It was a day where the sun shined brightly as the journey had begun. Most members were separated into various kinds of carriages and simply enjoyed talking about the scenery. However, in the royal carriage was Oswald, Olivia, Celestine, Viscount Zeraphim, and Ulysses, it was fairly large that it could accommodate around ten people, so they invited Serkyrio, Arlesk, Remuel, and Draxus to go with them. Because of that, they brought in two chessboards and started playing out of boredom. Draxus was playing against Serkyrio while Arlesk was playing against Remuel.
"What... Is this...?" Oswald muttered while looking at the chess pieces with interest. Serkyrio gave him a reasonable explanation while moving the pawn two squares forward. "This is like, a form of entertainment in my world. We play these kinds of games to develop our strategy skills and further improve our planning." Oswald let out a voice of deep interest [Heeeh?] while staring at the pieces. "The pieces look nice actually..." Draxus was also explaining the game to Olivia while concentrating a little bit. Remuel and Arlesk were already in the midgame even though they're also explaining to Ulysses and Viscount Zeraphim. Celestine was watching the chess match beside Olivia with interest as they receive explanations from Draxus. Because of the fact that he's playing against Serkyrio, he's not exactly sure on how to approach it. "This is a little bad..." When Draxus muttered that, Olivia immediately asked him about it. "What's wrong?" Olivia turned his gaze to Draxus who was biting his nail while thinking. "I have positional advantage and set up some traps but..." Serkyrio was still explaining to Oswald about the game of chess calmly. Draxus moved his bishop to his planned position and tried to anticipate what happens. "With his placement, I know that he's up to something dangerous." Olivia looked a little worried at Draxus which made him lose his tension. "Don't worry, it's just a game, our true intensions of playing chess is to improve our skills in planning." Olivia smiled as both of them looked at each other. Arlesk who noticed that grinned while Remuel was about to say something dangerous. "[Loli-]" Draxus who head that instantly interrupted him with a loud voice. "Uoii!!! Shut up and pay attention to your own board!" Remuel and Arlesk simply laughed while Ulysses showed a wry smile. However, Serkyrio who was smiling over the panicked Draxus, noticed some displeasure from Viscount Zeraphim. In his mind, a thought process came out: "Jealousy? No, maybe he could be aiming to become a king?" He continued to smile and enjoy the trip while keeping a mental note to keep an eye on Zeraphim.
It was around midday when the carriages had stopped to prepare lunch for hundreds of people. On this number, it would be difficult to continuously try to supply food but Begona who told them that there's no problem as long as there is something to hunt for them. Their group, after Serkyrio forced Begona to learn the basics of magic, had also made progress on her side as she does mass communication to her group. With little time to train though, they're still on the basic levels. Serkyrio went with his younger sibling Charnet and her friends to have lunch with Oswald who requested to teach him chess. Ulysses, Celestine, and Viscount Zeraphim were having talks with Arlesk and the rest of the members on the circle that Serkyrio organized. Remuel went to look for his group for lunch while Draxus went to some of his friends for lunch.
"Yo, Pauleen." He called out to the girl who was cooking some food on the fire. "Ah, Draxus! How are you?" Pauleen responded as turned around to call Juniper out. "Doing just fine, how's your magic training?" Olivia who was behind Draxus appeared in front of Pauleen. "Draxus, who is she?" While tilting her head, Olivia asked Draxus about Pauleen who had smooth, long, black hair that is native to asians. "Ah, she's Pauleen. She's one of my friends." Draxus then introduced Olivia to Pauleen. After mentioning that Olivia is a bona fide princess, Pauleen showed a lot of interest to her before turning her gaze back to Draxus. "Aiming quite high are you? Nice catch!" Draxus who received the teasing voice of Pauleen immediately retorted "Oi! What do you mean by that?" But was beautifully ignored. Juniper who arrived noticed Draxus and a girl standing next to him. "Ooh, Draxus, who is she?" Pauleen was the one who introduced her this time. After knowing that Olivia is a princess, she immediately lowered her head a little and said something Draxus couldn't ignore. "Please take care of Draxus, he pours a lot of effort in his actions." Draxus who heard Juniper immediately tried to retort once again. "Oiii!! Don't bring up black history!!!" However, he was once again, beautifully ignored. Draxus ended up having lunch with their group. He had some light talk with some of his friends but he pretty much ignored the couple with the completely wary guy.
