Early in the morning two days later, two four-wheeled carriages left Suhit City and headed toward Trier along the northbound post road.
These roads covered the kingdom's main regions and connected most of its towns. Their surfaces were paved with gravel and crushed stone, with stone reinforcements on particularly uneven stretches. Signposts and milestones stood at intervals along either side, making them the first choice for almost all long-distance travelers, freight caravans, and mail coaches.
Charlotte and her maid Lila rode in a four-wheeled carriage designed specifically for long journeys. It had a spacious body drawn by four horses, with an intricate arrangement of metal springs fitted between the carriage body and the wheels. Although they could not eliminate the jolting entirely, the ride was far more comfortable than in the carriages commonly seen in the city.
Raoul and his valet rode in the other carriage behind them. Two servants who doubled as guards remained outside with the hired coachmen. Some clothing and everyday necessities were secured to the roofs of the two carriages, while the rest of the bulky luggage was being transported to their destination by servants who had departed ahead of them.
To arrive within three days, they would travel roughly sixty to eighty kilometers a day, stopping several times along the way to let the horses drink and eat, and to give the passengers and coachmen a short rest. At posting stations, they would also exchange tired horses for fresh ones to maintain their pace.
There were few transportation options in this era to begin with. For short trips, people could walk, ride a horse, or take a small carriage. Long journeys required following main roads equipped with posting stations. Nobles had their own vehicles and horses, while ordinary people could only take stagecoaches that departed at set times.
But those coaches were not only crowded; their fares were also extremely expensive. For workers and farmers with modest incomes, the cost of traveling to another city might amount to several months' savings. As a result, many people never left their birthplace in their entire lives.
Of course, Sushit also enjoyed the convenience of water transport. Goods such as silk and timber could be shipped along the Rhine River to other cities. However, ordinary cargo boats were nowhere near as comfortable as carriages, which could stop for a rest at any time. Against the current, they could even be slower than traveling overland. Their only advantage was their low cost.
But even if it cost only a tenth as much as traveling overland, Father would never take me on a boat. He would consider it beneath his dignity... Charlotte imagined spending several days crammed into a tiny cabin and suddenly felt that this occasionally jolting carriage was not so unbearable after all.
Lila, sitting opposite her, was far more interested in the journey. Every so often, she leaned toward the window to look at the green farmland, low hills, and scattered villages outside.
Charlotte had watched for a while at first, too, but soon grew bored. She could only lean back against the cushions and close her eyes to rest, taking the opportunity to review everything that had happened in the two months since she had arrived in this world.
She was now a Sequence 9 Arbiter. She had gained an initial grasp of her potion's power, worked out the knack of acting, and could clearly feel the potion's response to appropriate behavior.
However, there were not that many disputes requiring arbitration in the Sauron residence, and she could hardly run out into the streets every day to uphold justice for strangers. Her opportunities to act were therefore rather limited.
Perhaps once I reach Trier, a city with a far larger population than Sushit, I can speed up my acting. After all, no one there knows me. As long as I'm careful, even if I do things unbecoming of a noble young lady, Father won't hear about them... Anticipation rose in Charlotte's heart. Then she reached for the hard object concealed beneath her thick corset.
It was a dagger housed in a leather sheath bearing a golden Sun Holy Emblem: Sealed Artifact 3-1452, the Dagger of Judgment.
Before leaving Sushit, she had received formal approval to carry this Sealed Artifact on her own and record its effects and side effects while using it.
The Purification-ers had also found a way to safely contain this Sealed Artifact, which was prone to attracting shadow creatures. As long as it remained in its special leather sheath, and holy water imbued with purification power was applied every day, it was unlikely to draw their attention.
This also served as a restriction on the use of the Dagger of Judgment. Charlotte could not make holy water herself, so even after arriving in Trier, she would have to seek help from the local Purification-ers.
Fortunately, this weapon had improved her combat capabilities considerably. Arbiters already excelled at close combat, and the Dagger of Judgment could inflict additional damage on the guilty. Shouting out a target's crime could also briefly restrict their movements. As long as she could get close to her enemy, Charlotte felt she stood a strong chance of winning, even against a Sequence 8.
Of course, the differences between Beyonders were difficult to judge by Sequence alone. Against a Barbarian like the Purification-er Joel Vaughn, if Charlotte failed to incapacitate him the instant she used Conviction, she would have no way to withstand his counterattack. Conversely, against a Beyonder like Julian, who relied on shadows and was not strong in direct combat, she was confident of her chances.
Abilities and combat strength vary enormously between different Pathways and Sequences... After all, this isn't a game. There's no need for balance. Any Sequence 9 with enhanced combat abilities could pin a Savant like Roselle to the ground and beat him senseless...
Thinking of Roselle reminded Charlotte of the Sushit Weekly.
