CH 2.15

High Elf and Sword Princess

Edited by mlzkzr

Chapter 2 Part 15: 

Warfiel, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Ludria, is located about ten days by horse-drawn carriage from the town of Vistkort.

Vistkort, which borders the Great Pruha Forest Sea, is the most westerly frontier of the Kingdom of Ludria, while Garareto, which I visited earlier, is the northern frontier.

And Warfiel, the royal capital, is located in the center of the Kingdom of Ludria.

I don’t know the exact location, but assuming that wagons travel 80 to 100 kilometers a day, the area from one end of the Kingdom of Ludria to the other would be about 1,500 to 2,000 kilometers, right.

This is just a really rough calculation, but it gives the impression that the Kingdom of Ludria is a fairly large country, even if it’s not a large country.

Therefore, the royal capital, the heart where people and goods gather from all over the land, was very prosperous compared to the town of Vistkort, although this may not be surprising.

I don’t think it is originally necessary since it is in the middle of the country, but the royal capital is surrounded by high defensive walls, and there are many layers of them.

Supposing this place was to be invaded, I think the country would perish regardless of whether the royal capital was protected or not…….

Well, it’s none of my business.

Citizens of the capital live inside the walls, but the poor, who cannot obtain their citizenship, are said to live outside the walls in the slums.

The size of Warfiel’s slums is the largest in the Kingdom of Ludria, as it is the capital of the kingdom, and it is said that the security around its gates of the defensive wall is not so bad.

However, if one goes deep into the slums, they’ll see that it is a lawless area where all kinds of crimes are rampant.

It sounds a little intriguing, but for one thing, I have other objectives at the moment.

Dangerous actions can be done only after I have become sufficiently accustomed to and bored with the Royal Capital.

It is a rule in any town in the Kingdom of Ludria that you are taxed when you cross the gate to enter a town.

Yes, there will always be someone who says 20 copper coins if you have an ID and one silver coin if you don’t.

I had citizenship because I had lived in the town of Vistkort for a long time and continued to pay taxes.

Of course, it is a citizenship of Vistkort, but it was good enough to guarantee my identity.

And one more thing, the senior blacksmith’s license given by my blacksmith sensei, the fucking dwarf Asvald, is also a fine identification card.

In fact, either one of them would be enough, but I intend to stay in the royal capital for a long period of time.

So with that, since I don’t have the heart to work as a blacksmith right away, I would use my citizenship of Vistkort, which has tax records etc in it.

But I still want to stand in the forge at times, and if I hide it, it will be troublesome later on, so I take out my senior blacksmith license as well.

I stated my reasons for staying in the royal capital and submitted them to the guard guarding the gate.

The guard looked at those documents and my face about three times, and

“So you’re an elf and blacksmith who lives in a town…… but you came to the Royal capital to learn swordsmanship and magic, is it. I know it’s bad to say this, but you’re an eccentric one. Ah…… an eccentric elf, huh”

What a style of laughing.

It may be a laugh or a bitter smile, but it’s fine, because I don’t sense any malice or hostility from it.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m an elf.

I would no longer be offended by being called a strange elf if I had to be referred to in such a curious way.

A merchant I met while working as a blacksmith told me that he feels safe in a town with healthy gatekeepers.

On the other hand, if the gatekeeper is demanding a bribe, you need to be careful because the security inside the town is also in disorder.

The attitude of the gatekeeper is a mirror of the lord’s governance and of the disturbed minds of the citizens.

From that point of view, the attitude of the guards guarding this gate is probably one of the very best.

Although he spoke favorably, he always exercised a certain degree of caution toward me and the people around him, which, in turn, was proof that there were dangers lying around that he needed to be wary of.

I don’t know if he was being vigilant because of the nearby slums, or because there are many people trying to bring contraband into the royal capital, or because of the dangers within the gates.

It would be better not to let my guard down too much.

“Welcome, to the Royal Capital Warfiel.”

The guard handed me back the papers proving my identity, smiled and said so.

Well, many things aside, he’s probably a good guy.

The first thing I need to look for in the busy royal capital is an inn to stay at.

No matter how I want to spend the rest of my time here in Warfiel, I will need a place to stay.

This is also an important point, but if I was going to decide on a place to stay when I don’t know where I want to stay, it is better to avoid cheap hotels in the meantime.

Rather than doing that, it would be safer to stay in expensive accommodations at first.

This is because the high rent is the compensation for the service they provide to the customer.

Of course, the service includes things like the good facilities of the inn and the taste of the food served.

The most important thing, however, was the ease of including peace of mind in the service.

Of course, this is not an absolute guarantee, and one must look at the security system of the inn and the personalities of the employees, but there is definitely a higher probability of feeling secure in expensive inns compared to cheap inns.

Now I understand a little better why Airena the elf insisted on keeping me in an expensive inn when I had just come out of the forest and into the outside world.

Besides, just because I decided on an inn once, it didn’t mean that I couldn’t move out from it.

Even if I start out staying at an expensive lodging, if I find a better lodging in terms of service, security, and price, I can simply move there.

Also, it would be better to be closer to a Sword Dojo and the magic academy, which are my goals.

In other words, I will decide on my full-fledged base once again after I made a decision on how to spend time in the Royal Capital.

But while I was looking for such lodging, I saw something very intriguing on the main street.

It was a single street performer.

…… No, a swordsman.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the sword he wielded is dull, but it’s hard to say that it’s a good one either.

But she, yes, the female swordsman, after concentrating her mind for a while, swings her sword out to the side without hesitation, and with a snap, cuts the fruit which was placed on a table.

At that moment, it was an unbelievable spectacle for me.

I know from my experience as a blacksmith that a sword like that, if swung properly, would only be good enough to smash through the fruit, or worse, it will be crushed.

Ah, no, that was bad of me for saying that.

She has a good arm if she can smash it.

Though normally, the fruit would fly like a home run.

And yet the fruit had been cut.

I was tempted to walk up to her and check her sword, but I endured it desperately.

Even from a distance, there is no mistaking the connoisseur of the weapon.

It would be insincere of me to have doubts about the swordswoman who showed us her wonderful technique.

So I stand in front of her with a silver coin in my hand.

I was able to see something good.

With that in mind, I give it to her like an offering.

She gazes for a moment at the brilliance of the coin she was handed with, but then she turns to me and bows deeply.

Unfortunately, as an art form, I wonder if it was plain.

Other than me, there was no one who was willing to give her an offering for her art.

But I was content.

Since I saw such interesting swordsmanship on my first day in the Royal Capital, I am sure there are many great swordsmen here and I can learn from them too.

Thinking about that, my heart pounds, and I can’t stop it.

So I was actually going to start my search for the magic academy, but even if I do find an inn today, tomorrow I will first look for a dojo that teaches swordsmanship.

With that thought in mind, I leave the place.