<h4>Chapter 73</h4>


    73====================


    The Tenth Fragment, Altemia


    Jeanne’s eyes had grown heavy. It was a gaze that pierced straight through him that he couldn’t reject.


    Judah sighed, avoiding her gaze. He would be okay to wander around the market, as he said, but he wanted to get to An as quickly as possible.


    They had already met Count Genuine unexpectedly, and he was anxious at the thought that someone might get to An before them and steal the fragment he was nning to take. If someone managed to get the upper hand, he had to go after them with the intention to kill the other person.


    “Judah, are you listening to me?” Jeanne snapped him out of his thoughts.


    “Okay, okay. But why don’t we go to An and see the market there instead? We can meet more people there, and since it’s the capital, the market will be much more developed than here.”


    “Well….”


    This time, it was Jeanne who fell deep in thought. After a brief second, she nodded happily. Her smile faltered when taking onest look at the market.


    Eventually, they found an inn near the market. When they went inside, the interior decoration was as neat as it was from the outside, and the price was reasonable. Sharing a room was a cheaper option, but he rented separate rooms for them anyway.


    “Take a rest today, wash, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning. If you want to go to the market, you can go.”


    “Oh, I see.”


    Judah handed her the keys to her room. Upon receiving them, she paused for a moment to think. Then she pocketed the keys before waving her hands.


    “Then, I will go back.”


    Judahughed at her as she left the inn in no time. It was expected of her, though.


    “Are you okay with letting her go alone?”


    The innkeeper, who was watching, turned to Judah. It was a word of concern in many ways. Although Philoria is said to have excellent security, it does not interfere with personal love affairs. It meant that men could be hanging around to find her alone and avable. Judahughed, having worries for her at all.


    “Yeah, she’ll be fine.”


    There was no point in worrying for Jeanne. After all, she was a skilled woman who could probably handle herself out there.


    “I want to take a bath first, is there water avable here?”


    “Yeah, the room over there has everything you need.”


    When he walked in the direction the innkeeper pointed, there was a bathhouse. Several people were washing, but all they did was wash silently or soak in the warm water without caring about each other.


    After being in the bath enough to stretch as the ce grew unupied, Judah came out, washed his body thoroughly, changed intofortable clothes, and finally headed to his room. Inside the neat room was his fluffy bed waiting for him, and as soon as heid eyes on it, Judahunched himself to itsforts. The bed softly epted Judah. He felt like he couldn’t rest because he was in a foreign area, but his eyes closed from traveling fatigue. His body fell asleep all sprawled out on the soft mattress.


    Knock knock-


    Judah awakened to the sound of knocking. It didn’t feel good for him to wake up at a time like that.


    Knock knock-


    Judah, taking all his might in getting himself out of her bed, slowly walked toward his door.


    “Yeah?” He yawned and opened her door, and there was Jeanne in front of him, holding something in her arms.


    She said, “I heard you didn’t eat, so would you like to try this? I bought it from the market. I happened to buy a lot.”


    Judah could onlyugh at her as she held out the paper bags. A the paper bags to the brim, such as greasy chicken drumsticks and french fries. Their enticing scent shook him awake, filling his stomach with hunger.


    “I’ll eat them well. But didn’t you buy them so you can eat?”


    “That’s right. Of course, we’ll eat it together.”


    After her remark, Jeanne went downstairs and ordered a beer from the maid, then went back up to Judah’s room. Jeanne bought everything she could have wanted, but perhaps she bought too much to eat them all by herself.


    Even in a single room, there were two chairs avable for the singr table inside.


    “You bought a lot,” Judah remarked.


    The paper bags weren’t small, and Judah could see how heavy it was just by looking at them. The table was small, and Jeanne felt embarrassed that her purchases managed to fill it, leaving no room for the rest of her buys.


    “I’ve bought everything I want to eat. If you could, please wait a moment.”


    Jeanne brought over the table from her room for their beer sses. They clinked their drinks, its contents trickling down the ss. Judah gulped his beer, remembering what it felt like back in his old life. He couldn’t understand what this beer tasted like for him, but it had been a while since he felt that good.


    “Hah!”


    Judah exhaled, put down the ss, and reached out to the snacks Jeanne had brought from the market. One of the chicken sticks made his mouth water. Unwrapping it from the paper, Judah took a bite of it as its sauce bubbled in his taste buds.


    “…”


    “…?”


    As he chewed, Judah nced at hispanion, who was just holding her beer and staring nkly back at him.


    “Aren’t you eating?”


    “No, I already did.”


