After an arduous several hours of travelling, Avis stopped the horse in a stretch of woods, and all three got off.

She rubbed the mane of it and told it "Stay here." The horse exhaustedly neighed and wasted no time laying down to rest after such a taxing experience.

"That wasn't so bad," Albus commented

"My ass!" Tibaut shouted.

He was currently on the floor doing his best to regain some strength. If it wasn't for the thirty-minute break they took on the way here, he wasn't sure if he'd even have the ability to throw a single punch when he arrived.

"I thought you meant a few hours away by a normal person's standard."

Avis took off her glasses and pulled a cloth out to clean them.

"Why would you assume that?" Avis asked. "I based how long it took based on my own experiences coming and going."

She looked through them before putting them back on.

Jake took his time walking over to Tibaut with an uneasy look on his face.

"I-I'm sorry Tibaut. For a distance like that I've heard Elizabeth say she could run that far and still have enough energy to take Furor on. I guess I shouldn't see you too so similarly."

Tibaut began forcing himself to stand up and wiped the sweat off his brow using his shirt.

"Is that so? Then I guess I'm slacking. (While I don't think she'll be thrilled, she should at least see me in a more capable light if leave this place without needing her healing. Though that's honestly a tertiary objective at this point. Besides, with this battle against the cult, there's no way she'd sideline me. Whether she wanted to or not.)"

"Get back to the floor, and cool yourself off. I'm not going to work with you while you're so sweaty." Avis stated as she leaned against a nearby tree.

As usual, Tibaut looked like he took a nice, refreshing swim in his white shirt and black pants. As he went back to the ground, he remembered something and face palmed.

("Damnit, this is the second time I've left my armour. Oh, well at least I'm fighting against normal people this time.")

"So where are they?" Tibaut asked.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Tibaut I'm wondering if you even listened to this guy before you came out here. Surely you discussed this earlier."

Albus had nothing to say to that and responded to Tibaut's question.

"There's some mineshaft nearby. It's been abandoned ever since this place became a part of Anglia. Looks like they've decided to squat in it."

"A mineshaft, huh? Hopefully, it isn't trapped." Jake offhandedly commented.

Albus turned to Avis to see her reaction to this and she raised her hands as if to say "How the hell should I know?"

"I suppose we will have to move cautiously."

("The more Albus talks, the more I'm convinced he did this on a whim. I get this guy has been harassing and trying to kill him for how long, but you'd think he'd put a bit more effort into doing this.")

"We'll rest for the next few minutes before heading out. That's fine with you two?" Albus asked.

"No problem here," Jake commented.

"You better use this time for a good plan." Tibaut cynically replied as he cooled off.

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A behemoth of a man, sat at a table reading a letter. He had brown hair and skin more similar to porcelain than any human skin tone. He slammed his fist down on the table, smashing it in two and groaned in anger.

"Who do these bastards think they are?"

He crumpled up the paper and threw it to the side.

"Not only do we have to deal with this kidnapping nonsense but I have to recruit a few hundred idiots willing to die in my group. Do they think it's easy to find people patriotic about a miserable old state that doesn't exist anymore and willing to die for it? In a few months, I'll be out of idiots to convince so the least the bastards can do is pay me on time. Fucks Sake."

"Oi, keep your voice down, the newbies might hear."

A bald man with stubble entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Oh shut up. If these bastards want us to do something, the least they can do is pay us on time."

He got up and kicked the remnants off the table.

"I get ya boss. If that's the case, why don't you pay them a visit in that thing?"

He pointed to something towards the back of the room and the giant sighed as he heard this.

"Don't be an idiot. Although it hasn't failed me yet, I can't imagine it'd be enough to fully convince them to reconsider." He kicked away the rubble at his feet and dragged over another that was a few feet away. "After all, they are on a greater scale than some backwater group of patriots."

"For real boss? Shit, I hope they don't get the idea they can shaft us."

"Don't worry, while it isn't enough to kill them all, it'll give them a good spook if I use it."

He chuckled after and shooed the man from his room.

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All four of them were staring at the entrance to the mine. Avis had confirmed in her initial investigations that there was only one entrance. There were two men at the entrance.

"So how are we gonna sneak in?" Tibaut asked.

"Well…"

Tibaut was not a fan of the tone Albus responded in and wondered if he had only used the time they had to think about maid outfits or whatever other perverse topics he had on his mind.

"Don't worry," Jake responded, looking confident. "(Hehe, this is the perfect chance to showcase my magic. With this my friendship with Tibaut is in the bag. He might even think I'm cool.) Give me a few minutes and I'll give us a chance. But first, you guys are going to have to-"

"What the he- what the hell!?" Tibaut shouted before lowering his voice.

Jake wondered what warranted that reaction since they were so close to the enemy until he saw it as well.

"Don't tell me?"

"I guess this could work," Albus commented as he looked on, seemingly unnaturally calm.

Avis had gotten up and was walking towards the entrance.