Raising the Princess to Overcome Death Chapter 10

10. Childhood Friends - Hans

In the early dawn, Lena and Leo left the village.

They planned to first stop by a larger village, but they weren’t leaving alone; the village cart was accompanying them.

Demos Village sent a cart to the larger village twice a month. The cart carried goods to sell at the bi-weekly market and brought back necessary items.

While adults sometimes accompanied the cart to sell goods, it was usually left to their sons. Hans, the baker's son, also loaded a small box onto the cart.

The young men all helped push the cart, and Leo joined in.

"Hey, Leo. You don’t have to push, you know. It’s your last day," one of the young men said.

"No, it’s fine."

The young men felt guilty seeing Leo push the cart when he was leaving, but he insisted on helping. He didn’t want to just walk alongside the cart chatting with Lena while the others did all the work.

The young men drank the water and splashed some on their heads as they pushed the heavy cart with all their might.

It would have been easier if the cart could just roll along, but the road was unpaved and not straight.

They had to adjust their speed and keep an eye on the road, making it physically demanding to push the cart.

They needed to hurry, too. The larger village was far, and they had to arrive on time, so they pushed the cart diligently, even skipping meals.

The cart finally stopped at dusk. The young men parked it at the village entrance and set up a tent around it.

It was their preparation for spending the night.

Renting a place would have cost money, and they couldn’t leave the cart with goods unattended in a foreign village. No matter how obvious the theft, the local villagers wouldn’t side with outsiders.

So, the young men set up tents around the cart and camped out to guard it.

“We’re off.”

“Take care! Be safe!”

Lena and Leo said goodbye to the village young men and left.

They planned to stay at an inn.

Leo wouldn’t have minded camping out alone, but he didn’t want Lena to sleep outside. She would have said it was fine, but there was no need to make her suffer unnecessarily when they had money.

Unbeknownst to them, Hans was following at a distance as they entered an inn.

Lena, having never stayed at an inn before, was excited from the moment they stepped inside.

She eagerly volunteered to book the room.

“…And we’ll need one room.”

“Double or twin?”

“Uh… what?”

“Twin.”

“Yes, right this way.”

Leo interrupted and chose a twin room.

The innkeeper led them with a candle, while Lena looked back at Leo with a puzzled expression, as if asking what he had just chosen. Leo simply shrugged and didn’t explain.

If he did, she would be too embarrassed.

‘Maybe I should have chosen the double bed?’ Leo chuckled to himself.

The innkeeper led them to their room.

The innkeeper's wide hips filled the narrow staircase, and the candle he carried provided little light for Lena and Leo.

He pointed to a door down the hallway.

“Here it is. Let us know when you’re leaving tomorrow.”

“Thank you. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

The innkeeper disappeared back down the stairs, and they entered the room, lighting a candle.

Lena, excited, jumped onto the bed.

“Wow! A bed!”

Lena’s house didn’t have a bed.

She probably had never slept in one.

“I thought we’d sleep on the floor. This is great! But aren’t we supposed to stay somewhere cheaper, given our situation?”

“Those places are cheap, but not suitable for women.”

There were places where you could rent a roof without a bed, just a large room. It was the cheapest way to sleep, but it was unsafe for women, and even men hesitated to stay there alone.

Lena bounced between the two beds, comparing them, then glared at Leo with a mock-serious expression.

“Wait! Leo, if you try anything funny, I won’t let you off!”

She shook her fist threateningly.

Such actions would likely have the opposite effect—Leo thought, but he agreed nonetheless.

Lena was cute.

There were a few candles in the room, but they feared the innkeeper would charge them extra if they used too many, so they soon extinguished the candle and each lay on their own bed.

Despite the soft bed, Lena couldn’t sleep. She had stayed up thinking about leaving the village the night before, and now her eyes were wide open.

From the other bed, she could hear Leo’s steady breathing. He must have fallen asleep quickly.

Lena sat up and looked at Leo. Though it was dark, she could see him clearly.

He was such a good friend.

She had planned to confess to him during the mushroom-picking trip last weekend, to tell him she wanted to quit studying to be a priest, and to ask what he thought about it—about her feelings for him.

But Leo had suggested the journey before she could say anything.

He had a plan to help her achieve her dreams. Not only Leo but her parents, the priest, and Brother Leslie were all preparing to help her.

‘I had almost given up…’

Lena felt tears well up again and turned away, burying her face in the pillow.

Then, Leo let out a low moan, as if having a bad dream.

She quietly got up and adjusted his pillow, placing a hand on his forehead, and his moaning ceased.

Leo mumbled in his sleep, “Lena... Lena…”

Was he dreaming about her?

Lena sat on the edge of his bed, studying his face.

His hair was frizzy and grown wildly, his eyebrows lay straight on his neat forehead, his cheeks were healthily tanned, and his lips were firmly closed even in his sleep.

He was a man who could have become her lover.

Lena looked around the dark room, empty of people, and secretly approached his lips.

Her heart pounded.

Lena's lips gently touched his.

- Leo, I'm sorry! Lord Binar, please forgive me.

