Eternally Regressing in Another World

Chapter 35: Square 29: A Hypocrite Laughs (1)

Flaut and I finally reached the plaza. The walk had taken longer than expected, so our clothes had already dried out completely.

"Alright, hope she’s still around here."

First, I checked near the bench where Shiran and I had first talked. No sign of her there. While moving to check other spots, Flaut tugged hard on my sleeve.

"Mister, there’s Shiran!"

Following where Flaut pointed, Shiran stood by the edge of a pond, staring out at the water.

"...What are you doing. Go talk to her yourself."

"Huh!? Why me?"

"Why not, you know her better than I do. Familiar faces put people at ease."

I kept rambling out excuses while shoving Flaut, who was trying to pull me along instead, forward by the back.

"What are you so embarrassed about. Come on, go!"

"Whoa! F-fine. I just gotta go, right? Fine!"

Flaut ran off, grumbling but clearly a little pleased underneath it.

"Man, this is kinda sweet."

I stood there grinning like a suspicious creep, watching the two of them chatting warmly by the pond.

"...I see, your dad, huh."

"Yeah. So we’re gonna protect you!"

"...Thank you."

Shiran smiled, eyes welling up slightly. Flaut, flustered, looked pretty endearing. Honestly I wanted to leave them alone a while longer, but couldn’t really afford that. I walked over and spoke up.

"Hey, you two seem pretty close."

"Ah, tomato mister. Flaut just told me, sounds like something scary’s going on..."

Shiran looked at me with an anxious expression. Let’s ease her mind for now.

"It’s fine. It’s not dangerous yet, more like it could get dangerous, so we’re laying low. That’s all."

Probably because of the oil field situation, there were more guards patrolling the streets than usual. With this much heightened security, it seemed unlikely some noble would panic and make a move. But I wasn’t carefree enough to just relax about it either.

"Alright you two, let’s move somewhere else."

"Okay."

"Got it!"

The three of us climbed into a carriage at a nearby station. I pulled out the letter of introduction from Old Man Beard, which was, unsurprisingly, completely soaked.

"Uh... can this still be used?"

"Sir, you really need to take better care of documents like this. Sorry, but the writing’s all smudged, this is probably void."

"Figured as much."

Shoulders slumping, I stared regretfully at the now useless discount pass. That’s when a certain symbol printed on the letter caught my eye.

"Let’s head to my hideout. Nobody knows about that place, totally safe."

"Right, let’s do that then. Um, the address is..."

Just as I was about to give the driver directions, I gave the run down inn’s address instead of Flaut’s hideout.

"Huh? Mister?"

I glanced briefly at the driver, then pressed a finger to my lips toward Flaut.

"Something wrong, sir?"

"No, it’s fine. Please head out."

After saying that, I leaned in and whispered into Flaut’s ear.

"...Look at this, this symbol here."

I showed Flaut the emblem printed on the corner of the soaked, ruined letter. It closely resembled the symbol worn by the guards patrolling outside.

"What’s this... the guards’ emblem?"

"No, probably this merchant guild, the Kroev thing. Might share the same parent organization as the guards."

Flaut’s expression shifted, looking startled.

"I want to believe there’s no chance we’re being watched, but let’s plan for the worst case anyway. If we’re hiding Shiran’s location from the guards, heading to her inn first serves as a decoy too."

I had no home field advantage in this world either. Unreliable as it seemed, Flaut’s hideout had the benefit of being unexpected. If we could lay low there for a while, we could ask Elizabeth for help once she got back from dealing with the mess. I pulled the gun from my bag and tucked it inside my coat. Might not fire anymore, but it was something to hold onto for peace of mind at this point. With caution stacked on caution, our carriage headed toward the inn.

The main street was jammed with people. Too crowded to fit on the sidewalks. And a long line of carriages sat completely stuck, not moving an inch. At this rate, it looked like it would take a long while before we got moving at all.

"...Why’s it so crowded?"

"Apparently the king’s heading out to negotiate with the neighboring country over the oil field today. I just heard about it too, some kind of foreign summit or something..."

"Come on, seriously, a prime minister’s overseas visit level thing?"

I understood the reason, but this road, while large, was pretty far from the castle. Even if the king’s departure was being celebrated with some kind of parade, it seemed unlikely a road this far north would get this congested from that alone.

"Hey Flaut, by any chance, do you know which direction that foreign summit’s counterpart country is in?"

At my question, Shiran answered instead of Flaut.

"North. ...I’ve been there before, so I know."

"I see, no wonder it’s this packed."

Because this street sat almost directly north in the city. Judging by the position, our route probably crossed directly with the main avenue connecting the northern gate to the castle in a straight line. Maybe the king and his knights really were parading through in grand fashion, surrounded by crowds.

"What do we do, tomato mister...?"

"Should we just walk instead?"

"No, let’s not."

There were more than double the usual number of pedestrians outside the carriage. Walking wouldn’t get us anywhere either at this rate. And with two small kids in tow, I didn’t have the stamina left to walk through crowds for hours. The escape from that blue clothed man earlier was still weighing on me.

"Looks like this’ll take a while still, sorry about that, sir."

The driver said apologetically. Never expected to get caught in a traffic jam even after getting isekai’d. But no point complaining about it now.

"It’s fine even if it takes a while. Please, continue."

"Understood. Sorry about this, I’ll hurry as much as I can."

"Thank you."

In the end, we arrived at the inn a full two hours later than expected.