Chapter 04
The soldier aimed his spear the moment he sensed movement. If the distance had been closer, she might have actually been stabbed.
Serena released the hand restraining Philia. Philia shot in front of Serena and scolded the soldier.
“How dare you!”
“Eek! A witch? A spirit?”
Startled by the suddenly appearing beauty, the soldier’s eyes and spear tip trembled as if hit by an aftershock.
“This lady is the only granddaughter of His Majesty Harold II, and the eldest daughter of His Highness Crown Prince Kipan—the Grand Duchess of Pacling! Show some respect!”
“I have committed a capital offense!”
“A princess? For real?”
“Princess, you’re safe!”
Strictly speaking, Serena wasn’t a princess but a crown princess. But when the royal family can be counted on one hand and she’s the only female, to commoners she’s simply a princess.
Most nobles called her princess too, and even Harold II, who was only waiting for the right moment to depose his drug-addicted youngest son, always called her princess or royal princess. So let’s just call her a princess.
“Let’s sort out the situation first.”
In a class society, status is law. The confused people gathered at the princess’s command.
Waking up in an unfamiliar space after losing consciousness. Strange people gathered there. The massive earthquake witnessed just before fainting.
It was a situation difficult to maintain one’s sanity. Serena decided to first clear up questions about each person.
“Name, occupation, and what you remember from just before and after arriving here. Speak as you recall. Let’s start with you.”
Serena pointed first to the only one armed with a weapon—the soldier. His occupation was obvious at a glance, but she wanted to know more.
“Sir! Yes sir! Soldier Hanson Hanson of the Capital Guard! During the proud Huji Kingdom’s Foundation Day celebration! Without rest! Day and night! With all my might, I am on duty! Over! End!”
Soldier Hanson Hanson shouted. Tense from the situation, and now a princess appeared, making him even more tense—his manner of speech was truly odd.
“You should lower your voice. Your name is Hans and your surname is Hanson?”
“No, sir! It’s Hanson Hanson, sir! When I was registered at birth, the village chief made a mistake!”
‘Village chief?’
Hujichen was a city. Naturally, there were no village chiefs.
“You’re not from Hujichen, then.”
“No, sir! That’s right! I’m from Kizen!”
Hanson named an area near Hujichen. Since it wasn’t important, Serena listened to Hanson’s next story.
“As a proud Hujichen guard! Day and night! Without rest, I faithfully serve!”
‘Do take your shifts. Was manpower that short?’
Even knights who normally exclusively escorted royals were being drafted for palace security, so the Capital Guard’s overwork was understandable.
‘How exhausted must a person be to talk like that? Excessive labor really does ruin people.’
Her desire to avoid work grew even stronger.
“I was arguing with an unlicensed street vendor when the earthquake hit! When I woke up, I was in a strange corridor! I walked cautiously, met the vendor, and headed toward the strong light until I arrived here! End of report!”
Serena observed Hanson Hanson.
An iron helmet like a narrow-brimmed hat, and a brigandine. A spear and a longsword at his waist. Though invisible, a dagger in his bosom. Standard equipment of the Hujichen Capital Guard.
If the uniform were slightly more ornate and he carried a halberd, it would be a royal guard’s equipment.
The face revealed beneath the narrow brim was surprisingly youthful. If he was a soldier, he’d have come of age, but he looked about the age of Serena’s younger brother. Freckles scattered across his forehead and cheeks made him look even younger.
‘He looks young.’
His downturned eyes gave him a gentle impression as well. Even in a guard’s uniform, he wasn’t intimidating. With a gentle face and youthful looks, he probably had a hard time at work.
‘Not important. Next.’
“Well heard. Next, you speak.”
Serena pointed to the street vendor.
“My name’s Chrome. There’s a big lumberyard near my town, so I take the wood scraps they throw away and carve them to make a living. I heard there was a big festival in the capital this time, and since I’d never seen the capital, I came to look around. Ah, what a bunch of thieves. What a bunch of robbers. Everywhere I sit, they say it’s someone’s spot and ask if I have a permit, chasing me away. I finally found an empty spot, but they came all the way there and told me to pack up.”
“No unlicensed street vending during the festival!”
Hanson, who had simply been doing his job but was treated like a robber, shouted. He sounded like a machine reciting official documents sent to the guard during the festival.
“I’d been chased so much I didn’t want to lose the spot I’d barely gotten. We were talking when the ground went rumble-rumble. When I woke up, I was in a strange place. Then this.”
Chrome looked at Hanson and pursed his lips before speaking.
