Chapter 24 - 『Through the Plains』

With the Blade of Azrael in his hands, Jack descended from the steps overlooking the exterior ruins hidden by the false hills created by Mare. A small curved smile remained along his lips as he glanced over his shoulder as he reached the bottom.

His eyes rested upon the two girls in matching dresses, walking down together side by side

"Oniisama, how are we going to get to the Capital of the Baharuth Empire? And why are walking outside?" Eve was curious as to what exactly was going on. He could've just teleported them off to Arwintar with either a Greater Teleportation spell or a Gate.

It didn't seem like he was going to do that.

"Momon said that he'd see us off before we go," Jack said with a light nod before looking in the direction of E-Rantel. "The question is, should we go by Carriage… Or Go Kart?"

"...Go Kart, Cipher-sama?" Shizu spoke up as she had a hand up, feeling the fabric of her scarf. One could tell she was all too curious as well, despite the lack of expression on her face.

"It's a mechanical mechanism that is driven without a horse, or other crude living being attached to it." Jack would turn from them as he continued to walk away. He was making his way to the edge of the encircled area until he climbed up onto the hill and turned to look at the exterior of the Tomb.

It was so much greener, though he already knew this, than in the game. He liked the look of it, as it actually looked like the ruins of an Ancient Greco-Roman Temple or something akin to one.

The two of them followed him wordlessly, neither of them having seen a Go-Kart before, though apparently since she had some fabricated memories of her 'life' in the other world, Eve knew what it looked and felt like to use.

So as they met him at the top of the hill, they took in the view of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

If she could show her emotions, Jack could only assume Shizu was adoring the view which she was inscrutably taking in. That deadpan look of hers, it was cute, but also very confusing and hard to read.

It was more so her actions and her words in which conveyed what she couldn't normally express.

As they were all together, he turned away from the Tomb and smirked. Holding his weapon out as if he were ready to use it as a staff. He would recite a single spell, 『Create Greater Item』, and in a flash of light a three seated vehicle would materialize before them. It had no roof, but there was a roll cage. It was made of sleek black magic metal, had a hard plastic truck-grade grille guard, and had strange powerful wheels on either side made from a flexible material threaded for off road.

The Seats were organized into a triangle, one seat in front with a gear shift and wheel, with pedals. Whilst there were two others which were evenly spaced in the back with a container between them, a pair of cup holders on the lid.

Overall it looked like combination of a Dune Buggy and a Go-Kart.

Without warning, Shizu was kneeling down in front of the vehicle, placing a single sticker on the engine cover, before standing back up.

"The Go-Kart is cute… Could be cuter, but I can't complain..." She looked over towards Jack, "It was made by Cipher-sama, one of the supreme ones."

Jack was just imagining the largest smile on her face, even though she sounded and looked like a cute little robot. Since she was actually a robot in the first place. A very adorable and delicate looking robot at that. Scratching the back of his head, he would step into the drivers seat and sit down, before gesturing for them to sit in the back.

"Oniichan! Can I drive?" Eve was leaning over the front of the kart, her hands on the wheel between his hands at ten and two.

"No?" Jack stared through her as if she was insane. She never got her driver's license and the only time she had ever been in one in real life, she almost killed him and she wasn't even in the driver's seat.

Eve pouted, blowing a raspberry before sulking into the seat beside Shizu, her arms crossed.

Starting the vehicle, the kart would shake and roar, sputtering to life. A few seconds followed and he was hitting the gas and quickly flying over the false hills at high speeds, which made in the area to make the Tomb's location inconspicuous.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEHEHE!" From sour to excited, Eve's arms were in the air, one hand grasping at the roll cage above her head.

Shizu on the other hand was just seated there calmly, her hands folded in her lap, keeping her skirt from 'blooming' like a flower from the wind.

After about fifteen minutes the kart came running up to the front of the Eastern Gates of E-Rantel where a man in Black Armor with Gold Trim and a young woman in basic attire stood waiting.

"Momon-sama!" Eve stood up in her seat, one arm clinging to the roll cage, the other waving rapidly. "Hiiiiiii!" She smiled widely with a hidden devious twinkle in her eye.

Momon stared at the vehicle, as did the Guards which were at the gate.

They, the Guards, had seen nothing like it before. It was amazing to have seen that machine come in from the distance, it wasn't even drawn by a horse. Was it a magic powered item?!

Nabe on the other hand stepped forward, circled the buggy-like kart before stopping back in front of it. Her eyes would center on the sticker which Shizu placed on it and for the first time since she had arrived in this human infested city… She smiled, his sharp eyes resting on Jack.

"Jack-sama, it is a pleasure to see you again."

"Likewise," Jack's eyes flickered from Nabe to Momon, a smirk forming over his lips as his friend approached the kart.

"That's an impressive set of wheels," Momon would say as he inspected the vehicle with his eyes. Feeling it would give him no indication of anything, he was undead, so one could say he had no nerves.

