Chapter 6: 1.6: An Ambitious Ambush

The first few hours of travel went by without a hitch. To think that there were some things to do whilst on the trip was impressive to Reiki, who was currently watching Aerys practice her magic. With support from Markus of course. The forgotten thought that this world had magic came back to bite him in the butt when he was told that they’d be practising magic as one of their activities during their pit stops every few hours. 

The Vaikyren that pulled their carriage were currently eating away at a queach covered with a variety of berries and fruits. They don’t usually need to stop for food on long trips, but after their emotional displays, they conveyed that they hadn’t eaten in a few days.  The use of subtle squawks, chirps and gentle clicking of their beaks was part of their way of communication with the other races. 

‘Hey, Reiki! Take a look at this!’ Aerys yelled, pulling his attention from the fish that leapt every so often from the glistening river that slowly flowed by. 

His gaze was distracted by a flowing bubble of water over the river a bit further down from himself. His eyes widened with what looked like a ball of water sloshing around in the air over the river. His jaw dropped at the sheer volume of water her “Air Element” was carrying. The reason he knew about the magic, was because they’d been teaching him how everyone has different levels of affinity for each of the “Core Elements”.

He had found it very interesting that there was also some level of randomness to who got certain Elemental Affinities. Despite some gifted people having their through hereditary gain, or from the Elements matching their personality; at least to a certain extent. Public reports of these Affinities had shown that the top three Elements were Earth, Air, and then Water. Aerys had been an Air and Fire Elemental; she excelled at the Air element, Fire... not so much. 

However, it didn’t take long for Aerys to lose control. She had been holding the water in her Air element for a little too long. The water started to splash everywhere as the surface of her ability started to move around and fluctuate. Then, as a final measure, she stopped using her magic before she lost control and made it any worse... It still got worse.

‘BWAAH! ppth-ftth-wahhhh!’

The splashback from the large volume of water she’d been holding in the air soaked both her and Sofya, her current tutor. It took a few seconds, but everyone started giggling at the misfortune of Sofya and Aerys getting soaked and Reiki getting a few splashes on himself. 

‘Heheh, oops!’ She'd said after she spat out the last of the water. 

It didn’t take long for Sofya to speak up. Acting as a tutor and temporary mother figure for the trip, she had grown accustomed to her role rather quickly. Even Reiki was genuinely impressed at how she was able to switch between different personas and social masks.

‘That was a little reckless to keep it going like that, Aerys. I might have to restrict your snacks from now on until we get to Froesé...’ She teased, hoping to get a childish reaction.

‘Geh, Whaa...?’ Aerys said, flustered and speechless at the thought of having her snack access revoked. 

‘Relax, she’s only teasing you.’ Reiki piped up, rubbing his head in a fairly clean, egg-shell white cloth. 

He had seen a symbol just to the side of Aerys’ head briefly pop up. It was a little fuzzy from their distance until he’d spoken. It had almost like a paralysis icon, but he decided to just ignore it. Luckily, Aerys performed a spell, uttering words that mostly didn’t translate to Reiki’s native language.

<# Aeros Vox Fryl Drasi: Dry Blast #>

A small, symmetrical pattern below the feet of Aerys and Sofya glowed a vibrant sky-blue. He couldn’t see it yet, but the air started to gently whirlwind around both of the women. The dampness in their clothing started to fade away and after a few more spell casts, they were as dry as before. Give or take a few unreached areas by the focused wind.

‘On another note; how are we going to sleep on the way to the Capital? Will it be in the carriage en-route, or...?’ He asked as Markus came from from the queach just down the river from them, where it was calm enough to catch fish.

‘Oh hey, Reiki!’ Markus replied, walking up with a bucket jiggling oddly. ‘We’ve got some tents we can put up when we find a place to camp. We’ve got a fair distance to travel, so we might need more than one stop along the way.’ He’d pointed down the road in the direction they have yet to continue.

