Otherworld Adventure

"Yes, Quinn, by the way, how are ya holding up?" Lucia asked.

Quinn was a little puzzled at her words, "What do you mean Madam?"

"Well, you just decided to suddenly follow us back then. We"ve been giving you a pretty hard time..."

"Hahaha, Madam, please don"t worry about that. It is indeed hard to accept this "con artist" of a guide, but every day has been fulfilling ever since I"ve been able to fulfill my family"s and mine"s life-long dream of serving a family worthy of our services."

"Hm~, well, I won"t argue with you since you"ve constantly been helping us out and you have no connection with the Empire."

Quinn bowed his head respectfully at his family"s Madam. This man was originally supposed to be their guide to the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality, but it turns out it was only a lie on his part to get close to Cecil and his family.

At first they thought that he had ulterior motives and was an Empire spy sent to monitor Cecil"s situation and steal any of his Artificer Knowledge. Cecil didn"t care about him since he now had another helping hand around their mobile house, but Lucia and Serilla were very much protective of Cecil, especially after they had just married him and were sensitive to the people around.

The two made things very, very difficult for Quinn at the start, but after a few events which had proved his loyalty to their family, the girls gradually accepted him as the butler of their family.

"Well, let"s head on to the capital now," Serilla said from inside the wagon.

"Right away Madam Serilla, Madam Lucia, all of that is in the past. Right now, I"m just genuinely glad to be of service to Master and you Madams." Quinn bowed respectfully before he urged Sleipnir to quickly head out.

Lucia went back into the wagon and sat down next to Serilla.

"Seri...I miss Cel already..."

"Ahahaha~ it"s only been a week, Lulu!"

"I know...but..."

"He just called earlier remember. Darling and the rest are already close to the border and he"s even flying in the air on Yuna. This just shows that even he"s anxious to get back to us!"

"Ehehehe~ yeah, you"re right. Well let"s also hurry to the capital. Hopefully we find something related to Cel"s family later."

"Mhmm..."

******

Two days later, while Lucia was heading over to Regulus Kingdom"s Capital. She looked over to the east of their present location and couldn"t help but marvel at the long mountain range that they"ve long since seen during their journey here.

It was her first time seeing it closer up. These mountains have been looming over the party since the latter half of her journey. They first noticed the long mountain range only after they had exited the Machina Reggio Empire"s lands and entered the neutral lands between the Empire and the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality.

"Seri, that"s the Sky-Piercing Mountain Range, right?"

"Yup, we"ve been constantly hearing about it during our travels. It spans through the entirety of Midgard"s central regions, just like how the World Tree"s branches and roots span through the entirety of Urrugdrasil Continent"s central lands," Serilla responded to her sister"s question.

"Wow, I"m guessing that all the continents have something like this in their lands, huh?"

Serilla only shrugged and replied, "Maybe."

"Madams, the capital city is about a week away. We"ll be traveling a little bit closer to the mountain range, so you"ll be able to see it much more clearly."

"Thanks for the update, Quinn!"

Quinn nodded before turning his attention on the road. Up ahead he couldn"t help but notice that an entourage of people was being a.s.saulted by a large group of monsters. He once more turned back to the interior and informed Lucia and Serilla of the situation.

"Madam, up ahead there seem to be a few people being a.s.saulted by a pack of monsters. The monsters seem to be Undead, should we help them?"

Lucia immediately poked her head out to see the commotion, seeing the group of people being pushed back by the horde of skeletons and zombies; she couldn"t help but feel a little giddy.

"Neh, Seri, let"s go help them!"

"I bet you just want to fight, Lulu."

"Y-yeah, but still, we should help them!"

Serilla sighed when she saw the eager girl getting her weapons ready for battle. It had been a long time since they"ve met any real action, so it was understandable that Lucia had been growing restless.

"I"ll be off then Seri~"

"Take care, and make sure you don"t stain your clothes too much! We"ll have a hard time cleaning it later!"

"Alright!"

Over in the distance, the knight-like people that were currently combating the large horde of undead immediately noticed the large steel wagon heading in their direction. The commander had to hastily come to a decision, the people inside the carriage they were escorting was of very high peerage and if anything were to happen to them, they"d have most likely had to offer up their heads.

"C-Commander, what do we do? If this keeps up, we"ll probably be overrun!"

"...Be prepared, we"re going to forcibly break through the front! We"ll drag those skeletons over to the wagon that"s approaching and use them to buy us time to get away!"

"S-sir?!"

"We have no other choice! If the lady were to come down from the carriage and take care of this for us, then what"ll we have to answer to his highness when we meet them on frontlines later?!"

"..."

"Get ready."

"Commander," A woman"s cold voice resounded from within the carriage. "I just heard what you said, are you sure that"s the only option?"

"M-Milady, please, you have to understand. We can"t have you stepping out of the carriage. Please stay inside and protect her highness!"

