Mary frowned. She had been riding in a carriage for several days now, perhaps even a week or two had passed. It was hard for her to keep track of the days. The scenery outside barely changed. The clip-clopping of the horses were steady and rhythmic, always luring her to sleep. Unfortunately, the road wasn’t smooth at all, and the carriage bumped up and down at random intervals. If it weren’t for the fact she got so easily lost, she would’ve walked to the place with the wall-punching witch. Wouldn’t it be unfortunate if she found a clue to one of her companions and lost it because she didn’t know which way to go?

And the twelve men who insisted on following her. They were more annoying than an itch underneath the parts of her armor that she couldn’t remove. They’d come into her carriage every day and preach. If it were any other time, she would’ve beaten them and forced them to shut up, but what if they held a grudge and brought her away from her destination? When she threatened to beat one of them and abandon them on the roadside, they insisted she do so with pleading expressions, saying something along the lines of hardship breeds faith and other strange things she couldn’t understand. However, she did know one thing: never reward someone who wronged you. It wouldn’t feel right to abandon them since they wanted to be abandoned. Instead, Mary chose to take her hand off her sword whenever they came into the carriage. That way, she wouldn’t understand anything they were saying. In fact, she couldn’t really understand what they were saying even with the sword’s translation, but this way, at least she wouldn’t get a headache from trying to interpret their words.

Mary watched the scenery pass by and sighed. She placed her hand on her sword.

“—thus, the lord—”

Mary cleared her throat and glanced at the man sitting beside her. “I forgot to ask before we started,” she said. “How long is this journey going to take?”

“Around three months.”

Mary’s expression froze. “Three months?” she asked. “Isn’t there a faster mode of transportation?”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Well, if we rode the horses and abandoned the carriage, we could shorten the time to around forty days. However, the Kingdom of Hungary doesn’t have the tools we need, so we have to bring them with us via carriages.”

Mary frowned. “Shouldn’t your group be hurrying as fast as possible to apprehend this witch? Won’t the kingdom fall if the witch goes around punching down everything in a day?”

“Oh, the kingdom will lose, alright,” the man said and nodded. “That is, if we didn’t intervene. However, would the Kingdom of Hungary be thankful to us if we rushed over, riding hard and wearing out our bodies? They wouldn’t, not without a little bit of pressure. Though it’s easy for the witch to break down fortress walls, it’s not as easy to conquer a kingdom. The ruler of the Ottomans has to take his time, staying in cities to pacify them, fully incorporating them under his rule. I reckon by the time the kingdom is about to fall, we’ll arrive just in time to save it.” The man gave Mary a small smile. “The Kingdom of Hungary used to be under the influence of our Holy Roman Empire, however, in recent years, they’ve cut themselves away from us. Wanting our help in times of crisis, but rejecting us in times of peace, why should we work so hard for allies such as these? Let their king sweat for a bit.”

Mary rubbed her temples and sighed. She was never any good at politics, or anything other than the sword, really. Well, she recently found out she was excellent at woodworking, but that didn’t help much in comprehending politics either. “In other words, there’s a reasonable explanation for why we’re traveling so slowly, yes?”

The man’s expression froze for a second. “Yes, Your Holiness,” he said and nodded. “That’s precisely the case.”

***

Alice threw Burc up and down despite the white cat yowling protests. She was bored, and Burc’s attempts at escape amused her. It wasn’t that she enjoyed watching him struggle—okay, maybe she enjoyed it just a little—but there was simply nothing else to do other than study, and she had been studying every single day for such a long time, learning a language that was going to be completely useless once she returned home. Upon realizing that, she had lost all motivation to learn anything beyond a layman’s words. A sigh escaped from her lips as she caught Burc and extended her arms, preventing him from scratching her face. “Where’s Nate? I wonder how he’s doing.”

“Nate?” Burc asked and clung to Alice’s arm, desperate to find any way to stop her from tossing him again. “Who’s Nate?”

“Nate…,” Alice said and furrowed her brow. “He’s a really cool guy, a leader. Unfortunately, he’s also a skeleton, but I’ll find him a real body one day, one where he can touch and feel and sleep.”

Burc squirmed, but he couldn’t escape from Alice’s grip despite her small hands. “Well, that sounds like a lot of work.” He had no clue what Alice was saying. A skeleton? How could a skeleton be a cool guy? “I’ll leave you to it then.”

Alice tossed Burc back into the air. There was a knock on the door, and Alice nearly missed her catch when Burc fell back down. “The door’s open,” she said and placed Burc down onto the bed. He fell onto his side and collapsed, glaring at Alice.

The door opened, and a Janissary came in. He lowered his head and spoke at Alice’s feet. “The Padishah told me to inform you that the army will begin it’s march again soon. Everything has been taken care of on the administrative side.”

Alice’s expression lit up, and the Janissary took a glance at her face. His expression paled when he realized she was happy. War wasn’t enjoyable, yet this little girl loved it. He took a few steps back and closed the door, promising himself not to get on the witch’s bad side.