"Hmm? Awake already?" (Woman)

I look at the woman as she comes towards me and I shortly after seeing her look back at the map I have on the table.

"I do have a lot to do... Honestly... It's been problem after problem lately." (Colin)

She takes a seat across from me.

"We haven't properly introduced eachother have we? Well.. I haven't at least." (Woman)

Ah... There was that... Those formalities of knowing eachothers names. Wait, how did she think of this herself?

"I'm Colin Tyccus though you probably knew that.. You can call me Colin like everybody else. You?" (Colin)

She looks at her hand for a second and then looks at me again.

"I am... Nephenee Ularona. Everybody calls me Nephy." (Nephy)

She looks at her hand again like reading something.

"Did you perhaps stay up all night thinking of what to say of me and wrote it down on your hand?" (Colin)

She slightly jumps but seemingly is calm.

"No." (Nephy)

She's clearly panicked just by looking at her... She usually stared at one thing but now she's looking at every single object in the room.

I look at the map once again to find a suitable location for the headquarters.

A location where there is an easy access to water which can't be tinkered with except from one place which can be heavily guarded and sealed..

A location where we have at least two escape routes, one by sea and another to the mountains or such.

A location where people can easily come to and go from to every inch of the World.

There are only two cities which can clear these and I need to go and visit both to see which one is more suitable for a trading company.

I don't have any reliable connections or well... Any connections at all.

Well the trading company is just a face for the Blood Line Defense Project so we can easily move troops, weapons and armor.

The cities of L'Aminne and Hjalionia... What the hell kind of names are these?!

One sounds kind of French and the others just... A mystery.

I wait for the others to wake up while Nephy sits there, quietly staring at me for some reason.

Two hours pass until the others all come out of their rooms at the same time.

Even Viv with sane Memui come out at the exact same time.

This... Is quite a spectacle. It's like they all perfectly timed this to the second and planned it out just to impress somebody.

Well it's not my problem right now.

"Everybody, gather around. We have new places to go." (Colin)

Everybody gathers around the map.

"What kind of new places?" (Viv)

"What shall we be doing?" (Liliana)

"Where shall we be heading?" (Vivian)

Questions... A lot of questions.

"We're going to be heading to two cities so I can decide where we can start building a trade empire.

The two candidates for this job are... L'Aminne and Hjalionia. Since L'Aminne is closer to us we shall head there and then to Hjalionia. This is going to be a long trip since we won't be going very fast. The whole point of this trip is to build up our reputation and find out which of the two cities is going to be our Headquarters City.

Got it?" (Colin)

"Yes!" (Everybody except the elves.)

L'Aminne is way closer than Hjalionia. L'Aminne is on one side of the continent and Hjalionia on the other.

I also need a name for my Trading Company...

Europa Trading Company is a possibility...

I'll think about it and ask some people.

(Author: *slowly looks towards the readers and then back to the chapter* My naming sense is terrible and it's fun to include the readers, ok?)

"We should start heading out relatively soon. Nephy, if there are any problems immediatly take all the people in the village and start heading my general direction aka towards one of the two cities. I think we'll reach L'Aminne in about twelve days and Hjalionia in thirty days after reaching L'Aminne and spending 2-3 days exploring the city.

Of course you can also follow the paths which I'll be taking unless there's something that I don't want to handle or can't handle." (Colin)

I show Nephy the path I am taking and she immediatly marks it on a seperate map I gave her. We had two from the trading company wares and I only need one right now.

I look towards the people travelling with me.

"We're going to head out with one carriage and we'll try to gather up more carriages to a maximum of three over the course of our trip. Understood? The drivers and passengers will be decided once we get the carriages." (Colin)

Everybody nods.

"Ok. Start preperations for leaving." (Colin)

They all run to their rooms to gather up their stuff.

"Can I come with you...?" (Nephy)

She asks me while staring at Silan's room.

She's completely in love and doesn't want to seperate from Silan.

"Sadly you need to lead your people. It'll only take a maximum of 50 days for the message to get here including the trip time. After you and your people join up with my company you can spend as much time as you want with Silan." (Colin)

The moment she hears that... Or well a few moments after she hears that she blushes while jumping up into the air.

We could honestly finish this trip in a maximum of three days but I want to see how far the damage caused by the Ritual has spread and if there are any other beings influenced by the Ritual.