Thus you bring my journey to a close, ye foe of mine. Before my head takes leave from my neck, do allow me one last gaze upon that which I will never see again.

-- Last words of Q'ralleth Crystal-Eye upon being defeated by Dvana the Hunter. His eyes were later forged into a weapon, though the Hunter did not give details on what it was.

I must admit, that tasted great. Be it the actual meat or the impromptu sauce, it is much better than what I am used to, despite having tasted fresh wild game before. Well, if this world decides to grace me with better tasting food, who am I to say no? I will certainly need to try going all out with cooking at some point and see how brilliant that ends up like.

Granted, it would seem at least part of the taste came from a hidden bonus in my cooking skill, since even the AA twins, who should be used to high-quality meals, look quite enthused by the simple meal. Well, I suppose only I would notice it though, since they aren't the two easiest people to read, with Alonso being shy and Aria covering herself in layers of acting. She is honestly better than I was before my... transmigration? Yeah, let's go with that. Thankfully, being Haille makes reading people a lot easier.

With the meal quickly finished, settling in for the night is the next course of action. The guards already have a rota set up, and I feel it unnecessary to interfere. Yes, I will be staying up all night, but telling them to leave it to me and not guard during the night would be an insult. They have some basic tents for themselves, while the twins will be sleeping in the carriage. At least the nobility is practical in regards to that, I do know that back on earth, a man and woman sleeping in the same carriage would be scandalous, even if they're related, during the medieval times. Not that I can exactly claim Durion to have a medieval setting, since magic added in another dimension into how an era could be classified.

Once everyone is settled in, I return to my meditation. I still have a portion of my awareness spent on the surroundings though; it's a good habit after all, magic or not. Leaving the exploration of my soul to a period of time when I can afford to not be on alert, I enjoy the weaves of my magic. Sure, I was not much interested in art before, especially not abstract blotches of colour, but it certainly feels different when I can actually, well, feel it inside me.

As the time flew by, I felt that Alonso, and I knew it was him since I paid attention to their positioning earlier, kept waking up throughout the night. Waiting for a period of time when he falls asleep, I jump down from the carriage roof without a sound, the two guards currently on duty not noticing a thing, and slip into the carriage. I see Aria putting the pillow and blanket to good use and sleeping comfortably, but Alonso kicked his off, probably not for the first time, and seems agitated in his sleep. I approach and gently place my palm on his forehead, a sleep spell sent into him after I cast the simple magic. Keeping my hand there and considering for a bit, I also use calming dreams on him. Though technically sleep would not be broken with a simple bad dream, no need to force him to sleep through whatever nightmares may be plaguing him.
Both spells were mind magic, though the latter is actually a somewhat complex matter since it is also tied into oneiromancy, dream magic in other words. Honestly, I only picked it up by accident, and only have one more spell in oneiromancy, namely induce nightmares. Still, it is one of the rarest types of magic around, so my collectionist-self was very pleased about it.

Ah, finally done. Despite not needing me to pay much attention to it, the spell still needed a little while to complete. I cover Alonso with the blanket and head back to my position stealthily, my brief act of goodwill done. Well, it most mostly me wanting to try out spells now that I am actually living in Durion, rather than just playing the game.

With no other distractions, the night passed by quickly enough. Leftovers from yesterday, which I had temporarily stored in my inventory, were used as breakfast and we were off.

This time I did good on my earlier thoughts and spent most of the journey pestering Aria for information, mostly about the region as well as any important pieces of history. She tried to do the same and ask me about the history of my time, but I shut her down and said I'm not answering anything till I receive those kisses.

Most of the day had already passed while I was collecting information before a particularly interesting piece made me pause.

"Kingdoms Fall? I do not recognise the term, do you mind elaborating?"

Aria easily sensed my interest, and so answered with a hint of curiosity.

"Kingdoms Fall refer to a period of time when huge amounts of kingdoms fell. It is hard to specify when exactly it started, but it has ended roughly one thousand years ago. It is said to be a period of chaos where wars start and ended one after another, borders changed all the time and sometimes a kingdom simply fell overnight."

