“We are currently on our way to the capital and-“ The carriage that Veronica was riding in suddenly hit a rougher part of the road and, for a moment, she was reminded of her weeks-long journey on sea. If she had eaten something back in Occident, she would surely have regretted it at this moment.
“Should I write that down as well?” Her friend on the other seat asked with a grin. Zera was an old confidant of hers and hadn’t left Veronica’s side ever since she started working for her family. The cat-kin had been born in the Citra’s territory and displayed high magical talent since an early age. As a result, the Citra household had agreed to pay for the girl’s tuition if she worked for them for the next decade.
When her father had insisted that Veronica take an escort to the New World, Zera had instantly volunteered. She always did have a more adventurous spirit, after all. Veronica was almost the same age as her, Zera being half a year older, and the two had become good friends during their time at the academy, even if they hadn’t shared many lessons. Where Veronica’s strengths lay more on the academic side - with her excellent memory and ability to quickly absorb new information - Zera had always scored top of the board in athletic competitions and especially magic tournaments.
“What do you think?” Veronica asked as she looked toward the girl she dictated her letter to. Normally Veronica would have written it herself, but as she had learned during the last month, she easily got seasick and was still shaking a bit.
“Okay,” Zera grabbed the pen again and pretended to write something, “The view of the countryside alone is enough to make me want to vomit. Sound good?” Veronica just made a face that hopefully portrayed how she thought about her friend’s joke, but when the carriage hit another bump, she was quickly hanging her head out of the small window again. Zera just started laughing in response.
“No, that does not sound good… Could you read the whole thing back to me again?”
“Sure,” she cleared her throat, “Dear mother, Dear father, We have safely landed in Occident and, as father has feared, the journey by sea was not as nice as I would have hoped.
“The New World, however, is as exciting as I was promised. Even from the ship, I could already see the Dragon’s Spine and, if time had permitted it, would have loved studying it.
“Our time in port was short, though, as the governor was cordial enough to send a carriage for us. We are currently on our way to the capital and... And that’s it.” She looked back up.
“Okay, just finishing up: And I will write you two more, once I met with the governor and explored the city a bit. With love, Veronica... That should be enough for now. We will transmit it before reaching the Palace, okay?” Veronica asked.
“Sure.” Zera put the cap back on the pen and lightly stretched her arms and back, before opening the window and looking out. “Seems like we’ll be there soon.”
The incoming wind roughed up Veronica’s hair a bit, but she soon realized it was pointless to stop that.
“How can you tell?” To her, it still looked like the empty countryside. Infernia had a lot less green than the pastures of her hometown.
“The smell,” Zera answered while pointing at her nose. “People stink.”
At that, Veronica took a breath of air herself, but only really smelled the wooden inside of the carriage and perhaps the body odor of the two. As a cat-kin, it wasn’t that unusual for Zera to have sharper senses.
“Do I stink?” Veronica asked after a few seconds and Zera pulled her head back in. The catgirl suddenly stood up and put her face near Veronica’s torso. Zera closed her eyes and took a few whiffs of air. Veronica could feel her cheeks getting hotter and tried to distract herself by looking out the window.
“Not more than usual,” Zera said later rather than sooner and stuck out her tongue.
“H-Hey! What do you mean I stink?!?”
~
Eventually, though, Veronica could see that they were indeed approaching the city, as the frequency of houses increased, and soon it became hard to even see the natural landscape. Once they reached the victory pillar commemorating the Emperor’s conquest of the continent, Veronica looked up in awe. Infernia had been largely uninhabited before its discovery, but not for lack of people trying.
The native monster population had been vicious and, according to some accounts, the emperor themselves had to melt down most of the bigger monsters. Only the southern tip of the continent and the Dragon’s Spine in the east still housed larger monster populations.
“I hear the post office.” Zera suddenly spoke up. She grabbed the sealed envelope with the letter and opened the carriage door while they were still moving. “I’ll meet you at the palace.” She didn’t wait for Veronica’s response, as she jumped out the door and vanished into some alleyway or another.
Veronica was used to Zera’s way of doing something before thinking it through, and only let out a small sigh. Hopefully, she would return before the carriage reached the palace... and stay out of trouble. The old driver didn’t seem to notice what had transpired and just continued on.
The streets were packed with people, though, and Veronica saw stalls and street vendors all around the busy city square. Today, apparently, was market day and the carriage was forced to take quite a while on detours through the narrower side roads. After a few more minutes, however, they crossed into the more expensive residential areas and in front of the carriage, Veronica could see a straight road leading right to the sizable palace.
The building had been one of the first permanent structures completed and had served as a fortified supply depot during the colonization efforts. With its location right next to the river, it painted a beautiful view. A smaller wall was built around the estate, and a pair of guards were lazing in the shade of the gatehouse. Just before the carriage passed the last intersection, the doors were flown open and a certain catgirl jumped in.
“Welcome back. You were almost too late, you know.”
“That would imply I didn’t wait for you to show up. If anything, it’s you who is late.” Zera said as she plopped into her seat. She was probably right about that as well, but it would have been impolite to ditch the carriage, even if it wasted a lot of time; noble culture just had its weird quirks sometimes.
The check at the gatehouse was quick - the guards had recognized the crest on the carriage and just moved out of the way - and soon enough, the two were being greeted by the mansion staff. The head maid led them to the guest rooms and informed them that dinner should be ready in an hour.
Veronica was pretty tired, so she let herself fall down on the soft bed and struggled to keep her eyes open. She might have had the luxury of a private cabin back on the boat, but that didn’t mean she had slept well and even during the ride from port, she was unable to fall asleep; the roads in the Old World were apparently a lot smoother than here in Infernia.
