ARRIVAL

Although the rest of the journey was uneventful, the tension in the air was palpable. The morale of the group had decreased heavily after Sage forced the Taruk and Laz to apologise. Since then basically all the members of the Iron Ring had been giving the undead the stink-eye.

The undead on the other hand did not seem too bothered by their looks. Even when they fiercely peered at her she ignored them and kept her eyes glued to her book. Of course when the sun set and it became too dark to read (Kaylee believed the scarred bitch was still able to read in the dark but abstained from doing so as to not come off as being anymore weirder) she had no choice but to close the book and endure their glares.

Hvar and Meeva were pretty pissed off at the fact that their leader had to go on his knees and apologise. This anger was directed towards both Laz and Sage though, for some reason, they seemed to be more upset with the undead.

Taruk himself was probably upset about what had transpired, but he was adept at hiding his emotions.

As for Laz, he was still seething from the perceived humiliation. Although he kept his distance from Sage his eyes were always glaring hatefully at her. From the intensity of his look, there was no doubt that if not for the presence of his teammates he would already have attacked her.

What a moronic thought, Kaylee thought as she watched the Iron Ring's scout.

The man's instincts were good, much better than hers who played a similar role among the Scarlet Quartet. The reliability of his instincts was unquestionable; the mere fact that he had locked onto Sage was proof enough of his sense for an enemy.

Unfortunately for him, he did not seem to be able to tell the strength of his foe. If he had been able to he would not have been half as brave when facing the undead. That time on the day of the bandit attack; when he had tried to grab the undead after she demanded an apology from him. If Taruk had not stopped him back then she suspected Laz would have died.

She did not know exactly how powerful the undead was, but the fact that the bitch had been able to escape from someone like Isaac suggested she was beyond everyone present.

Kaylee also suspected that Taruk was somehow able to tell. That was why he had prevented his comrade from acting out. She noticed that he always seemed to be careful when conversing with Sage, as if he did not want to anger her.

The Delsarte children had been quite shaken by the attack, something about it being their first time witnessing a bandit raid. Their parents though seemed to be used to it. It had not taken long for them to shrug off the experience and go about their business like they usually did.

On the way their short caravan passed by the small village of Hearth's Field. It was unfortunate that they gotten there at noon instead of around sunset. If it had been the latter they could have stopped and rested in a warm bed with a roof above them. But it was regrettably the former. Sleeping in the village in that situation would lose them a lot of time, prolonging the journey everyone was eager to finish. In the end they could only grind their teeth as they refilled their supplies and moved onto the open road, where the harsh elements of nature awaited them when they tried to sleep at night.

The good that came out of that decision was that they managed to get to Yshta faster. It was on noon on the fourth day of after the bandit attack that the city came into view.

As the capital of Ysh, Yshta outclassed Tiih in every way. Its size was twice that of the city they had come from with walls that stood one and a half times higher. Even the sounds that came from the city were louder than those she had heard when she and her companions were returning from their assignment.

As she gazed upon the metropolis, Kaylee let out a nostalgic sigh.

The Yshian capital was where she grew up. This was where her family lived.

It was also the place where she had her unhappiest memories, the place she swore never to come back to.

Why am I here? She wondered, as she gazed upon it.

Seeing the looming metropolis ahead of her, she began to have second thoughts.

The only reason she came here was because she told her friends that she was coming to visit her family. It had been the most believable excuse she could think up back then, even if it had not worked out like she had intended.

But just because she said she would be coming to Yshta did not mean she should have truly come here. She could have gone to Aruu instead. That city might be tiny compared to Tiih and Yshta, but that did not matter to her considering she had only left the Scarlet Quartet to spend that time trying to come up with a believable story about why her mana had increased. At this moment she felt she really should have gone there. Unlike Yshta the city was only a five day journey from Tiih on horseback and bandits hardly appeared on that road. Most importantly… she craned her head in a certain direction, at the disguised undead with a book in her hand.

Most importantly, she would have avoided meeting this bitch.

What does she plan to do in Yshta?

That was a question she had asked herself since they found Sage along the road.

