Strongest Maid In Another World

Loraine and Sarah move through the bustling streets of the Royal Capital, their steps light as they moved through the crowd. Loraine’s eyes darted around the area, her [Maiden’s Intuition] Skill active at all times as she remembered when she had last time lost her pouch to the little thief Jacob, and wanted to make sure she wasn’t going to be a target for anyone like him ever again.

’I don’t sense any ill intent in the air, so I guess we’re safe for now. I gotta make sure Sarah doesn’t get hurt, her safety is my responsibility.’ Loraine thought to herself, glancing at Sarah in the corner of her eye before turning her attention back on the road ahead.

They walked through the streets for a bit, before making their way towards the entrance of the Royal Capital, Loraine’s eyes widening as she took in the massive scale of the place. Giant walls carved of hard stone loomed above, stretching around the city and surrounding it like an impregnable fortress.

’The security in this place must be tight, there are so many guards everywhere.’ Loraine thought to herself, glancing over at the walls as a whole troop of guards patrolled the area, high on alert, scanning for danger at a moments notice.

"Hey Loraine, look!" Sarah’s voice caught her out of her thoughts, pointing towards a traveling merchant’s carriage that was transporting passengers and storing goods. "I guess we found our means of transport, let’s go ride with them, they seem to have adventurers accompanying them, so I guess we won’t have to worry about protection after all."

’She acted quickly,’ Loraine thought to herself, but in the end it was a good idea. She glanced around for a moment, using her intuition to check if there were perhaps other carriages in the vicinity, and while there were some, most of them either entering the city or already exiting it, and they had managed to find one that had yet to leave.

’There’s a lot of negative energy in the air, some of these people have malevolent intentions, it’s making my skin crawl.’ Loraine thought to herself, glancing around the area as she could pinpoint terrible people in the crowd, most of them being adventurers with a shady aura to them, but Loraine didn’t want to get involved with them, as that wasn’t her responsibility.

Loraine glanced over at the carriage Sarah pointed to, and quickly found out that nobody among them had any ill intentions, as everyone including the adventurers were morally good people, a smile blooming on Loraine’s face.

"Alright let’s go!" Loraine said, as they moved toward the carriage, walking up to the travelling merchant.

As soon as they both approached, the adventurer’s immediately sensed them, their eyes turning to come look at them with serious expressions on their faces, one of these adventurers being a tall woman with long crimson hair, she wore a striking shade of steel armor, a giant spear with runic carvings on her back, a small scar stretching across her cheek.

’Maidens?’ The woman thought to herself, raising a brow as Loraine and Sarah approached them.

’Woah...’ Loraine thought to herself, feeling a strong and overwhelming presence in the face of the crimson haired woman, breaking a nervous sweat as she tried her best to compose herself. ’She’s strong alright, a lot stronger than anyone here. I wonder if she’s a famous adventure, but even if she were, I wouldn’t know.’

"Greetings travelers," Loraine said with an elegant bow, her tone formal and elegant. "We’ve come to request to accompany you on your travels."

The merchant turned around to meet them, dressed in fancy clothes and wearing an abundance of jewelry around his body, Loraine thinking to herself that this guy was a walking flag for robbers to rob him, but due to his wealth Loraine figured that he probably hired all of these adventurers to protect him on his travels.

"You’ve come to travel along with us, hm?" The travelling merchant spoke, his voice gruff and his breath smelling faintly of booze and alcohol, a boisterous laugh escaping from his throat that made Loraine cover her nose, her expression twisting into revulsion as her passive skill was already working against her.

"Sorry ladies, but we’re transporting important cargo here, and the roads get pretty dangerous, so I can’t take you girls with us." He said with a shrug, Sarah’s face turning to that of disappointment.

Loraine however, wasn’t going to back down so easily. "Oh don’t worry, I’m more than aware of that. I’m not really scared of what could be out there, I just want transport to Lazarus," She said, her hand reaching down into her pockets as she pulled out the pouch of coins Kain had given to her, taking out a few gold coins, everyone’s eyes widening in surprise at the wealth in Loraine’s hand.

"I’m willing to pay a lot extra if it means getting us to our destination, in return of course I expect everyone present to provide their best protection and accommodation, sounds like a sweet deal right?" Loraine said with a playful smirk on her face.

’W-What is she doing!?’ Sarah thought to herself with shock plastered all over her face, her eyes glancing at the handful of gold coins in Loraine’s hand, secretely wondering if Loraine was really that stupid to offer so much for some transport.

"Do you know how much that is worth!? You’re not seriously planning on giving them that much, right!?" Sarah said, freaking out as she watched Loraine’s expression with anticipation.

"Of course not, I’m not that stupid." Loraine said, turning to look at Sarah. "I was just showing him how serious I was, I’m not going to hand him so much gold." She said, "One gold coin should be more than enough."

Her mind flashed back to the days she had spent studying in the Ashbourne family’s library everyday after all her duties were completed, also learning about the economy and finances of the world.

During her studies she had learned that the world’s currency revolves around coins, and there were mainly three coin types that were commonly used: Copper Coins, Silver Coins, and Gold Coins, with Gold Coins being the most valuable.

The ratio between each coin was 1:100, meaning that 100 Copper Coins were worth 1 Silver Coin, and 100 Silver Coins were worth 1 Gold Coin. There were as an additional coin only used by the Elite of Society, Platinum Coins, where 100 Gold Coins were worth 1 Platinum Coin, and they were very hard to come by, and were commonly rewarded to people with massive prestige and power.

The merchant’s eyes gleamed with a speck of greed, Loraine immediately picking up his intentions as she could tell that he was very tempted by the offer, seeing Loraine with someone with immense wealth, and thus making her an important business partner.

"You sure have a lot of money for someone with a maid profession," The merchant said, "But I will accept, after all, business is business at the end of the day." his tone turned professional as he stood aside, gesturing to the back of the carriage in a humble manner.

"Excellent." Loraine said, turning around to look at Sarah with a small smile on her face as she walked up to the merchant and handed him a gold coin, Sarah’s eyes twitching slightly with disbelief before she sighed and accepted defeat.

"You really need to learn to manage your finances, we didn’t have to go that far you know?" She said, looking at Loraine with a bit of an irritated expression. Loraine merely chuckled at her words.

"Don’t worry about it, It’s not a big deal, If money was really an issue, I wouldn’t have done that~" She said with a wink, Sarah raising her brow in confusion as she watched Loraine climb into the back of the carriage, settling herself on a seat as she reached down to help Sarah climb in as well.

’What does she mean by that?’ Sarah thought to herself mentally, grabbing Loraine’s hand as she boarded the carriage as well, sitting beside her best friend who seemed so calm and controlled, as if she had the whole situation figured out and wasn’t worried in the slightest.

Sarah remembered how Loraine was always so shy and timid, always fearful of whether she would do something wrong, the woman radiating so much confidence next to her was almost hard to recognize, as she still felt that Loraine had managed to change so much in such a short amount of time.

"Alright, we’re off!" The travelling merchant said, loading all of his supplies into the back of the cart as the rest of the adventurers boarded, taking their seats across from Loraine and Sarah as the travelling merchant hopped into the driver’s seat, his whips snapping as the horses began to pull the carriage.

Loraine glanced outside as the carriage began to move, watching as the Royal Capital began to fade into the distance with every passing minute, a small smile on her face as she turned her attention towards the green horizon’s stretching out for miles.

The journey towards Lazarus was set in motion. With so many adventurers in among them, Loraine was confident that the road ahead would be without trouble.