They let the place and few kilometers further cleaned up. All three finally changed in to their usual attire. Nick wore his jeans and the white shirt, while YunYun wore jeans and the snake skin's jacket. Zia dressed up in her usual costume, except this time black, and the same old red headscarf and belt, and could finally put her sword on her back as well. It was obvious she felt much more comfortable reunited with her beloved weapon.
Seeing his two companions freshened up and all pretty, Nick smiled and took out the leather belt he just emptied.
"Which one of you want this? I already have my wristbands so I don't really need it."
"No way I'm touching that thing again!" Zia snorted, but YunYun immediately snatched the belt away.
"How many dead people do you think your Pig sticker has touched over the years? But you still carry it on your back." Then she put it around her waist under Zia's envious eyes, but it was already too late for regrets.
Seeing this little theater, Nick tried to console, "Who knows, maybe the other two from the Trinity also have some magical items – you can have your pick when we find them."
But Zia was Zia and didn't pout for long. Ten minutes later she had long forgotten this incident as they ran along the mountain slopes towards the east.
Not only Zia, the other two soon forgot the incident as well and were already planning their next actions while casually speeding over the rocky ground. Since meeting up in the Nola kingdom the 'brainstorming' became a part of their daily routine and Nick's principle 'three heads are better than one' was gladly accepted.
Unfortunately there was not much to think of – their goal was clear – the town Ichita on the border between the Sun and Sand kingdoms where prince Helio and his garrison was stationed, and they moved rapidly towards it.
Of course, they still had topics about the Holy Order, Trinity and the war, but for now all they could do was make theories, assumptions and guesses.
On the next day the scenery finally changed when they finally saw something green for the first time in a long time and along with few puny sized trees noticed a group of wild goats. Without any discussion they immediately scaled the closest mountain to have a better look around. Since there were animals, there had to be a water source nearby and after another hour all three jumped in the cool waters of a small mountain lake.
From that point on they finally stopped rushing and, as if they were under some unanimous silent agreement, most of the time spent walking. The scenery became more and more pleasant and it looked like they had gone too far north and entered the Sun kingdom's territories.
But it didn't matter much – their goal still lie further to the east, although the trip became much more pleasant.
Last time Nick saw prince Helio was during the 'Andrew's incident' in the grand ball hall in Aurora. Now, sitting across him, Nick had to agree – the youth from back then had matured a lot. Not only because he had became older and not because of the manly scar over his left cheek. It was obvious that Helio Maxwell duringtheprevious years experienced a lot and now had a real bearing of a crown prince, the future king of the Sun kingdom.
Few moments ago they sat down around the large table in the command-tent in the garrison located within Ichita's walls. While waiting for general William Grant, there was bit of an awkward silence and the four could only stare at each other.
While Nick was observing the prince, prince was looking back at him with a complicated gaze. To this day he hadn't figured out if the wake up call he received from this blond kid back then was on purpose, an accident or maybe even staged by his father. In any case, after that incident Helio started practicing like crazy and basically became a different person. Because of the few years he wasted, it was highly unlikely for him to become as incredible as his father was, but it didn't put him down, on the contrary, he became a strong Qi master. And now, not only he practiced daily, he commanded several thousand men while keeping relentless assaults from the Sand kingdom in check.
Helio looked over at his youngest sister. Although grown up, she behaved unruly as ever and it was obvious that currently she had hard time sitting still and keeping herself together. The huge thing at her side that she called a 'sword' looked surreal, but seeing how few moments ago she easily took it off her back with one hand so she could sit, almost made him stumble.
The third visitor was even more eye catching. Her beauty was simply out of this world and Helio, similar to prince Andrew, could only shake his head envying Nick's luck in the female department.
Soon the general's large stature appeared at the entrance and his heavy steps announced his arrival. Although he was properly dressed and had a sword at his side, his large beard was as unkempt as his hair and the large circles under his eyes proved he didn't have an easy time at the front lines.
"Since you say you are not on vacation, what exactly brings you here?" Prince Helio asked after the formal introductions were made.
"We heard you were in a pitch, brother, so we came to help." Zia carelessly replied.
Prince and general looked at her in confusion, 'Help? How?'
"Zia, you're my sister and I love you, but this is a war and we've been fighting Sand's armies for a long time. How exactly are three civilians going to help?" Prince asked.
"Oh, you misunderstood! We already did and just came over to tell you that." Her answer increased the confusion in tent even more.
Seeing that, Nick came to help, "Please, let me. King tasked us to do a reconnaissance mission in the Nola kingdom during which we eliminated a group of the Holy Order's members including an elder. Afterwards prince Andrew informed us about the huge upcoming attack of the joint forces of Lori and Sand kingdoms. After consulting with the king Spencer, we departed to Lori kingdom and using guerrilla tactics caused chaos in a wide area, mostly east and south east and, from fear of potential uprising, bishop recalled Lori's armed forces. Afterwards we infiltrated Moira's central temple and assassinated their goddess Lori while leaving the bishop alive. Then we immediately departed and came here … well we could've arrived a couple of days earlier … but … well … we are here."
