Snoring loudly, he managed to wake himself up again. The rays from the blissful sun shone strongly through the window, casting light upon the dormant Fire Mage and his little companion. Both having slept peacefully and with bellies full of meat, they weren’t expecting a bad day to come today. He quickly rose from the bed and stretched his arms and legs a little, greeting the rays and Coda who woke up just after. He rubbed his eyes a little and adapted to the new change of light and brightness after a pitch-black night, looking out of the window from the room that he rented. The morning had just appeared, and the sun had yet to fully raise up from the horizon; only half of it was sticking out. Although, it was hard to see behind all the spiky buildings that stuck up from the grounds of the capital, Crocus. That was right; he was still hanging around the streets here. Since his quest with the Rune Knight, he sought a place to stay for the next few days before he would continue back to Worth Woodsea. He finally yawned and leapt from the bed, while Coda quickly flapped her wings and soared up to his shoulder. He couldn’t but nuzzle her forehead a little, while he made it to the bathroom. There, he would do his daily business and stuff, and afterwards, he would get his gear on; his dark-green robes and everything, including the amulet that he had been carrying for years. He was about to open the window when he noticed something attached to the door that lead into his room; upon checking it out, it turned out to be a letter from someone. Interestingly, it had the same seal as the one that he got all the way at the sea of wood and shrubbery, so he couldn’t think too much about who it could have been from. It was, obviously, the arch sorceress herself again, perhaps up with another task for the Fire Mage? Despite the fact that the sun had just risen didn’t stop him from going out and getting some fresh air, as well as responding to the request, as he opened the window and leapt out, followed by tracks of falling, burning feathers as after-effects of his magic…

When he first met Lady Merlin, she turned out to be quite the fine host and client. She was also a force to be reckoned with, which both he and the Rune Knight could have agreed upon. Speaking of the knight, he never got her name… he felt a little irresponsible for not having asked her, but what was the chance of seeing her again, on this request sent by the very same client? If not for the way that puzzles worked, it couldn’t have been a possibility that one should have thought of, but he could always hope. Dashing around the roofs while fire rained down, quickly dying and causing no harm nor havoc, he was quick on making it to the streets of Crocus that laid a good mile away. Below, he could soon spot Lady Merlin look as if she was awaiting them as he descended…

535/3000

Eva ran the wide bristled comb over her hair, gently tugging it down between the tangles -if there were any in her perfect hair- to get it undone. It laid behind her like calm waves, a few strands astray over her bare shoulders. With a white fluffy towel wrapped snuggly around her, Eva had every bit of the appearance of someone who had just came out of a very satisfying bath. She sang a soft tune to herself, brushing the comb through the silky strands of her hair once more before setting it down and getting up. Her gait, light and airy, as she moved to the closet. Without a thought, she pulled out a blue oversized top and white shorts. She paired them up with some white ankle boots. Eva was finally done dressing up when the fluffy towel was thrown to the floor far from her.

Over to the vanity mirror she went, taking out whatever makeup items she wanted to have for the day. Completely bypassing the heavy foundations, she went for a BB cushion instead, gently patting it over her face before applying some mascara, eyeliner and lipstick. On days that Eva had work to do, she knew she didn’t need anything more than that and on that particular day, it just so happened to be that she received a letter from one rather tricky client, someone whom she knew would try to get under her skin as soon as they were in each other’s vicinity. In complete truth, Eva wished she could just avoid the taller woman but despite it all, her respect for the sorceress was high enough for Eva to help her. Possibly the greatest female sorceress in all of Fiore, it was impossible to ignore her ever or at all.


Looking over at the neatly folded letter sitting on her table, Eva sighed. She went over to grab the piece of paper, turning it around in her hands once more to read through the contents. In small, neat, blue ink, and curved letters, Merlin gave her the simplest instructions possible, not going over one single paragraph, asking for the young mage’s presence that morning to aid her with something she wanted to go into details of once they meet face to face. After folding it back one more time, Eva tucked it into the back of her shorts’ pocket before walking out the door, her room left in a mess that it always was for her ever capable manager to take care of.

