"Alright, I won't disturb your meal any longer then." The older missionary wanted to ask more questions, but it would simply be too rude if he were to intrude any longer, so he could only end the conversation here for now.

"Please meet us in front of this pub tomorrow morning after you've had breakfast, and we'll set off to the city of Zans together." Prior to his departure, the old missionary placed 200 Loonies onto the table in a very generous manner, providing Erwin with the deposit that he had requested. After that, he and the younger missionary left the pub.

If any average traveling artist had been in Erwin's place, there was no way that the missionary would've been so stupid as to issue such a large deposit. Who was to say that the traveling artist wouldn't be the type of person to take the money and run? The missionary could clearly tell from Erwin and Onean's outward appearance and the way through which they conducted themselves that they were no ordinary people, which was why he was willing to pay such a large sum in advance.

"See? When there's a will, there's always a way," Erwin said with a smug smile as he looked on at the two departing missionaries. "I told you there's no way the two of us would have to sleep on the streets."

"I'm surprised that your artwork managed to catch someone's eye," Onean said.

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying you're the only one with an eye for fine art?" Erwin jibed.

Onean rolled her eyes at him, then began to dig into the leg of lamb in front of her.

The lamb itself was quite delicious. Belama was situated very close to the Terarody Mountain Ranges, so the altitude here was very high. Thus, the lamb produced in this area tasted quite similar to the lamb produced in the Zam Highlands.

However, the cooking method employed was a little rough, and the flavors of the onions, black pepper, and cumin were still yet to penetrate into the meat.

For fine diners of Erwin and Onean's caliber, they were naturally able to immediately make an assessment of the chef's skills as soon as they tasted the dish. After all, they had eaten far too many delicacies in the past.

Thus, Erwin began to miss a rotisserie in Sarus that specialized in making roast lamb.

"To be fair, even the best chefs can't replicate the flavor of home," Erwin sighed. "A man like me can't ever be without the company of a beautiful woman. Even if the food isn't that great, I'll have some appetite if I have a beautiful woman with me. Otherwise, with my picky eating habits, I could easily starve to death."

Onean was quite amused to hear this, and she jammed the piece of meat on the end of her fork straight into Erwin's mouth. "Shut up and eat!"

However, the cheap Tellier red wine was quite nice. At the very least, it was better than Erwin had imagined.

After dinner, it was time for them to think about lodging.

The second floor of the pub actually had rooms for rent, but due to the high number of merchants visiting the town, there were only one or two spare rooms left.

After a quick inspection, Erwin and Onean discovered that the rooms were quite clean, so they couldn't be bothered to go anywhere else and decided to stay there for a night.

This actually wasn't the first time that the two of them had stayed together in the same room. They had previously done so in the horse-drawn carriage and on the airship, so it wasn't a big deal for them to be living in the same room here. Most importantly, they had a very limited budget, so they had to be miserly with their money.

However, what they failed to anticipate was the terrible soundproofing between the rooms. Erwin was lying on the sofa, and as soon as night arrived, he could clearly hear the sound of headboards thumping repeatedly into the walls to the left and the right sides of the room. Of course, this sound was also accompanied by sporadic moaning.

Erwin was becoming very aroused from the sounds coming from the neighboring rooms, and he was struggling to fall asleep. Occasionally, he would cast a glance at Onean, who was lying on the bed, but he knew that he was no match for her, so he could only abandon the idea of claiming her by force.

For her part, Onean merely pretended to be oblivious to everything as she focused her attention on a map that she was holding, looking as if she couldn't even hear the noises coming from the neighboring rooms. The map depicted the layout of the cities and towns several hundred kilometers northward of Belama.

Of course, she hadn't actually failed to notice Erwin tossing and turning on the sofa in an agitated manner. However, she knew what he was thinking, and that was why she was pretending not to have seen anything.

As Erwin cast a furtive glance toward her again, she looked up from her map and met his gaze with an amused smile on her face.

In response, Erwin turned around in a frustrated manner so that his back was facing her, and he didn't look at her any longer. He was like a bull in heat right now, and no matter what Onean did, it would appear to him as if she were seducing him.

If I can't have her, then I may as well not look at her, either, he thought to himself. If I keep looking at her, I'll never be able to fall asleep.

Despite his refusal to look at Onean for the rest of the night, he still had a terrible night's sleep.

...

The next morning, the old missionary of the Universal Church arrived with an open-air cargo carriage to pick up Erwin and Onean, and he was quite startled by the very pronounced dark rings around Erwin's eyes.

"My sincerest apologies, but this is the only horse-drawn carriage we have available to us," the older missionary said in an apologetic manner.

Aside from the religious instruments piled up inside the carriage, the interior was actually quite clean, and there wasn't even a speck of dust on the long leather benches running along the left and right sides of the carriage.

"There's no need to apologize, we are already very fortunate to have a carriage at all," Erwin replied with a smile. "By the way, I didn't get your name yesterday. You left right after dropping that stack of Loonies onto the table last night. Weren't you worried that we would take the money and run away in the night?"

"My name is Lia Doner," the missionary said with a smile. "I've been dealing with people my entire life, so I have trust in my own ability to judge character. I knew you weren't the type of person who would throw away your integrity for the sake of just 200 Loonies."

"My name is Erwin Friar, and this is my wife," Erwin said with a smile as he wound his arm around Onean's waist.

Lia extended a slight bow toward the two of them.

"I noticed you said you've been dealing with people your entire life. Does that mean that you used to be a pastor in this church?" Erwin asked.

