"There are few things we must note. Remember – we are on a plateau high above the sea level, therefore the river might become unruly around this part." Clayton pointed on the map, "But I can't say for sure and couldn't get a better map. I didn't want to make too many inquiries as well to not raise any suspicions or leave unnecessary trails."
"Good, then we can proceed according to your plan." Nick smiled and nodded.
"You're forgetting something important, maybe the most important thing." Clayton grinned, "Whoever will look for us, will look for five women and some men!"
"Sigh, you are correct." Nick looked at the girls with a pity in his eyes because he knew what will happen next.
YunYun was incredibly beautiful while the other three were the famous 'flowers of Aurora'. It was hard to imagine any of them becoming young boys, even if it was for the time being.
"What's the big deal!" YunYun snorted, "I did you, now you do me!"
She immediately understood what Clayton meant and grabbed her hair right at her head with both hands and then turned her back to Nick.
"Sure … just your choice of words …" Nick was embarrassed, but still took out the dagger.
"W … wait … we," Beata stuttered in shock, "w … we have to become like him?"
She pointed at Nick's cleanly shaved head.
"Why? You want to look like me?" Nick giggled while the sisters and Kate gasped with red faces.
"Of course!" YunYun's voice confidently replied, "And make it look clean, the same way as I did!"
"Are you sure?" This time Nick was shocked. They didn't have to shave their hair off fully and could look like any normal youth.
"Stop wasting time!" YunYun sounded annoyed, "If my fiance has to shave his head, why can't I?"
"Sigh." Nick raised the dagger in his hand, but it took him a moment to gather mental strength. He gently caressed her hair and YunYun's shoulders trembled. She was extremely beautiful girl and she obviously knew that as well. It was painful for anyone to watch her loosing her pretty black hair.
'Mental training!' Nick whispered to himself and went on with this crime of the century.
After few minutes her head was shaved clean and the long black hair covered half of the floor.
She got up and turned around, then, seeing the wide eyes and the shocked faces of other girls, asked with tears in her eyes and a shaky voice, "How is it?"
Nick gently brushed few leftover hairs from her shoulders and back.
"It's … it's kind of cute." Kate blurted out.
Then YunYun turned her teary eyes towards Nick, "Will you even love me if I look like this?"
"Why not?" He shrugged. He really didn't understand what was the big deal – it's just some hair and will grow back, these were not teeth!
But the girl was a girl after all and understood his answer differently. She hugged him tightly and whispered, "Thank you."
Nick was stunned and didn't really know what to do, so just put his hands around her shoulders and gently caressed her back. She would soon calm down anyway.
"Do I … do I have to do like that as well?" Conny asked Steven in a weak voice. They just got out of a nightmare and were thrown into another.
"No, it's just them." Clayton sighed and shook his head, "What a weird couple. Simply cut your hair to look like normal, young men. It'll probably grow back till the time we get back home."
He got up to help and soon the little hut was filled with sobs and soft cries.
After they were done, Nick cleaned up as much as he could.
"We'll burn everything when we make a camp in the evening. Your faces and skin is too white and you'll have to get a natural tan during the next upcoming days. But be careful and for now keep your hats on to not get burned or get a heat stroke of sorts." He looked once again around the room and found everything acceptable, "I think we should change the clothes to our previous 'Southern mercenary group's' attire. What do you think, Clayton?"
"Here, I already prepared those as well." Clayton took out the long light robes, trousers and head covers, "I'll show you how to use those head covers later, just wear these things for now … just ..." Then he got embarrassed and didn't know how to continue.
"Sigh …" Nick saw the confused faces around, "You have to look like young men. I don't know what tricks you can use, but is there a way to hide your … uhmm … nature's gifts?" He pointed at his own chest. Although he started the explanation confidently, in the end he became even more uncomfortable than Clayton.
"Get out!" Kate hissed through her teeth and the three males were thrown out of the small house in an instant. The nature has 'gifted' her way more generously than the others and she found it unacceptable to even think the way Nick put it. But even if the girls didn't like it, they understood the importance of 'becoming men' and tried their best to 'cover' as much as they could.
"This part of our trip will not be as easy as the way from Berin to Olava." Clayton sighed.
Both youths nodded. Although the part that Clayton referred to was very stressful and dangerous, even deadly, all of them felt that it might feel like walk in a park compared to what they were about to experience during the next months.