Hanase san, during the last few days, seemed over worked. She wasn’t sure if Eva was seeing it wrong but the man did not seem as enthusiastic as he always did when he scolded her for jumping straight into danger. She could never get enough of his overprotective mother nature but something had turned off inside the older manager that he had completely stopped telling Eva anything as she left. As a result, believing that whatever was happening to him was probably something he could take care of on his own, Eva stopped giving him any bit of her daily plans on the days she didn’t have her modelling job. But for a while now, since there was no improvement in his mood, Eva had wondered that perhaps she needed to have a very long and meaningful talk with him. Maybe, once this was over, she would hold a proper conversation with him.


With that in mind, Eva stepped out of the inn they were staying in, turning right and walking towards the spot Merlin had specifically written on the letter to meet up at. She crossed over the streets, courteously greeted anyone that recognized her through her jobs and moved on, now wondering if she should have worn a hat as well. After all, if this business of Merlin turned out to be something shady, the last thing she wanted was for anyone to recognize her. But as it was too late to go back or even go looking for one inside a shop, she moved on, turning a corner, finding Merlin at a distance. From there, she also saw one other person quickly dropping down in front of the blue haired woman, instantly drawing her attention over to him.


Eva sped up, reaching them just as soon as it looked like they would start talking. “Good morning,” she greeted them both, nodding at the raven haired fire mage she now knew as Hyoen and giving him a simple smile. “Ah, you are here too, Eva san.” Lady Merlin acknowledged them both, giving them both an once over. “Good morning. I didn’t think you two would arrive just on time,” she laughed at her own joke as Eva looked away and shrugged. “But since you two are here, let’s get down to business, shall we?” She took a piece of paper out of thin air, handing it over to the raven haired boy. “That’s the details of a caravan transporting a very precious item of mine over to the castle. The only problem, and I realized it too late, is that this caravan service is apparently known for its not so delicate ways of handling a package and this item that I have to receive must not break in any situation,” the woman narrowed her eyes at the word must, indicating that she was not joking over the matter at all.

“I need the both of you to escort the caravan to me in the castle making sure that the said item is not damaged or broken or even scratched. Is that clear?” Eva nodded, looking over the shorter boy’s shoulder to read through the information on the caravan service. “So they should be arriving at the gates soon,” Eva tapped the boy’s shoulder, gesturing with her head that they needed to go before turning around and leaving, not bothering to bid the slightly pouting sorceress any sort of goodbye.

992/3000

The roofs were getting a little smooth now. It had rained quite a lot during the night, because the heat that overflowed the streets earlier had gotten up to the skies and brought vapored water with it, soon to be collected into masses of clouds that would have dried themselves during the same night. He could hear it when he was asleep, the rain drops hitting the window like bullets and hail. Otherwise, it was a peaceful night, and the natural phenomenon known as rain didn’t bother him the least. The guy who lived in a forest with predators and roars every hour wouldn’t let huge noises like this interrupt him in anything; heck, he could allow lightning to strike a few meters away from him, and he would hear it - yes, it was inevitable not to - but he wouldn’t be that surprised or overtaken. Sometimes, it was also just due to pure laziness; when he slept, it was often like a huge rock in the bed, cut off from the rest of the world and soaring around in his own thoughts and dreams. One could almost cook him without waking him up, and that did worry him a little when he noticed how he never noticed huge interruptions like lightning, fires on his cottage, intruders like wolves who, surprisingly, weren’t after him, bears, deers et cetera. Speaking of the wolves, that was actually a very heart-touching moment; once waking up from the smell, which was surprisingly the only thing that could interrupt his sleep, he noticed that Coda was gone in the cottage. Worried, he had searched everywhere in the forest that was infamous for its danger and residence of many fearsome animals and magical embodiments, fearless of what could happen to him but worried and anxious of Coda’s whereabouts. He took it as far as beginning to cut down shrubbery just to get a better view in the middle of the dusk night.

