An invitation, blunt on the language use, yet carefully avoided giving away any other information, a location, a date, and a short message was all that was printed on.

“Well? I mean, there’s all we need. So just pay them a visit?”Mimic shrugged as he handed the paper over to Primus

“It looks odd.” B said, picking up another paper from the ground for further inspection.

“One day from now, middle of the day, in front of the castle gate of the losing side of the battle, hand this over for entry” B read out, getting a few stairs from the people around them before quickly lowering her voice and pulling the other two aside.

“Who writes like that?” She whispered

“I mean I would, the date, the location, and the time. If I didn’t know about the duplicate part, I would just assume whoever dropped down is not a duplication of mine.” Primus shrugged

“I’ll just go in with Primus, you said before we are not as hostile to our own when compared to you guys. I’ll show up to meet them, if something goes wrong Primus can come back with the information, and they wouldn’t get much value from me since you know, I spent most of the time chilling with the dudes around here.” Mimic said as he tucked the paper into his pocket, adding on “Also, he can handle the public relationship for you.”

“Having you going in and suicideing is not a good idea.” B replied

“Just give me a few daggers and I’ll try to trade if something goes wrong alright?” Mimic laughed as he walked back to the docking area.

“What exactly do you guys run on?” B asked, eyebrows locked

“What do you mean what do we run on? Food, water and air?” Primus replied, rolling the paper into a roll and pocketing it for future use

“When you accept a second run on life, why?” Her eyes fixated on Mimic, who is now joking around with the natives, as if the proposal he brought up a few seconds ago was nothing just a joke.

“Well, entertainment I assume.” He said as he looked at Mimic, asking himself the same question “I wouldn’t take that seriously though.” He said as he left B, walking up to Mimic, striking up a conversation, then dragging him away from the crowd besides docking.

The next time all three saw each other was after dinner, Mimic teaching Primus some more proper language and grammar while sparring with the same old wooden dagger. B sat near the fire, contemplating on the letter they received.

Either assume that they are the only one around, take the risk of getting run over later due to the lack of resources. Or, sending Mimic over, potentially waste a perfectly functional 100C for something they already know.

“Options options.” She mumbled to herself, biting down on her thumb as she ran through each scenario, with each somehow being worse than the previous. Despite having the ability to make one of the most accurate predictions in probably the whole universe, without sufficient intel on the given area, what she is currently doing is no different than rolling a dice and hoping it lands on a specific number.

The next day she started preparing for the potential loss of Mimic, starting laying out detailed designs of various weapons and machinery, then sending it towards the smithy.

The problem of lacking enough knowledge regarding magic is still a massive hurdle that would have to be overcome, somehow.

The problem of lacking a speaking voice among the villagers still exists and has to be dealt with assuming Mimic doesn’t return, as well as some day in the future she would eventually have to deal with the problem of gender.

All that’s working as of this moment is a rough engine that isn’t hooked up to anything, requires mana to power, and the assumption is that it wouldn’t last long due to the crappy manufacturing that went into it.

On the other side, Mimic and Primus had the leisure to eat lunch out in the fields, some bread, some water, sitting on a horseback. The air filled with the smell of the dirt, the sunlight just enough to warm the body, for a while all there was is the sound of them munching on bread.

No ‘next step’, no ‘next plan, nor ‘next objective’, until some random thought wandered in and interrupted the lunch. They moved onto the next location marked on the map, as they did Primus marked the previous road as unusable, seeing not a single convoy had passed by.

“You are going to die tomorrow you know?” Primus said with a concerning tone

Mimic chuckled, his body jolted, hands clenched onto the rein “What, throwing a party afterwards?”

“I could go in for you, you know, being a 100C as well and all that.” Primus replied, tucking away the map

“Take the next one for me will you?” He laughed as they rode towards the second location.

The process wasn’t particularly hard somehow, maybe due to panic from the other side, maybe just poor decision making, there was only one supply route at the end of the day.

One route that was littered with castles, what was observed was that each time something was moved out, let it be materials, personal, or foods, an insane amount of protection was used to prevent any losses, instead of what the dataset told them a few days ago.

“I want to die.” Mimic said as he saw the amount of armed personnel that followed each transaction

“What do you mean? Claymores would be so good on these, all clumped up, tight and cozy."

“More people, more mana to burn before the claymore can do any damage, meaning we either need to touch them, fill the road with mana crystals and pray those would be enough, or we are fucked.”

“Or, we get a proper army to dispatch that.” Primus added

“Well, that. Mark this whole thing down, thank god we didn’t just go in today.”

That night, B copied the map, handed Mimic a few daggers similar to the wooden ones he used to spar with, as well as one of the claymore.

“So, anything else besides walk in and talk?” Mimic sat beside the fire, baking his hand

“Act as if all this was your idea, don’t ever say you are a 100B nor mention us, and make sure you give him one empty crystal to check if whoever you are meeting is just another proxy.”