“I met the soldier and came here. But this soldier caused such a commotion that I left my cart and belongings behind. That’s all my possessions. I introduced myself, so can I go get them now?”
“Wait until everyone else has introduced themselves.”
“Tsk, but the rats might nibble on them…”
Chrome grumbled quietly. Despite knowing Serena was a princess, he didn’t seem particularly intimidated. It wasn’t so much disrespect as the class difference being so vast it didn’t feel real.
His face and hands were wrinkled from wind and sun, protected only by wrapped scarves. Especially his hands, as he lived by carving, were covered in calluses and scars. He was definitely over forty, but it was hard to tell exactly.
‘Forty? Or sixty?’
Serena clicked her tongue inwardly. She couldn’t guess Chrome’s age.
Sunlight accelerates aging. So does nutritional imbalance. Unlike her past life where malnutrition was tied to dieting, this was a Western-style fantasy world without basic welfare.
Though it was called a prosperous nation, that just meant fewer people starved to death.
She could roughly guess the apparent age of well-fed nobles, similar to her past life, but commoners aged rapidly after coming of age, making their age impossible to determine.
If she saw commoners often, she’d know, but who was Serena? A princess delicately raised in the palace. She had almost no opportunities to see ordinary commoners.
“Lavenda. It’s your turn.”
Serena pointed to Lavenda as the next speaker. Lavenda opened her lavender-colored eyes wide (probably why she was named Lavenda) and nodded eagerly.
“Yes! I’m Lavenda Pouri. I’m from Vieta. I have my passport here… and at my lodging I have my entry permit and massage business license. The shop has copies.”
“Vieta? You came all the way from there? Young lady, you’ve got guts.”
“Vieta—do you mean the Vieta at the eastern end?”
Chrome and Hanson were astonished to hear Lavenda’s hometown.
Again, Huji is at the western edge of the continent, and Vieta is at the eastern end. A journey that even seasoned travelers or adventurers would find difficult.
“Did you walk here?”
“Of course I took a ship. Sea routes are much faster and safer than land routes. It was also much cheaper to travel by ship. The owner who proposed the partnership paid for my travel expenses.”
“Hm.”
Lavenda’s once-in-a-lifetime adventure, escaping the red ocean of Vieta’s massage industry for the blue ocean of Huji!
If she were receiving a massage, it would have been a fairly interesting story to listen to.
But the five were currently trapped in a strange space after falling.
When Serena made a small sound, Lavenda fell silent. Chrome and Hanson, who had been surprised by the sudden foreign story and asked questions, also quickly calmed down.
“As I told the soldier earlier, I had closed the shop early and was on my way back to my lodging. Suddenly the ground shook, and while I was leaning against the wall, the floor caved in. I screamed and fell, and when I woke up I was here. I walked toward the bright light and found the soldier, so I came here.”
The rest was as everyone had seen, so it was omitted.
Having heard the introductions and the stories from just before and after the fall from the three, Serena asked them something to confirm before having Philia introduce herself.
“You said it was a corridor when you woke up?”
“Yes! That’s right!”
“It was a stone corridor, different material and structure from here. There were no windows… Was there lighting? I’m sorry, Princess. I was so startled I didn’t look around carefully.”
“It was a corridor? I thought it was a basement. Isn’t it a basement?”
“The place we woke up in was a cave.”
Serena pointed to the direction she and Philia had come from.
“The falling positions were different, so that could be possible, right?”
Philia quickly answered her mistress’s question.
‘If you fall from a high place, even a slight difference in direction can change the landing spot a lot…’
What was the probability that everyone who fell from such a height would be uninjured?
‘I’m not a mathematician, so why am I calculating that. Let’s move on.’
Going toward where Serena and Philia had come from led to a cave; going toward where the three had come from led to a stone corridor. Serena extracted only that information for now.
“There were no windows. The ceiling… it seemed blocked too… but it was bright…”
Lavenda bit her lip, trying to recall her memory. Serena left her to it and signaled to Philia with her eyes.
“Countess. It’s your turn.”
“Yes, Serena! I am Philia Landriol, Serena’s chief lady-in-waiting. You may call me Countess Landy. I’ve served Serena for over five years and will serve her for life.”
“Countess Landy. Only say what I’ve told you to say.”
While Serena cut off Philia’s rambling broadcast, the others were surprised by something else.
“Countess? You’re married?”
“Your husband is a lucky man. Must be rotting with envy.”
“You married young.”
The three seemed shocked that Huji’s greatest beauty was already married.
Having seen a beauty so ethereal she seemed more like a spirit than a human for the first time in their lives, learning she was already married was quite startling.