He quickly shook his head as he had thought long enough, and as he still saw Lady Merlin just below him, he decided to leap off from the roof and land a few meters beside her, using a bit of fire magic to soften his fall by emitting jets of fire from his feet. Slowly, he got a good foothold and stood still in front of the surprised sorceress, and just a moment after that, Evangeline showed up on the other side. “Hey there, uh… wait,” he was about to greet, but the thought that he didn’t know her real name struck him after a while of forgetfulness. However, Lady Merlin had the word, and he couldn’t just ask in the middle of her greeting and all. Therefore, he remained silent when she explained the task that was at hand; she held out a piece of paper to the Fire Mage, and Hyōen quickly accepted it and looked down on the containment as it described details of a certain caravan that Lady Merlin knew of. Apparently, it was transporting a certain item of great value for her to the castle, and that was also when his imagination went on a quick brainstorm; another amulet? A magical staff that could summon elementals? A new set of light clothes? A crown? An artifact, or some elder book with a lot of knowledge about the ancient, arcane ways? A ring? The remains of a great archmagi? Thoughts flew around his head as she continued to the problem; the caravan, despite having tried to have a reputation, wasn’t quite ‘delicate’ in her understanding. She didn’t want her dear item to break in any way, so that also shrank the possibilities of the item down to something made of glass or something else that was very vulnerable. She then asked them both to escort the caravan to her in the castle, so their job was to make sure that the item wasn’t injured or broken during the transport, in which he nodded back to her after she finished her question. He noticed that Evangeline took a quick look at the paper as he moved it closer to her in order to make it a little easier for her to read its components, while replying: “Alright, we’re off then.” He turned and followed up on the Rune Knight, while speaking back to Lady Merlin: “Consider that item safe when we meet at the castle..!”

There were a few streets from them and the gates that lead into Crocus, and when the two mages had reached the entrance where many other caravans and travelers entered through, Hyōen spotted the specific one that was described on the letter. Approaching it by moving across the bypassing tourists and locals, he soon made it to the caravan itself and looked up at one of the merchants whose role was to transport the containments to the castle by Lady Merlin’s request. He slowly looked down at the random boy too, asking: “And what’s ya business here, boy? You’re standing in the way-“ Hyōen was rather quick to reply to the merchant and explained: “Actually, Merlin asked us to help you guys direct it to the castle. I and this Rune Knight that you can see over there know some neat shortcuts and safe routes that would make the time that it takes to reach her smaller, and I’m sure that she would love that..!” After his explanation and the showing of the letter, both the merchant that was riding the caravan and the others held fingers on their chins to think deeply. Then, the one that looked at Hyōen before, spoke: “But we go’ things under control already… but if Merlin re’lly sent you guys here, then what’cha know.” Coda suddenly landed on Hyōen’s shoulder and looked up at the merchant’s face with excitement, while he simply gave back a confused grimace. “… Very well, show us the way! Ya know the streets better, ya say, then ya got responsibility for w’at happens..!” Hyōen simply nodded back and awaited Evangeline to join them on the caravan.

1012 + 535 = 1547/3000

Hyoen seemed to have ran off first, disappearing among the crowd as Eva took her own time to walk half her way there. She wanted to see what kind of state the great capital city, Crocus, was in that day. Since it seemed to have rained last night, something she didn’t realize in her sleep, Eva guessed that most people were having trouble waking up early. If people were anything like her, at least, she could be sure to say that they would be snuggling their blankets tipping off to dreamland still despite the time. However, Crocus was a rather big city with a huge population that no other city or town in Fiore could rival. So if she wanted to get the caravan safely to where Lady Merlin was, the least Eva could do was direct it around the less crowded areas with the only problem being the fact that Eva wasn’t all too familiar with it. That’s why she had taken a bit of her time to get to the caravan, snaking around the busy men, giggling children and gossiping mothers to the huge gate serving as the only exit and entrance to the city.

She spotted the caravan as soon as she got there thanks to the raven haired boy that stood next to it, obviously looking for his Rune Knight partner. “Sorry I’m late. I got uh…sidetracked,” she put one of her usual smiles on and walked around the other caravans to finally stand next to the workers, all men that looked down at her with menacing eyes. Hyoen must have discussed the details with them, she guessed just from their impatient actions. “Unbelievable,” one of them bellowed. “You two expect us to follow your lead when one of you can’t even make it on time?” the man glared straight at her. Well, this was turning out great already.

