A few days had passed since Rin, Elisa, and their teachers had that conversation regarding the "accidentally" broken-down train.
Now, the rookie martial artist and Elisa were currently on their way to the site of the accident, being taken there in a small, bulky car.
The two of them were sitting in the back of that vehicle, with someone else sandwiched between them.
"Is your other friend going to be there on time?" Elisa asked, leaning back so she could talk to Rin directly, without staring into the side of the first friend Rin invited.
"Uh, yeah," Rin replied, doing the same, reaching up and pushing white hair behind her ears. A few beads of sweat rolled down Rin's thighs, just past where her grey dress stopped.
"Awesome," Elisa replied with a sigh. "And here I was, thinking it would be a slightly more... intimate trip, Triss."
[... I'd be lying if I said that part of why I invited these two wasn't to avoid that. You,] she spoke to Elisa in her thoughts, [have a tendency of distracting me. You still do. I need some people here to help keep me focused.]
And, indeed, one of those two individuals whose help she'd enlisted was currently sitting between her and the blonde, her hands resting on her lap as she stared ahead frozen, like a statue.
Sara hadn't said a word since giving both Elisa and Rin a brief and curt "hello" just before they'd entered this car. Obviously, Rin hadn't been expecting too much out of her in the form of conversation, she was a very quiet girl, after all, but Rin had thought she'd loosened up a little before.
Maybe not, however.
"We should be arriving in just a minute or two," the driver told them. "How long should I wait?"
"Just head back to Libera. We're likely going to be here for a day or two," Elisa responded.
Rin had been the one to suggest to her that she send the driver back after taking them there. After what had happened at Alera to the person who'd taken Rin and her teachers there, Rin wanted to be careful.
The car passed over a big rock and the car shook. Rin looked down at the bag in her hands, wondering if Xhez had been woken up or not. Of course, she'd brought her friend. Rin didn't know what could happen on this trip. It hurt her heart to potentially thrust Xhez into danger, but they could end up needing her help.
Elisa glanced at Sara and then snuck a look at Rin. Rin just shrugged.
[Well... My other friend is probably going to be a little more talkative. You might just end up liking her less, though.]
A while later, the site of the accident came into view.
Already, many had gathered around it. As they'd predicted, pretty much everyone wanted to get this issue fixed as fast as possible, as too much relied on the train in order to operate smoothly.
Construction workers, guards, mechanics, government officials, and some of the nobles who would be paying for all of this could be seen standing around, passing the time as the workers did their jobs.
For Rin, the number of people here only made things more tense.
[How many of these people are connected to the Scorned in some way? All of them? How will they react when they see me?]
The last the Scorned had seen of "Triss" had been her at that party, though Rin and Sara had quickly eliminated everyone who should have been able to identify them as infiltrators. Maybe word had spread about this persona of hers somehow anyway. She was going to treat this like that was the case, just to be safe.
The car slowly stopped and the girls hopped out. They grabbed their bags and the car quickly went in reverse, turned, and drove off. None of them had brought too much with them. Elisa assured her that, unless *something happened*, the repairs should have been done soon after they arrived.
Sara's right hand hovered over the hilt of her sword as she looked around, getting a feel for their surroundings. Her eyes were pulled off the people here, however, as Rin placed a hand on her wrist.
"Ease up," she whispered, as Sara's eyes locked with hers. "We don't want to attract too much attention."
Sara looked down at the hand that was still gently holding onto her before nodding and taking a step back.
"... My apologies," she muttered. Rin gave her an easy smile.
"Well," Elisa said, "come on. We should probably greet some people here and there. The last thing we want is to come off like we're waiting for a fight to happen."
Elisa led them to a couple of old, chubby men in suits. Their eyes conveyed a thinly-veiled lust as they fell onto them.
[Good,] Rin thought. [If everyone here has that same reaction, it means no one knows who I am.]
The more likely scenario, however, was that Elisa's fight would paint a target over her back in particular. So, Rin made an effort of seeing not how people reacted to her own presence, but that of her classmate.
Or former classmate, rather.
"Ah, Ms. D'Ana, welcome," one of the men said. "I'm sorry to say that if you came to gawk at the backbone of our society as they went about their business, you're a bit late. Most of the work is done, already."
"Is that so? I suppose I may have to find some other way of entertaining myself, then," Elisa replied with a polite smile. "I take it I'm the only member of my family to arrive thus far?"
"You are," the other man replied. "Some of us were beginning to wonder if the owners of this incredible machine were actually going to show up or not. I'm sure everyone will be glad to see you cheering them on."
[So, that's the official story, then? We're basically just here as cheerleaders?]
"And, who are these beauties?" The first guy asked, looking at Rin and Sara.
"Ah, this is Triss," Elisa said, introducing Rin. "She's a dear friend from a minor house. And, this is our bodyguard, Sara." Their eyes went to the longsword Sara carried and Elisa added, "we don't expect anything to happen, but one can never be too careful."
"Many of us share that sentiment."
That statement hadn't come from anyone involved in this conversation. Instead, it was said by a woman approaching them from the side.
A dark-skinned woman, wearing the almost regal white-purple garbs the Mages Guild's higher-ranking members were known for, intruded on their conversation. One with a grin and a pair of mischievous eyes set on Rin specifically.
"Good morning, Triss," Sye said, barely containing her giggles upon speaking that false name. "It pleases me to see that you are doing well."
Rin breathed a sigh of relief.
[Okay, she made it in time. My letter reached her. If anything happens, I like our odds now.]