124: Preparations

I shook my head. I was rapidly learning that if it was something Liane was excited about; it was likely something I should think twice about doing.

However, I was very curious how drake stew would taste, so this time I would ignore that little voice asking whether it was a good idea.

Once we stopped for the night, I had a lot of things to work out before we reached the capital, the main thing being what I was going to do in terms of food for Micca to sell. I was planning to make the candies; that was why I purchased the mould.

But what buffs?

I felt like the obvious ones would be health regeneration and mana regeneration. They’d both have fire immunity simply because I would need Crisplet’s help. I could also infuse the mixture with the orbs from Stock Reduction, as that was a skill I had not used anywhere near enough.

“Milo, how many candies do you think I should make for Micca, and is there anything else I should make?” I asked.

The conversation about her supply caught Micca’s attention, but she likewise just looked to Milo.

Milo appeared to be in thought, rubbing his chin. “No more than a hundred candies, and sell them no cheaper than a gold a piece.”

He looked at Micca, who was just staring wide-eyed at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You said one hundred candies… for no less than a gold,” Micca repeated quietly.

Milo nodded. “Yes, that’s correct. That will be for fairly basic ones.”

“That… that’s a hundred gold,” Micca said again, just looking stunned. Milo seemed to catch on to what she was actually asking.

“Yes, that’s correct. You’d better get used to handling large sums of gold, or maybe even a platinum coin or two one day,” Milo said with a chuckle.

“Platinum?” both myself and Micca asked at the same time.

“Ah, I suppose it’s not something you’ve heard of. Makes sense. I’ve never seen one myself. It’s called platinum, but the metal itself really has little to do with it. The coin is a rare mana alloy that’s incredibly difficult to forge, and they keep the composition a secret… but it’s worth a thousand gold coins,” Milo explained.

I looked forward, shaking my head. I couldn’t even comprehend just how much money that was, muttering, “What could even be worth that much?”

“Can you think of nothing?” Milo asked with a chuckle. “While you think of it though, just don’t say anything out loud for a while. We’re not alone on the road anymore.”

Milo then rode off towards Hari, pulling alongside him where he seemed to engage in a whispered conversation.

“What did he mean by we’re not alone anymore?” I asked Micca, who was now alongside me.

Micca shrugged. “I don’t see anyone behind us. I’m not sure.”

We rode in silence after that. I couldn’t help but feel nervous, especially when Liane vanished from her horse, clearly scouting something out.

I even called Crisplet back to the brazier.

It was a little over half an hour before Liane returned, appearing on Milo’s horse side-on behind him, causing him to nearly fall from the saddle.

I moved forward to overhear a little of what was being said.

“Royal guards. Appears to be the guy from last night travelling with a few others. They don’t appear to be travelling too fast or following us though. I just think they’re travelling faster than us and catching up. The group seems jovial; they were talking about looking forward to returning to the capital,” Liane reported.

“Ah. Either they’re making sure nothing happens to Trevor, or they’re trying to beat him there,” Milo said.

“Both, most likely. When word gets out about that phoenix visit, especially in the capital, the royals will want to be seen chatting and friendly with him, purely for appearance’s sake, so they can claim that they are also close to the phoenix,” Hari added.

By this stage, I couldn’t help but interrupt. “Should we be worried?”

“From them? No, not at all. For Liam to break his promise would mean he’d have to break his class. He’ll follow his word to a fault and bring you in and out of that castle without harm,” Hari said.

Milo nodded, pushing Liane off his horse, where she just vanished and appeared behind me on the back of Sable. “Just be careful about what you say. It’s not impossible for one of them to have a class with incredibly high Perception as part of the guard, and they could hear you if their class was focused towards it.” He straightened up on his horse.

Liane was playing with Crisplet. “You can speak without concern when you’re in this air bubble we’re in right now.” Liane waved her arms as though I could see something.

Milo shook his head. “Sense mana, Trev. You’ll see it then.”

Of course—I was forgetting so much already. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mana, where I felt the wind mana. It was heavy and still, and sure enough, it was in a dome around us.

“This really stops sounds?” I asked, my eyes still closed.

Liane answered, “It’s not perfect, no, but they’d need to be pretty specialised to get through the mana. And at that stage, they’ve probably already heard everything long before we noticed them.”

I travelled mostly in silence for the next couple of hours. Liane had gone back to her own horse, but Crisplet stayed with me. I didn’t really trust myself not to say something I shouldn’t.

It was just after the second hour that they appeared on the road in the distance for me. Again, they didn’t appear to be racing towards us or even trying to hold their distance. They were simply slowly gaining.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Finally, another hour passed, and they caught up with the group.

Hari dropped to the back of the group to intercept Liam, who was riding forward to us.

“Greetings!” Liam called. Before Hari could respond, he continued, “Don’t worry, we’re not tagging along with you. We wanted to get back to the capital before you, and despite personally having hundreds of questions about what happened last night, I don’t wish to encroach on your peace while you travel.”

A smile appeared on Hari’s face. “I was wondering what your intentions were. That’s good to know. We like our privacy, as I’m sure you can understand.”

Liam smiled. “Absolutely. Don’t mind us. We’ll be out of your hair momentarily.”

He then rode on ahead, the five people behind him now catching up, most of them staring at me but saying nothing before they passed. They seemed to move at a much faster pace, putting distance between us.

Hari, however, called a stop for us, motioning for Liane and Jen to carry on, which they did. No words were spoken, only hand gestures, as our wagon was pulled to the side of the road.

“This is as good a place as any along these roads to camp for the night. It’s early, but I say we stop here and let them get well ahead of us,” he said. Milo nodded, already getting off his horse and working on the foundations for early stables to hold our horses and wagon.

I looked out around us and noticed there were just vast fields, but here at least it didn’t appear like anything was growing, just grass and the occasional outcrop of bushes and trees.

“What do they farm out here?” I asked over my shoulder to Milo.