Eva pushed her irritation back, opting to politely bow at the workers. “I apologize. I was trying to look for possible routes that we can take and slightly lost track of time,” her soft voice and seemingly genuine apology calmed them down enough for one of them to simply click his tongue at her and go back into the caravan. The others followed after giving her one last glare. Once they were all in their positions, Eva went to Hyoen. “Sorry for getting you into trouble too but I’m guessing that you told them everything, right?” She just asked to make sure, would wait for his reply and then go up to the front where the caravan driver and the horses would be. She stopped to his right and then fell into a pace that could match her with the caravan’s. This way, she was able to see all the routes that the caravan was taking and she could be fairly away from all the grumbling of the other workers which was honestly starting to piss her off to the point that she didn’t want to keep up her act, enough to want to tell them to get over themselves and just do as they are told. After all, who wanted Merlin as their enemy? She shuddered at the thought. That woman was much like her; Less sugar and more than half gun powder.


As they finally approached the main streets, Eva started to get more jittery, her head turning in all directions, knowing very well that on a day like this, despite the rain and despite the slow pace they would start their day in, almost everyone in Crocus would be up and strolling about the main streets. Not to mention, it was also a place for pickpockets and other thieves. Going through the streets were most likely to be very risky, almost like walking into trouble. She looked up at the caravan driver, getting his attention by waving her hand at him. “Excuse me but we should go around the main streets,” She told him, finally making the man look down at her. He was slightly pissed off though. She shrugged.

“What?! You want us to go around the main street? Do you have any idea how long that would take?” The man growled, causing some other workers to poke their head out from inside the caravan as well, all staring unamused at the platinum haired blonde model. “That is the worst plan I have heard all day. We specialize in speedy deliveries you know? This is not some children’s game.” She felt a vein pop.


“I’m very much aware of that fact, sir,” Eva’s voice finally took an edge deciding to put them all to their deserved place as quickly as possible. “I understand your well placed concerns but despite your so called specializing in speedy deliveries, is it true or not that more than half of your customers are very much dissatisfied with their broken products?” She saw them wince but carried on.

“Although I don’t mind if you want to go through this busy street. Surely, it’s not me or Hyoen that Lady Merlin would be angry with. After all, what are two simple mages, one of them a helpless Rune Knight woman, supposed to do against five stubborn as mule men?” she giggled, smiling kindly up at the taken back expressions that all of them wore.

There was one audible gulp and the troubled neigh of the horses as their caravan wordlessly altered its course to go around the main streets. See, she should have done this from the beginning. But she wondered what Hyoen would think of her now. Undoubtedly, she had shown him a glimpse of her real self even though her face and voice could never betray the kind, sweet, lady like woman she acted as. She took a quick glance at him as she walked on, hoping that boy would just brush her momentary transition aside. What a pain it would be if someone caught on to her acts now.

1985/3000

It was actually pretty advantageous for Hyōen to have been around this city in a long time now. Having lived here and travelled through the town its fair share of times, he was well-known and familiar with the alleys, boulevards, towers and streets of this town almost like the stony roads that were rare but firmly located in Worth Woodsea. Although, he had lived far longer in the forest than here, so if there were any new roads on the surface or new ways to either avoid the troublesome hours of crowds and strangers or find a quicker way to a location, then he wouldn’t have been too surprised about that. It was a nice, temporary living place, but far from his true home. It felt as if Evangeline would know more of this town than himself, considering that she didn’t spend all her time in the woods… or so he assumed. She did take a bit longer to reach the caravan than he did, so perhaps she was troubled by the crowds herself or simply new to this town? If that was the case, then his earlier assumption would have been cancelled out, but he could only wonder in the end. Meanwhile, the merchants waited impatiently for the Rune Knight to show up; not only did some random, raven-haired, dark-skinned mage stop them on their way to the castle, but they had to wait for her too? There were reasons to be impatient, and even the Fire Mage could see the grimaces on their expressions.

