As they started looking for their own seats in the tent, Garius asked Adelia to release the fainted adventurer.

"Adelia, please wake the guard, just let him go, no need to kill him."

"Yes, Master." that way Adelia dragged the guard outside and came back a few moments later.

"Okay, now we have some problems. The first ... You." Garius pointed at Brian.

"Me ?. What's wrong with me ?."

"Yes you, what are you doing here? You thought we were on vacation? We are now fugitives, do you understand what that means?"

"Yes, I know what a fugitive is. But I don't want to be away from you, Master. I don't want to be left far behind from you. Yesterday when you disappeared with Adelia, suddenly you came and made a homunculus. If we don't meet in a very long time, I don't know what you will do when we meet again. I don't want to be like that. "

"But the task I give you will take a very long time, right? You shouldn't be able to complete it all your life."

"That's the problem Master! I want to see the results of my work."

"Che, what kind of researcher relies on other people."

"... Hehehe." Brian laughed by scratching the back of his head.

"Next ..." Garius actually wanted to talk about Sam, but looking at her affectionate eyes when he saw Paul, Garius brought up another topic. "I need a place. A house where I can sleep peacefully. But as you know, the knights of the kingdom keep finding me wherever I go."

"About that Master, according to Sam, the knights of the kingdom are using postal pigeons belonging to the Adventurer's Guild. But there seems to be something more than that. They can send not only news, but also pictures."

"Ah right, I also saw that the picture of Paul's face did not resemble the original."

Garius try to call Paul picture from his memory in the poster he found. Although it is not very clear, there is a resemblance to Paul's face. Then where did Sam conclude that the pictures do not look alike?

"Paul, do you still have that wanted poster?" asked Garius.

"Ah, there is. This ..." Paul gives the poster he kept to Garius.

Garius opened the poster and began comparing it to Paul face. Adelia, Brian and Sam too.

"I think there is a similarity." Garius said while looking at Adelia to ask her opinion.

"Um, there's a little resemblance." replied Adelia.

"Yes, this nose is the same." Brian added. But immediately protested strongly by Sam.

"What are you saying, try to see clearly, what is similar. There is no similarity at all."

"""Ohhh."""

"I think I saw it wrong." "Yes me too." "..." Garius and Adelia answered almost simultaneously.

"Ahem, then we don't have to worry if they will recognize Paul?" asked Garius.

"Of course, he can ride the carriage safely with me." Sam said as she patted her chest.

"But his nose- ouch !." Brian tries to say something which immediately takes a kick from Adelia.

"Okay, let's continue. Where was it? Oh Adventurer's Guild! We can assume that they have the tools to communicate and send pictures."

"Yes, I guess so." said Sam.

"And because Paul's poster is not clear, we can use it. Hey, doesn't that mean you can go home to Brian's house safely ?." Garius asked Paul.

"Yes, we are here to hear Mr. Garius' plan. And Brian doesn't seem to want to return to Dahar." Paul, who had been silent for a long time, finally gave his input.

*Sigh ~

"Okay, then .. No, I can't take Brian, Paul and Sam for now. Since I don't have the Sub-Core, I can't protect you. So this time I asked Brian to come back to Dahar and stay there for a while."

"But Master !." Brian wants to protest but is immediately interrupted by Garius.

"No buts! This is not a game! I can understand how you feel, but not now. Later I will give a new task for you, I hope it is finished after I return to Dahar. Got it ?."

"..." Brian nodded forcefully.

"I will also go with you to Dahar, we will discuss the diagram in detail while we are on the journey. But we will separate when we get to Dahar, because I will continue my journey to Sangu."

"""Sangu ?.""" Adelia, Paul and Sam asked simultaneously.

"Yes, I heard that there is the center of slavery. And I want to release Emily because I don't know who Emily's master and this matter has been bothering me since yesterday."

Adelia, Brian, Paul, and Sam simultaneously looked at Emily, who had been sitting in the corner of the tent and made Emily uncomfortable. Then Emily answered.

"I-I don't know who my master either." Emily hung her head.

"Therefore, I want to go to Sangu to find a slave trader. Do you have any questions?" continued Garius and everyone who is in tent didn't answer.

