Scarlett watched the passing houses in silence as their carriage moved through the cobbled streets of central Freybrook. She wasn’t paying much attention to the buildings themselves—she’d long since started growing used to the novelty of this medieval-like world—but rather the scenery of it.

It had been two days since they returned from Freymeadow. The experience there was a strange one, that was for sure. Many might even describe it as haunting. She hadn’t lost any sleep over it, but she understood the sentiment.

After witnessing the destruction of the village, they had only been able to enter once more. Scarlett would have liked it if she had more time there, but six entries were still more than what she had originally expected. She should probably consider herself lucky she got that much. If ‘lucky’ was the way to put it.

The hidden little settlement had been a unique one, even in ‘Chronicle of Realms’, and the same held true in this world. From an outsider’s perspective, the loop Freymeadow experienced every five days was hard to describe in words; both in how it worked and in the dreadful end that awaited at its conclusion.

She hadn’t wanted any of the others to witness that sight, or the factors that were behind it. Yet she had still allowed Rosa to join, even revealing the repetitious nature of the place to her. The woman had taken it surprisingly well, though perhaps that was to be expected. Scarlett didn’t know exactly what Rosa had gone through in the past, but some of it was bound to have been similarly gruesome, even if not necessarily on the same scale.

After they had entered the village again, Rosa had realized pretty quickly that none of the villagers remembered the events from the previous loop. This included Arlene, the older woman acting much the same as the first time Scarlett had introduced herself to her. The second attempt at convincing her to train Scarlett had also ended similarly terribly.

Not that it had stopped Scarlett from going back to her practice at the time. She wouldn’t quit just because things didn’t go her way at first. If there was one thing that Freymeadow afforded, it was time. If the system was what let her increase the power she had at her disposal, then Freymeadow was going to be what she used to hone that power so that she could achieve her goals.

For now, though, things would have to continue as they were. Outside of Freymeadow, there were still a lot of things that had to be done.

The previous day since returning had mostly been spent doing some preparations for the coming days, with just a bit of training in the morning and late evening. One thing that had needed doing was to ensure Evelyne had a room ready in the mansion when she visited. The younger Hartford sister was supposed to return from the capital in a few days. While Scarlett wasn’t exactly looking forward to interacting more with the woman, it was a necessity for her to continue operating as a baroness. She didn’t exactly have the time or opportunity to learn how to be a real noble by herself at the moment.

Other than that, though, most of her preparations had been related to their current undertaking. The destination of their ride this time was the city of Darkshore, closer to the eastern parts of the empire.

It was finally time for Scarlett to get the third piece of the Seal of Thainnith.

She had arranged this trip a while back, not long after making the deal with the Hallowed Cabal. She hadn’t wanted to retrieve the third piece too early, in case the Cabal would just use that as an opportunity to attack her immediately after. It was best if she found the piece as near their next meeting as possible.

Although that was still technically over a week away. But since she couldn’t exactly be sure how long it would take to find the seal, and had other things she needed to deal with, it was the best she could do.

For their time spent in Darkshore, she was expecting anywhere from one to three days. The act of procuring the seal itself shouldn’t be too troublesome. You could retrieve it relatively early in the game after all, around level 40. In comparison, the second piece was much harder. But that is also why that’s the one she sent the Cabal after. The thought of traveling out into the Unresting Steppes and messing with the Undead Council didn’t exactly excite.

However, even though getting the third piece was easier, locating it could still be a bit tricky. It depended on how much the region has changed from the game. She was hoping it wouldn’t take too long, though. There were a few other dungeons in the Darkshore area that had decent enough items, and it’d be nice if she had the time to find and clear those. Further expanding her repertoire of artifacts and equipment never hurt.

She glanced down at her current clothes. The outer layer was the same dark travel attire she usually wore for these excursions. Beneath that, though, hidden by her shirt, was a set of interwoven green shirts. The [Garment of Form], looted from the Howling Gale’s Haunt.

After having had the item’s effects confirmed, Scarlett had it delivered to a tailor here in Freybrook who had experience working with enchanted equipment. The man had been able to perform some minor alterations so that it fit her snugly. It was a bit hot at times, wearing it as an underlayer under her normal clothes, but it was bearable. And while she wouldn’t exactly call the piece of clothing ugly—it was actually rather elegant, in its own way—it was far too garish for her to bring herself to openly wear it when there was another option. She wasn’t even sure that was just the original’s fashion sensibilities speaking, either.

In the end, though, what mattered was that she got the item’s effects. The effects in question included a boost to one’s agility, as well as what essentially amounted to a short-range teleport. Being an enchanted item of epic tier, its defenses were also a notch higher than anything else Scarlett could bring to bear at the moment. She wasn’t quite sure where its limit lay—she somewhat doubted the cloth would stop a sword going straight for her heart—but it was at least to the level where she couldn’t tear the material apart with her hands.

