"Got some bad news that can be seen as good news for you." Carl said as the bandits were leaving. "The person we talked about being dead was your valet, so now there is nobody that can tell your secrets apart from us by this carriage. Not that we won't tell our bosses."

Renal felt relieved, and hated it. 'Why should I feel happy that a person died?'

"But these bandits were so amateur it annoyed me, just get a larger more covering brand of a noble house reasonably far off and use that. If you're going to steal horses you always keep a few in the bottom of your luggage." Renal had some doubt what kind of adventurer Carl used to be again. "But seems they are just a passing band, there is no need for the family to organise a large group to chase them off. A couple of patrols to show force and make sure they've started moving is all that is needed, a real expedition is expensive."

"Is banditry common here?" He asked the girls in the carriage. He also noticed that during the entire talk with the bandits Telan didn't seem to care what they did, like they, both bandits and us, were not worthy of his attention.

"Goodness no, there isn't anything worth stealing out here near the border so they are most likely a group laying low for a while or on the run." Carl replied from outside, Renal just wanted to talk since he wanted to get away from the feeling of relief he felt when he heard Boes was dead. Erica seemed to be crying in the corner but he didn't feel clear enough in his mind about the entire thing that he felt able to help, or rather being a shoulder to cry on while being happy that the person died would mean he was a hypocrite. Though he did wave for Nina to help her.

"Oh is my family something of a backwaters nobility?" He felt that this should be a helpful for him if they were, since if they were his lack of etiquette would be easier excused as a lack of upbringing instead of stupidity.

"By location very much so, though with a fairly metropolitan upbringing and heritage. But that just means they have more issues with their backwaters neighbours." Nina said while having an arm around Erica who cried into her shoulder. "Your family is a part of the loyalists faction here, rare as that is. This land we're on is so far away from the mainland kingdom that most neighbours view themselves better to rule on their own. They see that the kingdom is losing wars against their neighbours and think that they are stronger but they never realise just how rich the lands that have been civilised for millennia are compared to these newly claimed lands. Roads made of stone, no bandits, cities with more people than this entire continent."

"Oh, do you have any maps of this world? And I would be very happy if you could explain this world for me. All I was told before we pretty much the name." Renal sighs as he remembered when he asked Teres about the world, 'Your land is called Tyara, and it is mostly an unclaimed wilderness.' didn't help much in his view of his new world.

"Well I did look up a few books that you might want to read last night, one has a map on the front let me see here." And she looks through the few books she has underneath the book she had been reading earlier. "Here it is, 'Tyara the land is Hope' it's a book most commonly bought by colonists from Zajia but I keep one around since they have quite a different view on our politics though no doubt this translated version is very sanitised." Sure enough the first fold in the book was a rather crude map.

"So where are we?" She points to the edge on the area called New Elsira, near the sea.

"The third mage-line, mages are stronger than an army so it was built before the land got claimed. And necromancers are even stronger defensively than normal mages so your former master's area is large, especially strong against beasts and monsters. Mages get a fief near the edge and a fairly sizeable amount of resources, but in return they have to protect the line." Then she drags a finger along the start of the peninsula,"first mage-line" drags it along the edge of the mountains "second."

"How old is New Elsira then?" If this was his new land it was better to know the history of that instead of the greater world, 'a stone in your shoe matters more than a mountain on the horizon' was one of his favourite anecdotes.

"The first areas where colonised around 300 years ago, the first and second lines are 180 and a 150 respectively. Third is now approaching 60 years old. It was made in a hurry because the colonists from Zajia landed on the shores. Your family comes from one of the mainland nobles that were granted land behind the third line. Actually few on the third line are old nobility, most are former merchants that bought it for it titles."

'With only 60 years worth of development is my family poor, or did they get a lot of help from their main line.' Renal couldn't help but be a disappointed, he had hoped for a rich noble life where he could send people out to get things he needed whereas he could focus solely on magic.

"Don't sigh so loudly, your family got most of their fortune from their ships anyway so having underdeveloped land isn't a big issue." Nina said sounding a bit annoyed. "You probably earn even more money trading and selling resources needed for the neighbours lands then you would if you had rich lands. And since the recent wars with the beast-men back home buying war-slaves are cheaper than ever, your family is making bank."

Too embarrassed to talk more about it he realised that Erica seemed to have fallen asleep and used that as an excuse to keep quiet about it. He realised he'd been asking questions to keep his mind away from the fact that someone died, but it still felt so detached from the entire thing.

'Both slavery and necromancy here then, would be considered a backwards plane in most books I read.'  After hearing that both necromancy was accepted and slavery seemed commonplace he hoped to avoid both, but he wasn't going to act like a hero if he saw it. Then looking at Erica sleeping he too felt sleep approach once the tension had lifted and decided that it would be a good way to speed up the travel.