When Jace woke up after a couple of hours, it was around 4 in the morning.
He quickly took a bath and went into his study room, where he wrote a letter to Catherine explaining he might disappear for a week or two.
Jace then summoned Catherine's floating octopus messenger and sent the letter.
As the octopus disappeared, Jace couldn't help but feel that he too should get a messenger, but he left the thought at that and got busy.
Now that Jace was going to a different country with a challenging goal in mind, he had to be prepared, so he made his marionette Christoph bring out the artifacts he had in the basement.
Jace took the artifacts that would be useful to him, keeping some on his person and some on his marionette.
Several minutes later, Jace sat at a table in his bedroom near the balcony, holding a cup of steaming tea in his hand.
As he took a sip, a cold gust of wind blew through the curtains. It was still dark outside, and now that it was early winter, the nights were getting longer.
After packing and making a travel plan, Jace relaxed for a moment, taking a brief respite to assess himself; he was currently feeling quite nervous.
The excitement at the thought of having a Marionettist as a marionette was still there, but it was now overshadowed by all kinds of worries.
Nonetheless, he had his marionette make tea and was currently relaxing; as he did, he felt his confidence coming back to him.
He smiled as he looked into the darkness outside. Setting the empty cup on the table, he got up and walked to his bed.
On the bed lay jackets and coats made of wool, as well as gloves and a scarf. Feysac was a cold place, so he was going there fully prepared.
Christoph appeared behind Jace, dressed for winter as well, as Jace put on the extra layers of clothing.
Soon, when Jace was done, he moved his arms around and noticed that with all these layers of clothing, his mobility had become somewhat restrained, and he felt funny and fluffy—it was a strange experience.
Christoph pulled out a metal card and showed it to Jace. Jace, who wore the Polymath Ring, imitated the 'Mirror Blink' power and entered the reflection of the metal card with all the luggage, and then he possessed his marionette.
After Jace possessed Christoph's body, he moved his arms and tried to get a good feel of it. Beyonders of the Door pathway had no physical enhancements, so the body felt quite mundane to Jace.
Jace looked at his hands—his marionette Christoph's hands. They were strong enough, but old and slightly wrinkly.
He was not sure how he felt about being old, so he used the recorded 'Shapeshifting' power.
Christoph's body changed: his height became slightly shorter, and his hair turned shorter as well.
Jace took his 'Jake' form, then looked at his young hands and moved around. "Much better," he said with a smile.
His figure then faded from the world as he entered the Spirit World.
It was a long journey. Jace took a few breaks at random places along the way, but soon enough, he was there.
The trees were tall and large, and there was fog and mist all around.
Jace walked out of the Spirit World and looked around. As soon as he did, his body shivered and his face flushed due to the cold.
"Whoa, it's freezing out here," he said softly in the dark and eerily silent environment. Vapor came out of his mouth as he spoke and breathed out due to the cold.
He adjusted his clothes. Even though he had dressed for the cold before coming, it was still too cold. Thankfully, his real self was hidden in a reflection while he was currently possessing his marionette's body, which was in 'Jake' form.
He looked around the silent forest and the slightly snowy plain. Currently, he was on high ground; down below behind him, about half a dozen kilometers away, was a rural village.
The Feysac Empire was really large, containing all kinds of places, so while most places werw modernized, some were not—and this was one of them.
Jace rubbed his hands together and started walking uphill. There was a wooden cabin here that once belonged to his marionette Christoph.
Rather than directly teleporting to St. Millon, Jace had opted to teleport somewhere else first.
Because St. Millon, capital of Feysac, was a dangerously fortified and modern city, it was likely unwise to just teleport there without any preparation.
Soon enough, he spotted the wooden cabin hidden behind a few trees and directly blinked inside.
Inside was a basic two-room cabin. There was a fireplace with a chair nearby; Jace removed his coat and kept it on a table nearby.
There were a few oil lamps hanging around. Jace lit them with a snap from inside the reflection, and finally, there was some light inside.
There was some wood kept beside the fireplace. Jace used his marionette powers to make the logs float and rest in the hearth.
He then exited the reflection, stepped out into the cabin, made the wood in the fireplace burn with a snap, and sat on the chair near the fire, removing his gloves and feeling the warmth.
Looking around, Jace noticed that the cabin was fairly clean and insulated enough to maintain a near-normal temperature inside.
From what he saw from Christoph's memories, the Traveler often came here every few months or so just to stay alone and enjoy some quiet time, and seeing the place himself, and Jace understood why.
The place was very quiet and attuned to nature. There was even a small river about half a kilometer away, and there were likely wild animals here that one could hunt and eat.
'This place is definitely going to be one of my picnic spots.' he mused.
But Jace was not here for a picnic, nor was he on a trip to get reacquainted with nature; he was here on a hunt.
While Jace rested, feeling the warmth of the fire, his marionette searched for the things Christoph had kept here before.
There were some clothes, money, and identification that could be used in Feysac. Unfortunately, there were no artifacts of any kind here, which was fine with Jace considering he had all the things needed for his hunt.
Jace decided to sleep right in the chair for a couple of hours, as he felt he wasn't rested enough.
When he woke up, he would teleport to St. Millon.
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A/N:- This novel is Not Dropped!, I was just busy with some stuff, still am, but I will make sure to update atleast 3 to 3 chapters a week...
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