"What is this… thing?" Xin frowned, stepping back instinctively from the system-summoned unit while her hand cast a spell that quickly conjured up a floating ball of a black vicious liquid that dripped onto the stone floor like tar; she is ready to take action if the duplicate of Zarba ever shows any signs of hostility. The black ball she just conjured up is capable of immobilizing even a troll, so she doubts that this thing with human size can even break out.
Despite being aware of the half-elf eyeing it like a hawk, the summoned unit just stood there, unnervingly still, seemingly ignoring everything else, and only staring in Zarba's direction, awaiting his command like a robot, but if Xin actually attacks it, it will naturally defend itself.
"Hey, hey, you don't need to be so wary; I have full control over it. You can just think of it as a humanoid golem or something," Zarba quickly reassured Xin, his voice still muffled by the black metal mask, before he gestured at his doppelgänger while also mentally commanding it to move so he could demonstrate his control over it to her.
Then the summoned unit immediately saluted him with its fist bumping on its chest, just like the official salutation of the empire's knights after receiving Zarba's telepathic order, before it started to dance in silly dance moves that Xin had never seen before, which caused her to visibly relax with a small amused smile on her face.
"Well, this is the first one. We still need a platoon of them at least so we can deter the bandits and monsters on the road even if it might draw some attention to us..." After seeing that Xin had calmed down, Zarba said as he raised his black gauntlet hand just for dramatic effect to summon more units before more of the duplicate figures began to materialize from thin air—each appearing instantly without any special effects as they just popped up into existence like NPCs.
You might think that it'll be more discreet if they decide to travel by themselves without any escorts, but that's also quite dangerous and slow considering how many hostile creatures and bandits they might have to fight while traveling through the land because of the increase in population among the bandits and monsters inside the empire territory recently.
On the other hand, with a platoon of knights as escort, they could travel very fast, considering that no bandit will attack them and no monsters with any sense of self-preservation will want to fight a large group of armed and armored knights. And even if they are more noticeable traveling in a large group, can someone here even do anything to Zarba, the crown prince of the Great Golden Empire?
Zarba can basically go wherever he wants within the empire, but the problem remains that people will come bothering him if they know where he ran off to and where he lives, so he has to lose his trails. Besides, Zarba also doesn't plan to stop at any town or village and will avoid travel on the main roads as much as possible until he crosses the empire border, so he'll leave as little a clue as possible of where he is going.
But even if someone is trying to stop him, Zarba can just forcefully break through; it's not like he is lacking the men he could use in a fight, as he could overcome any obstacle with the sheer number of his summoned units alone, especially right now, when he is determined to leave the empire without caring about consequences. Even if someone might come to know of his infinite number of soldiers that he can summon at will, he won't give a damn.
Zarba just simply wants to start his new life and create a cozy place he could call home, far, far away from the chaos of the Great Golden Empire. He never liked its dog-breed-like name anyway!
"Seems like you really have it under control…" Xin muttered with some relief as she watched the number of the summoned unit increase to five, then ten, then twenty identical black ranger knights standing rigidly in five columns, their masked faces turned towards Zarba in perfect unison.
"How did you even do this though...? And you didn't even give off any mana fluctuation while you summoned them... how curious." Xin asks with great curiosity after seeing that Zarba has full control over his summoned units while she cancels the magic spell as the ball of viscous black liquid instantly vaporizes into motes of light as they turn back into pure mana and vanish in the air.
Her eyes seemed to shimmer as she stared at the still-growing number of identical, motionless duplicates while she walked to Zarba's side. From what she could see, they looked like a construct, just like a golem or reanimated undead.
Thirty, forty, and finally ending at fifty. Now the whole platoon of ranger knights could be seen filling up the tunnel, a silent, unnerving tide of Zarba's summoned subordinates, ready to follow his every command without hesitation. A dictator's dream come true!
"Well, I don't really know myself how I did it or how it works… It just works when I think about summoning them…? This is definitely not magic, at least I can tell you that..." Zarba explains, which is not really making any sense to Xin as she gives him a deadpan look. "Oh my, what kind of dumbass explanation is that…?"
"Sorry, I don't really know how it all works, so I can't tell you anything worthwhile…" Zarba smiled wryly as he removed the mask from his face. It's technically the truth that he doesn't know how the SSS works. If he attempts to explain with his own hypothesis, then he will have to talk about his reincarnation and the whole multiverse thing, which is too troublesome to explain right now.
"Very well…" Xin sighed with disappointment as she decided to drop the subject for now; she understands that this is not really the time for lengthy discussion when they are about to run away from a dooming empire. "Since there seems to be nothing else, shall we go then?"
