“No, Vandal!” Dalshia shouted. “I don’t want to be separated from you! You have to take me with you!”
“I would like to, but it’s a little dangerous for that.” When entering the town, guards might inspect his belongings. They could find the piece of Dalshia’s bone and realize that it was possessed. It was unlikely but still a possibility. If the guard called someone in to try to purify Dalshia’s spirit, Vandal could see himself having to kill some people to escape. “Think about what would happen if I started firing off MP Shots, Mom.”
It would be a nightmare scenario. Forget about killing a few guardsmen—he would leave holes in the gate and the castle in rubble. Maybe worse.
“Okay . . . if you say so. But you’d better come back to me.”
“I will, Mom; don’t worry.”
But he had already missed his window that day.
Day five.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!” Vandal was grabbed and carried off by an Immortal Ent, screaming as he went. He was later sighted slumped in the branchy arms of the monster, seemingly having accepted his fate.
Day six.
“Mnnnnnh!” Lefdia, upon learning that they would have to split up during the journey, was now clinging tightly to Vandal’s face. He was trying to persuade her to let go when Borkz and some others showed up.
“Child, I know I gave you a letter for my daughter, but if she’s having a hard time of it, please give her this too.”
“Child, if you meet Lady Lebia, please give her this!”
“Please, take this too, Your Majesty!”
“. . . You do realize my packs are already three times my size,” Vandal said.
It took a long time to reorganize and repack things, which meant—yes—another delay.
This brought him to today—day seven.
“I’ve finally gotten everyone to accept my brief trip,” Vandal stated. “The miso and soy sauce and fish flakes and smoked products and mayo and ketchup production lines can run for 100 years without me. Everything is ready. I just need to start walking.”
“I’m sorry, Lord Vandal, but we have a bit of a problem.” The speaker was Eleonora, just on queue to pour cold water over Vandal’s enthusiasm.
“A problem?”
“Braga led the ninja unit out to a dungeon yesterday,” Eleonora said. “It might be a few days before they return.” It sounded like Vandal had kept them waiting for too long, and the impatience led them to head out and train.
“Enough delays,” Vandal said decisively. “We can go ahead. If I leave communication undead behind, they’ll be able to find us easily enough. Instead of Zulan, Eleonora, you can take care of Lefdia.”
Vandal had found an additional use for familiars as communication undead, which could be used much like a mobile phone. They only worked over a short distance, and the voices were transmitted via the ears and tongue of the involved undead, meaning the speaker was not heard directly, but these were still a revolution when it came to Ramda technology. They looked like shrunken goblin heads, so the design side could use some work. Using human heads would have increased functionality but would also cause all sorts of difficult-to-answer questions, and so Vandal had given up on that.
“All right. Let’s get moving.”
“Yes, Lord Vandal! Ah, to travel the road, just the two of us!” Eleonora enthused.
“Don’t forget Lefdia,” Vandal pointed out. “And once we leave the tunnel, I’m continuing alone.” It seemed unlikely, but there was a chance the town gates would have anti-vampire measures in place. In Eleonora’s case, they also had to be careful about the progenitors who worshipped the Demon God of Living Pleasure, Hihiryu-Shukaka—both their information network and tricky things like magic items that could track individuals using their blood.
In this case, though, Vandal had decided neither of these would be a problem. He didn’t know the full scope of the vampire’s surveillance network, perhaps, but they probably didn’t expect Vandal to have reopened the tunnel. Vandal also knew that they weren’t such a massive secret organization that they would have agents hiding in every single town and village. Their primary bases would have numerous informants in place, but unless they had particular leads, other settlements would be outside of their notice. As far as Eleonora knew, their information network was restricted to the Amidd Empire.
In terms of the magic item, they had gotten ahold of the one previously used to track Eleonora. Even if there were more of the item, they probably didn’t have much of Eleonora’s blood left to use. To top it off, Vandal was pretty sure he could deal with a random progenitor servant if they did bump into one.
“We’re finally leaving,” Vandal said.
“See you in a few days, Lord Van,” said Talea. “Please, make sure you come back to me.”
“Van will be coming back to all of us, thank you,” Zadilis added.
“Young Master, I hope you will choose to use my wheels next time,” Sam wept.
Most of the nation seemed to have turned out to see him off. With that, Vandal and Eleonora departed Talosheim and headed for the Heartner Domain.
They flew for three days, with intermittent attacks by Pteranodons and bird-type monsters. Vandal had previously turned the tunnel into a golem, allowing it to be passed through again. They entered the tunnel, and then, after three days of travel and getting golems to clear the blockage at the other end, Vandal finally achieved his long-held desire of reaching the Olbaum Electorate Kingdom.
There wasn’t much to be said for it yet. The remains of a path petered out of the tunnel into a sparse wasteland littered with a few trees. Two hundred years ago, when trading with Talosheim, there had been a fine road leading from here, but none of that glory remained.
“The town, our target, should be about three hours east from here,” Eleonora said. “If it still stands.”
“Supposedly, it has a population of a few thousand, so something should still be there. As far as we know, this is still the Heartner Domain, so there should be a settlement somewhere nearby. Eleonora, you hang out around here. Contact me using the communication undead.”
“Okay. But are you sure you want to go alone?”
“I’ll be fine,” Vandal assured her. “I can manage this.” He wondered if he should lighten the mood with a quip but decided not to risk it.
On second thought, maybe he should have—Eleonora still had a worried look on her face as Vandal started down the remains of the road, this time on foot.
Of course, he had a large number of spirits all around him, so strictly speaking, he wasn’t alone.
Before departing, he had the golems conceal the exit to the tunnel again, sealing it so that it wouldn’t open without a password. The password was “brain repeatedly jumping sideways.” He wanted something no one was ever going to say by mistake. Vandal had also created simple lodging facilities on the tunnel-side of the exit. Eleonora and Lefdia would wait there for the ninja unit to catch up.
“I should be close now . . . .”
It had proven to be a pain to navigate the overgrown grass, which was taller than he was. So Vandal was hovering silently above it, moving with Flight. If it wasn’t for the pack on his back, he could have been mistaken for an apparition.
He was still attacked, every now and then, by goblins or raven monsters with five-foot-wide wings, but he drove them off easily enough. He could deal with Rank 1 or 2 monsters without much effort. He didn’t get any experience thanks to his resident curses, but it would have been so little that it didn’t really matter.
“Gegagaga!” More goblins came at him, swinging wooden clubs.
“Geh-gah-gah.” Vandal gave a half-hearted reply and then used his Throw skill, obtained from training with Braga and the ninja unit, to toss some rocks and take them out.
“Seems like about one in five rank 2 Black Ravens cough up magic stones,” Vandal commented. “If I can get some of those, they might pay for my passage.”
On the Vangaia Continent, it was normal for towns and villages to charge a travel tax for entry. Vandal didn’t have any baum, the universal Olbaum currency, so he had some salt in his packs, hoping he could use that instead. He had decided against bringing magic stones or materials from high-ranking monsters, since a kid showing up with stuff that was too good might cause a stir. He chose salt since the Heartner Domain had no coastline or quarries with rock salt, so it would have a high price. If they’ve found a decent source of it during the last 200 years and the value has fallen, I’ll have to do some hunting. He could always hunt some rabbits rather than monsters. That rabbit blood Mom gave me tasted so good, he recalled, even as he sniped another goblin. Then he pressed on.