Clay awoke the next morning to the same white haired girl he had seen before, the court mage, staring at him from an uncomfortably close distance to his face. She was visibly upset and her speech was once again unintelligible. Random pieces of straw were stabbing through his shirt, and Clay went to work immediately removing them. Frustrated at being ignored, she touched his head again, to the same result as last time. The pretty light show ended quickly, and he could now understand her again.

"Hey! I've come to pick you up. Your presence has been requested at the lord's manor."

"Why? What's the problem?"

"One of your titles has piqued the interest of the earl. You'd do well not to refuse."

"Was it the 'Summoned Hero' title?"

"No. That's for the church. He wanted to know more about you because of the Unique title."

"Unique? You mean the one that's continuously degrading me? 'No Life'? Why is being insulted by my own Status special?"

"How is that an insult?"

"It's telling me I have no life!"

"Unique means you are the only holder of something. Even your extreme 'Summoned Hero' title isn't a Unique title, think about it. Either way I'm taking you to the earl."

"Who's the earl?"

"Earl Seltmark. Lord of the Seltmark region, based out of the capital city of the same name."

Clay sat back on the pile of straw and stretched out with his hands behind his head. "And if I refuse?"

After spending a few seconds fuming, she promptly drove a fist into his gut.

"We don't have time for this moronic chat. Get a move on!"

"Fine, fine." Clay stood up, rubbing his stomach.

She forced him along in that violent manner until he came across a wagon. It was a simple wooden wagon, with a pair of the anteaters at the front.

"What are those things called?" Clay pointed at the strange animals in front of the wagon.

"Tonguesnouts." She didn't even pause as she answered.

"That's a weird name. Oddly descriptive."

"Get in the wagon. We have no time to waste, the city is a good week's travel away, and I want to make it to the first camp zone by nightfall. No need to risk getting attacked by bandits tonight."

Clay stood there, eyeing how best to get up into the five foot tall wagon. The girl simply grabbed his legs and unceremoniously threw him up into it.

"What was that for?"

She didn't answer, and instead climbed up herself. After getting up, she threw the same sword that had impaled him down from off of her back. As though that was the signal, the wagon driver flicked the reigns and the wagon started moving.

"My name is Katrina. Now that we are off, I'll try to be kinder."

They were already out of the town before he even had a chance to look around for a place to get breakfast.

The road itself wasn't very interesting. It was just a continuously bumpy ride the entire duration. The first trip was a few hours of riding along, and consisted largely of trying not to get sore from slamming down repeatedly against the wooden cart every time it went over a hole or bump in the dirt road. There were no animals of any sort within his line of sight to take Clay's mind off of things. Though at one point, he thought he saw a white shape move in the distance, but it was only for a moment. It didn't appear again.

Clay was too nervous to ask questions, afraid they would only be met with physical violence. He sat in silence, sometimes sneaking a look over towards Katrina. She sat there staring off behind them for the rest of the journey.

***

Clay crashed to the ground. Katrina had rolled him out of the wagon and dropped him down the five foot drop into the dirt. Suddenly falling to the ground while asleep was a new sensation for Clay and an entirely unpleasant one. The stars were high in the sky, barely illuminating anything.

"Wake up! We arrived."

She jumped down herself, landing neatly next to him as he wiped the dirt off his body. She ignored him and walked off for a ways. The silent man who had been driving the wagon took the two anteaters off and tied them to a tree.

'More unsolicited violence. This is annoying.'

All around them were similar scenes to their own wagon, but the other people were equipped with at least basic tents, and many of them had torches and campfires roaring in a dim glow. There was the constant chatter now ringing in Clay's ears from the many people throughout the camp. There were at least a hundred merchants and their hired adventurers, all huddled together in a giant campground against some unforeseen threat. The air wasn't lively despite the mass of people and instead radiated a sense of fear and unease. A few more wagons were beginning to arrive, but many had started leaving as well.

Katrina stomped her foot on the ground repeatedly.

Clay looked over. "What are you doing?"

"Testing the ground's strength. Come jump over here for me."

"Uhh... okay."

He walked over, and began bunny hopping on the spot she had pointed to. He gave it a few seconds between each hop, hoping this wasn't just some plan to embarrass him.

"Alright, the ground seems sturdy enough. You can move."

He went back to the wagon, somewhat confused. He was going to try to curl up into a ball to fall asleep in the cold air since he had only been napping for a few minutes by the time they had gotten here.

A deep rumbling noise shook him as he laid his hand on the wagon, preparing to climb up. He looked behind him to check back on Katrina, and sure enough, she had done something. Walls of earth now stood around where she had been. After realizing this was their makeshift tent, he went over, eager to get out of the rapidly cooling breeze.

She scoffed at him, arms folded with a strange smile on her face. "Oh? You are entering my sleeping quarters? That is quite bold of you. Fine, I'll allow it."

The tenseness she had on the ride here seemed to be gone.

