Upon Mira's urging, Reivan and the others were ready to embark on their journey to the troubled village of Florris the day after. It was apparently because she was worried about the people in the settlement.
Which made sense. Because every hour their squad spent away from Florris exposed it to danger. Nobody really had anything to say against that because it was the naked truth. And so, despite possible complications caused by a lack of proper preparation, they all agreed to leave the very next morning instead of taking the full two days of preparation.
Unfortunately, Reivan's lack of spatial storage artifacts—other than the belt buckle doled out by the Tower—made things a bit difficult for him. But only a little bit, really.
Last time, Aldimir had kindly stored Reivan's things for him, but understandably, that choice was unavailable at the moment. They were told that they might have to be deployed for a month or two, so Aldimir and Reivan's other squadmates naturally brought along a sufficient percentage of their belongings. Reivan could not and would never fault them for doing such a thing, so all he could really blame was Clover Salwyn's misfortune for having been born a peasant—and there was no use in blaming the man for that, as status wasn't something anyone could choose.
That was why Reivan had to lug around his luggage as he and his squad boarded the first train of the day. As it turned out, having very limited material possessions helped out, because though he was carrying around at least thirty kilograms worth of clothes, boots, and other sundries, it could honestly be worse. He was quite certain that every female member of his squad had twice as much as him, maybe even more.
“Goodness, vice-captain,” Aldimir teased with a breezy grin as they all sat in one of the train’s private compartments. “Carrying stuff with your bare hands? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were some peasant!”
“I am a peasant.” Reivan rolled his eyes while promptly sitting down next to Mira, instead of next to Aldimir, somewhat forcing Alini to take the last remaining seat right next to their resident playboy. “Or did you miss the smell of dung I release from every pore of my body?”
“Oh, right. Carry on, then.”
“Don’t mind him, Clover.” Kantor smiled from his seat near the window. “Just get one for yourself. I know places that let you pay in installments.”
Reivan dipped his head. “Thanks, Kantor. You’re a good guy.”
“Don’t mention it. This is just par for the course, no?”
“I think you may have forgotten that our dear friend over there just mocked me for it. Your reaction is incredibly kind by comparison.”
“Right…” Kantor’s brows rose and he turned to Aldimir with a frown. “That wasn’t very nice.”
Aldimir raised both hands in surrender. “C’mon, Kantor. I was just joking around. Win knows it too. Right, Win? Tell him.”
Reivan shrugged, reclining on his seat and deliberately bumping shoulders with Mira. “I just don’t know, Aldim. I feel quite hurt and offended. I probably won't recover from this internal agony any time soon.”
“Oh, fuck you and your feelings.” Aldimir understandably flipped him off before changing the subject, gesturing at their relatively cramped private compartment. “Anyway, shame about the lack of express trains there, huh?”
“The Western Arkhana isn’t called the boonies for nothing, after all,” Inaria lazily commented, her crimson eyes staring down at an open book on the table. Then she suddenly seemed to realize something, turning to Reivan with an awkward expression on her face that he recognized as her apology face. “Sorry. Forgot you were from around there.”
Reivan waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. I call it that too.”
Inaria smiled in appreciation, but like a cat that got burned, turned her attention back to her book with seemingly no intent to speak out again. Probably for the rest of the trip.
“What’s it like there?” Alini asked gingerly, clutching a pillow she’d brought along to her chest—which was an incredibly good idea, now that he thought about it. Nobody was sure about the quality of bedding they’d be provided in the village.
“Just about the same as anywhere.” Reivan shrugged with the feigned nonchalance of a local. “Just worse. And colder.”
As he had never really been to Clover’s homeland, Reivan had very limited information about the place. He only had word of mouth to go by as well as books. But as they say, seeing something once was better than hearing or reading about it a hundred times. Understandably so, he was quite thrown off by Alini’s question.
A glaring oversight on his preparation. He should have given the place a visit once or twice.
‘I was just too busy though. And Clover wasn’t the only candidate for my ticket to the Tower.’
Excuses were all he had, and nobody else could be blamed but himself if he ever garnered suspicion for being unknowledgeable about the place he’d supposedly spent twenty years in. But then again, if everything went well on Aizen's side, Reivan wouldn't be sticking around for very long.
