The scenery rushed by as the carriage travelled through the rural backdrop around the capital.

As part of their training, the warrior class once again found a suitable target for the warrior trip.

Lisa, Unico and Nisha were the only three in their carriage, chatting as they headed for the location of the trip.

Usually, a fourth person would have been on the empty seat, yet the elf brought her contracted beast, so it was only their small party in the end.

Once the carriages exited the capital through the small gate in the city wall from the [Royal Academy], they inevitably had had to slow down for the different carriages to get into a single file and travel outside.

During that short lull in speed, Little Lia grew uncomfortable under the admiration and attention from the blonde girl and asked her master to let her go outside and run alongside the caravan.

To a fourth rank beast, it hardly mattered to sprint for long periods of time, proof of the great difference in physique after making it past the first great divide in cultivation.

Lisa was sad to see the wolf go, which had lost most of its unruly long hair after the bloodline change - strong, golden strands of fur intertwined to build protection similar to scale armour.

She loved to run her hands through the fluffy mantle and played with the longer tufts of fur around the paw’s as well, although the blonde girl’s hand began to sting after coming into contact with the swirl of wind mana there.

Fidgeting in her seat, the girl now looked for a topic to break the silence, she felt uncomfortable when neither the elf nor the boy with the violent hue on his skin talked.

All of a sudden, Lisa’s eyes flashed as she had a burst of inspiration and recalled a topic related to city gates, which they just passed through earlier.

“You know, I overheard a secret earlier, in my parent’s shop.”

Fidgeting in her spot next to Nisha, the excited girl wrung her hands and tried her best to not give the secret away too quickly.

Unico had his customary polite smile and cocked his head as he turned from the window of the carriage in direction of the girls, who sat opposite of him.

Nisha had been lost in her thoughts and thinking about the upcoming hunt when Lisa tore her out of it and looked over as well.

 

“You have to guess! I can’t just say it, that’s no fun.”

Being stared at made it even harder for Lisa to keep up a strong front, and closed her eyes to avoid being stared at.

As long as I can’t see them, they can’t see me either!

Nisha blanked out for a second after being interrupted in her train of thoughts, but she eventually caught on and answered.

“Oh, I don’t really know. Can you care to enlighten us?”

Nisha recalled that the parents of the girl next to her owned the [Golden Cauldron], a famous alchemy store that had a supply contract for the royal palace itself.

As long as it was circulated there, there was a high chance that it was a secret of high importance.

Normally, the blonde girl would have wheedled the others even longer for a more enthusiastic response, yet now all she wanted was to escape the silence in the carriage.

Seeing that Nisha gave her face, she looked left and right as if to make sure no one was listening in on them and then spoke in a hushed voice.

“When my ma talked to one of our customers, he told her that they got a big job recently.

He bought some stamina potions, much more than usual, they use them during construction to rush the progress.

Apparently the palace gave them a contract to build some new structures as fast as possible, right in front of the gates!”

Gloating from sharing a moment with her group, Lisa puffed up her chest and smirked, looking forward to the reaction of the boy and the elf.

Next to her, Nisha instantly connected the matter with the information she had in hand and could likely already guess what the structures were meant for.

Nevertheless, her eyes took a strange expression as they shifted between the other two and silently hoped that she was wrong about what the other girl was about to say next.

As always, Unico kept his carefully maintained polite smile and offered no rebuff.

 

“When I asked my mom about it after the guy left, she told me that most likely before the next moon, the city guards will start strict controls around the gates and the capital will get sealed off.

This is big news!”

Clapping her hands in excitement, Lisa smiled in contentment and enjoyed sharing some gossip with her friends.

The young man opposite of them nodded his head and looked like he earnestly listened, which only increased the blonde girl’s satisfaction.

Contrary to the two chipper youths, Nisha had to fight the urge to clasp her hands over her face and groan.

She was aware that her common sense sometimes lacked in rather obvious areas.

Galan ensured that the elf completed her etiquette classes and mastered the social pleasantries required of an heir to the Dharnas name, but sometimes there were gaps in her knowledge that even smaller children would not have.

Nevertheless, it could not really be helped either.

Whereas others have lived their entire lives so far in the capital or at least a bigger town, the dragon roamed the Wilderness for the first ten turns of her life.

The time that Nisha came into contact with human society was far too short to cover all of the shortcomings in her common sense.

In return, none of the students in the Warrior classes or the Magician classes was her equal when it came to survival in the Wilderness or combat experience.

They each had different specialities, but the elf was not discouraged.

Time was going to fix her lack of common sense, so there was nothing to be sad about.

“Lisa, you should stop talking right now. Stop.”

Sighing deeply, the dragon could no longer watch on as the other girl headed towards catastrophe.

 By now, it was clear to her that Lisa really had no idea about the problem.

The elf herself only learned about it through the floor section of the Grand Library.

Aside from the skill books and inheritances on the upper floors, it was quite surprising how high quality the common section books were by themselves, seeing as everyone had a chance to access them.

