"A Special Pass? Captain, thank you so much. I was just thinking how troublesome it would be if I had to queue up every time."
Shade raised his glass in salute to the captain. Captain Rades was delighted that he could help Shade:
"You've helped me so much. What's this trivial matter? Oh, speaking of which, I forgot to congratulate you."
He smiled and lowered his voice:
"The champion of the 1854 Around the City Equestrian Competition."
As he spoke, he clinked glasses with Shade. It was already Tuesday, and news of the competition that had closed last Thursday had long since spread throughout the Old Continent. Naturally, Captain Rades knew about it.
"It's nothing."
"You're far too modest. You might be the most formidable person I know."
As he spoke, the captain brought up some recent happenings at work:
"You don't need to think that Special Pass is anything remarkable either. Kasonlik's troops stationed nearby have also set up border sentry posts, and they have similar passes. Who knows how many of these two kinds of Special Passes are in the hands of nobles on both sides? I've heard they've even made their way onto the black market."
He shook his head as he spoke:
"If you ask me, the big shots above all have their own ideas, but these border inspections do nothing except cause trouble for the citizens and villagers on both sides."
He was still keeping his voice low, but it was obvious he had been holding these thoughts in for a long time:
"Yesterday evening, I met a woman with a child. They wanted to cross over from Kasonlik. She was a villager from Kasonlik who had married a villager from Delarion. Some time ago, she took her child back to her home in the