Nofelden, a city in northern Saarland.
Scheller's carriage stopped on the outskirts of the city. The driver tucked his whip into his belt, looking pitiful, though his tone remained rather firm:
"Sir, we agreed from the start that you were hiring my carriage for half a month. Look, it's already been seventeen days since we left Vienna..." Scheller had sold his family's carriage to scrape together money, so this time he could only hire one to travel to France.
If they had gone by way of Strasbourg, half a month would have been more than enough. But because they had detoured through the Rhineland, and the driver had gotten lost, they had only just reached the French border.
Oh, this was already considered the French interior now. The Rhine River was the border.
Scheller sighed helplessly. "I'll pay you another 3 Florins. Continue taking us to Reims."
The driver's eyes shifted as he shook his head. "You know, Mr. Metzger has reserved my carriage."
"Oh, please have mercy."
"5 Florins. I have to pay Mr. Metzger a breach-of-contract fee."
Scheller haggled with him for quite some time. Seeing that the man refused to budge, he was just about to accept the extortion when he suddenly saw a carriage vanish at tremendous speed among Nofelden's buildings in the distance.
What astonished him most was that the carriage was pulled by only one horse. Its cabin was twice the size of his own, yet it could still maintain such speed.
Curious, he walked to the end of the road and saw several rows of wooden tracks laid there.
He followed the tracks a little farther and found several of those oversized carriages he had just seen. Someone held up a wooden sign and shouted, "To Lorraine, only 6 Sous! Departing in 20