‘That’s good to know.’ Reiki replied, leaning back and watching some four-winged birds with long, thin tails and shorter tail feathers flying overhead. 

Placing the bucket down, he started to take apart and pack away his makeshift fishing equipment. Reiki had offered to help, but being the guy that he was, Markus declined. It didn’t take long to pack up after their little stop, so they were on the road less than a quarter of an hour later. The two adventurers, as well as Reiki himself, hoped the trip would be quick and swift.

< # # # >

Sunset quickly approached as they slowly made their way through a forest, the light density of the trees offering an almost perfectly moonlit view of their trail. Entering a small open area, the carriage pull off the track and came to a stop. Reiki helped Markus to unpack and pitch the tents up whilst secretly using his speed to gather sticks and branches for the anticipated warmth that comes with making campfires. All whilst Aerys and Sofya were setting the scene for their late-evening meal, but not cooking it though.

Surprisingly to Reiki, Markus was the best “on-the-road cook” out of everybody present in their group. After a barely seasoned fish, that tasted a bit like mackerel mixed with a bit of salmon or tuna to Reiki, they all got into their sectioned areas after wishing each other a calm night’s rest.

Reiki couldn’t help by lay awake whilst he spent his first free night just overwhelmed by everything that had happened since his arrival. He felt like he could stay awake for hours talking to himself about it. Unfortunately for him, Markus had forgotten to check for an extra tent before they left and now they had to share. As he couldn’t sleep, he remembered his sister and her little teaching she gave him, and feeling a bit empty on the inside, he gather up a little courage to open up to the adventurer laying beside him.

‘...Hey Markus, if you’re awake, would you mind it if we talked for a while?’ He asked, turning his head to look at the man on the other side of the tent.

‘What’s up? Can’t s—?’ 

The sudden lack of any sound outside the tent caught the attention of both Reiki and Markus. The dead of silence broken when a cracking of a twig echoed across the open space. Before Reiki could react, Markus was quick to equip some of his armour as he stepped out of the tent. An almost imperceivable dim wave of blue light spread across the tent as a series of loud clashes, crackles and whooshes filled the air. Reiki attempted to sneak a peek outside of the tent, only to have his hand forced back in a dim flash of blue. 

‘I’m being shielded?! Actually... That might be a good thing. I can check out my ability window in peace now.’ Thought Reiki, as he scratched behind his right ear.

As the battle continued, Markus kept Reiki protected by implementing his “Shielding” enhancement on the tent. 

‘Tch... I wish I could use my Artys Shield, but I had to imbue it on that tent to protect the kid.’ Markus thought, as his longsword swung impossibly fast to block a short blade from one of the covered assailants. As he slipped a knee up to kick them away, he grabbed at a piece of apparel that looked loose. Then tugged it downwards with such force, that the ground cracked slightly. 

‘Gyack!’

The assailant’s weapons clattered to the ground as they stared up blankly into the night sky.  Arms limp, long and shallow breathing, the occasional cough. That’s when he moved on to the next three assailants. Performing different takedowns on each of those who remain. His personal technique - “Braunfel Sword-Fist: First Form Defence” - was just as potent as the one on his first assailant. Markus wasn’t a B-Rank adventurer just for his strength, but for his intellect and battle sense too. 

Sofya, closer to the centre of the small glade, was using her Elemental skills and her Elemental Blade techniques to keep her assailants fixated on her and not Aerys. With her battle-adapted mindset from the years of fighting in arena events and participating in monster swarms, she knew how easy it was to mess up. As the encounter continued, Reiki found himself more acquainted with his menu system. In the few minutes that he had been left alone, he’d found out that his abilities were “level-locked” and required him to gain enough experience to unlock them. 

‘So not only do I have to gain the necessary amount of points, but I also have to level up my main player level to get more abilities. Even for my sub-abilities... Man, this sucks. I hope Markus is doing okay outside.’