"So you're going off to Arwintar? You'll be passing through the Katze Plains," Momon advised as he looked off to the distance. "Perhaps you can use the undead that spawn there as target practice?"

"Hm..." Jack looked back to the girls in the back seat as he hummed thoughtfully. "That would make sense, never done a drive by…"

Momon shook his head slightly as he used the term and took a step back from the vehicle, before turning to hear someone shouting after them.

The sound of a horse drawn carriage could be heard along with voice which was encroaching on their position after passing through the gates.

"Momon-san! Nabe-san! Jack-san!" Brita was heading her group along with Nphirea, Fei and Lizzie out of the City, planning on taking the path along the Tob Forest toward the Village of Carne.

"Brita and company!" Jack shouted back with a laugh, the group forming up into one big brief gathering. They were all quick to take notice of the vehicle which the trio were sitting in.

"What is this thing?" Brita asked, the Sorcerer of her party would be found to be kneeling down beside it, running his fingers along magic black metal the machine was made out of.

"This contraption was made with magic..."

"It's called a Go-Kart… Though it is more like a Dune Buggy. Our country had these rather than horse drawn carriages," Jack replied with a light smile across his lips. "Of course, this isn't a real one though."

The Sorcerer nodded as he stood, not being able to take his eyes off of the cart. "It is a marvel..."

Jack nodded lightly to this before raising a brow towards Fei who was staring at him from the wagon. Her red hair covering half of her face, but he could clearly see a little light from excitement in those black eyes of hers even though only one was visible.

He gave her a slight wave, a small smile crept across her face as she returned the gesture, wiggling her fingers at him in a wave.

Nodding in acknowledgement, he returned his attention to Brita who was looking over Shizu, who in return was staring through the red headed adventurer.

"I have half of your payment ready for you," reaching into his item box, he revealed a magic bag, an Infinite Backpack, which he would pull out and hold out for her to take.

The woman stood there, staring at the bag, it didn't feel all that heavy. Yet for some reason when she reached inside, she was surprised to find half the payment in gold coins. Her eyes locked on him, her lips parted.

Brita didn't know what to say, as he had given her a magic bag which was bigger on the inside and could hold about five hundred kilometers of matter at once.

The sorcerer and the other members of the group also seemed impressed with their current employer.

"You can keep the bag, but don't sell it, it's the only one I'll give you. If someone takes it from you, just let me know." Jack instructed with a simple tone. He knew that sometimes customs officers, especially ones which the capacity to appraise magic items, could definitely get greedy.

Jack in reality had tons of these bags in his item box, holding bundles of materials, items and even more gold. The reason why he used them was because he typically carried a lot on him after joining Nazarick. While he would've still been considered a top-tier PvPer, he had been doing more roleplaying than anything else.

Momon just stood there, watching as Brita divided the spoils with her team equally so they all had enough money to eat and buy necessities for their professions. His eyes shifted towards Jack.

"Isn't it a bit dangerous to be using gold?"

Jack just stared through him for a few seconds before shrugging, "I'm a 'Noble' from a fallen Kingdom. I have money to spend," he grinned now at his friend. "And your my friend. If you need anything, call upon me, Momon-san."

Momon chuckled at the genuineness of how Jack was acting. They both already knew he was out to help, they were a team, whether or not they were beside one another or not.

"Oh, speaking of..." He'd take out a small bottle of a crimson syrupy liquid, holding it out towards Nabe. "It would be very helpful if you and your companion could read… Wouldn't it?"

"C-c-companion?" Nabe completely misunderstood what he meant by the word, almost panicking with wide eyes, as she flailed her hands in front of her.

"Partner," Jack corrected himself with a deadpanned expression on his face.

Nabe almost immediately calmed down as he said this, combined with Momon's hand resting on her shoulder. She would reach out and lightly take the bottle and drink half of it, before handing the bottle to Momon.

Momon on the other hand would just pour it in through his visor while no one else was watching. A light glow emanating from the slot for a split moment before fading out.

They had consumed that of a random human soldier from the room he had used assimilation within from the Slane Theocracy. So now they new a little bit of the inner workers of the now nuked Country which he had left vulnerable to invasion. However the main thing they gained was the knowledge regarding the native language so they didn't need someone else to translate for them.

It would make them appear as legitimate adventurers since normal adventurers needed to go through a literacy test, which oddly enough cost some currency to take.

"I'll see you the next time, Momon. Nabe." Jack would lean back in the chair, a small grin across his lips. "Who knows, maybe by the time I come back, you'll be a hero that Touch Me-san could be proud of." While he did look down on the current version of the Adventurer's Guild, but they seemed to be a necessity in the Re-Estize Kingdom as they didn't utilize their military to take care of some of these jobs like the Baharuth Empire.

With the engine still active, he put the kart in reverse and spun it out in a figure eight before gunning it down the main highway towards the Baharuth's border City with the goal of making it to Arwintar.