Chapter 39. journey to the palace

POV: Froggy

The past few weeks have been weird, the first few days they tried to teach me how to brew potions while the rest of the weeks they tried to teach me about the history of our kingdom which was interesting to hear, with what I think some parts that they exaggerated.

But hope wasn't lost, fortunately, Trader's ability to dig really fast managed to give me some hope that we would get out of here, which calmed my worries a little.

I tried to meet with him through more legitimate means, but the servants made some pretty good excuses for how I can't meet him. They even have an axe in case I want to protest again by locking myself in a room, which only made my desire to leave more strong.

Outside was night with the moon above the cold desert.

Suddenly I heard a block breaking from the floor.

This didn't scare me, I just casually removed the carpet that was on top of the breaking block.

Not too long after, light came from the ground, with a person that didn't have a nose.

"Bonjour!"

Said the strange person.

"You're speaking weird again Trader. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good, thank you for asking. I'm just very tired from all the mining and sneaking that I have to do. I don't know how long I can keep this up."

He said that while getting out of the hole.

"Well unfortunately I don't have a potion that can help you mine faster. I actually feel pretty useless."

"Nonsense Froggy, you're not useless. Your job is to distract everyone so they don't look too closely at me. So your job is very especially to our escape plan, so please be as popular as possible."

He said that with a smirk on his face.

I just shook my head at that comment and handed him a golden carrot.

"Oh wow, thanks for the goods. So how's the program going?"

I took a big sigh.

"It's just boring, I don't make potions anymore so they started to teach me how to fight and some history. It was interesting at the beginning but I think I'm not made for this. I like to throw potions at the enemies than to swing a sword at them."

He nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, I also have some good news and bad news for me. I heard some of the servants that they are starting to prepare for the new year party that would happen in a month. So that would be the best time to escape from here since everyone would be distracted."

"That's good to hear, what's the bad news then?"

"I have to find a way out in only one month."

He gave a tired sigh, which I totally understood. While I do a lot of work with my program, it's not as stressful as his job. He has to appear busy in public during the day and at night when he's supposed to be asleep he's actually digging a tunnel.

The only thing that keeps him somehow energetic is the golden carrots surprisingly. Fortunately, I had plenty to give.

"It's not that as bad as it sounds. From all the digging that I've done, I think that I know where most of the things should be. The only thing that would make me worry would be if the walls were connected with the obsidian foundation. Then we'll be in an obsidian box and it would be a nightmare to break out."

That didn't sounds like an ideal thing to find out.

"Is there a way that I can help out?"

"I don't think we can make a beacon and it would be too obvious. Maybe if you can get me an iron or diamond pickaxe, I can enchant it and mine everything faster."

"Hmm, I'll see what I can do."

With the serious conversation out of the way, we started to talk more casually until he had to leave to get some rest.

I didn't pay too much attention since I was thinking about how I could help my friend to make his tunneling easier.

The pickaxe wasn't an easy tool to get, or not easy enough to not rise suspicion.

But after a few twist and turns I decided to just ignored everything and went to bed to get some sleep.

The next morning I woke up to the brutal shaking of my blanket which did terribly for my sweet dreams.

"Sir please wake up! The instructor waits for you outside to start the training."

With a grant, I got out of my comfortable bed and ate some breakfast, before heading down to do my morning exercise.

"Time to start another day I guess."

POV: Undying Flame

The start of the journey was slow, even with the help of the horse which was an amazing experience, we were still not moving fast enough.

Mostly because I was easily distracted by everything that I saw.

The green trees, the colored ground, the beautiful flowers, everything was a new experience for me.

Because of this I almost forgot a few times to drink my regeneration potion to keep me alive.

I talked with Tobby on the road which was a great source of information, he said that there were places like the village I've been to, but much bigger, with lots more people roaming the streets.

But there wasn't such a thing as an iron golem, since this was surprisingly only in this village specifically.

That took me by surprise since an intimidating guard like that would be pretty useful in any situation to have.

I didn't tell him about my place, or why I want to meet with Bobby specifically. Fortunately, he seemed satisfied enough to know that I want to apologize to him, even though he doesn't know why.

Which I was very grateful for.

Finally, we stopped our horses to make our camp for tonight since it started to get dark.

"Well camp here tonight, and tomorrow afternoon we should arrive at the palace."

I nodded in understanding and started to put the fence around our small camp.

While I didn't see many mobs from my dimension, I did see some interesting monsters in the distance. Some were green, there was the occasional skeleton and even a four-legged creature that seems to greatly discomfort my guide.

With everything done, we stayed at the worm campfire which brought me some comfort.

It reminded me of home, even if the heat was not even a little bit comparable.