"Okay then we can go straight away. We'll stop briefly at Iudio to buy equipment, then continue to Dahar. Let's go!"

Then they moved to Iudio at once and arrived in the afternoon after passing through several posts using Brian's identity and continuing on to Dahar the next day. Garius doesn't go into the village, he just sends Paul and Sam to buy supplies such as food, slaves clothes for disguise and parchments for Garius and Brian's diagrams. After the battle in front of the Primis gate, Garius no longer has the One-Use Scroll and Core Bomb to use magic, leaving the Binder on his waist almost empty, with only a few Scrolls left. And he had to cross the borders of the Eldia and the Barbarian Wasteland in the West. Garius knew that their journey would not be easy, so he wanted to refill his inventory of scrolls, but ...

"I have no money .." what Brian said. Then he continued. "More than half of my savings have gone to buying a shop in Arvo, and I won't get any money until next year."

"It doesn't matter, if I get really cornered, I'll use black magic. C-calm down, I'll find a way to get money. Until then .. Hang on, okay." Garius smiled bitterly and could only promise Brian.

"Don't get me wrong, if Master asks, I'll give all the money I have and I won't regret it. What I'm sorry about, I can't help you, that's all."

°°°

Outside the village of Dahar, Garius gets off the horse-drawn carriage with Adelia and Emily.

"Okay, we'll part here. Brian, don't forget our agreement. I'll use the diagram after I get back from Sangu."

"Yes, Master. Leave it to me."

"Alright, see you later."

With that, Garius and Brian parted ways. Garius didn't take the main road to get to Sangu, he returned north to explore the forest at the foot of the Hayes Mountains. They walked while hunting Magic Beasts which then took the materials and made a Core Bomb from the cores. A week later they arrived at the border.

"Master .." Adelia pulled Garius's robe to show what she saw.

Dozens of tents were standing and hundreds of royal soldiers were on guard at the border fully equipped.

"Geez .. Then what about the border to the north? Did they leave their posts there just to prevent us from crossing the border? What were they thinking."

"No, it's not a half of all the Royal troops. How many do you think the Eldia kingdom's soldiers are. To win the war with the Kart kingdom alone, they have already lost more than a thousand people." Emily provided an observation based on what she knew about the royal army.

"One thousand? Then plus the casualties in the Lost Forest and at the Primis gate, they still have that many troops?"

"Yes, the Royal Knights number eight hundred and the common army around three thousand, if you add to the mercenaries from the Adventurer's Guild and slave soldiers, the Eldia Kingdom has more than five thousand soldiers that they are ready to muster for war with the Kart or Barbarian kingdoms." Emily explained.

"But that was before the war, right?"

"Yes, that was before the war with the Kart kingdom and the war in the Lost Forest. But that doesn't include the soldiers of the Astra Goddess Church. That is why the Eldia kingdom can stand tall even though it is flanked by three kingdoms."

"Three?." Adelia asked too.

"Mm, apart from the Kart and Barbarian kingdoms, we still have a border in the east with the Solus archipelago, right?"

"" Ohh. "" Adelia and Garius nodded their heads.

"O-okay, then how are we supposed to cross over to the Barbarians with a guard like that .."

"Is there no other way?"

"Actually there is .. But." Garius looks up at the cliff on the right of the border attached to the Hayes mountains. Then move on. "If we can go there without being seen, I think we will be able to go to the Barbarian Wasteland. We have to be completely invisible to shorten the time we fight because we don't have much fighting power right now."

Garius touched the Binder on his waist and counted how many scrolls he had plus the few Core Bombs he just made.

*Sigh ~

"Looks like this will be a tough fight."

Adelia, Garius and Emily started climbing the trees in the Hayes mountains. Just as they thought they could reach the gap between the border wall and the Hayes mountainside, a trumpet sounded from the direction of the royal army tent. The royal soldiers burst out of the tent and began to form lines and formations that moved towards Garius at a fast pace. Then came a very loud voice from behind the line of soldiers.

"Emily my dear! Give up beautiful. You are already surrounded. How long are you going to make an escape that will only end up with your death. Give it up, I'll help you get back to the Steinsburg family as my wife."