The rattling of a carriage echoed in my ears. The same carriage that used to be empty usually was now weirdly uncomfortable.
On the drivers seat was Keith, driving away as uselessly as usual. He was also not here when we clearly needed him.
"Ahaha, would you all like some sandwiches, by the way?" Asked Maria. "Lily, can you bring them out."
"Eh! Ah, right away."
Ans Lily and her got to their own thing as they peeked into the luggage behind.
"I kinda miss those meaty sandwiches we ate under that tree, they tasted rather good, right?" Asked Noa. She seemed to have found the weird sandwiches spicy.
"Well, these guys make good stuff too, but I guess the hell quality… will be… lacking…?" I looked at the front while speaking.
The one sitting there pressed her arm on the back of her seat and grinned.
"What? Did you suddenly realize that you shouldn't have eaten anything they fed you in hell!? Huh!?"
The pink princess of the academy, the snobby and annoying as hell teacher Irina Lester spoke up as she clicked her tongue at me. She was in here too, with us, in the rattling carriage.
"Tsk. What's your problem? What did you think we'd eat then? What did YOU eat!?"
"Nothing. Tell him, Rio, you shouldn't eat anything stupid right?"
"I trust you, Eugene. I am your teacher, I know you won't eat anything stupid." Answered Miss Rio von Athenus, the swordsmanship professor and a person that I quite liked. I did feel slightly guilty about flirting with her all the time with Dantalian around, but instead of seeing it as flirting, she had only seen it as a way to strengthen our student-teacher bond. "But be careful, who knows if it had human meat?"
"Oh, it didn't. Didn't taste like that at all."
"Eugy…"
What? So I ate humans. I did want to puke thinking about it now and then, but well I was being tortured and I did it for love, nothing was going to shame me against it now.
Well, though I had no problems with Miss Rio, someone else here was losing his shit over her behavior.
"W-why is she so kind? That demon sword instructor is nice? What? Did I jump into another world again? Something like that, right? It had to be something like that, right?"
Poor Albert couldn't get over the dissonance of seeing miss Rio act all nice to me. It made me wonder what she was usually like, but that wasn't my concern.
"Hey, Eugene Hall, would you mind squeezing over to the side a little?"
"Ah, sure. Noa."
I squeezed to the side, and so did Noa. This carriage that was large enough for me to lay down in not long ago was now squeezed further, sitting right next to me was another kid with hair a shade of silver and white, slightly darker than mine own.
"Marcin. Water."
"Yes, here you go."
And next to him yet, was another one with similar hair.
Marcin and Meryl Fonias.
With such a strange group, all of us dashed away from the kingdom of sages on my carriage and set off to the kingdom of Schwarz, in Apollon.
"Why, exactly, did we not take two carriages?" Asked Lily. "This orgy of sweat is really annoying. HAAHAHA!"
"Student Lily, watch your tongue."
"Tsk."
Why? Well it was because the two dumb teachers didn't want to let me out of their sights. Marcin and Meryl couldn't go in the Hall's carriage to avoid fighting. Lily and Maria refused to be with them for the time it would take to reach the place, Albert, couldn't go anywhere else because it was 'dangerous' whatever that meant, and Noa just thought it fun to go with so many people.
I suggested breaking off into two carriages.
But.
No one except Keith and I here knew how to drive. It was fairly different from riding a horse, the management of two at the same time and balancing the weight of an entire carriage was tough.
And DRIVE others out to some place, sorry, even if I had planned to help others now, that was not happening. No chance. Nada. Unfortunately, this group of ours didn't end here.
On a different route, the carriage of Mirxa and the two elder siblings of mine were also coming along with us to Apollon and Dienin in the way. They had to take a different path since both of them had to run some errands for their families in the kingdom of sages and were going to regroup with is near the borders of Schwarz.
The reason we had to take a different path, was also because of Albert.
I had managed to leave Luka behind, but now I thought that he probably knew how to drive, but he would have come with his own baggage.
Damn it.
"Hey Albert, wanna go on the top of the carriage."
"Hah!? You kids don't even know how to sit on a carriage? You don't climb the tops, its dangerous."
"Then you go!"
"Shut up, if you're leaving then leave!"
Goddamn Irina, I was just an inch away from knocking her teeth in.
I and Albert climbed out of the window and went to the top of the carriage. The breeze hit us well as the trees on both sides breezed behind us, all of them swaying in the wind. My hair fluttered and so did Albert's as he finally found some semblance of calming down after being away from Miss Rio.
"So, this bad feeling of yours, what is it?"
"That…" Albert looked away.
"Hm, if you don't want to tell me then its fine."
"No, it's not like that… I am just sure you will laugh. Anyway, longer path, I doubt anything will happen here." Albert nodded. "If it does, I have Eugene Hall! I'll just throw you to the wolves."
I waved his words away and leaned back.
Man… were carriages slow.
A strange trip back to Apollon had begun. But all these people.
All of them were fine.
"Huhuhuhu…"
"What?"
"Nothing," I said. "Just, all of you are going to pay the transport fees soon."
In blood, that is.
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