The past six days of the trip have been so eventful that I've thought more than once about finally starting a diary.
And besides, it would be quite convenient with all this fall in grade my memories of some things have gotten a little more hazy.
It's a shame that such an opportunity has been lost with the loss of access to my shadow, but it would be fun to see someone put so much effort into getting it for the sake of a single word.
When I have less to deal with and more time to spare, it's worth rumouring its existence.
With everything that's happened in the last fourteen years, there'll be a lot of people eager to get it.
Maybe I can even get rid of a couple of names from the list that way.
But how foolish it would be to even think that something so important would be kept anywhere other than my own shadow, since no one else except me has access to it.
Probably.
What a horrible thought.
What you might come to when you have nothing better to do.
Generally for the last two years that I've been cut off from the outside world I've more or less gotten used to the boredom.
But with shattered expectations, things get a little worse.
What was the point of calling it a blood kingdom if it didn't even come close to resembling one?
What haven't I seen during the whole trip: green forests, hills, plains, even a few villages we passed by without stopping.
But none of the white fields full of bones.
Also despite the fact that we passed over several bridges.
They were just ordinary clear rivers with no sign of blood in them.
How quickly stereotypes can crumble.
Worst of all, in all that long trip, there were no bandits willing to rob a lonely carriage going through all those woods.
What a disappointment, if I was a little lucky someone would be powerful enough for me to collect aether after their death, yes for the first four ranks you only need enough aether to advance, of course you can continue to do it the natural way, but by my humble calculations to go from second to third would take somewhere around thirty years of sitting in the shadows.
And I don't really have a clue what to do next, because for the past two years, no matter how much aether I've absorbed, nothing has changed even slightest.
Problems for another day with the way things are now, I have a long way to return there.
I just need to solve my current problem and then I can find a place with a bunch of beasts at my level and in about two years I'll be back where I was.
But now, with a view of the setting sun through the window, another disappointment, as it turns out that even when you're on the second floor, the view is still from the first, not much time left before we arrive at our destination.
I guess it's time to put the letter back in the ring and that's another annoying thing, this world is truly against me.
Gods help the person who sent it when I found out who he was.
And it's better for him that they don't change for the hundredth time in that period of time.
Who does one have to be to send an envelope with a blank sheet inside in this whole situation, not that invisible ink doesn't exist in this world, even more so with all the amount of glyphs, there are thousands of ways to hide the contents of a letter from everyone except the person it's intended for.
But that's only if that person knows how to read it, and with all these options, if you make the slightest mistake, you can easily ruin the package.
I have plenty of time to think about the most obvious ways I could try in the current circumstances and without much risk.
Nothing worked.
And with the fact that I'm starting to have one person capable of doing this on my mind, it may actually be empty.
My musings on the meaning of life were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Looks like we'll make it before nightfall after all.
Ignore the problem until it disappears.
And why it never works.
I have made every effort over the last few days to avoid any meetings with her, and I must say it is not an easy thing to do in such a small place.
It gets even harder if I want to get one of the papers that appear every morning under the front door.
I don't even want to start thinking about how much it must cost.
Clearly more than enough to live a comfortable standard lifespan and still leave something behind.
And again this line of thought was interrupted by a knock, this time much more impatient.
Somehow by that alone I can sense the annoyance of the person on the other side of the door.
Some people truly need to learn patience.
When I opened the door I was a little surprised at the sight before my eyes, unlike the first time when we met or the last time I saw her, Aphelia was now wearing a white shirt under a black vest. Her tight black pants were tucked into leather boots.
And it's all decorated with red ornaments.
It didn't take me long to see a pattern in all this, glyphs - all the clothes were enhanced with glyphs.
And was one combined artefact.
Even at my best state it would take a lot of effort to pierce through it, it's not even worth trying now, but in the end what's the point of all this if your head and neck are still unprotected?
Although is it really true?
My knowledge on this issue is rather mundane and this is the outfit that is supposed to protect the crown princess.
So.. I think I need to put a little more effort in controlling my thoughts.
It's not like I'm going to test it out.
I sincerely hope the day when they develop a glyph that lets you know if someone is thinking about killing you hasn't arrived yet, otherwise I'm in big trouble.
And it's a little alarming that she hasn't said anything in all this time.
She decided to choose this particular moment to break the silence.
"Alright, that'll do."
What's she talking about?
With a deep sigh, she turned around and walked downstairs. "We need to get out to change carriages."
Сhange a carriage in the middle of nowhere, well, why not in principle.
With that I started to silently follow her.
Probably this is the point where I should start trying to communicate with her.
We're both in the same boat after all, at least until we sort out the problem in this little border town, but it's a bit difficult because firstly I'm a bit out of touch with human communication and secondly, no matter how you look at it, there's still the fact that I was sent to kill her.
Such things tend to leave a sour taste.
Well, the sooner this is resolved, the sooner I can head somewhere quieter.
As I walked out of the door of the carriage, strangely, I didn't notice any other.
What's worse, I seem to have been a little misled by myself.
Surely it didn't spread out as much as the capital, but that was mostly because it grew in height.
Surrounded by a twenty metre high wall of black stone, with towers rising above the gate and continuing at regular intervals.
Inside these fortifications was the same black city, starting with small buildings near the wall and growing to twelve floors high closer to the centre.
And above it all, in the center were two skyscrapers of at least seventy floors with spires on top of them.
It's hard to imagine the effort that went into building something like this.
It's not going to be as easy as I expected, is it?
She didn't give the city a second glance, like it was something she was used to, and simply returned to the carriage.
As if I should be used to something like this by now.
Indeed, when I went back inside, I saw an almost the most ordinary carriage, except for the love of bloody flower decorations.
I really need something like that for myself, but even if you put aside the problem of money, it is extremely difficult to find someone trustworthy among those who haven't yet been locked up in the basement by noble families and forced to work tirelessly for their benefit.
Without that, the chances of it coming with the tracker or stopping working at the most needed moment are pretty high. There's always the possibility of it just blowing up or worse. It's worth admitting that for the unextended term, I'm only staying with what I already have.
Something truly unexpected happened even before I could sit down opposite to her.
"I think it's time to discuss the reason why we're here."