Something Feels Off (2)**
A small inn at the entrance of Darha Village.
On the first floor, which doubled as a dining hall and lodging, several traveling merchants were eating lunch.
However, very few of them were actually focused on their meals.
That was because there were two strange fellows among the customers.
"Oooh! Ooooooh!"
"Th-This is delicious!"
"Kgh… so this is what 'flavor' means!"
"Right! This is what it means to 'boil' something!"
Two grown men had ordered nothing more than two chunks of barley bread and a bowl of mixed stew, yet they stared at the food with solemn reverence as if performing a ritual—and then erupted into theatrics with every single bite.
Naturally, to everyone else, they looked like people with something seriously wrong in the head.
What's with those guys?
Why are they making such a fuss?
Must've been starving for three days.
If they starved that long, shouldn't they be shoveling it in? Why eat one bite at a time and put on a show?
Even as the other patrons whispered among themselves, the two young men's bizarre behavior didn't stop.
When the innkeeper brought over two mugs of ale, they actually started crying.
"Hngh! Young master, this—!"
"It's alcohol!"
"Kgh! Just the smell alone could knock me out!"
It wasn't some legendary vintage—just ordinary ale brewed at the village brewery.
In fact, it was the low-grade stuff left over after the good batches had already been delivered to the lord.
Yet their reaction after taking a sip was spectacular.
"Kraaaah!"
"Ah… I feel like I could stake my life for just this one drink…"
"You already did, didn't you, young master?"
Watching the two tremble after nothing more than a sip of ale, the other guests reached a conclusion.
Pitiful lunatics.
Let's just ignore them.
Regardless of the surrounding reactions, Karnak and Baros were blissfully happy.
It was food they were tasting for the first time in decades.
With every bite, supreme pleasure washed over them. Truly, it felt like nothing in the world could bring greater happiness.
…Or so they thought!
"Here you go, your dish is ready!"
Right at the table next to them, a plate of stir-fried chicken radiating an incredible aroma was set down.
"Gah! They serve chicken here too?"
"This is a high-end restaurant!"
No matter how active the trade was in a crossroads village, precious meats like beef or pork could only be seen during festivals—normally, even with money, you couldn't get them.
Chicken, on the other hand, was just barely acceptable. You could raise them in the backyard and wring their necks from time to time.
That said, it still wasn't cheap enough to eat whenever you felt like it.
The fact that chicken was available if you paid meant this village was fairly prosperous and saw a lot of traffic.
Yes—if you had the money.
The two began whispering.
Ale with chicken as a side dish… that'd be heavenly!
How much do you think that costs?
It was clearly not something you could buy with a few copper coins.
Those diners were probably travelers of fairly high status. Indeed, the clothes they wore didn't look ordinary.
At that moment, Karnak's eyes flicked sharply.
Should we just kill them all and take their money?
Like proper humans! Proper humans, young master.
Even if they abandoned their resolve to live like proper people, it wouldn't work anyway.
Baros coolly pointed that out.
What power do we have right now to kill all these people? We'd get beaten to death instead!
"R-Right. True."
They were no longer the Necromancer King who ruled the world, nor the strongest Death Knight.
Baros slumped his shoulders and opened the coin pouch to pay for the food they'd eaten so far.
If only we had money…
Just then—
"Huh?"
Baros's eyes suddenly widened.
"What is it?"
"Young master… something's strange."
"What is?"
After cautiously looking around, Baros slowly pulled his hand out of the pouch.
Now Karnak's eyes widened like full moons as well.
"Huh?"
A silver coin was gleaming brilliantly between the servant's fingers.
"Why is that in there?"
Quickly stuffing the silver coin back into the pouch, Baros lowered his voice.
It's not just one.
Then, making sure no one else could see, he showed Karnak the inside of the pouch.
There are more silver coins than copper ones.
That's impossible.
Dumbfounded, Karnak checked the pouch himself.
It was true.
There were plenty of copper coins—but more than half of it was silver.
You're only noticing now that the contents changed? Didn't you check it even once on the way here?
Why would I check when I already knew what was inside?
If you're a servant, that's the kind of thing you're supposed to check!
"I was the second-in-command of Necropia until this very morning, you know? I was only a servant a hundred years ago."
They wondered if the pouch itself had been swapped, but that wasn't it.
The family crest was clearly stamped on the mouth of the pouch. Only the contents were different from what they remembered.
Staring at each other, the two continued whispering back and forth.
"How much money did we actually bring back then?"
"How would I remember something from over a hundred years ago?"
"I definitely remember that we were so poor we pinched every last coin."
Memories of poverty aren't easily forgotten.
"There's no way we had this much money back then."
"We did save diligently, though."
"…That's not the issue."
No matter how diligently you save, coins don't just merge together and turn into silver.
"So what the hell is going on?"
Looking at the pouch stuffed with silver coins, Karnak felt a sudden chill of fear.
This wasn't something to be happy about just because there was more money.
Something was clearly wrong.
"What did I mess up? Didn't I return to the past? Or… did the spacetime spell even work properly in the first place?"
His train of thought was cut off by Baros's next question.
"Young master?"
"What?"
"So… can we eat the chicken now?"
The chicken right in front of them versus an unknown fear.
The scales tipped with ridiculous ease.
"Screw it—let's eat first and think later!"
Karnak shouted boldly.
"Hey! Order here!"
He bit into the greasy chicken.
"Wahaha!"
Then immediately gulped down some ale.
