Eventually the transportation arrived, Noel looked over and noticed someone approach them and she motioned for Owari to quiet down as they waited. The person who came over to them was a lady who looked to be in her thirties. She was quite charming looking and looked to be in great shape. She was wearing a modified maid uniform that was clearly easier to move in. Of course this modified servant attire seemed to be the Silverblood standard as Erikson was similarly dressed in a modified suit. The lady rushed over and smiled at Noel, showing genuine relief that she was unharmed before speaking up. "Young miss, I have brought the transportation. Please come with me." She bowed slightly and spoke very politely.

"Very well, this is the one who will be accompanying me, you should have received a notice that explains it yes?" Noel stood as she asked to confirm.

The lady nodded immediately, not daring to delay her response. "Of course." The difference between this lady and Erikson were stark, and despite how it might seem, Owari's intuition warned him this lady was no weaker than Erikson. This was almost certainly the case considering she had been sent to help escort Noel back after such a dangerous situation.

"Good. Let's hurry, I would love to sit somewhere more comfortable. The ground is quite hard and I'm quite sore after all that fighting." Noel didn't really like to complain, but even she couldn't handle hours of fighting followed by an hour of sitting on the ground.

"As you wish my lady. Take this." The lady held out a folding umbrella which Noel gladly accepted.

"Thank goodness. My parasol broke in the crash." She gave a sigh of relief before unfolding it and holding it over her head.

The four of them started to make their way out of the underground space. Owari walked alongside Noel who was spinning her parasol absentmindedly. She wanted to continue their previous conversation, but she would have to wait until they entered the car. Until then it would be difficult to get so close to maintain their previous quiet conversation. It was only as she had stopped talking and walked alongside Owari at a slight distance due to her parasol that she began to realize how close they had been sitting before and how it must have looked from the outside seeing them whispering to each other. She was starting to get exasperated with herself, she really wished she could stop going in that direction in her head. Unfortunately this was the first time she had taken an interest in a boy so she was suffering from her inexperience and couldn't help herself. In a bid to distract herself she thought of something to say and after a short moment noticed how bloody Owari's coat was and thought of something.

"I noticed that your coat is quite dirty and has some tears in it, if you'd like I could have someone clean and fix it for you." She eventually managed to get the words out after calming herself a bit.

Owari didn't immediately answer and instead thought for a bit. After a few moments though he came to a decision. "I'll have to refuse. This haori is something I value more than my life. I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving to others. My mother works with clothing so I've picked up a thing or two." Owari couldn't really relax thinking of leaving it to others.

"It's that important to you?" Noel seemed quite shocked hearing this. She hadn't expected him to value it so highly. "I apologize that it got so damaged due to you protecting me."

"It's fine, I figured it would get damaged in this line of work anyway." Owari really didn't bother over it. He could just fix it after all, if even a scrap remained it would be enough for him. What mattered to him wasn't the physical material and was instead what it stood for.

As they talked they had arrived out of the tunnel and into the sun. The weather was quite sunny and there were only a few clouds in sight. Owari glanced over and saw Noel curling up under her umbrella. As an albino it was normal for her to dislike the sun. Even if she could make up for the physical problems with mana, the sun would still hurt. Owari didn't say anything about it, trying to seem sympathetic by bringing it up wouldn't change anything. Since he couldn't fix it and couldn't do anything to help then he would do nothing but make her self conscious by saying anything. The vehicle they would be riding in was nearby so they quickly made their way over. There was a road nearby and on it was surprisingly a humvee looking vehicle that was clearly more in line with a military transport instead of belonging to a reputable family.

The lady paced over and opened the door for Noel who quickly got in and scooted over. "You can sit here next to me." She patted the seat next to her as she looked over at Owari who was about to go around. He wasn't really someone who liked being catered too. However since she had said it he shrugged and got in. Inside the vehicle it was quite spacious, there were three couch-like seats each on one side. There was a small open space in the middle of the space. In one corner was an icebox. Owari figured it was probably filled with provisions. Honestly he hadn't even thought of that stuff since he had barely eaten over the last few days.

The two sat down in the back as the lady and Erikson entered the front. The front and back were separated by a partition that could be opened and closed. This made it so the two were basically completely alone so they could talk, since the partition is soundproof they also would no longer have to whisper either. Though even with that said Noel pretended not to remember this and didn't say anything about it to Owari as she got closer. Owari was basically just a random country boy who happened to be a bit educated and sharp-witted, so obviously he wasn't aware of the fact that the vehicle was soundproof. Because of that he didn't really think too deeply about her actions and played along.

