The Western Turmoil (4)

One of the three guards ran ahead to report our arrival, while the other two led me to a large mansion built on high ground near the harbor.

When I turned around, I could take in the entire harbor, which was well maintained and thriving, and enjoy the pleasant sea breeze.

That alone slightly improved my impression of the lord of Tomhans, Jilchias's trading port.

It may have been a presumptuous assumption, but I believed that good taste and a sense of style were important factors in judging a lord.

Of course, understanding art did not make a bad person good, and someone could be a good person without appreciating refinement.

Thus, it was only one factor, but having good taste and a sense of style meant that, at the very least, one could understand the quality of things.

From the orderly, thriving harbor, the view overlooking it, and the character of the mansion, I inferred that the lord of Tomhans was competent.

Then again, there were cases where that was merely because the previous lord, or the one before him, had been competent, so it was not a particularly reliable guess.

Still, I seemed to have been right this time.

The reason was that, after receiving the report from the guard who had run ahead, the man who appeared to be the master of the mansion—in other words, the lord of Tomhans himself—was waiting in front of the entrance to welcome me...