“Phew…”
Joel had thought the walk to the village wouldn’t take long, but for some reason, the distance never seemed to shorten no matter how much he walked.
He had set out early in the morning, but by the time he finally reached the houses, it was already noon.
Walking that long distance while carrying a heavy travel bag had left Joel completely exhausted.
Despite it being winter, his back was damp with sweat.
Joel decided to lean against a tree and catch his breath while observing the village.
Beside a small hut with a thatched roof, there was a stable made of woven wood.
Perhaps they were having lunch, as the smell of boiling soup wafted out from the house.
Joel felt his stomach give a loud growl.
Come to think of it, he hadn’t had a proper meal in three days because he’d been so busy escaping and keeping a wary eye on that guy Jack.
He had barely enjoyed the feast at Count Gray’s castle either, so he had essentially been starving for three and a half days.
Now that he was conscious of his hunger, it became unbearable.
He didn’t mind starving himself, but he felt sorry for the baby in his womb.
Joel gently stroked his lower belly and whispered, “Let’s eat once this is over. Just hold on a little longer.”
Inside the stable, three sheep and a cow were noisily chewing on hay.
He also saw a few fluttering chickens and ducks.
Among them, what caught Joel’s eye was a mule resting in the corner of the stable.
When Joel stayed at Sir Bennet’s estate, he had become close with a shepherd.
Thanks to the various stories he heard from him, Joel possessed a fair amount of knowledge regarding livestock.
The mule resting in the stable looked very healthy, with plump flesh and a glossy coat.
According to the shepherd, mules weren’t as fast or strong as horses, but they were cheaper, less finicky, better at carrying loads than donkeys, and had a gentle temperament.
If he rode that mule, it seemed he could reach the Kingdom of Palein without much trouble.
Ahem.
Joel cleared his throat and raised his voice.
“Excuse me!”
After calling out a few times, a young boy opened the wooden door and poked his head out.
He asked with a suspicious look.
“Who are you?”
“I am… a passing traveler.”
Hearing Joel’s clumsy introduction, the boy looked even more suspicious.
Joel regretted his words, but it wasn’t as if he had a suitable alternative way to introduce himself.
“…And?”
“I’d like to buy that mule. Can I speak with your father?”
“Wait a moment.”
The boy shouted something into the house, and a rough-looking man pushed the boy aside and stepped out.
He scanned Joel from head to toe, making a vulgar smacking sound with his lips as if trying to get food out of his teeth.
“You want to buy the mule? You?”
The man asked in a dissatisfied tone.
He looked clearly disappointed after seeing Joel’s shabby clothing.
Joel quickly nodded before the man could turn away.
“Ah, yes. I’ll pay you a fair price.”
“Hmm, I don’t know about that. That mule is basically the pillar of this house. As you can see, he isn’t worth just a few pennies. How is someone who looks like they have no money supposed to…”
Before the man could finish, Joel held out three gold coins.
This was double the market price for a mule—a fortune that could cover a peasant’s food expenses for an entire year.
The man’s eyes widened in shock at the money Joel presented.
“This should be enough for the price of the mule and the price of keeping your mouth shut, right?”
Joel knew he was paying an excessively high price because he had heard the value of livestock from the shepherd.
But there is money one should save, and money one should not.
The man asked back suspiciously, “A price for keeping my mouth shut… What, did you commit a crime?”
But his eyes were already filled with greed for Joel’s offer.
“The request to keep quiet is just a ‘just in case’ thing. If anyone comes later and asks if you saw a blonde young man, just say you haven’t. Oh, and can you attach a cart to it?”
Joel figured it would be more comfortable to ride in a cart than to ride on the mule’s back in his pregnant state.
At Joel’s request, the man readily accepted the money.
“Alright. We have a deal.” Even after attaching the cart, this was a highly profitable trade for him.
“Wait right there for a moment.”
The man disappeared into the barn, humming to himself.
The man dragged a cart out and began hitching it to the mule.
Because he was in such a good mood after getting his hands on a large sum of money, his attitude toward Joel had turned subtly kind.
He worked quickly, boasting about the mule as he moved.
