Editor: Tseirp
The next day, the guild carriage carrying Ryo and Abel left the City of Rune at 8:00 in the morning.
Ryo carried his usual bag, Abel a similar bag, and the two of them didn’t have much luggage.
They hardly needed any time to prepare for the trip in the first place.
“Ryo…you seem calm.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
Abel looked at Ryo who was sitting nonchalantly as usual and voiced his thoughts, and Ryo, not understanding what he meant, asked in turn.
“Nothing, just that, guildmaster told me to try and calm you down, Ryo, because you were kinda feeling restless.”
“Hmm. I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to. But, there is this saying in my hometown. ‘Haste makes waste’, or ‘More haste, less speed’. Nothing good will come out of me being in a hurry.”
Ryo said, nodding with a smirk.“I see. You’re exactly right.”
Abel was relieved, nodding slowly.
Ryo decided to ask Abel about something that occurred to him.
“Abel, about the send-off just now in front of the guild…”
“Yeah?”
“The three members of the ‘Crimson Sword’ didn’t show up, did they?”
“Yeah…I guess.”
“Could it be that you’re being mistreated by them, Abel?”
“The hell?”
Ryo asked very cautiously while turning his pitying gaze on Abel, as if he were looking at something extremely pitiful. Naturally, Abel lashed out.
“I mean, how can a party leader go off on a long-term job all alone and no one comes to see him off…?”
“Well, if you’re talking about that, what about you, Ryo, I didn’t see anyone from ‘Room 10’ come to see you off, did I?”
“Because I didn’t tell them. In the first place, I am not a member of Room 10.”
“I-I see…. No, then what about Sera, she didn’t show up either! ”
“It’s the same for Sera, she’s from the solo party ‘Wind’… Besides, she came to my house this morning.”
Ryo’s face was portraying the perfect expression for “Hmph”. Abel was extremely pissed off.
However, he did not yell at him. He was indeed a mature man.
“The thing is…”
“I get it! You were finally expelled from the ‘Crimson Sword’ huh! It’s okay, don’t worry about it.”
“For fuck sake! ”
In the end, Abel yelled at him.
“The thing is, Ilarion is in Kona Village right now…”
“Oh, right, he took Rin with him. Which was why they sought me out…”
“Exactly. And both Warren and Rihya went with them.”
“Eh…”
“Think about it, did you see any one of them at my A-rank ceremony the other day?”
“Come to think of it…”
Abel seemed lonely in Ryo’s eyes.
No, perhaps…he looked as if he was being tormented by a sense of hopelessness.
No one from the party with whom he had shared so much pain and suffering came to the ceremony for his promotion to A-rank… from Ryo’s point of view, that was a terrible situation to imagine.
“The time is out of joint.”
Ryo said in a low voice.
“What?”
“The prince of a certain country uttered these words when the world he had believed in was broken and he was in a hopeless situation. I just thought it seems rather fitting for Abel, who pretends to be a prince.”
“What do you mean pretend…wait a minute, you mean you still don’t believe me?”
“Of course! ‘The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!’ he exclaimed!”
Ryo reenacted the scene from Hamlet in the carriage.
“O-okay…”
“Now, you say it. ‘The time is out of joint’.”
“What?”
“The time is out of joint.”
“T-The time is out of joint.”
Abel repeated after Ryo, forced by Ryo’s assertiveness.
“That’s right. You can recite it when you are in a desperate situation. You have my permission to use it.”
“Ah, yeah, thank you…?”
And thus emerged a new fan of Shakespeare, albeit in another world….
“Abel…there is something strange about this carriage.”
“Hm? What is it this time?”
“Wait, what do you mean by ‘this time’…you make it sound like I’m always saying strange things.”
Ryo shrugged his shoulders and gave him a look that said, sheesh, what’s he on about.
“Like you don’t?”
Abel sighed and shook his head.
“Well, I’ll pretend not to hear the nonsense you just said. I forgive you.”
“What do you mean nonsense!”
“Anyway, there’s something definitely strange about this carriage.”
“Really? It seems to be on the right path to the royal capital, though.”
“Yeah, it’s on the right path, but in case you haven’t noticed, it has been running at top speed since.”
A horse-drawn carriage, in order to travel a long distance, usually runs quite slowly.
However, the guild carriage that Ryo and company were riding in was quite fast.
It seemed that the speed was about the same as riding in a car on modern earth…that is, more than forty kilometers per hour.
“Well, maybe not quite at top speed, but it’s pretty fast for a carriage. And it’s all because of you, Ryo.”
“Me?”
Ryo tilted his head and asked back.
“You wanted to get to the alchemy workshop as soon as possible, right?”
“Of course. Since the date and time of departure from the royal capital have been fixed, the time I can spend in the alchemy workshop is very short! I can’t afford to waste even a second.”
“There you have it. I heard that Guilmas, with the permission of the Grand Master of the royal capital, has made arrangements with the Adventurers’ Guild along the way to replace our horses with fresh ones so that we can get to the royal capital as quickly as possible.”
“Aww…. Mr. Hugh is so thoughtful!”
Ryo thanked Hugh in the carriage.
“I heard that the trip, which would normally take nearly a week, will only take two days with this…. Like, talk about reckless.”
Abel said in astonishment.
Ryo, on the other hand, was just full of appreciation.
But then a question popped up.
In most otherworldly or fantasy stories, the ride in a speeding carriage is a nightmare.
This is not surprising since there is no suspension system and the tires are made of wood or iron, not rubber.
However, the carriage he’s riding in now wasn’t as bad as those tales described.
“Abel, the ride isn’t as uncomfortable, isn’t it?”
“Of course it isn’t. The guild carriages can travel at such high speeds because they are equipped with a magical, or rather alchemical, shock-absorbing mechanism. I’m not too familiar with the details myself.”
“Alchemy! And magic…I see, that could definitely work.”
That’s right, there’s no need for the carriage suspensions invented in the 17th century on Earth in this world.
Because there is magic!
Because there is alchemy!
This is fantasy!
“Oh, by the way, I have been hearing some rumors floating around lately about a new kind of carriage that’s comfortable to ride in, even without the use of alchemy.”
“Ohh. Technology is advancing at a remarkable rate, isn’t it?”
“Some blacksmith made it…what was his name again…he was originally a famous weapons smith, I believe. Oh, yes, Kalashnikov.”
“Kalashnikov…”
What came to Ryo’s mind was, of course, Kalashnikov, the designer of the ‘AK-47’, the ‘world’s most widely used military rifle’ on modern Earth.
The AK-47 is the assault rifle that is seen in many movies, being used in conflict zones in the Middle East by rebel forces.
This automatic rifle was made in the former Soviet Union, sold all over the world, and adopted all over the world.
However, here in the Kingdom of Knightley, ‘Kalashnikov’ has become famous as a relatively inexpensive yet comfortable carriage workshop.
For this reason, the following conversation is said to be frequently exchanged among lower-class nobles and merchants these days.
“What carriage have you been riding in lately?”
“A Kalashnikov.”
The group arrived at the royal capital in two days as planned.
“We are staying at Count Rune’s residence, Ryo. Be sure to show up.”
The carriage entered the royal capital and went straight to the Royal Alchemy Workshop.
Ryo got off there and was about to enter the alchemy workshop.
Abel then called out to him, but…it’s anyone’s guess whether Ryo heard him.
“Dammit…. I guess I’ll just have to come and pick him up the night before our departure.”
Abel sighed and asked the carriage to take him to Count Rune’s mansion.
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