The carriage itself looked different even from outside—one I had seen ride around, never being able to see its inside.
The inside was even stranger—the seats covered by a soft fabric, with blinds covering both sides.
Even when I sat down it felt like I was flowing, unable to feel the planks cutting into my legs.
Mim who sat didn't say anything, just holding the bag as she sat on the cushion—twitching around before settling.
I tried to pull the blinds after hearing the hooves.
"Wait!" Edward, and Katherine said in unison, making me let go of the blinds, before they could reach me.
"Uhm... what is wrong?" I asked.
"We need to make sure people don't find out about the two of you yet... sorry."
Is it not a good thing to have taken us in?
"Can I peek through the sides?"
Edward looked at Katherine who tapped her finger against her laps.
"Uhm... okay—but don't touch it." Her finger pointed at me.
"Thank you!" I smiled and looked through the small gap between the blinds and carriage wall.
My right eyes peeked through the gap, while my left eye was able to catch the soft, painful smile of Edward, but especially Katherine's.
While we passed the roads, where people walked past, I saw myself in the children, the adults, and everybody who looked at me, they were gazes I once held as well—thrown now into a situation foreign to me, or rather opposite.
After we left the eastern gate, we passed through simple plains, with forests, and mountains filling the background.
We had passed two towns after being between those plains for a while, not letting up of our speed as we continued.
We had entered a forest, I didn't know which forest it was, but my fingers twisted around my blade, while Edward sat crossed legged with his eyes closed, Katherine was busy knitting, and Mim slept on my shoulder.
Do I need to defend them? With that thought my fingers loosened up, but they were unable to leave my side.
"Mhmm!" I jolted up after taking the first bite of the cookies in the bag she gave us.
She had stopped moving her hands, with her eyes locked onto me.
I simply whispered,
"Thank you—" I pointed my fingers at them,
"They are amazing..." I had to prevent my voice from getting loud.
My eyes felt heavy.
How long have we even been travelling... I couldn't see a light between the trees, nor could I look out of the carriage.
"When... are the... beasts going... to appear?" My head wobbled while I asked her.
Edward sounded a snicker, with Katherine glaring at him.
She turned back and said,
"You can just sleep, they won't appear."
"But he said..."
"It was a stupid joke Edward made." She poked her elbow in his side, both of us turned towards him.
"Oka...y, thank y—" My eyes had closed, there were just a few rays of light that entered this carriage. My hand slowly glided down my scabbard, I knew how silly it was, with Albert behind the reins, two guards that moved alongside us, and the two opposite of me.
There should be no beast foolish enough to approach this carriage—this carriage filled with malevolence to them.
After being woken up by Katherine, with my mouth gaping, while I leaned on the carriage wall.
I tried to straighten up, but I couldn't—with a weight pushing into my side.
Is she still asleep? Buildings surrounded us, with the even bigger wall peeking above them all.
We had stopped moving, so I gently shook Mim awake—it went as expected.
"MIM!"
"W-what's going on." She jumped straight up, with her head taking multiple looks around, before she calmed down.
"We have arrived," Edward said, who stood bent over, trying to climb out of the undersized carriage.
Both Mim and I glanced at each other as we saw it, even Katherine smiling alongside us.
As he climbed out I followed, and the surroundings were dwarfed by the gigantic building behind him—even bigger than the one in Antoria.
"Is this another of your houses?" I asked them.
"No, no—this is the house of a friend of mine, which he allowed us to use. He luckily isn't here so we can rest up for a bit," Edward calmly said, adding,
"Not even he should know about travelling with you two."
"But how can I even represent the house?"
"After you have acclimatized into this new life I'll introduce you, but for now we can't have you punch others—don't you think?" A smirk covered his face as he finished.
"Yes... sorry for the trouble..." My head hung low as I apologized. My head shot up, and I asked him,
"Wait—how will you even introduce me out of nowhere?"
"I'll just say that I hid you, until you were ready to protect yourself."
"That is one of the benefits of this instability..."
"And what about Mim then?" I said, looking at Mim who walked next to Katherine in front of us.
"We just need to inform her a bit on nobles, and how she should act, and talk—but that is not such a big problem, she is even younger than you are after all."
I took a deep breath as the beating in my chest could be felt even clearer, while the view in front of me was getting slightly blurred, blinking to make my view of the two clear.
"Edward, I thank you for everything you're doing for her..."
"For the both of us."
"Don't mind it—it's the task of a father after all," he said, putting his hand on my shoulder—a shiver ran through my body as my right arm tensed up.
Breathe... I closed my eyes, and kept walking, feeling his fingers softly on my shoulder.
He doesn't mean bad... I had no other option against him, or any of the other people that surrounded me that matter—no one paid me any attention, all were talking, laughing, or both at the same time.
I chose to smile as well.
"I was wondering after yesterday, but do I not need essence to learn my dad's techniques?" I made sure that Mim couldn't hear me.
His hand lost contact of my shoulder for a single second, making me turn to see his narrowed eyes.
"How do you kn—never mind." He waved his hands that he took off my shoulder, and we continued walking into the house.
The hallway was similar to the one from Antoria, with the one here being even longer—long enough to make the inscription in the vase look blurry.
"This will be our place of rest until tomorrow morning, so rest up well. But before that we should eat some dinner together," Edward said, standing ahead of us now.