After getting the instructions from Jacson, the people accompanying him and his sister got busy with their work. Everything was packed up and ready to move in less than half an hour.
Jacson and Jensia, along with Gibeth and their entourage, mounted their steeds and began their journey. The siblings rode a Commander-tier beast known as Hiring, which is very similar to a horse but much sturdier and faster.
Hirings are born as Savage-tier creatures and have the potential to reach the General tier. However, they are docile by nature. Even a General-tier Hiring could be defeated by a wild beast of five tiers below it if they were to fight.
But that didn't mean that Hiring was by any means a weak creature because what they lacked in offence was compensated by their exceptionally high stamina and speed.
It is generally considered that no creature, even two tiers higher, can match their speed and stamina, unless it is a speed or stamina oriented creature.
So, in essence, any creature that is trying to catch a Hiring would either need to be faster or have higher stamina. Because, if it couldn't catch the Hiring outright at the beginning, then the only option would be to tire it out.
Like the siblings, the people with them were also riding the same type of creature, and their stuff, which was loaded onto carriages, was also being pulled by the same kind of creatures.
But theirs were clearly of the lower tier, except for one, Gibeth. He was riding his own beast, a Skyvolt Liger, which looked like a tiger but easily three times bigger.
But it wasn't the size that set it apart from a regular tiger; it was its white-coloured fur with slightly glowing blue stripes and lighting that could be seen flicking around its paws while a faint trace of lighting could also be seen whenever it moved its tail.
Anyone who saw it could tell right away that it was an incredible and majestic creature.
From time to time, Jensia kept sneaking peeks at the Skyvolt Liger with clear longing. But there was nothing she could do to get the creature because it was bound with Gibeth with a Soul Contract, and to get the Skyvolt Liger, that contract would need to be broken, but it was easier said than done.
Because breaking a soul contract comes with its own dire risk as a backlash, which has an extremely high chance to harm the contracted one's foundation, or to be more specific, the ability to gather soul energy. In the worst-case scenario, it could even result in death.
Even if Jensia was willful, she wasn't reckless to do something like that. Especially since Gibeth was one of her father's most trusted close confidants with an "Overlord Tier" Soul Energy Talent.
And just for a beast, even one as majestic as the liger, she couldn't rob her father of such a person. And that to when there wasn't even a guarantee that breaking the soul contract would be successful without any backlash.
The soul contract used for binding the Skyvolt Liger with Gibeth was created by a rare "Soul Contract Creation Talent" holder of "Lord Tier", who lived in the empire that all the eight kingdoms were a part of.
The creator can easily nullify the contract, but the problem is that the person no longer lives in the empire. The last information about her is that she moved to another empire to join the "Creation Society".
But travelling to that place, in the current time, was challenging, to say the least, because recently, tensions had risen between that empire and the one that she was a part of.
But it's not as if there isn't any other way to successfully break this soul contract without any backlash, there is, but for that someone with a minimum of Overlord Tier Soul Contract Creation talent is needed.
But, even to her father's knowledge, there has never been anyone with that high tier of Soul Contract Creation Talent in the empire.
Her other options were to either wait for another Skyvolt Liger to show up in the market or auction or to search for it in the wildland's inner areas.
While waiting for one to show up in the market or auction was one thing, and her father would happily spend a fortune to get her one.
But there was no way that her father would send their clan's forces or his subordinates to the wildland's inner areas where even an Emperor Tier could lose its life.
While Jensia was lost in her thoughts regarding all of this, Jacson mind was racing and he was trying to run through all the possible scenarios that he could imagine that could potentially arise due to what was going to happen soon.
As they were travelling Jacson asked Riko for directions to this small, isolated village they were heading towards. Reaching around halfway there, he made a decision.
He sent the carriages carrying their stuff to the border's direction while instructing them to move at a slower than their usual speed.
At the same time, he, along with Jensia, Gibeth, Riko, her sister, and two of his subordinates, increased their speed and headed directly towards the village like a deadly storm.
A storm which promised nothing but utter chaos and destruction.
