Why was it so hard to sleep? Being used as a body pillow made the job infinitely more difficult and the piercing moonlight was definitely not helpful either. At least Ava and possibly Lloyd were silently sitting in front of the campfire, unlike the orange glow from the windows. There were no sleeping pills on hand – or did they even exist in this world?

Maybe counting sheep?

…

No.

 Wait. What about – sleeping magic! Even if it failed, I’d only feel drowsy from the inefficient burning of magic. Bahahaha. So, if I close my eyes like last time and try to physically create a powder inside my mouth and –

*gulp*

No chance to even taste it… but maybe for the better?

…

*shake*

“Wake up you lazy bastard!”

“Sister, don’t use such words against poor Alice, don’t treat your pets so roughly!”

What a sight to rise to. Blinking a couple times, my eyes adjust to the morning light. A worried look from Emil, and an irritated look from Marie.

“Morning,”

I said gently, trying to hide my yawn. I can’t believe that the magic helped me continue my slumber through the shaking of the carriage. Huh, carriage? We were on the move again for the second day, except with Emil on board and poor lonely Lloyd in solace with the butler.

*pat*

It’s only been a few days, but I’ve already gotten used to Emil’s affection. On the other hand,

“Do you know how long it took for you to wake up? You missed breakfast and even when Lloyd came to specially see you, all you did was snore! Insolent beast!”

Ava turned around to only give an empathetic smile which I could only return with a painful one. I guess she was too scared to speak up. Not to blame her though, I was too. At least in front of everyone here. Her words were literally something along the lines of ‘don’t make a fool of me in front of people’. Like this, the journey continued until we reached the border town.

After a few more painful hours of dealing with Emil and Marie’s arguments, we safely arrived in the border-town.

While definitely not large enough to be a city, it was a flourishing town. Much more so, than the one the rotten noble owned. As expected, I guess since all his money goes into splashing empty space with jewellery. This place on the other hand was magnificent. The entrance from our side of the border was extremely well maintained with clean cobblestone roads, each building was at least as large as the ones in the noble district back home and the architecture was reminiscent of 17^th century Europe. This was just at the entrance!

Entering the city, just like the two brats, I was also awe-struck and staring at the window. Did Ava come here before? She was navigating perfectly from what I could tell. Maybe I should ask her to guide me later? Going past the library – easily the nicest building so far – the carriage arrived in our supposed lodgings for the day. The hotel or inn, despite being restricted in size, seemed both luxurious and cosy. After the carriages were parked, we joined together with Lloyd again and Ava and the butler to our respective rooms, to deposit our bags. Well, not my bag since I don’t think I even had belongings outside of whatever I inherited from the merchant’s ring.

“Marie, Emil and Alice follow me, I’ll give you guys a tour before we all decide where to go!”

Lloyd said, clearly enthusiastic.

“As this is the border of our kingdom, with the Kinai lordship, it was able to prosper greatly due to trade!”

Spare me the economics lesson please. And what. Lordship? Did Lloyd specifically choose a place next to a demon lord territory or was the library of this place just that good? Was this angel actually guiding me to my escape route! While I had plenty of other chances to escape, now the opportunity was handed to me with a silver spoon.

*smack*

I slap my cheeks together. Why was I worrying so much about escaping? How did I get attached to total strangers this soon? It’s not like this was a permanent goodbye either! Next time I come – you’ll be the ones calling me master!