Chapter 72: Embarking

Lucius turned his eyes to Lita, who had just appeared. 

"Thank you, mother." Lucius replied.

"You remind me of your father in his younger years. Though he was much more reckless back then," Lita said with a chuckle.

She then turned to look at Kiana, who was standing at the side, and spoke, "Take care of him." 

"Yes, countess." Kiana said with a serious face.

"Make sure you judge the situation well and don't hesitate to retreat when it's bad. You are the Young Lord of the Land of Etara. You have far too many things to do in the future." Lita stated with slightly moist eyes.

"I'll heed your advice, mother. Fear not, I shall not make a mistake." Lucius replied.

"Mm," Lita hummed in response.

"We should take our leave now. We have a long journey ahead." Lucius said, wanting to end the conversation.

He knew what these kinds of partings could become, and it was better that they ended swiftly. Prolonging them was only a waste of time.

"Alright, take care." Lita said before Lucius and Kiana left the mansion.

A carriage was already waiting for them at the front, and John was also there. Along with him, six more people were waiting on horseback. These were the guards that John had selected for the mission. 

"My lord," the guards saluted.

"Shall we depart?" John inquired.

"Yes, let's leave." Lucius replied and got into the carriage, which started to move.

One of the guards had chosen to act as the driver while John would be leading at the front on horseback. From the rest, two guards will be on the sides, while one last guard will be at the back of the carriage.

Having made this formation, they began their journey. 

Inside the carriage, Lucius looked at Kiana and the things that she was carrying in her hands.

"Did you prepare what I asked for?" Lucius asked.

"Of course. This is the list of their gifts and information on it." Kiana replied.

Lucius took the list from Kiana's hand and read it. This list was for the guards that were accompanying them on the journey. Lucius had asked for it so that he would have an idea about them, just in case he needed to make a plan on the fly.

There were many unexpected things that could happen during this mission and there were many variables during a battle as well. It would be in Lucius's best interest to prepare for it the best as he could.

In his past life, Lucius had led a lot of missions and expeditions. He knew very well on how to lead a team and how to best make use of their abilities. Still, he knew some things may not work here and thus he chose to let John pick out the people according to his experience.

He would then check their gifts and make his judgment on how to best utilize them.

"Hmm… three of them have the same uncommon ranked gift called muscle amplification. It can increase the power of their attacks when it is activated." Lucius read, finding it interesting.

These three guards were not related to each other, yet they had the same gift. Lucius had read that despite the rankings, there were certain gifts that had become 'common' in certain regions. Though there was another factor which was that people with certain kinds of gifts would join a profession suitable to that.

In the case of these guards, their gift was suited to any physical profession, whether it be a warrior, solider, blacksmith or even a farmer. In the case of these guards, they were technically soldiers under the army of the Grantz kingdom, but they were currently under the command of John.

They weren't from the private force of the Inanis family, like captain Donald and the other guards were. They were only here because the mission of bandit extermination could be considered as coming under the purview of official military business.

With lieutenant John's authority, it was easy to make it an official mission. Lucius was still part of the army since he had taken part in the battle against Gisir and thus could be considered as a soldier though he didn't have an official military rank.

Having read about the first three guards, Lucius moved onto the other three ones. 

They had the following gifts-

One of them had an uncommon ranked gift called Air Shield. It did exactly what its name described and created a shield made out of air. The shield wasn't that tough but it could parry attacks and knock-back strikes when used correctly.

The second one had an uncommon ranked gift called, winding strike. It allowed his body to move in a winding manner automatically.

The final one actually had a rare ranked gift called Flame Impact. It allowed him to create bursts of fire.

Lucius could see how the team would work but it was still a bit iffy to him. Having learned of these gifts, he analyzed them a bit and started to come up with different applications. Although he would need to actually see these gifts in action before making a concrete strategy plan.

"I guess I'll get them to demonstrate it when we take a break…" Lucius muttered.

Kiana heard this and spoke, "it will be six hours till we take out first break. The horse will need to take a rest and be fed."

"And how long till we actually get to our destination?" Lucius questioned.

"Hmm, since we are in the carriage it will take us over a day. Though we may need to adjust according to the weather. The horses we have are much faster than the average horses and should be able to run for longer." Kiana answered.

"So to be on the safe side, I would assume two days." Lucius stated.

"If the weather does get bad then it's likely. Though we are traveling on the official roads so it should not give us much trouble." Kiana replied.

'Gives me plenty of time to think then…' Lucius thought.