Kotori watched the two mysterious women leave. She was sure that they had figured out who she was was. She stared at their backs until they were out of her vision.
She quickly motioned to her party that they were leaving the dungeon.
After leaving the dungeon Kotori assessed her options.
If they were a passing group of adventurers tasked by the guild it would be perfectly fine. Kotori knew that she was currently being protected by the weaker adventurers. If that was a strong group directly under the control of the king it would be troublesome. They would of course, report directly to the king himself
Kotori cursed herself for not using status on the other woman. It would've been wise to figure out what her affiliation was as well.
For now, it might be best for Kotori to begin her noble life.
She opened the deed that offered them nobility. Signed at the bottom was Umi's signature. She was the person who bought nobility after all.
"So what's the plan" Amelie asked
"We might as well go to the village we now own," Kotori said. It was still likely their best option. It would be hard to associate the new noble with Kotori unless they tried extremely hard.
Nobility typically referred to anybody who owned land officially through the kingdom. In this case Kotori had bought a small village to be her steppingstone. It was near the east of a country where there was a port. It wasn't a village directly under the ownership of the port so Kotori as the "noble" of the region would be responsible for the taxes.
[Maybe I'll get the opportunity to eat fish!] She thought her mouthwatering.
Kotori didn't have many plans for taxes. She still had over 100 gold coins left after buying nobility in the land. It was a sizable sum all things considered. When she thought back to her original village it was a sum that would make her head dizzy.
It would take over a week to get there but Kotori was going to avoid the main road to avoid being spotted. She was thankful the rush to find her had died down after they secluded themselves in the dwarf village.
It seems after the trail ran cold, adventurers had lost interest.
With the roundabout method, the trip would still likely take 2 weeks.
** ** **
The footpaths were extremely bad. Kotori quickly learned that their trip was likely going to take longer than two weeks from the halfway point.
By the time they reached the outskirts of the village. It had taken them 2 and a half weeks to reach their land.
They avoided visiting the village for now.
Kotori had Shu build another mud house nearby. The outside had the appearance of brick on the account of the red dirt and it look sufficiently well done to the point where Kotori thought it looked like a normal noble mansion.
She had Umi cut down several trees with her [Water blade] to lay as flooring.
Soon they had a nice enough place set up. The house even had a brick fireplace which Kotori was grateful for. The kingdom of Faramouth was located quite far north and the winters could be quite cold.
Unfortunately, the house was still barebones.
After much talk they decided to have Layla pose as the noble.
Obviously, most villagers couldn't read so it wasn't like they could tell who actually signed the deed.
Kotori and her party had thankfully learned how to read in the dwarf village. When Winry learned that they were illiterate she got all up in a huff.
"No patron of mine is going to be illiterate!" She said
Over the course of a month she taught them all the letters of the language that was spoken in Faramouth. Faramouth and Atlea used the same language so this knowledge would be helpful if Kotori ever went there too.
The language was called Aria and apparently originated in Atlea. Faramouth was the younger kingdom on the continent. They broke off from Atlea a long time ago.
The written form was like Asian languages and used several symbols that were similar to hiragana, and kanji.
Thankfully the numbering system was still in log 10
Kotori was planning on having Layla enter the village and buy some supplies. Even if they had to sleep on straw mats it was still better than what Kotori was currently sleeping on.
Umi once offered something along the lines of
"Please sleep on my body Kotori-Sama!"
Which Kotori quickly refused.
Eventually, she had Umi make something akin to a waterbed. It was comfortable enough, but Kotori of tired of being drenched when she woke up. It would also not be possible to sleep on something like that in the winter months without dying of hypothermia.
[I never thought I'd say this, But I miss straw mats!]