Even territories in the same era and on the same continent could have vastly different levels of development.

However, many people living on the continent didn’t know much about these differences.

To compare something, one needed to know about both sides, but in this era, many people never traveled beyond the territory they were born in or its adjacent territories throughout their lives.

In a world where magic beasts and human-type magic beasts—as referred to by the Tin Knight—called bandits ran rampant, long-distance travel was something difficult to dream of without half-risking your life or being sufficiently armed.

In that sense, the Tin Knight’s party belonged to a very rare category.

After all, they had traveled around and experienced kingdoms, empires, federations, and magic states evenly.

If one counted the indirect experiences through the Chalice of Tuberose, it even included the City-State Alliance Doria.

If they went to the underground and heavenly realms too, it would be like completing a seven-colored rainbow.

And because they were such a party, they could leave objective impressions about the territory before their eyes.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ evaluates that if the imperial capital and Magic State capital are 100 points, this would be about 70 points!]

“For the Magic State, you should say the area adjacent to the Tower of Protection, not the capital. Well, the score itself seems roughly correct.”

Dorothea agreed with the Tin Knight’s words while adding a rebuke.

70 points might seem like an extremely stingy score, but considering that the kingdom was treated as the outskirts of the continent and the comparison targets were the most important cities of the current era’s strongest nations, it could be seen as a rather generous score.

It was also proof of how capable the count ruling the territory was, and how great the power inherent in the territory itself was.

“The soil is good for farming, commerce has developed as a transportation hub, it’s somewhat close to the sea so it’s advantageous for securing salt, and it’s evaluated as having a lot of money from selling high-quality textiles as specialty products.”

“Wow, it seems to have almost all the elements that would help develop a territory,” Adelaide spoke with admiration, and a slightly envious tone, to Sophia’s explanation.

Dorothea tilted her head, “Isn’t that level almost like a nation’s capital? Ah, come to think of it, it was said to have been an independent kingdom in the past.”

“Instead, it seems there are almost no topographical features advantageous for defense. It’s in contrast to the kingdom’s capital, which is extremely advantageous for defense, surrounded by rivers and mountains.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says he understands why they maintained neutrality among those doing politics!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that originally, neutrality is difficult to maintain without power!]

“Hmm, that’s right. Usually, when it comes to neutrality, it’s not about being left alone by both sides, but rather being pressured or hit by both sides.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses admiration, saying his pupil is now even making political statements!]

“Ehehe. I’m learning from Sophia occasionally. I’ll need to know some of it for the future, after all.”

The Tin Knight’s admiration could be unpleasant depending on who heard it, but Adelaide seemed purely pleased.

Glancing at that appearance, Dorothea shook her head and said, “Well, it shouldn’t be bad for finding lodging. In a city this big, there should be accommodations better than the carriage.”

Although Dorothea’s carriage provided more comfortable living conditions than most lodgings, it still had spatial limitations, so it was relatively lacking compared to high-class accommodations in cities of considerable size.

Originally, Dorothea wasn’t one to obsess over sleeping arrangements, as she didn’t hesitate to camp out with just a cloak thrown over her, but it might be nice to indulge occasionally.

The party wandered around the city to find new lodgings, and about an hour later, Dorothea irritably shouted, “Why aren’t there any!?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that it might be because Dorothea raised a flag!]

“Does my mouth have some kind of curse? Everything flows in a negative direction just by speaking!?”

Adelaide, listening from the side, inwardly thought “It’s not entirely groundless,” but instead of voicing it out and shortening her life, she decided to look at the clouds in the sky.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t that there were “no” lodgings suitable for the party to stay in.

As the territory itself was large, the areas within the territory were divided into several parts, and there were quite a number of accommodations exclusively for nobles or wealthy people that would be found in any decent territory.

The problem was that all of these were occupied by early guests.

“It seems that noble young ladies near marriageable age have gathered in droves to participate in that ball.”

“Wait, wasn’t that ball still more than a week away? They’re already waiting for that?”

“Well, since travel schedules are usually irregular, it’s standard to plan with some leeway. From what I hear, there are even young ladies who have been waiting here for over half a year?”

The party, who rampantly used cheat keys like golem horses and magic carriages, didn’t really feel it, but originally, moving from one territory to another took quite a long time.

Being noble young ladies, they wouldn’t walk on two legs but naturally travel by carriage, but even the speed of those carriages couldn’t be said to be very fast.

Add to this the possibility of having to take detours because previously fine roads became unusable due to wind and rain, or having to stop at unplanned locations to rest due to deteriorating conditions during travel, or getting lost because roads that existed on maps had somehow disappeared, and considering all sorts of bizarre incidents and accidents, it was natural to leave some leeway in the schedule.

