## Chapter 188 – 188. Border (2)
#188. Border (2)
The next morning.
Before leaving the mansion, I managed to get an unexpected boon from Baroness Reginald.
She wrote us a letter of recommendation upon hearing we were crossing the border.
I didn’t expect her to write a recommendation for us, who hadn’t even proven our identities. I guess it was change for the gold coins I gave her last night.
I already had a letter of recommendation from the Hessler family, but it never hurts to have more, so I didn’t refuse.
After all, I wouldn’t need a recommendation once I crossed the border.
“Um, Mr. Hyun-woo? Aren’t you going to rent a carriage…?”
“They say it’s only an hour or two walk to the checkpoint. What do you want to do? Should we rent one?”
“N-no, it’s okay!”
Iris shook her head, horrified, as if yesterday’s events had flashed before her eyes. Amelia, who hadn’t even looked at my face since morning and had been walking more than five steps away from me, also looked at me with pleading eyes, as if agreeing with her.
To be honest, I hadn’t planned on renting a carriage from the start.
Given the current state of affairs, it wouldn’t be easy to find a carriage going back and forth, and once we crossed the border, there would be a city just a short distance away.
If I were to rent a carriage, it would be better to rent it there.
But I found their reactions amusing, so I pretended to consider it for a while.
In the end, I gave in to Iris’s cute offensive and left Billen on foot.
After about an hour of hiking, which I wasn’t used to, I saw a rather large gate in the distance between the mountain ranges that looked dizzying just to look at.
“Is that the Gallian Mountain Range?”
The Gallian Mountain Range, a natural barrier that straddles the border between the Veilheaven Republic and the Nivia Kingdom.
Perhaps because there were quite a few people trying to cross the border even in this situation, the line in front of the border checkpoint was as long as the lines in the cities I had passed through so far.
Needless to say, I had no intention of standing in line.
Before going to the checkpoint, I approached Amelia to cast a spell on her.
“Miss Amelia.”
“Y-yes?!”
But as soon as she heard my voice, she flinched and took a step back, making Sylvia’s gaze even sharper.
It was like a detective looking at a suspect.
“…I will cast a spell on you.”
“Ah…”
Only then did Amelia cautiously approach me. Her face was so red that you could mistake it for autumn foliage if you looked at her from afar.
At first, I thought about casting an invisibility spell, but in the end, I decided on a perception-blocking spell.
Basically, you get a pass when you go through the checkpoint.
According to Baroness Reginald, it’s so difficult for foreigners to even enter a city in the Nivia Kingdom without a pass, so I thought it would be necessary to get a pass for Amelia as well.
“Excuse me.”
“Hng?!”
I took Amelia’s hand to cast the spell.
I focused on her distinctive cyan hair and blue eyes.
Soon, Amelia’s hair and eyes turned black like mine.
Of course, she was still pretty enough to stand out wherever she went, but I had to take that into account.
It was because I had focused the magic on concealing her physical characteristics, like Iris and Sylvia.
“It’s done. Is there anything that feels uncomfortable?”
“N-no, I’m okay…”
As soon as I let go of her hand, Amelia pulled her hood down.
She still seemed uncomfortable making eye contact with me. I guess it wouldn’t matter what I said right now.
I believed that time would take care of it, and I was about to step back when…
Thud-
Amelia grabbed my sleeve.
“…Speak.”
“Yes?”
“Speak… comfortably…”
Amelia, who had suddenly grabbed me, muttered in a voice as small as an ant’s.
“…Amelia?”
Even after I said it, I wondered if I was being too casual, but judging from Amelia’s reaction, it seemed to be the right answer.
Amelia’s lips, visible at the edge of her hood, were trembling.
Iris was looking at us with a pleased expression.
Sylvia was glaring at us as if she was displeased.
I passed Sylvia, who seemed to have a lot to say, and headed to the checkpoint.
The people who had been waiting in line didn’t say anything to us, or even look at us.
Needless to say, the level of education in this world is far behind that of Earth.
But paradoxically, they were quite quick-witted. It was like a survival instinct.
Others were breaking their backs waiting in line since dawn, but we were ignoring that and just walking forward?
They could guess that we were probably nobles or someone of equal status.
Surprisingly, people on Earth don’t know this simple thing.
That’s because many people don’t know that fists are sometimes closer than the law.
“Halt, what brings you here?”
The soldier sweated as he looked at me, who had walked up with a dignified air.
He seemed worried that he might make a mistake and get into trouble.
“Would I have any other business at the border checkpoint other than crossing the border?”
I handed the soldier the letter of recommendation in a wizardly tone.
After scanning the letter of recommendation, he immediately saluted me. It was a flawless, knife-like posture.
“Sir, yes sir! Please wait a moment, and I’ll bring the commander right away!”