    Jeanne watched Judah as he helped himself with the food and beer. Had he ever drank before? Jeanne remembered well when she first parted ways with Judah and Gentia. She shared a drink with the Suin, who told her many stories about the boy. One of them was that she forbid Judah from drinking and that she would only let him drink after hising-of-age ceremony. Jeanne expected Judah to be curious about the beer like a normal kid would, but his reaction was of those who had consumed it often could. The child who had just grown up acted so casually with the beer like he had drunk them before, but her questions died afterward. Jeanne blinked at Judah, who was eating away at the snacks faster than she thought he could.


    “So, how was the market?” Judah suddenly remembered to ask after being so upied by eating the french fries. With the hunger gone, he finally had the room to pay attention to the other side.


    “Oh, the market… it was very neat, surprisingly. The imperial market wasn’t all that much, but it was still admirable.”


    “It’s the market, isn’t it the same wherever you go?”


    In Judah’s head, the definition of a market was a ce crowded with people and opportunistic pickpockets,pensated of things to see. Jeanne chuckled at Judah’s question, emptying what was left of the beer in her ss. She exhaled at thest drop, then reached out for something to eat.


    “I thought so too, but Philoria is so different. It’s surprising how different it is…” Jeanne trailed off before bursting intoughter.


    “Okay. Then, when we go to An, why don’t we drop by the market? If I do, maybe I’ll be surprised as well. Until that timees, I won’t be believing your words.”


    Jeanne grinned at Judah’s resort before continuing to munch on the food before them. For a moment, Judah only stared back at her in frustration, but he let it go eventually with a sigh.


    ‘Looking at me talking. We’ll just have to see if I’ve been looking down at the markets in such normal regard.’


    Judah wondered if meeting the Count of Urun had done anything to him, but he uttered no word about it. After they finished eating, Jeanne reminded him of his promise about going to An’s markets and said that she would not forget it.


    + + +


    They left the inn when the sun rose around dawn as they recovered from their fatigue. It wasn’t difficult to find the carriages going between An and Dempa, there were coaches all around and arge number of carriages waiting for passengers. If it were the day of the gstaffpetition, it would not be easy to find a carriage, but since it was an easy day, the two of them could find a coachman and a wagon.


    With plenty of money to spare, Judah rented a better carriage than the one they hired from Serenia Castle. They were able to get to An, the capital of Philoria, much morefortably than before.


    “…Amazing.”


    As soon as she got off the wagon, Jeanne gaped at the view of An in front of her. Her voice trembled in excitement, and Judah could understand why. The walls before them were magnificent as it was sturdy. The coachman bid them a pleasant trip before turning away back to his carriage.


    Judah bid him farewell in return before looking back at An. The walls and castles of Dempa were great, but An was of a different ss. Despite looking at it from a distance, it made them feel like ants.


    ‘That is cool.’


    It was all he thought of as heid eyes on An. There was no other way to exin it. Like Serenia, it was surrounded by two or three walls, but the height of the walls was all different. The outermost wall was not low, and the size of the seeding walls was greater than those that came before it. As they peered at the buildings inside, it seemed like arge mountain was built and carved into a castle, like an underground castle.


    Trying to imagine himself as a general with the ns of invading An, Judah tried to think of ways to win such a war, but the only n he could think of was if a rebellion or a siege would arise from the very inside.


    If not, to attack it from the outside would be futile. Even if invaders managed to get past the lowest outermost wall, the next wall behind it was mightier and far harder to take over.


    “Did you know?”


    “What?”


    As they gawked at the castle, Jeanne began to speak. Judah turned his head to her, but Jeanne didn’t take her eyes off at the sight before them. She beheld the view of An, engraving it into her memory as to remember it for the rest of her life.


    “Philoria has never allowed enemy invasion into the capital city. But they always assumed the worst situation and thoroughly defended the capital and the ce where no enemies came. That is what makes the Kingdom of Philoria an untouchable country. Isn’t it great? Isn’t it great? They live in peace, but they don’t let their guards down, even preparing for any ordeal that maye.”


    “…”


    “The instructor who taught me… told us, apprentices, to go to the capital of Philoria, if possible. My empire rallied against several kingdoms and was not afraid of even Baekje, our biggest enemy, but there was an exception. It was Philoria. I didn’t understand why he urged us to see An, but now, I think I know why.”


    For Judah, it was just a nice view, but it seemed to have a different meaning for Jeanne. After all, out of all hispanions, Jeanne was the brightest. With anticipation in her eyes, she grumbled before grabbing Judah’s sleeves.


    “Come on, let’s go. Judah. What can we do by just looking?”


    Jeanne then dragged Judah straight for the castle’s checkpoint.