Laying back on his makeshift bedding, a soft thud sounded again as Markus disarmed and knocked out another assailant. The floating window before him followed his movement when an orange icon appeared just to the side of what he was looking at. A few quick successions of clanging followed by the sound of something crumbling made him glance at the tent cover briefly, worried that he’d have to find a way to bypass the weird protective layer. Shaking his head lightly, his focus was brought back to the now flashing icon. 

‘Huh? This is new. Let’s have a look.’

Tapping the small icon, the icon expanded and moved behind the floating window which he promptly closed. Within the span of a few seconds, the icon exploded into a bunch of voxelated boxes, before displaying some kind of Atlas-styled display of the open space around the tents.

‘... Drat, I can’t change the scale or anything. It’s just a single area.’ He mumbled to himself.

Two half-coloured, gradient, greenish-white dots dashed between a few of the unusually dawn-tinted dots. Upon contact on the map, he couldn’t know what was going on, but up to a few minutes later, the dawn-tinted dots either faded to a deep grey or turn completely black. It didn’t take too long before all of the dots were a smorgasbord of greys and blacks on a soft, tanned background colour. He swiped a hand down through the window as one of the half-coloured dots started heading towards the centre of the display; promptly closing it in a misty cloud of voxels.

‘—ight, thank god that was sorted out.’ Markus said, as a dim flash of white cascaded from the tent, almost like shattered glass. ‘I see the tent held up against that javelin someone threw. Not even a scratch.’

That was news to Reiki, he didn’t even know that the tents were being targeted. With a bit of prompting, Markus told Reiki about the attack and how most of them were focused on Aerys’ tent, but some were after this tent as well. They had both been keeping an eye on the surrounding area, but nothing could be done for those who came after them.

‘At least nothing bad happened. After all, he did say they were all tied up now.’

The night went by quickly as everyone finally got their rest before hopping into the carriage the following day. 

< # # # >

The early morning was a good start if they planned to get to the Capital City of Froesé before sundown. However, this briefly led to an almost awkward confrontation between Reiki and Aerys. Luckily, neither of them were aware of the other and they were a fair distance apart; they were briefly skinny-dipping to clean themselves before leaving their temporary camp area.

‘Hey, Reiki.’ Aerys asked, using a dainty brush to straighten her hair out.

‘Yeah?’ He replied, turning his head from the window once again; automatically closing the display window he was actually reading from.

‘When we get to Froesé, you might need to stand before my father and his retinue before doing anything else.’ She said, as her brush briefly got caught in her hair. ‘After all, it would be nice to show you around the city with a proper escort.’

‘Wait, I have to stand before your father and his lessers? He’s not the King by any chance, right? I’d rather just have a small audience with you and your parents in some kind of meeting room, rather than in front of a bunch of people.’ With that comment, she just stared at him incredulously before her gaze softened a little. 

‘First off, they’re not these “lessers” you say they are. They’ve been with my family for years.’ She clarified, as she finished with her hair and put the brush in the small netted pocket in the side of the carriage. ‘As my father’s retinue, they’re there to help him as his bodyguards, advisors, or what have you.’ 

That silenced him a little too quickly for his own liking. Yet, he preferred this over arguing about it any further. Sofya joined the conversation to ease it away from the tension it had grown.

‘For a noble lady, you are a little intense in your words towards your saviour, Princess.’

This made her clench a fist and then take a few deep breaths to calm herself down. The ride was less tense after calming both parties down; Reiki from his humble denial of remembering anything from seeing her tied up to find himself in the bed of an inn and Aerys from her heated moment of protecting her father's image.

It took a bit longer for Reiki, but they both apologised soon after and then proceeded to discuss what they liked and didn’t like. Reiki, being reincarnated, didn’t know much about the world he was in, so he had asked what types of games there were for long-distance travel. When he was told, he was shocked.

‘Is that really the only game for long-distance trips?!’ He exclaimed, his brows raised, eyes widened and mouth agape.