"I was. I spent most of my life working as a pastor in the Universal Church, but now, I'm just a retired old man. Thankfully, I can still be of use to the Universal Church by providing some guidance to the younger generation," Lia said with a smile as he indicated toward the young freckled missionary beside him. "This is currently the youngest missionary in our church. His name is Joe Webonard."

The young missionary lowered his head in a rather embarrassed fashion.

"He's a very shy kid. That's why I sent him to bid on your artwork yesterday. I wanted to force him out of his comfort zone to develop his courage and confidence around people," Lia explained.

"That is indeed a problem. How are you going to spread your faith if you're too shy to talk to people?" Erwin was rather amused at the sight of Joe, who was scratching his own head in a sheepish manner. "Having said that, you were quite brave yesterday, so good job."

Onean naturally knew that Erwin was implying something with his words, and she smiled as she said, "Stop picking on the kid. Let's set off now."

Erwin smiled in response. "Sure, let's go."

"Mr. Erwin, do you not have any luggage that you need to bring with you?" Lia asked with a surprised expression.

"I'm afraid not," Erwin replied with a wry smile, then helped Onean onto the carriage before also climbing onto it himself.

After they had taken a seat, Lia became even more curious about the origins of these two young people.

Thus, the mysterious young pair departed from the small town in the cargo carriage of the Universal Church, with many of the town's residents gathered to send them off.

"How far away is Zans from Belama?" Erwin had nothing to do, so he began to inspect the map that Onean had been looking at the night before.

Meanwhile, Onean used magic to conjure up a light and dainty hat for herself to keep out the sun. Ripples of water were revolving around the hat, and small waves were surging in an anti-clockwise direction along the brim of the hat. She then leaned against the back of the bench in a comfortable manner, looking out at the scenery in the wilderness while allowing the cool and refreshing breeze to caress her cheeks.

"It'll take us around half a day of travel toward the northwest to get to Zans," Lia replied as he turned around while seated on the driver's chair at the front of the carriage.

"This map is very strange. Why are there so many border lines? Are these all state lines?" Erwin asked while looking closely at the map.

"Pardon my intrusion, but may I ask where the two of you have come from? Judging from your question, it seems that you're not from these parts," Lia said with a perplexed expression.

Erwin knew that his question would be sure to arouse suspicions from Lia, so he had anticipated this question. Thus, he smiled as he replied, "The two of us have come from the south. We've only just arrived in the north, so there are many things about the northern continent that we still have no idea about."

"I see," Lia replied. "So the two of you came all the way here from the south."

After that, he provided an answer to Erwin's question. "Here on the northern continent, the situation is different from that of the southern continent. We only have one kingdom here, and that's the Fulway Empire. However, there are dozens of dukedoms of different sizes under the Fulway Empire, and all of the border lines that you see on the map depict the borders between all of the dukedoms."

"If there are that many dukedoms, then wouldn't the kingdom constantly be in a state of civil war?" Erwin asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"I'm afraid you've hit the nail right on the head, Mr. Erwin," Lia sighed. "With so many dukes in the kingdom, no one is willing to bow down to anyone else, and battles will often be instigated at the drop of a hat."

"Are there that many soldiers that can be sent to the front lines?" Erwin asked. "Looking at the map, I can see that many of the dukedoms are absolutely tiny. Will they be able to muster up enough troops to fight for them?"

"The dukedoms that can't muster up armies will just have to hire mercenaries," Lia replied. "Some of the dukedoms may not have much territory, but they're quite wealthy."

"Let me see. So the city of Zans we're going to belongs to the Boll Dukedom. What's the current situation like in the Boll Dukedom?" Erwin asked.

"The ruler of the Boll Dukedom is Duke Eru," Lia replied. "Duke Eru is an old man who has long lost the courage to take up arms against other dukedoms. Thanks to his reluctance to turn to violence, the Boll Dukedom has been free from battle for several years now."

"May I ask which dukedom your... church is primarily developing in? Is it this Boll Dukedom?" Erwin asked in a slightly awkward manner, only realizing halfway through his sentence that he didn't even know what church the two missionaries belonged to.

"We are the Universal Church," Lia reminded with a friendly smile. "Our church has a certain number of clergymen in all of the dukedoms. Our churches and monasteries can be found in most of the cities in the north."

"Then what about the Holy World Church and the New Light Church? Aren't they supposed to be more prominent churches with more followers than the Universal Church?" Erwin had no qualms raising such a question, which could be considered to be rather abrasive. After all, for someone like him, who didn't believe in any religion, he didn't feel that it was inappropriate to discuss these topics.

Lia was silent for a moment before replying, "The Holy World Church has been on a gradual decline, but it's still the most prominent of the three churches, and it has the largest base of followers. As for the New Light Church, their scale is actually quite comparable with that of our Universal Church."

Erwin had thought that Lia would try to dodge the question and placate him by saying something like "the number of followers isn't important, what's important is how devout the followers are". However, to his surprise, Lia had no qualms in admitting the current situation that the Universal Church was in. What he had said was roughly the same as what Erwin had been told by that manager of the tailor shop.

Erwin nodded in response, and he was quite thankful that Lia hadn't said something grand and lofty to placate him. If he had done that, then Erwin would've been inclined to end the conversation right there and refrain from talking to Lia for the rest of the trip.

Just as Lia had said earlier, he had worked as a pastor for most of his life, and he knew that when dealing with people like Erwin, it was far wiser to tell the truth than to insult their intelligence by telling lies or making up grand stories.