Linnetia “Nyx” Paine’s POV

I sat comfortably in the carriage and absent-mindedly watched the three children play on the floor. I had no idea how the three of them didn’t mind playing with the rocking and swaying of a carriage, but I figured it was just because they were young. It also helped that the ride wasn’t awful compared to most, considering the roads are well paved, and the carriage was well built.

Sylas had given up his seat, as did one of my attendants, so Dallin and Rosemary could join us. How did a headmaster and a powerful mage’s young daughter end up with my family convoy and not his? I will never know. Apparently, she had begged her father to be allowed to travel with her friends, and Headmaster Taurus had caved in.

The three kids were playing what looked to be some type of marble game that I was unfamiliar with. It consisted of rolling a marble into a pile and trying to break the stack apart. It seemed to be a silly game that was difficult considering the environment, but nonetheless, they appeared to be having fun as they laughed and giggled every time they managed to split a pile.

And Mila seemed quite good at it…is it because she is a Beastmen and was stronger than them? Perhaps her eyesight was better as well? Maybe.

It was also quite interesting seeing the three of them interact. I knew that not long ago, there was a significant language barrier among them. Mila was once only able to speak Beastmen with nothing more than broken Human. At the same time, Rosemary could only speak Human. In comparison, Dallin could only speak Elvish and use Sign Language.

However, now that was no longer the case. The three children spoke comfortably in the Human language and seemed to have no problems communicating. Was it because they were young and took to the language easily? Or was Kaladin’s grandfather a worthwhile teacher? Or perhaps they are just smart?

I had a feeling it may be a collection of all those possibilities. It was impressive that Dallin and Mila were well on their way to becoming trilingual. It wasn’t uncommon for many people to know two languages, but to be fluent in three was impressive. Especially if they could read and write as well.

But I don’t think Mila can read and write and Beastmen…huh…is she better at Human and Sign Language than her native tongue now? It appeared that way.

I wasn’t sure what the level of Rosemary’s language education was, but I think she was only fluent in one language. I imagine she wasn’t the most diligent student, or at least that was my opinion. I hadn’t precisely asked as it felt odd to do so. I wasn’t sure how I should treat Rosemary yet…she was… difficult… considering my position.

Well, she’s just a child. I don’t think I need to be overtly formal with her. She seemed to be in her own little world anyways and hardly concerned herself with the matters of nobility and politics.

I looked up and watched as Kaladin slept softly, as did Sylvia. Cerila also quietly watched the children play with a small smile on her face. We were only a few hours into the trip, and Kaladin and Sylvia had managed to fall asleep quickly.

It would be some time before we reached the final rest stop for the night. The way it worked is that if a person were to leave by carriage at sunrise and continue on without stopping, they would arrive at a town that could accommodate them before sundown. Walking was also possible if one left before the sun rose. However, you would not arrive until after the sun had long set.

But carriages going to and from the capital were frequent and cheap enough that most people could afford the rides if they found a merchant willing to take them. Not that I would know anything about that. My family always supplied the means to travel long distances.

I heard some loud sniffing and looked down with a raised eyebrow. Mila was sitting up on her knees and sniffing the air. Like a fool, I tried smelling something, but of course, as a Human, I smelt nothing of importance. Finally, Mila stood up, and the carriage rocked slightly. She fell into her dad’s legs and immediately started climbing him like a ladder.

It was like a little kitten crawling over her parents. It was definitely something I never thought I would witness in any life. It was…adorable.

Kaladin slowly opened his golden eye up and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, practically asking me what was going on. I just shrugged and gave him a confused look. I had no idea what Mila was doing, so his guess was as good as mine.

Mila let out another long sniff as she crawled up to Kaladin’s shoulders. It didn’t appear that she was smelling him, though, as she practically ignored Kaladin. Cerila, also sensing something was odd, started smelling the air.

Mila tilted her head to the side in confusion. “Cat?”

Cat? What?