***
While the siblings were heading towards the village, a dark figure dressed entirely in all black emerged from the shadows before a pair of giant, closed doors. It was hard to determine if the figure was a man or a woman at a glance.
The figure stood silently outside the closed doors, waiting patiently. Soon, the massive doors opened slowly without making any sound, and the figure entered the room.
The room beyond was dimly lit due to the faint glow of the runes that were inscribed on the walls, creating an eerie atmosphere in the darkness of the room.
The figure walked to the center of the room, where a man seemingly to be in his forties was sitting cross-legged, seemingly meditating. His bare chest clearly shows his slightly muscular build.
The figure knelt on one knee, bowed its head and spoke. Like it's built, the figure's voice was also ambiguous, giving no hint of its gender.
"Master, I've received the news regarding the siblings. They are currently heading towards a village because the young miss wishes to do some practice with live targets. The young master at first wanted to stop her but relented after being threatened with tears. He has, however, come up with a plan to shift the blame onto bandits."
"Gibeth is still accompanying and monitoring them. According to him, the young master is, as you have said; capable but still lacks the decisiveness to become a capable leader. However, with time he will become better."
After saying all it wanted, it stopped and waited for the man to speak. The room fell into silence once more for a while and was maintained for some time.
Then, without opening his eyes, the man spoke in a calm yet authoritative tone.
"Tell Gebith to continue monitoring the kids and not to meddle with what they are doing. After they are done with their cover-up and moved from the village tell your people to make sure they did a thorough job. Something this insignificant will not create any waves. And what about Fernia?"
The man gave his instruction and asked the question without pausing for even a bit.
"Lady Fernia has sent a message that she will be returning tomorrow."
The man said nothing further. With the wave of his hand, he indicated the figure to leave.
After the figure left, the room once again regained its eerie silence.
***
At the same time that Jacson's group began heading towards the village, Venfir had just finished helping his father with the vegetable garden.
After cleaning his hands, he said goodbye to his parents and headed straight towards the house of one of the village elders, Alberic Boffin. Recently, he had started to visit Alberic to not only learn more about the world but also how to read and write.
In the beginning, had always been curious as to how he, who had his previous lifes memories, was able to understand and talk in the world's language. But never really had any reason to find out the reason behind this.
But now that he has started to dig deeper into this world's history, it has become a necessity to be able to read. But when he saw the first book ever, he was rather shocked. The reason being, the written script, surprisingly, was very similar to hindi.
At first, he couldn't believe it. But then again, he was now in a different world with all of his memories intact of his previous life. So, was this really any bigger mystery than that?
Hell no.
Thus, in no time, he was able to read and write, making him something of a genius in the village.
There weren't many books in the village, and the ones that contained history were even fewer. Still they provided him with some of the knowledge about this world's history, while the village elders provided him information about the local situation.
This village "Contou" where he lived, along with four other similar villages, had been established around 35 years ago by the late baron on the outskirts of his territory.
These were supposed to be test villages, intending to see if more villages could be built to provide a place to live for the growing population.
Mostly, people from the slums or who didn't own any property were sent here, including his parents. It was tough in the beginning, but with effort and hard work they turned this place into quite a beautiful village.
However, the other four villages didn't survive.
Two were destroyed by bandit's, one couldn't produce enough food to sustain its population. While the last one was destroyed by a creature that had somehow sneaked past the border's security, though it was dealt with swiftly, but by then it was too late.
While all that was happening, 25 years ago, the baron passed away without leaving a will or instructions as to what should be done in the situation of his death.
As a result a brutal war for succession began between his first and second son, and the village project was abandoned.
The village didn't receive any kind of support, but then again, they were free to live as they wanted, Though they still had to pay taxes regularly. But it can be considered as a small blessing that the taxes hadn't increased till now.
Today, he was going to hear about the kingdom that he lived in, though Alberic didn't know much but had promised him that he would tell me all that he knew.
As Venfir knocked on Alberic's door, he heard a commotion, and when he turned around, he saw something burning falling from the sky, and then an explosion occurred.