Why was she heading to the city? What did she want?

The bitch was not the mass-murdering undead usually depicted in stories, so Kaylee was certain she was not going to the capital with the aim of turning it into a necropolis. Even if she was the typical undead who desired to kill every living thing she encountered, the undead would not be dumb enough to try it in the Yshian Capital. One of the reasons Ysh was feared by neighbouring nations was because of the Grand Court Mage Savandor. He was the only Ultra Order Sorcerer in the surrounding, which made him a big deal. Even if he happened to be absent, there were three 9th Order mages sitting in Yshta.

The undead had clearly not reached the 9th Order or she would have stood and fought Isaac instead of running.

The point was Yshta was a dangerous place for outsiders who wanted to cause trouble. Since the undead always had her nose buried in one book or another she probably was not ignorant of that fact.

"Wow," the rider to her left marvelled. "It's so big."

She craned her neck to look at the open-mouthed mercenary rookie. From his expression it was obvious it was his first time here. His eyes were saucers as he marvelled at metropolis ahead. However, when he saw her staring at him he did the impossible feat of widening his eyes even further and hurriedly looking away, unable to hide the redness that had spread to his ears.

Ever since the bandit attack Aden had been unusually quiet and avoided her at every turn. It likely had to do with his performance during the attack. Before then he had bragged about being able to take care of any bandits that would come on his own, only for him to spend the time crying on the ground when an ambush truly came. The poor guy probably did not have the guts to face her after that embarrassing performance.

It had been a pleasant change from the constant bragging and pestering, so she had no difficulty welcoming the change.

After tens of minutes of riding they reached the back of the line that had formed up in front of the city gate. This line was unbelievably three times longer than the one that always formed up in front of Tiih, eliciting moans from their entire group.

Another fucking line, she sighed.

Given its length there was no doubt it would take much longer to get into this city than the one she came from. Most likely they would only enter after dark. Fortunately (from what she membered at least) the gates of Yshta never closed.

Her frustration had just begun building up at the length of the line when the sound of a book snapping close attracted her. Quickly her eyes flew to the undead, still swathed in black from head to toe; she was disembarking from the wagon. This act caught the attention of their entire party. However, Sage did pay attention to them. Taking measured strides forward, she stopped at the front of the first wagon and offered a curtsy to Frederique and Margret.

"Thank you very much for allowing me to travel with you kind sir," she said politely. Her gaze shifting from the man to his wife, she added, "Madam."

"You're leaving?" Margret asked, surprised and confused. "But we still haven't entered the city."

"This far is enough," the undead replied. "I can find my way from here."

Then she was gone; but not before shooting a glare in Laz direction.

Maybe it was because Kaylee's head was a jumbled mess from all the thoughts that occupied her brain at that moment, but she swore she saw something leave the undead's shadow and settle into the shadow of Laz's horse. It happened so fast that by the time she tried to focus the undead was tens of metres away.

Maybe it was just her imagination.

Still, Kaylee continued to stare at her retreating back and made a last-minute decision.

"I'm also getting off here," she said, dismounting from the borrowed horse.

The suddenness of her announcement shocked everyone. While the Delsartes were surprised, the members of the Iron Ring gave her inquisitive looks, particularly Taruk.

"The assignment is not done yet," he stated sternly.

"It's okay," she said, handing him the reigns of her horse. "You can keep my pay."

Then she was off, running in Sage's direction. The members of the Iron Ring would probably think something of it, but now that they had arrived their thoughts did not matter. As she closed the gap between herself and the undead bitch she failed to prevent herself from grinding her teeth. Suddenly, the anger that she had been holding at bay for an entire week flared

Fucking bitch! She swore nonverbally. No money to give back but she can fork over twelve gold. Fucking Cunt!

When she finally reached her she grabbed her shoulder and swivelled her so they were face to face. The two of them had already been drawing a lot of attention with them passing the line instead of joining it, but this action by Kaylee attracted pretty much everyone's attention within twenty metres. At the moment she could care less though, having eyes only for the bitch under the hat and collar-mask.

"I want my gold back!" she demanded.