Half an hour later, in an inn in one of the Eastern Kingdoms' cities…

Stripe leads Straf and the rest into a building and enters a large, open room with the same woven mat floor as previously.

「Here. This is a proper inn. Staying here is free, but they serve meals in the morning if you want to pay.」

She turns around and points her hand to the straw mats laid out on top of the floor, with canvas pillows to go with them. A hearthfire sunken in the center of the room crackles softly.

「…That's a fucking inn? It's a few shitty straw rugs with pillows on top, and some of them have old-timers sleeping on them! Where's an inn with beds?」

Straf narrows his eyes at the old men in badly shredded, worn, and faded rags sleeping on the bed mats. One of them lifts his mostly bald head and blinks groggily at him before returning to sleep.

「There ain't any… Get used to it. Things are much different here. Inns here are just a place for travelers and the displaced serfs to sleep until they can find some work.」

Stripe sits down on one of the mats and explains with her mouth scrunched to the side.

With his hands in his pockets and a mildly frustrated look on his face, Straf looks around the room. Most of the beds are empty, and the room could easily fit thirty, maybe even fifty people if more sleeping mats were brought in, or if they were fine with sleeping directly on the woven mats beneath with no other accommodation. In a small, metal-lined pit, there is a small charcoal fire burning away. In the center of the thatch roof there's a small hole, and the smoke appears to diffuse through the thatch itself.

「…Yeah, I have full faith in these guys to pick up the slack of the labor market…」

With a resigned sigh, Straf pulls his coat off and sits down on a mat near Stripe. He looks at the poor, haggard, and elderly men sleeping on the mats, who are just slightly fatter than bone-thin. The rest of the girls follow suit, also undressing their outerwear and taking a seat nearby.

「…Serfs, huh?… Was that wording intentional, or are you just using it as a synonym with peasants?」

He asks as he turns his bored gaze and his slanted mouth back to Stripe. Cycelia looks around the rather empty room with her brows furrowed.

「I said what I meant… Most people die where they're born. The serfs are expected to work for their land-owners. Rarely, they might be ordered to settle elsewhere…」

Stripe crosses her arms and looks at one of the men, a mostly toothless serf sleeping with his mouth agape and his bald head shining in the dim light.

「Land-owners?… The daimyo, huh?」

Straf asks with a small smirk.

「Huh?… Yeah, that's right.」

Furrowing her brows in mild surprise, Stripe turns her golden eyes to Straf.

「…Is there a shogun, too?… An emperor?」

Straf asks as his smirk grows into a snide grin with his hand on his cheek, and his elbow on his knee.

「Huh? Sho?… What are you talking about? I'm fairly sure the daimyo have someone to command their serfs… But we're not kingdoms. We don't have an emperor…」

Growing further confused, Stripe tilts her head and blinks at Straf before turning her eyes to Cycelia, who is likewise a little confused by the conversation.

「…Her Divine Embodiment would be the closest thing to an empress, but you have to understand that it's a large mental shortcut.」

Stripe adds, shrugging her robed shoulders.

「No shogun, huh?… So you practice slavery and nobody feels bad about it? Do you have a slave market anywhere?」「Geh!…」

Crossing his arms and straightening out, Straf sighs as his smirk fades back into his bored expression. Stripe becomes visibly annoyed by the question, raising the corner of her mouth.

「…Listen here!… We do not practice slavery! Serfdom and slavery are two different things! They are free!… To a degree! They can marry who they want, and learn what they want!」

Stripe leans towards Straf on her clawed hand with her eye narrowed and fang bared in outrage. Straf scoffs in her face.

「Yeah, no chains means they're free, right? They even have the freedom to choose whether they want rice with yams, or rice with a strip of seaweed today!…」

He replies, spreading his arms with a smug grin.

「You're one to talk!… Of course they are! Nobody is forcing them to do things! They just have to work the land to feed themselves and pay to their lord! They're not slaves unlike me!」

Stripe says with her voice raised, hushed just enough to not wake the sleeping peasants, and points her clawed finger at the warm scarf around her neck.

「Oh really?…」「Yes, really!-」

Clack.

Straf asks and reaches towards her neck before she can even finish barking back at him. The iron slave collar opens with a noisy clack.

「…Eh?」

Deeply confused by the sensation of her neck and shoulders becoming significantly lighter, Stripe reaches for her throat with her fingertips, greatly furrowing her brows.

