The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

As one would expect of a high-class inn, she did not step into a lounge right away, but a small room. It would seem it had been designed for guests to clean the dirt off their footwear.

That said, the place she had just visited was in a high-end district, much like this inn, and it had been paved with stone. Neither had it rained, so there was nothing she needed to shake off.

Therefore, Neia went on to open the door before her.

A gust of warm air flowed out and washed over her.

The concierge lay straight ahead of where she had entered the room, while the bar was to her right, and the stairs were on her left. There were sofas used for receiving guests near them.

There were no heating stoves inside the room. However, the fact that there was still a temperature difference despite their absence was probably because of a magic item.

Magic casters in the Holy Kingdom were generally priests, and while they could make some magic items, precious few of them were useful in daily life. In that respect, the Kingdom was technologically superior to the Holy Kingdom. That being the case, how much more advanced was the Empire, which her father had once mentioned?

Although she might never have the chance to visit it in her life, Neia still harbored a vague sense of admiration for the Empire.

Typically speaking, a village girl would only be able to see her village throughout the course of her life. Since Neia lacked any distinguishing qualities as a warrior, she might spend her entire life serving her nation and never get the chance to visit other countries.

In that case, perhaps the chance to travel abroad which this trip afforded her might be a faint silver lining on a grim, dark cloud.

These thoughts ran through Neia’s head as she climbed the stairs, toward the room on the second floor where the delegation was staying. The people in the inn seemed to have remembered Neia’s face, as none of them shouted for her to stop.

Considering the matter of expenses, only the leader and the assistant leader ought to be staying here; the other members should have stayed in cheaper inns. However, pinching pennies like that might make the other side think that there was no future for the Holy Kingdom. In the end, the assistant leader had managed to convince their leader of the wisdom of his words.

Neia reached the door of her superiors’ room and knocked on the door, whereupon it opened slightly. Within were the paladins stationed within the room for protection.

The person they were guarding was the strongest paladin in the Holy Kingdom, who was the leader of their delegation. In that case, they would be more of followers than protectors. Going by that logic, would it not have been wiser for herself to stay behind? Of course, Neia knew the meaning of the phrase “the nail which sticks out gets hammered down,” so she did not comment on that.

“Neia Baraja, reporting back.”

The door opened, and she entered the room.

Before her was a large room. There was a long table in the middle, where her Captain sat.

Captain Remedios Custodio and Vice-Captain Gustavo Montanjes were both seated there. And of the seventeen members of their delegation, more than half of them stood at attention along the walls.

She snuck a peek at the documents piled on the table before them. Most of them had been crossed out.

“Captain. Neia Baraja has returned.”

She puffed up her chest, adjusted her posture, and stated her name.

“—How did it go?”

“My deepest apologies. They declined because of a lack of time. They said they would like at least two weeks.”

“Tch,” Remedios clicked her tongue.

Neia’s gut cramped. Was she expressing her displeasure at Neia, or rather, at the nobles who had rejected them? While both the former or latter seemed likely, she dared not clarify such a frightening matter.

“Really now. Thank you for heading out amidst the cold. Go back to your room and rest, then.”

“Yes!”

Neia suppressed her sigh of relief at Gustavo’s words. While she wanted to leave right away, Remedios called out and stopped her in her tracks.

“...I wanted to ask you before, but did you really tell them that we wanted to open negotiations as soon as possible?”

“—Huh? Ah! Yes! Of course I tried to ask them, but unfortunately they said no…”

“So it wasn’t because of your poor negotiation skills, then?”

“Ah, that, that’s—”

That’s not true, she wanted to say, but who would dare say it? In addition, she already knew that she would not be able to escape this reprimand no matter how she answered.

“...Captain. It is not just the nobles she asked who refused. Other nobles have rejected the request for a meeting in the same way. Among them were some nobles who indicated they could not lend aid to the Holy Kingdom, but who wished to speak nonetheless.”

Remedios glared at Gustavo, who seemed to have spoken up in order to interrupt their conversation. No words passed between them, but the tension built in the air.

“—Neia Baraja.”

“Yes!”