While Daimon was busy dealing with the little surprise the Lineage Temple had in store for him, the hours passed and soon they finally left the plain tropical area which indicated they were near the coast, for a more forest like zone.
The only problem is that in the transition, there were some streams which clashed with the tree predominant landscape, resulting in a large freshwater swamp that separated the coastal area from the regular inland area.
“Stop!”, the carriage which was leading the caravan stopped, and the driver warned the others.
“Mm?”, the girls noticed the carriage stopped and, looking through the double-sided windows, they realized why they have to.
In a planet which is mostly covered by water, the rain tends to overflow the inland water bodies, in this case the swamp that was ahead of them which used to be a lake, had gotten larger, to the point that the two sides had a separation of about 2 kilometers.
But while that sounds like a problem, it should have not been the case since there was a bridge which connected both sides, but now that they arrived the bridge was destroyed leaving only the part that was attached to the ground, as for the rest it probably sank forever in the swamp.
“How weird, the were carriage trails all the way ahead of us, so the others should have passed this spot too”.
“Look at the other side, there are carriage trails there”, one of the drivers pointed at the other side, where there were signs of wheels that advanced from the shore to the forest a couple of hundreds of meters ahead.
The drivers inspected their surroundings trying to see if they were being set up, but found nothing, then out of all of the drivers there were a couple which were able to use mana sense.
“I… can’t see inside the swamp, it’s more like mud instead of water”.
While the drivers were discussing about what to do, one of the carriages lowered the window, and the irritated voice of a man came from it.
“Martin, why the hell are we not moving, the Lord Trident Marshall is said to pay more attention to those who arrive early, just carry the damn carriage and jump to the other damn side!”.
The people o the other carriages remained silent, and while the driver wanted to advice his master to wait for the group to reach a consensus, listening to the voice of his master, he sighed and then obeyed, getting condescendence gazes from some of the other drivers.
The guy who was inside the carriage looked at the other drivers and carriages and he snorted.
“Humph, bunch of cowards, why are you attending the hunt when you are so hesitant about a mere fallen bridge”.
With those last words, the driver who was an early stage Archknight raised the carriage with his won hands and after taking some impulse, he jumped from one side to the other.
The girls saw that all the other carriages lowered their windows too, the different nobles focused their attention on the one who was right now advancing towards the other side.
“Grooowl”, a loud beast like sound followed by a huge splash drew everyone’s attention, as pair of giant jaws appeared from below the swamp, they were so huge that even after reaching one hundred meters of height, it barely showed to what animal the jaws belonged.
It was some kind of huge green crocodile with foliage growing on its back, obviously with the intention of suing it as camouflage.
“Dodge you fool!”, the guy inside the carriage yelled at the Archknight, but for some reason the driver didn’t pay him any attention, as if he wasn’t mentally present.
Although the size of that crocodile magic beast was irreal, it wasn’t slow at all, and before the noble in the carriage could do anything, the jaws closed.
“Ahhh!!!”, a lung tearing scream came from inside the jaws of the crocodile, and its snout expanded a bit before smoke escaped from it, but the crocodile simply submerged its head back into the swamp.
Muddy water splashed the shore as the shadow of the crocodile disappeared into the depths of the swamp, there were a couple of flashes of light below the water, but surprisingly they couldn’t feel the mana coming from below although they could see a couple of illuminated areas, before everything returned to calm.
“Did you saw that?”.
“Yeah… there are more of those things hidden in the swamp”.
“As expected, there were Deep Swamp Crocodiles, one of the most dangerous magic beasts that can be found inland in our Clear Water kingdom, the foliage in their back’s blends with the swamp, and even blocks the capacity of those whose families have had blood ties with Stellar rank experts, to use mana to inspect their surroundings”.
“My guess is that some lowlife destroyed the bridge, probably the pirates, or the guys that passed through here before us”.
One of the two drivers which didn’t leave the carriage they were driving, interrupted the others explaining what just happened.
The other drivers frowned hearing that guy, they were all the bodyguards sent to look over their respective young masters, although most of them were early-stage Arch ranks and a couple of middle stage ones and weren’t part of their families, but under contract for security reasons, they were serving middle level noble families.
“What do you mean… did you know those things were there, if so, then why didn’t you say anything?”, questioned one of the two middle stage Arch ranks, the one who died was someone he met back when he started, so they could be considered comrades to a certain extent.
The peak Arch rank looked at the driver as if he was looking at an idiot.