"Yeah, let's go." Zarba nodded his head and commanded his soldiers to move immediately, as ten of them will carry the luggage and twenty of them will guard him and Xin; as for the rest, they will move in front of the group as vanguard.
After receiving the order, the summoned units begin moving at once as the group marches towards the secret tunnel exit with great confidence.
Nothing can stop them from leaving now!
"By the way, my husband, I assumed all these times that you already had a destination in mind for our departure... care to share it with your slave-wife?" While they are walking in the tunnel and in the middle of the group, Xin, who is walking beside Zarba, suddenly asks him about their destination while she is glancing at him curiously with her amber eyes.
"Huh? I didn't tell you before? It's Dewendy, the city of fortune in the far west." Zarba suddenly made a realized expression that he forgot to mention it to her before he turned to answer the half-elf next to him with a sorry smile on his handsome face, while Xin visibly rolled her eyes at him.
"Well, well, it's a good place for us, I suppose…" Xin nodded in approval at his choice, as Dewendy is a particular place where more money equals more power and a place without many annoying restrictions and rules, especially concerning slavery and identity, as they don't really care where you come from or who you are if you have a lot of coins to throw around, of course.
And fortunately for them, her husband, Zarba Altra Zigma, has a lot of gold to throw around indeed…
÷×÷×÷
At the exit of the secret tunnel five kilometers north of the capital city in an unassuming rock formation, the group of black-armor knights moved out from the door that was disguised as a boulder one by one in the darkness of the night as they spread out to stand guard around the exit with their bows and arrows as more and more of them came out until the rock formation was filled with them.
Then Zarba and Xin came out of the disguised door together with a ball of magic light floating between them to light up the place instead of the magic lantern, and lastly the luggage carrier group, who were following them out of the tunnel from behind them.
"Let's move to the road near here; there should be a carriage waiting for us, as I made sure of it." Zarba said before the group started moving towards the road not far away from the rock formation.
Before he goes to talk to his daddy in the imperial palace, Zarba has contacted a merchant and purchased a carriage from him, and then Zarba instructs the merchant to leave a carriage there for him on the side of the road with some hired guards to watch the carriage so it'll not get stolen.
The merchant was skeptical at first with Zarba's unusual request, but payment upfront and some gold coins as a trouble fee immediately changed his mind right quick as he readily accepted his request with no further question. The bad economy is hitting everyone hard, it seems…
The group marching under the moonlight, the footsteps of many pairs of armored boots unnervingly synchronized. Ahead of them, a large luxurious carriage waited on the side of the dirt road, its dark red wood gleaming under glowstone's light from the two hired mercenaries' lantern, who leaned against the carriage with bored faces, but soon their expressions snapped into wide-eyed terror as they spotted the platoon of black knights in identical armor advancing towards them.
"Fuck me...!" One of the mercenaries dropped his smoking pipe with a curse; the other fumbled for his sword hilt. Before they could actually do anything, Zarba stepped forward from the rows of his summoned units with a friendly smile. "Relax, guys, your job here is done. You're now dismissed."
The mercenaries looked at each other briefly before they scrambled away without a word, vanishing into the shadows like startled roaches; one of them didn't even pick up his pipe. Seeing them run so fast made Xin snort at their escape technique.
"How pragmatic of them…" She muttered with some disdain for their unreliable behavior. This is why she will never trust mercenaries; they have no loyalty or principle.
"Well, at least they're still doing their job… even if they don't try to check if we are the ones who they're waiting for…" Zarba shrugged his shoulders as he and Xin walked towards the carriage as the floating magic light illuminated the inside of the carriage, revealing plush red velvet seats and a little table in the middle. There's some empty space that they can put their luggage in as well, but there's really not much else inside the carriage.
'I really miss modern cars…' Zarba wanted to sigh at the medieval carriage. When he has more money, he might actually consider investing his gold to help create a car in this world early.
At the same time, around Zarba and Xin, the ranger knights could be seen moving to surround the carriage as the luggage carriers carried things to the carriage before they placed the luggage next to it, while the other summoned units stood guard, ready to intercept any threat.
"I see no horses, though?" Xin questioned as she saw no animals they could use to draw the carriage around before she turned to see Zarba grinning as he looked at the knights around them. "Are you actually thinking about making your summons pull the carriage...?"
"No need for food, water, or rest," Zarba started to explain under Xin's amazed look, patting a pauldron of a summoned unit nearby with appreciation. "Perfect for a long travel through day and night."
"They will do just fine as our steeds, don't you think?" Zarba said with a smirk, as Xin could tell that he was serious about having his summons pull the carriage…