The four friends appeared out of thin air at the small waterfall where Eiden and Clade spent the night before. Eiden had made everyone linked to him through a rune stone which was carried by each individual. The earthly nature of creature magic helped him to access their magic without strong personal barriers to overcome, allowing him to mass teleport his friends with him. However, to test his strength, he first teleported a short distance as a group.

"It was quite unpleasant," Nub remarked. Eiden checked himself and realized that he was not tired after a single mass teleportation.

“It was easier than I thought. Unless I overdo it, I'm going to be fine," Eiden said, getting ready for the next jump.

They appeared in front of Clade's house. Eiden was the last to enter, after looking around for a while. As he stepped through the door, he felt the presence of foreign magic, a subtle ward. Someone is keeping watch. Eiden stood frozen for a second. His friends were oblivious and chatting freely while walking around.

"Clade?"

"Yes," Clade came to the living room carrying a few blankets.

"Wards, your doorstep. Let's go. Now." Eiden grabbed Clade's hand, waited only a few seconds to feel others securely holding him, and vanished.

They landed at a small dirt road near the place where Eiden entered the jungle for the first time. Without letting his friends go, and taking only a moment to refresh and focus, he performed two succession leaps and landed on the banks of a small man-made lake. And dropped to his knees, breathless and red-faced. Clade was still clutching the fur blankets, and Cissa and Nub who were panting, sat on the ground next to Eiden.

"Do you have a death wish?" Eiden was grabbed by the shoulders from behind.

"Someone was watching. The wards, like the wards in Grandpa's house. Clade's house is marked. Someone knows. They k. mmmps.." A palm clamped on Eiden's mouth stopping his panicked rant. Eiden weakly struggled to remove it and dejectedly fell to Cissa's chest.

"Where are we now?" Nub asked while giving everyone water to drink.

"Northern borders of the jungle. Near the passage," Eiden said after drinking his second cup of water.

"I think we should walk from here to the next village, then teleport again. I don't exactly know if someone could track teleport destinations, by magical residue. But if it's possible, walking to different locations will throw them off our path," Eiden suggested.

They walked for a couple of hours until the morning sun brightened up around them. Only stopping for a quick breakfast away from the road, they resumed walking until about late morning. Eiden felt his magic was refreshed after the last bout of sudden depletion, and they decided to teleport as the weather was getting too hot to walk.

After running away from home and failing to find anyone he knew well, Eiden was extremely distressed and the places where he stopped were not exactly memorized. With the aid of his crudely marked map, they slowly proceeded for two days along the passage, alternating between walking and teleporting. At the end of the second day, they reached the outer borders of Eiden's country, Celiona where the central city was located.

Luckily, it wasn't raining, and they camped in a woodland area. Eiden's heart was filling with dread as he got closer and closer to the home.

"What's next, Eiden? Think it's safe to teleport through the cities?" Clade asked while preparing to sleep.

"I can't say for sure. I think we should walk for a while. What I'm worried about is if Uncle has made up some story about me being taken." He didn't say his doubts about Clade might have been made a suspect.

"It's me right? Already suspected me, or why any wards at my house?" Clade had thought about the issue.

"Hey, you look scary if anyone hasn't seen a Cazard." Cissa shoved Clade.

"No, Clade doesn't look scary," Eiden defended.

"Aww, cute, you wouldn't know what's scary even if a ghost showed up and booed to your nose." Cissa pinched his nose, making Eiden protest and push him away. They laughed but the reality was clear.

"You've heard at least a little bit about the Sangona dwellers. And you grew up protected and sheltered, it's hard for you to understand how common people react to danger." Nub was exaggerating his upbringing, he tried to convince himself yet was unable to reject that there was some truth to what she was telling.

"So, should I be afraid of Clade?" he asked.

"No, silly, not afraid, but cautious.”

Eiden fell asleep thinking about what else he needed to learn about common people.

