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“YOU ran here?!”
“Uh, good morning?”
Despite the early hour, Ivar was waiting outside the appointed town in the rest area at the front gate when Lushera arrived.
“I left before any stables opened. I don’t mind paying the early morning rate, but I couldn’t exactly get them to open outside normal hours,” explained Lushera.
“Sure.”
“And I run faster than a horse.”
“Sure?!”
“I outran a rapid delivery horse on the way.”
“Sure…” Ivar seemed to give up on saying anything more. “Fine, whatever. Get in. We’ll talk on the way to Alhyura. People won’t overhear us in here.”
There was a high-speed carriage waiting outside the gate, all the more suspicious for its utter lack of any conspicuous features. He must have hired it for their travel. The driver, a man with a surprisingly sharp glint to his eyes, nodded in greeting to Lushera without saying a word.
“What about the others?” asked Ivar.
“They’re heading to Alhyura on their own. I told them I’d catch up when I left.”
“So, you’re fine meeting up with them there?” They climbed in the carriage. “You can set off,” Ivar said to the driver through the small window.
The driver snapped the reins and the horses pulled out, the carriage nearly gliding along. It was normal for nobility or prominent merchants to use high-speed carriages, so the carriages themselves were built with defense and privacy in mind, and the drivers were trustworthy.
Ivar glanced out at the land rolling by, a steeliness to his eyes that normally seemed more like those of a casual thug.
“Guess this place is as good as any. The hottest piece of info I’ve got for you this time is that Julian Angus will be unofficially visiting Alhyura,” he disclosed.
“Julian Angus?”
“North of Mount Kugus is the territory of Marquess Angus. That’s the same marquess that commanded the attack on the dragon the other day. Julian’s his eldest son. Since the Marquess is dead, Julian will be marquess soon.”
“His son…”
“And he’s quick. Word is he’s already in Setrayu. Apparently, he used a series of teleportation circle spells to go over Mount Tado. You can maybe take a dozen people that way in a day, but you need permission from Setrayu, but it is the fastest route.”
Large-scale movement between Martgarz and Setrayu ended when Kaphal took up residence decades ago on Mount Kugus, but that didn’t mean there was no travel at all between the countries.
You could avoid Mount Kugus altogether and travel through the next mountain over, Mount Tado, along a road that ran north-south. This was a dangerous path even despite there being no variant monsters, so it was limited to a few daring merchants who made that route their expertise and people of influence who had access to teleportation magic and could teleport along the several circles placed throughout the mountain.
“What is the purpose of his visit?” asked Lushera.
“Can’t say for sure since it’s a secret visit. The obvious guess would be to ease tensions. An apology, basically.”
Lushera was taken aback by that, even if it was a little bit of a letdown, since she had been so focused on figuring out how to protect the mountain. It was like when you put your all into picking up something heavy, but it turned out to be light.
“Sending their armies to Mount Kugus increased tensions, since that’s contested territory,” explained Ivar. “And taking out the dragon was laying the groundwork for invasion. But they failed. They don’t have any other moves to make for an attack. Apologizing and sheathing their swords is the best way to limit the fallout. They can still backtrack and start apologizing.”
“You think the soon-to-be Marquess would ignore the imperial court and do that? No, wait. You’re right, it is possible. If they go down the route claiming the attack wasn’t sanctified by the imperial court, if it was the actions of one marquess.”
“That’s how I’m seein’ it. And if so, they can wrap this all up neatly and peacefully. Wouldn’t be surprised if they arranged things behind the scenes so Julian could come in saying the court made him apologize.”
Lushera wondered what she would be thinking if she were Julian. He could avoid a breakdown of the relationship between the two countries if he claimed this wasn’t an act of the empire, but an act of one, lone, wild marquess. Setrayu wasn’t a large country by any means, but Martgarz was stuck in a long, drawn-out war. They surely wanted to avoid increasing their number of enemies.
Setrayu provided secret support to their ally, the Guffarr Union, keeping out of the fighting themselves, but if Martgarz took away any reason Setrayu had for being kind to them, encouraging them to fully join the war…well, it wouldn’t exactly be ringing Martgarz’s death knell, but it would be inconvenient for them.
It was unfortunate for Marquess Angus to have his honor used as a scapegoat for this, but he was already dead, and dead people can’t talk. If Julian went in saying it was all his father’s fault and he was different, he could mitigate the damage he sustained.
Lushera did agree that was one way to end this all neatly.
