That evening, Frieren and Fern finished fencing their goods in the fortress city of Vaul and made a tidy profit. At the same time, they brought back some bad news:
Because monsters were unusually active in the Northern Countries, the fortress city of Vaul had closed its gates.
And, apparently, they had been closed for quite some time. Passage was still forbidden, and no merchants, adventurers, or anyone else was allowed to leave the city and head north.
It wasn't just the two of them who were being stopped. It applied to everyone!
After investigating, the two learned that some merchants had already been stranded in the city for nearly a year, or even longer, and still hadn't received any notice that the gates would reopen.
The "lame" captain on gate duty had also told them that the gates hadn't been open once since he'd arrived to take over the post and begin his shift.
And the key point was that he couldn't give them any specific date or promise for when they might reopen. The deadline for the closure seemed to be completely uncertain.
"Sigh—"
"So that's the situation!"
"That lame captain wouldn't budge an inch. No wonder someone burned the soles of his feet. I'd want to burn them too!"
"I hear they're still looking for the 'perpetrator'!"
"Serves him right!"
Back in the carriage's living room, Fern, exhausted after a long day, hopped onto the sofa, lay down, and grumbled.
"Ah—"
Frieren sighed along with her.
"Fern, you can't quite put it that way."
"His attitude wasn't great, sure, but no matter what, he's still an excellent and dutiful soldier."
"And those adventurers, honestly! The man was just doing his job. How could they go and burn his leg like that?"
"Now look what's happened. The whole