"Uhehe!"
Eat, drink, eat, drink again.
"Uhihihaha!"
The two emptied their plates in a frenzy, savoring pure ecstasy.
When the meal finally ended, Baros murmured lazily, like a bear about to go into hibernation.
"Wow… I feel like my mind's going to melt."
"Same here. Was meat always this good? I don't think even drugs would hit this hard."
"We tried those before, remember? Didn't feel like much."
"That was because we were both dead back then."
In the long history of the continent, there had never been a case of undead getting high and tripping.
"Anyway… this is amazing…"
Leaning back in his chair, Karnak murmured drowsily.
It kills.
It's incredible.
I'm so happy I could go insane.
It was pleasure worth giving up all that authority, power, and glory.
But they couldn't just sit around forever.
"All right, let's pull ourselves together and think."
Straightening his posture, he looked at the coin pouch.
"What on earth happened?"
Baros also turned serious.
"Could our memories be wrong?"
"You might misremember nine coins as ten. But misremember ten silver coins as ten copper coins? That's absurd."
"Then could your magic be the problem?"
"How exactly would a spacetime regression spell malfunction so badly that coins turn into silver?"
"…Maybe spacetime twisted, took the coins away, and stuffed silver in instead?"
Karnak asked, looking at him as if he were utterly pathetic.
"Do you really think that makes sense?"
Baros shot back, looking even more pathetic.
"That's for you to figure out, young master. What do you expect from an ignorant sword-swinger like me?"
It was an unassailable argument. Karnak shut his mouth, unable to retort.
Baros continued in a placating tone.
"Let's head back to the main house first. It won't be too late to figure things out after that."
"That's true."
Karnak leaned back in his chair.
When he actually thought about going back, it felt daunting. From Darha Village to their family estate, the Jestrad Manor, it would easily take over three days on foot.
"It's going to be a tiring journey. Ugh, when am I supposed to walk all that way…?"
At Karnak's grumbling, Baros suddenly tilted his head.
"Huh?"
"What now?"
"Come to think of it, we don't actually have to walk back, do we? This is a relay-post village. Let's rent horses."
Between relay stations, fast horses are rented out for couriers or merchants in a hurry. To buy a horse you'd need to visit a proper horse market, but renting one was possible.
Of course, you could only use them from one relay station to another, and the price was steep, but…
"What's the problem? We've got plenty of money!"
Karnak scolded him irritably.
"You're not even worried about where that money came from?"
Shaking his head, Baros countered.
"Will not using the money make the problem go away?"
"Well… no."
"Then let's worry about it while using it! At least our bodies will be comfortable!"
Karnak blinked.
"If your body's comfortable, your mind relaxes. And when your mind's relaxed, it's easier to think things through!"
He'd thought Baros was just being ridiculous, but the more he listened, the more reasonable it sounded.
"Huh. That's… surprisingly persuasive."
After their blissful meal, Karnak and Baros headed to the relay station on the western side of Darha Village.
The Darha relay station was a fairly large facility—a two-story wooden building with a spacious stable attached.
As they approached, a middle-aged man hurried over with a bright smile. He was probably the station master.
"Oh! You've returned!"
Both of them froze on the spot.
'Returned?'
'Us?'
Being told they had "returned" meant they'd been here before.
The man continued, bowing obsequiously.
"We've been taking good care of the horses you left with us."
'We left horses?'
'Us?'
Despite their confusion, the two did their best to keep calm expressions.
The middle-aged man then guided them toward the stables.
About a dozen horses were tied there, and among them, two chestnut steeds began to neigh the moment they saw the pair.
Hiiiin!
Hiiihiiin!
Smiling warmly, the man soothed the horses.
"They're happy to see their owners again."
Karnak and Baros wore awkward expressions.
The horses really did look happy. There was no doubt they were familiar.
'But this is our first time seeing them.'
'They're so enthusiastic it's almost uncomfortable.'
Handing over the reins, the man continued in a courteous voice.
"As you instructed, we fed them high-quality fodder mixed with beans. Both of them are full of energy."
His attitude was unfailingly polite—almost servile.
It was obvious he was expecting something, and Baros gave Karnak a look.
'This is that, right?'
Karnak understood immediately.
'It is.'
'Should I do it?'
'Go ahead. We can see how he reacts.'
With permission given, Baros deliberately adopted an arrogant air and took out a silver coin.
"You've worked hard. This is a small token of appreciation from our young master."
Rather than being surprised, the man accepted it as if he'd been waiting for it and bowed deeply.
"Thank you as always! I'll bring out the saddles you left here right away!"
Watching the man hurry back toward the relay building, Karnak muttered,
"'As always'?"
"So we used to spend this much before, too?"
"And in silver coins, no less."
"Us?"
They were so dumbfounded they could hardly speak.
Wasn't this exactly how some nouveau riche noble brat, flush with money and ignorant of the world, would behave?
"What on earth is going on here?"
Even Baros was starting to worry now.
"This doesn't feel like something we can just be happy about."
"I've been saying that over and over—are you only getting it now?"
Karnak fell into deep thought.
Had they really returned to the past?
That seemed true. The world mostly matched his memories.
But there were also quite a few things that didn't.
'We need to get home quickly. That's the top priority for now.'
Meanwhile, Baros was lost in a different kind of concern.
"So… what do we even call these guys? Hey, you two—what are your names?"
Hiiiin!
Hiiihiiin!
"…Talking to horses like this—guess I'm the idiot."