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“Madam Mary, we’ve arrived at the Kingdom of Hungary.”
Mary opened her eyes. She was greeted by the sight of the wooden carriage’s ceiling. With a yawn, she sat up and wiped the drool off the corner of her mouth using the back of her gauntlet. “We’re here?” she asked and poked her head outside the carriage’s window. Her red hair fluttered in the wind, getting caught against her face. She swept it back with her hand before shielding her eyes from the sun. Ahead of the horse, there was an outline of a wall in the distance. It seemed pretty small. “That’s it?”
The man, who was accompanying her, cleared his throat. “What do you mean by that’s it? As in, you’ve had enough? Or do you mean the Kingdom of Hungary isn’t what you expected it to be?”
“It’s small,” Mary said and leaned back into her seat, closing the window while she was at it. “I expected a kingdom to be much larger.”
“That’s not the whole kingdom,” the man said and blinked hard. “The Kingdom of Hungary is made up of many cities. This is just one of them. Why did you think it was the whole thing?”
Mary furrowed her brow. “There’s no giant wall that encompasses the whole kingdom?”
The man’s brow furrowed as well. “Why would there be a giant wall? The amount of men and materials required to make a wall that surrounds the whole kingdom would simply be too enormous. It’s easier to put walls around the important cities.”
“But I’ve seen one,” Mary said. “I walked along it, an extremely long wall. It took a few hours to traverse the whole thing.” She frowned. It seemed like the disparity between countries was too great. The first place she had landed was much better than this one: the walls were bigger, the food was tastier, and the people were nicer to look at too. She glanced at the man beside her and crinkled her nose.
“It must’ve been a small wall if you traversed it in a few hours,” the man said and shook his head. “There—”
“No.” Mary narrowed her eyes. “It was a long wall. The people there called it the great wall.”
The man shut his mouth. “Alright,” he said after a moment. “The Kingdom of Hungary doesn’t have a great wall. However, they don’t need a great wall to keep defenders out. If it weren’t for the witch that could punch down defensive structures, they wouldn’t have requested us for help.”
“I can’t believe Louis surrendered,” a voice said from outside the carriage. “Doesn’t he have any pride as a Hungarian? The Ottomans retreated after taking one city, but Louis surrendered anyway! We could’ve fought.”
“Don’t call him Louis, dear,” a different voice said. “He’s our king and should be addressed as such.”
“He’s not our king anymore after surrendering!”
Mary turned her head to stare at the man sitting beside her. “Didn’t you say there was no rush and the Kingdom of Hungary would be fine?”
A tinge of red crept onto the man’s cheeks, and he swept aside the curtain before opening the carriage window. He stuck his head out and looked around. A couple were walking away from the carriage, and the man waved his hand, signaling for the driver to stop. After the horse came to a halt, the man hopped off the carriage and chased after the couple that were walking away. “Excuse me,” he said. “Excuse me.”
The couple paused and turned around. Upon seeing the man, the woman made a face filled with pure disgust. Her expression was so vivid that the man froze in his tracks. The woman’s husband cleared his throat and stepped in front of his wife. “How may we help you?” he asked, glancing at his wife and clearing his throat again.
Before the man could say anything, Mary appeared by his side. “How did the Ottomans conquer the Kingdom of Hungary so quickly?”
“The Ottomans?” the woman asked before her husband could respond. She shoved him out of the way. “It wasn’t the Ottomans! It was the Holy Roman Empire! They threatened our king and forced him to surrender. If it weren’t for the Ottomans at our borders, would our king surrender so easily?” The woman glared at the man next to Mary. “The Holy Roman Empire is filled with shameless scoundrels. Our king provoked the Ottomans, expecting to receive help from the emperor, but what did the nobles of the empire do? They stabbed Louis in the back instead of helping!”
Mary turned to stare at the man beside her. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I don’t know what’s going on either, Madam Mary,” the man said. “We’ve been traveling for the past three months, but we haven’t received news from the outside. Why would the Holy Roman Empire conquer the Kingdom of Hungary after sending us to help them fend off the Ottomans? There must be a mistake.”
Mary’s expression darkened. She waited three months for this?
“W-wait! Madam Mary, please, don’t get angry.”
Mary snorted and crossed her arms, her gauntlets scraping against her breastplate, making an eerie sound. “The only reason I accompanied you fools for so long was to find the witch. You told me she’d be here when we arrived, but she isn’t. Tell me, how should you repay me for wasting three months of my time?”
The man swallowed. “That’s, that is…. Sometimes, unexpected events crop up. While we may be blessed by the Lord, we’re not omniscient. With the best of our ability, we made a deduction, but our best wasn’t enough in this case. E-even so, we’re going to locate the witch as that’s the duty we’ve been assigned. It might take a little longer, but would it be a worthy mission without some hardship? The Lord tests his believers to strengthen their faith.”
Mary raised an eyebrow. “You said a lot of words, but you didn’t answer my question.” A small smile appeared on her lips. “Back at home, I had a lot of servants similar to you fools. Do you know what they did when one of them made a mistake?”
The man wet his lips with his tongue. “What did they do, Madam Mary?”
“They ran.” Mary’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll give you a ten-second head start.”