Evelyn cast flight magic on herself once their entire group had passed through the border checkpoint. Thanks to whatever connections Maeve had within the Miris Sect, her carriages and those accompanying her had been given the right to fly through the Sect's territory.
With the woman named Heidi as their guide, they set off through the skies and flew towards the Miris Sect's capital and main base.
For the first thirty or so minutes, there was nothing of note to see, but it was not long until Evelyn spotted the major industry practice in the area.
In several places she spotted massive holes in the ground with layered levels going from the surface down to the bottom.
Thanks to her memories from her first life, Evelyn knew what this practice was. The Miris Sect was strip mining the land.
'I doubt it is for coal like back on Earth. Whatever it is must be magical in nature.' Evelyn thought, wishing to get a closer look.
Unfortunately, from such a great distance away and passing by at a rather quick pace, it was impossible for her to see exactly what was being mined even with her impeccable sight.
However, there was something she was able to spot clearly, and it appalled her.
Most of the workers she could see had black collars around their necks and looked to be being fed only just barely enough for them to keep working.
Evelyn had no love for any humans, not after so many bad experiences with them. But what she hated most of all was such horrible oppression. It reminded her of when she was caged up as an experimental subject.
Part of her wanted to swoop down and kill the people that were in charge of the mines and set the people free. Of course, she honestly did not care what happened to them, it would be more for her self-satisfaction than anything else.
While the formalities were being taken care of, Josephine exited Maeve's carriage and quickly looked around before heading directly towards Lucia.
The two of them spoke in hushed tones, but without any magic to interference, Evelyn could easily listen in on what they were discussing thanks to her extremely hearing.
Evelyn wanted to grimace at what she heard. Maeve had decided to renew their contract for the maximum allotted number of days.
The minimum time of the request was for ten days, which was soon to be concluded, but there was a provision allowing for Maeve to extend it to thirty days. Even though the young mistress of the Taidale Family had arrived at her destination and should have reached a relatively safe location, she still wanted to retain their services as guards.
'Why do I get the sinking feeling that this has something to do with me.' Evelyn thought, lamenting the unavoidable situation.
She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Maeve had grown attached to her. Not only had she saved Maeve's life from her uncle's suicide attack, but she had been someone to talk to during a difficult time. Though, Evelyn had been pretty much forced to act as Maeve's support.
"I'm guessing you weren't able to turn her down." Evelyn said, once Josephine had left Lucia's side and returned to the carriage.
"Sadly, that would be a breach of the contract. We'll have to ride this out until the time limit expires."
A few minutes later, the gates to the Miris Sect's Headquarters opened and a large, luxurious roofless carriage exited and quickly turned around.
This vehicle was for Evelyn's group. They would not be allowed to fly within the headquarters' grounds, but apparently it would be rude to force them to walk since they were first-class citizens of the Usturg Federation.
Once the five of them had seated themselves within the carriage, the vehicle took off with the three that Maeve had brought along.
As the wheels of the carriage turned thanks to magical energy supplied by the driver, Evelyn, Lucia, Bylur, Rehni, and Aralee were brought into the heart of their unsuspecting enemies' territory.