"What's got your spirits up?"

"We are out of danger now! It is cause to celebrate!"

"Do you not travel often?"

"I do not. Most of the time I just teleport."

Clay jumped off the floor as he heard this. "We can teleport? Why are we moving by carriage?"

"That's because..." Her brow furrowed. "it takes a lot of mana! I can't just teleport both of us because that would require too much mana."

Teleportation was some crazy stuff. It costing an incredible amount of mana made sense. Just the fact that it was possible left Clay's mind wandering.

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"How does teleportation even work?"

"You cut out one bubble of space, and then you cut out another bubble of space that's the same size, and you switch 'em." She made an example with her hands, switching them around in front of her.

It sounded so simple and matter of fact.

She laid down on the ground. "Now, I'm going to go get my beauty sleep. If you are gonna stay up because of your nap, stay outside the hut. Leave the wagon driver alone, he deserves some rest."

"Hey, can I ask you about a few things first?"

"No." She rolled over.

'I still don't even know what I'm doing here.'

He quietly curled up into a ball on the other side of the small enclosure and continued to complain in his thoughts.

***

"Clay, wake up!"

It was the mage's voice again. It seems he would still be unable to rest quietly. Expecting some violent method to wake him up, he stay curled up for as long as he could. Instead, she gently shook him.

"Wake up, we need to get out of here."

"What?"

He twisted his neck around to look up at her. She wasn't even looking at him. The dirt walls around them were gone and he could see the rest of the camp in a frenzy. Adventurers were sprinting deeper into the forest while the remaining merchants were trying to hook up any of the various anteater-like tonguesnouts that they could find to their wagons and carriages.

"There's been an attack. It seems likely it was bandits."

"They attacked the entire merchant camp? What about all those adventurers?"

"Those are some extremely well trained bandits. They are led by Erica, probably responsible for shoving a sword in your chest. Her family... used to run cargo through the wagon trails. Her name is Erica Carter."

"You know her quite well, has she been a problem around here for a while?"

"Yeah, we know she stays usually on the southern side of Velona, but she doesn't usually attack anyone."

"Why now?"

"Maybe she's low on supplies."

The torchlight had grown much brighter, as though there was a miniature sun sitting somewhere in the forest. Thunderous steps went in unison, and then stopped. All was quiet for a moment. A familiar voice was echoing off in the distance, too far away to be understood.

"It seems the guards lost. The cart is ready. We need to move!"

She started gently pushing him along, and even helped pull him up into the wagon. The wagon driver was ready and waiting for them, he had finished setting up his animals while the other merchants were struggling to make sure their cargo was secured. Only a few others had already taken off, each of them headed towards Velona.

"Katrina, we should find somewhere to stop tonight. It's dangerous for us to be going, we could be attacked by animals."

"No, we need to move. The only danger to us at night is bandits like her."

Clay looked back from the wagon at the glowing scene of the sprawling campground. Men with spears and bows were marching through, looking at every wagon and gathering up the merchants. A line of people on their knees was behind everything else, with one person standing at the heart of the glow. The woman's hair fluttered around her as she triumphantly held a spear. Clay clenched his fist tightly.

"Don't worry about it too much Clay."

"What do you mean don't worry about it. Aren't all those people going to be slaughtered and their stuff stolen? Don't they have families waiting on them at home?"

"She won't kill them."

"She's a bandit. Why wouldn't she?"

"Because... she can't rob them later if they are dead."

"We should go back and help them! There's no guarantee that they won't be hurt."

"If you want to go help them, then go ahead. Don't drag me into it. I don't have enough mana to fight them all, and I certainly can't block dozens of arrows for more than a few seconds."

Clay threw himself down against the bench in the wagon dejectedly.

"This feels wrong."

"I know."

The wagon carried them off into the night, with Clay silently seething and Katrina silently remorseful.

***

The next few days were uneventful. They mostly traveled in silence, but Katrina kept trying to cheer him up over and over again. She would try to make jokes about the forest, or lay down dejectedly making deep sighs until Clay would be forced to ask what the problem was, only to be roped in to the same repeated conversation.

"Clay I'm bored. What do we do."

"I don't know."

"Why are you always so distant?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know how to say anything else?"

"Yes."

"This is no fun."

The wagon driver was even more silent, a professional of his trade. Katrina didn't even know his name, only that he was hired by her lord.

"Hey Clay."

"What?"

"Are you angry at me for hitting you when I met you?"

He was not. It served him no good to be angry over something petty like that, and her bipolar actions right now were antagonizing him more.

"No."

"Then why are you so terse?"

"Because you've been doing this for the last four days."

"I just wanted to get out of that town quicker. Everyone out in the country keeps staring at me because I can use magic."

No one had been staring at her, at least as far as Clay could tell. Maybe she was just too self-conscious. She stopped and waited for him to respond.

"I see."

"I had a bad day too. The earl sent me out there, and then immediately demanded me back once I told him about you."

