TERNLF Vol. 2 Chapter 1 Part 2

Full title: The Exiled Reincarnated Noble Lives Freely

Note: If you found any typos/mistakes, pls write them in the comment. Thanks.

Translator: Canon

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“The market… that’s where Cheki would’ve gone.”

There was a good chance he’d already finished his shopping and left, but we had no other lead.

By the time we reached the market, more than half the stalls had already closed, their tents standing empty in rows. Even so, with a few customers still lingering, we searched the lanes for any sign of Cheki.

“...I don’t see him anywhere.”

“Me neither.”

Merchants trying to sell off the last of their goods and customers angling for last-minute discounts haggled back and forth, but among them—and among the passersby—there was no one who looked like Cheki.

“Maybe we missed him and he headed back? Should I run to the inn and check?”

“No. Splitting up defeats the whole purpose of coming as a trio.”

There was a reason we were moving together.

Even though we were far from the capital and the danger had lessened, I was still the only one capable of protecting them; I couldn’t leave the girls on their own.

Strictly speaking, the correct play would’ve been to leave one of us at the inn to wait for Cheki, but that was an option I simply couldn’t take.

“Right, I forgot.”

“Seriously. What if you wandered off alone and got snatched? I’d have to go rescue you again.”

“...But if it were me, you’d definitely come save me, Toa, like a hero rescuing a princess from a tower.”

Grassa grinned impishly. I sighed.

“Quit spouting nonsense and search as carefully as Nikka does—”

“Wow! This hairpin is adorable!”

Right then, Nikka’s delighted voice cut in.

“Hey there, young lady, you’ve got a good eye! I’ll let you have that hairpin for half price if you buy now.”

“Really? Is that okay?”

“For a pretty girl who’ll look even prettier with it? A bargain.”

“Then I’ll take it!”

“Pleasure doing business.”

I turned toward the voice. Somehow Nikka had started chatting with a nearby merchant in the middle of closing up shop.

And she’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for his sales talk, buying a tiny, ordinary hairpin she could’ve found anywhere.

“Nikka, what are you doing at a time like this?”

“Oh, Toa! Look at this hairpin!”

“This isn’t the time to—”

“Does it suit me?”

She clipped it on at once and leaned in, eager for my reaction. I let out a small sigh.

“So... it doesn’t suit me?”

Her shoulders slumped, and I hastily backpedaled. 

“No, it suits you very well.”

In truth, it did. The moment she put it on, the cheap little trinket stopped looking cheap at all.

“Hehe. I’m glad I bought it.”

“Hey, no fair, Nikka! Sell me one for half price too!”

“No problem. Which one do you want, young lady?”

Having spotted an easy mark, the merchant beamed and began pointing out his unsold stock one by one, naming prices as he went.

But each piece turned out pricier than Grassa expected, and a crease formed between her brows.

At last, the very last item remained.

“Can’t say I recommend this one,” the merchant said as he picked up a bracelet that had been tossed carelessly at the far edge of the table.

“I bought a couple of these in the Dwarves’ country,” he explained. “The color’s lovely, but as you can see, the workmanship on the rest isn’t great. It’s been gathering dust for ages...”

He’d marked it down that morning, sold exactly one, and then no one had even picked it up to look at since.

“May I see it?”

“Sure thing.”

Even to my untrained eye, the bracelet’s craftsmanship wasn’t impressive.

But the hue was strikingly beautiful, and it seemed Grassa had been captivated by that flickering red.

“How much for this one?”

“Let’s see... how about this?”

He held up three fingers to indicate the price.

Grassa pretended to mull it over, then—

“Hmm... how about this much?”

—reached out and folded one of his fingers down.

“Hah. Alright, why not. You drive a hard bargain, young lady.”

“Yes! Here you go.”

She passed him the money with a triumphant grin, then lifted the bracelet to the moonlight and narrowed her eyes to admire it.

Now is hardly the time... I thought, exasperated, and turned to the merchant, who had begun packing up, to ask about Cheki.

“Hey, mind if I ask you something?”

“What is it? You looking to buy something too?”

“No, not that.”

I shook my head and pointed toward Grassa, who was still ogling the bracelet a short ways off.

“We’re looking for someone, about that girl’s height...”

I went on to describe Cheki’s features and clothes as the girls had relayed them.

