'Departure!'

"Why are you more excited than us Claude, haven't you supposedly been doing these kind of jobs for years now?" I ask noticing the boy whistling along by himself,

No, years?

I'm not that old,

When the guild used to get a lot of jobs, I was still too young to take, ones like this,

And ever since the Hunter coalition formed, they have been either taking our jobs or just sabotaging them out right,"

"Well, this isn't much of adventure like you hyped it to be,

You could have asked someone else to join you," Pinoki mutters grimly,

"You're just upset there isn't anything he can do with his shadow magic," Apollo interprets

"Shadow magic huh," Claude says in awe,

"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that you all have evolved magic,"

"Wrap your head around walking faster!" Lyra barks from a significant distance ahead of us,

I don't blame her for being agitated, hot sun beats down us as we traverse a bumpy, bushy hillside,

We follow behind, what I can only describe as a quite queer carriage-

-From Claude's excitement, I thought we were about to embark on an exciting adventure, only for it to basically be glorified guard duty,

We're to make sure the 'contents' of the carriage makes it safely to a town under the simple name of 'Gate'-

"-I don't know why we all had to come," Pinoki still complaining,

"You and your sister could have easily handled this,"

Claude makes an annoyed sound,

"I want you to look over there, Pinoki, behind us," he directs trying to sound mysterious,

"What, to see the nice view?" Pinoki says sarcastically,

"No, you didn't see the brief flash?"

"Well, I mean the sun is pretty bright, it would be difficult to discern flashes of light,"

"Don't stare too much, Pinoki," he warns,

"The flash is from a sight crystal-"

"Sight crystal?" I interrupt,

"It is a cylindrical shaped object with a magic crystal at the end with the power to increase sight up to large distances,"

"So, a telescope?"

"Huh?"

"Don't mind Kage," Pinoki informs,

"He likes to make up his own words and names,"

(I'm not even going to bother arguing with him)

"So, you said someone is spying us?" Apollo gripping his sword anxiously, his hands sweating,

"They've been watching us since we left Sweepstake," Claude tells,

"My guess is that they are either regular thieves, or the hunters watching us,"

"I know you told us before that the hunters don't like you or whatever, but I need you elaborate on why exactly they would go to this extent," Apollo huffs

"Orr we can wait till we finish this job to talk," Lyra inputs as we finally catch up to her alongside the carriage,

"I don't like the idea of being watched,

Moreso, the sun is hot, I want to be done with this pitiful escort job already,"

"You are grumpier than I, and I am and old man" a face pokes out from inside the carriage,

Mr. Godfrey was his name, the person who hired us for this simple task of escorting his 'goods',

"Why would you be grumpy, old man, you're not out in the sun," she jeers

"Well, maybe that is because I own this luxurious carriage, and am paying you to do this," Mr. Godfrey retorts

"Your right, this is a pretty nice carriage," Karina's head pops out from behind him,….

(What would that be considered, technology or magic?) I ponder looking at the moving 'vehicle'

Its wood, an extremely hard one at that, resembles that you would find on a grand piano,

The entire carriage, painted a deep royal-like red color, combined with the addition of gold painted wooden bands around its sides, with detailed curves and carvings etched into its surface,

Instead of being on wheels as you would expect,

No, as I would expect?

Who am I talking to??

Anyway, when stationary it lays flat on its base, each corner has a wide crystal lodged horizontally where said wheels would normally go, the crystals emit a steady flow of wind magic that navigates the carriage up and forward….

…."Ahh!" the old man jumps,

"How?

When did you get in here?" he snarls at Karina,

"You almost scared me to death!"

"From what I've gathered, based on what you have in here, I can tell that you are a member of the merchant alliance, correct?" Karina ignoring his outburst

"A high-ranking member at that,"

"What else does he have in there?" Lyra supporting Karina's actions

"A lot of magic gems, jewelry, clothes, money that kind of stuff,

By the looks of things, this guy is planning to move not just carry out a delivery," Karina replies,

"You children these days have no respect," Mr. Godfrey fumes,

"Hopefully you can put this same energy into protecting me should anyone attack us,"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Karina drawls, "Question, old man,

Since you're a part of the merchant alliance, why didn't you get someone from your faction for this job?"

…..