「…There. You're free. Do what you want.」

Straf shrugs his hands while holding the open slave collar with his mouth scrunched to the side, then moves his hand behind his back, covertly throwing the collar into his [Portable Storage].

「Wha…? But…」

She looks into Straf's bored eyes, blinking at them while her face only becomes further perplexed. Though also surprised, Cycelia appears a little relieved.

「…This is a trick! If I try to leave, you'll just put it right back on my neck again! Do you think I'm stupid!?」

Pointing her clawed finger at the exit hallway, Stripe angrily exclaims.

「Nope. If you want to leave, then go. Do what you want.」

Straf replies with a nonchalant shrug, staring at her with his mouth aslant.

Stripe's arm slowly drops down to her lap as she stares at Straf's face in search of sarcasm. She fails to find any.

「…I'm leaving then… Bye.」

She stands up and announces, then leaves with her brows greatly furrowed, peeking over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway. A door slides open and shut.

「…That's a little surprising… But I'm glad. I don't think she did anything deserving a severe punishment, especially after working so hard for us…」

Cycelia remarks with a faint smile, tilting her chestnut head at Straf before turning her emerald eyes to the sleeping serfs.

「…Can I ask why, though, Straf? Is it because she considers this her home, so you might as well let her go?-」

She asks, returning her gaze to Straf. Before she can finish, he lets out an amused scoff.

「Pft. No, I just want to win the argument.」

「Eh?…」

Straf replies with a smug grin, causing Cycelia to furrow her brows and blink at him in confusion. She turns her eyes to the hearthfire, thinking, before look at the serfs again.

「…Still, I don't consider serfdom to be slavery, but…」

Cycelia remarks in a soft, hushed voice while looking at one of the men splayed on a sleeping mat across the room.

「…My father's kingdom grew so big and strong precisely because the peasants could migrate freely to wherever workers were needed and make their fortunes there…」

She says with a pensive, somewhat vacant gaze, staring at the serfs while focusing on none in general.

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Straf listens with his brows slightly elevated, while Lily and Nona are ignoring the conversation and preparing to sleep.

「…They could travel the land, take in the sights, return home if they wanted to… I think that's a terrible freedom to lose. I value that a lot, Straf.」

She adds with a shrug of her shoulders, turning her emerald gaze back to Straf with a serious face.

「Even though you were a shut-in princess most of your life?…」

He asks with a smirk on his face, propping his face up on his hand again.

「Like I said, I feel like I might have missed out a lot…」

Cycelia nods feebly in agreement, lowering her gaze to her lap.

「…Even now I wonder if I'm not missing out on some things, but I try to be a lot more mindful of that nowadays. The difference is, I always had that freedom, Straf…」

Fiddling with her silver medallion in her fingers, she adds with a resigned shrug of her shoulders. Cycelia then glances at Lily and Nona just beside her.

「…These two are trying to sleep, so I suppose I'll be quiet and join them. Goodnight, Straf.」

She says as her eyes return to Straf. Cycelia lies down on her sleeping mat, briefly peeking at Stripe's empty bed.

「Yeah, goodnight, Lia, Lily… Nona.」

Straf nods and shifts into his meditative pose, closing his eyes and lowering his head.

「…I'll miss Stripe, though. Just a little.」

Cycelia remarks, peeking again at the empty mat before adjusting her head on her pillow and trying to sleep…

…

Around the same time, on the eastern side of the mountain range, in a village at the foot of the mountains…

Knock knock knock…

「Hm? At this hour?… Who might it be?」

Passing by a door, an old man remarks to an old woman patching a shirt while a pot bubbles noisily over a pit hearth. He looks at the door with a wary gaze.

Knock knock knock knock…

Someone knocks on the door again. This time louder and a few times more, but still far from banging one's fist on it.

The old man exchanges a confused glance with the woman, who briefly suspends her shirt's repair, unsure what to do. He hastily walks deeper into the home, takes a knife from a kitchen area littered with dried herbs, bowls, and other kitchen tools, then walks up to the door with his knife cautiously cocked back and pointed its way.

Knock knock knock- Crrrreak.

「Ah.」

A young man with spectacles on his face utters out when the door abruptly creaks open before his knuckles can make contact. There is a large backpack set at his feet, and another on his back.

「Yes?…」

The old man furrows his bushy brows, cautiously cracking the door open further with knife still pointed outside.

Just behind the young man, there is another, shorter one with a young woman on his back. His orange hair is massive and eye-catching in the lanterns' glow. The woman is just barely holding onto the silver wand in her hands. There is another, incredibly tall and strange-looking woman standing behind them. All four look incredibly weary. The young man with glasses adjusts them, pushing them back up his nose.