“And get something for the plan you trade out.” Primus added “By the way, try and not go into places I can’t follow, just make something up right?”

“How are you going to get in again?”

“I’ll worry about that. You sure you are going to make it back though? I don’t want to be left alone with her.”

“We’ll find out soon wouldn’t we?” He said as he pushed open the front door. “Want some food?” He asked “Seems like they got a boar or something today.”

Next morning, Mimic and Primus did some last minute checks, then headed out towards the castle gate as soon as they saw everyone else left the village, taking the route that they marked as ‘useless for ambush’ as to avoid some of the traffic and suspicion.

As they close in on their destination, machineries started to pop up here and there inside the farms, soldiers demonstrating how the new cultivator works then handing it over to the villagers, and the road measured and recorded.

“We are so very fucked aren’t we?” Primus whispered in English

“Well, time doesn't just freeze when we are not looking does it?”Mimic mumbled “Fucking hell this is impresive though, how many weeks are we in?”

As they push deeper towards the castle, evidence of one of them is inside just keeps piling up, a primitive wood made plane soars through the sky, engines roaring, the constant sounds of explosions coming out from another area, yet people didn’t even bat an eye, towers of smoke rising to the heavens somewhere deeper within the castle wall.

“Yep we are so very fucked.” He looked around for a place to leash the horse as they near the gate. “How are you getting in there though? And I have doubts that we would be just standing in the front gate.”

“Oh yeah, that. Stop the horse for a second will you?” Primus said as he looked around, checking his landing, then hopped off the horse with nothing but a bag of water and a tiny pouch. “So, we had a talk yesterday, B and I.”

“Well?”

“So, in short, we can’t guarantee your safety, so we are doing the next best thing, testing the reaction time of their policing system.” He grinned as he opened his pouch, a few crystals as well as small-metal chips.“Start a fire somewhere in the city, see how fast someone comes and puts it out, very nice for future planning. Assuming you can get how many people are patrolling the city, how often, and what they have, we can just walk into this place and take anything we like like it’s our kitchen.” He said with a smile on his face, patting the horse, then jogged towards the castle gate “Oh, as well as the map, that would be very nice.” he added.

The gate was not far from him now, it stood in the middle of fields, looking over the people it rules. Made with pure white stones, polished to a point where one could almost use the wall as a mirror, a purple wave pulses through the whole structure like a heartbeat, the gates wide open, like a suspended beast’s mouth daring anyone with mal intent to enter.

Guards with battleworn armor patrolled the gate, 2 by 3 they marched, spear in one hand, shield in the other, on the top of the walls, archers stood guard with crossbows loaded.

Mimic stood in line with other peasants, a quick look around, he hoped off the horse as to not look too out of place. The line moved forward slowly, guards searching each and every spot that could be used to hide weapons.

When the person in front of him was let in, the guards looked for the next person in line, called the person behind him to come forth.

“Oi, asshat! Down here” Mimic called out in native tongue, not knowing what the second word really meant, besides that it was frequently used back at the village. Upon the last words leaving his mouth, a few gasps were heard behind him, accompanied murmurs.

The soldier looked down, saw a 5 year old in tunic, rein in hand. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then held him up by the waist.

Ah shit, that was definitely not a good sign, he thought as he was raised up

“Who’s child is this?” The soldier called out to the long line of people waiting

“Here because of this.” Mimic pulled out the ‘invitation’ “Where person sent this is?” He asked with the crappy language knowledge he had

“I am” A child of similar age walked forward from behind the gate, followed by a fully armored knight, guards bowed as they passed by “Don’t mind us, next” the knight said as he removed Mimic from the guard’s hand.

Purple hood covered most of it’s body, golden lining ran through the edges, brown, curly hair stuck out from the hood.

It took a detailed look at the paper that Mimic held after, then ordered the knight to hand Mimic a crystal glowing with blue light, one of the signs of it being over filled with mana. On contact with his hand, the crystal emitted a strong light, cracked open, then returned to the normal, clear form that Mimic is used to seeing.

“Well then.” The hooded child said in English, extending out a pale, slender hand “Welcome, 100C”

“100B.” He reached out with his slightly shaky hand, firmly grasped on, and gave her a nod.

The knight escorted them both inside the gate, into the castle, ordering Mimic’s horse to be tended to.

“So, where were you all that time?” B asked

“Let’s start with names shall we? Mimic. Landed in the middle of the battleground and picked up by some scavengers” He said as he looked around, servants walked around them, bowing their head. He attempted to stop for a closer look on one of the rooms yet was ushered forward by the knight behind him.

“Esther. Let’s get you bathed first, explaining this over and over to random people isn’t what I want.” She said as they stopped in front of a room then ordered the knight to take Mimic to bathing then opened the door “He’ll take you here after you are done, get yourself something to wear besides that will you.”