The two days of waiting for the transport went by smoothly for the group. While Valentine was nervous about the possible appearance of the pitch-black creature, his fears were unfounded. By the start of the third day Quinzel had returned to the library with a sizeable group of guards and several horse-drawn carriages. The group quickly packed up their personal belongings and set out the same day. While packing Valentine decided to grab a few books for Zylphia, while in this life he had no reason to gift them he still felt he should.
While traveling Quinzel chose to seat Professor Roxanne and Valentine in the carriage with himself and Zylphia. In the carriage Quinzel began to explain some of the information needed for the human group’s new life. In the crossover the library was transported to a forest in the southern part of the Von Brecket territory, a relatively peaceful but underdeveloped area. The reason the group had not found a way out of the forest in the 3 months of Valentine’s last life was due to this underdeveloped infrastructure. The 2 days wait for transport was so that a suitable path could be prepared.
The Von Brecket family, a minor noble family of Elves, governed a small territory in the East of the Winzlet Empire. The Winzlet Empire was the country of Elves, to the West was the Dwarven Kingdom of Albor, and the South was the Lycanthrope tribes’ territories. Finally in the North was the territory of the Lesser Dragons, who had no government. These territories had long been decided in agreements made when the Lycanthrope’s full collision took place. Quinzel explained that when humans started to crossover in larger groups, there would be a need to decide a territory for them.
After 2 hours of travelling, the forest was replaced with wide fields of tall grass, the small narrow path through the forest now a wide gravel road. The caravan of carriages had made quick progress after exiting the forest and had only taken 1 more hour to reach a small village. The houses in the village reminded Valentine of the generic medieval peasant houses he would see in books and TV. Thatch roofs sat atop simple wooden boxes with a chimney that allowed for an indoor fireplace, fences outside protecting simple home gardens.
“Here, have this, I grabbed a couple from the library before we left.” Valentine grabbed one of the books from the library he had placed inside of his bag and held it to Zylphia.
“What? Why the sudden gift, and a book at that.” Zylphia seemed puzzled, however still accepting the book into her hands.
“I felt like you were the sort of person who enjoys books, so I’m giving you one, I have more if you’d like.” Valentine began to rummage inside of his bag, searching for another book that Zylphia might enjoy more.
“What sort of text is this, what subject does it cover?” Zylphia began to flipped through the pages as she looked for some sort of theory proposal or scholarly insight. Valentine had forgotten that she had not had the conversation about books for enjoyment in this life, the memory replaying bittersweetly in his head.
“Well its for enjoyment rather than for some scholarly purpose, that one is about a boy who has no luck, meeting a girl with all the luck in the world.” Valentine explained the premise to Zylphia, watching her eyes light up at the book just from the description of it.
“Interesting, this boy who has no luck, and the girl who has all the luck in the world. Does their meeting mean she’s unlucky, or that he got lucky?” Zylphia asked a question that surprised Valentine, he had never met someone that could dig into the book immediately without reading it.
“That’s the question that they ask each other, who is the one that swayed the universe with their luck to create their meeting. But I won’t tell you, that’s for you to find out through reading.” Valentine responded.
“Then I will tell you what I think when I have finished it, deal?” Zylphia smiled while looking at Valentine.
“Deal.” Valentine smiled back as he responded. The moment didn’t last long as the image of Zylphia’s lifeless eyes filled his mind. Every time he got a moment of joy, all he could remember was the painful death that he went through, that Zylphia went through.
Before he could think on the past more however the carriage stopped, the sudden lurch feeling as if was unplanned. Right on queue with that thought Valentine heard a commotion from outside the carriage, the loud sounds of yelling muffled yet recognizable. Quinzel was the first to exit the carriage, opening the door and stepping onto the ground to talk to the driver of the carriage. Valentine followed, nodding to professor Roxanne to protect Zylphia inside the carriage while he investigated as well.
Closing the door, Valentine took in the surroundings, surveying the area for potential conflict. Looking around Valentine took note that the village they had entered moments ago was now behind them, ahead was a road like the one they had travelled on previously. In front of them blocking the path was a large cart drawn by 2 horses and a young muscular human man angrily yelling at one of the guards that had been escorting their group. The young man’s cart had a damaged wheel, meaning the cart was blocking the path ahead.
“Driver, what seems to be the issue?” Quinzel asked the driver of the carriage the question while eyeing the young man.
“This cart is blocking our path, the guard is telling him to move it but it seems that there is some issue.” The old man that drove the carriage spoke.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Valentine felt a sense of unease at the situation, while on the surface he felt the situation to be simple he was still concerned. Surveying the area again he began looking for that sense of unease. As he found more and more problems his concern grew and he understood that they were likely in a trap.
“Quinzel, a moment?” Valentine gave Quinzel an urgent look as he pulled him away from talking with the carriage driver. “This doesn’t feel right, something is off, we should be ready.”
Quinzel looked puzzled at Valentine, however seeing his seriousness he understood that he should listen. “What did you notice”
“The cart has far too much weight for how skinny the horses are, there’s no way they could have brought that cart out here. The wheel is broken but there is nothing around her to break it, and why is the cart sideways in the middle of a wide road like this. Also, look around us, this is the perfect location to hide for an ambush.” Valentine spoke about the many concerns he had, with each one Quinzel grew more certain that he was right.
“Ok, don’t make any sudden movements, but get ready for battle.” Quinzel spoke to Valentine in a hushed voice, then covering his suspicion he began to walk to the front of the caravan with a smile on his face. “Young man, I understand that your cart is damaged, if you would like I can have some of my guards help move it out the path so that you can fix it without blocking the road.”
