I visited the drugstore in the city of Glorya, and after having a similar interaction to the one I had in Speranza, I ended up giving the owner, Calum, one of my "Delivery Tablets" to vastly reduce the price of my potions.
Calum actually sold the potions at an even more expensive price than Saul did in Speranza, but once I explained to him the reason why I was even making those potions in the first place, and that I wanted them to reach more people, he was surprisingly understanding for a merchant.
After explaining to Calum how to use the tablet, we were free for the rest of the day to keep touring the city. Thankfully, the duke's family, except for the duke himself, were there to show us around from a resident's perspective. Well, the nobles' perspective was probably way different to a commoner's, but I still appreciated it.
As we walked down the main street, I noticed the noble family was drawing a lot of attention. Not in a bad way, but we were definitely sticking out.
"You guys don't walk around here too often, huh?" I asked them in a joking manner.
"Mhm, not because we don't want to, of course… But, after events like the one yesterday, it makes it harder for us to be out in public with no worries…" said Lady Karina with a somewhat sad tone.
("I see… Now that the bandits were all taken to jail, they feel they have some free time to roam around before they go back to their mostly secluded lifestyle…") I thought.
"Well, you know… If you get any more problems like those guys you can call me, and I'll make sure to drive them all out of here." I humbly offered them my help. I knew it was strange for me to feel bad for a noble family, but I truly did. These people didn't look or act like the type of nobles I didn't want to interact with, and I was done with the whole "only do things for End Town" deal.
The way I thought about it, if I left the city and then some other gang sneaked in and actually managed to kidnap Lady Triana, then there would have been no point in everything we did the previous night. Besides, I didn't want another regret for not doing anything.
We kept touring around, stopping at the different shopping stalls around the main street. Food stalls with meat skewers, jewelry, silk and other fabrics, fruits and vegetables, they had it all. Vespera was having such a good time that it made me feel even worse about the fact that Yoru couldn't join in the fun with us.
Lady Triana must have felt my inconvenience with her "True Color Eye'', because as soon as I thought about it, she asked me if something was wrong. So, I told her the truth. Triana seemed to like Yoru a lot anyways, so if anything, she would understand me.
Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it right at that moment, but she did say she was going to write a letter to the capital to allow passage for Yoru. I didn't know if that would work or not, but I appreciated the thought.
Once dusk started to set in, Vespera and I escorted the noble family back to their mansion. As we walked there, Lady Triana shot one of her curious glances at me. She was being pretty obvious, so it's not like I could just ignore her.
"Anything wrong?" I asked.
"No, no… I was just thinking… You definitely remind me of her…"
"Remind you of who?"
"My cousin, the princess… When I looked at her last time, her aura felt very similar to yours. It was still different, but somewhat similar…" Lady Triana groaned. "I can't exactly explain it… Sorry…" she said, giving up on her explanation.
I shrugged it off and kept walking until finally arriving at their mansion, where a few guards, a butler, and Duke Gale were waiting for their return.
"Ichiro! Thanks for bringing them all back safe and sound." said the Duke.
"Heh, no problem. I should be thanking them for showing me around."
"Just to let you know. I sent a letter to the capital about the incident here last night. Hopefully, by the time you get there, it will all be taken care of…"
"That was pretty quick… " I thought. Seemed like the kingdom did move fast whenever a problem raised, which only made me question even more how the hell they had been ignoring our town for so long.
After saying our goodbyes, we went back to the inn. Vespera asked me to cook some fried cutlets for dinner, which made both Jackson and Harvey look at me with begging puppy eyes.
I sighed. "Sure, I'll make some dinner for you guys…"
Thankfully, the cook not only allowed me to use the inn's kitchen at night, she also allowed Yoru to leave my shadow so he could eat with us. All she told me was to make extra cutlets for her employees, which was a fair trade.
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The next day, everyone woke up early in the morning and gathered at the northern city gates, where we mounted our horses and continued our way to the capital. The roads were pretty much the same as the ones we saw when we left Speranza.
They were nicely paved, clean, and the magical wards around kept monsters away. Every now and then we would find rest stops too, although we barely needed to use them since I had tons of supplies in my void pocket that we could use at any time.
One night, I raised our camping hut using earth magic for the knights and I to sleep in, but I wanted to take a look at the stars with my familiars before going to bed.
As I sat on top of a rock with both Vespera and Yoru next to me, I heard Jackson approaching us.
"Can't sleep?" he asked, standing just a few feet apart from me, then sitting down and looking up at the stars with us.
"I was just… Thinking…"
"About? The capital? The nobles?" he said, trying to guess what was on my mind.
"Nah… I was thinking about the commander…" I said. "If I hadn't gone back to my old lifestyle…" I continued. Jackson seemed a bit confused, so I elaborated:
"Before I met my wife in my old world, I was what you could call a 'hermit'. I didn't leave my house unless it was necessary, and much less my city.
I focused only on stuff that could benefit me, while pushing away anyone that tried to help or get close to me… But, after I met her… That's when my life gained a different meaning.
Even if just wanted to stay home, she would always come to my place and get me out of the house anyway…" I couldn't help but smile, even though I was feeling sad. "Back then, it felt like such a hassle… But… I was truly happy…"
Jackson stayed silent as he kept listening to me and glancing at the starry night sky.
"After we got married, we traveled the world together… I would have never known how beautiful the world was if I hadn't seen it with her… Although, it probably only looked pretty to me since she was there…"
"..." Jackson kept his silence.
"When I heard the commander's story, I realized… If I had kept the lifestyle that I had with my wife back then, I could have saved his daughter… Instead, I asked Phelena to send me far away from everything…" I sighed in disappointment.
"Ichiro…" said Jackson, finally breaking his silence. "If there is one thing I can tell you… is that clinging to past regrets will only hinder your future…"
"Jackson-..." I was promptly interrupted by him.
"Listen! Sure, if you had been sent somewhere else you could have saved others, but you know what? Thanks to you landing in that forest you got to meet two amazing familiars and you saved our entire village, which was doomed from the beginning…" he paused for a moment.
"Stop thinking about what you could have done, think about what you can do now!" he said, finally turning his glance towards me and locking onto my eyes.
My eyes widened as Jackson gave me one of the best pieces of advice anyone had ever given me. He was right, there was no point in me thinking about what I should have done in the past. If I could help people now and in the future, then I should just work towards that. "I won't fail like I did in my past life…"
"Man… You know? It's moments like these that remind me you are not actually a kid." said Jackson with a sarcastic tone, breaking the awkward silence.
I let out a smile and turned to see both of my familiars sharing those feelings with me. ("Maybe landing in that forest wasn't such a bad idea…")