Chapter 63 [Radiant Town]
"What major event has happened in the neighboring Redcliff territory recently? They've sent so many people to guard the border."
"It seems like he's looking for a woman."
"Woman? What woman?"
As the men at the next table began to probe more suggestively, Mela raised an eyebrow at Yuriel sitting opposite her, giving her a knowing look that said, "See, I told you so."
Now Yuriel had to admire Mela's foresight.
Almost as soon as they arrived in Radiant Town, they discovered a large number of soldiers at the border of Redcliff Territory.
They conducted rigorous inspections of passing merchants, even checking the goods on their carriages, as if afraid they might turn into flies and sneak in.
“Let’s go,” Mela whispered to Yuriel.
They had just gone downstairs for breakfast when they overheard some guests talking about recent events, which happened to be related to them. So they pretended not to have finished eating and listened for a while longer.
Seeing the conversation veering off into romantic escapades, Mela felt there was no point in listening any further.
Yuriel followed Mela and they went back to their respective rooms on the third floor.
In Mela's room, Silas was still fast asleep in bed.
Now they no longer need to carefully conceal their whereabouts; they can finally stay in a better hostel.
Lying on the pillows and blankets stuffed with cotton, Silas felt an overwhelming sense of contentment and happiness. He wished he could sleep for another three days and three nights to wash away the fatigue from the intense travel of the past few days.
It's impossible for Silas to actually sleep for three days and three nights, but with Mela's approval, they can stay in Radiant Town for another day to properly recover.
"Speaking of which, the name Radiant Town sounds like it was given by two different people, just like Black Sheep Town and Graystone Town, which we visited before."
That evening, Silas, finally well-rested, stood on the table, stuffing bread into his mouth while chatting with Mela.
Mela recalled Silas's words, "Lex seemed to have said that it was because Gardner Territory highly respected the church, so a certain lord changed all the place names after obtaining the king's permission."
It was revised to better suit the church's aesthetic.
“It sounds like a terrible place where everyone will be hostile to us once our identities are exposed.” Silas chewed and swallowed the last piece of bread in his mouth.
"Yes, so we'd better not stay here too long."
Even before leaving Gardner Territory, Silas could no longer slack off on Mela's shoulder and let Mela carry him away.
People here are very sensitive to unusual things, and everyone seems to live within an invisible set of rules.
Mela also discovered that this indescribable sense of oppression was even more severe towards young women, as if there were always several eyes watching them in the dark, never allowing them to do anything out of line.
For example, casually chatting and laughing with people on the street.
Mela stood by the window, and when she looked down, she could see that every young woman walking on the street had a chaste expression on her face, as if they were all made from the same mold.
Therefore, even though Mela and Yuriel tried to blend into this environment, their unique aura still attracted a lot of attention.
“If it weren’t for the fact that your accents sound no different from those of us from Gardner Territory, I would have suspected that you had run away from somewhere else. After all, we in Gardner Territory can’t raise girls with a free spirit like the wind.”
The next morning, before Mela went downstairs for breakfast, the maid who came to change Mela's sheets made a casual joke.
She looked to be around thirty years old, which might explain why she didn't appear as lifeless as a stone statue.
In Gardner, when a woman turns thirty, people seem to lose interest in her every move, and she emerges from her cautious situation, becoming able to interact with others freely.
You can even make a harmless joke with a stranger, like this.
Mela smiled and lied without batting an eye, "That's probably why my husband fell for me. He's a businessman who's never home, the kind of man who's like the wind and impossible to catch."
"Oh, you have a husband?" The maid looked Mela up and down in surprise, a hint of envy in her eyes. "But your skin looks so young, almost like that of a sixteen-year-old girl."
“These days, what woman is over twenty and still unmarried? Unless her parents are completely irresponsible and don’t care about her marriage at all,” Mela sighed deliberately.
"That's right. What good girl would waste her youth at home? In our town, a seventeen-year-old who isn't married is considered an old maid. Fortunately, they still know to go to church every day to pray, asking God to help them find a suitable husband as soon as possible..."
The maid kept rambling on and on about things Mela didn't want to hear at all.
However, Mela smiled and occasionally chimed in with a few words, which pleased the maid.
So when Mela and Yuriel went downstairs to order, the usually stern shopkeeper, contrary to his usual demeanor, kindly told them that there were two leftover smoked fish, which would only cost twenty copper coins.
When Yuriel saw the small, palm-sized pieces of smoked fish on the plate, she couldn't help but lower her voice and ask Mela if she knew why the shopkeeper had suddenly changed his attitude towards them.