“Like I told the guard, I can’t let you move my cart, it has precious cargo that I can’t let you damage. The only way my cart is moving before I fix this wheel is if I have some insurance that if my cargo breaks I won’t lose money.” The man’s deal was obvious, pay up or get lost. Though Valentine wondered where he got the confidence to speak to a armored convoy like that.
“I understand, how much is the cargo worth?” Quinzel spoke as if money was no issue, Valentine understood what Quinzel was after with the provocation.
“This is some extremely precious cargo here, 100 gold.” The man smirked as he imitated estimating the price.
As the man said the price Quinzel’s face had a wave of disappointment, then acceptance. The man saw the face Quinzel made and assumed that he had accepted the price, raising a hand outstretched to take the money. However, Quinzel simply raised his own hand and pointed a single finger at the man in front of him.
“Flame shot… Spark” As the word left Quinzel’s mouth a bright red mass of flames formed and shot from his from his finger, the flame only the size of a golf ball. Despite its size the flame that shot was powerful, taking a only split second to travel 30ft forward and engulf the man in a flame that covered himself and part of the cart. “Men, get ready for an attack.” Quinzel then raised his hand again ready to shoot another spell as the guards drew their swords.
“I didn’t think that you would just outright attack him! How do you know that it was actually a trap?” Valentine prepared himself for an attack as well, though he still questioned the decision to outright attack the man. As the commotion had now gotten violent Terren exit his carriage, soon after the rest of the senior students left the carriages. “Protect the younger students, we might have trouble.” Valentine yelled back at his classmates, seeing the fire and guards ready for battle convinced them enough to prepare themselves.
Seeing the plan had failed, the men Valentine suspected would be hiding in the hills began to rush towards the caravan, some however stayed in the hills, raising their arms as they began to rain low level spells upon the carriages, making it obvious their intentions were to kill rather than steal. However the spells would have no effect, the entire caravan had been covered with a barrier by a collaborative effort of Terren and Kaedric. The spell was made quickly, however the spells attacking it were low enough power that it would have no trouble defending for at least an hour.
The men that rushed the caravan were well equipped, using weapons and armor that you wouldn’t be able to find on a random bandit. Their skills were also not something to laugh at, the guards that met them were not being pushed back but were not able to finish them quickly, this coupled with the fact they couldn’t exit the barrier without being attacked with long range spells meant that the attackers could rotate and tire out the guards. Valentine began to walk towards the group of attackers however was stopped by Dorred.
“Help young master Quinzel, I and the guards will deal with these ones.” Dorred ushered Valentine to focus his attention elsewhere.
Valentine looked in the direction of the Quinzel, however he was met with the surprising sight of the cart driver walking out of the flames unscathed. While Quinzel had only used a low level spell like flame shot against the cart driver, it still should have been powerful enough to finish off a unarmored and unprepared person. However the man walking out of the flame had not only no sorts of damage done to him, he was now wielding a sword and rushing towards Quinzel.
“Protect me… Rock wall” Quinzel shouted the words as he slammed his hands into the ground in front of him. Bursting from the ground 3 thick walls made of rock and stone formed in front of Quinzel, they reminded Valentine of the walls used to protect the library in his previous life. But just as soon as they appeared, the walls were cut down. On the other side the cart driver looked as though the effort of this feat was not even enough to break a sweat. “Valentine, help me!” Quinzel shouted back towards Valentine, the desperation in his voice clear.
The request was met, with Valentine quickly raising his arm as he stood next to Quinzel. “Stand Strong… Fortress” The green blocks formed around the man, surrounding him in a dome.
“Protect me… Sheid” Seeing the plan Valentine had in mind, Quinzel cast his own spell to surround the man, this shield surrounding the block of the fortress spell to fill in the gaps and reinforce the weak points. While neither spell alone would be able to hold up to the attacks of the man, Valentine hoped at the least these two combined could delay him enough for a better plan.
The man began to swing against the walls of the prison he was now in, this time with much more effort than what he had used previously, each attack creating a crack in the barrier, though Quinzel repaired as many of these cracks as he could. As the man battered against the wall Valentine prepared a magic circle on the ground. As he finished the last line and placed his palms on the ground he only hoped that the barrier could withstand long enough for the spell to finish. “Burn” the spell was similar to the one he had used in his fight against Dorred, however this time its goal was to kill rather than suppress. The large cyclones of flame had been replaced with smaller hotter flames, and the area of effect was shrunk so that the flames only appeared within the barrier previously created. As the flames began to pick up the effect was obvious, the once unbothered man was now screaming out as he slashed with all his might against the walls of what was now effectively an oven.
The flames did not need to last long for the man to finally succumb, falling to the ground soon after the spell was cast, though Valentine kept the flames going long enough that the once muscular frame was replaced with charred remains. After the screams of the man stopped, Valentine began to look towards the other fight going on.
The other attackers were not as strong as the one that Quinzel and Valentine had to deal with, many of them already having been killed by the time Valentine finished. This swift turn around was mainly in part due to the students who had focused on defeating the mages on the hill and maintaining the barrier. When the mages on the hill had been taken out the guards were able to leave the barrier to finish off the physical combatants.
“Guards, report.” Quinzel quickly took charge of the situation, while Valentine had sat down from minor exhaustion.
“Young master Quinzel, there were no casualties on our side, only one guard was injured, all enemy combatants have been killed.” Dorred took a knee as he reported to Quinzel.
“Good, make sure the injured guard receives medical attention, please escort the students back to their carriages, we must depart as soon as possible.” Quinzel gave out orders, though his speech was effortless for a moment Valentine thought he saw worry in Quinzel’s eyes.