Given how things have turned out, just sleeping in the carriage as usual might be an option, but when they tried to take out the carriage stored in the gauntlet, even that wasn’t easy because usable parking spots were already occupied by other nobles’ carriages.

“There’s still time until night, should we look around a bit more?”

“Forget it. It’ll be faster to just go outside the city and find an empty space.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that Dorothea is giving up too quickly!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests using soul navigation like they did in the place with many dolls before!]

“Sophia, translate.”

“He’s saying to ask the souls if there’s any usable place, like we did in Tik-Tok.”

“Hmm.”

Dorothea pondered for a moment with her arms folded, then raised her left hand and rotated it counterclockwise three times to implement a cage.

It was quite a noticeable action, but thanks to using magic to blur her presence in advance, passersby didn’t show much concern.

“…Huh?”

In the middle of continuing the soul selection process, Dorothea’s body flinched.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks what’s wrong!]

“No, it’s, it’s nothing.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that in his experience, there’s never been a case where it’s really nothing when someone says it’s nothing at this timing, so just be honest!]

“Ah, really…” Dorothea momentarily made a sulky face, but then sighed briefly and answered, “It’s the presence of necromancy. But, um, it feels very similar to my teacher’s mana.”

Adelaide blinked, “Does that mean the Witch of the East is here?”

“That’s not it. If that were the case, this place would have been turned upside down long ago. There’s no way it could be this peaceful.”

It was a strangely confident statement.

As if she had no doubt that just the existence of her teacher would cause turmoil in that place.

It was something they had felt before, but the three of them became newly curious about what kind of person Dorothea’s teacher was.

Anyway, since Dorothea seemed quite uneasy, the party moved in the direction where the aforementioned presence was felt instead of their original plan to find lodging.

“It’s a mansion. Though it looks a bit old.”

A somewhat shabby exterior compared to the numerous high-class, large mansions the party had seen, stayed in, or destroyed so far.

But the walls to prevent outside intrusion, the tall chimney, and the glass windows proved that this building was once owned by a family of considerable prestige.

It might be a place where a noble, or someone equivalent to a wealthy person, lived. Though with the prefix “frugal” or “fallen” added.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if they should break down the door and rush in!]

“What are you breaking, you tin can?”

As Dorothea pulled the long rope hanging in front of the wall, the bell connected to the rope made a loud sound.

A moment later, there was a clattering sound from inside the building, and then the main gate of the mansion opened boldly with a bang!

“Yes, yes! Who is it!?”

Seeing the appearance of the girl who hurriedly revealed herself, the party thought.

She’s filthy.

She’s filthy.

Was she in the middle of cleaning the fireplace?

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says she might be hard to see at midnight except for her face!]

The girl’s appearance was miserable in many ways.

The scarf wrapped around her head and various parts of her clothing were covered in cinders and soot, and her exposed skin was in a similarly poor state.

It seemed she had hurriedly wiped her face with water and a towel, but with everything else being black and gray, only her face being white felt rather bizarre.

Not knowing whether the girl knew that the party was having quite rude thoughts about her, she carefully examined the party’s appearance and soon had many question marks floating above her head.

A silver-gray knight in full body armor with a helmet, tightly worn even in the middle of the city despite it not being a war situation.

A black-clad woman with an incredibly pretty face but holding a large staff in a fashion that made one wonder where she got such clothes.

A golden-haired, violet-eyed girl with a great sword almost as big as herself, not matching her youthful impression.

A green-haired woman who, while being the most modest in terms of attire, could be seen to have a striking figure, even in plain clothing.

After a while of strange confrontation, Dorothea cleared her throat seeing the girl cautiously eyeing them.

“Ahem, I’m a passing mage. I felt some strange mana somewhere in this mansion, so I came to check. If it’s alright, could we come in for a moment?”

The Tin Knight’s blue will-o’-wisp-like eyes widened.

He grabbed Adelaide’s arm, shook it, and spoke urgently.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses shock, saying Dorothea’s condition seems strange!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ claims that there’s no way Dorothea would speak so politely and sensibly to someone else!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that Dorothea seems to have fallen into some kind of mental status abnormality and urgent measures are needed!]

“W-what should we do? Would it be okay if we hit her head lightly? Ah, but if I do it, it won’t be a light tap but pulverization…!”

“It’s okay, Miss Adel. As long as it’s not instant death, I can fix it.”

A cross-shaped vein popped up on Dorothea’s forehead.

Seeing the chilly smile that appeared on her face, the cinder-covered girl froze in place and answered with a trembling voice, “C-come in.”

***

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