“Well.” Mira subtly bumped him away, speaking up with a somewhat cheerful tone. “We’ve got spells for keeping warm if it gets too cold out west. It’s no problem. What I really don’t like is how I’ll probably find it hard to slack off~!”
“You could slack off anywhere.” Inaria rolled her eyes as she flipped a page.
“No, I wouldn’t. I have standards. I’m very selective of where I do my slacking off.”
“That’s not something to be proud of, okay?”
Their journey didn’t last long, but one could say that it was spent in lively conversation. They’d all shared roughly the same space these past few weeks, most of them spent helping each other or trying to coordinate who learns which vital spell first. Understandably so, the initial walls between them were just a little bit torn down by now, so the noisy ones made noise and the quiet ones listened along comfortably, throwing in their thoughts from time to time.
It was peaceful and it wasn’t a bad feeling at all.
At times like this, Reivan wondered how many days or weeks he had left to appreciate it.
----------------------------------------
Because of a lack of express train services heading for the village of Florris or the town closest to it—which made sense, since the place didn’t see enough traffic to warrant regular trips—Reivan and the others had to switch trains multiple times.
Fortunately, it only took them the better half of a day to reach Varros. It was, as mentioned by the battlemage that briefed Reivan and Mira of the mission, the closest town to their actual destination.
And the town scenery they were met with was ample warning for the level of civilization the village would be.
‘So bleak…’
Stepping foot outside the station, Reivan looked around and that was all he could say about the place.
While all the buildings were stone, lights seeped through the windows, roads had some traffic, and even pedestrians filled the streets, the place undoubtedly gave off a sense of dullness. It wasn’t like the people they could see had frowns and grimaces on their faces nor did the structures seem in disrepair.
There was just an indescribable lack of glamor. And even the skies saw fit to join in by letting very little sunlight through the clouds. Sure, it was quite far into the afternoon so the big bright ball of fire in the sky should be dying down by now, but Reivan couldn’t deny that the natural lighting wasn’t doing the place any favors.
“Wow, I feel sad all of a sudden.” Aldim, with both hands on his hips, rudely said that as he looked around right next to Reivan. “That's new. I’ve never looked at a place and just felt sad. For no reason.”
“That’s rude.” Kantor frowned, but with a bit of difficulty, also couldn’t help but nod in agreement. “I can’t say I feel any different though.”
“Really?” Alini tilted her head.
Mira raised a brow as she fixed the other boys with her gaze. “I think the place is nice, don’t you, Aria?”
“Reminds me of home.” Inaria nodded, a small smile on her lips while she gazed upon the bleak scenery.
‘There’s a very clear divide in perception here.’
Aldimir and Kantor had both grown up in large cities while Mira, Inaria, and Alini all may have come from humbler regions of the republic despite coming from well-off families. Reivan knew that Inaria, specifically, had a phase in her life where she was raised away from her father for being an illegitimate daughter. It wasn’t until the president’s official wife died did she and her mother finally came out from under the proverbial bed. Outwardly, she was the president's adopted daughter even though she was his real child.
‘President’s record ain’t as clean as everyone believes.’
Sadly, it wasn’t the time to ignite that particular barrel of oil.
Reivan had worked to obtain a bit of leverage on Arkhan’s president in case the man ever tried to get too loud against Aizen, but the politician had remained largely neutral in the boiling debates over which of the other titans of Sentorale the republic should work to ally with. And Reivan wisely chose not to do anything that would push the president to side with Argonia—such as an attempt at blackmail, for instance.
As such, Inaria’s predicaments and all the other secrets the president managed to hide so well would have to be kept in Reivan’s back pocket for now. Which was also why, above all else, he should try to keep Inaria alive as much as possible. Her priority was just below Mira’s on that note, maybe even above.
Because Mira’s only relevance to Aizen was simply not falling into the Sage King’s clutches when the time for her to devour or be devoured came. The kingdom itself couldn’t make much use of her spirit king seed, other than to let Reivan’s spirit beast eat it. And even if Reivan did that, it wasn't as if he'd get an Ascendant spirit beast right there and then—he'd have to find another mortal spirit seed.
Of course, that would be very advantageous for Aizen, but at this point, another Ascendent wasn’t going to turn the tide of war when Transcendents existed.