"Before we continue our talk from earlier I wanted to ask about your coat. I was wondering where you got it from. You referred to it as a Haori right? That should be eastern right?" Noel was a naturally curious person so she couldn't help but ask. She was emboldened by the fact that Owari didn't seem that bothered by most things.

"It belonged to my father. I've had it since I was little. Normally haori are shorter but I got too used to it being long and couldn't stand it being so small." Owari looked down at his coat with a smile as he recalled the time he tried to wear it while it was shorter. When he asked his mom to fix it she had chuckled and said his father would have lost his mind if he had seen it.

"Did he give it to you?" Noel asked hesitantly. While she understood the implication she wanted to be sure.

"He died when I was little. I just kind of took it from his clothes apparently when I found out he died. I don't really remember well but that's what my mom said." Owari barely recalled his father so he actually wasn't all that broken up by it. Not to mention he didn't see death like most did. Because of that he could look back at such memories with a hint of fondness instead of grief.

"I see." However Noel like most people don't really see things the same. So she assumed she had brought up a sad subject and thought of how to switch the mood.

Owari seemed to notice and even expect her hesitation. "There's no need to think about it too much. If you want we can go back to our previous conversation." He just smiled as he adjusted his position into a meditative posture which he found more natural after having done it so much recently.

"I feel that would be best." She quickly accepted the out he gave her and the two swiftly went back to trading tips.

Despite having spent their whole lives studying fighting and training, the two ran out of stuff to talk about quite quickly. When the two of them realized that their entire life's worth of discoveries boiled down to less than an hour of explanation they were both a bit depressed. In all fairness they were fairly young and had spent a lot of that time just figuring things out, but to them that didn't matter. Still the two had made quite a lot of discoveries talking with one another just now and exchanging ideas. Before this Owari had lacked any kind of structure or form in his methods and had too little focus and although this made him flexible and gave him a good foundation, it had caused him to have no real direction or idea of how to proceed further. Now he had a bit better of an idea what he would do and had gained direction.

Meanwhile Noel had the opposite problem. She had been too focused on perfecting her mystic art and making it perfect, and had missed building up the basics and had lost some flexibility in her thinking. It was because of this that it hadn't occurred to her to try and use different hand shapes to create different types of techniques in conjunction with her affinity for sound and kinetic energy despite the potential. She had been too focused on making her attacks stronger and not on how to make the best use of her tools. The two had managed to broaden each other's horizons and introduce a newer way of thinking to one another. Not to mention the breathing techniques and training methods Owari mentioned which would help Noel who had issues with her base physical ability which was lacking both due to her condition and her body type. Owari on the other hand had gained slight insights into how mystic arts are developed. The main thing he took away was that in order for mystic arts to be possible you had to find some way to stimulate the mana in your body, and then by finding the series of actions that could cause the mana to remain active you will eventually be able to find a way to use that mana and create a mystic technique. Not that he had ever stimulated his mana as far as he remembered.

Not having anything more to say regarding their training or any tips left to give one another, Noel wasn't sure where to take the conversation. Owari started to meditate to help his recovery and to maintain his body so he wouldn't have to worry about most of the basic bodily functions that he found annoying. He did however pay enough attention to his surroundings to listen to Noel. Because she was a natural talker she didn't hesitate long before she started chattering about everything that came to mind. "I never really left the city before, the countryside is quite open and beautiful." "I've never seen a tree so big! I wonder how old it is..." "That field is so large I can see the horizon clearly even from here!" Such things were what was being said for the first few hours. However after the second hour had passed she suddenly grew quiet as she glanced over at Owari uncertainty.

Owari was surprised and opened his eyes as he looked over at her. "Is something the matter?" He seemed to lack any semblance of common sense. He hadn't said anything this whole time and had only sat there as she constantly admired the scenery.

"You didn't seem to be responding so I thought you didn't want to talk or were annoyed at me. I've been told that I talk too much." Her voice was quite quiet and she seemed quite hesitant and uncertain as she spoke.

"I'm just not good at small talk. Besides you sounded fairly excited so I figured it would be a shame to ruin it by interrupting you. If I seemed like I wasn't paying attention I'm sorry. I was listening, if you want you can talk as much as you want. It's better than being like me and never knowing what to say." Owari chuckled as he saw her current demeanor. It was a far cry from the heroic warrior he saw back in the tunnels. The disconnect was quite cute really.