Honestly, this looked like a shop for women’s accessories, so I doubted a boy like Cheki would’ve stopped here but—

“That’s the kid.”

So much for my assumption.

“Huh?”

“The other customer who bought the same bracelet earlier, that was him. I remember it because I never thought anyone would buy that thing.”

According to the merchant, someone matching Cheki’s description had wandered in after noon, handled several pieces one by one, and then happily purchased a bracelet; the same kind Grassa had just bought.

If it was a gift for someone, his taste was... questionable, to say the least.

“Do you know where he went afterward?”

“He left the market. By now he’s probably back at his inn.”

“He hasn’t returned. That’s why we’re out here looking.”

“Huh. That is worrying.”

So Cheki had shopped here and apparently intended to head back to the inn.

Yet he still hadn’t shown up.

“Maybe we crossed paths without noticing. We’ll try returning to the inn once.”

“Right. Hope he’s safe.”

I thanked the merchant and rejoined the girls, relaying what I’d learned.

“If that’s true, it’s strange he isn’t back already.”

“And if he had come back, he couldn’t have reached our room without passing right by us.”

“He could have entered through the window, but there’d be no reason to avoid you two.”

Now then, what next?

As I’d told the merchant, we could return to the inn to check. But if he still wasn’t there, we’d just have to come back here and ask around again.

With night settling in, the few remaining merchants would soon be gone. Considering that, heading back now might be a waste of precious time.

“Hey, you three—mind if I have a word?”

The same merchant from earlier, now finished with packing up his stall, called out to us.

“What is it?”

“Well, it’s about that kid you mentioned—Cheki. Might be nothing, so take it with a grain of salt...”

After that preface, he continued.

“When that Cheki kid left the market, I noticed three stocky fellas tailing him. Looked suspicious to me.”

“Three men?”

“Yeah. All three wore hoods, so I didn’t see their faces. But they were dressed the same, all with their faces hidden—it made ’em stand out. That’s why I remembered them.”

“And which way did they go afterward?”

“Pretty sure it was that way—”

The merchant pointed in the direction of our inn.

If he was right, then Cheki had indeed been heading back there.

But if three men had followed him down that road... it was hard not to think he’d been caught up in something. Maybe even abducted.

“Thanks for the information. You’ve been a big help.”

“Don’t mention it. You folks—and that kid too—are all good customers.”

After thanking him, I led the uneasy-looking Nikka and Grassa out of the market and onto the path Cheki must have taken.

“Toa! Over there!”

Nikka tugged my shoulder, pointing ahead as we scanned the dimly lit street.

“This is...”

Lying at the edge of the road—a narrow alley connecting the market to the inn—was a checkered casket cap, trampled and dirtied as though many people had stepped on it.

“No mistake. That’s the hat Cheki was wearing.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. I actually asked where he got it, because I wanted one like it. He said he bought it in Volga, and that they don’t sell that style anywhere around here.”

“Volga, huh... I’ve never seen anyone in the kingdom wearing a hat shaped like that.”

Volga... a northern country beyond the Teenic Mountains, which split the continent in two.

Could Cheki have come from there?

No, that doesn’t matter right now.

Between the merchant’s testimony and the hat left behind here—especially in such a secluded spot—it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together.

Cheki had almost certainly been taken.

Grassa and Nikka must have reached the same conclusion, because they both cried out in panic.

“W-What do we do, Toa!?”

“This is all our fault! We’re the ones who asked him to shop for us!”

I tried to calm the two down. 

“Take a breath. Panicking won’t help.”

Then I looked again at the ground where the hat lay.

If the merchant’s story was true, the culprits were likely the hooded trio that had followed Cheki.

“He did say they stood out for being dressed the same...”

Judging from the condition of the hat, quite some time had passed since whatever happened here.

Any traces that might have been left on the ground were long gone.

“Toa, can’t you find him using magic?” Nikka asked, her hands clasped together as if in prayer.

“If I could, I’d have done it already.”

Even magic has its limits.

If there were a spell that could locate someone so easily, I’d have used it the day I searched for Grassa.

There is a magic somewhat similar to that, but it requires marking the target in advance.

I’d given Nikka and Grassa enchanted tokens to serve as markers, which they always carried, but of course, Cheki had none.

“For now, let’s ask around here. If no one knows anything, we’ll have to report it to the city guard.”

That said, I wasn’t sure how much the guards would do for a single traveler who’d gone missing since midday.