So in that sense, Inaria was actually more useful, though less important. When the right strings were pulled, she could move an entire government. The lesser half of Arkhan’s ruling hands, yes. But still.
“Right.” Reivan snapped out of his thoughts and clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention, because their conditionally lackluster captain certainly didn’t seem to be in the mood to get things moving along. “We’re to head to the town hall. Then we’ll go from there. Chop chop. Aldim, stagecoach.”
“The hell is it always me!?” Aldimir complained theatrically, even going as far as to throw his hands to the sky and beseech the dark clouds for an answer. Naturally, he never got one.
But the good sport that he was, he merely shrugged and got going, pulling Kantor along to help out.
That left Reivan in the strange situation of being surrounded by three very attractive young women. From his evenings at the Serpent’s Haven back in Aizen, he wasn't a stranger to such enviable situations. But it was still enough to garner a few looks from the locals around them, even some envious gazes from a few young men who just happened to pass by.
Reivan, naturally, grinned at them because he had nothing better to do. Of course, he was careful not to look too smug about it.
Naturally, the recipients of his smile didn't like him very much after that.
“Uhm…” Alini walked up to him with obvious hesitation.
“Yes?” he raised a brow. “Something wrong?”
“I was wondering if I could use the uhm…”
“Oh.”
Reivan felt a bit speechless before he nodded repeatedly, internally berating himself for the oversight. Obviously, after multiple hours spent on trains, they’d have to answer the call of nature eventually. And since they’d been together the whole time, he knew they hadn’t used the bathroom even once since leaving the Tower.
“Sorry about that. Go ahead.” With a sheepish smile on his face, Reivan gestured for her to go on before turning to the other two. “If you two have to use the lady’s room, feel free. We'll wait.”
Inaria nodded, taking Alini’s hand. “I was going to wait, but if you insist. What about you, Mira?”
Their captain waved a lazy hand. “I’m fine.”
With that, the two girls went off to handle their business while the other two boys still searched for a stagecoach. That, in turn, left the two officers within their squad alone with themselves.
“You’ve been annoying the entire trip!” Mira wasted no time in pinching him in the arm, aware he couldn’t fight back too well because of all the bags of crap he was carrying.
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Reivan tried very hard not to wince at the sharp pain, wearing an innocent expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You keep bumping into me!”
“Total accidents,” he lied. “Besides, why is it such a big deal?”
Mira groaned, fixing him with an aggrieved glare. “You can’t just… be so close to a lady like that.”
“But I think I only just bumped shoulders with you a little. Is that bad?”
“It is!”
Reivan grinned, deliberately bumping their shoulders together again. “We’ve been in close proximity with each other a couple of times in the past, like when we were attacked in that alley and when we were in the sewers. You never saw it as a big deal back then. What changed? Why are you so conscious about it now, hm~?”
“That’s…” Mira frowned, her gaze falling to her feet in quiet contemplation. “That was different…”
“I see, I see~ It's different, she says~? How so, how so?”
“I… I don’t know! Stop asking me this stuff… And you're being annoying.”
"I'm just trying to talk like you do though?"
"...I don't talk like that."
“Your speech tics aside, you know what I think?” Reivan smirked, stepping away from her and shrugging. “I think it’s because you never saw me as anything back then. But now it's different. Now, you’re conscious about me.”
Mira grimaced as she looked at him. “I can’t believe you can just say stuff like that… Don’t you get goosebumps? Are your toes curling up right now?”
“They are. I honestly thought that sounded better in my head. Actually, I wish I could go back in time to stop myself from saying it.”
“Well, at least you can admit to it…”
“But am I wrong, though?” Reivan chuckled. “That level of physical contact wouldn’t have mattered to you a couple of months ago. Which is oddly frustrating, because you let a junior you barely know touch you more than someone you’ve known for around two months and have gone on a couple of dates with. Don’t you think you’re a giant weirdo for that?”
“Oh, shut up…” Mira crossed her arms and turned away from him, checking to see if any of the others had returned. “Anyway, no more of that stuff when we get to the village. Just because we’re not in the Tower doesn’t mean you can just sneak into my room…”
“Are you implying you’re desirable enough for me to force myself on you?” Reivan snorted. “Sorry, but I was raised properly. You are never going to be attractive enough for me to break my morals.”