They woke up early in the morning. After a quick breakfast, Eiden's friends helped him to dye his hair black with henna extract. The runic stones he used, held a concealment ward in the form of a compulsion that made people forget them easily as if they hadn't been seen.

But, it would only work on people who aren't actively looking for them. Therefore, changing different attributes of his appearance such as clothing and hair dye was essential to hide effectively.

Securing the campsite on the banks of a small river, an area covered by shrubbery and hedges, they headed out for the nearby city as pairs, not to draw attention to a group of travelers. Eiden stopped on the track. He felt Clade's hand on his shoulder tense and cold as ice.

There was a life-size poster of Eiden erected in the middle of the square.

In the picture, Eiden was wearing his usual pearl-white silken robes he often wore when he attended administration meetings with the Lords, with his uncle. A silver circlet alternately decorated with sapphire and ruby was resting on his green locks. With a book in his hand, he was smiling charmingly for someone out of the frame.

It was captioned with his official titles

His Lordship Eiden Northstar (18), Steward of the Nesolian Empire, Heir apparent of the house of the Dawn, Grand Duke of Celiona.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The text at the side of the picture says as follows.

The maternal uncle of Lord Eiden disclosed that the young lord has been missing from the Amenser Palace, possibly persuaded to leave or taken forcefully by the rebels.

"My nephew, young Eiden, is very trusting and not aware of dangers. He had been in an accident and was still undergoing healing at the time of this incident. I'm greatly worried about his well-being" ~

Lord Elvin Goldstein, Regent of the Nesolian Empire, Grand Duke of Thebes

Anyone who has reliable information on young lordship will receive 10,000 tokens.

"Let's go back," Clade whispered. They walked as fast as they could without making anyone suspicious.

"Hey, we saw the poster. And came back without going to the city," Nub said when they entered the campsite.

"Do you think we should leave here now?" Eiden felt cold sweat on his palms seeing the price of his head.

"No. Shouldn't leave. Soon towns will get crowded, it's time people go out to pubs and roads. Let's leave in the morning," Clade reasoned.

"Kit looks grand there." Cissa punched Eiden in the arm.

"Honestly, do you think he will be recognized if someone sees him like this?'' Cissa ruffled Eiden's now dark curly hair.

"He will be," Nub said gravely.

"It's Eiden's face and his eyes. You men don't see the little differences. The picture is very clear and life-size, a lot of people will be able to recognize Eiden by his face," Nub explained. She started styling Eiden's hair in different ways

"What if Eiden cut his hair?"

"What? Cut my hair?” Clade's question broke Eiden's thoughts of what if Uncle got me scenarios that kept continuously ending up gory and violent.

"How did you keep this hair length?" Nub asked.

"Err. I used to get a stylist once in two months, he shaped my hair. And another one checked the wardrobe. But that was before I lost my parents. After that, my uncle was very strict about the people I met. But, I still got a stylist who worked for Esme a few times. Massages only performed by healers and butler," Eiden replied, thinking how anyone couldn't understand that.

"Massage?" Cissa arched his brows.

"Mm yes," Eiden looked at his friends.

"Is that not common?" Cissa giggled and others were trying to hold their laughter back.

"Should I cut my hair?" he asked. Mother might miss it because she loved his long hair.

"Let's try that," Nub combed and cut Eiden's hair short.

"Might help a bit," Clade said thoughtfully.

"I'm not feeling very confident. Should we try moving at night?" Eiden touched his short hair, it was indeed strange.

"Not today, look, I think we should see the maps again."

Eiden woke up at dawn. He wasn't sleeping well. He washed his face with cold water and started meditating to clear his mind, which also helped him to focus on teleport jumps.

"Good morning Eiden." Nub and Eiden made a simple breakfast and woke others up.

"Hey, I just remembered this. Uncle must have sent imperial guards and many posters like that, especially to my father's hometown and grandma's hometown. Don't you think so?" Eiden asked his friends.

"Oh..that does ..make.. sense," Cissa spoke intermittently while chewing a bone.

