ALL NOVEL 3. Journey
Soon they went and sat inside the carriage after Gorsazo told the carriage driver that they'd be moving now. This time Gorsazo accompanied Kivamus to the inside of the carriage, instead of sitting in front with the carriage driver like in the past few days.
Although his headache had receded a lot compared to when he had woken up, Kivamus still wasn't feeling completely normal. But he was still glad to be feeling better now. He had kept the flap of the carriage open so he could watch the scenery outside.
The river in the west which the road was following was named Kal River, as he remembered from previous memories of the original Kivamus. It started from the Arakin mountain range further in the south and flowed towards the northwest direction to end in the Dujtaar Ocean, right where Ulriga was located. There were some sparse grasses and shrubs all around them.
The road they were traveling on was essentially a well-trodden dirt path only. It was probably wrong to even call it an actual road, but in this medieval-like era, this was probably the quality of road that the people of this world had access to. The weather was pleasant enough, but there seemed to be a chill in the air, at least right now in the morning. He could still see the stone walls of Fort Aragosa becoming distant in the north. Although he had vague memories of the country, or rather the kingdom, from the original Kivamus, he wanted to gain more information about the world he would be living in from now on.
"Gorsazo, you know how I've not been in the right state of mind for the past few weeks. And the drinking I've been doing certainly didn't help. But now that I've decided to accept my past, and try to live better, I want to know more about the kingdom."
"I know, my lord. And I'm glad that you have made this decision." Gorsazo continued with a twinkle in his eyes, "And that means you weren't paying attention when I was teaching you about the politics of the kingdom and other topics."
"Haha, yeah, I know," Kivamus said embarrassedly. "At that time, you know I didn't believe that I would really have to leave Ulriga."
"That's… true, my lord. But like you said, let's leave the past behind." He paused for a moment, and asked, "What do you want to know about, my lord? I don't think I can teach you everything that you may have missed in a single conversation."
"No, no, Gorsazo, that's not what I meant. I only want to know about some basic things for now. Actually, which season is it right now?" Kivamus asked while rubbing his arms when a gust of cold air suddenly gave him a chill. Being from London, he was accustomed to cold weather, but he hadn't ever liked the winter season on Earth.
"You don't even remember that, my lord? Hmm… your drinking might have taken a bigger toll on your mind than I thought. It's late autumn right now, my lord. Although the northern towns and the capital city would already have seen some snow by now."
"The capital, that's Dorastiz, right?"
"Yeah, it is Dorastiz…" Gorsazo said with an expression that he couldn't believe that Kivamus didn't even clearly remember the name of the kingdom's capital.
"What? You know that my memories are a little jumbled up after the recent drinking…"
"I know, my lord. I'm sorry about it," Gorsazo said with a slight bow of his head.
"By the way, when will we reach Tiranat?" Steven knew the medieval standards of traveling speed would be quite slow, but he didn't know exactly how far they had to travel or how fast they would be traveling.
"Hmm… we will have to stop tonight on the road again, and then by tomorrow evening we should reach Cinran, which we will be passing through on the way to Tiranat. As you might remember, my lord, Tiranat is a barony that falls under the domain of the Count of Cinran. And now, you will be a new baron under the Count. From Cinran, it should be a three-day road journey to Tiranat, based on what I know about this region."
"That's a long time though. Couldn't we have traveled using a boat on the Kal River?" Steven had seen a few boats and even small ships with sails moving on the Kal River earlier. He wasn't sure about which kind of ships they were, though.
"That's actually difficult to say. His Highness, the Duke of Ulriga ordered you to leave for Tiranat, but it was likely one of your brothers who would have organized your travel to Tiranat. I shouldn't speak ill of my betters, but perhaps… they wanted you to endure the journey in a carriage which would be much more uncomfortable and slower than a journey through a boat."
"They are hardly anybody's betters if they still resort to such petty tricks even though they are older than me," Kivamus muttered.
"Perhaps, my lord."
"Well, where will we stay in Cinran? We didn't rent a room in an inn even in the previous village we passed."
"I should apologize for that, my lord. That was actually my own decision, made after seeing that you were not going to stop drinking. You were not in a sober condition by the evening and I decided that the public shouldn't see you in that condition. I thought one more night's discomfort by sleeping in the carriage was better than a lifetime of jokes about a son of the duke who couldn't control his drinking."