The carriage suddenly rocked hard as we hit something on the road, and Mila was tossed back with a yelp of surprise. She even reached out and tried to grab a piece of luggage on her way down, but she was caught by Kaladin in a flash. However, the luggage was not so lucky.

Poor Dallin barely managed to dodge the suitcase as it hit the floor and exploded open. That was when I couldn’t hold in my surprise. A giant ball of black burst out from the now open case with a screech.

“Commander?!” I yelled as the cat leaped into my lap.

What is he doing here?! Did he sneak into my luggage?! What?! Ah—oh…oh…damn…

I slowly looked up and met Kaladin’s eyes. He was just looking at me with a blank expression. Sylvia had also woken up, and her crimson eyes peered at me slightly. My chest swelled, and I could feel my face heat up.

“Ah…” the words caught in my throat.

I’ve never been so embarrassed in my entire life. I want to crawl into a ball and die. Maybe I should open the door and throw myself out of the carriage…

“Commander…huh?” Kaladin’s groggy voice asked me.

“That’s…I…I wasn’t hiding it from you…or anything…” I said sheepishly.

“That’s an interesting name,” Sylvia said dryly before yawning and closing her eyes again.

Kaladin just smiled wryly at me and said nothing. I think the silent resignation only made it worse and increased my embarrassment. I swear I had no ulterior motives for naming him that. I just…I thought the white on his face kinda looked like our visors, and his blank expression reminded me…ah…whatever…

“Sorry…” I muttered, feeling like a true fool.

“It’s fine. It’s just a name,” Kaladin said as he sat up a little more.

Yeah…I hope so…

Kaladin asked Cerila how she didn’t notice the cat beforehand, and that was when the obvious question arose. Mila and Cerila should have smelt Commander long before we left, yet they didn’t.

she signed with a shrug.

The perfume and scents in a small enclosed space…that made sense, I guess.

Kaladin nodded at the explanation as Commander purred in my lap and as if the drama from moments before had never happened. When I found Commander on the side of the road many years ago as a child, I took him on a whim. He was a tiny, sick little kitten that I did not think would last very long. I figured that, at the time, I would give him a nice final moment of life.

I hadn’t even planned on naming him or anything. But when Sylas asked me if I wanted the cat to live, I said yes. It’s not like I wished for a poor little kitten to die, that was just cruel for no reason, and I find no enjoyment in watching anyone, animal or person, suffer needlessly. Sylas begged our father to heal the cat, something I hadn’t even considered.

And after a lecture, my father agreed to heal the cat if I took care of it. At first, I had no desire to do so, but not wanting the cat to die, I agreed. I thought it would be a needless hassle, but as more time went on, I began to enjoy nursing the kitten back to health. People warned me that cats could be complicated creatures.

Apparently, some were violent, and no amount of Human affection would change that. Even if you scratched the cat’s ears, it would bite you. I was told that some were uncaring to even their owners and would want nothing to do with them. However, Commander wasn’t like that.

He was very affectionate and loved to laze around. If nobody bothered him, he could sleep for hours. And even if I went to him to scratch and play with him, he always reciprocated. There was only one thing about Commander, and that was he hated men.

My cat was a misandrist, and I had no idea why. When he was but a kitten, he was only a few days old. He should have never been in an environment to hate men in such a way that he does now.

No matter who it was, a servant, my brother, or father, Commander would hiss and get violent against them. It was odd as he never acted that way towards any woman. It was just one of his many quirks.

Mila crawled on her hands and knees and looked up at me with her big blue eyes. “Can I play with the kitty?”

“That…would be difficult…I—”

“Please, Aunt Lin?” she pleaded with puffed-out cheeks.

Ah…how can I say no to that face? I would be a lousy aunt…yes…

“Just be careful. He may scratch you…okay? And pet him gently,” I told Mila while looking at Kaladin.

Kaladin shrugged and figured that if something crazy happened, I would step in. Which, of course, I would. I’d never let my cat hurt anyone willingly.

