Chapter 6

Sitting down with Nejime I wondered about a few things as I looked around her room. The manager Sen'Ru said she had a questionable background like me, she seems to be stronger than me and looking around the room and her clothing she looks like she is fairly wealthy. I think I can already think of a few possibilities.

"Scholar Nejime, manager Sen'Ru told me you needed a bodyguard for your journey across the ocean to the east?"

"Yes, and he told, that contrary to your appearance you were a capable stone weaver"

"Then he might have also told you that I was also on my own journey across the ocean. So it would be nice to know, are you going to the islands or Ionia?"

Hearing me mention Ionia she was slightly surprised. I bet you don't see people knowing about Ionia often during this era.

"Ionia, and I am also surprised to see that you know about it."

"It's not too surprising, after all, I am a halfling. In my opinion, you are the odd one out. A Shuriman scholar probably a wealthy one at that, wanting to cross the ocean. That is one dedicated pursuit of knowledge. But that's none of my business so don't worry I won't privy to your background. And I also plan on travelling to Ionia so I'd rather not sour a relationship with a possible travel companion."

Her expression changed a lot while I was talking, she was even somewhat anxious when I brought up how odd her leaving Shurima was, before sighing in relief when I said that it wasn't any of my business.

"A travel companion you say?" she asked.

"Of course, I am not sure if I can be a proper bodyguard. You are strong and or skilled enough that I can't clearly grasp how strong you are. So at most I can assist you with my skills as a stone weaver. And if I can just do that much then I'd much rather be a travel companion."

Listening to my answer she seemed to be lost in thought for a bit before responding to me.

"A travel companion sounds quite good then."

Hearing her answer I stood up and held out my hand.

"Then as companions, a handshake is in order"

"Very well"

She stood up with a puzzled expression and unfamiliarly held out her hand, imitating what I was doing. Seeing her puzzled expression and her not grasping my hand I realized an important detail, do Shurimans even do handshakes? Whatever the case I better just do it before it turns awkward. And so I quickly grasped her held out hand and firmly shook it.

"Wha-"

Alright, she doesn't know what a handshake is.

"This is a handshake. A form of showing sincerity when promising something."

Again puzzled and this time a somewhat suspicious expression appeared on her face.

"An interesting custom, most definitely not Shuriman." she said in an almost questioning tone.

"I do not know the origin myself. And that is one of the reasons why I travel." I actually don't know the origin of handshakes, so that wasn't even a lie.

"But when do we leave? I heard the Shuriman armies should be getting ready soon, so I don't want to stay that long" I asked her.

Surprised once more, she asked me. "Already? They shouldn't be ready so quickly, especially in places like this Nasus like to take his time preparing"

So she thought it was still just Nasus leading the armies. No wonder why she thought she had a lot of intel. If it was just Nasus then whatever intel she has might have been accurate, but the moment Renekton was included in the plans, most intel was worthless and could be thrown out of the window.

"It has already gotten to the point where even travelling merchants are currently on their last trip for a while. I think I might even know the reason too, from my own channel I found out that Renekton is also a leader of the army. And I believe you've heard rumours about his violence."

An urgent expression appeared on her face, and she stood up and started walking in circles. Seemingly lost in thought she made quite a few circles before coming to a stop and telling me about the plans she just made.

"Alright, if Renekton is a leader of the army then we definitely want to leave this city and if the merchants know then we have at max a week. Leaving is our top priority, we will try to leave this evening. If you have everything with you already we can leave in a few hours when I finish packing everything important."

"I have everything I own already with me, and I can help with the packing so let's go as soon as possible" Seeing her urgency made me realize that this isn't a joke, and getting caught in the crossfire of a siege led by Ascended might actually kill me. So we spend the hour packing a few important belongings and rations for the trip. I told her to take a few more backpacks filled with rations since I'll be carrying them with my stones. I might have been able to survive just by meditating and practising energy control but the hunger never left me, so I'd really like to avoid it.

After we were done packing we quickly left the city of Nashramae and headed east. While we were leaving the city Nejime told me about the exact route she planned to traverse. The plan was to never be more than 2 days away from the coast, and whenever we were 2-3 days away from rations running out we would go to the nearest settlement to refill our stock. Once we reach another city with a port we'd take a boat to Oshra Va'Zaun(Piltover & Zaun), from where we would take a boat to Ionia.