"...Fine, but I"ll be reporting this later."

"Y-yes..." The Knight Commander said as he broke out in cold sweat. He couldn"t help but curse at the Necromancer that had summoned this horde of undead. The knight commander had already deduced that these monsters were familiars from a strong necromancer because there was no way that his horde of undead would have appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the day.

If they had sprung out suddenly during the night, then he would attribute this attack to their bad luck, but with circ.u.mstances as they seem, this was a preplanned attack to hinder their entourage from reaching the frontlines in the neutral territory.

The only way around this was to break through the encirclement and use the approaching wagon as a decoy for them to make their escape.

"On my signal!" The Knight Commander immediately rallied his knights when he saw the wagon drew closer. To his surprise, he noticed a beautiful young lady standing on top of the peculiar wagon wielding 2 weapons in both hands with one of them pointing in their direction.

"Hold!"

"Just what in the—"

His thoughts were immediately interrupted when large spell formations began appearing in the air the peculiar-looking wagon, and then large flaming meteors began materializing from those formations before they rained down from the sky.

The young lady seemed to have yelled out something, but the knights couldn"t hear it over the sound the large explosions happening all around them.

A frightened shriek could be heard from inside the carriage the knights were protecting. That shriek was raised by the other individual inside of the carriage. After the large explosions from the meteors impacting the ground subside, the other woman inside the carriage immediately began inquiring the commander.

"What"s happening Commander?!"

"M-Milady, t-there"s nothing to be worried abo—"

The door to the carriage immediately opened up and a young woman immediately exited. She coldly glanced at her surroundings and began a.n.a.lyzing the situation they were in. Seeing the large horde of skeletons, she frowned in displeasure.

"I should have brought my men with me..."

"L-Lady Fatima, please, don"t step ou—"

"Quiet, Randolph. You guys may be the Knight Squadron a.s.signed to protect me, but it"s not like I have to obey you."

"M-Milady!"

"I know you mean well, but I"m not about to sit around and do nothing, so step aside," Fatima said as she coldly eyed the middle-aged commander.

"Y-yes..."

"C-commander! L-look! Th-that girl, S-she"s—"

"What?! What happened?!"

Upon hearing that a girl had stepped out to battle, probably from the wagon that had been approaching them earlier, Fatima immediately rushed out to battle, however, just before she could jump into the fray, she couldn"t help but widen her eyes in surprise when she saw the large horde of undead being systematically burnt into ashes, frozen into popsicles, and disintegrating into nothingness from the attacks from the girl darting around the battlefield.

Lucia flipped in the air and landed a distance away from Fatima, she immediately sheathed her kodachi and readied her katana. She gripped the handle with both hands and spun around while slashing out with an Ascending Blade, completely disintegrating all the undead in front of her.

"Hehehe~ this is too~ easy."

Fatima who was behind her couldn"t help but gasp in shock when she saw the clean sweep of the girl"s blade that erased all the monsters in front of them.

Lucia looked around and made sure that there were no undead around them before she sheathed her katana. She had sent her Meteor Fall at the rear of the carriage that the knights were protecting earlier so she had cleared out all the undead attacking them from behind and she dealt with all the undead in front.

Seeing that she had finished her job, Lucia started walking back to the Wanderer while humming happily.

"W-wait!"

"Hm?"

Hearing a woman"s voice call out to her, Lucia immediately turned around and saw a lady that at first glance she thought looked pretty similar to Cecil.

"Huh?"

"Ahem, I thank you for coming to our aid."

Seeing the black hair on the woman in front of her and her beautiful, melodious voice, Lucia smiled back and said, "No problem~"

"D-do you mind? I would like to thank you somehow!" Fatima replied.

"Ahaha~ no worries! You look pretty similar to my husband so just take it as me doing a good deed! I have to be going now, I"m running on a tight schedule and I have to get to the capital!"

Seeing that Lucia was insistent on not receiving any rewards for rescuing them, Fatima immediately rushed forward and grabbed onto the girl"s hand.

"May I ask what do you need to do at the capital? My companion and I may be able to help you with that! Please, don"t reject our offer. A favor must be repaid in kind so please allow us to help you!"

"Companion?"

"Yes, I"m traveling to the neutral territory with a friend, but as I said, we can probably help you finish whatever business you have at the capital if you mention our names!"

"Well...if you insist, by the way I didn"t quite get your name yet did I! My name"s Lucia!" Lucia said as she struck out her hand in greeting.

The Knight Commander had already approached them from behind and was vigilantly monitoring the surroundings. He couldn"t help but frown at the young lady"s att.i.tude as she addressed Fatima.

Fatima didn"t pay it any mind. She smiled when she was finally given the okay to repay this young lady"s kindness for saving them.

"Nice to meet you Lucia, my name"s Fatima."