To the City II

After parting from Hanson, it took Carolyn less than ten minutes to reach the main road leading out of the Walker domain and into the Amber domain. Although she was more likely to encounter others on the main road, it was also safer due to its role in facilitating trade. Carolyn had some confidence in her combat skills, but she wasn't reckless enough to purposely take a dangerous path.

If she stuck to the main road, then she would be able to reach the border before night fell. There were very few historical accounts of hostilities between the Amber and Walker noble families, so the border wasn't managed too strictly. Still, Carolyn's lack of official documents might be a cause for trouble when she reached the city, so the plan was to get a travel pass at the border before continuing her journey. For this she had an introduction letter from Hanson, but since neither Noral nor Riddly Village could be mentioned, he pretended to be a village chief from a different remote village instead. He had even forged that village chief's signature, so it was unlikely she would be discovered unless someone from that village heard about it, but that didn't stop Carolyn from feeling nervous at the thought of brazenly presenting the letter to the soldiers at the border. Nonetheless, she was aware that considering the secretive nature of her investigation, this might not be the last time she had to commit fraud, so she told herself to get used to it.

As Hanson had warned, the sun made Carolyn's journey especially challenging despite the sun hat she had on her head. She wanted to conserve her water supply, but getting dehydrated would be a much worse fate, so she ensured to drink when she needed to. While Carolyn calculated how many more sips she could afford to take, she heard something approaching. With her vigilance raised to its peak, she turned her head to check, only to find a horse-drawn covered wagon. There was nothing to block her from the sight of the passengers and coachman, so she was able to confirm that they weren't bandits or nobles.

After a sigh of relief, she moved off the road to let the wagon pass, but it stopped a few paces away from her. Raising her vigilance once again, Carolyn observed them. The coachman and passengers wore clothes that were of a familiar villager style but with more colours. There were three men, a woman, and a child among them. She didn't know what their purpose was or why the coachman stopped, but she didn't detect any hostile intentions, so she tried to mask her caution.

"Can I help you?"

"Ah, s'rry. We're from Middly Village. We just noticed you on your lonesome and wondered if you wanted to hitch a ride. You're heading to the border, right?"

The coachmen's proposal didn't cause a significant reaction in the other passengers, so it appeared that they were of the same opinion. This road didn't split, so even if she wasn't going to the border, accepting their offer would be helpful, but Carolyn hesitated.

"That would be nice, but are you sure I won't be a bother?"

"Course not. It would be great to add another flower to this bunch of mouldy men."

"Who you calling mouldy?!"

"This guy, always quick to flap his gums."

Carolyn didn't want to ignore Hanson's advice, but if she ran from all human interaction, then she didn't think she would be able to make much progress in her quest. And so, she chose to place her trust in this group.

"Then, please allow me to join you."

With her agreement, the passengers left the wagon so that she could enter before joining her. Once she was seated, Carolyn removed her hat and placed it on top of the luggage in her bag. The coach box was on her right, the woman and child on her left, while the last two men sat in front of her. As the wagon rocked into motion once more, they began introducing themselves, starting with the woman.

"My name's Shirly, and this little one's Kyle. Kyle, say hi to the pretty lady."

"Hi, pretty lady."

The child appeared little more than five years old and had a lisp, but he was very cute, which put a smile on Carolyn's face.

"Hello, Kyle. My name is Carol. It's nice to meet you."

It was unknown whether the bandits who attacked her village had learnt of her name, but Hanson had suggested that she use a fake name just in case. Carol was only a few letters short of Carolyn, but both names were common in the kingdom, and it would be harder for her to respond if she assumed an unfamiliar alias, so they decided to settle with it. For the same reason, she would also refrain from mentioning her last name. This wouldn't pose much of a problem because villagers generally lacked last names and would use the name of their village when asked for one by the authorities.

"Carol, huh? That's a nice name. Mine's Neil."

"And mine's Carlos. Almost like yours, right?"

"Yes. It's nice to meet you, Niel, Carlos."

The two men were eager to get a smile from Carolyn despite her disguise, but she only showed a polite mask. She knew that being too kind would only make things worse.

"Since you're all finished back there, I guess I'm next. My name's Robert. I may just be the driver here, but I'm also the next chief of our village."

"I think you mean backup chief, Robert."

"The way Ol' Man Jones is going, your grandson has a higher chance of being village chief than you."

"Shut up. I don't want to wish anything bad on my Pops, but he could go down at any moment, and I'll be the one to watch over the village in his stead."

"Sure. It must be nice to dream at your age."

"Why you!!!!"

Despite looking like the oldest among the bunch, Robert seemed to have more than enough energy to go around. Based on their conversation, Carolyn assumed that their current village chief was very old, so this trait might run in his family.

"Sorry for the commotion. These three are always like this."

"No, I like that it's lively. I was getting a little bored travelling by myself."

"Right, right. If you don't mind me asking, why's a well-taught young lady like you travelling alone?"

They hadn't brought it up before, so she thought she was doing well, but Shirly's question made it clear that Carolyn's acting didn't match the character she was trying to play.

"...Why do you think I'm well-taught?"

"Well, I'd say it's obvious based on how you talk. I only ever hear the village chief talking like that when he got outside guests."

Speech was one of the most used features to determine one's status, so Carolyn had gone through a lot of practice to sound like a normal villager, but thanks to Hanson's reforms, only the older villagers in Noral Village spoke the casual dialect popular among border villages, and she didn't get to speak with them much. She could still do it when she tried, but she tended to slip into her usual way of speaking when she wasn't focused. 

Fortunately, she still had time before they reached the border to perfect her acting.