Lara noted the atmosphere between Max and Laura and could not help but chuckle at the random thought that came to mind.
"What's so funny?" Max asked.
Lara shook her head. "Nothing at all. We should prepare to be on our way."
"Alright." Max was about to say more when Laura suddenly cut him off.
"I'll scout ahead to find a suitable route for us to follow."
Lara nodded. "That's okay, but you should be careful. Dan's lackeys are still around."
Laura harrumphed. "Hmmph, those guys will only be asking for a beating if they showed up. The only reason I lost was because of Dan's despicable summon."
"I understand, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."
"Hah, fine. I'll be going now."
Laura moved forward before performing hand seals in quick succession. A spatial tunnel appeared behind her followed by the appearance of her Cockatrice.
Max glanced at it. "Another Servant class."
Laura snorted. "You make it sound like it's so easy to get a better summon at my age. For your information, my summon is respectable amongst my peers so you'd best show it some respect."
Max put up his arms in surrender. "Alright, I got you."
"Hmmph." She mounted the Cockatrice after which she took off, heading into the forest in search of a pathway for their 'entourage' to follow.
"Well, she's a feisty one," Max remarked as he watched her retreating figure.
Lara pinched him on his cheek. "Give her some credit, she has been of great help to me."
"How so?"
"Her father is a rich merchant who deals with both nobles and commoners alike. I was practically broke when we met but he decided to sponsor me due to the pleas of Laura that also shared a similar ideal with me.
"Everything you see here, including the maids and guards… they were given to me by her father."
Hearing this, Max felt appreciative of Laura. "I guess she's not so bad, after all…" he trailed off as he had a certain thought.
Lara noticed this. "Is something wrong?"
"You say she shares similar ideals with you but when we met, she seemed to have a grudge against commoners," Max said.
"…That's understandable, after all, we nearly lost our lives at the hands of one."
"Is this about Dan?"
"Mn, he was the leader of the village we took these things to." She pointed at the scattered goods that the maids had most cleaned up by now.
"He rejected our goodwill saying that we were not trustworthy. Unable to convince him, we left. Who would have thought that he would come after us, not for the goods, but to take our lives."
Max frowned. "Why?"
"He is a part of the rebel army… that's the only reason I can think of. But I guess it leaves a few questions as to why he didn't just attack us when we got to his village."
Max was also bothered by this but chose not to think too much about it. The culprit was dead after all.
"So where are we headed?" Max shifted the topic.
Lara thought for a moment before answering. "This region of the forest is close to Tudor county and that was where we got the goods from. I'll return them to Laura's father when we get back."
"Alright then. It's been so long since I spoke with humans."
Lara put up a brow. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, I've been in Alfheim, more specifically, Golden Clover also known as the land of the frogs. Here's one of them." Max pointed to the frog seated on his head.
Lara had seen it previously but it was only now that she paid attention to it.
Suddenly, Gibby spoke up. "Hello." Waving its front foot to show its friendliness.
Lara waved back. "Hello… you look surprisingly cute for a frog."
Gibby chuckled. "Heh, it's all a result of grooming."
Max spat. "Shameless. You return, I'll summon you later."
Gibby cried out. "But you summoned me to train."
"I'll train later. Now I want to spend time with my mother. Be gone." With a thought, Max undid the summoning with Gibby going up in smoke as he returned to Golden Clover.
"It seems nice."
"Uh-huh."
Just then, Laura returned with her Cockatrice. "I found a pathway we can take to head back to the city."
Lara sighed in relief. "That's good. But that brings up a new problem. How are we going to transport the goods back now that the carriage is destroyed?"
Laura thought for a moment. "I could head back to Tudor County and charter a new carriage to come and help out."
Lara groaned. "That's going to cost money that I don't have at the moment."
Max chipped in at the side. "A noble that's poor, that's weird no matter how you look at it."
Lara slapped the back of his head with the latter quickly retreating. "Shut it."
"Just saying."
"Hah, apart from the money aspect, it would also take quite some time to get to the city and back. I'm not sure the maids would be willing to spend the time here even with Max's presence."
Laura was at a loss. "So what do we do now?"
Max spoke up while patting his chest. "Just leave it to me. I'll have the carriage fixed in no time at all."
Lara put up a brow. "Are you sure?"
Max did not respond as he walked over to one of the broken carriages.
Pulling out the stick Frog grandma gifted him, he directed Ordena into it causing it to transform into a staff.
Taking a deep breath, he placed the lower of the staff on the ground and began to meditate.
His actions elicited attention from everyone present as they wondered what he was up to.
Just then, plant stalks began to grow out of the ground, picking up pieces of the broken carriage and putting it back together.
Lara was pleasantly surprised while Laura remained speechless, unable to fathom Max's depths.
She could not help but glance at Lara and then at Max. "Ma'am, how is Max able to do this?... I don't sense any magic from him."
Lara chuckled. "Well, that's understandable. After all, he isn't a magician, but a Sage."
Laura kept her eyes trained on Max's back. "But I thought Sages were extinct?... Their arts are long dead and the requirements to walk on their path is extremely difficult."
"The more reason I am proud of the child standing before me. He did not let me down." Lara remarked, her eyes shining with a bright smile on her beautiful face.