“If you were raised properly, you wouldn’t be fooling around with girls you don’t intend to marry.”
Reivan flinched. He felt that. Right in the guts.
Doubly so because it applied to his real identity more than his fake one. He’d slept around with a whole lot of other women he had absolutely no plans of marrying. None of it was of the forced variety, of course, and they should be held responsible for whoever they jump in bed with. But her words stung him more than he cared to admit because he had been a bit… debauched, so to speak. If he'd been a woman, people would call him a slut.
Mira seemed satisfied with his reaction, smugly grinning as she chuckled. “Yeah, you felt that, huh?”
“Oh, shut up,” he snapped, adjusting the bags slung over his shoulders.
The pretty yet annoying woman next to him seemed to notice that and gestured toward them. "Sorry, I can't help you with those. My ring's fit to burst. The space isn't that big, y'see."
"That's alright. I mean, we're going to be here for at least a month, so it makes sense you brought most of your stuff."
“You know, you should really consider buying a spatial storage artifact. I mean, you probably can’t afford the stuff trickling in from Aizen, but the lower-level ones like what I and the others have are surprisingly affordable given your current salary, you know? They fit a lot more stuff than the belt buckles, at least.”
“Too expensive.”
“You’d have to cut down on spending for half a year, but still. It beats lugging around all that luggage. Plus you can keep a lot of spellballls in them just in case you're ever in a pinch.”
"Do you have lots of spellballs in case you're ever in a pinch?"
"Maybe. You should consider that the next time you try to piss me off," she said as a smug grin spread across her face. It made her look adorable, but he didn't want to say it out loud. "Anyway. Spatial storage artifacts. You should get one, Clover. Stop being such a miser and think of it as an investment!"
Reivan grunted and was about to insist that it was fine, playing into Clover Salwyn’s characteristic miserliness, but then he was struck with a bright idea. “Okay, sure.”
“Oh, really? That’s unexpected…”
“Yeah, but only if you come with me when I pick one out.”
Mira’s shoulders jumped as she gazed at him. “You… You want me to pick out rings with you…?”
Reivan snickered. “I mean, I was thinking I’d go for a necklace-type or an anklet. But if you wanna go for a ring... I'm fine with it. You're rushing our relationship too much, though. I feel pressured all of a sudden.”
Naturally, she responded to his teasing with a swift kick to the shin, which he managed to dodge despite how encumbered he was.
“No violence please,” he playfully implored with a wide grin.
“Careful there, boy.” Mira waved a fist at him. “I may not look it, but I can beat you black and blue! I don't need spellballs to do it too!”
‘Judging by your Might stat, yes. Yes, you can beat me black and blue as I am now.’
Reivan just shrugged. “I’m not hearing a no. Or do my ears deceive me?”
Mira crossed her arms and groaned in silent contemplation before finally answering, her tone bellying how defeated she felt. “Fine… After we’re done with this mission, I’ll help you look around. I guess I can count this as performing my duties as a captain and a senior.”
Victorious, Reivan gracefully stopped himself from gloating. “Thanks. I’d be clueless without you. I don’t know the first thing when it comes to buying spatial storage artifacts.”
Reivan never bought the ones he used, after all. There were loads of them in the treasury from all the practicing Sir Rolf and a few of the other Ascendant artificers did. They were literally scattered around like trash. As the prince, he was naturally free to take however many he wished to take as long as it was for the right purposes.
Of course, Ouroboros needed to purchase some and he obviously couldn’t have them use such high-quality storage artifacts since they’d be linked to Aizen’s royal family rather easily, but in those cases, he’d simply given the order for storage artifacts to be bought—he’d never done the buying himself.
As such, he hadn’t been lying. Which, ironically, made him less believable.
In any case, he had yet another valid justification for Mira to go out with him, though it didn’t seem as if she was all that keen to refuse him nowadays.
“That’s right.” she grinned. “You’re absolutely hopeless without me, your pretty captain who's also smart and capable!”
“I'm not as hopeless as you are, but yeah.”
“Hey!”
Reivan, unfortunately, wasn’t able to dodge her kick to the shin in time.