"Were you really listening?" She wasn't sure whether to believe him. It would be pretty easy just to say he was, he had been sitting with his eyes closed this whole time and hadn't seemed to react to her words at all.

"I have, do you not believe me?" he laughed at her skepticism. "If I really hadn't been listening why would I have reacted the moment you stopped talking?"

"Maybe the silence just surprised you?" She argued back.

"Well that is true." Owari admitted it easily. "I'm not the type to say something just to make someone feel better. If you just want to talk I'm willing to listen as long as you want. If you don't believe I'm actually listening, how about you just ask questions occasionally to test me?" Owari decided to just make a game of it since he knew it wouldn't be easy to convince someone so stubborn. After all he had similar things he'd have trouble believing without proof. Since the easiest thing to do is just prove it why not do so in a way that would be entertaining? Not to mention it would give him a chance to actually jump into the conversation with her since he wasn't really good at finding moments to enter a conversation or even that good at thinking of things to say even if he could.

When she heard Owari she was a bit dubious, but she had found that he tended to be pretty blunt and honest so she really did doubt that he would have said he was listening just to make her feel better. "Alright, if that's what you want." She agreed to test him a bit, though she actually doubted she would remember to do it once she got to talking again.

"Alright. It's not like I'll lose anything since I was already paying attention anyway." Owari just smiled calmly and went back to his meditation. That laid back response of his helped to ease Noel's worries a bit.

Since he had already said so, she started to talk again. She began by going back to observing the scenery before getting bored. Then she thought for a bit before talking about whatever came to mind. "I really like the rain, the clouds help block the sun and the drops make such wonderful noises when it pitter-patters against stuff. What's your favorite weather?"

"I like storms. No real reason though, I just prefer harsher weathers over calm ones." Owari answered after a moment of thought. He wasn't really the type to pay attention to the weather, but he disliked the calm since it just makes him antsy.

"Is that so?" Noel wasn't sure what to expect, and so she had no real feelings one way or the other when she heard his answer. However she did enjoy learning something new about him so as she continued to talk about whatever came to mind, she would occasionally mention something she liked and asked for his own preference in return. This way she felt like it was more natural and didn't seem like she was prying.

Time quickly passed as Noel slowly learned all kinds of things about Owari's preferences, and in exchange he also learned a bit about hers whether he meant to or not. Things like favorite colors, foods, animals, etc... Noel did her best to sneak in as much as possible. Eventually however Owari noticed that she had gone quiet for a bit longer than usual between topics and he opened his eyes to look over at her. The sun had long set and after a whole day of fighting and talking non-stop, Noel had passed out mid-conversation. Owari found it quite amusing as he had never heard of someone who could talk until they passed out from exhaustion.

However as he was laughing in his head, Noel slumped over and laid across the seat. Before he could react she lifted one of her legs and threw it on his lap before one of her arms slipped off the seat. In just a few moments she was laying with half her body on the seat and the other hanging off. Then she started to snore quite loudly with a simple-minded expression of glee on her face. Owari gave an awkward chuckle before he carefully slipped out from under her leg and sat on another one of the seats. On the seat was a folded blanket which he unfurled and tossed over her. If she got too hot he felt she'd just kick it off in her sleep given her sleeping habit. Otherwise it would be a bit of a pity if she got a cold because she slept without any covers. Seeing as how she had fallen asleep, Owari went into deeper meditation, only paying attention to sudden changes. He had learned earlier today that it was important to remain wary of your surroundings at all times since you can never be sure if you are safe.

The hours ticked by as Owari managed to slowly restore his mental and physical exhaustion. About the time that the sun came up, not that the shaded windows let the light in much, was when Noel woke up. Owari suddenly noticed a distinct silence and opened his eyes to look at Noel. She had just sat up and was stretching as she looked around with bleary eyes. Before she had a chance to notice Owari closed his eyes and went back to meditating. After all, even he wasn't socially inept enough not to understand that a girl might feel a bit uncomfortable waking up with somebody staring at them.

As she woke up Noel noticed Owari sitting off to one side and suddenly woke up. She carefully brought her hand to her face and used her sleeve to wipe off some saliva as she had apparently started drooling in her sleep. After that she flattened out her clothes to get the wrinkles out before she checked herself over and realized she was still covered in dirt and grime. At this point she realized that there was little point in trying to maintain her appearance. After checking her clothes she suddenly realized she had been covered by a blanket at some point. "When did this get here?" She subconsciously said this as she noticed the blanket.

