The Crowned Name

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He cut, slashed, and just continued cutting relentlessly. And he finally cut it.

◆

"Seems like it'll take some time here at the gate."

"Our turn will come soon enough."

"I see."

Ferad, popping his head out of the line for a moment, looked ahead and agreed with Elrika's words.

Having ridden in a carriage, Ferad and Elrika arrived just outside the city of Leonardo. However, it seemed that the processing of people at the city gate was taking some time, causing a crowd to form.

Despite being an elderly couple in their nineties, they remained calm and patient as if they were statues. If they weren't standing, people might have assumed they were dead.

"Next, huh? Gramps, granny, how many are in your group?"

"It's just me and my wife."

After a while... The gatekeeper, noticing that only the elderly couple had taken a step forward, asked if they were alone.

"We wanted to see some familiar faces before being picked up. We came here by carriage."

"I see."

Ferad's words were like magic. If they explained that they came to meet acquaintances before being picked up, most people would accept it without question.

"You may pass."

"Thank you."

The gatekeeper didn't seem to have any problem with Ferad and Elrika, who looked quite feeble, and allowed them through with little scrutiny.

"Well, things have changed, haven't they, grandpa? No, I guess they've gone back to how they used to be..."

"That's right, granny..."

Entering Leonardo, the city of liquor, Ferad and Elrika were stunned by what they saw. This city was once famous for its alcoholic beverages, even before the great war. However, during the war, it had transformed into a major production center for chemicals and alchemy products, with individuals wearing suspicious attire and craftsmen running around with frantic expressions.

"Has the Moonless stock really came?"

"Give me a whole barrel!"

"Hurry up and move the sake!"

It was the same scene as before the war. Traders and craftsmen involved in the alcohol business were raising their voices all around, and the city was bustling with prosperity, word for word.

What Ferad and Elrika knew was that after the intense wartime atmosphere had dissipated, Leonardo had turned back into a city of liquor once again shortly after the war. That's precisely why they were dumbfounded by the stark contrast between the past and the present.

However, no matter how you looked at them, they appeared to be just an old couple who had come from the remote to visit their children, country bumpkins.

(Well, I guess this is fine. I may not appreciate the appeal of alcohol, but it's much better than creating drugs that drastically shorten one's lifespan for temporary power gains.)

Thinking about the potent concoctions that were once produced in Leonardo, Ferad strolled through the city with unsteady steps, taking it all in.

During the great war, when it was a time full of ups and downs, those who had lost their families to the demon army sought quick ways to empower themselves and take revenge on their family's enemies. In response to this demand, eccentric alchemists created strengthening potions for a time, but the side effects were too strong, leading those eccentrics to seal away their creations.

But that was all in the past.

Leonardo now was just a simple city of liquor, not a place where grudges and obsessions took form.

"Now, where could he be?"

"Leave it to me. Excuse me, sir. Have you happened to see an old man lying around drunk, holding a bottle of sake?"

As Ferad was rubbing his chin, trying to figure out where their target might be, Elrika spoke to a passerby. The man's response was a surprising one for Ferad, causing him to put his hand to his mouth.

Perhaps he thought Elrika's description was a bit much.

"Oh, an acquaintance of that drunk old man? He's lying down over there in the alley."

Or maybe he was amused by how it ended up working.

◆

"As expected, he's still a drunkard."

"Same as ever, I guess."

Ferad and Elrika's gaze in the alleyway was fixed on the ground, not on the person.

"Hic! I drank enough to hear hallucinations. I can hear Ferad's idiotic voice and Elrika's voice."

An old man of the same age as Ferad and Elrika was lying drunk in the alley with a bottle of alcohol in his hand. With long, white hair tied up, dressed in worn-out clothes that smelled of alcohol not only from his garments as if even his skin secrete such smell, he looked like a vagabond.

However, what was strange was the weapon hanging at his waist. A peculiar weapon called "katana" which had washed up from the Eastern countries, was not suited for a vagabond.

"If I'm an idiot, you're a booze idiot!"

Ferad leaned in close to the vagabond who wasn’t that short compared to him and scolded him back as a booze idiot in response to being called out as an idiot.

"Wha?! Feradd!?"

"And I'm here too."

"Elrika's here too?!"

Even though he hadn't been splashed with water, the vagabond who was startled by Ferad's loud voice jumped up from the ground.

"So, you've come down from the mountain."

"You really haven't changed..."

The vagabond, smiling with a wrinkled face similar to that of the old married couple, received Ferad's gaze with a mix of disbelief and nostalgia.

"Well, it's been a while, Sazaki."

The vagabond that Ferad's gaze was fixed upon was their target: an old man named Sazaki.

And the second name he carried was...

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