----------------------------------------
After Alini and Inaria got back from their little trip to the bathroom and the boys secured a proper stagecoach, Reivan made sure the driver understood that they were battlemages and were not people that a coachman should try to fleece, as most coachmen were inclined to do in the republic. Honestly, Reivan was starting to think Arkhanian coachmen being like that was part of the republic's culture—kind of like the notorious Turkish ice cream guy.
When the coachman "wholeheartedly" agreed to a fair price for his services, Reivan and his squad squeezed into the stagecoach and rode off to the town hall, where they had to go through an incredibly boring process that lasted for hours.
Really, democracy has its downsides sometimes, what with all the red tape in a vast majority of its affairs.
Reivan and the others were literally sent over from Vel Ayala to save a village in danger from monsters and they had to spend three hours waiting or filling out documents before they got to see anyone of importance to get a better idea of the situation, as well as clarify what kind of assistance they could expect from the local government unit.
Frankly, it was somewhat worth it because their squad came out of it with rental hoverboards—magitech devices that looked like steel boards, able to float off even the most uneven surfaces and allowed their users to travel quite fast.
Apparently, hoverboards were quite expensive, so they weren’t given out as standard equipment. Upon serving the Tower enough, one would eventually be granted a hoverboard of their own, but quite obviously, Reivan and the others weren’t part of that club. As such, they could only ever borrow the vehicles depending on their mission. Since their current one had them doing a lot of traveling around the area of the village, they had clearance to borrow the hoverboards kept inside the Varros township’s storage for emergencies.
It’s just that their squad—particularly, their captain, but she saw fit to delegate the shitty duties to Reivan instead—had to fill out a lot of paperwork and had to listen to repetitive but polite reminders to be very careful not to damage the hoverboards.
For three hours, Reivan suffered. Just for these damned hoverboards.
‘These pieces of fucking shit better be worth it.’
He was, understandably, fuming.
“Woah!” Aldimir, who had immediately tried to ride his hoverboard, promptly crashed into a wall. Or he would have, if Kantor hadn’t saved him. “Thanks, man. I love you.”
“Uh, thanks?” Kantor, the man who’d just had love declared to him by a fellow man, seemed unable to react for a moment as he expertly glided across the ground on his floating death machine. “The trick is to not panic. You’re not doing that. That’s why you’re losing control and panicking even more.”
Mira smiled in approval. “You’re good at that, Kanty. Did your family let you practice at home?”
“Kanty…? Ah, well, yes, captain. They did. It wasn’t restricted information so a few of the elders trained us all from a young age.”
“Neat. I had to fall on my face a few times. Don’t you think it’s unfair you never had to go through that~?”
Reivan hit her on the back of the head lightly. “Stop bullying Kantor. Also, where’s Alini?”
“Uhm! Help!”
Following the source of the voice, everybody found Alinie slowly floating away while waving her hands in panic, Mr. Kip followed along behind her with a concerned look that seemed oddly expressive for a bear.
“Kantor, could you please?” Reivan gestured at the girl getting spirited away.
“Understood.” Kantor nodded, looking oddly pleased to be so useful.
Someone else spoke up at that moment. “Can I get some help here too?”
“Huh?” Reivan looked around and was surprised to find that Inaria was slowly drifting off into the horizon much like Alini was, though she was being a lot calmer about it. With a sigh, he jumped into his own hoverboard and glided to her, stopping her by placing a hand on her shoulder. “We almost lost you.”
“This thing’s tricky,” Inaria complained with a frustrated look on her pretty face, her eyes descending on his own feet, which were firmly planted on his board. “How come you’re so good at that?”
“My father was a battlemage. Had me try out his board on occasions when he had time to come home. I was a brat and wouldn’t stop pestering him until he gave me lessons.”
This was yet another fact that he felt thankful for, because Clover really did learn the basics of riding a hoverboard from his father. And as he understood it, riding a hoverboard was like riding a bike; once the sensation clicked, you’d never unlearn it.
Reivan himself had tried the Arkhanian hoverboards looted from dead battlemages over the ages. They were cool and all, but he covered much more distance in a shorter time by running—which was also why horses went out of fashion for knights. Few mounts could keep up with their superhuman physical capabilities.
In any case, because of Clover Salwyn’s convenient bit of background information, he could comfortably ride his hoverboard without having to do a one-man play where he made a fool of himself trying to learn—similar to the other three members of his squad. Honestly, it was a bit entertaining to watch them have so much trouble with it, because he sure as hell did when he'd tried it all those years ago. They could make a show about people having trouble with hoverboards and he'd probably tune in every night. Of course, that was only possible once the television was invented.