"If you mean the blanket, I put it on you after you passed out." Owari responded startling her a bit, though her true nature as a fighter came out as instead of a yelp her eyes immediately locked onto Owari and she put her guard up.

After realizing it was just him though she relaxed. "Is that so? Well I suppose I should thank you. Did you sleep at all?" She couldn't help but ask, seeing as how he had not gone to sleep before her and now seemed to have been awake longer than her.

"I don't need to sleep as long as I meditate enough throughout the day." Owari answered her without batting an eye, but his answer caused her to be slightly startled.

"Father told me that in order to reach that point you have to have meditated for hundreds of hours over your lifetime. How often do you meditate?" She couldn't help but ask this, she herself could only meditate for about half an hour a day before she starts to find it unbearable. The focus required was one thing, but most people found the process of absorbing ambient mana intoxicating and would have trouble staying in the state without an iron will or a lot of practice and thus resistance to the effect.

"Before I left home I would meditate a few hours a day usually except the last few days where I took a bit of a break. As for after I left I've spent most of the last week or so in meditation." Owari didn't find this strange, having meditated since he was young he had long gained resistance to the intoxicating effect, not to mention he had his breathing techniques which actually helped to sober him and keep the mana from having much of an effect on him. Not that he was aware of this, he just knew that he enjoyed the feeling of not bothering with the physical upkeep his body would normally require.

"You can meditate for so long? That's quite impressive." Noel of course was shocked by what he said, but she reigned it in. After all, he had already surprised her a few times, and eventually it becomes easier to accept surprising things without overreacting all the time.

"I just like the time to think." Owari was an introspective person, so most of his time meditating would be spent considering numerous things. Because of this he had always enjoyed it and had assumed others would as well. Realizing they didn't was actually just as shocking to him as his situation was to Noel.

"If that's the case then does that mean you really don't like my talking?" Noel still seemed to have a bit of a complex about this.

Owari opened his eyes and looked over to see her trying to play it off as a joke, however her face showed some worry. Honestly he was a bit of a confusing individual, he didn't like calm weather as it made him feel antsy, but he enjoyed sitting alone for hours contemplating stuff. It might seem like a paradox, but really he just hated total calmness. Total calmness made him worry, but if there was something going on in the background he could pay some attention to he wouldn't worry as much. If he could spend all his effort and attention on introspection and thinking he would start to think too much which he disliked since it tended to lead to him growing paranoid and trying to plan around too much. Nobody could control everything, but he had a tendency to be very exacting and efficient which made him want to.

That was why Owari didn't like complex things, the more parts there were the more he had to think to maintain his control. This was also why he had trouble with social situations, people were too complex and hard to predict for him. However he also didn't dislike people, he may be a quiet person who didn't know much about interacting with others, but that didn't mean he didn't want friends. After he had lost his lifelong friends less than a month ago he had felt a certain gap open up in his mind, he had recently been having trouble feeling happy and he was well aware the loss of his friends had made him sad to some extent. However he also had trouble interacting with people and it wasn't like he could build up a relationship like the one he has with his mother in a short period where the other party was comfortable with his silence.

"It's fine. I actually don't mind listening to you talk. Your voice is quite nice and keeps my mind from wandering as I meditate." Owari gave some of the truth as he spoke, while he wasn't much of a liar he also wasn't sure how to word his thoughts without sounding weird. After all how he really felt was that lately he had been lonely after losing his friends and was just happy having someone who didn't mind spending time with him.

"I see." She wasn't sure how to take what he said, on one hand she was pleased that he said her voice was nice, but she wasn't sure what he really meant. In the end she felt it would be rude to doubt him any further and she forced herself to just accept that he didn't mind. Anymore resistance would just grow to be annoying to hear, at least she felt that way. Owari probably wouldn't care since he was a very patient person in general though.

In the end she just continued to talk about whatever came to mind. After a short bit she stopped for breakfast, which was basically just some bread and sauce rations. Owari was a bit impressed that she would eat something like that when this vehicle could have easily been stocked with various delicacies considering her family's wealth. When she began to eat she suddenly thought of something and spoke up. "Although it isn't exactly a normal meal, if you need something to eat just ask. I have plenty of extras."

Owari chuckled when he heard this. "Meditation slows the metabolism, I don't need to eat or drink much and I have enough rations to make it the next three days easily."

"Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that." She laughed as she realized this. "By the way, in case you're curious about what's up with my meals, it's a part of my training. My family don't really value those who are soft and unable to handle hardship. Because of this we tend to be tested and trained in strange ways in comparison to some of the other well-known families. After all I bet it seems strange that I would only have a single guard with me wouldn't it? He also isn't exactly a high-level hunter either." Noel didn't seem to have a very good opinion about Erikson, so she didn't mince her words when talking about him.