“I was walking with Serena, fell, fainted, and when I woke up, I was here.”
It wasn’t wrong, but the explanation was too brief. Serena stepped in personally.
“You’ve just heard what the Countess said, but I’ll introduce myself again. I am Serena Pacling Huaim. Granddaughter of His Majesty Harold II, King of Huji, and daughter of His Highness Crown Prince Kipan. I am properly called Grand Duchess of Pacling, but since the royal family has few members and I am the only woman, everyone calls me Princess Serena.”
Everyone was flattered by Serena’s introduction.
“I left Lavenda’s massage parlor and was walking through a narrow path said to be a shortcut—narrower than the alleyways—to reach the clearing where the carriages were parked. The Countess was with me. On the way, I saw Hanson and Chrome arguing, and soon the earthquake struck. It shook so violently that we were bounced into the air, and the ground caved in. I lost consciousness during the fall, and when I opened my eyes, I was in an unfamiliar cave. After walking a bit, I found the Countess collapsed, woke her, and came here.”
Having said this much, something occurred to Serena, and she asked the others.
“Have any of you seen a knight? There was my escort between me, Hanson, and Chrome.”
“I didn’t see a single ant besides the soldier.”
“On duty! Nothing to report!”
“I didn’t see anyone else either.”
No one had seen the knight. Perhaps luckily, he might have avoided the fall. With a knight’s agility, he might have grabbed onto something nearby before falling.
‘Or he could have been the unlucky one who died…’
Rather than searching for someone who wasn’t there, sorting out the situation took priority.
“……”
After the introductions ended, silence lingered for a moment. Everyone looked around, unsure what to do.
Chrome broke the silence.
“Can I go get my cart now?”
“Wait a little longer. Do any of you know anything about this place, or have any suspicions? Even something trivial, tell me.”
When Serena asked, everyone wore similar expressions.
We want to know that too.
Serena sighed softly and observed the current space.
A wide area compared to the cave Serena had passed through. About the size of a neighborhood playground from her past life.
The ceiling was higher than the cave but blocked, and aside from the passageways on both sides, it was tightly filled with stone.
The floor had stones of different colors arranged regularly like tiles to create a pattern, with a fountain in the center.
If not for the blocked ceiling and walls, it would look like a small plaza. Or the lobby of a large shopping mall.
‘Lobby. Yes, a lobby. A bit small for a lobby, but.’
She didn’t know what it was, but since it was inside an artificial structure, “lobby” fit.
‘Water’s coming out, but where does it flow?’
Water sprang from the fountain without obstruction. It didn’t overflow—the water existed only within the fountain basin. There were no visible drains or purification facilities.
‘I want to wash up.’
Seeing the water made her desperate to wash, but she held back. She couldn’t wash here, and she didn’t know if the water was clean.
While Serena examined the lobby, the other four moved as well. Correction—three besides Philia moved.
“What is that fountain? A fountain in a place like this. How strange.”
While Philia stuck close to Serena and chattered about the fountain, the other three moved to the passage Serena and Philia had come from.
They wanted to confirm whether the path was really blocked.
‘If I got angry and said, “How dare you doubt my words,” the atmosphere would really be something.’
Wanting to see the truth with one’s own eyes in an emergency is human instinct and perfectly normal behavior.
‘A worthless layabout would have done it. “How dare you doubt my words!”‘
For a moment she worried about her brother, but Serena thought positively. Her brother had been cursed at plenty, so he would live long.
A moment later, the three who’d gone to the cave returned with deflated expressions.
Hanson gripped his spear so hard his hands hurt, Chrome observed the statue as Serena had done, and Lavenda examined the walls.
Serena gave them some time to investigate the lobby. After finishing their examinations, they returned to the princess’s side with even more deflated expressions.
“Isn’t this a basement? There are lots of big buildings, so the basements would be big too.”
“Sir! Yes sir! I speculate it’s a secret passage of the royal family, passed down only in legend!”
“Uh, I, I really don’t know…”
Chrome guessed it was a large basement, Hanson guessed it was a secret passage.
Lavenda seemed to have no guesses and mumbled vaguely. Given the situation, her expression was particularly dark. Having been caught in a major disaster in a foreign land, she seemed at a loss.
“A secret passage? I think that soldier’s right too!”
Philia cast her vote for double Hanson’s opinion.
‘A secret passage, huh.’
Serena, who would have to use this secret passage, had never heard of such a thing. It was true that the palace had secret passages leading outside the city, but there were no fountains.
“In my opinion, this place is—”
Everyone’s attention focused on Serena.
