At the house there was an issue. Arthur and Venti had fallen asleep as well as Sapphire and Lia.
Nevera too was dozing off on the couch, Cecilia was sleeping alone in her room and Minerva was asleep with Cynthia in their room. Only Kathyln, Viviane and I were awake.
I was looking at the operation file and going through the plan again before I retired for the night.
"Won't you two sleep?" I asked them.
"We could ask you the same?", Kathyln looked at me.
"Actually, Kathyln, why don't you sit and go through these files with me? You are a captain too right?"
"I've memorized it."
What?
"F-Fine, forget it, go sleep."
But they remained beside me.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Go to sleep, that's what we want!", Viviane said.
"Fine then." I closed the operation file for tomorrow and headed to sleep.
I got into bed and pulled up my blanket and closed my eyes.
A few minutes later I entered sleep, but unlike most people I could tell when I was sleeping and when I wasn't and what was happening around me while I was asleep in astonishing detail.
So the sound of two girls sleeping beside me wasn't very hard to discern. Viviane was probably still shaken by today's events and wanted some company. Kathyln probably did it because Viviane did it.
Or maybe my hypothesis was right?
They took an arm each for themselves and hugged it tight. They came closer to my chest and slept, absorbing the heat my body radiated.
"You know I am awake right?"
And with that I shut my eyes once again to restore some energy for the operation tomorrow.
∞
"Haaawh!"
It was 6 am in the morning, I woke up with a nice long yawn and shifted to get of bed but…there was a problem.
The two girls who had taken my hands captive were still not awake. I couldn't get my hands free so I decided to just wake them up.
"Get up" I said and yanked out my hands.
They woke up lazily and clearly disliked what I had done. But there was no choice, we had a mission to complete and we couldn't afford to run late.
After sending them away, I took a bath and got myself prepared. I wore the red blazer prepared for me before hand by the FMA and put my old uniform away. I looked at myself in the mirror.
A white shirt padded with armour and a red double-breasted blazer over it, to top it off I was wearing a scarf with black and gold embroidery. It was indicative of who the captain was.
These were actual uniforms of the Captains in the User corps. These people probably had it because they raided the Classrooms frequently.
I wore my repulsion gloves and equipped myself with a last-resort handgun should anything go wrong.
I was originally a gunner in the Classrooms since I wanted to be placed in the elite assassination unit of the User corps. They were the only unit other than the terminators who used guns. But since this sword had chosen me, I had to change.
I went out to see the others dressed up in the satin black uniforms with the green 'Commissioned' band around their shoulders.
The only difference was that the girls were wearing trench coats instead of blazers and Kathyln was wearing a trench coat version of my uniform.
"Are all the preparations complete?", looking outside of the window, I asked Nevera.
"Yes, we are ready to leave, The FMA have already set off ahead of us to Kraken's coast and will be setting up camp with 17 hours or so I'm told."
He responded while imitating my posture.
"Good then, we shouldn't be behind schedule," I then stepped into the living room and announced, "We're moving out!"
Leaving via a jet would be suspicious and so we decided to go by truck, but… what we got wasn't quite what I had in mind.
"Um- is this supposed to be a truck?", Kathyln asked Avenir plainly.
"Sure... it has an afterburner, but that's for emergency situations! And hey it is detachable after use!", he replied with confidence.
I sighed, knowing that nothing more could be done.
"Load up boys, Arthur you're driving", getting into the passenger's seat, I called out to him.
"This is gonna be fun⁓", he got into the driver's seat and started the engine.
The time was now 8:15 AM, the mana engine roared and we were ready to go.
The journey would take about 2 days, we would infiltrate and steal a ship on the 3rd and then sail to Kraken's coast. On that day we would reach the camp set up by the FMA.
I looked back to see the others, there were all strapped in and were chatting amongst themselves.
We would be heading North since these mountains were in the South, if we went East we would arrive in the former land of the Yakshas, now known as the Eastern Dominion.
If we went further South down the mountains we would find the Dwarwen kingdom which would soon be one of our allies because of the marriage.
The dwarves were relatively isolated from the presence of the demons since they lived underground.
Westward, we would find the rest of the humans- The Human kingdom, its throne currently held by Hope Carbone- the last ruler of the Carbone bloodline.
