The carriage moved across the rugged dirt in a comfortable, quick speed, the horses that pulled not losing the steady pace even after moving for the majority of the day. It had become the early afternoon, and the sun was placing itself upon the very top of the sky.
Adaceus took the reigns high and brought them down again, he was getting used to this, almost second nature in the way he did the movements. He turned to the trotter sounding beside him, and saw the black mane, matching the pace with the carriage. Mounting on them were the two guards, all dozing off in sleepiness, where one guard drooled sleeping in the back of the one in front, plunging his body directly unto it, and the other trying his best to stay awake, the bags on his eyes sagging below.
Adaceus only watched.
They pressed onward on the trail, and Adaceus glanced at Hainan.
He was a good looking man, sharp and elegant features with slight, barely visible wrinkles on his cheeks and a tuff of hair on his chin that showed his middle-age, and on it were circular glasses. His eyes, with a soft and gentle quality, were gentle looking, his hair was kept long, blueish black hair that shined a light violet on the moonlight and reached down to his neck, and was tied on the ends with a hair tie.
"Mr. Hainan, how long now until we reach the city called Prahu?"
Hainan abruptly woke up, his eyes heavy from exhaustion but quickly widened from Adacues's question.
"O-oh! Uhm," he gurgled, rubbing the temples of his glasses, "in rough estimation, ahem, we should only have a days worth of travel to be doing, were close."
"That's good." Adaceus, bluntly replied.
And after that brief exchange, things suddenly turned quiet, and the only thing sounding were the horses hooves clacking on the earth and the light jostling of the carriage.
After a couple of minutes, Adaceus glanced toward Hainan, his mask causing him to turn even more as to get a good look, and directed his sights toward the wound on his shoulder, and saw that he was rubbing it irritatingly, the dried blood dying the fabric of his suit.
"Is something the matter with the wound? Mr. Hainan."
Hainan became slightly startled, shaking briefly and looking at him with wide, open eyes.
"I-Its," he stuttered, "Its fine, it just, itches a little bit."
"I see, the spells starting to become un-done, I casted it for a full remedy, but the best I could do was a temporary enchantment, I apologize for that."
Hainan widened his eyes further.
"N-no, it is fine, the fact that I am still all right and alive is something I'm grateful for. If you didn't save us from that monster attack I wouldn't be alive, so thank you."
Hainan frantically said to him, with the utmost sincerity in every word he spoke.
"Y-your, welcome, I suppose," He said, before giving a light cough.
"What were those monsters anyway?" Adaceus asked.
Hainan only slumped back on his seat, and clutched his chin with his fingers.
"Those were cristleback's,"
"Cristleback's?"
"You haven't heard of them?"
Adaceus only gave a shrug, and Hainan grinned.
"Well, their viscous and highly territorial monsters that attack anything in sight of their territory, we were unfortunate enough to encounter them on the area they settled in, poor sir Zovrech suffered a large brunt of their attack, the unlucky fellow."
"And I commend you for slaying them and rescuing us, you are a child, and yet... your strong." Said Hainan, who tensed his eyes and fell silent, focusing toward the trail.
Meanwhile Adaceus paused for a moment, stalk frozen in place and faltering on the grip on the reins.
Child? He wondered.
He let one of his hands go of the ropes, and observed it, rotating it all around, taking in the details. With the free hand, he fiercely patted down his body, and as a few seconds pass, a flash of understanding came to him like a thunderclap.
Right, I forgot. He grimaced.
And Adaceus raised and brought down the reins again, trying to distract himself.
"Hnn, that reminds me, Mr. Hainan, you said we are going back to your home, correct? The city called Prahu?"
"That's right, why?"
"Where did you go before all of this? Where were you previously?"
"Oh, suppose I should explain that," he closed his eyes, and his posture calmed, "the first thing I should tell you is that I am a merchant, and I say this without sounding boastful, a very successful one, one who has a very special authority to sell spectacular products, and I like to be hands on in endeavors concerning my work, so one day when a report came in of new merchandise arriving, I traveled to one of my warehouses that supplied my products, a routine inspection."
Adaceus nodded along and listened intently, taking interest in this topic.
"I may have taken a bit to long, the products delivered to me caught my attention and distracted me until the end of the day, and I had failed to realize when it had long become night. I knew it was dangerous, but I saw that as no issue and hired sir Zovrech and others to guard me. You know the rest after this."
"Hmm," Adaceus hummed.
And after this Adaceus brought the reins up, then back down again before asking a myriad of questions, particularly on the nature of Hainan's line of work, the products he would sell, and from this Adaceus learned a lot of things that pertained to this world, listening intently for any knowledge that was available and absorbing it the best he could. He learned that Hainan sold a variety of items, his ventures in business, but as the topic slowly moved to a territory of unknown to him, the words came and went out the other ear, and his focus on the conversation lulled.
A couple of minutes of this, Hainan stopped as he noticed Adaceus become fully ill with sickness from the lengthy discussion and the complicated nature of it, which shocked him, until something above caught his attention, and he realized it was starting to become night. Adaceus noticed it as well when he calmed down.
####
And they continued to travel, and after hours of riding the trail along, the afternoon had become night, where they settled in a camp the found, a clearing on the left side of the trail, with logs spread around a well lit and placed fireplace in the middle. On the logs, people were placed on them, leaning comfortably upon them.
They were exhausted after all the traveling they did, and it weighed heavy on them, so much so that when this refuge was fully set up, they had taken it upon themselves to sleep first, the exhaustion finally taking hold. They didn't bother to take account a night watch for security and safety, so Adaceus was the one that stepped up, unbeknownst to them.
After tending to the fire, feeding the flames a new set of twigs and logs, Adaceus sat down one of the logs, and looked across the perimeter that was this camp. Across from him was Hainan, his arms and legs crossed with each other, and his head hung low in sleep. On his left were the guards, sleeping while leaning their backs together in a lazy pose, drooling from their lips. Adacues looked down, and patted the heads of the girls that slept on his lap, Fiora on his left while Agie was on his right. They had gotten of while the camp was being built, in preference to the soft grass for their rest. He turned toward the open carriage and saw Zovrech, leaning on the entryway with his lance to his side-he had no idea how he got there.
He carefully set aside the two girls, leaving them huddled together before standing up and sat down directly on a log. He was planning to summon a black soldier as a guard, but a shining of red light coming form his pocket drew his attention.
It shined a crimson brilliance, emitting a bright light that hurt if he stared for to long, placing his hands above his eyes to shield him from the rays. He shuffled on his pockets without looking, and felt around, before his hand latched on to an object; pulling it out, he pushed through the blinding light, to see that it was the small, red marble he had gotten from that decrepit city.
It flickered for a few seconds, before fizzling out, and only a minute shine surrounded the body.
"Interesting."