Funny how things change in such a short time. I understood the implications of how dangerous a situation could get if not dealt with properly and after the crippling incident at the church, I was sure that His Majesty was sending one of his bests knights to watch over his daughter on this journey, so that in turn made me want to see how capable this guy really was.
That was something that I wouldn’t bring up, my job was to assist and watch. I was to provide protection to Princess Alexis and Lorelai, I wasn’t supposed to do these soldier’s jobs too.
Fifteen minutes later Lorelai, Princess Alexis and King Lucius walked in our direction. The king looked majestic as always with his shiny clothes showing the colors of Sunnara. The princess wore a light blue dress with intricate details, just looking from a distance you could identify that the person under the dress was important, either a member of nobility or from a royal family. Lorelai on the other hand wore something akin to a trench coat, as detailed and polished as her clothes looked, a bystander would likely classify her as a successful adventurer rather than a member of nobility. The soldiers all bowed as the three passed, I was about to do it too until Lorelai saw where I was and proceed to tackle me in a bear hug. Too much, that’s too much.
“Ugh, Lorelai, not a good display of royalty” I said, the king chuckled.
“She is always doing what she wants, it drives my brother crazy” he commented “Hello James, thank you again for accepting this quest” I nodded in his direction.
“Don’t mention it, Your Majesty”.
“Good tidings Sir Hunter” Princess Alexis slightly bowed in my direction “I’m told we’ll be in your care on this journey, I expect that things are going to be smooth then”.
“Humble words, you give me too much credit”.
“Not really” the King interjected.
He then called me aside to give me more information about the journey and my role. The soldiers and the vice-commander would be in charge of escorting us through the journey. I was to accompany the Princess and Lorelai in their carriage and to provide protection for them. In an extreme situation I was to teleport with them to a safe location if they were in mortal danger. He also told me to let the soldiers try and defuse other situations and only provide help if I deemed necessary.
I asked the king and Sir Freed if the soldiers with us were using protective amulets. Apparently the King himself along with Emilia tested the amulets and handed them personally to all of the guards, so I didn’t expect any trouble from allies, which was good to know before we started the journey. Both Lorelai and Princess Alexis had various charms protecting them against multiple status ailments, that again was a plus for me, less things to worry about overall.
A few minutes later we were inside the middle carriage, they all looked the same. The first one was carrying supplies for the journey, the second one was carrying the Princess, Lorelai and I along with a few of their clothes, the third carriage carried supplies in case the soldiers needed to replace something from a carriage, it also had food for the horses. The soldiers were flanking us from all sides providing protection for the journey while riding horses or sitting in front of the carriages, a few of them also sat on the roof, making this a heavy escort. I expected anyone that looked in our direction to think that either something or someone of high value was being transported, because of that, I decided to envelop our carriage with a layer of 『Arcane Shield』 in case of an impending attack.
I would be sleeping outside of the carriage at night to provide immediate protection for both Lorelai and Princess Alexis. Since Mega would also be on standby, I wasn’t too worried about sleeping on the job, he would notify me if the slightest indication of danger happened and my spell could remain active even with me asleep, to cancel the spell I needed to run out of mana or manually cancel it. Realistically thinking, I wouldn’t run out of mana because I regenerated more mana than the amount necessary to keep my protective spells active.
The estimated time of arrival at the embassy was twelve days, so I expected either a lot of silence or an insurmountable amount of questions. Luckily for me the princess wasn’t really keen on asking questions, Lorelai on the other hand started firing questions and talking as soon as she could. I let the two of them talk and only contributed to the conversation when I was needed.
We didn’t even have a game like chess to pass time, I mostly stayed in silence until Lorelai informed me that she brought a guitar so we could play in front of the bonfire at night, unfortunately the guitar was in another carriage, so I decided to nap and let Mega take over the watch. A few hours later we stopped so everyone could eat and I made a fire using magic because the guards were taking too long to light the fire.
With a guitar in hands Lorelai and I took turns playing varied tunes, between that and the pieces of conversation, the day ended and we made camp in a secluded location near the road, the princess and Lorelai went to take a bath in a stream nearby, four female soldiers escorted them to provide protection so they could have privacy. I helped some of the guards prepare the food and regulated the fire so we could cook the meat and the other meals with ease.
After we ate, Lorelai and I sang a few songs to both entertain everyone and to pass time. The sleeping arrangements were not that great because I was sleeping on the ground, but I didn’t have to take turns keeping watch since the guards would take care of that for me.
The following three days were pretty much the same, except that we didn’t found a location with a river or a lake near the road, I actually teleported Lorelai and the Princess to Lorelai’s mansion so they could take a bath, the reason I chose the mansion and not the castle was purely because I could teleport to her mansion and that was convenient, the royal castle is warded against transportation magic, so we would have to walk quite a bit to get there. The guards that were with us could take care of themselves, I had the power to teleport and help both Lorelai and the Princess, that way they could comfortably sleep clean at night, needless to say that, while they took their bath I used the opportunity to teleport back to my room at inn in the capital to also take a bath, so the plan worked out in my favor too.