'Boom!' The door of the hut was kicked wide open and four 'Southern mercenaries' came out. The trio inspected them with surprise in their eyes. If not for the white skin and tender faces, they looked quite like young men.
"Alright, let's move. The sun is coming up." Clayton clapped his hands, "Nick will instruct you on how to behave and the rest of nuances. We have a lot of ground to cover till the evening."
Only now the girls noticed that it was already bright outside and they had spent the whole night conversing and preparing. Clayton led them towards the tree cluster where the boats were hidden when Nick saw YunYun coming over and insecurely touching his arm. She probably regretted her rash decision now and wasn't sure how to act or what to say.
"Don't worry, you look good. If you were a boy, I think you would be the most beautiful boy in the world." He winked at her, but she immediately kicked his butt and both of them ran to the others while laughing out loud.
In the end the group decided to take only one canoe. Although it was a bit tight, they would be able to converse better during the first day or two and later they could just purchase another or a bigger boat in a village on the way.
'He really pulled it off.' An old man, hidden in the trees watched their canoe disappearing in the distance, 'Not only he killed off that old bastard, he even figured out the political situation in the capital. And he's not some royalty, but a self taught kid! Sigh, I'm too old for this crap.'
Then he grinned to himself, 'What will the others think when they'll get the news? Hahaha! But first, let me help him a bit. He solved an old grudge after all.'
Nazir went over to the small hut, looked around carefully.
'He is still inexperienced.' He sighed and after a minute the hut was gone and a pile of saw dust lie in its place. Nazir took out a yellowish powder from his ring and scattered over the ground, then lit it up and in a couple of minutes the saw dust turned in to a pile of ash without any smoke that could alert nearby people. Then, with a wave of Nazir's hand the ash scattered and no one could even guess that there was a small hut standing an hour ago.
After returning to the Riverside inn, Nazir wrote few identical notes that should be sent around the continent to his closest friends. All had the same sentence written on them: "The boy from Mainland killed the snake and is going home."
Watching this simple line over and over again, the usually composed Nazir became more and more bewildered.
'How the hell did he pull that off? Even if I went one on one with that old bastard, I couldn't kill him, to not speak about escaping without alerting the whole castle! And from what I understood, he killed him with a weapon as well, not a poison! Sigh, I guess I'll retire. Maybe Salma in Rolum could be a good company. No ... no way ... then I'll be poor soul within hours. Where should I go? I don't want, or rather I shouldn't, take a single step in the capital for the next ten years.'
What Nazir didn't realize, was that, in fact, the emperor was long not what he remembered him to be. Nick correctly guessed that the emperor's flame of life was dying out and he had a year, maybe two left and it was possible he was at peak strength one or two days after the replenishment, but he was hopelessly loosing his lifeforce rather quickly. The Qi was flowing out of him as if he was a sieve and there was no way to stop the process. In addition, he got sneak attacked with no option to defend against Wakizashi. Nick knew the only thing that could protect the emperor was on his right arm and therefore targeted any other part of him, but his arm. In addition, in that situation and position the old tyrant was nothing more than an old man.
Nick was the only one who knew all of that, but there was no need for him to run around and announce it to the world, thus Nazir kept reading the short sentence on the paper slip and sighed over and over. Finally he called his servant and ordered to send out the messages. Then he went to the basement, lifted up an inconspicuous stone slab, knelt down and with few more actions disabled an inconspicuous defensive rune formation. After he got up, he had five meteorite rings in his palm. He snickered, wore them on his fingers and now he had six in total. Then he left few more instructions and disappeared towards the south.
Nazir couldn't stay in the city since he would've been one of the first suspects after emperor's death was found out. But he didn't care much. While whistling a joyful tune he contemplated which friend should he visit first. He had five gifts to give out.
'I guess that weirdo Yakub is the closest one, in that case maybe I should go east.'
Nick had no idea what bloodshed will come to Olava during the next few days, but even if he knew, he most likely would applaud the disaster. Nestri empire was the enemy of the Sun kingdom and a strong supporter of the Holy Order, to not speak about the pirate gangs that plagued the southern seas. What was there to be sad about if the viper nest being destroyed from within?
The stream was carrying canoe and currently it was Nick's and YunYun's turn to paddle. She insisted to be on the same shift as her fiance and no one tried to object. There was still some time till the midday and the sun was nicely shining on their two bold heads to the great amusement of others.