"Yeah… perhaps it was for the better." Steven couldn't help but blame the original Kivamus once more inside his mind, for losing himself inside a bottle.
"As for Cinran, my lord, we can rent a room in a good inn for you there, but it will cost more coins, and your finances are not good enough now for you to keep splurging, my lord. Normally, the Count of Cinran should give you a room in his manor for you to stay, but I doubt he will. Perhaps he still would give a room if you ask for it, but I believe it won't be a room fit for nobles so that he can indirectly insult the duke in front of his court members."
Gorsazo looked at Kivamus and continued, "I advise you not to do that, my lord. I think it's not a good idea to show weakness to others in the court of the count, since from now on, even while living in Tiranat, you will have dealings with them instead of the court of the Duke, in Ulriga, and them taking you lightly isn't going to help you in the future, my lord."
"But why does the count seem to be against me already? I don't think I've ever met him before at all." Steven wasn't completely sure about this, since Kivamus's memories and his own memories were still muddled together, but knowing that Kivamus seemingly wasn't very interested in politics, it was a reasonable guess for him to make.
"The thing is, my lord, that he has never been a big fan of the ruling family of Ulriga. Being the most powerful count in the duchy of Ulriga means he is the main rival to the duke's power. At some point, the news got out that your brothers would inherit the duchy and the fort both, and you would be made a baron in a far-off village, instead of being kept as a spare heir in Ulriga, as is the norm. Since then, the other nobles would probably have started thinking that there was no point in currying favor with you anymore since the duke himself had seemingly abandoned and even exiled you." Gorsazo looked at the scenery outside the carriage for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.
He continued after a while, "And as for the Count of Cinran himself, I believe he would prefer to ignore or even scorn you, to humiliate the duke's family in front of the other nobles in his court, knowing that he will get away with it since you seem to have lost the favor of the duke now."
"Hmm… my brothers must have had something to do with all of this as well. Perhaps they thought their positions would be more secure if I was far away from Ulriga." Kivamus breathed a sigh of relief. "It could be much worse though." At least they didn't just murder him to secure their titles. Kivamus shuddered thinking about the literal cut-throat politics of the medieval era. Still, he would have to learn to survive in this, even as a baron of a remote village.
"Perhaps, my lord. Maybe it's better this way since you will have far more freedom to live your life as you want in Tiranat than you would have had in Ulriga. I know you have never been interested in politics, and living in Ulriga would have meant being a part of the court and the duchy's politics, whether you wanted to or not. At least in Tiranat, you won't have your brothers watching your every step to check if you are going to become a thorn in their paths in the future."
"That's true enough," said Kivamus. "Earlier you mentioned that I'm short on money. How much do I have?"
"As you know, my lord, for the past few years, you had told me to manage your money, so even though your recent drinking took a big share of it, I managed to save something regularly from the small monthly allowance you got from the duke. Right now, you have around twenty-three hundred Reslinor crowns, which are the gold coins, in case you don't recall, my lord," Gorsazo said with a slight smirk, which was quickly hidden.
He continued, "That is a small fortune for any common person, including me. Still, it's a very small amount if you are going to live in Tiranat for the rest of your life at anything resembling the luxury of the Duke's Palace in Ulriga. You or your brothers would easily squander a similar amount in a few months in Ulriga." He hesitated for a moment. "I also don't think you are going to get any more of an allowance from now on, my lord."
"Hmm… that's quite likely. It's also certainly true that I never thought of saving money for the future, since I never had to think about managing my day-to-day expenses before," at least not on this planet, thought Kivamus. "You know I never believed that I'd really be living in Tiranat in the future. But I simply can't afford to live in luxury, like I did in the past, if I'm going to make the money last longer." After thinking about it for a minute, he continued, "I will let you hold my money as earlier until I learn more about life in Tiranat. I don't even know the regular prices of anything in the markets and would likely be overcharged without even realizing it. But I do want to know about what the money is being spent on, from now on."
It wasn't as if Kivamus thought that Gorsazo might be pilfering from his money since he was the only person who had really seemed to care about Kivamus in the past. But he had to know more about this world if he was going to survive in it.
"Of course, my lord. That would be wise."
There was a comfortable silence in the carriage afterward as they watched the scenery rolling by them while the carriage was pulled by the horses. They continued their journey towards Cinran with thoughts of all kinds rolling through the mind of Kivamus, the former engineer from Earth.