We passed right through Xenos City, I’ve never been to Xenos before, but now that I had the mental picture of the big clock tower of the central plaza in my mind, I could teleport back to the city whenever I wanted. That would be cool because I wanted to see how many the quests the guild had. I’ve been told by Yuna that the cities around the capital were safer than ever now that I was completing a bunch of quests, mostly getting rid of highly dangerous monsters, the money was still an incentive for me but I generally looked for quests that had monsters near the roads or dangerously close to cities or small farms near the cities. Basically, if the quest was expensive, helped people and was a good opportunity for me to practice my magic, I would take it.
The only time that I looked at the scenery was when we stopped for lunch and at night when we camped, the chilled air was starting to make the guards uncomfortable, so at night I extended the warmth of the fire using magic, that way they wouldn’t freeze to death. At night was also a good time to consult with Alec, he was regularly informing me of the happenings of the day, since our carriages were covered with white curtains, light could reach inside but we generally didn’t see the other carriages that we passed along the way nor the animals or monsters somewhere near the roads. Even with opened curtains was difficult to see outside because we were moving fast.
I made sure to also cast 『Refresh』 on every horse before we resumed our journey everyday, that way the animals could gain back all of their stamina and be in their best shape. 『Refresh』 was a good spell, it could revitalize someone that was tired as well as cure hangovers apparently. 『Nullify』 also cured hangovers, although it was way more difficult for an average person to cast the spell successfully.
We were setting up camp on the dusk of our tenth day of travel when Mega alerted me.
“Heads up James, I feel a strange aura coming fr
om the forest to the north”.
“『Scan』” I said and extended my hand, a few soldiers stopped what they were doing to look at me.
I closed my eyes and extended the range of the scan to reach the aura, from this distance I couldn’t make out if it belonged to a monster or a person, the only thing I knew about it was that the aura didn’t seem dark but it was powerful and it appeared to be stationary.
“Alec, do me a favor” I mentioned “I need to check on something, watch the Princess and Lady Lorelai” he nodded.
I looked in their direction and Lorelai was about to say something but I shook my head and used 『Improve』 to sharpen my senses, I also invoked 『Arcane Shield』 on both women so I could leave them alone for a few moments. Seconds later, I approached the source of the aura, surprised to find that it was a shrine of some sort made of wood and stone.
“One moment” Mega said. I waited a few seconds and he continued “I scanned the shrine, it seems that this is a shrine dedicated to the moon goddess. It looks ancient, there is also a protective shield around it, likely to confuse unaware pedestrians so they won’t find this place when wandering these woodlands”.
“So this won’t cause trouble for us, right?”
“Not likely, this was probably created by a group of individuals that worshiped the moon goddess centuries ago, the shrine’s still active but I can’t sense any sentient lifeforms other than our group nearby”.
“Okay, then do me a favor, keep an eye on this. We already set the camp, to move now would be difficult since we lost sunlight” then a thought came to me “wait, sunlight… Do you think this shrine activates at sundown?”
“That is a valid assumption… I only felt its aura after dusk”.
“Strange… What about the moon goddess? Do you know if she have worshipers near this place?” I asked. The shrine was old, ancient even… But what happened? To just let this sit here unsupervised…
“What I do know is that the moon goddess used to bless some tribes of this world. Currently, according to the information in my data bank, she only blesses five individuals here. You are one of them” I don’t know how to react to that.
“Tell me more, please”.
“When she started blessing tribes from this world, she gave them transformation. Some of the tribes acquired the gift of shape-shifting. You are aware of the concept, are you not?”
“Yes. To change the form of your body to one of an animal, or another form, right?”
“Correct. She blessed tribes and their warriors all got the ability to change their forms, some freely changed into animals or monsters. Others could only change to one form”.
“Interesting, I can’t say I see the point in fighting while transformed but I like the diversity. She offered people a chance to change their ways” the moon goddess might be a complex divine being. I wish I could have a conversation with her some day.
“That’s right, but something happened. She cursed them, all of the old tribes broke her trust somehow. She forced them to transform when her moon presence is the strongest in the skies. Some of them retained their old forms and thoughts. Some became beasts, mutated, with hatred and preyed on the weak. That’s how the curse of the wereshifter began”.
“So, werewolves are real, then. Great...” I was processing the information as carefully as I could “I don’t know what they did to piss her off, but they royally screwed up” I shook my head.
“Yeah. Although, from what I scanned, it doesn’t appear that wereshifters are that common today. There might be some alive with the curse, but it’s not like we heard anything about them”...
“Oh well, if we do, we’ll deal with it… Let’s go back then, I wouldn’t want to freak everyone out”.
I went back to the camp and the soldiers were on high alert apparently, just what I wanted to avoid. To be fair, that was my fault in a sense. I approached Alec, he was near the princess and Lorelai.
“Sorry about that, I felt a strange aura and went to check it out” I sat down near the fire “there is a shrine to the Moon Goddess to the north of here, it emits an aura at sundown apparently”.