What would Lord Binar, the god who guides against evil deeds, think of this action?

But this was the first and the last time. From now on, Leo and she would remain friends forever.

Lena burned the regret of not being able to be with him with a short kiss.

Fortunately, Leo didn't wake up.

“Leo, was I really bad?”

She whispered softly as she stroked her friend's disheveled hair and returned to bed.

She felt sorry for doing something bad to a friend who had only helped her purely. Instead, when I become a priestess, I will give you my first blessing...

She tossed and turned and finally fell asleep with difficulty.

The next day, Leo got up first and went out the door. In front of the door were a water bucket and two towels. They seemed to be for washing.

‘Good service.’

He had been thinking of asking for washing water, so he was glad it wasn’t a hassle. He moved the bucket inside the room.

Lena was still asleep.

While Lena slept, he stripped off his top, soaked a towel in the water, and wiped his body. He even scrubbed his hair with the wet towel.

The memories of the modern society, where it was natural to wash conveniently, felt uncomfortable. In this indoor setting, wiping the body with a wet towel was the norm, but he wasn’t satisfied.

After washing himself, Leo shook Lena awake.

“Lena, wake up.”

She jumped up but, half-asleep and caught in her dreams, answered in a drawn-out tone.

“Leo~~ did you sleep well~?”

“Yeah. I just finished washing. Here’s water and towels, so wash up slowly. We’re going to eat here and then leave, so just come down after washing.”

Leo clearly instructed the half-asleep Lena and went downstairs.

He informed the innkeeper that they would be eating and leaving soon and stepped outside to wait for Lena.

The streets were already bustling with the market from early in the morning, and the young men of Demos Village seemed busy, having woken up early to sell their goods.

Leo smiled and waved to a few people when Hans suddenly appeared and approached him.

“Oh! Leo. Seems like you stayed here.”

“Hans, you’ve already sold all your stuff?”

“Mine sell quickly. Have you eaten?”

“Not yet. I was planning to eat here soon.”

“Great~ Let’s eat together.”

There was no reason to reject his offer to eat together, so Leo agreed readily.

Leo and Hans weren’t particularly close.

They had no common ground. Leo either went hunting with his father, foraged for food with Lena, or occasionally worked in the fields with the village youths, but he rarely met other people.

Moreover, without memories of the past, Hans and other village youths were just strangers to Leo.

He had heard rumors that Hans often didn’t work and hid away somewhere, but Leo didn’t particularly think badly of it.

Hans’s family was well-off, so he could afford to be lazy.

From the standards of modern society, a young man of that age being that lazy wasn’t unusual, and Minseo, who had been at the peak of laziness, couldn’t blame him either.

He decided to keep his mouth shut about matters he didn’t understand well.

Hans asked.

“So, did you do it with Lena?”

“What?”

“What else would I mean?”

“......”

Kids this age, of course. Leo understood why Hans had come.

Leo felt more contemplative than displeased.

‘If I were the real Leo, what would I have done?’

Would the real Leo have gotten angry here? Laughed it off as a joke? Or just ignored it?

He spent time either ignoring or appropriately responding to Hans’s words, lost in other thoughts.

Eventually, Lena came downstairs, and the three of them ordered a meal together. Lena didn’t show any reaction to the uninvited guest. The conversation naturally turned to the two's journey during the meal.

Hans asked with sparkling eyes.

“You’re going to the lord’s castle? Isn’t that the wrong direction?”

The lord’s castle was north from here, but Nevis was to the west. If they were heading to Lutetia, where the central church was located, they had to go northwest, so heading towards the lord’s castle wasn’t the wrong choice. But if they were going to Nevis, it was a roundabout way.

“But we have no choice. We need to join a merchant group, and there isn’t one here, right?”

“Oh, you don’t know much about the world. There’s a market here now, so how could there be no merchant group?”

Hans clicked his tongue as if finding it ridiculous and crossed his legs.

“There are plenty of merchant groups heading west. Should I introduce you?”

“You know someone?”

“I know this Torito well.”

The name of this village was actually Torito, but the people of Demos Village just called it the ‘big village.’

“Can we leave today?”

“If we ask, we’ll find out soon enough.”

Lena and Leo followed Hans, who boasted to trust him, as he skillfully navigated the market, asking a few merchants questions and soon turned back.

“There’s nothing leaving today. The earliest one is leaving tomorrow morning.”

“Hmm...”

“If you’re going, I can introduce you to the merchant group leader. I’m not close with him, but I’ve met him a few times.”

Merchants formed groups around a leader and toured the markets of various villages.

Large merchant groups were self-sufficient in size, but smaller ones gathered other small merchants to match the scale. These gathered merchants pooled money to hire guards.

For individual travelers like Lena and Leo, joining a merchant group was the best option, so Leo accepted Hans’s introduction. It was a waste of time to go to the lord’s castle in the north.

The merchant group leader Hans introduced was a man with a thick belly and a beard twisted around. He was leisurely smoking a cigarette in a corner of the market.

He raised his hand in greeting when he saw Hans.