The Rune Knight finally reached the caravan and excused her absence and delay. It seemed that she truly was distracted by the city’s infrastructure, and that did just what Hyōen assumed. She really wasn’t from around here, anyway. Now, as she had shown up, their daggering eyes were now aimed at hers. It turned out that her delay didn’t put any good impressions on them, so it only increased their impatience. Man, this wasn’t off to a good start, was it? Anyway, they had to complete the task with all means necessary, so while she apologized, he simply made himself a position on the front of the caravan as all the horses were occupied. Damn, and he would have loved a ride across the capital on a horse, especially in what looked like a mixture of a very soft fox wedding and a thin fog. The sun’s rays still made it down to the earth and all, but the atmosphere was so humid. It did give a good expression on the Fire Mage’s face, though, as Eva approached him. He suddenly turned his face towards her with a bit of surprise as he was just about to breathe in the rainforest-like air, hearing her very polite apology. “… Uh, it’s nothing. And yeah, they’re informed,” he replied to her with a close-eyed smile, “I just hope that they won’t pop a vein or something, hehe…”

Finally, the caravan got moving, and they approached the main streets of Crocus that were always oh so crowded and yet open for visitors. That, though, posed a threat for the caravan; with so many people so close up to each other, and with such a high concentration of civilians per square meter, it was almost obvious to be pickpocketed without having noticed it directly after. Heck, something told him that you could clap someone on the shoulder and they wouldn’t lay an eye on you. Or worse; stab your neck, and they wouldn’t even react. So clearly, both he and Eva wished to step in and change route, in which she asked the merchant to try and find a road that would lead them around the main street; for instance, the alley nearby. That did it for the merchants, though; their impatience ordered them to protest against the ‘idiotic’ idea that she came up with. “H-Hey, just listen to her idea! She got a point..!” he interfered rather dryly. He had felt their veins appearing in front of his face during the walk, and it stressed him out a bit. However, the Rune Knight had her mouth yet open and explained rather playfully how they just wanted to make sure that the caravan didn’t do their infamous ‘breaking’ of each item that they moved around. In the end, what would happen to the item would be their fault, the ones who were tasked to deliver the very same item to the destination. He couldn’t but drop a sweat pearl at her statements, feeling that she kind of played a little too much with their veins; surprisingly, they obeyed without any words spoken back to her, and turned the course to the right. Then, they would slowly move towards an alley that would lead them around the city, while Hyōen was chuckling rather joyfully for a little while. Her honeyed words in the beginning didn’t seem to work into their minds, but what he saw now truly impressed him. Who knew what else that she hid from them…

The road was much emptier for walkers, but there laid a good reason to that. Open having done an ‘arc’, the caravan suddenly stumbled in front of some construction works, in which they had to brake. Some workers looked up from the braking and spotted that an entire caravan was about to pass the poor area. “Now, watch out, folks!” one of them warned the caravan and the two mages, “There has been quite an earthquake here, if you can see. I’m sorry, but the pass here is closed for now..!” That just dealt more damage to the sanities of the merchants, in which the Fire Mage and the Rune Knight had to act quickly. Spotting some alleyways cutting into the roads, he felt that they would function finely as an alternative route, in which he spoke: “Alright, then; change of plans! Let’s take one of the alleyways, instead; that way, we can reach the end of the main road from earlier..!”

1001 + 1547 = 2548/3000

The caravan workers looked at each other. Each of them had one expression of displeasure or another, varying from simply annoyed to absolute wrath. Most of them were almost near their boiling point but the image of one blue haired curvaceous figure with knowing eyes, named Merlin, made them tremble instead; enough to turn their anger into worry. “They do have a point about Merlin getting angry,” one of them said, looking over to another sitting opposite to them. “It’s still annoying! Why do we have to go so slow and take all these detours just to satisfy some kids? Especially a woman who is playing cops and some guy with a bird?” he sneered, looking over the caravan driver’s shoulder to glare at the two mages walking on either side of the caravan. “It’s all this ting’s fault,” one of them sighed, grip tightening on a small package in his hands, something inside it glowing whenever it caught light.

