But I didn’t expect him to really accompany me.

Rishe thought absentmindedly as she sat in the carriage on their way to the Grand Shrine.

Arnold, who was seated across from her, was quietly working on some paperwork. She was worried that he might get dizzy, but he kept a cool countenance.

His squire, Oliver, who looked on death’s door, handed him the bundle of papers piled up beside him. In addition, another bundle was loaded on another carriage.

Well, it’s usually absurd for the Crown Prince to be out of the country for a week without any preparation! I’m sorry, Oliver-sama. Thanks to His Highness Arnold’s presence, we’ve been able to change to new horses at regular intervals, and we’re heading for the temple more smoothly than expected.

Rishe apologized deep inside as she processed the medicinal herbs she had picked along the way.

“…But then again, it’s as expected of Garkhain.”

While talking to him, she crushed the sepals of flowers that could be used as an antidote.

“I didn’t know that the road to the Grand Shrine would be so neatly maintained. If it wasn’t for that, I don’t think I would have been able to travel so smoothly, no matter how much close the Domana Holy Kingdom is to the country.”

A long journey in a horse-drawn carriage was likely to cause fatigue due to the bumps. But thanks to the paved road, the burden was minimal.

Arnold indifferently replied as he flipped through his papers.

“There’s a generous budget for the repair of this road. Thanks to the large number of people who go to the Grand Shrine to worship, the tax revenue from the towns around the road is high.”

“If people travel long distances, that alone is a pot of gold in motion… However, if there is traffic, does that mean that there are many devout believers in Garkhain? The only road that the Order allows to come and go close to the Grand Shrine is the road from Garkhain.”

Rishe was also curious about that. In any case, the power relationship between Garkhain and the Order is unparalleled in the world.

The Order has power that transcends the boundaries of nations.

For this reason, they normally didn’t give any preferential treatment, even if they were dealing with a major power or its royalty.

The only thing that was special to the Order was a princess, whose bloodline was said to be that of a goddess.

Yet, only when dealing with Garkhain did the Order show a slightly different behavior.

One of them was the existence of the second largest church in the world in Garkhain. Churches in other countries should all be built on the same scale so that there would be no difference in authority between churches.

It’s not just that the Order is singling out Garkhain. It’s that the Garkhain side hasn’t invaded the Kingdom of Domana, where the Order is based.

The Holy Kingdom of Domana became a “neighboring country” because the countries between Garkhain and Domana became Garkhain territory after the war.

Even though the Holy Kingdom of Domana, the home of the Order, is not a strong military power, Garkhain allowed it to exist to the south of the country without invading.