Originally, the easiest way to cross the bridge built at the Rhine border was to find a professional smuggling broker.
In exchange for giving substantial bribes to the border guards, they could freely pass through the bridge blocking the river without any inspection.
If you handed over a pouch of silver coins to these brokers and asked for illegal entry, you could safely cross the border hidden in the cargo hold of their merchant ships.
Of course, this was only when the client was an ordinary illegal immigrant, so it wasn’t even an option I could consider.
Why, you ask?
Well, because I’m a high-value wanted criminal with a bounty that’s long since surpassed ten gold coins.
Rather than taking money from me to send me across the border, selling me to the border guards would be dozens of times more profitable, so why would those broker bastards choose the former?
So I had no other choice. Other than somehow crossing the border together with Friede, just the two of us.
That’s why the shipwreck disguise plan I came up with by wracking my brains… was progressing quite smoothly, at least so far.
Of course, since the core of the plan is this very moment, if something goes wrong here, it won’t matter how smoothly things have gone until now.
Well then, how will it go…
I quietly looked up while hiding my body under the water surface, sharpening my five senses to their limits to eavesdrop on the voices from the bridge.
* * *
“Let’s see, there’s just a boat… no people visible. Did they drown while night fishing? I’ve lost count of how many times this has happened.”
“They died well. Anyway, these boat-riding bastards think they have about five lives or something. No matter how much you tell them it’s dangerous, they don’t listen.”
The sentries guarding the bridge exchanged small talk mixed with complaints while shining torches on the water surface.
Their tone suggested that it wasn’t the first or second time an ownerless boat had drifted by like this, and they were now thoroughly sick and annoyed by it.
Their lax attitude was quite satisfactory.
If they had been soldiers with discipline strict enough to follow military manuals thoroughly, the situation would have become much more troublesome, but with such discipline, I could rest easy in advance.
“Well… we should at least check it out. Hey, rookie. Go down and take a look. If there’s no problem, untie the chains and let it flow downstream.”
There were three sentries who discovered our boat in total.
The two senior soldiers leaning against the palisade with a slack attitude handed their torches to the last soldier standing at attention and pointed below the bridge.
Unless the boat sank completely or broke into pieces and flowed away, if it remained caught on the chains like that, the chains might be damaged.
So, the instruction was to take a quick look, and if there seemed to be no problem, to untie the chains and just let it pass through.
In principle, they probably should report the detailed circumstances to their superior and only let the boat flow downstream after receiving permission to untie the chains, but…
‘That would be too troublesome. If they report to higher-ups, an order to thoroughly search the vicinity might come down.’
If everything went by the book, it wouldn’t be the military.
Unless it was a situation that anyone could see was serious, what soldier would want to conduct an unplanned night search because of such a ‘trivial’ issue?
If it seems like nothing significant, covering it up and moving on is the long-standing tradition of military organizations and the virtue of experienced soldiers.
As I expected, the soldiers who discovered our boat were thinking of just letting it flow away and forgetting about it as soon as they saw the empty boat, without unnecessarily making a big deal out of it.
“…Uh, you mean just me alone?”
The rookie soldier, who still seemed to have some discipline left, asked if they shouldn’t at least go down in pairs according to the manual, even if they were going to gloss over it.
It’s the right thing to say, but… would that work?
“Then shit, should I go down there at this hour? You really have no common sense.”
“I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about you lately. You know that if you get dumped in the river, it’s just treated as suicide or an accidental fall, right? Watch yourself. Unless you want to check the river water temperature.”
As expected, the two seniors, enraged at the unthinkable reality of the rookie daring to talk back, sealed the ‘senseless’ rookie’s mouth with coarse curses and threats.
“…Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll correct my behavior.”
The rookie soldier, who received threats of being killed for being annoying in return for saying the right thing, bowed his head deeply and apologized.
He’s probably cursing his seniors hard inside. Wondering why he’s being sworn at for saying the right thing. It was obvious without even seeing it.
* * *
A little while later.
Thud. Thud.
