Ferd, in particular, had grown short in his old age, so he looked rather odd carrying his sword and shield—like a child struggling with a grown man’s armaments.
“Shall we go now?” Ferd said.
“Please watch your step,” Elrica replied.
“I’m not that frail and withered. You should be careful.”
“I don’t believe I’m that withered either.”
The two of them descended the mountain while cheerfully chatting away like any married couple would. They were headed toward their final journey. But even though they claimed that they were still hearty, no one who spared them a glance would ever believe that they were in good health.
“What? Are those kids?” Herman, a golem carriage driver with a load of passengers bound for the next town over, didn’t think they looked well either. From where he sat, he saw the backs of two small humans who he presumed to be children, so he hurriedly picked up his carriage’s speed a little to catch up with them.
“Hmm? Two old people?” But when Herman got close enough to turn his head and look at their faces, he realized that they weren’t children but two elders. “Granny, gramps, did something happen?” I haven’t heard of any poor harvests lately. I don’t think they were abandoned to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Herman called out to the pair once he caught up, but his mind was filled with questions.
They were currently in the large kingdom of Rin. The highways were so well maintained that there were barely any bandits or monsters. But even so, it was strange to see two elderly people casually walking along the road. Understandably, this led Herman to immediately assume that the pair had been kicked out of their village so there’d be fewer mouths to feed.
“Hello there. We thought of going to visit our acquaintances and friends one final time. My wife and I have just started our journey,” Ferd said.
“I see...” Herman was convinced by Ferd’s explanation since the old man clearly didn’t have long left to live, but the driver would have a bit of a hard time sleeping if he abandoned them here and went his merry way. “You’ll die if it rains. Do you have any money? If not, there’s your sword, or the granny’s staff...though it seems to be the ordinary kind, not magical. You can pay with your sword then, so hop aboard.” Herman thought that since the people in his covered carriage had paid the appropriate fee, they would be dissatisfied if he let the elderly couple ride for free. So if they didn’t have any money, he’d take even the cheap sword in that clearly shabby scabbard as payment. Elrica’s staff was pure white and somewhat refined, but it only looked like a regular staff to Herman, so he didn’t think it had much value.
“My sword carries many memories. Besides, we do have money. See?” Ferd glanced at his scabbard before taking out several silver and copper coins from the pouch in his breast pocket.
“Oh, that’s enough for two passengers. Get on.” Herman confirmed that the money was sufficient to cover the fare and pointed toward the carriage with his thumb.
“What should we do, dearest?” Ferd asked Elrica.
“Let’s take the chance and get on,” she replied.
“Agreed. Let’s do that, then. Thank you for the ride.”
And so, Ferd and Elrica became Herman’s customers.
“Dearest, this must be state-of-the-art magical technology!” Ferd said.
“Yes, it must be, honey,” Elrica replied.
The two of them got excited when they saw the metal horses, making it obvious at a glance that they were country bumpkins.
“Huh? Granny, gramps, you two don’t know what a golem carriage is?” a kid asked, head tilted in confusion.
“Addie!” the kid’s mother scolded.
“Oh please, don’t worry about it. My wife and I came from far out in the sticks, you see. This is our first time seeing anything like this,” Ferd spoke truthfully while waving his hand.
Horse golems had been in use for roughly the last forty years. They were made from copper and magic and possessed neither intelligence nor the ability to run. However, while they were unsuited for the battlefield, where greater mobility was necessary, the tireless golems were perfect for transporting people and goods along the more placid highways, and had since become a necessity for people traveling the main roads. The fact that Ferd and Elrica didn’t know that could only mean that they’d suddenly come from a very, very remote place. The two of them had actually been left completely behind by the flow of society, and could even be called foreigners in a sense.
A carriage for travelers on the highway, huh? We live in good times. Ferd smiled as he compared the chaotic past to the peaceful present.
Back during the all-consuming demonic war, if someone heard of a carriage speeding down the highway, they’d assume those folks were trying to make a desperate escape—even with all the monsters set to attack the carriage along the way. With that in mind, even though the horse golems were unfamiliar to them, it was a truly peaceful ride inside the large carriage, not a single fearful face in sight. Of course, that was because the Rin Kingdom was a large country and took care in maintaining its highways; carriages on the frontier had to be more heavily armed and wary.
“In any case, do you think Sazaki will still be there?” Elrica, her thoughts back in the past just like Ferd, wondered if they would find the person they were looking for at their destination.
“I’m sure he is. It would take something truly major for him to leave that place.” Ferd, who was close friends with Sazaki, was convinced they would find him there.
The two of them were headed to Lianard, in the hopes of meeting someone there. The region was known not only for its production of alcohol, but as a place where many different kinds of alcohol were stocked. The one who they hoped to find was a truly hopeless man named Sazaki. If given the choice between only drinking water or alcohol for the rest of his life, he would have chosen the latter in a heartbeat.