Each copy of the weekly cost two Rieck, or one-tenth of a Verl D'Or, about the same price as a pound of wheat bread. It came out every Monday. Even if all one thousand copies sold, monthly revenue would only reach four hundred Verl D'Or. Including advertisements from shops, then subtracting the costs of paper, ink, wages, transport, and the sellers' share, they might initially earn only five to ten Gold Louis a month-or even operate at a loss.
Compared with the money and effort they had invested in the early stages, that income could hardly be called substantial.
But one thousand copies was only the starting point. If sales reached five thousand or ten thousand copies per issue, fixed costs such as printing equipment and premises would quickly account for a smaller share of their expenses. More shops would also be willing to pay for advertisements. Monthly profits might reach two hundred Gold Louis, or twenty-four hundred a year, nearly half of Baron Sauron's annual income.
If everyone in Sushit developed the habit of reading newspapers, and we then replicated this model in Trier before expanding across the entire Intis Kingdom...
Imagining herself sitting atop a heap of gold coins, Charlotte's lips curled upward uncontrollably.
"Miss?"
Lila's puzzled voice pulled Charlotte out of her fantasy and back to reality. She quickly suppressed her smile and opened her eyes, discovering that the carriage had begun to slow.
"This is Beaumont. The coachman said we would have to pass two more posting stations before reaching the next town where we could stay, and we wouldn't get there before dark. His Lordship has decided we'll spend tonight here."
As Lila reminded her, she pointed out the window at the sun, which had already sunk well into the western sky.
This era is far too inconvenient. Once I have money, I'll build a steam engine, lay railway tracks across the country, and use trains to consign this backward way of traveling to history!
Charlotte grumbled inwardly, already treating all the gold coins from her fantasy as her own.
Beaumont stood on a fairly gentle hillside. Its main street wound upward with the terrain, flanked by houses with projecting domed roofs that made them look as though they wore white straw hats. The two carriages first entered the town's posting station, where the coachmen settled the exhausted horses and inspected the wheels and suspension springs. Meanwhile, Charlotte and her father went with their servants to the town's only inn.
The inn, called Beaufort, also served food and drinks on its ground floor. Its floors were reasonably clean, and it had enough rooms to accommodate the Sauron family's entire entourage.
After their lodgings had been arranged, Raoul remained in his room to rest, while his valet went to the posting station to check on the carriages and plan the next day's route. Charlotte stood by the inn's entrance, watching several townspeople herd sheep back from a nearby pasture, and felt increasingly bored.
Glancing at the still-light sky, she turned to Lila and said:
"Go and ask the people at the inn if there's anywhere nearby worth visiting."
She had barely finished speaking when a young man moving goods nearby stopped what he was doing and said ingratiatingly:
"Noble young lady, there's nothing very interesting in Beaumont. Apart from the view of the surrounding countryside from the hilltop, the only thing worth seeing is that old church."
"A church?"
Charlotte looked in the direction he indicated, but could only see a few buildings at the top of the slope, obscured by other houses. There was neither a tall bell tower nor a golden spire.
Both the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Church of the God of Artisan liked to build conspicuous churches, which often became the visual focal point of an entire town or village. Yet nothing about this church, hidden among other buildings, suggested which god it belonged to. It quickly piqued her curiosity.
She took Lila up the main street toward the hilltop. Only when the houses began to thin out and the gravel road narrowed did she see the supposed church behind a few trees.
It was a two-story, grayish-white building. There was no holy emblem over its entrance and no small square for worshippers to gather in. It looked little different from the surrounding homes.
Could it be a monastery closed to the public? Charlotte hesitated for a moment, then remembered that she was already a Peripheral Member of the Purification-ers and carried a letter of introduction Viève had written to her colleagues in the Trier diocese. Even if she accidentally entered premises belonging to the Church of the Artisan, she was unlikely to be treated badly. She therefore told Lila to wait by the roadside, lifted her skirts, and stepped over the threshold through the half-open door.
She had expected to see the golden Sun Holy Emblem symbolizing the Eternal Blazing Sun, or the triangle formed by gears and levers representing the God of Artisan. Even here in the heart of the Intis Kingdom, she might have encountered the Evernight Goddess's Crimson Moon surrounded by stars, or the Lord of Storms' gales, lightning, and waves. Instead, all that greeted her eyes were rows of black pews.
A simple shrine stood on a wooden table in front of the seats. Inside was a palm-sized statue depicting a bare-chested man carrying a cross on his back-or perhaps fastened to it.
Beside the shrine stood a middle-aged priest in a white robe. His thick beard concealed almost half his face, and his eyes were so pale they were nearly colorless, yet his gaze was warm.
Seeing Charlotte enter the church, he spread his hands in welcome and spoke in a gentle, measured voice:
"Welcome to the temple of the Creator."