“So we can’t go this way, huh.” Outside, Eva looked over at the construction workers, nodding when Hyoen gave them the option of going through the alleyways. She felt it too, that they were taking too many twists and turns. In fact, even Eva couldn’t blame the workers if they got increasingly hotheaded with every detour they took. She couldn’t simply ignore the feeling of several glares on her back either. They would definitely lose it soon enough. She knew it would happen but at the same time, Eva knew there was no other choice. While they did take so many detours, each of them were safe and ensured the delivery of Merlin’s item to her in its top condition. She still had no idea of what the thing was but Merlin’s eyes when they left didn’t make her want to take any chances.

“Oiiii! Stop!” A man waved his hands in front of Eva’s face, quickly pulling her away from her momentary trance. “What?” she blinked, looking over to the guy that stood in front of her. He was a Rune Knight, the sacred symbol on his cloak shining under the sunlight. “What seems to be the problem?” She asked, expecting them to realize she was a Rune Knight as well and give her a reply. But on the contrary, the man gave her one glance and looked back at several other Rune Knights that were all yelling at something. “This area is dangerous go the other way,” he turned around and walked away.

‘How rude,’ she huffed inside her head. She was a Rune Knight too. How dare they not recognize her even though she was clearly several ranks above him. The man was merely a Page. “Hey,” she stilled her boiling anger and called over to the confused looking caravan driver. Even though the haughty page had not told them anything, Eva understood what was happening anyway. “They are trying to catch some criminal or another. We can’t go this way if it’s like this. We need to take another turn,” she looked over the sighing caravan driver to the reddening faces of the workers, only one of them nodding their head and waving at her dismissively, as if they were going to let the two mages do whatever they wanted now.

So they had ended up taking another detour, this one too a less crowded street but it was only so because it was a long detour to the city center compared to the main path which wouldn’t take them more than five minutes. Eva looked back at the street they took the turn from. The Rune Knights were running all around again. Knowing how that line of work turned out, Eva was glad that the caravan workers and driver agreed to take a turn and go around all that ruckus. A few meters ahead, just as they reached another street, Eva groaned when she heard the noise again. Seriously, who the heck were they having so much trouble with? Eva almost wanted to leave her post so that she could go help those idiots catch whoever they were after but stayed down, knowing that it was not her job at that moment.

“You guys again?” She heard a familiar voice up ahead. It was the same page that they had passed by last time. “That caravan won’t be able to go this way,” he yelled over to her over the sound of other Rune Knights behind him. But about that point, Eva had almost had it. “Don’t you guys know how to carry out your duties without inconveniencing others?” Her eyes almost twitched as she forced out a smile. The Rune Knight turned red, almost furious, but he looked back at the others once and then stormed over to her. “We are doing what is expected of a Rune Knight, Ms. I don’t expect a normal woman like you to understand it,” he had gone ahead and declared his prejudice against woman. “Ah, is that so? But I believe I understand it well?” She intentionally pulled down her shirt just enough to reveal the Rune Knight mark below her collar. “I hope you can do your job well and that you may have a good day later,” she gave him a knowing glance and gestured over at the caravan driver to take another route.


Once they left the speechless Rune Knight behind, the same situation happened about two more times. The Rune Knights were making a huge mess trying to catch one criminal and not only was it embarrassing her but the detours they took, with each of them, the caravan and their drivers got angrier and angrier. At the third point, when Eva asked them for one more detour, the caravan driver finally stopped and sighed. “This can’t go on for any longer,” he told the platinum blonde haired woman. “We are sorry but we can’t make this delivery anymore. We have spent more than half a day taking these “safe” detours and listening to you two. I think it’s time we stop,” the man exasperated. Eva exchanged a glance with Hyoen. The situation had spiraled out of hand to what she had been afraid of happening.