Although, to be honest, its defensive qualities weren’t the most important part. That was only the last line of defense. An emergency measure, if everything else had failed. If it ever reached that point, she was probably already screwed. The magical defense afforded to her by [Sidhe’s Flowing Garbs] was much more important in that regard. The effects of the [Garment of Form] had been the main focus to begin with.

The increase in agility, for example, would probably be quite helpful in several situations. She hadn’t quite tested it out yet, but the change was definitely noticeable when wearing it. In addition, the short-range teleportation would probably be worth far more for saving her life than the ability to tank another strike or two. The best thing was that there was no upper limit on how many times she could use it per day. Instead, the [Garment of Form] had three charges, each taking roughly five minutes to recharge.

It definitely blew items like her [Wand of Fireball] out of the park. Granted, the [Wand of Fireball] was an early game item, but still. She was quite satisfied with the [Garment of Form]. It was nice to have nice things. And she wanted more.

Her eyes glanced over to the side where Fynn sat. The young man’s gaze was fixed out the other window, absently tracking the people outside.

…She did want more, but maybe she wouldn’t steal it from one of her companion’s ancestral sites next time.

She turned her attention back to her window and the houses passing by. Eventually, their carriage reached the large square where Freybrook’s Kilnstone was located. As usual, there were two lines on both sides of the marble structure at the center. A long one filled more with people and wagons of different kinds, and a shorter one with mostly carriages in it.

Their carriage moved over to the shorter of the lines, where they only had to wait for about fifteen minutes before it was their turn. The coachman steered the carriage onto the marked area in front of the floating Kilnstone, exchanged a few words with uniformed people in charge, and soon the ancient artifact’s reflective grey turned completely black as their time to teleport came.

All the surrounding light flowed into the floating obelisk, leaving them in a black void for a brief moment, before color was once more spat out into the world and a new view appeared before them.

The city of Darkshore was one of the larger ones in the empire, built on the bank of a vast lake with a large volcano at its center. The volcano was known as the Resting Eye and was—despite what one might expect with a large settlement right next to it—not dormant. As far as Scarlett was aware, much of the lake surrounding it was also uninhabitable for wildlife. The city itself relied on trade and produce from other nearby cities. Silverborough, for example, which was apparently referred to as the ‘Sterling Breadbasket of the Empire’, was only a day’s travel away.

Their carriage slowly made its way out of the busy square where Darkshore’s Kilnstone was. As they got further away from the throng of people and wagons that inundated the area, cresting the height of a street leading out of the place, it became increasingly clear where the city had gotten its name from as more of the volcano itself got into view in the distance. It didn’t actually look much different from a normal mountain, a massive mass of grey jutting out from the ground, but the thick smoke trailing from its tip was almost pure black, painting great clouds in the sky.

Scarlett took in the sight.

That being considered normal was weird. What did they do on days when the wind blew in the city's direction? That had to be a safety hazard, even if most of it was up high in the sky. Maybe they had some way of managing it she didn’t know of. Or maybe the wind just didn’t move east in this region. What did she know? It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing in this world. The Forgotten Tower and the Unresting Steppes were prime examples of weather phenomena that didn’t play by the rules.

Whatever the situation was, she couldn’t imagine herself feeling comfortable living so close to a volcano like this. The people here had long since gotten used to its existence, though, and probably weren’t ever expecting for it to erupt. Supposedly, it had been mostly quiet for centuries. Since before the empire was founded, at least. There were also plenty of valuable resources that could be gathered from it and its surroundings. The way Scarlett understood it, much of the city’s economy was based around the gathering of those resources.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that it was a ticking time bomb.

Allyssa, Shin, and the others seemed enraptured by the view of the volcano in the distance, but Scarlett soon turned her attention to the city around them. Soon, they reached what looked to be its commercial district, with wider streets and several storefronts visible. They also passed by some larger markets and other scenery that caught the eye, like small parks and wooden stages with small troupes on them. In general, there was a lot to see, and the architecture of the city had mostly shorter and wider buildings that didn’t block much of the view.

Scarlett kept a close eye especially on the storefronts as they went past. In truth, she wasn’t that familiar with Darkshore. Even in the game, she hadn’t visited here as much as some of the other cities. Now that it was all in real life, she was essentially a stranger to the place, only having vague memories of what store went where. She had a much better recollection of the surrounding region and its dungeons.

None of the coachmen that were employed in her service—there were two of them: the older man who’d driven around Ambercrest and Elystead, and the young man who often drove them around the Freybrook area—had been here before either. So, she had to be on the lookout.

As they traveled down a long street where there seemed to be a lot of smaller stores and the like, Scarlett called out for the carriage to stop. The older coachman pulled up near a smaller alley, whispering some words to the horse as Scarlett exited. She told everyone but Shin to stay put for now, before walking up to a store she’d spotted that had a couple of books and maps visible through its window.

