Hera cleaned herself up three times after reaching Zinctorum. The first was at the large cleaning area the Alliance Center offered. She, along with all her titled blades and the rest of the Harmony Guardians, minus Vash, power washed themselves to the point of drawing blood. There was a point the Ophidianite even felt as if her scales were going to come off. Then she took another shower later, after eating the wings they got for dinner. The sauce covered her hands and mouth, and that sticky feeling was enough to remind her of what happened in the afternoon. Before actually going to bed, she took a bath. A long bath that made her feel as if even her scales were getting wrinkly.
When the day was over, the team had already forgiven Vash. Or at least, forgiven him enough to stop punishing him by telling the harpy to pay and do everything for the rest. The reason they were being this harsh was because they knew Vash could’ve helped them. Even if he didn’t want to get dirty, he could’ve buffed the group, or attacked from above. But he chose to stay away. Then again, no one was actually angry or upset, thinking that he had left them to die. Things never got that dangerous, and they still trusted him to have their backs. Not to say there weren’t plans of revenge being tossed around. Roan and Flint wanted to drop Vash in a latrine when they got to the army camp. Hera decided not to help either side, and told her court that they could do what they wished, since Crimson and Vulcan were also pissed, but that they were not supposed to hurt anyone. Not physically or emotionally, at least. Aiming for the harpy’s pride was fair game.
Early the next morning, Randolf asked to meet everyone again. They had already talked with all the members of the caravan, being him Drew and Veronica. And the extra three people from the escort team that would split up. A dwarf called Kalahan, their healer, a harpy called Britta, the crafter, and a ferret beastmen called Remy, who was the mage. They were happy to meet the group and see that the mission wasn’t completely failed due their mistakes. However, Hera found the way they looked at her very weird. It wasn’t just the curiosity of seeing an Ophidianite for the first time, but there was a certain reverence to it. However, she wasn’t even the highest level member of the group, since the rest of the Harmony Guardians had reached level 60 at least. The reason for that was likely her legacy. It should be one of the drawbacks. She was splitting the experience with her court. Which meant this new group of people wouldn’t see her as the highest level person in the group.
Hera was also not the leader because there wasn’t one. Every decision was made by the entire group, and each took charge of different things. In fact, the Ophidianite only had a leading role in battle because of Dusa, and now Twiggy. She even asked if they were part of Beyond the Scale, that organization that she had a role in creating. If Katarina was talking about her, it could mean something. After all, having someone appear on a griffon to save you from a pack of monsters would leave quite the impression. But no, they never even heard about that organization.
Without an answer, she just watched as Randolf, Drew, and Veronica prepared the transportation. The three of them were combining their skills and items to carry a large container from one room to the next. It was almost like the back of a truck, including the wheels, attached to 3 mounts very similar to the version of Nimbus that existed before he joined the legacy.
Outside a warehouse, the group watched as some people helped the large metal container be pulled out of storage and placed in the street, already pointing in the direction they had to go. The entire thing was painted in a camouflage pattern. That made the metal box blend with its surroundings as if seen from a certain distance. It wouldn’t do anything for the mounts or if anyone was close to them, but this even allowed people to ride above the container without a problem. On each side was also a set of seats large enough for three people. With a larger space on the back before the doors of the semitrailer, where a group of 10 could stay comfortably. Lastly, the front had some cover, and the driver’s seat, that wasn’t attached to an engine but instead space for three creatures of different sizes to be placed in harnesses and pull the truck.
Hera couldn’t help but be surprised, this felt like an odd mixture of modern and old style delivery that kind of looked amazing. Even if it was like a plane with stubby wings when looking from above. With that all off the way, Randolf was the first to summon his mount. It was a reindeer that he could bring out from a ring. He also had enchanted the mount to be able to illuminate the path in a red light that came out of its nose, just to lean in on the Rudolph's joke. Drew called a stone lion from a jade pendant. It was something that seemed to have been plucked out of old Chinese buildings, but the creature moved without any problems despite its mineral look. Lastly was Veronica, who summoned a black and yellow rhinoceros with a long horn that curved backwards at the tip. Together, the tree mounts were able to drag the semi-trailer at a speed of 50 km per hour. A speed that Nimbus was able to keep up with allowing the Empress to be running along instead of be seated in one of the many seats.
After a brief discussion, they decided how they were going to split everyone. In the front, along with Randolf, Drew, and Veronica, would be Vash and Roan. Neria, Britta and Crimson would take the left side seats, while Skyler, Kalahan, and Viper would stay on the right side. Everyone else would be in the back area, including Hera’s titled blades. The Empress would be riding Nimbus to be more mobile, while Vulcan stayed at the top of the container, along with Twiggy. That way, the tiara would have a clear view of all the surroundings. Forge asked to be there, worried that being in a tight space could trigger his PTSD and increase the [Daemonic Influence]. The rest of Hera’s court, namely the blades that didn’t have a bipedal form, would be resting against various parts of the half-trailer to allow themselves to keep up with the movement and to work as an extra pair of eyes. This spread should give them plenty of time to react in case they were ambushed, or some monsters showed up to attack them.
