In the morning Jennifer was led out of her living quarters in the palace. She and Lachersia boarded a large brown carriage that was pulled by two rows of horses.

The interior was spacious, as the exterior suggested. There was plenty of space to not just sit. If Jennifer willed so, she could easily lie down on cushions she was sitting on. Lachersia sat opposite of her, looking out of the veiled window.

“As you know, it has been decided that you will be placed under my supervision, Jennifer. This means that you will have to live at my place from now on. It will be a long road there, so feel free to take a nap if you wish. Though I must warn you: my home is located outside the city walls on a mountain, so the roads aren’t maintained properly. While the carriage has been magically enchanted to make the ride as comfortable as possible, I’m afraid it will still be rough. You can also look around the city through the window. I have planned for our route to cross all the landmarks, so if anything catches your interest, feel free to ask me”

“Thank you but I would like to sleep for a while. Can I close the curtains, please?”

The lights from the outside were too bright for Jennifer and she didn’t seem to have any interest in Ottlo-Lert, which was the name of the Capital. Not that Jennifer knew it, as she showed little to no interest towards her new home.

Maybe it was a way for Jennifer to cope with her new situation. Maybe she was still expecting that all that has been happening to her will resolve itself somehow, that she will wake up one day and everything will be normal. Perhaps to her, all the events so far have been nothing more than an extravagant and long dream.

As Lachersia had a poor understanding of human feelings and emotions, she decided not to meddle unnecessarily and cause potential problems for Jennifer. Keeping her at a distance would only make it worse, so she decided to be as intimate with the heroine as she could. She may not be her family, but she will try to fill at least a part of what was lacking, or so she thought.

That was the reason she told Jennifer to address her as “Big Sister Lache” though the difference in their respective ages seemed to be much more considerable than that of sisters. Well, her pride would not allow her to admit something like this though. She looked young, around twenty years old. Being called a big sister was acceptable. Yes. Certainly. Indubitably. No objections allowed.

It would probably be for the best for Jennifer to see a doctor specializing in mental health. With the rise of culture and magical technology, various professions like that bloomed. Nowadays, many things were possible that weren’t, say, 300 years ago. The world sure evolves fast.

Lachersia understood that it would be best for Jennifer to receive professional counselling. But she couldn’t find it in herself to trust others to take care of the girl. Perhaps Jennifer wouldn’t be the only one who would benefit from seeing the doctor.

The carriage continued running and running, the rhythmic beat of the hooves being quite relaxing and soon Jennifer fell asleep. Seeing the terrible sleeping posture of her small companion, Lachersia sat to Jennifer’s side, fixed the posture and began running her slender fingers through the brown hair of Jennifer.

The ride would take several hours and being locked in a small place with the curtains shut, Lachersia felt she and Jennifer wound up in their small separate world. Demons, monsters, humans and politicians, all of those things could wait. Only the sounds of breathing and the beat of hooves were allowed inside.

For the first time, Lachersia truly understood the responsibility that she had taken up. It wasn’t just Jennifer that would be facing all the things that Fate will throw her way. Lachersia would be there too.

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“We’re in this together, aren’t we?”

As if to answer her question, Jennifer’s small palm squeezed her own.

Lachersia secretly wished for the road to be a little longer..

***

If you ask any self-respecting mage about their attitude towards the rest of humanity… They would probably come up with a sentence that would sound humble and reasonable but make you feel looked down upon.

And it’s perfectly fine, as mages pursue the truths of the world that ordinary mortals like you would have absolutely no hope to even touch upon, they see the things that you have no hope of even imagining and are generally better than you in every way, peasant.

Or so they would think.

But even as arrogant as they are, they still have their convictions and rules, so it’s rare to see a mage treating an ordinary human with too much disrespect, much less an ordinary human with power over other ordinary humans.

Maybe it was for that reason that Claudia hasn’t not only not killed every person that was present when she was transported across realms, but she has been playing along with them splendidly, to the point where nobody has noticed that she was a powerful Grand Mage.

But it was more likely that she was afraid that Jeremy would find out that she has arrived and disappeared again. It must be said that Jeremy Hillstone had a phenomenal talent for disappearing that completely defied common sense. It was to the point where she wondered if even Gods would be able to find him if he tried his very best. She just had to wait until all the summoned heroes gathered together and then she would get him.

It would take too much effort for Jeremy to get away from swarms of mages and soldiers in the middle of a foreign country where the news of his disappearance would spread instantly. It’s not like on Earth where mages were severely limited in what they could do. But it’s not to say that it was impossible for him to do so. That’s why it was better to bide the time and strike when she was ready.

The problem was that for the next three years the heroes would have to live in their respective countries in order to adapt in the art of combat, master the blessings that the Gods bestowed upon them and learn about the culture and history of the new world that they were thrown into.

Three years. No, at least three years.

It’s not like Claudia couldn’t wait. She was very good at waiting. She just didn’t like exercising that skill of hers. But she could wait.

Yes, indeed. It’s just three years, what’s so hard about waiting?

But what was that ominous feeling that she’s been having lately?

Maybe, just maybe she should just massacre her way through and travel faster than news? Hahaha, it’s a joke, of course. Yes. A joke.

She wasn’t an unreasonable person after all. Not all the time at least.

Though all the waiting better pay off if the citizens of the kingdom that had summoned her valued their lives.

Remember, not all the time.

***

Sitting on her broom, the woman with red hair and red eyes that was clad in all black was humming a tune. She was opening and closing her palm and moving it in different directions while eyeing it seriously, despite the poor visibility that moonlight provided.

When she was satisfied, she looked at the sky. She seemed to expect a reaction of some kind but seeing the sky having no changes, she looked down on the ground beneath the clouds.

“Well, I can go out and have fun sometimes can’t I?”

She looked at the sky again. Seeing no changes in it, she let out the breath she didn’t notice she was holding and relaxed the muscles of her face.

“Even Aurora Tertitian herself said that when you have all the time in the world, you should enjoy it or it would be a waste. Yep, that demon teacher Lavenna is really too inferior to her when teaching”

Nodding to herself she smoothly avoided the giant thunderbolt that struck down the place she was floating at before.

And looked at the sky again. Seeing no changes in it, she disregarded how the thunderbolt struck at her when she was flying above the clouds and released another breath.

“Now, what to do… I hope there will be something fun to do. The corruption on this planet is quite serious though. I miss Almertia. I didn’t have to hunt down scary skeleton people to take their body-parts when I lived there at least. Damn, I’m an Archmage for the love of… some Ancient Dragon, so why is it that I have to run around and risk my life like some young cyborg mercenary from that Realm System… what was it called again? Whatever.”

Her heart full of grievances, she flew down without any direction.