I picked Commander up, and the cat slowly opened his eyes. He let out a soft purr, despite being suspended in the air by a single hand on his belly, and even meowed at me. I could put him in any position, and he would always seem happy to see me.

“Be nice to Mila…okay?”

Commander meowed back at my words, and Kaladin chuckled to himself. I sent a glare over to him, but she just turned his head away with a grin.

Was talking to animals weird or something? I felt like Commander knows what I’m saying, though…I know it’s not logical, but…it’s just a feeling, you know?

I slowly lowered Commander to Mila, and I felt him go rigid. Yet, he didn’t hiss or lash out at all. I waited until the last moment until Mila had him in her hands and let go, but Commander never freaked out.

I let out a satisfied sigh as Mila gently patted Commander’s head. She even giggled in a…sort of… weird way. It was almost evil in a sense. That’s when I looked down and watched the interaction more closely.

Commander is petrified. That’s why he isn’t moving. He looks like a stone statue.

Mila was giggling in a creepy way as she smiled down at the cat in her arms. It was like a predator that was toying with its prey. Maybe in that case, it really was like that. Mila was a Beatmen of a bigger cat species, so it made sense to a degree. I just never thought it would manifest like that. Would the same hold for a dog and a wolf Beastmen?

Well…this was all un…ex…pected…

The carriage began to slow down.

My eyes met Kaladin’s, and he nodded with a stern expression. Sylvia was already wide awake, and Cerila was on edge. There were a few reasons a carriage would slow down on the way to a destination that they had not yet arrived at. And most of them were not good.

The carriage rocked to a halt as Kaladin and Sylvia funneled out the door. Naturally, I joined them and left Cerila to protect the children. Sure enough, it didn’t take long to hear a shout followed by metal clashing against metal. Whoever it was, they made a grave mistake in attacking us.

Our convoy may be small, and the people and guards may appear to be nothing special on a first glance, but that was done on purpose. However, all my attendants and guards today were elites amongst elites. Most of them were either retired war veterans with decades of experience in service to my family or highly trained assassins.

Not to mention…we have guests that are monsters in their own rights. Kaladin’s parents are of the upper echelons of power. I would retreat the moment I saw them.

I watched as a crackle of yellow lighting ripped the air apart. Two heads arced into the air in the distance and fell into the bushes somewhere. A loud boom bounced off the nearby trees, followed by the screams of dying men. Sylvia and Kaladin rushed to the front of the convoy to assist, but I just stood by.

I had an appearance to keep up even in public as we were not completely alone and with trusted individuals. I couldn’t just mindlessly rush into battle. That’s now what a daughter of a prestigious noble family would do.

Sure enough, someone came rushing out of the brush on the side and ran at me. It was a dirty-looking man in rough patchwork leather armor wielding a dull and rusty blade. He was pitiful as could be and didn’t make it far before one of my knights slashed him across the chest, killing him instantly.

I casually walked over to the now-dead bandit and looked him over. His gear was shabby, ill-fitted, and pathetic. Clearly, it was nothing more than pieces of clothing and armor he had stolen from some unfortunate people. As for the man himself, he was emaciated, and poor hygiene was evident in his open mouth, along with his crusty fingernails and filthy hair.

He is not an assassin by any means. I could have killed this man without the use of my arms. Nobody would even bother paying a silver coin to somebody of this level.

So why did they attack us? They must genuinely be low-life bandits on their last legs. They must have grown desperate sitting on the outskirts of the capital, waiting to ambush someone unsuspecting. Seeing us arrive, they must have believed they had struck gold and decided to attack.

As we were one of the last conveys to leave, the previous groups would be filled to the brim with knights and even royal guards. In contrast, our precession was on the smaller side, with only three carriages and a handful of guards. Well, it was a grave miscalculation on their part.

“Lady Paine! You should be inside your carriage,” a voice called out to me.

