Having finally calmed down, Mei sighed and asked, "Princess, er, your Majesty—"

"You can call me Rina."

"...Princess Rina, why did you... uh, honor us with your presence?"

She thought for a minute, before exclaiming, "it's a secret!"

"But—" Mei objected, before realizing who she was arguing with.

"Don't worry about it, she's here. We'll return her after we're done with the request."

"What!? We're not turning back?"

Marc gave her a look as if she was stupid. "Of course we're not going back now. It'll be our fault then. This, at least, gives it us more options. Maybe the Empress will forget or something."

"It's her daughter!"

"...on second thought, she probably won't forget. But we could escape the country or something. In any case," he said, looking towards the young princess, "you will cooperate with us, yes?"

She nodded in response. "Rina has something she needs to do."

"So she can disguise herself as just a random girl. No problems there, I doubt many people have seen the Imperial Princess, after all."

"...I suppose."

"Great; now that that's settled, I want to take a nap."

Mei sighed again and slumped into her seat. "This isn't going to go well..."

They continued to travel outwards. True to his word, Marc soon fell asleep, leaning against the door. The princess was next, falling asleep against Marc. Mei felt that a princess should really have more reservations about sleeping next to strange men, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

She herself was too agitated to sleep, and instead spent the time fidgeting and thinking about the terrible things that could happen to her.

As the orange rays of sunset began to permeate through the small cabin, the carriage suddenly came to a stop. Marc woke up instantly, while Mei was already on alert. There was a knocking on the wall behind Marc, and a panel slide open, revealing the driver.

"Bandits," he spoke in rough Western.

"How many?"

"6 or so."

Marc sighed. "Not an unexpected obstacle. Hand me a sword."

"Will you fight? Ay, more help is good," the driver said as he tossed a worn iron short sword through the slot.

Mei looked at Marc seriously. "We should try negotiating first. If that falls through, I'll take the princess and run. We can't let her fall into the hands of bandits."

The princess had woken up. "What's going on?"

Marc looked over and smiled. "There are bad men outside."

"Don't worry, your Majesty, we will keep you safe if it means our lives," Mei reassured her.

"Won't Yao Tzen or Zhan Sun save us?" the princess said, a little worry in her voice.

"I have no idea who those are."

"They're Heavenly Warriors; legendary masters of martial prowess who do good deeds and fight evil," answered Mei.

"Superheroes, got it. Well, don't worry, I'm more than enough."

The princess looked at him wide-eyed. "You are? Really?"

"Yes," Mei sighed, "he is." This was ridiculous, but she needed to play along.

"Driver, keep going," Marc directed.

"Plan?" he asked, while shooing the horses forward.

"Tell me when we get close to them."

"200" he said, referring to the distance.

"150"

"100"

"50"

Mei tensed up.

"Hey, do you have a handkerchief?" Marc asked offhandedly.

"Huh? Well, yeah, I do..."

"Do you mind if it gets a bit bloody?"

"What? Uh... no, I guess..."

"Give it to me."

"Sure..." she said, handing it over. What was he going to do?

"They are here," the driver said gravely.

Marc lifted the sword out of its sheath. "I never like doing this," he said with sad smile.

Suddenly, he seemed to shift in place slightly, as if his body teleported slightly to the left. What was more striking was that the right edge of his sword was now coated in a thick layer of fresh blood. Screams could be heard outside.

The driver turned back, "they're all..." he began, slowing as he saw Marc's bloody sword, "...dead."

Marc didn't respond, simply wiping the blood off of the sword.

No one said a word for a bit. Then, the princess spoke up: "D-did you do that?"

"Why, yes, I did."

"Wow, you're amazing!" the princess exclaimed, a sparkle in her eyes.

"But how—!" Mei interjected.

"I am very fast," Marc said simply.

"But—"

The princess was the one who interrupted her this time. "He's a Heavenly Warrior; they can do anything!"

"This guy, a—" she began, but stopped herself. Six men had died, and there was only one person who could've done it. It was an inhuman feat—she couldn't deny it.

"I am nothing so great, simply a magician, who uses trickery and techniques to do the impossible. A magician cannot, however, reveals his arts."

"Wow, you're so cool!"

"Am I not? Aha!"

The princess continued to praise Marc and he continued to indulge it in. Mei could do nothing but sit and sigh. She did, however, feel more and more that he was not as plain as he said he was.

In a few days of travel, they neared their destination. They met one or two more interruptions, but they were quickly resolved. Marc stopped the carriage at a nearby stable. He wandered off for a bit and came back with a wooden wagon and two plain sets of robes.

"Here, wear these. We'll be keeping this carriage here; from now on, we're incognito."

"Are we seriously running then?" Mei asked.

"What? No. We're going to do our jobs. This is part of that."

Mei looked over at the princess, who was fiddling with her brownish folds of cloth.

"No, really, we're not running. Yet."

The driver came near.

"Ah, yes, you're dismissed. Here's your pay."

He nodded. "Ay. I be around. Will come with you again, very impressive sword." He walked off.

"Who will drive, then?" Mei asked.

"I will."

"Do you know how?"

"Probably."

She sighed. "Good enough."

After the girls changed their clothes, they continued their journey. They were only a few hours away from the supposed center of trouble. Loose, dirt roads turned to cobbled ones, and soon enough they entered into the town proper.

Marc paid for a room at an nearby inn and hired a stableman to handle the horses, then told Mei to amuse herself and wandered off. With the princess left in her care, she decided the safest thing to do would be to return the room at the inn.

Roughly an hour later, he returned.

"What have you been doing?"

"Me?" Marc asked, pointing to himself. "I've been gathering Intel."

He walked over to a chair and sat down. "Looks like a standard political feud. There are two clans vying for power and they're causing a ruckus. The good part is that neither side is trying to subvert Imperial power. That makes it easy for us."

"What do you plan on doing about it?"

He sighed. "We'll have to wait. It'll probably be a few weeks before I can act."

"Really? Well, I don't understand."

"Indeed you do not."

"What is that supposed to mean!?"

"In any case," he continued, ignoring her, "we have nothing to do until then. Why don't we have some fun?"

"Fun?" Mei asked skeptically.

"Fun. We managed to get here during a full moon, and the people here look like they're having a festival."

"Oh, yeah, the Moon Festival," Mei remembered. "I'd forgotten with everything that happened recently."

"Moon festival!?" the princess exclaimed. "I've never gotten to go."

Marc nodded. "No doubt. Everyone would either be scared witless of offending you or try to kidnap you. Well, don't worry, right now you're just an ordinary, not scary girl that most people won't try to kidnap."

He stood up. "Well, let's go. There's no point in waiting, right?"