"I've never seen a dish prepared like this before..." Olivia muttered in interest as she was served a bowl of soup with garnish prepared nicely. Draxus who made that kind of dish for his group with the assistance of Pauleen and Juniper. "You should try it, since people tend to be sluggish during noon. It's best if you kept yourself energized." Draxus laid his jacket over Olivia's lap to avoid getting the spills to drop on her dress. "Hmm... I wonder where that insane evil person go?" Draxus who received Olivia's smile turned his gaze away for a second before responding. "Well, it's to balance out my evil and kind sides after all." Olivia's smile turned radiant as she started eating slowly. Draxus felt a bit of relief as he started eating as well. That relief however dissipated as Pauleen started teasing him with a smug face, causing Draxus to flinch from time to time as he couldn't really raise his voice in anger to them. After lunch, they had returned to their carriages excluding Remuel, who decided to hang around with his group for the time being. The person who replaced him was Audrey. She's currently helping Draxus do some enchantments.
Olivia who was curious on the cards Draxus brought out started to talk to him about it. Draxus laid down a nicely designed card which had the number zero with the words [The Fool]. It was his set of [Fortune Cards] of the tarot's major arcana. "What is this Draxus? New type of magic?" Draxus smiled as he continued pouring mana with Audrey's assistance. "Yeah, I've been thinking of using various kinds of abilities depending on the situation." Audrey assisted in explaining so that Olivia would understand. "It's something like a way to boost his powers like the card of the hero Ulysses has." Audrey was already introduced to Olivia as important personnel of Draxus. The two continued to explain to Olivia as they thought about what kind of effect will each [Fortune Card] have. The three of them were having thorough discussions while Oswald looked at his younger sister while smiling. "Olivia's getting along with him huh? What do you think Serkyrio?" He turned his gaze to Serkyrio while asking him about Olivia and Draxus. "Well, Draxus is a natural when it comes to befriending someone." Serkyrio sipped his tea before adding more explanation. "Well, he's pretty much the kind of person that likes to get along with people." Oswald simply turned his gaze back to his sister while smiling. In his mind, he thought that she would be free if she got along with Draxus. He kept his gaze on them who are talking about Draxus who is being very kind. After that, the time moved at a high speed as they traversed through the area. The day passed through speedily as it shifted to nighttime. Arlesk, who was the only one that's actively awake, wandered around while looking for a place to urinate.
"Yo." He greeted the infantrymen who are on shift to guard the carriages. They greeted back while raising their hand by a bit. "I'm looking for a place to piss, we're in a heavily open area though." The infantrymen simply laughed while pointing to a direction of a tree. Arlesk thanked them while laughing as well. He moved to the tree and saw an emblem that was carved on the tree. It was a skull mark that was pierced through by two swords and a treasure chest lying above it. He reflexively muttered in surprise while pissing. "Bandit territory?" He narrowed his eyes while zipping up his pants after pissing. He then walked back to the carriages while being on guard. Due to that, he stayed awake and started patrolling with the infantrymen that are on duty. At the first few laps, he didn't catch anyone that are around. However, after the fifth lap was when he first noticed movement within the trees. He notified the infantry men to keep walking while pretending to not notice, after which he instructed them to close their eyes. The infantrymen who got his instruction accepted the idea and waited for Arlesk to make his move. After stepping a little bit away from the range, Arlesk instantly summoned a huge ball of radiant light which exposed the positions of three people that are hiding in the grass some distance away. Because of the sudden light invading their eyes, they were completely blinded and panicked as they start to stand up slowly. However, Arlesk who had found them immediately apprehended the three. They wore shabby clothing that somewhat blends in with the grass. The people were equipped with knives and small bags that seems to be used as escape tactics. He gave a little chop to the back of their necks to temporarily paralyze their movements. After that, Arlesk brought them back to the infantrymen and left the rest of the information collection to them. They thanked Arlesk for the apprehension but he simply shook it off as something light. "Ah, no need to worry about it, just stay on guard since we seem to be in bandit territory." The infantrymen realized that and told Arlesk that they'd keep an eye out. He then went to sleep as though there is nothing else to do. The next morning came which got really noisy immediately. The four were simply drinking tea while making reports. Arlesk, who had caught some bandits scouting them had gained the respect of the infantry. According to the bandits that got interrogated, the infantrymen realized that they came from a notorious group called [Inquisitors] that was stationed in the Quisterion kingdom. They didn't let out any information regardless of what they did. So they were gagged and and tied to the back of a carriage while they headed for Quisterion's capital in peace.