It was as if she was reciting it from a book, which is understandable I suppose. It was a long time ago and she's hardly a historian, it was probably just another history lesson she had to sit through and little more.

"Powerful monsters awakening, old and new heroes living and dying like flies, and Apostles reminding the world of their might. We may possess little information about the period of the ancient empire, but it's little better for the Kingdoms Fall. Simply too much has been lost at the time. We aren't even aware of what all the kingdoms were called, much else any nuanced details about why it happened."

Hmm, my senses are tingling at that. Apostles, heroes, old monsters, wars and chaos. While Aria did not go into too much detail regarding history, there is only so much she knows after all, but this sounds and feels familiar. For all that has passed, this period of Kingdoms Fall seems like an apt description of my experience in the game.

Not to mention the part I personally played in the fall of many a kingdom, but surely it was not enough where their names were completely forgotten?

Aria noticed my silence, and just as she was about to say something, I realised that my senses are still tingling and that it has nothing to do with an interesting history lesson. I snap my head to the left and focus. There may be a wall in the way, but that's hardly an issue since my focus is not on my eyes but on other senses. Throughout the ride I continually experimented with some of my magic, mostly focusing on using it for detection and the like, and it seems it paid off as I can feel several groups of humanoids in the region.

Instinct rears its head as I order Grande, and yes, it was an order, not a request.

"Stop the carriage."

Regardless of what he may think of me or of being ordered, he knows better to argue with me after I saved them and later proved my sensing capabilities. The carriage quickly slows down and finally stops. I smile politely at my currently-favourite twins and lay out the situation to them.

"We are currently surrounded by twenty-four humanoids divided into four squads. Unlike the previous enemies, their movements are much more skilled and..."

I use my magic sense, which is a trippy feeling I still am not totally used to, and playfully click my tongue.

"... half of them are mages of some skill. That buffoon from earlier does not even compare. I recommend staying in the carriage."

Granted, I did not use my magic sense on that mage from before, but I still got a feeling of his strength when I exploded him, and it's not even close to any one of those present. Both twins pale at my revelation, so I remind them playfully.

"Now now, no need to be scared, I did say I will protect you after all."

Interestingly, it does not seem to help much. Aria looks at me with a slightly forlorn expression.

"How much time can you buy us, Haille?"

I stare at her slightly confused. True, for most people in this world twelve mages must be terrifying, but they hardly compare to me. Still, I have little time to explain so I shrug my shoulders and exit the carriage with a simple sentence.

"It seems you do not quite understand what it means to have a soulbound title, I suppose I should help you with that."

Before she has a chance to respond, I'm already outside and have closed the door behind me. Grande clearly heard what I said as he is looking at me grimly, while the others are looking around but fail to spot any enemies.

I do not bother with looking for them with my eyes, as my magic told me they are all hiding under the ground, along with some sort of trap ahead of us. Good thing I stopped the carriage.

As much as I want to experiment with my healing again, I feel it's best to get this done quickly, even if the mages are weak compared to me they may still manage to cause damage to the carriage, or to the others I suppose. Though frankly, it's more likely that if I play around too much Aria will think I really am buying them time and they'll try to escape, which would be inconvenient.

Ah well, I suppose I will take the chance to play around with something else. I use a weak illusionary object spell, which gives me a pleasant surprise. In the game, you had to design preset objects in advance, but here I could simply form whatever according to my imagination. It would be just visual, but that's all I need for a little theatrics after all.

I make it look like thick stalks of grass break through the ground beside me, twisting around each other till they reach my height. I proceed to grab the mass of stalks, causing the illusion to break into motes of light. At the same time, I summon I Yallume Tir¹The Last Gaze making it seem like I retrieved it from the grass.

Now, this probably doesn't look as grand as it being summoned from flames or water, but judging by the expressions of the guards, it is certainly enough to make an impact, especially considering the looks of the staff; A rich mahogany body, the top quarter of the staff splitting into two curved ends, one of them covered by glowing green vines. In the middle, between the two ends, three pieces of crystal hang on an illusionary stalk, all of them possessing a peculiar depth of colour, making it hard to say what it is, aside from being of a blue tint.

