61 "Sit on my lap, Master"
Ivory latched onto Sigmund's waist very tightly, while he gripped on the reins as they made their way to the border. The swift, clopping sounds of the horse against the cobblestoned road could be heard, and anyone who was walking in front of them cleared the way.
Soon they saw the Greensteid forest. They passed to the woodland edge, and in almost thirty minutes, they had arrived at the border. They approached one of the men who wore a border guard's uniform, who immediately recognized them as soon as he saw the black horse's emblem attached to its face piece. The Servant got down first, then caught his Master by her waist to help her feet reach the ground.
Sigmund gave the rope to the border guard and asked him to give it to Lucius. Ivory, on the other hand, talked to the guard, "I am Lucius Goldwine's friend, Ivory Sprucemint. We plan on going to Valios City right now-"
"Quick, go ride that public horse carriage before it's full!" He pointed to a two-storey wooden and iron horse-bus, which was pulled by four horses.
"Sigmund, let's go!" She pulled his arm in the said direction.
However, the horse-bus was almost full. The lower deck had no more empty seats left, so they climbed up to the uncovered upper deck.
"You're just in time, there are two seats left," the assistant coachman told them.
But when Ivory and Sigmund were about to sit, an old man suddenly pleaded, "Please let me ride! I can sit on the ladder… My son is dying… He's living in Umbria City… and I have to travel today-"
"Apologies, I really cannot bring you with us. At the border of the Land of Rosaria are border guards who inspect public transportations, and they are strict with the capacity of passengers," the assistant coachman explained.
Tears formed in the old man's eyes. When Ivory saw this, she felt pity, and so, she stood up. "You can take my seat."
Sigmund was surprised, and he looked at his Master in confusion.
"May the Goddess Destinia bless you, young lady," the old man thanked her.
"I apologize, but you have to get off now," the assistant coachman told Ivory. "You and your lover should be earlier next time-"
"No, he's not my lover!" Ivory retorted, blushing at his remark, while Sigmund chuckled.
"Then he is your...?"
"My… My Servant."
"Ah, then it's alright! A Master and a Servant is considered as one passenger count."
"But where will I sit-"
Sigmund sat down on his seat and suddenly pulled her arm to sit on his lap. "Master, you can sit here," he said as he saw the other passengers looking at them.
She turned redder than a tomato as she sat on his lap sideways, especially when Sigmund placed his arms on her waist. He wrapped her arms around his neck, too. "Sigmund, what are you doing? We're going to be in this position for seven hours?"
"So what? I'm your Servant. Think of me as a handsome chair. I won't mind."
She jokingly rolled her eyes upon hearing him praise himself. She then commented, "But this position is too embarrassing-"
"We will depart now!" The coachman yelled, and the assistant coachman sat at his reserved seat nearest the ladder.
As the horses started moving forward, the assistant coachman informed them that there would be some short stops in their trip to rest the horse, and they could use this time to eat and do whatever they like.
An hour and a half from the border of their Land, they reached the border of the Land of Rosaria. There was a long line due to the border guards' inspections.
Holding a few scrolls, they peeked onto every carriage, making sure that they wouldn't miss a person. They were told that apparently, a criminal escaped the Silverblade Castle prison at dawn, and the investigation was still ongoing.
Ivory was sitting still at Sigmund's lap, "Sigmund, is your leg alright? I mean… Maybe your legs are already numb..."
"You're heavy."
"Ah, I apologize-"
She was about to stand up, but Sigmund stopped her by pulling her even close to his body. She looked away from him, her face getting redder again, as she felt his hand slid down the side of her buttocks.
"I'm only kidding. What do you think of me, dimwit? This is such an easy task. It's nothing," Sigmund responded. He was about to tease Ivory again, when he heard something interesting from the border guards.
"This is such a hassle. We wouldn't be doing this if the knights do their jobs properly. This is their fault, damn it."
"Just because they trained directly under the Royal Knights, they are already full of themselves. They really think they're special, but they're just a bunch of Royal Knight-wannabes, who failed the hard examinations."
"True," he sighs. "Unlike many low ranked guards like us, they're the Chosen Ones, so they should at least use their Servants to find the criminal. Unfortunately, they're all talk, and they do not use their brains. The Goddess' mana is such a waste on them! I wonder how they graduated from Qawiun Academy!"
Sigmund could hear the frustrated conversations of the border guards. A chuckle escaped from him, and his Master noticed it.
"What's funny?" asked Ivory.
He whispered to her, "I just overheard the border guards. They're talking about the knights in the Silverblade Castle. They said that they were the reason why the criminal escaped at dawn."
"At dawn… Oh!" she realized something, and she widened her eyes, "Don't you think it's a coincidence? I'm nervous about the identity of the criminal who escaped from the castle..."
Sigmund thought for a while, turning into a serious expression. "How about we see their scroll?"
When it was finally their public carriage's turn to be inspected, Ivory asked one of the guards to let them see the face of the wanted person on the loose...
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Important announcement (reposted):
We will have a week-long break NEXT WEEK, JULY 4-10, 2021, to stockpile edited chapters! You all know that I am taking care of my novels and I didn't want to upload an unedited one. T^T
Me and my editor bestie <iridescentdream> are both preoccupied from our day job, but we love writing, so I make the chapters, she comments and edits on it, and then we both finalize the chapters together to upload it right after!
Lately, we have observed that we are having difficulties in editing in the same day of the upload day, this is why I thought of having advanced edited chapters.
We are hoping for your understanding <3
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