----------------------------------------
Herman
I started to wake up from a well rested sleep naturally, I am a morning person thanks to my office job, one of the few things from my previous life that will be useful in this life, though it seemed that even my natural clock is a bit off from the standard here, or at least the one this platoon of soldiers had, because around me almost everyone was already awake and getting ready to go. Just to clarify, I am sleeping I my own bag, the only time I went into Lady Rammir tent was for the dinner she offered me, after that for obvious reasons I went outside to my own section of the camp.
As I stood up from the sleeping bag I realized something rather amusing, at the east there was a normal dawn, with the first sunlight pouring into the land as a cascade over the sky, what was amusing about it was that to the west, one of the moons is doing the exact same with reflected blue light, making the sky as mix of a blue and ocher colors, a sight truly beautyful to behold, probably that was one of the reasons why they called it the 'First Light' instead of just 'Sunrise', yet another wonder of nature that proved I was in another world, not that there was really any doubt to start with.
Once my sleeping bag was packed up I went towards Feroce to prepare his saddle for the travel, I kinda had to learn it by seeing the soldiers do their own saddles, still hadn't enough practice so I actually struggled quite a lot to do it well. That at least until Sir Liam came over to help me with it, he definitely saw me struggling a lot.
"I'm surprised you don't know how to saddle up a horse, you seemed to know how to ride reasonably" He said as he finished tying up the saddle firmly enough that it wouldn't fall "Except for that time you almost fell on a curve" He added at the end.
"Yeah, most of my travels where by foot and I never really had a chance to ride one until now, so the riding mostly was begginers luck and a good horse I guess" I said a bit embarassingly, Feroce by his part seemed to be rather proud of the last part of my statement, well he had the right to be so in my opinion.
"I'd say it's more natural talent and a good horse, begginers luck doesn't help much at riding without a proper teacher" He said as he placed the reins on Feroce's mouth.
"If you say so, thanks for the help by the way" I was honestly a bit surprised by how friendly he was being, but then again, he just didn't really like the idea of the lady he served taking a liking for a commoner, which was completely understandable.
"Don't mention it, I'm the one that pulled you into coming with us just by greeting you, for that I'm kinda obliged to help you with things you can't do" As he said that he finished with the reins, giving Feroce a pat on him his neck before turning to me "The rest is on you Mister Cruz"
"Just call me Herman, mind if I call you by your name myself?" I honestly really liked Sir Liam, he really is quite a nice guy and easy going, at least compared to how the rest of the soldiers were kinda staying away from me, mostly out of waryness I think, some give me pitiful stares though, which was a bit weird in my opinion.
"Very well then, you may call me Liam, Herman" As he said that he gave me a slight nod before going back to his own horse, who he already had saddled beforehand. Soon we'd part towards the border again, after all we needed to keep a good distance from the mercenary band, since Feroce was all done and ready I proceeded to get ready myself.
----------------------------------------
Sir Liam Alegii
It had been a while since we left from that improvised camp, we had to wake up a bit earlier than most of the squad is acostumed to, but we couldn't be too careful when dealing with them, The Urlatori might not be the best mercenary band of the Kingdom of Legrosia, but they are known to be good at chasing their targets.
The reason why they were chasing us was not much to my liking either, in general what happened to the Trucuri House after Lady Rammir took over keeps me conflicted, often is that I ended up wondering if I should have done something different, maybe run, maybe hinder our advance to the border, but every time I ended up throwing the thoughts of betrayal out of my head, the one who I pledged alliance to might not be the best person, but I'm a knight and I shall keep my oath, because if I don't, what worth would my word be, what worth would I be.
Having said that, one might think it's weird that I greeted the Wande... err, Herman which provoked him to travel with us, Lady Rammir aswell as both Commander Tradator and Sir Trisor are a bad influence after all, but repeating what I said before, the Urlatori are good at chasing their prey, if they targeted him after the thing with the arrow... well, at the moment I thought he'd be safer with us, at least until we crossed the border, from there we could had separated.
We 'could had' if it wasn't for the fact that Lady Trucuri took a liking to Herman, which was the worst outcome posible, the things she will do to him if he stays with us... my entire body shudders at the mere thought of it.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
At the moment he is by the side of the carriage, since Lady Rammir wanted to sweet talk him to get his already non-existent guard lower, one of the tactics she most liked to use with naive guys like him is to jiggle at them being awkard in some way, it works most of the time, this case included.
Once my train of thoughts came to a stop I noticed that Lady Rammir seemed to have finished talking to him for now, so he backed up from the carriage and let Sir Trisor his original position by the side of the carriage, he ended up at the tail of the formation as always, with the soldiers being spiteful as they are, even with the bit of pity they decided to offer him due to his new fate around us and generaly rejecting, he decided to be there on his own.