"Good. You thought of that. Need to be extra careful, searching for Ierma." Clade agreed with his assessment.

"We are running out of food by the way," Cissa said, showing the empty wrappers.

"Really Cissa? Missing a meal won't kill you."

"You don't know," Cissa purred.

"You aren't eating much, Eiden," Nub sighed and looked at Eiden worriedly. Eiden avoided her eyes, chewing his nails.

"No..not like that, I'm just worried." He started missing home-cooked food for a while, yet, feebly rejected Clade's remark of being a prince.

"You'll have to worry more if you collapse in the middle of nowhere," Nub advised in such a motherly way, that Eiden had to hide his smile.

They managed to cover a vast distance by both teleporting and walking and didn't stop until late evening. They planned to stop at Jayrose, a beautiful city that was famous for its widespread rose gardens and cherry blossom streets. Mainly due to Mother's insistence, his family had attended many times to the annual flower festival held in the main rose garden of Jayrose.

There might be some people, but Central Park was open to the public until late throughout most of the year, so he expected them to pass as a general crowd. Several people, including some families with little kids scattered in the area. Most of them turned their heads at sudden newcomers.

"Let's go along this lane. It got a big pond at the end," Eiden said quietly, leading them to a lane lined on both sides by cherry trees.

They passed a few people, other than a look or two sent their way by adults, clearly unappreciative of their shaggy looks, they weren't receiving much attention. They tried to be as obscure as possible, often changing to more isolated walking trails, and finally reached a huge artificial lake.

Many onlookers were watching the marvelous Singing Fountain which consisted of a cluster of twelve various sized fountains in the middle of the lake. They sprouted water illuminated by different color-themed lights and glowing mists according to famous pieces of music. The four friends slowly sneaked around the people to the wooded area, where they found a space clear enough to set their camp.

"Man, we really need to get some food," Cissa said while unpacking their last packages of food.

"That's why I especially came here. There are a lot of places around, where we can buy food. I still have gold." Eiden patted his satchel.

"Well, need to be discreet," Clade warned.

"This city is always packed with people, at least when I came. guess it's ok." Eiden bit a juicy mango.

"Eat some meat, Eiden."

"I want the bone."

"When are you going to stop licking your fingers, you uncultured wild cat."

"Never, princess pussy."

The friends' light-hearted banter relieved some tension built up by being in a strange country.

Eiden was hit with a wave of nostalgia. His mother was laughing, her shining hair flying in the breeze. His father was hugging Eiden and kissing his mother on the cheek. His grandmother was lovingly looking at them, smiling, as Eiden sang along the fountain music. He didn't realize Clade had called him until he was poked in the arm.

"Remember anything?" Clade asked.

"Just old days, when they were still with me." Eiden sighed, trying to stomp the fear of never seeing them again.

"So, need to wait until shops are open tomorrow to leave?"

He was glad they changed the topic.

"Yes. Why don't we pack and leave, and buy food on the way?"

Mixing with the early morning crowd, they walked out of the park. Their effort to disguise Eiden as much as possible to look older didn't work well, but Eiden still thought he looked quite different. After looking around, they found a street market which had already started gathering crowds. After an almost disastrous shopping trip due to his zero understanding of buying food, he turned to a less crowded street and slowed down enough for his friends to catch up.

"I think we should avoid that market," Eiden said, giving the groceries to others for packing. Clade and Nub shared a "told you so" look.

"What did you do, princess?" Cissa grinned. Eiden scowled at him and pouted.

"Well, you got us to teach, now." Cissa slapped Eiden's shoulder when he told his misadventures, including looking for spotless apples while others groaned.

"Shall we get some, please?" he pointed at the cake and pastry shop they passed. The display of colorful cream and chocolate desserts had made his mouth watered.

"Pretty crowded. Just don't make a scene, alright? Buy quickly, then we go," Clade said, and they opted to wait for Eiden a few yards away, close enough to see the shop.