‘Yeah, that and one other game not so well used. I’ve always felt like we’ve needed more, but nobody has any idea for things to do.’ She replied, leaning onto the roughly cushioned armrest and resting her head in her hand. ‘At least that’s from what I’ve heard.’

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‘Well, I might have some ideas for future travellers.’ He replied, getting looks of curiosity from pretty much everyone in the carriage. ‘But I don’t think giving them now would be such a good idea, if it affects the local economy.’

‘I hope it’s not like it does in all those other manga and anime I’ve seen and read.’ He added as a personal afterthought, the edge of his lips quivering at the thought.

Almost immediately, the other three agreed with his statement but for different yet similar reasons. As the trip continued, mostly in silence after a rowdy and hyperactive discussion about the night before, Reiki couldn’t help but wonder if he would be able to get there on his own, but to appear courteous, he had decided to stay in the carriage with them. Luckily, a few games of “Guess What I See”, this Earth’s version of “I-Spy”, and a bit of small talk kept them busy and awake.

The day was quickly over, even the next rest stop was surprisingly quiet for once. Especially after that previous night. The lack of bandits at the second spot suggested that they hadn’t travelled out that far since the night attack. They kept their hopes up on the remaining hours of the day, and as luck would have it, only a few horse-drawn carriages appeared which were either stationed on the sides or moving much slower than their carriage. 

It didn’t take long, but one such confrontation ended up with Markus getting Reiki to help him. An old couple had lost two wheels, damaged the third wheel and somehow the front half of their carriage had collapsed. With the extra help, they were able to pull the carriage to the side of the road and help with fixing some of the structure work. Reiki couldn’t do much, but the older guy was ale to use limited skills in getting the carriage into a good enough shape.

‘The company behind their model is known for selling bad units, but this looks like the handiwork of their laziest worker.’ Scratching his head, he stared roughly in the direction of their destination. ‘I hope they can get it back to the Capital, or at least a few more miles.’

‘Who on Earth could that be?’ Aerys spoke up, after removing another one of her Medi-Sigils and not meaning to sound sarcastic and rhetorical. ‘I can have my dad look into it.’ She added after a long second of silence.

‘While that would be nice, I think having a hands-on team to infiltrate and assess the company is the best case I can think of.’ Sofya replied, as she sat down beside Aerys and patted her head gently. ‘At least for now.’ Markus added with a wink. 

They all agreed, despite a lack of input from Reiki, that a note to the Fruntall Guildhouse in Froesé would be the best option. Aside from that, the trip was pretty much lacking in any form of activity. Because of that, he spent most of his time staring out the window. The variety of fields, forests, glades, and open plains mixed in with various terrains left the routes into and out of some small villages and towns along the way. The kinds that aren’t usually visible, unlike Google Maps or Google Earth where you could zoom in to see them.

‘Hey Reiki,’ Aerys asked, as she leant over him to watch the carriage crest another tall hill. ‘Out of curiosity, what are your abilities?’ The question caught him out of the blue, so he didn’t have an immediate response ready. It was earlier than he expected it, but he knew that it was going to crop up eventually.

‘Uh, I’m not sure how to describe them exactly.’ He replied, subtly rubbing his right ear to bring up his stat window. 

Surprise briefly scattered across his thoughts as the green window plastered itself against the glass. His status and skills are listed as clear as day for him. He noticed that his superspeed and telepathy abilities would make him stand out, but the three glitched-out abilities below them were all fuzzy. He looked over his stats again, but this time noticed that his Mana Pool, MP for short, was staring him right in the face. 

‘...Why is my mana at zero?!’ He screamed mentally, his brow furrowed as he stared at his MP and then at his health; labelled as “LP”. ‘At least my health is listed as Life Points. I think.’

‘Reiki? You okay?’ Aerys said, snapping him out of his reaction. 

‘Ah, Uhm... I’m good.’ He tried to keep on his previous bored face, but it was obvious to her that something was bothering him.

