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“Oh, are they your friends?”

A slightly older guard asks that, and Mathias looks around slightly awkwardly.

“Well, yes. We were classmates in the Magic Academy.”
“I see. Sorry ladies, but this company has closed up shop.”
“Did something happen?”
“I can’t go into details, but let’s just say there’s suspicion that they’ve been involved with some nasty business. We royal knights were given a warrant to personally investigate them yesterday.”

The royal knights? So essentially a part of the army? Why is Mathias with them?

“I know a little about this company, so I was transferred here.”

Saying that, Mathias turns to look at Natalia. She’s just looking at the sign, then frowns for a moment as she seems to put things together.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see you both again, but I’m on the clock right now, so we’ll have to talk another time, even if there isn’t much to catch up on.”
“Mathias, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us you were talking with a beauty like this. I thought we trusted each other.”
“It’s not what you’re thinking, we were just classmates.”
“Yeah! There’s no feelings between me and Mathias! Nothing, zilch, nada!”
“…”

Mathias looked bothered when the other guard started teasing him, so I tried to help him out, but why does he look sad all of a sudden?

Once we’re done seeing the capital, we return to the hotel, and at the entrance we’re informed that we have a visitor waiting for us. We go into the lobby, and Natalia’s face stiffens when she sees who it is.

“Our deepest apologies for the sudden visit, Lady Olivia.” Vance and Stella bow at the same. “Last night must’ve been terribly aggravating. The Marquis was quite distraught today.”

“Oh, please don’t worry about that. I’ve felt rather relieved thanks to it.”
“Would that mean you’ve noticed what last night’s party was really about?”

I’m sure Vance is talking about me severing ties with my uncle’s family.
As I nod in assent, he smiles a bit.

“However, words can’t always be trusted.” Then Stella took over, her voice cold. I think she really doesn’t trust us, just like she said. “That’s why we’ve prepared something to give you as compensation for breaking off things. Please take it.”

“Come with us.”

They take us to the hotel’s stable. This is where the guests leave their carriages and draft animals. Not all carriages are pulled by horses after all. They are the most common choice of animal, but some also employ horse monsters, or other types of animals or monsters.

The compensation they mentioned is waiting for us in a corner of the stable.

“This is a military carriage of Seperion. This model has been out of production for a while, but we modified it to bring up to par with modern ones.”

It’s a carriage, and a big one, with enough space for multiple people to sleep in it if needed.

“It’s also furnished with all the essential magic devices, so our hope is it’ll come in use during your future travels.”
“There’s only one problem. All of the modifications have added weight to it, so it requires four Savage Horses to pull it.”

Savage Horses are the type of horse monster with the most stamina and speed, but they’re also really wild and are hard to tame. They also don’t interact well with each other, so they aren’t suited for carriages that require multiple horses.

In other words, this is a pretty big problem. The carriage needs multiple Savage Horses, but I can’t employ Savage Horses.

“I have a question, how did you get the carriage all the way here then?”
“We had Dwargantaurs pulling it, since those have more power, but they’re only as fast as a person walking so I wouldn’t recommend you use them.”

Hearing that, I look around and see four Dwargantaurs in a corner of the stable. They’re a type of cow monster, sometimes also called dwarf cows, which have small stocky bodies, but pack a lot of power.

Their speed isn’t much of an issue here in the capital with the wide roads, but in other places they could easily lead to a traffic jam.

“I see, maybe I can do something about that.”

I pick up the carriage’s harness and apply strengthening magic to my entire body.

“Hrngghhh! Ah, it moved. It should be fine if I pull on it.”

Vance and Stella were making a big deal of it, but it’s actually lighter than I thought. It might even be a good workout under the effects of strengthening magic.

“Young Lady!”

But before I can do more, Natalia grabs my shoulder and stops me, her face altered like she just saw a ghost.

“Please stop that! I beg you, so please don’t get close to the harness again! I’ll pull on it if that’ll stop you from doing it!”
“…Okay.”

Natalia’s voice is so strenuous that I end up nodding and letting go.

But this makes me imagine me sitting on the driver’s seat with Natalia tied by the harness, then the same but reversed roles, and it clicks. That’s definitely not something we should do in public.

“What should we do then? I don’t think you should pull the carriage either.”
“Couldn’t Clarissa do it? She should have the right size and strength in wolf form, and I can modify the harness to fit her with alchemy.”

Natalia suggests that, so we tell Clarissa to take her wolf form, then Natalia puts the harness inside her magic storage, and when it comes out it’s been fitted to Clarissa’s dimensions.

“How does it feel?”
“Woof, it fits.”

Clarissa tries to move with the harness attached and she pulls the carriage effortlessly. A carriage pulled by a wolf instead of a horse…is there even a name for that?

“Thank you for giving it to us, we’ll make sure to give it good use.”
“You needn’t thank us. As we stated earlier, this is merely compensation for our actions. Accepting it as such will mean there’s no bad blood between you and the Gardeland family, there won’t be anything tying either of you together.”

Vance says that, though I can sense a certain sadness in his voice.

“I know. But I’ll never forget how much you and the entire family cared for me.”
“Lady Olivia… Sorry, it seems I’ve gotten more emotional with my age. Well then, we’ll be taking our leave now.”

Vance takes out a handkerchief and wipes his eyes as he turns around, then leaves together with Stella and the Dwargantaurs.

“Alright, we’ll be going back home tomorrow then!”
“You’ve seen enough of the capital?”
“Mhm, and I really want to tell mother everything that happened.”

We might be breaking things off, severing ties, but there’s no hate on either side. I can tell my uncle and grandfather are good people, so I want to tell her how much I admire and respect them.

Visiting the capital was the best decision I could’ve made.

The next morning we affix the carriage onto Clarissa and depart from the hotel.

“Say, should we switch who’s driving?”
“No, I can handle it. Just go inside and rest, Young Lady.”

I peek out the window to talk with Natalia, but she quickly rejects my suggestion. I’m still bored though, so maybe I can do some handstand pushups? That sounds like a good idea, working out can be a good way to kill time.

But I had no idea that at the same time, Natalia had suddenly turned around and looked at the carriage in shock.

“…I must’ve imagined that…”