You are reading story King of the Steppe at novel35.com
~
“-LIKE THIS!” Suddenly she was woken from her impromptu nap by someone hammering against her door and shouting into the room. Sure enough, when opening the door there was Zera, who was about to strike the door again, as well as a housemaid who was looking rather distraught.
“What?” Veronica asked, a bit grumpy from being woken so cruelly.
“A-Ah, dinner is ready, L-Lady Citra.” The young maid stuttered with a small bow.
Stifling a small yawn, Veronica nodded to the girl. “Thanks. I’ll just be a moment,” and returned to the room. Her luggage hadn’t been brought in yet, but she at least had a hairbrush and some smaller utensils in her travel gear; enough to make herself presentable. A few minutes, Zera and she were being led to the dining room.
The served food was a three-course meal and a lot of the ingredients were native to Infernia. One might think that vegetables and fruit that thrive in this harsh environment could survive anywhere, but cultivation efforts in the Old World had only rarely resulted in success; Veronica speculated that it had to do with the warmer climate of Infernia, but she wasn’t an expert when it came to botany and could be wrong about that.
After the dinner, the head maid approached the two and relayed that the governor was ready to see them now. Technically, Veronica was related to him, as her grandfather of disputed greatness had been the brother of one of the governor’s ancestors a few hundred years ago. In real terms, it had little impact and Veronica didn’t consider the man as family; it could, however, help in the upcoming negotiations.
After the older maid led them to a big wooden door, she knocked once and announced their arrival. Veronica and Zera entered into a probably big office, but it was hard to judge the dimensions of the space accurately with the amount of paperwork stacked all around. The only free areas were a path toward the overflowing desk and a pair of chairs.
The person behind the desk was an older man who had already lost most of his hair and on his nose was a small pair of glasses. Even as the two entered, he seemed to be reading a ledger on his desk, correcting a mistake he just found with a pen in his hand.
“Greetings, your grace.” Veronica bobbed a little curtsy, although her travel gear made it a rather awkward motion and she lightly kicked Zera with her feet when the cat didn’t follow suit.
“Hello, lady Citra. I do hope the journey wasn’t too harsh.” The governor laid down his pen and closed the ledger.
“I can’t complain,” Veronica thought she heard Zera suppress her laughter at that, “The continent is quite beautiful, after all.”
That got a big laugh from the man. “Hahaha, I hope you aren’t just saying that out of courtesy. As you can see, I am a busy man and this will only take a moment, but please sit down.”
Even before the two had done that, though, the governor pulled out a rolled-up parchment from his desk. To Veronica’s eyes, it looked practically ancient in and of itself, but the contents revealed that it had to be made less than a hundred-and-fifty years ago.
It was a crude map of Infernia’s coastline with only the more prevalent landmarks shown. But even that was more than what could be said about Postore to the west; it was basically just a blob, and Veronica had problems even seeing the original map under all the corrective patches on the left half.
“A wonder that anyone even arrives at their destination when using that thing, right?” The man laughed at his own joke. “But that is where you come in. I mean, let me tell you, the first time I saw your map of the empire, ho boy… It was like I was back in my youth, wandering the countryside myself.” The governor grabbed Veronica’s hand and bowed his head so that she was touching the top of his head. It was generally a sign of great respect to the other person, but for Veronica, it was a bit uncomfortable touching the bald spot on his head.
Thankfully, the gesture was only for a moment, and she quickly pulled her hand back. “I am delighted to hear you say that, your Grace, and it truly is an honor to be chosen for this job...”
“I hear there is a ‘but’ coming,” He interrupted her for a moment.
“But, as far as I am aware, we still haven’t agreed on the payment for my services.” For Veronica, it would be payment enough to have their travel expenses covered, but the one thing she learned from her mother was that if you’re good at something, never do it for free.
“Ahh, that.” The governor pulled open the big ledger he had written in before their arrival, throwing up a few documents in the process. “Your mother and I came to the conclusion that this amount should be sufficient.” He pointed at a number that had one more zero behind it, than even the most optimistic of Veronica’s estimates.
She was a bit stunned by it, and before she could agree, Zera suddenly spoke up. “You know mapping out two whole continents is a lot of work, probably years, and even five-hundred thousand spread over that many days is less than one might expect. We want… hmmm” Veronica was desperately signaling Zera to stop before the old man realized how absurdly they were overcharging him, but she just gave a small wink and continued, “all traveling expenses and supplies covered as well.” She finally said with a nod.
The old man rubbed his chin and looked down at the ledger before reaching his hand toward Veronica. “Let the light be my witness. All travel expenses and supplies covered, as well as, five-hundred thousand Fara per continent.” WAIT, WHAT?!? Five-hundred thousand each?!? How had her mother managed that?!?
Veronica’s jaw was still wide open when Zera grabbed her hand and almost pulled it out of the joint as she put it in the still waiting hand of the man. “Say the line.” She whispered a bit forcefully toward Veronica.
“L-let it be witnessed.” After their handshake, they were quickly ushered out of the office. Veronica was still too stunned to do much more than be pulled around by Zera. She didn’t even hear the wildly speculating maids that saw them enter the one-bed room and their joined hands.
One million Fara... that was like... like one of those weird assignments from her math classes. ‘If a cartographer was paid one million Fara for mapping out the New World and we assume the cargo capacity of her galleon to be seven-hundred tons, how often does she have to travel back and forth to transport the money back home?’
As her brain was slowly restarting, Veronica saw that her luggage was stowed away in one corner of her room and Zera was currently busy squeezing her own travel packs through the door. Veronica absentmindedly helped her and soon the room was truly stuffed with bags. She also suddenly noticed that there was only one bed in the chamber.
“What are you doing here, Zera?”
“Huh, I’m going to sleep, obviously.”