Looking Forward to Another World

In Mavros Territory, due to food shortages and poor economic management, rampant bandits would rob passing merchants and nobles, but since merchants and nobles had the ability to deal with them, sometimes they could even make a small fortune off the bandits.

For example, aside from the bandits’ horses, which could fetch a good price, their equipment, though it might not be top-notch, could still sell for a few gold coins with a little cleaning and polishing.

Of course, considering this world had slavery, even the bandits themselves were valuable.

People like bandits were usually able-bodied, armed criminals with combat abilities, so if taken to the slave market, they could definitely be sold for a fortune.

In fact, most of the slaves in Jinas came from such sources.

Sometimes, they were captured bandits, other times, they were enemy soldiers taken as prisoners of war, and there were also those arrested for crimes in various noble territories who ended up being sold as laborers or fighters—all of them, without exception, became the main supply of slaves across the kingdom.

Naturally, there were also illegal slaver groups who secretly captured and sold innocent people to slave traders, which was, of course, considered a crime in Jinas, but aside from that, the others were exceptions and not restricted by any laws.

In conclusion, when dealing with criminals like bandits, merchants and nobles usually preferred capturing them alive and selling them as slaves to make some extra money.

Unfortunately, Riezel didn’t leave any of them alive.

All the bandits who could have been sold were dead, making even Gerald, who absolutely hated these bandits, feel like it was a bit of a waste.

Nevertheless, Gerald didn’t let them go to waste entirely.

”I’ll help you strip the bandits of their equipment and belongings, Sir Riezel.”

Gerald volunteered and rushed to do it so fast that Riezel, who was about to say it wasn’t necessary, didn’t even get the chance to speak.

Seeing Gerald already rummaging through the bandits’ equipment and valuables, Riezel thought about it for a moment, but didn’t stop him in the end.

It was simply because Riezel didn’t really have a choice.

’Sadly, this world isn’t like the ones I traveled to before, so tossing gold around doesn’t work here...’ Riezel thought helplessly.

During his dimensional travels, aside from the first world, Danmachi, Riezel never had to worry about money again.

Why?

It was obviously because the magic system of the Akasha Continent had already developed to a highly advanced level, and alchemy had reached an incredible standard, where Structure System Magicians could even create various precious metals effortlessly using magic.

As a result, Riezel had been able to easily make gold himself, so ever since the world of Demon Slayer, he hadn’t needed to think about money. If he ever traveled to another world where gold held value, he wouldn’t have to worry about it either.

However, in the Akasha Continent, where creating gold from nothing was a common technology, gold was worth about as much as a rock on the side of the road.

In other words, on the Akasha Continent, Riezel was no longer the rich young man who could casually throw around gold leaves or nuggets but a completely broke young man.

One should remember that the currency of this world was made from magic metals like magic copper, magic silver, and magic gold—each coin made from them had a special magic rune watermark, making them impossible to counterfeit or replace.

For this reason, Riezel, who had been staying at the Frenzel residence, was flat-out broke.

In fact, the travel expenses for this trip had actually been covered by Yuri’s personal sponsorship. Riezel only found out about it later because Yuri had given the money to Lizbeth instead of him, leaving him no chance to refuse.

Thanks to that, the carriage, the travel costs—everything had been provided as a favor by the Frenzel family. Riezel himself had set out on this journey with not a single coin to his name, which made him feel a little awkward.

Sure, Yuri had provided plenty of funds, so even if he spent freely, it would last him a good while. But Riezel obviously didn’t want to just sit around and burn through the money, let alone wait until he was broke and rely on Yuri again.

With such a thought in mind, Riezel ultimately didn’t stop Gerald and let him collect all the bandits’ equipment and belongings, loading them onto the carriage one by one.

”I-I’ll help out.”

Lizbeth spoke quickly, rushing over to lend a hand.

”N-No need! I can do it alone!”

Gerald responded, his voice trembling with nervousness, and his head shook rapidly like a rattle, clearly rejecting Lizbeth’s offer.

In his eyes, a beautiful girl like Lizbeth shouldn’t be doing such heavy work, so he did all the heavy lifting himself.

In no time, he gathered the horses the bandits had ridden, tied them together with a long lead rope, and attached it to Riezel’s carriage, letting the carriage pull the horses along.

Once he was done with that, he ran to his own carriage and helped the person inside down.

Seeing this, Riezel wasn’t surprised since the Transparent World had already detected someone was inside Gerald’s carriage.

However, when Riezel saw the person Gerald had helped down, he was slightly taken aback.