"So it has to do with your training?" Owari showed some extra interest in this topic.

"It does. Among my family there are many who believe that talent doesn't amount to much. Even I am not actually treated much differently from the rest of my siblings and cousins. Although I was sheltered a bit because my albinism makes me frail, I have to undergo the same training from this point forward as the others would. Once we come of age we are each sent to one of the various cities to act as the representative. It's meant to teach us about our future responsibilities and to have us make our own way to some extent. The amount of support we receive after arriving is minimal, although I'll be given a good place to stay, as well as a salary for acting as the family representative, I won't be given any resources for free and will have to earn everything I receive. Though it is still considerably more favorable than most people might have starting out." She mentioned the last bit to make sure Owari didn't misunderstand and think she wasn't aware of how good she had it compared to an independent hunter like him.

"So basically your family uses a trial by fire? Are you descendants of the northerners?" Owari seemed amused by this training method, it was very reminiscent of the northern savage lands and their clans who were obsessed with combat.

"We are, though I hate to admit that we have indeed inherited our savage ancestors' love for battle." Noel also seemed amused by this trait of her families, and laughed along with Owari.

"I also happened to get a bit of that in me, so I can understand the feeling." Owari usually didn't do jokes well, so he was quite proud of himself for this one.

"You're also northern?" She seemed quite surprised by this, his complexion and features were very eastern. Not that such things mattered these days, few people actually put stock in their ancestry anymore. It was mostly seen as an interesting topic to joke about, such as how the eastern tribes are too traditional, or how the northerners are too savage.

"I am, my mother is mostly northern and my father was fully eastern. I think my mom had some southwestern badland blood in her but obviously it wasn't much or my skin would be darker. Though my eyes are apparently darker than my fathers." Owari knew a bit more about his ancestry than most paid attention to since his father came from a traditional family who were some of the few who really did care about that kind of thing these days. Most people would just laugh at them though, him included, if they talked about it openly.

"Interesting. I wouldn't have guessed." Noel didn't seem to think much of the whole thing. Like most people she didn't put any stock in ancestry. "By the way, I'm curious about why you chose Leviathan city as your base."

"No real reason, it was just in my town's territory so it was easy to get information on it and the cheapest to get to." Owari didn't really choose the city so much as it was chosen for him.

"I guess that makes sense. Though this area is a bit on the dangerous side. I've heard it's one of the hardest places for hunters to grow at. That was why my father offered for me to take this position." Noel didn't seem very worried about it despite what she said.

"That makes sense. It is on the fringes, and it is a coastal territory after all. Water magical beasts are always the most dangerous." Owari also didn't seem too worried, he didn't really have any other options anyway so why worry?

"It's also a relatively newly developed territory and is only a few centuries old. There are far more older magical beasts of greater power here then in other regions." The territory surrounding Leviathan city was to the south, and since the seat of the reigning country was started in the northern savage lands it was understandable that this region was less developed.

The two discussed such things a bit more, although it wasn't the most interesting topic they both had a lot to share. At this point they had grown quite accustomed to swapping tips and easily fell into a rhythm of back and forth. Owari had a lot of tips relating to basic common sense that Noel wasn't all that privy to being both sheltered and from a well off family. Things like how to find good deals at markets, differentiating between good neighborhoods and bad, how to avoid pickpockets, and the times of day it was best to go to various types of stores such as when to go out for groceries, when to shop for clothing, and so on. Meanwhile Noel had a lot of insider knowledge that Owari would have never gotten from basic guides such as what shops were most reputable, which craftsmen in the city had the best skills, which material exchange shops could be trusted and worked with and which to avoid, and so on.

The two ended up quite a lot more prepared to take on the city with this new information. Since the two had such different lives and thus different perspectives it was natural that they learned a lot. The main reason such situations are so rare is simply because getting two people with such vastly different life experiences, status, and perspectives together and talking while both are able to get along was quite difficult. After all if not for the rare occurance of a train being attacked, followed by Owari's unlikely survival, followed by him saving her life, followed by her developing feelings for him, and eventually coming together as she offered to give him a lift and him accepting it, none of this would be possible. The sheer amount of improbability and coincidences needed for this showed why it was rare, but that also meant it was valuable, and the two of them were making the most out of it and would one day reap the benefits such a relationship would give them.