"Well, if you must know,

I am leaving the city, this isn't really a delivery task, you're helping me get to Gate town safely,

I've er, retired,"

"Why,"

"No more questions, If I knew you were going to be this noisy, I would have just gone with the Hunter coalition instead, they are more efficient than you so called adventurers,"

"Yet, you hired us," Claude retorts

"Emmm, well, I was recommended you from someone else, I had no intention of going to your problematic faction,"

"Recommended by the who?" I ask curiously,

"The mayor of course, he said I should hire Claude and his 'new friends' for my job,"

"…?

Are you friends the mayor Claude?

And how does he know about us already?

We only just arrived a little over a week ago" I press

"There!

I see the town ahead," Claude points avoiding my question,

...

(Weird...)

For the short period of time I've known this boy, one thing I'm sure about him that is he always tries to come across as mysterious,

(This is different)

I suspiciously eye him, but I refrain from pressing on the matter more,

(Maybe he does not want to speak on it because Mr. Godfrey is here?)

….

"Uhhh~ Lyra!" Apollo groans,

"Can you use your magic to cool me off a little,"

"I already told you that not what my magic is for," she snaps back

"It wouldn't work anyways, I have snow magic not ice,"

"Cold is cold Lyra."

"Have you ever seen snow in the summer?"

"No,

But I have seen a hotheaded girl use snow magic,"

...

"You need to stop hanging out with Kage, Apollo."

"Why am I being brought into this?"

"Because that is something either you or Karina would say to me,

And we all know Apollo and Karina are not the closest of talkers,"

"Which makes you think it's me?" I argue defensively

(It is me)

"Orr, I came up with it by myself?" Apollo suggests

"I don't believe that,

You would never make such snarky remark to me Apollo,

You're being negatively influenced-"

"-Stop being so soft Lyra," Karina says tiredly,

"The heat is making you grumpy,"

"Shu-

-Huh?

Rain?" Lyra stops as small pellets of water fall on us,

"There,

Now can you all focus?

This is still a job." Amelia speaks, as she is the one producing the 'rain'

"My, how generous of you," Pinoki purrs,

"I would be lying of I didn't say I've been curious as to what you and your brothers magic were"

"I like to call it twin magic," Claude says boastfully,

"We are both dual attribute users, Amelia with a wind water combination, and I use wind fire,"

"Which part of that is twin involved?"

"We always battle as a duo,

I use my flames offensively and wind as to promote movement, while Amelia uses her wind defensively and water to assist,"

"How would water assist fire?" Pinoki puzzles,

"Agh, I can't explain this,

You have to be there to see it," Claude gloats,

"That sort of thing doesn't interest me, with my sha-

Aww!" Amelia kicks the little man hard on his shin nudging to carriage with Mr. Godfrey

(Is it that bad to mention having evolved magic to regular people?)

"Hey , Amelia, let's be friends," Lyra smiles, pleased,

(This girl.)

…..

"Can you make this move any faster Mr. Godfrey?" Karina hoping out of the carriage joining us walking alongside it,

"I can but I don't want to be far ahead of you and get attacked only to have to wait for you to catch up,

"Well can you move ahead right now,"

"Why is something the matter?"

"Possibly"

"You don't have to tell me twice," the carriage already gaining speed,

"Everyone on guard," Karina warns as the 'vehicle' starts creating distance,

"I heard someone just now,

They may have been following us for a while now, but have only just gotten close enough where my soundwave could pick them up,

Squinting my eyes from the blinding rays of the sun, I peer at the hillside behind us

The trail behind is covered in tall bushes,

(Could someone be there?)

"We know you're there!" Apollo booms

"Have you ever heard of subtlety!?" Karina hisses

"We could have surprised them,"

"Sorry, the sun has me grumpy I just want this be to over with already,"

"Move!" Karina shoves him hard

Fwhick!

A dagger comes zipping through the air just missing Apollo's skull

"Good reflexes," a male voice says applaudingly

Two silhouettes emerge through the bushes coming into sight,

…

(Wait,

These people?)

"You two!?" Claude exclaims as if reading my mind,

"Is this what they call fate?" a woman sings,

"Who would have thought that the very same travelers we went out of our way to give advice on joining a faction,

Would go and join up with our enemies?"

"Truly appalling, isn't it?"