenery. The ground was nothing but exposed dirt and rock. She’d heard there were a lot of green grass locusts the year before too. Maybe that was why.
“They haven’t hatched from their eggs yet this year, though, have they?”
Sara glanced around nervously and Ann came up and explained things to her.