It was because the person was actually a young girl, not even twelve years old, younger than both Lizbeth and Mediste.

She was quite short, barely taller than Isaac, with an innocent and immature face—clearly a little girl who hadn’t seen much of the world.

She was also pretty and had a delicate, almost porcelain-like quality to her. Even though she wasn’t as stunning as Lizbeth, she definitely had the makings of a beautiful woman, no doubt about it.

Regardless, no matter how cute she was, she was still just a twelve-year-old girl. After getting out of the carriage, she immediately hid behind Gerald, looking terrified and clearly still shaken by the recent incident.

”Young Lady, why don’t you greet our guests?”

Gerald spoke in an unusually soft voice, his overly gentle manner making Riezel give him a strange look.

Perhaps in some people’s eyes, Gerald’s attitude toward the little girl might seem like that of an elder brother to his younger sister, but in Riezel’s eyes, Gerald’s gaze seemed off—he didn’t look like he was looking at a younger sister in need of care, but more like he was looking at a lover who hadn’t grown up yet.

”A lolicon? Surely not?”

Riezel muttered softly, and while doing so, he couldn’t help but feel that he needed to reconsider what kind of person Gerald really was.

Unaware of Riezel’s thoughts, Gerald continued speaking softly to the little girl, and after a while, the little girl timidly walked out and introduced herself.

”I-I’m Fanny Elyssir. Pleased to meet you.”

Fanny spoke awkwardly, offering a clumsy curtsy to Riezel and Lizbeth before hiding behind Gerald again, just like a shy daughter.

”Elyssir?” Riezel suppressed a sense of oddness in his heart and turned to Gerald. ”Isn’t that the viscount you mentioned earlier?”

”Yes...” Gerald nodded and began to explain. ”Viscount Elyssir is the lord of the nearby Elyssir Territory, and Young Lady Fanny is the eldest daughter of Viscount Elyssir, the young lady of the Elyssir family.”

”Eldest daughter?” Riezel paused for a moment, then looked at the little girl timidly hiding behind Gerald. ”A kid this young is actually the eldest daughter in a viscount family?”

Upon hearing this, Fanny, who had been nervously hiding behind Gerald, puffed out her cheeks.

”I’m not a kid...”

Fanny mumbled in a voice that was almost a whisper, clearly not happy about being treated like a little child.

”Young Lady Fanny isn’t a kid at all and is already pretty mature for her age.” Gerald, for some reason, spoke very seriously. ”She’s about to turn thirteen, and in two more years, she could even get married.”

Gerald spoke with such seriousness that it almost felt like he was expecting something, though no one could really tell what—at least, this was what Riezel thought.

Lizbeth seemed to think the same and instinctively stepped back as if she wanted to distance herself from Gerald.

”Okay...”

Riezel, feeling the urge to rethink his opinion of Gerald, tried to change the subject.

”So, just the two of you? How come you didn’t bring any guards or knights with you?”

Upon watching Gerald and Fanny, this was the first question that popped into Riezel’s mind.

Logically speaking, since Fanny was a viscount’s eldest daughter, she should’ve had a few guards or knights with her for protection when she went out, not just a retainer. If this retainer were particularly capable, say, a Sword Master with the Sword Master Medal, it would make sense.

A Sword Master, after all, could easily take on a thousand regular soldiers, so someone with such skill could definitely protect the daughter of a minor noble family on their own with no problem.

However, a minor noble family like the Elyssir family clearly didn’t have any Sword Master-level experts.

For this reason, it made sense to provide a viscount’s eldest daughter with a few strong guards or knights to protect her, especially considering she was in a chaotic place like Mavros Territory—without enough guards or knights for protection, it was no different than courting death.

Yet, Fanny, with only one retainer of average ability accompanying her, dared to venture into this dangerous territory, which made this behavior seem off.

Considering this, Riezel’s doubts were definitely justified.

Meanwhile, upon hearing Riezel’s question, tears began to well up in Fanny’s eyes, while Gerald showed a somewhat awkward expression.

”We... We have our reasons for doing this...” Gerald answered with hesitation.

”Really?” Riezel narrowed his eyes and then smiled. ”In that case, do you mind if I listen to your so-called ’reason’?”

Hearing this, Gerald wanted to say no, but seeing Riezel’s expression, it was clear he was starting to doubt them.

In the end, Gerald could only helplessly nod.

”Please, allow us to travel with you for a while then...”

At this, Riezel nodded graciously.

”Welcome.”

With that, Riezel’s carriage welcomed two new passengers.