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With them all in place, Randolf touched his neck to trigger the communicator that everyone was wearing and asked, “Ready?” getting a confirmation from everyone they departed.
Just a few minutes after they started moving, Nimbus, who was keeping up with the caravan on the side, spoke to Hera, ‘If you get tired you can swap with anther of the Harmony Guardians. Skyler, Neria, and Vash might not be interested, but Flint and Roan could do the same thing you are doing now.’
‘That’s a good call. I’ll ask if any of them want to swap later. And I think Neria is the only one who shouldn’t be part of the rotation. After all, it’s better to have a healer on each side of the caravan,’ the Empress replied with a smile.
“We will be her a while. Anyone wants to play a road game, talk, or should I pull up one of the audio books I have?” Randolf asked.
“For the love of the system, can someone just toss a topic for us to talk about? I can’t take another 7 days of the history of fermented fish or whatever the fuck was that,” Britta groaned.
“Hey! It was the impact of surstromming in modern history. Don’t come after me because I listen to more than just fiction,” Randolf huffed.
“To be fair, it was a bit interesting. I had no idea there was a whole trade deal surrounding it,” Remy added.
“You are free to offer something else next time,” Randolf continued, clearly upset about the complaint.
“Don’t get me wrong, boss. But I have other options if anyone is interested,” Drew said.
“What do you got?” Roan asked
“What do you want? I have fiction, thrillers, detective stories, spy stories, science fiction. Or, if you prefer, I have like 100 episodes of a dozen different podcasts. I’m sure we can find something everyone wants to listen to.”
“I still think we should be more focused on the path ahead than what we are listening to,” Veronica crossed her arms.
“C’mon. We pause whatever we are listening to when we enter one of the orange zones, ok? We still have a few rooms that will be safe,” Randolf replied.
“I agree with Randolf. If we are always on high alert, we will get tired more easily, and more snippy. We might end up making mistakes. It’s better to be more relaxed when we can,” Hera nodded along with the entire court.
And so, their journey continued. They would be crossing 21 rooms in total, stopping in 5 different places to get more supplies that were already waiting for them, and take a chance to sleep in a settlement. In the end, this also meant they only had to camp outside during one day of their travels. And between Flint, Britta, and Randolf, they had enough crafters to make a pretty decent place to rest. But this also meant they would have to take turns to be on watch, to make sure no monster or human tried anything.
The first day went by without a hitch. They talked, listened to some audio books and podcasts. And the people in the side seats and the back of the container could even watch some shows. As long as one of them was paying attention to their surroundings. Hera used that time to help her new court members to find out who they were. She played some music to know their tastes, talked about different shows to see what could interest them. The titled blades also helped, joking around, playing small pranks, and doing anything they could think of to make them more used with the world.
It wasn’t all fun and games. There were a couple of situations when monsters appeared and trying to attack them. However, they were weak enough that a single spell could take care of the creatures. And thankfully, this happened after they left the Kalandria Empire, which meant they didn’t have to worry about the monster creating any kind of toxic sludge to attack them.
Hera also realized that the trio, Britta, Kalahan, and Remy, continued to give her that weird look. As if they were seeing someone incredible, but every time she tried to talk to them, they awkwardly ended the conversation. Yet, when they were talking with one of her titled blades, they didn’t seem to mind.
That kind of interaction was slowly getting on the Empress’ nerves. It would be one thing if they were just acting like that because she was of a different species. But they were sending way too many mixed signals for her to understand. And it wasn’t like she could just corner them and ask the question. Not when there wasn’t a moment she could talk with one of them alone.
Either way, she decided to focus on other things. For instance, how amazing it was to see Randolf transferring the entire container from one room to the next. She had only seen people do that with boxes, even large ones, but something this big, that was easily 15 meters across, was something else. According to the caravan leader, he had two things that let him do that. First was a skill that was not part of any role, which would let him carry more things when crossing a doorway. Next was an enchantment on the container itself related to that same ability. This would make the skill think that every two centimeters of semi-trailer would actually be one. Essentially, doubling the size the skill could affect. In addition, if he, Veronica, and Drew all touched the caravan and the doorway at the same time, they could ‘split the weight,’ which made all of this possible.
That’s how the Harmony Guardians escorted the caravan for the first few days. They would leave a city in the morning, and arrive in the next one at late afternoon, or the beginning of the evening. Then, Randolf would find members of his crew in the storehouses that already had checked the crates with everything and load them up in the container. After sleeping, the entire group would leave in the morning again and rinse and repeat. This happened for the first 5 days. With only two days left on their trip, came the hardest parts. The rooms where monsters were more aggressive, serving as a natural defense against any human invasion, and the night they would have to spend in the open before passing through places that were active war zones.