The rookie soldier, frightened by his seniors’ threats, began to climb down the ladder installed behind the bridge to the underside of the pier.
The other two soldiers had lost interest in what was happening below and were back to chatting among themselves while smoking magic cigarettes.
…Well, whether it’s the original world or here, the behavior of common soldiers is the same everywhere. I’m just grateful for it.
Now then, the only remaining issue is this one rookie soldier… I wonder how it will go.
Will he try to thoroughly check even the bottom of the boat inflexibly according to the manual, or will he try to gloss over it carelessly like an experienced person who finds it bothersome?
Thud.
I was hoping for the latter as much as possible.
If by any chance this rookie soldier tried to check even inside the river water according to the manual, I would have no choice but to eliminate him by disguising it as an accidental death.
By dragging him into the water to drown him, or arranging it to look like he slipped and died from hitting his head on the edge of the pier.
It would be an unpleasant thing in many ways. It could complicate things afterwards too.
“Haah…. Those bastards. And they call themselves seniors…”
He’s here.
I tensed my entire body while hiding in the shadow of the boat with Friede, glaring at the soldier who had come down with a torch.
Ready to spring out like lightning to deal with him in case we were discovered by any chance.
“Let’s see…”
The light from the torch flickering in the wind seeped below the water surface, spreading in faint ripples.
I carefully distanced myself to avoid being touched by that light. Friede had gone around to the side, approaching behind the soldier’s back.
“Should I just desert using this…”
The soldier muttered quietly while raising the torch high to examine inside the boat.
…Desertion, you say? That would be rather inconvenient for us.
It’s really troublesome. If you desert so boldly, of course a pursuit team will be attached. Then we’d be discovered too.
“Haaah…”
Fortunately, it seemed the talk of desertion was just a complaint about his circumstances, as the rookie soldier hung the torch on the pier wall and trudged towards the iron chains.
Whew, we weren’t discovered.
I inwardly sighed with relief and gestured for Friede to come back to my side. Now we just need to quietly slip away as soon as the chains are untied.
Friede nodded and swam back towards the boat, tightly embracing my waist.
No, why are you grabbing my side instead of the boat’s edge… Hah, never mind. Let’s just let it go. It’s not the situation to fuss over such trivial matters. Not now.
A little while later.
Clink. Clink. Charrrr…!
With a heavy metallic sound, one side of the chains blocking the boat was completely loosened and sagged.
The boat creaking forward bit by bit with a grating friction sound. Friede and I clung tightly underneath it, letting our bodies be carried by the flowing current.
While watching the soldier who was straining to reconnect the iron chains that looked quite heavy just from looking at them.
Looks tough. Seems dangerous too. No wonder the seniors didn’t want to come down. It was almost pitiful to see him struggling alone.
Well, I suppose it’s much better to suffer a bit than to die.
Anyway, that’s how we were able to sneak into the territory of the Kingdom of Rhine without any disturbance.
It was half a gamble, but to think it would go this well. Should we thank the undisciplined soldiers?
“How can this be…? There’s no way Miss Hilde’s plan could go this smoothly…”
Even Friede muttered quietly to herself with a puzzled face, as if she hadn’t believed this would really succeed.
Yes, it’s puzzling. Even I, who made the plan, couldn’t imagine it would be this easy.
As you know, my luck hasn’t been particularly good lately, right?
My luck had been so bad that things would definitely go wrong whenever I tried to do something myself, but this time everything was proceeding without any problems, so it felt strange.
It felt like some heavenly fortune was following us.
* * *
Heavenly fortune, come to think of it, it was a bit funny.
When I chose to be an adventurer to avoid following the path of Brunhilde from the novel or game, everything I did went haywire as if I was cursed.
But now that I’ve decided to become stronger like the original hero’s party because I have nowhere else to run, suddenly everything I do is succeeding as if my luck has turned around.
It felt as if everything in the whole world was forcefully urging me to live as Hero Friede’s companion.
‘…Ah, no way. That must be overthinking it.’
I chuckled and shook my head lightly. It seemed like I was attaching too much meaning to simple coincidences.