"As you've said already." Clay leaned back over the wooden rail of the wagon, trying to crack his back.

"So you were listening."

"Of course I was listening. You still won't answer my questions either. That's why I haven't been saying much. It's not worth it for me to waste my time on you."

"I'm under orders not to."

"Why? You can't even tell me about this writing on my arm?"

"Nope."

"What were the orders?"

"Don't tell him anything about this world yet. Bring him to me immediately. Don't teleport."

Clay was frustrated. He'd been here almost a week and he knew absolutely nothing. All he could do was stare at the unchanging numbers on his wrist and try to guess what the words next to them meant. The titles were even more mysterious.

"Why was I brought into this world?"

She put on a lower, flat tone. "I don't know."

"Hey driver, do you know?"

No response, as expected.

'Everyone here seems set out to make me agitated. Might as well accept Katrina's kindness for now. No use faulting her for obeying orders.'

"Hey Katrina, why don't you try to find shapes in the clouds?"

"Huh? That sounds boring."

"You could answer my questions instead."

She laid down onto the floor of the wagon with her hands behind her head, staring up at the few clouds in the sky. "I don't get it. They look like clouds."

***

The wagon had pulled into a large, completely empty field. The forest wrapped around it, like a sort of green wall, disappearing behind the buildings that sprouted up around them.

"Katrina, where are we?"

"Seltmark, the largest city in the earldom. My house is located here. I thought I'd bring you by."

"I thought we were going straight to the lord's manor?"

"Well we would, but I would like to wash up first. It would be incredibly uncomfortable to smell like this for much longer."

They had been travelling for around a week, and Clay had grown blind to their smells. Quickly checking himself over, he judged he didn't smell that bad, but it was still recognizable that he had been without a bath for a week straight. His hair was starting to get oily, and kept clinging to his forehead in a sort of stringy fashion. Katrina on the other hand still appeared perfectly fine, with her white hair flowing past her shoulders, rather fluffy and not quite straight.

The empty fields around them lasted a bit longer than was comfortable. They went into the town, and the wagon driver parked at a stable without saying a word, only motioning with his hand that they had arrived.

"Clay, carry me."

"No."

"But I don't want to walk. My butt's still sore from the ride. My legs fell asleep."

"You think I'm not sore too? You can walk."

She hopped down easily while Clay had to spend his time getting off the carriage, his legs buckling under him from sitting for so long. The town itself was rather large, far larger than Velona at least. He still couldn't comprehend the scale of it.

"How many people live here?"

"About four thousand. Are you hungry?"

"No."

He hadn't eaten anything the entire trip. Katrina was constantly snacking on small things like dried meats and hard breads. She even seemed to have a jar of honey with her that she kept in her small leather bag. He still didn't feel hungry, and was more focused on the unease of being in a new place.

"Where is your house?"

"It's the big, falling apart one in the middle of the city. You can't miss it! I keep it together with a lot of magic, so you don't have to worry about it falling down on you."

'That's not reassuring.'

"Okay, I guess. Are we just going to take a bath and head over to the earl's place?"

"No. We are going to be spending the night. The tonguesnouts need rest too, and that wagon driver probably needs a break. We'll be going tomorrow. I'll get you situated tonight."

Her house was indeed a large place, it was three stories tall and wider than two of any other building in town. The paneled walls were turning a harsh gray and many of the windows were broken. A certain part of the second floor was completely missing a wall.

"You live here?"

"Yeah, only the first floor is really usable, and I can't fix up anything, so I just make sure it doesn't all fall down on me."

They went inside, even as the floor creaked under them. "So where do we wash?"

"In the tub. I got a washroom set up in the back hall by the kitchen. I'll go pump some water from the well and heat it up when I'm done."

"Ah. Okay."

'They have plumbing?'

"Ah, actually, the cistern might be low. I'll need to go down and check. The first door on that hall, the one on the left, is my room. Go and make yourself at home."

She walked down the right hand hallway, and just jumped down a gaping hole in the floor. The place was truly run down. As if mocking the state of the house, everywhere was decorated with bright colors, especially the kitchen. The most prominent color was bright blue, which was painted on the walls and cabinets. He went ahead and went where he was directed.

Her room was just as vibrantly colored, with a large square bed covered in piled on blankets, all an assortment of blue. There was a mountain of pillows at the head of the bed. There was a small bookshelf filled with unmarked books and piles upon piles of papers. The opposite side of the room had a desk with even more papers, and a simple stool, painted blue. Across from the door was possibly the only intact window on the building, with every crack around it sealed by paint. The roof was even painted white.

After about twenty minutes, she came back, wearing her blue dress still, and patting her head with a large rag.

"I put some fresh warm water in the basin for you. Just go to the room next to the big hole."

Without asking for more clarification, he eagerly went to scrub himself down. His nagging suspicion was true, and there was simply an extremely wide bucket of water and a brush.