“Hey did you see the master and his maid?”

“Yeah man, fuck! I’m so goddamn jealous!”

“Damn, what I wouldn’t give to be in his position…”

“I heard a lot of sounds coming from the carriage while traveling… you don’t think they were…?”

“Definitely man! You’ve seen how they were acting when they came out!”

“If you two dimwits have the time to gossip, you have the fucking time to get the horses into the damn stable!”

A cultured conversation between men was interrupted by a gruff looking woman.

“Sandy…”

“Sis…”

“James, Charles we’re working. Get your asses up and tend to the fucking horses! Before I make you a new hole to talk out off!”

“” YES MA’AM””

Without missing a beat James and Charles both shot up and ran to the carriage to get the horses. They knew Sandy wasn’t the type to mess around.

“Is everything alright Ms. Horton?”

“Madam Dorota, everything is fine. We’ll be spending the night here at Karman Pass, I’ve already booked yours and the masters rooms in the local tavern”

“Very good, mind showing us the way to the tavern than?”

“Of course!”

Currently Richard and company, was at Karman Pass a small ‘safe zone’ so to speak, which was located in the Karman Forest. To reach the capital city Myriad Lights, where the ball was being held, it would take approximately 2 days journeying form Richard’s estate located in Bore Wood Meadows. They were already half way there.  Mainly because of the work put in by, Sandy Horton, James Horton and Charles Silver a small band of mercenaries hired by Dorota.

Karman Pass wasn’t a village, it was a place maintained by the Adventures Guild of the Archean Continent. The small zone in the forest consisted of a local tavern and bar for resting, a stable for horses and a small smithy and apothecary to resupply any travelers that would cross through the forest. It was what was commonly referred to by people as a Travelers Haunt.

Although this was a well-known area for many mercenaries and adventurers famous for being very safe, Sandy was still on high alert. Escort jobs were by far the most annoying of jobs to take for anyone who was a mercenary. They were without a doubt riddled with many uncertainties and unexpected encounters. Mainly caused by the lack of information given by the employee.

“If I didn’t need the money…”

The pay was ludicrously high, if not for that and her need for large amounts of cash quickly, Sandy would’ve never taken the job. Seriously speaking there wasn’t a single thing that seemed dangerous about the job. It was a simple escort mission of two days or  even less, taking a noble to the capital city through a small forest. The forest its self, lacked dangerous beasts and had a Travelers Haunt located in it.

But Sandy still couldn’t ease the uncomfortable feeling in her gut.

“Hopefully nothing happens…”

----

I really was worried about this journey. In any story or game, whenever a character goes somewhere in a carriage or otherwise, something always happens. Truth be told I was accepting bandits to show up as soon as we left Bore Wood Village. Considering what the world has thrown at me, it wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility

I was diving into the books again before the journey, hoping to find something that could help me defend myself. Fortunately for me, I did find something. Spell scrolls existed in this world. At the same time found out the cost of making one was absolutely ridiculous.

To contain and stabilize a spell in a small piece of paper it required double or even quadruple the amount of mana needed, compared to just casting it yourself. The paper itself had to be special, it needed to be made from the leaves of a tree with fancy sounding name. Reading to this point I just stopped, not like I could make a scroll with zero mana anyways. Luckily for me though, the old Richard had some spell scrolls in his study room. Two <Explosion> spell scrolls, and a <Light> spell scroll.

‘I have to admire myself; I am quite adequately prepared for once.’

‘Now if only I knew how the fuck to use them… Or what they actually did…’

“Young master we’ve arrived at our room”

Dorota unceremoniously dragged me out of my thoughts once again.

‘Have some couth woman! Let me think in peace!’

‘Wait… Did she just say… *our* room?’

“What the fuck do you mean *our* room?!”

“Young master we’re sharing a room! Isn’t that wonderful!”

‘There’s absolutely nothing wonderful about that, a room to myself is the only way I can get away from you!’

“Speak some god damn sense you hag!”

“Young master the tavern is currently full and there aren’t enough rooms available”

“Go sleep in the damn stables than!”

“Oh! How kind of the young master to give me his room and sleep in the stables!”

“What the fu-”

“I’ll go immediately make arrangements for you in the stable~!”

“Wai-”

Before I could stop her, Dorota that evil hag was gone. She had disappeared so fast I was momentarily stunned in place.

“Shit! That evil hag!”

Gaining my composure, I ran after her to stop her, before she could make accommodations for me with the horses and their manure.

----

These past few days, Dorota was having the time of her life. She had never known how fun it was to tease and annoy someone. Especially someone like Richard who would only angrily scowl and just go along with her antics. Richard may call her names and shout at her, but Dorota knew he wasn’t by any means truly annoyed or angry at her.

‘Young master is weird… If he used magic, he could overpower both me and Bartha…’

Since she had seen him when he was actually angry and annoyed. That day in the study room, the aura and mana coming out of Richard was a pitch black filled with resentment. A resentment that seemed so deep it was devouring light.

*pant*“Stop you evil hag!” *pant*

The Richard that was running after her now, who looked as though he would collapse any minute. Had none of the grandeur from that day.

‘Young master is truly a weird person’

With a small giggle, Dorota picked up her pace as she ran circles around the tavern with a haggard Richard behind her. Since she was having fun and Bartha was always there with her, she didn’t mind taking advantage of Richard at all.

----

“What a fine looking woman…”

“Master have you taken an interest in that maid?”

Two figures inside a dimly lit room in the tavern were looking outside at Dorota and Richard. A lanky man in a butler’s outfit and a slightly large ‘boned’ gentleman with an expansive suit.

“Yes…”

“Master, I’m sure we can arrange a price to have her”

“No need, the man’s probably some bastard from a merchants family going to the capital for some business or another”

“Of course, who wouldn’t fulfill the orders of a Duke such as yourself”

With a hearty laugh, the large boned gentleman waved his hand signaling his butler to go down stairs. Knowing his master’s intentions, the butler gave a small bow before excusing himself from the room.

----

“Young master, you seem tired, shall we go rest?”

‘And whose fucking fault is that!?’

Looking at Dorota who was beaming from ear to ear, after running laps around the tavern. I could only say my mood was abysmal. Dorota’s stamina was insane, at some point in the chase she actually started doing laps overtaking me several times.

‘How the fuck are you not even breaking a sweat??’

It was a complete mystery how even her clothes were neat and tidy after doing multiple laps around the tavern. It had rained before and the ground was still slightly wet with mud. Yet her traditional maid clothes didn’t have a single speck of dust or grime on them. Compared to her, I looked like a dog that rolled in the mud.

“So young master, shall we go to our room so you can take a bath? It’s very unsightly for a noble to look like that”

Before I could curse out this evil hag, a man’s voice stopped me. The voice came from the nearby stairs.

“Young man, my master would like to have a word with your maid…”

A man who looked to be in his 40s a bronze complexion, with dark brown hair and a trimmed moustache, wearing what looked to me like a waiter’s outfit was standing near the stairs.

“Who?”

“My master the Duke Charles Hubert from the Dukedom Heras, would like to talk to your maid for a night.”

The man repeated himself. His eyes seemed to look down on me. Probably because of the state I was in currently. I wasn’t a fool; I could clearly tell whatever 'talk' this Duke was going to have, wasn’t simply a ‘talk’. Knowing this, I answered like any gentleman would in this situation.

“She’s all yours!”