24 Hearts

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The Tenth Fragment, Altemia

Jeanne’s eyes had grown heavy. It was a gaze that pierced straight through him that he couldn’t reject.

Judah sighed, avoiding her gaze. He would be okay to wander around the market, as he said, but he wanted to get to Aslan as quickly as possible.

They had already met Count Genuine unexpectedly, and he was anxious at the thought that someone might get to Aslan before them and steal the fragment he was planning to take. If someone managed to get the upper hand, he had to go after them with the intention to kill the other person.

“Judah, are you listening to me?” Jeanne snapped him out of his thoughts.

“Okay, okay. But why don’t we go to Aslan and see the market there instead? We can meet more people there, and since it’s the capital, the market will be much more developed than here.”

“Well….”

This time, it was Jeanne who fell deep in thought. After a brief second, she nodded happily. Her smile faltered when taking one last look at the market.

Eventually, they found an inn near the market. When they went inside, the interior decoration was as neat as it was from the outside, and the price was reasonable. Sharing a room was a cheaper option, but he rented separate rooms for them anyway.

“Take a rest today, wash, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning. If you want to go to the market, you can go.”

“Oh, I see.”

Judah handed her the keys to her room. Upon receiving them, she paused for a moment to think. Then she pocketed the keys before waving her hands.

“Then, I will go back.”

Judah laughed at her as she left the inn in no time. It was expected of her, though.

“Are you okay with letting her go alone?”

The innkeeper, who was watching, turned to Judah. It was a word of concern in many ways. Although Philoria is said to have excellent security, it does not interfere with personal love affairs. It meant that men could be hanging around to find her alone and available. Judah laughed, having worries for her at all.

“Yeah, she’ll be fine.”

There was no point in worrying for Jeanne. After all, she was a skilled woman who could probably handle herself out there.

“I want to take a bath first, is there water available here?”

“Yeah, the room over there has everything you need.”

When he walked in the direction the innkeeper pointed, there was a bathhouse. Several people were washing, but all they did was wash silently or soak in the warm water without caring about each other.

After being in the bath enough to stretch as the place grew unoccupied, Judah came out, washed his body thoroughly, changed into comfortable clothes, and finally headed to his room. Inside the neat room was his fluffy bed waiting for him, and as soon as he laid eyes on it, Judah launched himself to its comforts. The bed softly accepted Judah. He felt like he couldn’t rest because he was in a foreign area, but his eyes closed from traveling fatigue. His body fell asleep all sprawled out on the soft mattress.

Knock knock-

Judah awakened to the sound of knocking. It didn’t feel good for him to wake up at a time like that.

Knock knock-

Judah, taking all his might in getting himself out of her bed, slowly walked toward his door.

“Yeah?” He yawned and opened her door, and there was Jeanne in front of him, holding something in her arms.

She said, “I heard you didn’t eat, so would you like to try this? I bought it from the market. I happened to buy a lot.”

Judah could only laugh at her as she held out the paper bags. A the paper bags to the brim, such as greasy chicken drumsticks and french fries. Their enticing scent shook him awake, filling his stomach with hunger.

“I’ll eat them well. But didn’t you buy them so you can eat?”

“That’s right. Of course, we’ll eat it together.”

After her remark, Jeanne went downstairs and ordered a beer from the maid, then went back up to Judah’s room. Jeanne bought everything she could have wanted, but perhaps she bought too much to eat them all by herself.

Even in a single room, there were two chairs available for the singular table inside.

“You bought a lot,” Judah remarked.

The paper bags weren’t small, and Judah could see how heavy it was just by looking at them. The table was small, and Jeanne felt embarrassed that her purchases managed to fill it, leaving no room for the rest of her buys.

“I’ve bought everything I want to eat. If you could, please wait a moment.”

Jeanne brought over the table from her room for their beer glasses. They clinked their drinks, its contents trickling down the glass. Judah gulped his beer, remembering what it felt like back in his old life. He couldn’t understand what this beer tasted like for him, but it had been a while since he felt that good.

“Hah!”

Judah exhaled, put down the glass, and reached out to the snacks Jeanne had brought from the market. One of the chicken sticks made his mouth water. Unwrapping it from the paper, Judah took a bite of it as its sauce bubbled in his taste buds.

“…”

“…?”

As he chewed, Judah glanced at his companion, who was just holding her beer and staring blankly back at him.

“Aren’t you eating?”

“No, I already did.”