“Are we in danger?” he asked.
“No, the shrine is centuries old and we are the only people here”.
“So you just up and leave?” Lorelai asked with a pose and a smile.
“If all these soldiers with us decided to attack you two they wouldn’t be able to penetrate the shield I put on the two of you” I waved my hand to make the shield around them visible “not even I could penetrate the shield”.
“I was joking, you know...” she shook her head.
“Yeah, but I’m not irresponsible. Just so you know, you could probably survive a direct hit from a rocket launcher with that shield”.
“Impressive” she mocked.
“A what?” the Princess asked, clearly confused.
“Never mind” Lorelai responded, it would be difficult to explain about Earth’s weapons.
“So, this shrine, do you have any idea of what it does?” the Princess asked after shrugging.
“No, but it seemed protected. A normal person would get lost in the woods before he or she would be able to locate the shrine”.
The rest of the night passed by fast and with that we arrived at Bloom City. Again, we passed through the city without stopping. By the size of our party, if we stopped at any point, someone was bound to recognize the princess, if word of that got out, nothing would halt anyone from causing us trouble.
After twists and turns we finally arrived at the embassy just on the border of Heryan. The four story building was massive and had emblems of the royal family of Heryan as well as emblems from the empire. Not only that, the ramparts that guarded the embassy made the building look like a fort, particularly because it was located in a forest a couple of hours from Bloom City. Before even crossing the ramparts that guarded the building from the outside forest, I felt the barriers surrounding the embassy. The guards that received us chatted with Alec while we waited inside the carriage; rooms were arranged for the Princess, for the King, for Lorelai and one for me, there were barracks near the side of Heryan where our guards would be sleeping tonight.
The meeting was scheduled for tomorrow so the Emperor was on his way here and was likely to arrive either at dusk or tomorrow morning. Baro, the ambassador and the representative of the alliance was the one that personally informed us about it. I went outside to talk with Alec and found him just outside of the gates speaking with all guards that were posted there, he informed me that he would check the perimeter with all of the guards posted at the embassy, while he did that I would teleport Princess Alexis and Lorelai back to his majesty’s castle to inform him of our arrival, that way he could decide if he would be making an appearance today.
King Lucius decided to wait, if the Emperor showed up today I would teleport His Majesty to the embassy, if not, he would make his appearance tomorrow morning. He would be accompanied by Sir Freed and Emilia too, it was a smart choice since the royal magician could clear things up in a conversation. They would be talking about their relations with the Empire but the recent incident of the church was to be brought up in conversation as well. She also provided the King with additional security which meant that I would be able to go all out if my enemy showed up.
The problem came when I tried to teleport back to the embassy and found out that the barrier that they set prevented transportation magic. Luckily, I actually saw the outside of the embassy when I went to talk with Alec. Getting inside the fortress again wasn’t difficult, since all of the guards knew our faces. I did have trouble deciphering the expressions that the guards had when we passed them on the way in so I just let it go.
I woke up before dawn to teleport back to Sunnara. All of our guards were already up, the Emperor was schedule to arrive sometime in the next two hours, Lorelai mentioned that she would get some breakfast and check on the Princess so I waited to see them together, that way I could apply my 『Arcane
Shield』 on both of them, I then went to talk with Alec and asked him to wait with a few soldiers near the gate as I would be coming back with his majesty.
Teleporting to Sunnara was easy and quick as always. The royal guards at the castle’s gates immediately recognized me and Alphonse was just outside of the entrance waiting for me. I had to wait for a few minutes for the King, Sir Freed and Emilia to arrive but Alphonse insisted that I eat when he heard that I hadn’t eaten anything yet, that turned out to be a wise choice because I ended up waiting for more than thirty minutes until my party arrived at the tea room that I was in.
“Good morning Sir Hunter, I apologize for the wait, I had to get the right scrolls to present in the conference” Emilia said, her cheeks were red as if she was embarrassed by something.
“Good morning” I said just as the king and sir Freed joined and greeted us.
We discussed a few more details about the embassy, I mainly told them that the Emperor would arrive soon and that I told Alec to wait near the gates, I would have to teleport outside since the building had the barrier around it and I wasn’t going to take my chances while protecting them. Just to be sure, I used 『Arcane Shield』 on the three of them before asking them to hold my extended right arm so we could teleport.
Alec was indeed waiting with a fleet of soldiers and when they saw us approaching their response was bowing and saluting His Majesty. I then guided the three of them to the conference room where Princess Alexis and Lorelai were eating their breakfast along with Baro. They exchanged greetings before talking for a bit.
I took the time to examine the spacious rectangular room that had a board to the right side and cabinets to the left, in the center was a large decorated wooden table with comfy chairs, I counted twenty seats, eight at either side of the long sides of the table and two at either short side. In the end of the room there were also glass doors that lead to a balcony outside, as a bonus, the lighting in the room was spectacular at that instant.
The Crimson Warlock Page 14