A bell above the door rang as they entered. Scarlett sent a few glances around the establishment. It was a relatively simple shop, with most of the wares arranged on wooden shelves hanging from the walls, showing a somewhat meager assortment of common-day items. A table stood in one of the corners, with a few books and rolled-up parchments on top of it.

Walking over with Shin, she picked up one of the parchments and unfurled the paper. It looked to be an old nautical chart of the nearby lake, though the detail of the work surprised her. It even included the depth and features of sections of the lakebed, marking points of interest. Did they perhaps mine things underwater here? Or something along those lines? She doubted they saw much mercantile traffic on the lake, considering ships would have to travel through hundreds of kilometers of wetlands and rivers to reach the ocean.

“Is there something I can help you with?” a voice sounded out from the side.

Scarlett turned to look at the counter to her left, where a man had exited from a back room. He had a bald head and wore a simple brown vest over a white shirt. His chin was ill-shaven, with slightly chubby skin and stubble covering a small mole, but the man’s demeanor had a friendly air.

Scarlett narrowed her eyes. He looked familiar.

He smiled as his gaze met hers.

“…Yes,” she said, shifting her attention back to the parchment she was holding. “I am searching for a map of the nearby region. Preferably one as detailed as this chart.”

“A map, you say?” The man glanced at the nautical chart in her hands, then at the table next to her. “Well, you have a couple there, but most of those are for traversing near the Eye.” He rubbed his chin. “I might have something in the back, though. Wait just a minute.” He disappeared into the back room he’d entered from.

Shin stepped up next to Scarlett, picking up one of the books on the table and looking it over. “Where are we going?”

“The mountainous regions to the east,” she said.

“For?”

“We will be searching for ruins.”

“As usual, then?”

“Indeed.”

Soon, the shopkeeper returned with a large piece of furled parchment in his hand. He chuckled as he held it out towards Scarlett. “Used this one myself when I was younger, exploring the wide world. I was quite the daredevil, you know.”

“I am certain you were.” She received the paper, stepping closer to roll it out on the counter. Like the nautical chart, this map was also of high quality. It even beat most of the maps she had back in Freybrook. The surrounding regions were all depicted in high detail, with names of all the notable landmarks and places. She studied it for a while, tracing her finger along a small hilly region that moved to the northeast, stopping when she found what she was looking for. A small illustration of a statue.

If this map was as correct as it seemed, then they might not even have to waste any time trying to locate their destination.

She looked up at the shopkeeper. “What do you ask for this map?”

He seemed to consider it for a moment, arms crossed. “I think two hundred solars is fair.”

Scarlett arched a brow. Last time she bought a map, it had been for ten solars.

Granted, that one had been of significantly lower quality than this one, and quite old as well. But it wasn’t as if she would have problems affording things like this. Their finances might have taken a bit of a beating because of the recent damages to the mansion and the costs involved just in cleaning things up, but two hundred solars were chump change in comparison. Evelyne had sent over enough of the profits from the sold loot to buy this map a hundred times over.

She pulled out the coins from her [Pouch of Holding]. After placing it on the counter in front of the man, she rolled up the map and handed it to Shin.

“Glad to do business with you,” the shopkeeper said with a wide smile.

Scarlett merely nodded at him and turned around to leave. She stopped as she noticed the words on the cover of the book in Shin’s hands.

Tales and Accords of Darkshore — The Old Ways

She furrowed her brows. That sounded a lot like it could have been a book from the game. In fact, the name felt familiar. She held out her hand. “May I see that?”

The young Shielder gave her a surprised look but handed it over without a word. She quickly flipped through its pages, skimming through the contents until she stopped at a particular page. Studying its contents for a moment, she then closed the book and turned back to the shopkeeper. “I will be purchasing this book as well.”

“Ah, fond of old fairytales and folktales, are you?” The man sagely nodded his head. “My daughter was the same, before she decided she got too old for those sorts of things.” He held up two fingers. “It’s yours for twenty solars.”

She pulled out the coins and placed them on the counter. The man swiftly snatched them up.

Placing the book into her pouch, Scarlett paused for another moment before leaving. She glanced at the shopkeeper, that familiar feeling still lingering at the back of her mind.

Had he perhaps been an NPC in the game? If she’d visited this place in one of her playthroughs…

“You would not happen to have a certain problem that you require help to deal with?” she asked. “From one who is acquainted with exploration and danger.”

The man blinked. His smile turned even wider as he rubbed his hands together. “Hah, what a coincidence. Actually, I do have a slight issue right now. You see, I recently ran out of Sprig Floret, and my back isn’t what it used to be, so I can’t go and fetch more myself, but if you could—”

“I see. That is all I wanted to know.” Scarlett turned around for the exit. Fetch quests were annoying enough in games.

“How’d it go?” Allyssa asked after they had returned outside and climbed into the carriage again.

“Good,” Scarlett said, sitting down in her seat. “It appears as if our timetable has been moved forward.”