Jeanne watched Judah as he helped himself with the food and beer. Had he ever drank before? Jeanne remembered well when she first parted ways with Judah and Gentia. She shared a drink with the Suin, who told her many stories about the boy. One of them was that she forbid Judah from drinking and that she would only let him drink after his coming-of-age ceremony. Jeanne expected Judah to be curious about the beer like a normal kid would, but his reaction was of those who had consumed it often could. The child who had just grown up acted so casually with the beer like he had drunk them before, but her questions died afterward. Jeanne blinked at Judah, who was eating away at the snacks faster than she thought he could.

“So, how was the market?” Judah suddenly remembered to ask after being so occupied by eating the french fries. With the hunger gone, he finally had the room to pay attention to the other side.

“Oh, the market… it was very neat, surprisingly. The imperial market wasn’t all that much, but it was still admirable.”

“It’s the market, isn’t it the same wherever you go?”

In Judah’s head, the definition of a market was a place crowded with people and opportunistic pickpockets, compensated of things to see. Jeanne chuckled at Judah’s question, emptying what was left of the beer in her glass. She exhaled at the last drop, then reached out for something to eat.

“I thought so too, but Philoria is so different. It’s surprising how different it is…” Jeanne trailed off before bursting into laughter.

“Okay. Then, when we go to Aslan, why don’t we drop by the market? If I do, maybe I’ll be surprised as well. Until that time comes, I won’t be believing your words.”

Jeanne grinned at Judah’s resort before continuing to munch on the food before them. For a moment, Judah only stared back at her in frustration, but he let it go eventually with a sigh.

‘Looking at me talking. We’ll just have to see if I’ve been looking down at the markets in such normal regard.’

Judah wondered if meeting the Count of Urun had done anything to him, but he uttered no word about it. After they finished eating, Jeanne reminded him of his promise about going to Aslan’s markets and said that she would not forget it.

+ + +

They left the inn when the sun rose around dawn as they recovered from their fatigue. It wasn’t difficult to find the carriages going between Aslan and Dempa, there were coaches all around and a large number of carriages waiting for passengers. If it were the day of the Flagstaff competition, it would not be easy to find a carriage, but since it was an easy day, the two of them could find a coachman and a wagon.

With plenty of money to spare, Judah rented a better carriage than the one they hired from Serenia Castle. They were able to get to Aslan, the capital of Philoria, much more comfortably than before.

“…Amazing.”

As soon as she got off the wagon, Jeanne gaped at the view of Aslan in front of her. Her voice trembled in excitement, and Judah could understand why. The walls before them were magnificent as it was sturdy. The coachman bid them a pleasant trip before turning away back to his carriage.

Judah bid him farewell in return before looking back at Aslan. The walls and castles of Dempa were great, but Aslan was of a different class. Despite looking at it from a distance, it made them feel like ants.

‘That is cool.’

It was all he thought of as he laid eyes on Aslan. There was no other way to explain it. Like Serenia, it was surrounded by two or three walls, but the height of the walls was all different. The outermost wall was not low, and the size of the succeeding walls was greater than those that came before it. As they peered at the buildings inside, it seemed like a large mountain was built and carved into a castle, like an underground castle.

Trying to imagine himself as a general with the plans of invading Aslan, Judah tried to think of ways to win such a war, but the only plan he could think of was if a rebellion or a siege would arise from the very inside.

If not, to attack it from the outside would be futile. Even if invaders managed to get past the lowest outermost wall, the next wall behind it was mightier and far harder to take over.

“Did you know?”

“What?”

As they gawked at the castle, Jeanne began to speak. Judah turned his head to her, but Jeanne didn’t take her eyes off at the sight before them. She beheld the view of Aslan, engraving it into her memory as to remember it for the rest of her life.

“Philoria has never allowed enemy invasion into the capital city. But they always assumed the worst situation and thoroughly defended the capital and the place where no enemies came. That is what makes the Kingdom of Philoria an untouchable country. Isn’t it great? Isn’t it great? They live in peace, but they don’t let their guards down, even preparing for any ordeal that may come.”

“…”

“The instructor who taught me… told us, apprentices, to go to the capital of Philoria, if possible. My empire rallied against several kingdoms and was not afraid of even Baekje, our biggest enemy, but there was an exception. It was Philoria. I didn’t understand why he urged us to see Aslan, but now, I think I know why.”

For Judah, it was just a nice view, but it seemed to have a different meaning for Jeanne. After all, out of all his companions, Jeanne was the brightest. With anticipation in her eyes, she grumbled before grabbing Judah’s sleeves.

“Come on, let’s go. Judah. What can we do by just looking?”

Jeanne then dragged Judah straight for the castle’s checkpoint.