"So how long have you known Bobby?"

He asked an unexpected question.

"Not too long, I only had the chance to meet with him recently when he was with his friend. The two of them helped us greatly with our recent conflict. But unfortunately, we couldn't repay them as much as they helped us. We actually did the opposite, we had incomplete information about a certain location which ended up with his friend's death."

The more I talked the worst I felt.

"That's why I want to meet with him as soon as possible so I can apologize for our mistakes."

This seems to put Tobby thinking as he didn't seem too eager to continue the conversation.

At least he didn't resent me, which I greatly appreciate.

We stayed a few more minutes in silence before I said that I'll be the first one to sleep while he stays for the night shift.

He nodded his head in understanding and wished me a good night.

_______

I was suddenly awake by the noise of a shield blocking an arrow.

I quickly got up and assisted the situation.

We were surrounded by a small horde of monsters.

The green ones were stopped by the fence but the skeletons were still able to shoot arrows at us.

I quickly got up and equipped my shield to help in the fight.

Arrows were coming towards us, lucky they didn't manage to hit us since everyone was so cramped that it was hard to aim at us.

And while we were being attacked we weren't necessarily in danger, we only had to take out our swords and slash at the fence area to kill them.

After a few intense minutes of fighting, we could finally see the hope at the end of the tunnel. The archers were killed first and the rest of the zombies couldn't damage us.

"I think we can finish this fight pretty soon."

Toby happily announced, which suddenly made me worry.

And as I feared something we didn't expect occurred.

Another green monster joined the small hoard, but this one was shorter, this one was much different than the others.

"It's a creeper, get away from it!"

Toby said with a panicked voice.

The creeper started to inflate itself, and right before it was about to explode, an enderman appeared out of nowhere and punched the creeper in the face.

The knockback was powerful enough to push the creeper away from the fence.

Then a powerful explosion was heard and a new hole was created in the ground, but it didn't affect the fence.

Both of us were shocked about what we just witnessed, and before we could get the chance to recover the enderman teleported in front of us and started to scream at us.

My heart stopped, expecting a powerful blow at any second, but after the tall monster finished its scream, it stood back up, looked around, and then teleported away.

For the next few minutes, there were no sounds with the exception of the small hoard of zombies.

"Did the enderman help us?"

"I-i think so?"

After we decided we won't be surprised attacked by the helpful monster, we got back to finishing the last zombies that were screaming at the fence.

Finally, after everything was done the sun came out bringing the corpses on the ground, leaving the battlefield empty.

"Do monsters help you in this world?"

"What do you mean in our world, but no, this is the first time I've seen something like this. The monster just pushed away the creeper so it won't destroy our fence and then screamed at us but chose not to attack us."

We both took a deep breath and decided to take a break before leaving again.

Luckily while the horses got scared by this surprise, they didn't manage to break the lead.

After an hour of resting and eating, we got back on the horses and went straight towards the palace.

The rest of the day was uneventful, we passed by trees and sometimes some wild animals before finally arriving at the first sight of civilization.

Tobby called it a city, it was a huge gathering of houses, and it was even bigger than the bastions of those brutes. Everything was surrounded by powerful walls and guards were constantly on them.

Inside there were some strange houses that were squeezed together only leaving space for the road which was filled with people.

"This place is amazing, how many people are there?"

"The city? It should be a few tens of thousands. The city is indeed amazing, and how everything works inside it's so different that it feels like a different world. But we won't go in there. Or at least not yet."

"What do you mean?"

"The palace is not here, this city only grew because it was close to the palace. Follow me."

We then galloped for a few more hours before arriving at another amazing structure.

It was like nothing I'd ever seen before, it had tall towers, it had large walls and it was imposing.

I couldn't even begin to imagine how many resources it would take to build something like this.

And I don't even want to think about how many people are needed to run this place.

We soon arrived at the gate where some imposing guards came towards us.

"Where you invited by someone to come here?"

The guard looked at Tobby while asking the question.

"Yes, I was invited by my friend called Bobby, you can send a message to him that his friend Tobby has arrived."

The guard looked suspiciously at us before sending someone to check on the information.

I got closer to Tobby and whispered to him.

"I thought you didn't get any letters from Bobby, so how did you get invited?"

"I didn't get any letter that invites me, but they don't need to know that. Once Bobby hears that we're here for him, he'll lie for us to be able to get in."

He whispered back.

I needed in understanding, and also was impressed by his cleverness.

After about an hour waiting the guard finally came back saying that we were allowed to get in.

With that permission, we passed the imposing walls.

It was time to apologize for my mistake.

I hope Bobby will be willing to forgive us.