‘Hmm, if you say so.’ A look of concern and a less-furrowed brow sat on Aerys’ face as they again slipped into silence. Apart from another game of Guess-What-I-See with Aerys and Sofya.

The window blipped and vanished once again into a cloud of digitized dust as his finger brushed his ear again. The chance that he was leaning on his right hand helped out in hiding his action to display his stats. As his luck would have it, his boredom wouldn’t last long; the crest of the hill had been crossed. As they continued forwards and took a corner to the left, the trees of the hillside forest gave way to a spectacular view down into the vast fields of plains. The city in the distance that his eyes snapped to made his breath catch slightly. 

After passing through a village that promised to help the older travellers who were heading their way, they finally got into a line of carriages that lead for a good kilometre or so from the gates. At this distance, the walls looked old but had a strong appeal for anyone who not only visited but lived within them. 

As their carriage slowly crawled towards the gates, Adventurers and the city folk could be seen walking, jogging or running back and forth along the sides of the road. The path shifted from some grass-less form in the surrounding plains over a short but well-designed cobbled road. 

The occasional yell muffled by the walls of the carriage, the crunking of the wooden wheels on the cobbles, and the gentle aroma of some foreign meats floating into their vicinity gave the place an atmosphere that would be very easy to come home to. The western walls lit up in the glow of the sun as it began its descent towards the horizon. 

‘This place looks amazing. I wish we’d come here sooner.’ Reiki said, as he carefully peeked out from a curtain. 

‘We could have been here earlier if it wasn’t for stopping to help the older couple from earlier.’ Replied Sofya, who briefly messed with the ends of her hair. ‘Besides, you should stop looking. We couldn’t have people looking in through the windows and seeing their princess here now, would we?’ She added, a serious and concerned look making him snap his hand back from the curtain. 

He couldn't help but notice Markus had been quiet for the majority of the trip since the bandits attacked. The carriage rolled slowly forwards once again, two adventurers could be heard chatting idly as they slowly walked past. Taking a very quick and final peek, he saw one was holding a crate of something and the other was hauling some kind of cargo trailer. The trailer had a gold insignia on the side of it, but he couldn’t quite make it out from his angle before dropping the curtain down.

‘Huh. I think some people are gonna get through before us.’ He stated, leaning back against the wall behind him. 

A few seconds later, Markus visibly relaxed as they pulled one carriage closer to the gates. Without realising it, Reiki had missed the fact that his eyes had been closed for the majority of the ride back.

‘There’s nobody here who can or could detect Princess Aerys nor us.’ He stated, grabbing the hilt of his sword. ‘It’s a little odd, but it’s also a good thing.’ 

Their little carriage didn’t have any royal insignias or colour schemes that really stood out in the queue, but they were aware of the length of time in the queue they were using up. But before long, they continued right up to the gates, where the sounds of a bustling city started to filter through the small gateway. The clatter of the wheel passing over the wooden drawbridge made Reiki wonder why he hadn’t seen it when he was looking but didn’t bother to ask. He’d figure out why it was there at a later point.

Upon stopping, they could hear some raised voices outside and the carriage started jostling about. The voices went from a heated argument to a concerned duo of voices after the third voice suddenly stopped speaking. They both got clearer as they approached the door and both were bassy male voices.

‘–ave him there for now. He can’t go far.’

‘Okay then. So… What illegal goods do we hav– Ow!’

A third voice suddenly cut in as they approached the door. Sofya gestured for the two teenagers to swap seats so the view from a partially opened door would be the two adventurers first, rather than the two teens.

‘What do you two think you’re doing?!’ It was female. 

The authoritative and demanding tone caused the two males to apologise profusely. The door opened and a head poked in. 

‘I’m so sorry, some newbies thought your driver was a potential target for a recent kidnapping.’ Her tone was ridden with sorrow as she pulled her head from the hand she’d facepalmed into.

