"Ah, how about we drop it for now…" Scratching his head with an uneasy smile on his face, Kaster decided to laugh the topic away. It was obvious that the meaning of being marked was deep, otherwise, he would just explain it. What's more, if it was something silly, the guards wouldn't play along with it in the first place.
But ultimately, Layn decided to just nod his head and drop the topic. If for some reason it was hard on Kaster to speak about it, then there was no point in pushing his buttons. After all, it was only a matter of time before the archmage would learn what it means. \
Walking along with the party, Layn quickly noticed that they were really leaving the city. Considering how everyone seemed to only carry a small bag, a pouch and their weapons, it didn't seem like it was any trouble for this group to move around on short notice. But that didn't mean Layn wasn't grateful for how considerate they were.
After all, he was the only reason why the situation escalated back with Kerren. Even though he was obviously bullying the girl, there was no way he would dare to do anything serious in the middle of the city. The fact that Layn couldn't keep his tongue behind his teeth ended up forcing the entire group to leave the war camp - something that they didn't seem to want in the first place.
"Hey…" After several moments of walking, Irea closed in on the archmage before snuggling rubbing her shoulder against his arm. Her lowered head made it impossible for Layn to read her mood or intentions.
"I… I wanted to thank you. I wanted to thank you for standing up for me." Fingers of her hands played with each other above her abdomen as she silently whispered those words. For a moment, her body trembled, as if she was scared of Layn ridiculing her for some unknown reason.
"Don't even mention it. While I was quite excessive with it, isn't it the way that all men should act? Are the guys in your culture really that different from those I knew?" As silly as his excuse of being groomed by some kind of expert on the desert could be, Layn still could use it for his own benefit. It was thanks to how broad this fake backstory was, that he could adopt any mindset in the public, without anyone recognising it as a sign of him being from the future.
"I don't…" Instantly attempting to rebuke Layn's words, Irea raised her head up while doing so, only to reveal how teary and red her face was. Realising this fact while in the middle of denying what the archmage said, she turned mute only to lower her head again.
"I don't know… But yes, you are different from the others." After a long moment of silence, Irea finally admitted before rapidly running away from the archmage's side.
'What a strange girl…'
Layn didn't feel insulted by being called out for being different from the others. While it wasn't a good sign for his disguise, if he were to appear just like everyone else in these times, it would be a far greater problem.
For the rest of the day, nothing else of significance happened. Walking forward at a slow yet steady rate, the group didn't stop even for a moment. If someone had to go to the side, it was his or her duty to catch up with the others later on.
The only event that stood out from the monotony of walking for several hours, was mealtime. While everyone pulled some kind of rations from their small backs whenever they were hungry to snack on it as they walked, when Irea did so, she quickly cast a glance at the archmage before once again getting close to him.
But instead of talking him up or even pretending that the events from before didn't happen at all, she simply forced a huge piece of beef jerky in his hand before moving several steps aside and starting to munch on her own piece.
"Everyone, let's stop for today. We walked far enough." Once the sun started its slow descent behind the horizon, Karter finally announced the end of today's journey. As if it was the most common thing in the world, everyone stood on the spot before jumping away.
Without wasting even a single moment, everyone took their backpacks down, quickly putting all the insides on the ground only to turn this surprisingly small piece of cloth into a tiny tent. Stuffing their belongings at the feet of the temporary housing, within just a few minutes from when their leader announced the stop, everyone already had a place to sleep.
Standing without a clue as to what he was supposed to do, Layn only managed to scratch his head. Even if it wasn't a problem for him to sleep outside with just some grade one or two spells, the prospect of the awkward atmosphere that having their guest sleeping under the starry sky would bring to the group was an actual problem that the archmage had no idea how to face.
"Okay then, I will take the first guard. Layn, you can take my…" Before Karter could finish his words, Irea run up to him only to stomp her heel on his feet.
"Don't mind him. I will take the first guard. You can rest in my tent for now, okay?" Smiling sweetly to the archmage only to quickly turn her head towards her leader and stop her heel again, Irea managed to completely and utterly defeat Layn with her actions.
Dropping all the ideas of understanding her motives or reason, Layn only managed to nod his head.
"Thanks, I will take you up on your offer."
Contrary to sleeping outside, doing so in a tent, even if only for a few hours, would allow the archmage to regenerate a tiny bit of magic more than if he were to protect himself while sleeping outside. In this world of unknown dangers, Layn didn't dare to underestimate the potential dangers, forcing himself to be as prepared for anything as possible.
Yet, there was one thing that the mage forgot to consider. Even though walking long distances wasn't something new for him, it was already a long time since he last did so. Even then, his newly remade body still wasn't used to this kind of strenuous exercises. That's why, as soon as his head touched the simple bedding crafted from several layers of cloth and soft vegetation gathered from around the place, he just couldn't help but doze off in an instant.
'Ah… It smells nice…' With the upper layer of the bedding made with Irea spare clothes, her scent instantly overwhelmed Layn's mind, as his consciousness faded away.
"...ey…" Still halfway in the lands of dreams, Layn couldn't really make up what he just heard.
"Hey." With a few more shakes to his shoulder, his consciousness finally returned to Layn's mind. "Scoot over."
Opening his eyes, he saw Irea's cute but tired face as she scrambled to fit into the extremely tight insides of the tent!