Nick reported main events almost in one breath only stuttering in the end not knowing how to explain their delay and it wasn't that important anyway.
Nick didn't say it out loud, but he had to give his deepest respect to the prince and general. Contrary to the king Alexander who, listening to Nick's reports, usually destroyed his furniture while being unable to remain seated, these two still sat in their chairs. Despite the deep shock on their faces, they still managed to keep their outer calm.
"I guess we will need more than that." General Grant finally broke the silence.
What followed was almost three hour long Nick's report and, while the two girls were almost bored out their minds, prince and general were attentively listening while from time to time interrupting and asking some clarifying questions.
"… and now that we are here, there are some things we could assist with. But first, we need to know more about current situation." Nick finished his report.
At this moment prince and general had their bearing back and, despite Nick's report sounded more like a story in a tavern, there was no reason for him to make up anything. Unfortunately, despite their amazing deeds, general didn't see any application of their talents around the war front.
"I appreciate the offer to help, but there isn't anything you could do here except becoming strong, but regular foot soldiers." He shook his head.
Zia immediately pouted while Nick and YunYun also felt somewhat at loss. Seeing that, prince tried to explain, "It's not that you didn't help. On the contrary, forcing bishop to recall his forces was an incredible deed. The problem is that Lori's army compared to the army from the Sand kingdom is laughable to say the least. And the forces from the Sand kingdom are better equipped and currently are preparing for a large scale attack that would have long began before Lori kingdom's forces would've joined up with them. From what we gather, once again they are changing their harassment tactics into a full front force assault. I mean, these are not random packs of mounted nomads with bows anymore – this is a large force of the regular army."
"It's fine." Nick smiled back, "Please don't feel guilty just because you can't deploy us – we have a lot of stuff to report to his majesty anyway and will return to Aurora, unless … right! Since you guys have the best and newest intel, maybe you could share if you have something on the Holy Order, maybe sighting of its members or their movement."
"Well. Not sure how that can be of any help, but one of our scouts did report few days ago about sighting few suspicious people who could fit your description – they were in dark red, almost black robes. They were following a peculiar other one that had a hooded robe. But it was deeper in Sand kingdoms territory so ..." General said, but Nick's reaction startled him.
If earlier Nick spoke carelessly while casually sitting back in his chair, then now, hearing general's words, he sprung up and almost shouted leaning forward over the table, "Don't tell me he had one arm?!"
General Grant looked at him in confusion, "So?"
"You guys!" Gears in Nick's head spun at a lighting speed, "You don't even realize in how deep sh*t you are!"
"Explain!" Although general had an itch to smack this kid to calm down, he held back.
"That's elder Jan!" Nick was still all stressed up and general's next question almost drove him mad.
"So?"
For a minute Nick stared across the table at the two, then took a couple of deep breaths and forced himself to calm down. "Alright, let me explain you. Elder Jan is an alchemy genius specializing in poisons! The plan to poison the populace in our largest cities a couple years ago was most likely orchestrated by him. Luckily I intercepted the narcotics and afterwards the king's forces took care of the rest."
"What narcotics?" General grew even more confused from Nick's explanation.
"Do you guys even communicate with each other?" Nick almost blew up looking at this old soldier. He was a soldier after all and not a part of Simon Den's secret forces. Right! A realization struck Nick and he did what he hadn't done in a couple of weeks. Since general acted like an official, he could also act like one and took out king's silvery token.
"I know that most likely you have thing like this as well, but I hope my status in your eyes will now be sufficient for you to take my words seriously." Nick said and looked general in the eyes. Indeed, his guess was correct – general took him for a kid who most likely made up some stories to impress the two beauties at his side.
Maybe some of them were true and maybe the kid was talented, but there was no real reason to take him seriously, even if the general had read a detailed report on the events on the Nestri continent.
In fact, he doubted much of that was true as well, except, of course, the things his own brother said after returning on the "Queen Elizabeth". And, actually, his brother's words were the reason he 'wasted his time' with this kid and only out of respect to his brother continued to listen and not throw him out of the tent and the garrison.
Nick was right again, general's expression changed. Although it caused some serious inner conflict, he was a soldier and his opinion didn't matter in front of the king. And this token, although he also had a similar one, represented his king – the highest authority in the Sun kingdom.
Prince's expression changed as well. Only now he realized what transpired. Although earlier he questioned some things in Nick's report as well, he didn't think the youth was simply boasting. But now, similar to general Grant, prince Helio looked at Nick with different eyes.
The other two people in this tent, although got startled from Nick jumping up and shouting, didn't care much. Girls were already considering the implications of elder Jan being in this region. From the stories Nick had told them they instinctively could feel the approaching danger.