The soldier hurriedly ran inside the checkpoint.
Soon, a man who looked like the commander came out, adjusting his hat.
After saluting me, he led us into the checkpoint, sweating.
While sipping tea in a reception room that seemed to be there just for show, the commander took care of the passes on his own.
I could once again feel the power of the recommendation from his reaction, which was much more submissive than I had expected.
It took less than 30 minutes to get the passes and leave the checkpoint.
“…I don’t understand.”
As I headed to the Nivia Kingdom’s checkpoint, I couldn’t shake the questions that were swirling in my head.
“What is it?”
“The commander, he didn’t even check our identities and issued the passes after hearing just a few letters of our names. Doesn’t he even think that the recommendation might be forged?”
Iris chuckled at my words.
Sylvia’s reaction was one of disbelief, and Amelia…
“Ugh…!”
She seemed busy avoiding my gaze.
“That’s only natural. It’s a matter of the authority of the nobility.”
“Authority?”
“Yes, suspecting that someone has forged a noble’s recommendation could be seen as disrespecting the authority of that noble.”
When I showed that I didn’t understand, Iris explained in more detail.
“For example, even if a con artist forges the seal of a baronet, it’s a problem for the baronet to solve, and no one else should get involved. Suspecting that a mere con artist has forged the seal would be damaging the authority of the baronet.”
“…It’s hard to understand.”
I understood it in my head, but it was hard to understand with the sensibilities of a modern person.
But when I remembered an article I had seen, I was able to understand it somehow.
Surprisingly, politicians and businessmen often remain silent even when they are scammed and do not report it.
For those who are socially prominent, monetary loss is nothing, but the disgrace of being deceived by a mere con artist is a problem that cannot be ignored.
“They live for honor and die for honor. That’s the essence of the nobility.”
***
After shortening the time at the Veilheaven Republic’s checkpoint, we headed straight to the Nivia Kingdom’s checkpoint.
Honestly, I thought we would be able to pass through here quickly without any problems.
But.
“What?”
“Evidence, I mean evidence. We can’t just issue passes without evidence that this recommendation isn’t forged, can we?”
The commander, who had a strange mustache, was picking a fight.
I was so dumbfounded, but I decided to calmly try to resolve it through conversation.
“There were no problems at the Veilheaven Republic’s checkpoint. If you’re suspicious, you can just inquire there, can’t you?”
“Haha, how can we trust a foreign institution?”
His attitude seemed to openly ridicule me, and I heard something snap, but I held it in.
“…If that’s the case, let’s just forget about the recommendation.”
I meant that I would stand in line like the others and apply for a pass.
Fortunately, unlike the Veilheaven checkpoint, this place was still relatively quiet.
It was a hassle, but I would only have to wait in line for about an hour.
“Hmm, suspicious.”
But that rat-like commander didn’t seem to have any intention of letting us go.
I swallowed the sigh that was boiling inside and opened my mouth.
“What do you mean?”
“Isn’t that right? Someone who submitted two recommendations from noble families is willingly backing down? I find that hard to understand.”
I was momentarily stunned by his words.
He was finding fault with the documents I had submitted, so I was trying to get a pass in another way, but he was still suspicious and picking a fight?
This meant that there was another motive.
‘…A bribe?’
Looking at his greedy face, I had a rough idea.
I didn’t know how much courage he had lost to be acting like this, but if I thought about it rationally, it was a surprisingly good method.
The fact that I had brought a recommendation from a noble family meant that I was not a noble. More than anything, the person who wrote the recommendation was just a noble from another country from the commander’s point of view.
Moreover, according to Amelia, checkpoint commanders are usually appointed by those in ambiguous positions, such as the third sons of lower-ranking nobles.
‘He’s looking down on me, who’s not a noble, and trying to fill his own pockets.’
A hollow laugh escaped.
If it were normal, I would have thought of it as charity and thrown him a few coins, but he didn’t deserve even a single copper.
‘Tsk, I have no choice but to go back to Billen and ask Baroness Reginald for help.’
It would take some time, but that was the most reliable method for now.
It wouldn’t be too late to postpone dealing with that commander.
There are many people watching now, but if the entire inn burns down in the middle of the night, whose fault would it be?
“Let’s go back for today.”
I got up from the sofa.
It was the moment when his cause of death was confirmed as immolation.
“Haha, what’s the rush? You can just explain the forgery of the recommendation.”
“What?”
“For example, the beautiful lady here could talk to me for a while…”
The blood drained from his face, and his body froze as cold as a corpse.
The cold sweat that was running down his neck quietly fell to the floor.
His blue lips and ice-cold fingertips were trembling like aspen leaves.
The commander sank to the ground, swallowing even a scream.
“Hey.”
It was fear.
