This carriage was actually quite big, about the size of a room. It was used for long distance travel by most noble families.
Once they reached the Imperial capital, or any royal capital, they would have to switch to a smaller carriage for the sake of the roads.
The interior was decorated more luxuriously than his own room. Skymender sat on one of the two couches, while Li Youcai sat on the other.
Eventually, Skymender fell asleep.
When he woke up, he heard Li Youcai's voice. "It is time to eat, Master Skymender."
Sniffing the air, he tasted egg and some meat.
Skymender got up and grabbed the plate from Li Youcai's hand.
Half-asleep, he ate the food.
Only after he finished did he fully wake up.
Li Youcai asked if he needed anything, but Skymender shook his head.
Li Youcai sat on the couch and began to look out the window once again.
Meanwhile, Skymender opened up one of his bags. This one contained all of his fantasy books.
Using a blank book cover, he began to read.
At most, Li Youcai would glance at him to check up on him, but he wouldn't inquire any further.
Time passed in this manner for many days. Sometimes, Skymender would read educational books to make sure he didn't forget everything he learned over the summer, but most of the time he read fantasy books or stared out of the window.
The trip to the Imperial Capital was not a short one at all. Luckily, as nobles, they had access to faster than usual modes of transportation. The beasts they used were bred for long distance travel and could run for nearly an entire day without a break.
They alone shortened the time by five times a normal carriage's travel time.
With the carriage made from special materials and surprisingly light, they traveled eight times faster than a normal carriage would.
This cut the nearly ninety day travel time to merely ten days.
It was an incredible display of advancements made over countless years, though only accessible to nobles.
After a week of this sort of travel, Skymender was already terribly bored. It wasn't necessarily bad, he was just tired of doing nothing but reading all day.
After a few more hours, the carriage came to a stop.
Skymender's mind immediately raced. The carriage was not supposed to stop unless the beasts needed to rest, but they rested on schedules. It was not time to rest.
He looked outside the window. Ahead, a woman lay on the road, seemingly dead.
The servants and guards of the carriage looked at Skymender, clearly asking what to do.
"Go see if she's alive."
"Who should go?" One of them asked.
"A guard, heavily armored."
Like Skymender, almost everyone had thought of the idea that this could be a trap or a set up.
After a moment, a heavily armored guard carrying two shields walked towards the woman.
He safely reached the woman and checked on her. Nothing strange happened all this time.
The guard brought the woman back to the carriage.
One of the servants, slightly skilled in the medical field, examined the woman.
"She seems to have escaped from being imprisoned. There are many injuries on her body, but it seems that she is merely passed out from hunger. What should we do, Master Skymender?"
Skymender thought for a moment.
"Bring her inside."
"But Master Skymender, what if she is dangerous?"
"Li Youcai is here. Give him a sword."
The servant nodded without arguing and Li Youcai was quickly equipped with one of the reserve swords.
He made food with the sword on his waist while Skymender observed the woman, who was laying on the floor.
She had long curly red hair and seemed to be around the age of twenty.
"Is Master Skymender feeling sorry for this woman?" Li Youcai asked.
Skymender shook his head. "Not quite."
He was thinking about how this woman got here. From what he understood after reading many maps of this area, there should not be any place to keep a woman captured.
Even if some sort of new bandit fort had been set up, how had she escaped? There was no blood on her except from her own injuries.
She did indeed have marks on her wrist, seemingly from chains, but they were relatively light.
It was hard to say what was happening, but perhaps they would get some answers from the woman herself.
Li Youcai quickly finished making food and fed it to the woman.
Naturally, she could not eat unconsciously. Li Youcai had made soup, and Skymender had to hold the woman's mouth open so that Li Youcai could slowly pour it in.
After a few minutes, the soup was finished.
Quickly giving her some water, Li Youcai propped her body up.
Before she woke up, Skymender continued to study her. Her clothes, though ragged and torn, indicated that she was wealthy, though not at the level of a noble.
After a few hours, she moved for the first time. At first, she simply mumbled while her head slightly moved, but after a few minutes, her eyes opened.
Skymender closely observed her next actions.
As soon as her eyes opened, she brought her hand to her face and scrunched up, clearly in some sort of defensive position.
She looked around warily.
After a moment, she saw the elegant carriage, as well as Li Youcai and Skymender.
"Wh-where am I?" She asked after a moment.
"On the road. What is the last thing you remember?" Skymender asked.
The woman, clearly seeing that he was a noble, quickly answered.
"I was captured by a group of bandits and imprisoned. The last thing I remember was being knocked out and taken somewhere."
Skymender looked at Li Youcai, who looked back at him.
Skymender had a guess. "Could it have indeed been a trap, but the bandits didn't dare come out after seeing we were nobles?"
Li Youcai found it reasonable. The woman spoke as well.
"They were very cautious bandits, so cautious it was a little weird. It would not be ridiculous for that to be the case, in my opinion." She said.