Part of me wants to see how custom magic circle spells work now that I am living this life, the previous blood magic one only worked as a stabiliser and was a default template, so to speak, so it hardly satisfies my desire to experiment, but I suppose it is best to resist the temptation and get on with it.

Ah well, I'll make do with testing out one of the special abilities of the staff. I lightly raise the staff and then gently bring it back down, tapping the ground, intoning the ability name while I do so.

"The Last Gaze of Earth"

The timing is perfect, the staff reaching the ground just as I utter the last sound, and the effect is immediate. All the enemies which were previously hiding underground are skewered by stone spikes coming from below, bringing them upwards.

Interestingly, not all of them are dead. Some are just barely hanging on to their life, true, but two of them are largely unharmed. One of them lost an arm as the spike caught them in the armpit, but the other must have had some sort of item or spell as the spike did not penetrate them at all, though it still pushed them up through the ground so their head might be hurting a bit.

Everyone is standing shock-still. Granted, I am mostly admiring the results, but the rest are likely still trying to process what happened. As further proof of their ability, the unharmed enemy recovers faster and immediately throws a bunch of knives at us and sprints away as fast as he can, into the forest we have been travelling along all this while. Hmm, this reminds me that this is a pretty huge forest.

Ah well, distractions. I casually cast the repel cantrip since I doubt the guards would manage to dodge or deflect the knives themselves, and then proceed to look behind me to the carriage.

Knocking lightly, I explain the situation brightly.

"Aria, the ambushing party has been taken care of. Most are either dead or incapacitated, while the last one has escaped into the forest. I do believe chasing them is advised, if you do not mind?"

There's barely a pause before the door flings open, nearly hitting me before I walked backwards just in time, and Aria is staring right at me. Well, first she glances at me, then the staff, then the amateurish impression of my favourite Voivode of Wallachia's work, and then back at me.

Seconds pass as she stares right at me, while I look back relaxed, a smile adorning my lips. After the seconds continue dragging on I give her a wink.

"While I certainly do not mind you feasting your eyes on me, I do believe I should go after them soon."

That brings her back out of whatever that was, blinking several times she gives me a small nod, still silent. Hmm, now now, we can't have that, can we? I suppose a little bit of mischief is due.

"However, it is possible that the escapee would actually be leading me to a trap that I will not return from. Oh, woe is me, I could not bear to lose my life without allowing you to repay your debt. Would you take pity on this poor soul and grant me my boons?"

I make sure that on top of the exaggerated words, I put on an equally over-the-top look of worry. As planned, that certainly gets a vocal response. Well, a vocal response after several more blinks as she processes what I am asking for.

"What?"

Ok, fine, maybe not the most eloquent vocal response, but it is progress. In the meantime, Grande seems to have sent the others to check up on the corpses and bleeding out soon-to-be-corpses, leaving him the only other one hear to pay attention to my relatively quiet words, along with Alonso of course, who certainly heard me as I see him peeking from inside the carriage.

Regardless, I push on with my request.

"Surely, you remember promising me to grace me with two kisses?"

Finally catching on, or perhaps having her thoughts confirmed, she looks at me incredulously.

"Now?"

"Why yes, I might die, after all, you would not send me away without even granting me what might be my last request?"

She stares at me, and clearly whatever she sees confirms that I have no plans on budging, even if the fact that I might die is bogus and we both know it. She could just let the person get away, but the information to be gained from what is likely to be the most important member of this group is hard to pass up.

Likely following my thoughts, she sighs lightly, glances behind her at Alonso and at Grande, she steps down from the carriage, and pecks me on the lips twice as fast as she can and then rapidly retreats.

I will admit, I am somewhat disappointed at getting mere pecks, even if I should have expected that in those circumstances, so I have some more fun. I put my fingers on my lips and look at her in fake shock.

"You know, I never said it was the lips you had to kiss me on."

MarkedBites

My friend blackmailed me into returning to this story or else he will send my harry potter erotica from the past to people I know, so here I am.