Chapter 7: The Fallen Bridge
After spending a night in the post town of Lope, we resumed our journey the next day.
We could have stayed in this town for a few days, but since there were no notable attractions, we decided it was better to press on.
Our journey was a slow and leisurely one, but I have a limited lifespan.
If I spent weeks in some random town, I’d be an old man in the blink of an eye.
Fina would say,
“I’ll love you even when your hair is white and your back is bent.”
But for my part, I wanted to complete our holy site pilgrimage while I was still healthy.
And so, the journey resumed.
We headed north along the main road, but along the way, we noticed a crowd of people gathered in front of a bridge.
“Perhaps there’s a proclamation saying ‘Thou shalt not cross this bridge’.”
“In that case, we’d just cross in the ‘middle,’ but that doesn’t seem to be it.”
As we exchanged such words and pushed through the crowd, we saw that the bridge had collapsed.
Listening to the people’s voices, we heard:
“Apparently the river flooded from the heavy rain the other day.”
“And this is the only bridge around here.”
“It’ll take at least three weeks to fix.”
That’s what they were saying.
“Guess we’re stuck here for three weeks.”
Good grief, I thought, looking at my wife, but she is a renowned spirit user.
“With the help of the spirits, a river like this is just a single leap,” she suggested.
“Come to think of it, you used the Wind Spirit King Garuda when you came to rescue me.”
“Yes.”
“Well then, let’s do that again this time—is what I’d like to say, but a lightbulb just went off in my head.”
“Did you come up with a special move?”
“Nope, I came up with a business opportunity.”
“And what would that be?”
“We can just fly over with magic, whoosh, but the locals and travelers are different. They’re stuck for three weeks. But if we fix the bridge much faster, the people in trouble will be overjoyed.”
“That’s true.”
“They should at least be willing to pay a ferry fee. An express fee, even.”
“Indeed.”
“And so, we’re going to repair this bridge.”
With that, I made a declaration to the crowd.
“Gather ’round, come and see!”
“What? What’s going on?”
The eyes of the surrounding people focused on me.
“Before you stand a married couple, Renas and Fina!”
“What, they have the same names as two of the Seven Heroes,” a heckler’s voice called out, but I gave a casual reply.
“My parents respected the Seven Heroes, so they gave me their names. —As for my wife, well, they say if you throw a stone at an elf, you’ll hit a Fina.”
“Huh, so what does this couple want?”
“Actually, our skills are also on the level of the Seven Heroes, and we can rebuild this fallen bridge.”
“What!?”
The villagers and travelers were astonished.
“I can’t believe it. Even if we gather all the nearby villagers, it’d take three weeks at the fastest just to build a temporary bridge.”
“We can do it in three days.”
“Are you serious!?”
“We are. However, we are not heroes. We can’t exactly do this as volunteers…”
“Of course, if you can fix the bridge, we’ll pay. Within reason, of course.”
A man who looked like the village chief declared on behalf of the group.
If the village representative said so, there was probably no need to worry about payment.
I consulted with my wife Fina and then held up ten fingers.
“In that case, ten gold coins. If you collect from the nearby villages and the travelers in a hurry, that should be more than enough.”
“…That’s certainly a bargain. Considering the economic loss of the bridge being unusable for three weeks.”
The village chief, satisfied with the price, immediately commissioned me, but it seemed he didn’t fully trust us. He had the villagers begin preparations for rebuilding the bridge in parallel.
That was fine with us, so Fina and I immediately headed to a nearby forest to begin building the bridge.