Anyway, it seemed only Reivan, Kantor, and Mira—who was in her second year as a battlemage—could ride hoverboards.
“Vice-captain.” Mira set a glance toward the night sky and gestured at the others while whispering. “I think we should split up for now. What say you?”
Reivan hummed in thought. “You, me, and Kantor go ahead on hoverboards while the other three follow behind on a stagecoach?”
“Too risky, you think?”
“You’re supposed to be more knowledgeable about these things, so I’d hoped you’d have more insight.”
“I do, but I want your opinion so that if something goes wrong, we can share the blame.”
“Wow, you’re... You're a horrible person.” Reivan shook his head in exasperation before grinning, his face brought close as he whispered. “I don’t know why I like you so much.”
Mira went a bit red as she pulled away, looking quite intent on telling him off. But she didn’t, because there were others around. “This is a serious situation.”
“You’re the one who joked around first.”
“Well… Okay, I’ll give you that.”
“Anyway.” Reivan gesticulated at the others. “I think we should just go off, just the two of us. Kantor will stay with the other three.”
Mira narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Your words reek of ulterior motives.”
“Maybe a little.”
“You’re horrible.”
“No, but think about it. If something happens to the other three, nobody will have the mobility to escape and warn us or the township about it. Understand?”
Mira made a noise of agreement. “You have a point. But shouldn’t you or I stay with the others? You know, so that an officer is with each half of the group.”
“You have a point, but like I said, I had ulterior motives.”
“I can’t believe you…” Mira spent a moment or two looking at him before sighing. “What’s the real reason?”
Reivan shrugged. “Honestly, Kantor’s a good guy, but he’s kind of weak to pressure. If he’s part of the group that goes ahead, whether he’s with you or me, I doubt his ability to help in a meaningful way. On the other hand, if he’s with the second group, the only thing he’ll have to do is run and get reinforcements. Maybe act as a scryer or scout, courtesy of his avian spirit beast. He can’t possibly mess that up.”
“That’s kind of…”
“I know what I just said makes me sound like an asshole, but I think that when you’re leading people into danger, you don’t have the leeway to consider vague things like feelings. You have to be cold and practical."
“But…”
“Look, Kantor’s a great guy, I like him. And as someone from a clan of mages, he’s extremely knowledgeable about a crap ton of things. But at this moment, he’s a bad piece to play on the battlefield when he isn’t in a very secure position—like when we’re split up, for example. He’s ridiculously useful outside of battles though, probably more so than everyone here but you. Leadership isn’t forcing everyone to be of use in every situation, it’s knowing where your subordinates will shine the most and letting them raise hell there.”
‘Well, that’s one way to lead. There’s like, a bazillion more.’
There was a compendium about it back at the palace. And the very first page said that true leadership was knowing what type of leadership to employ in a given situation. Times change and so does the nature of ruling. A good king knew how to rule no matter the era, being what his subjects needed.
Reivan read a bit of it just to get his father off his back, but Roland probably knew it all by heart. And so too, did everyone who ever sat on the nation’s throne.
Anyway, it seemed Mira was convinced. She even seemed to find his words enlightening, given how her pretty blue eyes shone. But then she went right back to being skeptical. “You sounded really cool just now, but then I remembered you admitting to an ulterior motive…”
“Ah. Well.” Reivan chuckled. “You agree though, right?”
“...Yes. We’ll go off on our own then. Just to make sure Florris doesn’t get sacked by monsters before a charted stagecoach gets there. Ugh… I wanna go home and lay down…”
“You would have been perfectly stalwart battlemage if you hadn’t added that last part.”
Mira rolled her eyes and walked up to the others, explaining what she wanted out of the squad.
Reivan listened, internally thinking what a right old farce it all was. Because he was willing to bet both of his testicles that Mira currently had an Ascendant guard right this minute, intent on guarding her at all costs. And so, Mira could go off completely on her own and be perfectly fine. She didn’t need him or the other squad members because she had one of the most powerful types of plot armor ever to grace the pages of any novel.
A powerful guardian watching her from the shadows.