After spending a second glancing into the distance, as if wishing for something, she looked at the two adventurers and did a double take. Her previous demeanour was overridden by a sudden wave of excitement suddenly present in her gentle smile and warmer-looking eyes. 

‘Are... Are you two Sofya and Markus?’ She recognised them almost immediately whilst keeping her formal role as the boss to the two guards. Who had just taken the tied-up driver to a cage in the walls. ‘I’ve heard so much about y–’

‘Indeed they are.’ Aerys spoke up, as she leant forward and interrupted her. ‘You must be Kae. I’m so glad to see you again.’ 

‘P-p…Aerys?! You’re back?!’ Kae almost screamed out of pure surprise, but kept it to a whisper... then she noticed Reiki. ‘Who’s the fellow? You’re not cheating on your boyfriend, are you Aerys?’ She whispered into the carriage.

Aerys just giggled and told her the basic details of how she was brought back to Froesé. Reiki was introduced to Kae Rumine, the “General of the Guards”. What that meant flew over the head of Reiki, but he definitely noticed the emblem on her breastplate was different to the ones shared by the males. 

Luckily for them, they could bypass any checks, but Markus had to get back onto the front of the carriage. It would later be confirmed that their driver had been part of their bandit attack, but that information would be known to them a little later on.

As they approached the castle, the young adult was in awe at the mansion before him; Runatyria Castle. The commoners like to call it the House of Runa, in homage to the kind and caring nature of Aerys’ family and their bonds with the people who live and work within the city. A thing many were enthralled to be a part of. 

Time flew by quickly when Aerys almost stepped out of the carriage carelessly, only to be met by a throng of people who were worried about her. Reiki was surprised when some of them were worried about her health and her well-being. The mixture of the races before him was mostly human-focused and he would later learn that this was a city for all of the races to enjoy just being themselves without any issues raised against them. 

He wanted to make sure that she would be okay getting in when they all parted and made a straight line after a rather loud cough. That was when he noticed an older couple before them and knew he had to own up for saving her. Especially since the worst thing to do right now, was to use his powers to run off and hide.  

Without realising it, he’d followed Aerys with the two adventurers behind him until he was invited inside the large structure, away from what he thought were the prying eyes of the people. But when he looked out of the closing doors, everybody was already hurrying back to their homes or some evening jobs. 

‘I’m so glad you’re home, my Little Aerys.’ The woman cried out as soon as the doors slammed shut. ‘We’ll need to make sure you don’t get caught off-guard like that again. Won’t we, Malachi?’ She added as she smothered her daughter just enough that she started to push herself away. It was almost comical, if not for the fact their attention turned towards him.

‘Indeed, Aurelina. Aerys, who is this boy you’ve dragged in here?’ The oddly cheerful tone in his voice didn’t match the glint of menace in his eyes as he briefly glanced at Reiki.

‘Father, this is Reiki Honoka. He was a Nab-and-Run who helped us escape from the centre of the kidnapping operations. Including myself.’ She finally managed to pull away from her mother, and walked over to him as she introduced him. 

‘Well. I’d never have known a young boy like him to pull anything like that off. They’ve been causing us issues for weeks!’ Her mother replied curtly. Her motherly attention is no longer present and an air of confidence and logic resonated from her. They stayed silent until Reiki realised he needed to speak up. 

‘... Um, Malah-kye, sir, I– I just did what I thought was right.’ He said timidly, bowing his head slightly whilst hoping he got his name correct. 

‘I’m glad you thought that way, young man.’ He replied, surprised that he’d gotten a curt and to-the-point response. 

What he didn’t know is it was Reiki’s social persona that allowed him the ability to talk in front of the man before him. But what made him react in the most unexpected way possible was her leaning in to whisper to him. The closest any other girl than his sister had been.

‘Hey Reiki, that's my father, The King of Froesé, and he’d like to reward you for saving me.’

‘...Wh–?!’

At that... Well... He fainted in front of everyone.

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