“I’m not just saying this because I’m the owner, but you made a great choice. This guy is still young, but he’s already incredibly strong. During harvest season, he can carry eight sacks of wheat at once!”
“Impressive. Does he have a name?”
“It’s Jack.”
“Jack? Jack, you say?”
Joel, who had been listening to the man’s chatter with a bored attitude, raised an eyebrow.
Of all things, the mule’s name was the same as the mercenary who had scammed him.
When Joel’s expression suddenly soured, the man—fearing Joel might back out of the deal—tried to persuade him.
“H-his mother was a famous racehorse! He’s smart like his mother, and he’s got great endurance. He can cross mountains without a single complaint even with a heavy load of salt on his back. He’s worth every bit of those three gold coins.”
Of course, Joel had no intention of canceling the deal just because the name was the same as the mercenary.
To Joel’s eyes, the mule looked sturdy enough to be worth the three coins, and this was the only house within sight.
If he broke the deal and the man felt spiteful, he might report Joel to the Lord, which would complicate things.
Of course, things would only get complicated if the Crown Prince was actually looking for him.
If the Prince had simply accepted the contents of the letter, nothing would happen… but it didn’t hurt to be careful.
Thus, Joel left the village sitting in a shabby wooden cart.
Beside him lay a plump ham made from a pig’s hind leg, a rye bread as large as a carriage wheel, and a leather pouch full of milk.
The man’s generous wife had given them to him as a bonus.
“Yeah, I fought a demon and won. Crossing a little border is no big deal. I can do this on my own.”
Joel muttered triumphantly.
This much food would be more than enough to last until he reached the Kingdom of Palein.
Plus, since it was winter, he didn’t have to worry about it spoiling.
Holding the reins with a satisfied heart, Joel only realized he had been driving the mule aimlessly without checking his direction when he reached a fork in the road.
“Wait, Jack. Stop. I need to look at the map.”
When he pulled the reins, the mule slowly came to a halt.
Joel belatedly rummaged through his bag and pulled out a map and a compass.
“Let’s see… I need to go North.”
Joel stared back and forth between the map and the compass for a long time.
However, even after agonizing over it for an hour, he had no idea which way to go.
He could more or less figure out the direction from the map, but the compass was the problem.
He was confused about which needle pointed North.
Joel felt pathetic for not knowing how to read a compass, but he had an excuse.
For some reason—perhaps out of some useless desire for style—all the markings on the compass were written in an ancient language.
Joel had no choice but to leave his future to luck.
“I feel like the left side is calling to me. Jack, let’s go left.”
He turned the reins to the left, but for some reason, the mule wouldn’t budge.
The mule looked back at Joel with a gaze that seemed to ask, ‘Really? You really want to go that way?’
“What? I said let’s go.”
Joel began to poke the mule’s rear with the tip of his whip as it started showing strange stubbornness.
Perhaps because he had been beaten so much by his adoptive father in the past, he didn’t want to actually hit an animal.
When Joel urged it again, saying, “Hurry. We don’t have time for this,” the mule snorted in dissatisfaction with a strange expression.
That expression looked exactly as if it were saying Joel was pathetically stupid, and Joel felt his temper flare.
How dare a mere mule look at its owner like that? Joel snapped in annoyance, “Jack, you idiot! Let’s go!”
The mule was incredibly stubborn, but unfortunately for the animal, Joel was even more so.
After standing still and bickering with Joel for about an hour, the mule reluctantly took a step toward the left fork as Joel demanded.
As Joel watched the scenery of the fields covered here and there with snow, he suddenly felt his stomach growl.
Come to think of it, it was time to eat.
He began to hum a little tune just like Robert, pulled out his dagger, and started slicing the ham he had received as a bonus.
The rye bread sandwich, stuffed with five slices of ham, was so delicious it almost brought tears to his eyes.
In truth, the ham smelled a bit funky and the rye bread was incredibly coarse, but after essentially starving for three days, Joel would have found anything delicious.
Because Joel was so focused on savoring his sandwich, he failed to realize that—aside from holding the map the wrong way—he was reading the compass completely backwards.