“Meaning, there’s a chance everything’s already solved,” said Ivar. “Even if that’s true, though, we still gotta be ready for the next thing.”
“Yeah…”
It was a bit of wishful thinking, but even Lushera thought she was seeing good omens now.
Your opponent could find your weakness if you went into negotiations with no other routes of escape. If the current peace continued, they would have more time to shore up defenses on the mountain.
Though, Lushera didn’t think it was right to run away from the test Shurei was preparing for her, even if Kaphal did. It was just a matter of time. They would need the dragons’ help at some point, and if Lushera ran from this rare chance to get them to accept her, she might not find another.
“The reason I wanted to head to Alhyura was to check out how active Martgarz spies are in Setrayu,” said Ivar. “If I can figure that out, I can get an idea how serious they are—how invested they are in keeping at it.”
“I really appreciate your help.” He really was good at everything.
“S-Sure…” He looked away and scratched his head, seeming a bit taken off-balance by Lushera’s honest gratitude. “Never thought there’d be a kid who likes me. It’s not so bad, even though I know it’s you on the inside.”
“Haha, well…”
“You know, I’m always up to helping, as long as you pay my dues.”
Lushera took out her wallet and fished out two gold coins, which she flipped over to Ivar. He caught them in midair as they glittered and spun. “Appreciate it,” he said.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
“Come on, you know you can’t trust someone who sells information. Anyone who sells the enemy’s info to their allies is gonna sell their ally’s info to the enemies every once in a while.”
“It’ll come back to bite you if you do that.”
“They can try. But I’ll know they’re comin’ three days before they do it. I wouldn’t be alive if I didn’t.” Ivar grinned, the particular fierce smile of a lone wolf who never thinks they’ll find protection from others.
“The other thing,” said Lushera, “is whether or not the king of Setrayu is the kind of person who will listen to reason. If he says he’ll work with us, but then is only thinking about using Mom, then I’ll have to call the whole thing off.”
“Hm? I don’t think you need to worry about that. I mean, the Golden Helm’s got—”
And then there was a roar of something large breaking from outside, jolting the carriage despite its shock-absorbing construction.
“Ah!”
“What the hell!”
Lushera leaped out of the carriage next to the river they’d been traveling along and looked in the direction of the sound.
A horror was unfolding across the river. Beyond the bank of the other side, a carriage was being attacked by a being twice its size. From this distance, it looked like a giant wearing monster skins, swinging a club the size of a tree trunk in a garden.
“A monster?!” cried Lushera.
“It’s huge!” shouted Ivar.
There were armed guards around the carriage, seemingly willing to die in the process of defending against the creature, but this mysterious giant sent them flying with a swing of its club as they moved in a tight formation around the carriage.
Just as Lushera thought the giant was about to stop moving, it opened its mouth and spat out a ball of fire. It exploded, launching the guards away and flipping the carriage.
That was the same noise Lushera heard while she was in her own carriage.
“Damn!” Before she could even think, Lushera pulled off her raincoat and rushed forward.
The coat was designed to look like normal outerwear for traveling, concealing her crimson dress below (crimson minidress, really) with its bared shoulders, corset tight across her torso, and huge bow at her waist spread like a dragon’s wings in flight.
The exaggerated, frilled skirt was like dancing flames, stiffened to stay in place, and relatively short. As it was, there was serious concern that someone could see her underwear if they looked at her from the front, so she wore shorts (called hotpants apparently) that were so short they could honestly be mistaken for that same underwear, but that just about maintained her dignity. Her thighs were bared, save for a slender ribbon winding around them, held in place by garters.
The fingerless gloves connected to arm guards reminiscent of crimson flower buds protecting her elbows, while her upper arms were boldly exposed.
On her head she wore a fancy—yet country-esque in style—headdress that matched the knee-high boots with metal toe tips, both practical and decorative, increasing defense and kicking power. These boots were for adventuring, designed to withstand rough terrain and fierce battles.
Lushera didn’t really want many people to see her dressed like this, but the outfit was crafted by a skilled armorer using variant pelts from Mount Kugus. It was made specially for her and was likely one of the greatest sets of armor in the world.
She took three running steps, then cracked the earth as she leaped, wind rushing past her ears. She vaulted the river in one jump, arriving at the other side already running at full speed. The carriage under attack had looked like a miniature from the other side, and the monster seemed to grow in size as well with her approach.
What is this monster?
Even while running at top speed, she was thinking, and what she was thinking was that this was an odd monster. She knew plenty about monsters, but there was nothing coming to mind that would match this one.