 

“Huh? It’s fine, my ma won’t mind. As long as it stays between us, some gossip won’t hurt anyone.”

Perhaps confused by the strong reaction from the elf, the blonde girl had no idea what was going on and tore away her gaze from the youth opposite of her to study Nisha.

Waving her hand left and right to underline her statement, Lisa was really unconcerned.

Although it was a secret and not yet announced by the officials, there were bound to be rumours as long as the palace entrusted the work to someone outside of their own people.

Even if they talked about it in private, no one would take notice of them and take offence.

“That’s not the issue. It’s exactly because it is between us that there’s a problem.”

Taking her hands off her face, the dragon leaned back and stared at the ceiling of their carriage.

Sorting out her thoughts, she went with the simplest method.

“You will definitely get into trouble if you say things like that.

Because Unico is a spy.”

Despite the unassuming words, Nisha’s [Spirit Sight] picked up how the youth’s always calm smile cracked and his mask slipped.

He furrowed his brows and looked dismayed, but not really angry or panicked.

Lisa, on the other side, failed to pick up the new information and blankly stared at the elf.

Trying to connect the charming young man and a heinous spy that infiltrated Leandar to steal important secrets left her reeling in shock.

“You’re joking, right? That’s a really bad one …”

Trying to deny reality, Lisa began to refute by instinct, yet her voice trailed off when she looked between the elf and the youth opposite of them.

Nisha was serious and did not look like she was pulling a prank whereas Unico seemed dismayed that his identity was revealed.

Shock and panic descended at once and made the blonde girl want to jump out of the carriage and get to safety.

 

“Calm down, it’s not as bad as you think. Don’t overreact and listen to the end.”

Seeing that Unico had no intention to defend himself and refute the accusation, Nisha grabbed Lisa’s hand and stopped her from losing it.

Given that the elf knew about him being a spy and he was still free and running about, the blonde girl did not have to risk limb and life to apprehend him.

“But you said he is a spy! We need to find a teacher!”

Deep inside the girl still refused to acknowledge that her friend was a foreign spy and her other friend was way too calm and seemingly accepted it easily that a traitor was among them.

Perhaps she was even in league with him? If she did not run now, would they do something to her to silence her?

“Yes, but not every spy is the same. Try to breathe slower and calm down. Everything is okay.”

Through the trembling palm in her hand, the elf learned that the other girl was still panicked and needed an explanation to calm down.

She thought that the tidbits of knowledge she picked up at the library would have never seen use in her lifetime when reading them, but coincidentally now the elf had a chance to use them.

“I really did not expect that no one told you. Perhaps they thought that everyone attending the academy would have someone at home who would tell them? Anyway, it has more to do with his background, not because Unico wants to be a spy.

Actually, the academy and the guards are already aware of this.”

Halfway through her speech, Nisha glanced away from the girl holding her hand desperately, yet the boy made no attempt to cut in and restored his mask, a calm and polite smile as always.

“But that doesn’t make sense! Wouldn’t they try to catch and imprison him if he was a spy?!”

Although Lisa was still agitated and restless, she truly felt relieved inside and some of her restlessness dissipated.

Since other people knew about it, there was no need to take on the burden all alone.

 

“Strictly speaking, I have to take a few steps back and start from the past to explain this matter.

Unless you want to recount the past of your country personally, Unico?”

In reality, it was not her duty to resolve this mess. She was merely doing it out of kindness to placate her friend.

The young man with the purple hued skin shook his head and was content to sit back and listen.

It was fine as long as there was no panic.

Suddenly, Nisha understood why he was dismayed earlier, but not angry. He would have been troubled and others would start to treat him differently once he was known as a spy.

As the elf was going to clear his name and Lisa would not spread the issue around, he was fine with the situation right now.

“Before the Left and Right kingdoms - or Twin Kingdoms - existed, their predecessor was an ancient empire in the same location.

As one of the two empires together with the Terus empire, they were at the height of power and had a flourishing culture.

Due to certain reasons, the empire fell into internal strife and split into two kingdoms later on.

Nevertheless, the decline was inevitable with a civil war and countless riots, so several important locations were lost.

And with a clash in ideological beliefs, the Left Kingdom wants to swallow the Right Kingdom and vice versa.

Did I miss something, Unico?”

Because they neared the location around the capital for their hunting trip, the dragon skipped a lot of history and compressed a long tale of might and magic into a few simple sentences.

“No, everything is correct so far. That’s indeed the history of my home, although it was the despicable traitors that split off and formed their own kingdom. We are the true successors of the empire.”

Nisha rolled her eyes, she was pretty sure anyone from the Right Kingdom would claim the same against the Left Kingdom.

“At one point, the Twin Kingdoms no longer had any eyes in the other kingdoms and no chance to cultivate any to catch up either, so they were the worst in intelligence gathering.

Then, one king had big ambitions and nearly dominated the Left and Right Kingdoms, so he turned his attention outwards.

In a stroke of genius, he turned every single citizen into a spy.”