Please Die, Your Highness - Chapter 65

Craig woke up to the sound of birds chirping. Thanks to the rain that had poured relentlessly since a few days ago, he had spent his time idly inside the carriage, repeating a cycle of falling asleep and waking up. It was the moment Craig, with a dazed face, was about to lower the lattice window of the carriage to check outside.

With a baaing sound, a goat rammed into his back. Damn it! Craig fell forward just like that and spat out resentful curses in the darkness. Then, he heard the sound of a chicken wandering near him and flapping its wings.

“You damn things! Get the hell away! I’ll kill you if you poop on me again!”

As he screamed, the lattice window on the wall slid down with a swish. Through the gap of hazy, flowing light, he heard a man peering inside and blabbering something in a foreign language.

He couldn’t understand it, but the tone was roughly that of a harsh warning.

The man muttered something in that incomprehensible language again, then looked away and shouted something as if calling for someone.

Soon, the sound of a single horse’s hooves plodded closer. It was a person from the Colm continent, the only one in the merchant group who could communicate linguistically with Craig.

He exchanged a few words in a bizarre, barking language with the other man who had growled at Craig warningly. Then, just as the previous man had done, he stuck his face through the lattice window.

“Hey. Don’t touch the animals. Especially the chickens. If we can’t eat eggs because of you, I won’t let it slide.”

“Then tie these beasts up or something! This goat kid rams me at every opportunity, and the chickens keep crapping everywhere! Or put me in another carriage!”

“To begin with, your master said as long as we gave you a ride and sent you off anywhere…”

“Don’t even bring up that bastard!”

To Craig’s outburst, the man didn’t reply but let out a hollow laugh like a sigh. He was a young man with a youthful air. To think that little brat is supposed to be interpreting… Whether Craig gnashed his teeth internally or not, the man said to his comrade in the Aran language, “Leave him be. He seems mad because a chicken pooped on him.”

The men outside cackled and laughed as if they wanted him to hear. Craig gnashed his teeth and kicked the wall. Ever since he was forcibly entrusted to these guys by that Prince Declan fellow, he had been treated like this.

Of course, Craig didn’t consider at all that he had acted arrogantly and looked down on the merchant people from the very beginning.

The lattice window closed again, and the inside of the baggage wagon where he was loaded was submerged in darkness. Craig made meaningless vows for several hours that he would surely crush those bastards as soon as he became a free man, then fell asleep.

However, the one who ended up being crushed was him.

“Hey. We’ve arrived.”

The back door of the carriage opened, and the fellow from the Colm continent woke the sleeping Craig. Craig opened his bleary eyes and looked around.

It appeared to be early dawn, just as the sun was starting to rise, and the man from the merchant group was looking down at him while holding a chicken—the very one that had humiliated him the whole time.

“Arrived? You mean Lutea?”

“To be precise, the border. At any rate, we must part ways here. We don’t wish to go all the way into the royal capital.”

“These lunatics. Are you saying you’re going to leave me in the middle of nowhere and go?”

Craig grabbed a nearby goat, intending not to get off. The goat, which had been dozing, cried sharply and rammed his chin.

Behind the young fellow, another man with a massive build walked in with steady thuds. The large man leaned toward the ear of Craig, who was groaning after being struck by the goat, and said something grimly.

He muttered threateningly. It seemed as though he was asking if Craig had already forgotten his warning not to mistreat the animals.

Craig was then thrown out of the carriage. As he sat forced upon the ground, he saw the merchant group fellows already preparing to depart.

Behind them stood a massive stone wall. The border fortress of Lutea, which no one would have dared to cross even a few hundred years ago, stood there solemnly.

“No. Wait, if you just leave me here all of a sudden, then what……”

“There is no need to tremble so much. Ah, it seems someone over there has found you just in time.”