However, the next day, we ended up having to go shopping again—this time for a completely different reason.
“Shun, you guys won’t be traveling by carriage service this time, so how are you planning to travel with the army?”
The Margrave brought it up over breakfast, and I froze.
Wait… what?
“Can’t we ride in one of the army’s carriages?”
“Oh, you thought you could. One of the army officials came by yesterday, so I asked. Apparently, there are so many people being transported that all the carriages are already full. And it’s difficult for my household to lend you one right now, too.”
What?!
The carriages are full?
I suppose I should be grateful that the Margrave was actually getting things done for once, but… What were we supposed to do now?
“There’s a shop in town that sells carriages. They have all sorts of models, so go there and ask them what would suit you. They’ll even teach you how to take care of the horses.”
“I’ll show you the way today. I haven’t been able to help everyone for some time now, so I’d like to make up for that.”
Toria-san volunteered. She had been taking care of Maria, who had been suffering badly from morning sickness, so she hadn’t been able to help out at the church. Of course, everyone understood that there was nothing she could do about that.
And so, with Toria-san leading the way, we headed into town.
“This is the carriage manufacturer.”
“““Ooh!”””
Toria-san had brought us to what looked more like a carriage factory, where numerous carriages were being built. But what really caught me off guard was the construction of the carriages themselves.
I walked over to one that is still being assembled. Sue, Ao, Shiro, and the others followed behind me.
“This is a suspension system, isn’t it?”
“Oh, you really know your stuff. It’s a newly improved model that was developed just this year.”
As I am examining the carriage’s undercarriage, one of the craftsmen from the factory came over to us. Apparently, he had seen me during the Harvest Festival.
“It’s a leaf-spring carriage. Most modern carriages have some kind of basic suspension these days, but this one can handle a fair amount of weight.”
“It would be well suited for freight wagons or carriages carrying a lot of passengers.”
“Exactly. Even on fairly rough roads, it’ll make for a much more comfortable journey.”
Ao is poking at the carriage’s leaf springs with one of her tentacles. There’s a huge difference in comfort between a carriage with good suspension and one without it. Until now, we’d had to rely on improving the cushions as much as possible to reduce the vibrations.
Fortunately, money wasn’t really an issue for us.
And they even had covered wagon-style carriages.
“By the way, would it be possible to have the carriage maintained in the Royal Capital?”
“Of course. We have a factory in the royal capital as well, so we can handle all the necessary maintenance there.”
Cars needed regular maintenance, and carriages were no different.
All right. This is the one.
“Then I’ll take the covered wagon equipped with this latest suspension system.”
“Sure thing. Give me a moment.”
They had plenty of luxurious carriages designed for nobles, but we didn’t need anything like that.
A covered wagon gave us more room inside, and if we arranged our belongings properly, we could even sleep in it.
Looks like we made a pretty good purchase.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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