His son was the prince but it was assumed that the human rule which was already supervised by demons would end completely with Hope's death.
The Human kingdom was a beautiful place and so it had the highest concentration of demons.
The North was a place of turmoil and conquest. The Central dominion was in the North instead of in the centre of Verdana Tempus, the former land of the Vikings and World Elves.
Elves all around the world were of 4 types- High Elves, World Elves, Snow Elves and Dark Elves. Snow Elves and High Elves had gone extinct and the other two races were bordering extinction.
The lands there were fertile and cold and had a very pleasant environment. The people there were peaceful until the multi-racial war long ago. Otherworlders and demons had destroyed the peace and contaminated this world.
The Elves were exploited and used for various purposes, they were a race specialised mainly in agriculture and medicine. There were warriors among elves but they were all bow wielders meant to only ward off enemies, not cut them down in close quarters.
Even now it is said that there are families of elves who are of pure lineage and not contaminated, but they are in hiding, waiting for the day when someone will once again lift the divine bow Gandhiv, a bow said to command wind and time.
This continent once had Snow Elves but they were all extinct.
Dark Elves were the only exception. They were a warrior race.
In this continent there were no more Vikings or World Elves, the branch of the World Tree in this continent had been destroyed long ago, therefore all its elves died.
The most prominent elf and the only elven god whose existence is still confirmed was Freyr, The Lord of Elves.
After the catastrophic defeat 25,000 years ago, he went into hiding and came back only 5000 years ago. He was spotted in the Holy Kingdom of Moonbow. Current status was unknown.
The Vikings were only human, and aggressive ones at that. They too were killed long ago.
***
[Night of day 1, 10:35 PM]
It was now night time, I decided to take over the wheel.
"Arthur you can rest now."
"Okay, who should I send for the next shift?"
"Send in Nevera."
"Okay."
Arthur went into the back and slept; the others where now awake with the exception of Venti.
Nevera hopped into the seat beside me.
"There seems to be a lot on your mind", he eyed me questioningly and asked.
"Just reviewing what we know so far maaan", I said while yawning.
"You know I can drive if you can't."
"It's fine, besides I'm bored..."
"Yeah, everyone is."
"Boys⁓ why don't you speed up a little, how far are we now?", Sapphire asked us with a tired look.
"One more day and we'll be there, we've still got about… 380 miles of our journey left."
"Ehh, that long?? man this is boringgg!", she said and fell back into her seat.
[Day 2 afternoon 4 pm]
It was now the afternoon of the second day, we were about 120 miles away, 4 more hours and we'd be there.
"I'll take over Aether."
"I can keep going, reserve your energy for operation"
"It's fine, besides we've only got 4 hours more"
"Alright, if you insist."
I went back and Nevera took my place. No one else was sent since only 4 hours were left.
After entering the Central Dominion we would be resting in the truck till midnight and then begin the infiltration.
I went back and noticed a strange but familiar core signature. I walked towards the equipment crates we brought and observed it carefully.
"What's up? Anything wrong," Lia asked me with concern.
"No that can't be, Minerva and I packed the supplies ourselves.", Venti said proudly.
"Why do you sound like you are bragging", Sapphire chided.
Their voices faded into the background as I looked closely, I noticed an illusion spell placed on the crates. I activated the repulsion gloves and got rid of the spell.
"Ahh-!"
All of us looked at the girl in front of me stupidly without saying anything.
"At least say something?!" she said.
"What are you doing here Viviane?" I asked her while getting her up to her feet.
"My operation begins the day yours ends, so I decided to come along secretly."
I turned to face the others.
"How did you not notice a 15-year old Princess hiding in one of the supply crates"
Venti spoke up, "Sorry, I had checked it weight and all man, it was pretty heavy so I thought that it had the supplies inside".
"Hey what's that supposed to mean!?", Viviane spoke, losing the noble air she kept around her for a moment.
I opened my mouth to say something but I refrained.
"Okay, just don't cause any trouble" I told her and sat down.
"Of course, who do you think I am?", puffing her chest out, sat down beside me.
After carefully nestling herself near me, she opened her mouth.
"Also, would now be a good time to tell me about the Classrooms Aether?", Viviane asked me eagerly.
"Fine, we have time on our hands and nothing to do with it after all, so, tell me, which parts do you want to hear?" I asked her and prepared myself to begin.