Walking over to Hyoen’s side, she decided to tell the mage that they should take the item and make the delivery themselves. “I think we can do it. Both of us would most likely be much faster than this. Even I have started to get tired of all these detours,” Eva turned back to gesture at the men to hand the package over to them. One of them, evidently pushing back his anger, handed over a small box to her. Inside was a lot of what seemed like cotton and hay but nestled in the center of it all was a small crystal ball which was obviously the item that Lady Merlin was scared of breaking. Looking like what seemed to be made out of thin glass, Eva wondered what the item could possibly be used for. Was it something like those divination things that the fortune tellers used, she wondered but shrugged and thanked the caravan’s people for complying with their selfish demands for such a long time.

Hoping that Hyoen would be following, Eva took off to the castle where Lady Merlin was waiting for them just outside the gates. She seemed to be tapping at the cobbled floor impatiently too. “Oh finally,” she sighed, taking the package away from Eva. “You two worked very hard,” she told them and gave them their rewards, after which Eva turned to the fire mage. “Thank you so much for your help these two days. My name is Evangeline and I’m a Rune Knight. I hope we meet again,” she had said before running back to the inn. She had to get Hanase san to get dinner with her and then file a report one a certain Page.

3,305/3000

To be honest, things were cooling down after they had taken the other road. Then again, Hyōen could hear their comments and views on the two mages that were leading them around the streets of Crocus, but if he sat himself in their shoes, then how would it feel to waste so much time on getting to the castle and deliver a single item to Merlin? Honestly, he couldn’t think of the wrongs in taking such a decision without thinking of the safety of the item and its value, but perhaps that was what the caravan drivers failed to have realized just yet. Perhaps… he needed to check out this item and tell them of its worth. They were merchants, traders, and even though that it sounded logical to check out the item that you would trade across cities, perhaps they discarded that idea before. It would make sense with their reputation of breaking many of their transported items back in the days. Then again, imagining Merlin’s wrath was terrifying… and even more because of how polite that she had been to both Hyōen and the Rune Knight. One thing that he hated was changing people’s smiles into anger, manners into carnage.

They had changed a passage to another for the sake of a sudden Rune Knight that stood in front of his partner; seemingly not having recognized her, which could end up awkwardly for both of them, he stated that they all had to take another way now that a criminal was on the run and that they needed space to bring him down without hurting any innocents. Putting himself in the knight’s shoes, he would understand well… using fire magic around here would cause quite a havoc, and even though that he never burned down anything important for now due to strange reasons, he could never take any chances when it came to public areas. Worth Woodsea would be his responsibility as well as his loss if anything happened to her, but burning down Crocus… he quickly shook his head as the Rune Knight appeared to summon veins on his partner’s forehead, while she explained with a boiling face to the merchants. Their rages increased in density, and it only took a few other repeats from the same Rune Knight, plus his prejudicing words to Hyōen’s partner, for the merchants to truly give up and suddenly hand over the item to both of them. The thing that they feared earlier had happened; they lost their temper, and Hyōen simply watched them walk away as his mouth was half-opened in fright and Coda’s beak hanging…

“… W-What’s the matter? We haven’t even-“ he was about to explain to her, with the thought on the back of his head that they hadn’t even taken that many detours. Personally, he was well-familiar with taking new roads that may or may not turn the journeys longer than expected; remember, the wood was far from a straight road. However, he once again put himself in her shoes and quickly understood her feelings; the expressions on the merchants’ faces were stressing them both as well. Perhaps it really was quite wasteful to lead them around like this. He quickly took a look at the crystal that he wanted to explain about if things got out of hand, and noticed how it was quite the pretty crystal that his eyes had laid on. It was perfectly round, didn’t look robust but yet wide in space, and perhaps Merlin feared that it would break like thin glass if it was dropped or anything like that.

They quickly made it to the castle before he even thought about it, standing before Merlin who was relieved that the item had returned to her in safety and without a scratch. She was grateful as well, and she quickly rewarded both mages with their payments as she went to put the crystal in its rightful place. That was when the Rune Knight turned to Hyōen and revealed her name; Evangeline. “… That’s a strange name for me,” he replied rather curiously but with a soft tone, while he noticed her go back out of the castle, “… Perhaps I should’ve revealed my real one to her…”

706 + 2548 = 3254