Am I the Villainess of this Story?

Chapter 40: We were Called Back Home

After reporting back to the guild, our group opted to resume our journey to tour the entirety of the Hurst Territory. However, given the ordeal that we have just went through, we agreed that sleeping in a proper bed would be our priority.

So, we rented three rooms in the inn near the guild headquarters. Edith and I shared one room. Keiran-san, as Leon's guard, shared a room with my fiancè and my brother. Liam, Justine and Rei shared the third room.

Being an inn that caters mostly to adventurers, the rooms we've rented were of a minimalistic nature. Each room contains two double deck beds which allows four members of a party to room together without too much problem. There's also a weapons rack situated between the beds in lieu of a side table. A writing desk was placed at the foot of each bed that also serves as a dining table in case the customers prefer to dine in their rooms.

The inn also doubles as a restaurant. As such, we decided to eat our dinner in the communal dining area. We ate a light dinner of chicken stew and salad. Having lost days without our notice, we fell asleep as soon as we hit our beds after dinner.

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The next morning, we packed our bags and set off in high spirits. Given the location of the guild headquarters, which is at the farthest north of Hurst Territory, we surmised that it would be best for us to make our circuit by first heading east. As such, our next destination would be the mining town of Tenrou.

According to Liam, the town is half a day's distance from the guild. When asked if we couldn't just teleport there just like we did to get to the guild, Liam said that there was no array set up there. Apparently, only key areas like the Hurst Manor, Guild Headquarters and Army Barracks were chosen to have a teleportation array.

This was because, although incredibly useful, having such magic arrays set up in areas that could not be easily protected and whose traffic cannot be easily regulated presented a security risk that the higher ups are still trying to resolve.

So, given the circumstances, we had no choice but to actually commute towards the town. Thus, Keiran-san had no choice but to drive the carriage once again. However, this time, Justine would take over after two hours  The two, being the eldest in our group, decided to act as our drivers. Apparently, Keiran-san does not trust us not to play around if given the chance to drive. And, he was right.

Having never driven a carriage before, I had wanted to test whether I could make our ride faster just like a racecar. Hearing my thoughts, Sean bopped me in the head and told me to stop joking around. He said that driving a carriage at the speed of a racecar would kill the horses notwithstanding the fact that it would render the rest of us disoriented.

Pouting at his chastisement, I sat back beside Rei and sulked. Leon, being the dutiful fiancè that he is, tried to cheer me up by saying that if I really wanted to, he'll find a way to devise a means of highspeed transportation. Smiling at his idea, I thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and said, "I'll definitely experience driving at highspeed even if I have to create a device just to do it."

Sighing at my antics, Sean twisted Leon's ear for giving me another dangerous idea. Ignoring the scene of my brother scolding the prince, I dragged Liam, Edith and Rei into a brainstorming session on how best to go about producing such a vehicle. Thus, we spent the whole ride to Tenrou Town busying ourselves in this way. Of course, Leon and Sean also ended up giving us ideas, if only to make sure that we would not come up with something very outrageous.

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We spent the rest of the ride talking while Justine and Keiran-san drove us towards our destination. Soon enough, we arrived at Tenrou Town an hour after noon. The guards stationed at the town gate asked us for identification and inspected both our carriage and luggage. After finding nothing suspicious, we were let into the town with a warning not to cause any trouble.