FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife

When I first spotted the outline of the city out in the distance, I wholeheartedly expected it would take us several hours if not entire days to reach it.

As it turned out, however, I couldn't be any further from the truth.

Used to treading through the dense vegetation of the jungle and carefully watching over every step I took, I greatly misjudged the speed we could easily reach on a straight road cutting through a flat, open plain. Then there was the matter of the city's size.

'I wonder if it's even correct to call it a city,' I thought once we got close enough for the town's outline to grow sizeable enough for me to see some details.

Obviously, with the walls in the way, there wasn't all that much that I could peer from the road. But I didn't really need to see the insides of the walled-off settlement to figure out its actual size, even from quite the distance.

'It really looks like just the most central district of my hometown…'

It was one thing to read in history books how the 'historical city center' of the two towns I knew best was actually bigger than their entire, historical size. But to see a bustling town the size of a modern village?

'That settlement looks to be somewhere between the historic center of my hometown and the historic center of the city I was studying at,' I thought, easily drawing the comparison.

When it came to the historical town's center of my hometown, I could walk from one end of it to the other in a matter of minutes. Heck, I could still remember the sensation of my mind breaking when I'd learned that the "Bulwark street," one of the busiest streets in the town's center, outlined the shape of the town's long-dismantled walls!

On the other end of the spectrum, there was the historical center of the provincial capital, a town with over a thousand years of history, a long-standing seat of local powerhouses that often ended up shaping the politics of the whole country.

Back before my summoning, I still struggled to accept that just the small, most central part of the city, no bigger than a small dot on the map that included the entire area, marked out the greatest extent of its historical borders.

But now that I had a bona-fide medieval-like town before my eyes?

'This really changes one's perspective,' I thought, silently amazed as we approached the town's gates.

As it turned out, what I worried would take us days to cross took us no longer than just a few hours to conquer.

Yet, while having the travel time shortened by such a huge margin was, beyond any doubt, a good thing, it also left me quite unprepared for the mental hurdle of confronting the guards, something that I had to do before I would be allowed entry.

After all, if everyone could come in and out of the town as they wished, what would be the purpose of having guards stationed at the gate?

'I can see three guards on the outside. Adding up at least two for the inside and an officer to command them all, then multiplying their numbers by at least two to account for changing shifts and then multiplying it again by the number of the gates this town has…'

Even while I tried my best to keep the numbers conservative, they quickly swelled to quite the uncomfortably high number. And for every person that added up to that number, there had to be a salary, equipment cost, food costs…

'With the amount of coin they would need to invest into so many guards, there's no way they are here just for show.'

I squeezed down my hands, feeling the nervousness build up in the pit of my stomach. Yet, as we continued to close in on the town's gate, all I could do was squeeze my hands down into fists and put on a brave look on my face.

'The last thing you want to do is appear nervous. Did you forget already? Most of the time, confidence and thick skin are all one needs to bullshit their way through!'

With the levels of stress building up in my soul, I nearly missed the looks Saintess threw my way every now and then, while the look on her face grew increasingly amused with each consecutive glance she spared my sorry self.

Then, without any shouts or fanfare, we reached the gate's foothold, only for the Saintess to stop right as the guards crossed their pikes, barring us from entering the city without uttering a single word.

But that wasn't all.

Even though I had no right to know what was going on, something clearly was happening.

The guards looked at the Saintess first, then glanced over my way only to finish up by exchanging stares with each other.

"Who?"

One of them uttered just a single word, his eyes locking on the Saintess's face only to shift over and linger on me when he spoke out.

"A findling," the Saintess replied without even a moment of hesitation, not a single delay that would indicate this kind of question caught her off guard.

'What? Just like that?' My eyes twitched while my body froze. All at the same time, my veins filled with adrenaline, preparing me to either fight my way through or to just run away from the danger… only for my body to remain perfectly immobile, rendered useless by the mix of nervousness, uncertainty and fear.

Then, against all the preconceptions I'd crafted in my head, the guards lifted their halberds up, opening up the path leading up to the gate's tunnel.

Once again, without uttering a single word, they gave out all the information we needed. And neither yours truly nor the Saintess had any reason not to jump on the opportunity and make use of it before any of the guards would suddenly decide to change their mind.

Seeing the Saintess move up, I quickly followed behind her, nearly chewing my bottom lip off.

There was hardly any light within the gate's tunnel, a true testimony to how thick and durable the town's walls were for the gate's tunnel to be so long. What was even worse, though, was that the tunnel's narrowness only made the sound of my beating heart appear louder, making for a perfect tell-tale sign of someone who wasn't supposed to be in that place.

Then, without anyone bothering us… we'd entered the city, with the guards on the inside hardly sparing us more than just a passing glance.

"Just like that?" I couldn't help but mutter as we ventured a bit deeper, far enough away from the guards not to let them hear my words.

"Yeah, just like that," the Saintess nodded her head, allowing me to breathe out a sigh of relief.

A sigh of relief quickly followed by another wave of unease filling me up from the bottom of my feet to the very top of my head.

'Well, we are in the city now. A place where I should have a bit better chance of making a living than back in that damned jungle,' I thought while looking around, soaking in the sights.

But there was something beyond just the sights of a bona-fide medieval-like settlement. And no matter how much I wanted to just nerd out right away, it soon became impossible for me to keep ignoring the ever-present stares.

Still, that wasn't even the worst part.

After all, for how much of a relief it was for me to finally reach the safety of an actual town—

Didn't it directly mean that the Saintess has now fulfilled her obligation and was about to leave me all alone in this harsh and unforgiving world?