Chapter 44: Kingslayer
The carriage was nothing but an empty wooden trailer pulled by two horses. Still better than walking in these robes. To Sofias surprise, they had started moving right away, leaving the duke and the woman named Jen behind. They were slowly but surely getting away from the royal palace, visible in the distance beyond the forest.
This wasnt Einsen, Skyreach Kingdoms capital in the mountains, in fact there werent any mountains nearby. The plants and trees did look like the ones she knew, then again, she had been to the Red Winds Empire and the vegetation was largely the same, as far as she could tell. It was a mystery where exactly this was. The only clear thing was that it was still on the human continent.
The real Aurelia was probably long dead, whether she had survived the Solstice or not.
They rode away, not bothering to cover their tracks, Cardinal, or rather Nyse, couldnt stop talking. His image of a mysterious and powerful level 300 plus vampire that Sofia knew him by had been melting away by the second. She had questions about the ethics of interacting with these false images of real people, not that she could do anything about it.nôvel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.
Learning more about the Vampire was an interesting experience, most of his stories revolved about him doing dumb things with his skills. Things like teleporting into a sealed wine barrel, or trying to fly by summoning himself in the air multiple times in a row. As far as Sofia could tell, it looked like Nyse had always lived among humans, he never mentioned other Vampires or any kind of family. Weird. Where did his niece come from? Her name was Astelia, if I remember correctly. She asked about siblings but he dodged the question so she didnt press on.
She also learned more about Fox through Nyses stories. He was mute from birth; nothing could be done about it even with healing magic, but that didnt really bother him. He was the youngest in their group and the only son of a beastman hero.
He had met Jen and Nyse three years prior when they worked together in a sand-worm subjugation party led by the Skyreach Duchy in the north. Nasty things, these sand-worms, they'd smell blood from kilometers away and come rushing from underground. "At least we didn't have to search for long," the Vampire had explained.
Finally, as Nyse rambled on and on about how he had once accidentally summoned himself into a large cave network, they had reached their first stop. Sofia had thought they would go to an inn or an hidden cave somewhere depending on how sneaky the group wanted to be. But they did none of that, instead stopping in front of a farmers large wooden house in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by wheat fields and large pens of dirty animals rolling in the mud.
Is this where well be hiding?
No, this is just our stop for the day, thats Foxs house.
Uh? Is this fine? Wont the knights come here after us and ruin the place? she asked. But Fox waved her off.
Jen looked a lot like Sofia, disturbingly so, as far as body shape went. Similar height, eyes, hair, even the face was vaguely similar. The major discrepancies were a lot of muscles and tanned skin. In another world where Sofia chose to become the ultimate warrior instead of a twisted skeleton botherer she might have ended up looking like that. Not that she would have ever dressed the same. She had no idea how the woman wasnt cold with how little she wore but there was no doubt about how she got her tan.
At least the important parts are covered And even that was only regular clothes, not a single piece of metal armor to be seen. She rocked a mini short secured with a belt, and a sleeveless shirt tied up right under her chest. That was it, she didnt even wear shoes. Truly a peculiar style. Despite that she was the one who took the least damage from the mages flying swords. She probably has a very strong defensive passive skill. Must be nice actually The bone armor isnt that much of a bother but I still have to wear it for it to work.
The encounter might have been stranger had Sofia been in her actual body instead of Aurelias. Could she be an ancestor of mine? Meh, seems a bit too much, I dont buy it.
Seeing how the princess was lost in thoughts, Jen changed the subject. She kicked the halved mages upper part and turned to Nyse,Loot the fool, we dont know shit about magic items Hope the robe aint worth much, cause I ruined it.
Duke Armand got over his initial relief of seeing Aurelia be safe and well, he smiled at her briefly and tapped on Jens shoulder, Jen, we have no time for this
Frustrated and angry? Does that have to do with her or
Whatd ya mean no time? They dont have no space mage aight? Then we got like two hours free time right now at least, if they even find us, lets eat and stuff, we worry after.
This is no joke, what if they send the heroes after us? he insisted.
Look, Kings dead, we been framed as the perps, maybe they send the fuckers after me an ya, sure. But you think that twerp Jevvinll convince the church that fast? No shot. An if they send jus' one then we can prolly get em and cash in some nice juicy xp, so chill down, Jen nonchalantly answered his worries. Clearly being labeled a Kingslayer was very low in the list of her worries. She proceeded to enter the house.
A heartbroken cry resounded inside the farm house. It echoed through the windless plains.
We out o cured meat!!!