Mela leaned closer and quietly recounted her conversation with the maid to Yuriel in detail.
"After the maid told them about my background, they probably stopped doubting our origins," Mela finally revealed the truth.
In such a conservative town, even though Mela and Yuriel tried their best to hide it, they couldn't help but reveal their uniqueness, which aroused suspicion.
Perhaps on their very first night at the hostel, they were already being watched with ill intent, with someone ready to report them to the tax authorities.
Realizing this, Mela deliberately lied in response to the maid's feigned probing.
Although she looks young, she already has a husband.
Although she has a unique temperament, it is due to her husband's influence.
All it takes is a fictitious husband to easily erect the most indestructible shield for Mela.
Yuriel couldn't help but show a look of disgust, thinking to herself, "Have these people in town gone mad? My God, how could they think like that?"
“Don’t forget, the entire Gardner Territory holds the Church in high esteem. In other words, this is true not only in Radiant Town, but also elsewhere.” Mela casually took a sip of milk from her glass.
Yes, she definitely prefers the taste of herbal tea.
Yuriel didn't know much about the church, only that it was the church and the royal family that had forced the witches into their current situation of having to hide. Now that she had experienced this, she felt even more disgusted with the church.
She simply couldn't understand why people would be so eager to believe in the gods worshipped by such a church.
Yuriel was used to getting to the bottom of things. The more she couldn't understand something, the more she would get lost in thought, determined to come up with a reason that could convince herself. So when someone suddenly pounced on her, she didn't react at all and even froze on the spot, looking at the gray-haired old woman in front of her with a puzzled expression.
"What is your name?" the old woman asked plaintively.
She stared intently into Yuriel's eyes, not daring to blink even once, as if Yuriel would suddenly disappear the moment she closed her eyes.
“My name is Yuri…” Although she didn’t know why the old woman was asking her name, Yuri still subconsciously wanted to answer with her name.
I believe that anyone would feel sorry for the old woman seeing her in such a sorrowful state.
"Yuni, do you know this old lady?"
Mela suddenly spoke, interrupting Yuriel.
She even stepped forward to separate the foolish Yuriel from the old woman who had inexplicably appeared.
"N-no, I don't know her." Yuriel felt a pang of guilt as she watched Mela's actions; she seemed to have almost gotten them into trouble again.
“I see—” Mela deliberately dragged out the last syllable, looking at the old woman with a puzzled expression. “Then, madam, is there something you need? Why did you suddenly come to see Yuni?”
"I...I..." Faced with Mela's question, the old woman eagerly stepped past her and looked at Yuriel behind her, "Your name is Yuni, right? What's your father's name? Is it Laod?"
Unexpectedly, upon hearing the old woman mention the word "father," Yuriel's expression immediately changed. She angrily retorted, "I have no father," and left first.
The carriage they had hired was waiting for them not far away.
Yuriel nimbly slipped into the carriage, using the thick walls to shield herself from the old woman's probing gaze.
Seeing this, the old woman wanted to go forward and talk to Yuriel by the carriage, but Mela stopped her.
"Madam, Yuni says she doesn't know you. Perhaps you've mistaken her for someone else."
“Impossible, her eyes are exactly the same as Laod’s!” the old woman denied categorically upon hearing this.
“Oh, really? But I don’t see anything special about her eyes. They’re just the most common blue eyes.” Mela spread her hands helplessly. “Alright, we’re leaving now. I hope you won’t follow us.”
Mela was very polite, and she was still smiling as she spoke, which really made the old woman dare not chase after her anymore. She could only look longingly at the carriage that was gradually disappearing into the distance, and at the dust flying in the air.
“Hey, don’t blame Grandma Sanno. She lost her only son many years ago, and ever since then, she has stopped every blue-eyed stranger who appears in town. But she has absolutely no ill intentions toward you.”
After setting off, the coachman explained something to Mela and the others on behalf of the old woman who had been left behind by the carriage.
The entire town of Radiant knew Granny Sannoh's story and pitied her, a widowed woman who had lost her only child. Although they always felt that the young man named Laod had deliberately abandoned his aging mother—after all, he wasn't a child, how could he possibly be kidnapped?
“We don’t blame her. She’s just a poor old woman. Alas, how could there be such a heartless son who would abandon his own mother like this?”
Meera glanced at the cold-faced Yuriel and deliberately diverted the coachman's attention, making him focus on cursing the legendary "Laod" who had suddenly disappeared.
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