I turned to face the beautiful woman, now covered in blood, who called out to me with a look of genuine concern in her green eyes. Her matching green hair was short and in the style of High Elves. She wore a relatively simple adventurer gear of a mix of chain mail and leather, but despite that, it fit tight to her petite body. She lacked the noble features of High Elf royalty but still exemplified Elven beauty with her striking appearance.

If the hair colors this odd is natural, isn’t that indicative of a large mana pool? Is it possible she isn’t a mage? Unlikely, perhaps she is simply pretending not to be one.

She flicked the blood off her sword but kept her shield at the ready. She was the leader of an adventurer group that I had hired to “protect” us. Of course, that wasn’t the real reason why I hired her.

Esta Lunarpath was her name, and she was an adventurer from Tel’an’duth. She even had a run-in with Kaladin on his birthday, which I found discerning and in need of attention. But that wasn’t all.

I also believed that she was a spy masquerading as an adventurer. Something that was common enough.

“It’s fine,” I told her.

“But a noble lady such as yourself shouldn’t—” she trailed off as she looked at my cold expression.

“In the face of a Dragon attack, this is nothing. I’m not a helpless child,” I told her sternly.

Esta Lunarpath flinched at my harsh words and looked down at the body I was examining. She nodded slowly and went into the forest to clear it some more.

Of course, I was acting to a degree but also telling the truth. There could be a mountain of corpses, and I wouldn’t be bothered by it. It was a somewhat sad thing to say, or so most people would think, but the reality was I was just used to it, or more likely, I was simply desensitized to such matters. The Dragon attack had been…rough.

That day I lost many friends and was prepared to fight for my life with everything on the line. Some of those friends whom I was close to and others I had only met once in passing. It was a brutal scene and the first I had witnessed in this new world I found myself in. Even so, it was just another chapter of my life. That’s what I had to tell myself.

And eventually, it would become a convenient excuse for moments like this. If I told people I was a part of the Dragon attack, they would simply stop talking as they could never imagine what it would have been like to be there.

After a little while longer, Esta Lunarpath returned with a somewhat embarrassed smile. “Ah…it appears we have handled all of the bandits. There were roughly fourteen in total, and we quickly handled them with the help of everyone.”

“That’s good. Were there any casualties?” I asked.

Esta shook her head. “Not on our side, no, Lady Paine.”

“Then there is nothing to be concerned about. Good work, Ms. Lunarpath,” I told her.

Esta Lunarpath nodded shyly. “It seems we brought some bad luck…this is the second time this has happened outside of the capital.”

“Is that so? How unfortunate,” I responded dryly, already knowing full well what had happened. Afterall, Kaladin, Cerila, and her party had eliminated a well-organized and deadly bandit group in the region.

Esta chuckled awkwardly and left and left to…do whatever it was that she believed needed to be done. Honestly, I wasn’t the least bit worried. If I or someone else in this convoy were to be assassinated, it would have been done through extreme and thorough means. I’d half expect three Grandmaster mages from the woods blasting our convey with enough magic to level a city.

That’s probably what it would take to kill Kaladin and his family…at least Sylas and I would die quickly.

I sighed as I watched Esta talk amongst my guards. I was hoping that by hiring her, I may be able to ascertain her actual position and goal. It was only the first day, after all, and the crumbs of various qualities had been planted for her choosing. All I needed was for the mouse to bite.

Because if this woman meant harm to Kaladin or this kingdom. I will dispose of her immediately.

“Everything okay?” Kaladin asked me.

“Yes, it’s all fine. The bandits are dead, and nobody is dead,” I told him. Kaladin looked over to Esta Lunarpath with narrowed eyes. “Nothing yet. We must be patient.”

“I’ll leave it to you. Let’s hope the rest of this trip is uneventful,” Kaladin said.

And uneventful it was. Within a week of constant, bandit, and monster-free travel, we arrived at Flumare, The City Of Rivers, a coastal gem of Luminar and the host city of the tournament.