「Um… We're terribly sorry for bothering you this late at night, but is there an inn somewhere in this village?」

The young man asks and glances over his shoulder at the rest of his group.

「…Uh. Sorry, I don't understand. Do you speak the language?」

A little troubled, the old man furrows his brows. The young man's shoulders slump.

「Ahhh… I thought it'd be like this…」

He sighs, and adjusts his glasses again. His brows furrow, and he places his chin in his thumb and finger, visibly thinking about something.

The old man blinks at him while watching the group with wary eyes.

「…Inn? A place to sleep? Bed? No?」

The young man asks as he puts his palms together, tilts his head, and rests his head on his palms while holding them up beside his head. The old man scratches his temple.

「Who are they? What do they want?」

Resuming her stitching, the woman asks from within the house. The old man spares a quick, nervous peek at her.

「Some foreign kids… I think they want a place to sleep?」

The old man replies, slowly lowering his knife to his side.

「Do they look dangerous?」

She asks, tilting her head. The man turns his eyes back to the group.

He looks at the young man with orange hair, and the woman on his back. Though the man has a sour expression on his face, it does not come off as rough. The woman on his back has her brows furrowed, and she's visibly barely holding her eyes open. The old man turns his eyes to the young man with the glasses, who quickly adjusts them the same moment. He stares back with his brows furrowed and an awkward, slightly hopeful grimace on his face.

Ironically, the unarmed woman in the back comes off as the most threatening, though her face bears a rather neutral expression, and is also fatigued. Her cloak obscures most of her form, but some of blue slips through its crack. From what is visible, the woman appears to be unarmored as well. The old man turns his face back to the old woman inside.

「…Not really.」

「Then let them in. They must be some traders from over the mountains who bit off more than they can chew.」

He replies, and the woman shrugs her shoulders then returns her attention to the damaged shirt.

The old man shrugs and steps aside, gesturing the group in with his knife hand as he pulls the door open.

「Ah! Thank you!…」

Immediate joy appears on the bespectacled young man's face when the old man steps aside. He bows his head with clear gratitude, then quickly picks the backpack at his feet up. The man carrying the woman lets out a relieved sigh and slips inside. On the way in, the man with the glasses nods his head again while hauling the backpack in his arms. The tall woman likewise nods her black, silken, ponytailed head.

「Ah, there's even ladies too…」

The old woman remarks, setting the damaged shirt, the needle, and the string down on a nearby table. She stands up and hastily rushes to another room within the house.

Visibly confused and unsure what to do next, the group of young people stands by the hearthfire area while looking around.

「Er… We don't really have much. We don't mind if you sleep here, but we can't feed you or anything…」

The old man shrugs his hands while pointing around the room, then helplessly adds a shrug of his arms after setting down the knife where it was.

「…Will, what is he saying?」

Greaves asks in a hushed voice after lowering Alicia down to her feet. She sits down at the ground with a large sigh.

「…I don't know. Why do you expect me to know their language? I think they're going to let us stay over the night, so better be grateful for once.」

Forcing the backpack back into Greaves's arms, Will shrugs his shoulders and adjusts his glasses.

「Here. They're old, but they're better than sleeping on the floor…」

The old woman says as she emerges from the room with rolled up mats in her arms, and a few canvas pillows.

「…Hup. Here, place them where you'd like.」

She sets them down where there is some walking space, then unrolls one out on the floor, places one of the pillows on top, then invitingly pats it with her wrinkly hand and a smile.

「Thank you.」

Will replies with a nod. Alicia shambles over to the rolled out mat, slips the backpack off her back, then crawls over to the pillow.

「Gnhniht…」

Alicia slurs out while adjusting her head on the pillow, then lets out a large sigh. The old couple along with Will, Greaves, and Lian stare at her for a few moments of silence.

「…She must have been really tired. Well, make yourselves at home…」

The old woman declares with her hands on hips and a shrug of her shoulders, turning her gaze to Will. She shrugs her hands and turns for the room leading deeper again.

「…I'll fix your shirt up tomorrow. Might as well go to sleep too.」

「Right…」

The woman says to the old man before disappearing into the room. He nods in reply, following her while the group settles into the hearthfire room.

「…Goodnight, travelers.」

The man nods his head and disappears into the dark room as well. Will replies with a nod, smiling awkwardly…