Even the police in my previous world weren’t quick to move in cases like that, much less here.

“Understood. Let’s do it,” Nikka said firmly.

“...Cheki... where are you...” murmured Grassa, her voice trembling.

It was strange; Grassa was usually the confident one, while Nikka tended to worry.

But in moments like this, Nikka showed a quiet kind of strength that Grassa couldn’t muster.

“So... which way do we go first?”

“Let’s see. If those guys ambushed Cheki around here, they wouldn’t have dragged him off toward the busy part of town.”

“...”

“Then let’s head in the opposite direction from the market while asking around.”

“Agreed. I think there were still a few shops ahead, we can ask the owners if they’ve seen anything.”

We had just settled on our plan and were about to start questioning the locals when—

“Huh?”

Grassa, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly turned her head toward some random direction and let out a small gasp.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh—it disappeared.”

“Disappeared? What did?”

“There! I saw it again!”

I blinked, completely lost.

Was she... imagining things out of worry for Cheki?

“Maybe I... can tell where he is.”

“What?”

“What do you mean?”

Just as I was considering returning to the inn to calm her down, Grassa suddenly bolted.

“Hey, wait!”

“Grassa, where are you going!?”

As Nikka and I rushed after her, she threw back a cryptic answer over her shoulder.

“I can feel it!”

She dashed straight through a narrow alley and out onto a main street crowded with people. but even there, she didn’t stop.

“How far is she planning to go?”

“She said earlier, ‘Maybe I can tell,’ right?”

“Yeah... wait, don’t tell me—”

“I think she might know where Cheki is.”

As we exchanged words while running, Grassa veered sharply into another side alley.

The surroundings had already grown dark, and if we let her get too far ahead, we risked losing sight of her completely.

I could track her using the magic marker I’d placed on her, but if anything happened before I caught up, I’d be a step too late.

We hurried after her, plunging into the narrow passage.

“Where—there she is!”

By the time we entered the alley, running at Nikka’s pace, Grassa was already far ahead.

The only reason we could still see her was because her bracelet glimmered red in the dark; if not for that faint light, she would’ve vanished from view.

“Wait a second... that bracelet...”

“What about it?”

Keeping my eyes fixed on Grassa’s silhouette, I tried to organize the thought forming in my mind.

“This alley doesn’t have a single streetlight, and the moon isn’t out yet.”

“That’s true. I can barely see my feet, I’m scared I’ll trip.”

“Then how come her bracelet is glowing, even though there’s no light source?”

Exactly.

Even though her figure was nearly swallowed by darkness, that bracelet alone glowed red, leading us forward.

Which meant, it was emitting its own light.

“The merchant said he bought those bracelets from the Dwarves, didn’t he?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Then maybe it’s actually—”

“Ah!”

I was about to finish my thought when Nikka cried out behind me, apparently tripping over something.

I stopped immediately and caught her before she fell.

“Th-Thank you.”

“Yeah... it’s getting too risky like this.”

I could handle running in total darkness, but for Nikka, it was far too dangerous.

“Don’t worry about me—go after Grassa!”

Just as the red light turned a corner and disappeared from sight, Nikka urged me on.

But instead, I shook my head and cast 【Night Vision】 on both of us.

Instantly, light returned to our sight. It wasn’t quite as bright as daylight, but it was clear enough to run full speed through the night streets without stumbling.

“Was that your magic?” Nikka asked, looking around in awe.

“Yeah, a spell called 【Night Vision】. It doesn’t last long, but it should hold long enough to catch up to her.”

“But we already lost sight of her!”

True enough, even my eyes couldn’t see around corners.

But at this point, I didn’t need to check her marker to know where she was headed.

“It’s fine. I have a good idea where she’s going.”

I took Nikka’s hand and started running again, this time at a steadier pace, following the route Grassa must have taken.

After turning two corners, we emerged onto a wide road—

And there, at the end of it, our destination came into view.

“That’s... the North Gate?”

“Just as I thought.”

We had reached the North Gate of Loch.

Anyone traveling toward the northern edge of the kingdom would pass through here.

When we eventually left the city for the frontier fortress, we planned to stop by Nikka and Grassa’s hometown—Honaga Village—first, which meant using this very gate.

And there, right before the gate, we found Grassa arguing heatedly with one of the gate guards.

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