We were closing into the area where our passage was, if there was a time for him to separate from us it was now, or else what would await him was a destiny I wouldn't even wish for my enemies, soon I found myself approaching him in the formation.
"Hey Liam, what's up?" He said as soon as he noticed me closing on to him, not noticing my clear worry at all, or if he did, not paying it any of the required attention and thought.
"Well, we are closing into the border, we are going to take a detour deeper into the forest for, 'Official Trucuri Family Matters' that could be too bothersome for you, so you might want to go down the main road without us" Hopefully he wasn't so infatuated with Lady Rammir that he wouldn't take the hint
"Well, I guess it's not a bad idea" He says clearly not really wanting to be as close as politics as what I said we are doing seems to sound for him, sadly for me getting him to separate from us wouldn't be as easy, seeing as Sir Trisor seemed to have overheard us and was talking to Lady Rammir about it. After a moment he started slowing down a bit to match our position.
"Are you trying to get the Traveler separated from our Lady Sir Alegii?" Said Sir Trisor with a playful tone, almost jokingly, but it was clear to me he was actually questioning me and my loyalty a bit there, more likely the lady herself was doing so through him.
"Oh no, I wouldn't dare, I'm just saying it might be better for him to go the normal way, after all our path is a bit longer and a lot more bothersome, we can always meet him on the other side" I said as plainly as I could, luckily he seemed to buy it.
"Plus, I'm don't really want to get in the way of your bussines" He said still not liking the idea of getting close to anything political, still oblivious to the real intent of the conversation.
"Oh don't worry, you won't be in the way, if anything a Wanderer like you from a nowhere village would find it troublesome to cross the border alone, hard regulations are in place, plus my Lady would like you to come with us all the way, she says she'd like to show you a few things once we reach our detour destination, if you know what I mean..." He said in a rather tempting tone, the last part clearly swaying Herman to like the idea, and so I got a bit pushed aside from Herman by Sir Trisol, who started filling the mind of Herman with foolish ideas.
The rest of the conversation doesn't matter anymore, I had failed to get him to separate from us, adding yet another guilty burden to my back from serving Lady Rammir.
----------------------------------------
The Demi-god
I came down from the rift I had opened to get to this world, my entrance to the Mortal Realm veiled by the isolation of the grasslands, opening it was the last task The Eldest gave me for my training in the Limbo Realm, a way to prove I was worthy of my lineage as a Demi-god before descending here in the first place, It took me a few minutes to get it right though, tearing space-time was no easy task after all.
As I aproached the tree where my new companion should have been waiting I found myself stranged by the sight of none to greet, probably I only had myself to blame, after all from what I knew he was here for an entire day, it was past mid-day here and he arrived the afternoon of yesterday.
As I realized my mistake I resigned myself to track him down, he couldn't have gone to far even with his blessed body, I looked at the place where he should've been droped in with my right eye, The Eldest had given it to me once I accepted becoming a Demi-god, it was a bit of a downgraded version of his own eyes, with it I could see the entire light espectrum, and a few of the realms that existed, the second of them being the realm of time, which I thought of directly seeing and surely enough, one of the tails of my eye expanded to let me see what happened recently.
First I saw him being droped rather unceremoniously in the gras still unconcious, after a little while he woke up and started looking around, after waiting for a whole hour he suddenly stood up and started trying out his new gear, his movemets might have been fast duw to the blessed body, but he was unbelievable unrefined in nature, once I met with him I'd have a lot of work to do on that front, after that he starting trying to use his bow, 2 out of 10 at 20 ft... yeah, a lot of work to do.
As his training he soon went back to sitting under, I suppose it was very discouraging to fail so much with the bow, still good for a first timer, after that I saw him notice something in the distance, when I took a look at what it is I realized he is already running towards it at a blinding speed, well tecnichaly at blessed human normal speed, obviously I followed him in his path.
I let the trail of his past guide me through the grasslands as he approaches a now straight column of smoke, he stops the battle by shoting 3 arrows and getting a really lucky hit, making it so that the mercenaries retreat, he soon found himself making acquaintance with the knights of... oh no... why did he have to run into that crest, he then got a horse that belonged to one of the fallen soldiers from them and... he follows them, of course, and after a while the mercenaries seem to continue their chase.
"Well... better start chasing after them if I want to find a person and not a corpse" I let the tail of my eye contract completly to stop seeing the past for the momment, I wouldn't need it to track him, soon I readied myself to start doing a marathon, if I remembered the map correctly, they were heading to the border of the empire, but that crest shouldn't be 'legally' allowed to cross it with their current situation, so most likely they'll have a secret passage somewhere, and I think I know where it'll be.
Once ready I start my race towards the border, disappearing from normal sight by the mere amount of speed, it's a race against time, can't take it slow.