Long road

"Which one Terrence?" A noble wouldn't watch every action of a butler they trusted, they would just assign a list of tasks then go on with their day.

"T-The man in the inn Sir." The Mage watched the reactions of the three from under his hood, the butler was scared, the man only now catching onto who this stranger was while the woman only appeared to be curious to who this stranger was.

"Ah, I see." The Mage had to give it to him, the noble hid his surprise well, "Yes I remember our friend here, It's nice to finally meet you." The noble stretched his hand out towards the Mage who shook it in kind.

"My name is Richard Remmour, you have met my butler, Terrence." He then gestures towards the woman who looks only more confused at the nobles politeness to a hooded stranger.

"My name is Lauren Gardiherd, it's nice to meet you. May I ask your name?" Her voice and accent reveal her noble birth and origins. Her eyes wandering between the Mage and his backpack.

"There is no need for that Lauren, our friend here values his privacy." The caravan starts to move, rocking the carriage slightly.

"It looks like we're off, I hope you won't mind me being here." The Mage says as he gets comfortable, he reaches down to the sheath of his cane and unbuttons the catch on it, allowing the cane to be freely taken out.

His hand then rests on top of the metal cap of the cane, completely covering the Rune from view.

"How long until we reach the next village?" The Mage says while reaching into his bag. The soft noise of clinking glass sounds from within.

"It should be a few days if we include the breaks for the men and horses, Sir." The butler says while brushing some dirt off his suit.

'If these two were a couple, I fear for the man's pride.' The Mage snickers internally, he pulls out his ink and quill before pulling out his notebook.

Resting his notebook on his knee, the Mage angles it so that no one but himself can see the notebook, not that anyone could understand his weird way of writing things.

The woman finally starts to crack as her curiosity starts to show on her face, a stranger who is willing to spend a silver on a carriage ride, is respected by a noble, can read and write and is also called Sir by a noble's butler. All of these point to something interesting but dangerous, especially the last one as it is an offensive thing to do on the butler's part.

The Mage starts to write down notes about the village and its landmarks, his writing slower than before to ensure the occasional bump in the road doesn't cause a problem.

A strange smell eradiates from the seat but only the Mage seems to notice it, the smell is familiar but it isn't his business.

Hours went by as the Mage slowly filled up his notebook, at first it was about the village then moving onto the two nobles in front of him, then the mage flipped to the back of the notebook.

The page was one of the neatest in the whole book, it showed a rough plan of the future and a checklist. The Mage crossed off "Witness a Ghoul in the sun".

This checklist spanned many pages at the back of the notebook, allowing the Mage to keep expanding the list from the back towards the front.

The caravan started to slow down to a stop, the Mage had not used the Rune to dry the ink.

'This woman is nosy.' The entire time the Mage had been writing, Lauren had been trying to sneak a look into his notebook much to the dismay of Terrence and Richard.

She hadn't managed to sneak a look but had gotten close at times, the strange writing style only further enhancing her interest in the stranger however years of business had honed an instinct, she could tell that learning more would come at a price.

After making sure the ink had dried, the Mage put away his things before exiting the carriage. The carriage had been moved off the road and next to a camp, guards and workers went around setting things up and doing their work.

The smell appeared again, the Mage could only smell it if he focused on it. It smelt like burnt flesh but it didn't repulse the Mage, it even smelled nice.

Again only the Mage had seemed to notice the smell, a camp was soon set up. There were a total of 18 tents, 10 tents were green and housed two guards each, 5 of these were brown and gave shelter to the workers while three tents were off to the side.

These tents were purple in colour, bigger and more durable than the rest of the tents. These three tents are for the two nobles and their two servants.

'I doubt he will be staying in his tent during the night.' Looking around the male to female ratio was six to four, everyone seemed experienced and content with their jobs.

"Sir." The Mage turned around to find Terrence standing there, "I'm sorry to disturb you but I've been tasked with informing you about your sleeping arrangements." Terrence starts to shake more.

It was a first, a tall bulky man shaking in front of him, the Mage had to look up to meet the butler's eyes.

"Do you have a preference, Sir?" Terrence stays at least a metre away from the Mage, in fear of what he might do in response.

'The nobles would allow me to take one of their servant's beds, I could also sleep in a tent with either the guard or workers. The nobles don't seem hostile but the workers and guards don't know my identity.'

"Give me some blankets and I will make my own arrangements." It's not the first time the Mage will have slept rough, he had been travelling for long enough to know some tricks.

"C-Certainly, Sir," Terrence said before going to the noble tent on the left.