NOVEL WEB Ch. 4.4
"Young lady, are you a traveler?"
Standard greetings were fine. The owner of a restaurant located west of the main gate said this.
"Well, something like that."
Formulaic responses were also safe. The next words would be "when did you arrive here" or "how long will you stay" ninety percent of the time, with few exceptions.
"You're not a thief, are you, young lady?"
It was an exception. The owner, who seemed somewhat tired, had heard about the theft incident that occurred today. Apparently, someone had infiltrated the castle and stolen a noble lady's precious shoes. That's why the soldiers were searching throughout the town.
It wasn't a separate matter—the facts seemed to have been twisted in transmission. The side spreading the rumors must be deliberately hiding the core truth and embellishing it.
"I'm sorry, I said something rude. She seems like a rough girl—they say she stole shoes and then broke out of jail and is running around. I heard she's about the same age as you, young lady."
Is there really a girl who destroys prison cells... I consider her to be quite violent and unruly, not just rough, Safi thought with a frown. The rumors seemed to be mixed up with various things and had grown tails.
"Are there wanted posters and such circulating too?"
"Nah, haven't seen any. She's probably a dangerous girl, but she's just a petty thief in the end. It's not like she took down a bunch of guards or anything—not that big an incident."
"But still, there are lots of soldiers gathered around the gates and it feels dangerous. Even though it's supposed to be a festival."
The owner slowly sat down in the seat next to Safi. He said he was the manager of this establishment. The restaurant wasn't clean by any means—rather, it was in the dirty category—but it had a wide entrance that was easy to enter. Travelers dislike closed-off restaurants where they can't see what's inside. Sometimes rough-looking people gather there, and conversely, they're often high-class restaurants that don't match their exterior appearance.
"What does a festival matter now? There's no way we could possibly be in a festival mood."
Another customer had just finished paying and left, so besides Safi, there was only the shop owner and a waiter in the restaurant. Perhaps he wanted to catch a customer and chat to kill time until closing.
"A big war ended."
It was talk about the war. Earlier, she had heard that Carnival was a victory commemoration. It was supposed to be a special event focused on ceremonies for repatriated soldiers. She didn't want to be forced to listen to complaints, but there was a shadow on the shop owner's profile, and his manner of speaking carried a melancholy tone.
"Half of those who went to the battlefield came back in body bags."
A big war that had continued for a long time. Most healthy young men were drafted, and even old people in rural suburbs were conscripted. While this fortress city remained safe throughout, death notifications arrived without cease.
It wasn't that sons from slums were sent to dangerous front lines. It was a troublesome battle where it was impossible to predict where the fierce fighting would occur, and he said that even famous young masters stationed in rear garrisons became casualties.
"Those whose bones were recovered were still fortunate. There were many soldiers who vanished without a trace—swallowed up, devoured, things like that."
The enemy forces didn't seem to be armies from other countries. Even when Safi asked, the shop owner's answers were vague and unclear. He said the opponents were like giant fierce beasts or monsters, but almost no one knew their appearance. All attacked soldiers died in battle, and apparently only a handful of those who witnessed them returned alive.
"In territorial wars, the winning side gets rich land or treasures, and the country's coffers are enriched, but when you're dealing with non-human enemies, it doesn't work that way. You just end up in tatters."
The tremendous number of guards in the castle and throughout the town were directly related to that war. Soldiers who went to war from distant villages lost their hometowns, farmers' sons lost their fields, and merchants' heirs lost customers and trade routes. They were temporarily employing unemployed veterans as guards or garrison soldiers, but no one knew what would happen in the future.
"Only graves keep increasing. There's a cemetery a little ways from here, but it's getting cramped, so they're apparently debating whether to build a new one outside the castle walls."
Finally, the shop owner said he was fortunate his son was young. Then he let slip that if another war broke out in the future, his son would certainly become a casualty.
❁❁❁ From the Author ❁❁❁
Chapter four is a bit short, and the restaurant scene ends here. Next begins from the middle of moving after leaving the shop.
Ideally, like a play, one location would be one act, but developments have varying lengths. In scripts, scenes in the same location are divided as "Scene 1, Scene 2," but in this work, I mark each entry as "~ Act."
❁❁❁ From the Translator ❁❁❁
I removed the word "Act" from chapter subsections (e.g., 1.1, 2.2) to avoid confusion, as I'm using "Act" to denote major destinations in the character's journey.
As you saw in the first chapter's title, the castle journey is labeled Act 1.
When the character moves to the next location, it will be Act 2.
If you have alternative suggestions for the term "Act" to describe these journey segments, I'd love to hear them.