Chapter 2:
Subjugating Bandits
~Appointed Lands and the Capital~
EARLY THAT MORNING, A GROUP OF ADVENTURERS carrying a letter from Werner arrived at the Zehrfeld manor in the capital.
Usually, when adventurers delivered a letter to a noble, they’d hand it over to the manor staff in exchange for proof of receipt. They would then turn that over to the guild to claim their reward. These receipts could be considered a form of currency circulating in the guilds.
However, the adventurers in this instance claimed that they had a verbal message for the count as well, which was attested to in another letter written by Werner and addressed to Norbert. Thus, they were allowed to meet directly with Ingo in the presence of some guards the kingdom had appointed to him as a gesture of concern.
Ingo heard their message and received the letter. If his expression while reading it was quite incomprehensible, well, that much was understandable. Afterwards, he ordered that a separate reward be prepared for the adventures, drawn directly from the house’s coffers.
Then, after first having his wife, Claudia, and Norbert read the letter, he summoned Lily to the drawing room.
“Excuse me,” Lily said upon entering.
Claudia and Norbert watched her carefully even before she entered the room. This was a place of learning, after all, for if nobles had the duty to hire workers, they also had the duty to train them.
“This is what I called you here for,” Ingo said, presenting two sheets of monster skin parchment. “It’s a letter from Werner. I would like you to read it as well.” Ingo took out two sheets of monster skin parchment. Lily turned to Norbert, confirming that she had permission to take the letter, before doing so.
Lily then addressed the count, “Is it all right if I read this?”
She knew it was a tacit order, of course, but asked anyway. Claudia and Norbert nodded in approval.
“Of course,” Ingo said.
Lily bowed before opening the letter, and she too scowled at its contents.
It was true that the letter had been addressed to Lily, and while the monster skin parchment that had been used was top quality and befitting of a noble, the contents of the letter were not so praiseworthy. It was full of complaints about the lack of delectable teas or alcohol and how the poor economic conditions had made the town boring. The fact that stains of meat broth and wine covered the letter was another problem.
“What do you make of this?”
“Please wait just a moment.” Lily bowed once again before reading the letter for a second time. Finally, some quiet words managed to trickle their way out. “That can’t be right…um…”
With Ingo, Claudia, and Norbert watching her, she muttered those words. But finally, she lifted her face and turned toward Norbert. “My deepest apologies, but might I also see the letter that was sent to Lord Ingo?”
Norbert looked to Ingo, who silently nodded before Norbert took the letter out of his hand. Lily took this from Norbert, but she didn’t read the contents. Her thoughts seemed focused on something else. After a short time, she appeared to have come to an understanding.
“It’s the documents tied together by a blue string in the drawer second down on the right in Lord Werner’s desk. He would like you to review those, Lord Ingo.”
“Norbert.” At a single word from the count, Norbert left the room. Ingo gave but a passing glance to his retreating figure before turning to Lily. “How did you figure that out?”
“R-right. Lord Werner once taught me a way to communicate from afar using a blinking light.”
She had actually used the method when Rafed and some other Lesratogans came for Mazel’s family, though it was true that back then, it only served as a signal to commence their operation. Knowing this, Ingo nodded silently and used his gaze to ask that she continue.
“Lord Werner thought of a way to use longer and shorter flashes to send brief messages.”
He had based it on the so-called Morse code that had existed in his old world. Still, while he knew the concept, he had no experience using it. He had to create something like it from scratch, so even Werner himself didn’t think it was yet at a level that could have real-world uses. While lamenting the fact he couldn’t complete this code before his appointment in Anheim, he had asked that Lily make a cipher even should it be incomplete.
“I see. So?”
“At first, I thought we were meant to read only the letters that were dirtied or only the letters that were clean, but neither made sense. So, I thought the stains might have meaning themselves.”