“It was just a hunch, if someone didn’t verify it, then how do you suppose I would be able to find the safest way to bring my young master to the other side?”.
“What!”, as expected, the reaction of the other drivers was indignation, they were treated as fodder cannon without knowing, and those in the same caravan were supposed to watch each other’s back at least.
“If you have the information why the hell didn’t you share it!”.𝒪𝐕𝗅xt.𝓒𝓞𝔪
The peak Arch rank ignored the complains of the others and instead bowed towards the carriage he was guarding.
“Young Lord, those vile creatures shouldn’t be here and they wouldn’t normally attack us, someone must have infuriated them on purpose, maybe the group that went ahead of us, now that we know there isn’t a half Stellar rank among them, we can use the bait young Lord’s older brother gave us, to easily reach the other side”.
After a couple of seconds, the window of the carriage lowered showing the sole passenger of it, a tall man in his early twenties with black hair and black dorsal fin at the height of his shoulders, a sign that he belonged to the Blackfin noble house, and judging by his attire which consisted in a black scale armor of the best quality possible, and the proud and cold expression on his face, he wasn’t from a secondary branch.
“This has become a race, we don’t need trash dragging us down, find a good place to cross and let’s go”.
Then as if his attitude underwent a 180° change, the guy from the Blackfin family looked at the other carriage which was guarded by a peak Archmage, before saying.
“It would be an honor for me to escort lady Mellie of course”, he said with a gallant voice.
“You!”, the other drivers and their respective young masters, which now had lowered their windows to look at the one who was insulting them, nearly spat blood due to the anger, those two were the core of the caravan and they were the ones that gathered the rest.
In other words, they now realized they were just used and throwed aside, by those two major nobles.
“What, you should be happy that I even let you near me, all of you are all second-grade nobles who serve the bigger families, vassals in front of my Blackfin family”, said the man with a condescending voice.
A couple of second later, the voice of a woman came from the other carriage, but the window wasn’t lowered.
“I prefer to travel at a normal pace since this is the first time I’m out of the main territory of my family, but I do appreciate young master Jin good intentions”.
The smiling expression in the member of the Blackfin family, twitched a bit, but he just answered.
“Lady Mellie should reconsider it, even if our two bodyguards join hands, they won’t be able to hold back all those savage beasts, the only way to cross the swamp in the short term is with my…”.
The words the guy stuck in his throat upon seeing at the carriage that joined the caravan at the end, which didn’t even have a driver, advancing through the swamp by creating an ice road on the surface.
“Humph, bumpkins, did they think the crocodiles would just ignore them”, coldly snorted the Blackfin family member, but then his expression became ugly, the previous guy was eaten alive before reaching a quarter part of the distance, and yet the carriage that was using ice steadily advancing right now had reached half way through, without any retaliation.
It was as if the crocodiles were avoiding them, their giant shadows were visible as they have gone up from the deep bottom, but nothing else happened.
The other drivers and the nobles in their carriages stared at each other, and then turned to see Jin, with a mocking expression.
“Well, if young master Jin, excuses us, there is a neo noble willing to guide us, good luck”.
After saying that, all of them immediately advanced towards the ice road and after verifying it was solid, they started crossing the swamp following Aisha and the girls.
The Blackfin guy was furious, he lost face in front of the woman he is courting, and the worst part is that it was due to a neo noble.
‘Travelling without the emblem of your noble house just to draw attention, fucking neo nobles’, yelled the guy in his heart.
Unlike the old nobles or the founding noble houses, the neo nobles who got noble titles due to their merits in the army or someone in their family reaching the Half Stellar realm, all during the reign of the current king, travelled without an emblem in their carriages, clothes and the like, just to mess with others.
A few words coming from the other carriage next to his, put the last nail in Jin’s coffin.
“I will also take my leave; I wish young master Jin good luck in his rush towards the Warhammer city”.
Without saying anything else, the other carriage quickly advanced following the others, leaving only Jin and his driver behind.
After a couple of seconds, Jin snorted and ordered his driver.
“That ice trail should be from a treasure similar to the bait my brother handed me, it’s good that, that idiot neo noble wants to brag, use it, we’ll reserve ours for later and we’ll see who laughs last”.
The driver nodded and then started advancing towards the beginning of the ice trail, but as soon as one of the wheels touched it, that part of the ice melted nearly causing them to fall in the swamp.
Jin’s eyes became bloodshot, his body trembled due to anger.
“What the fuck are you doing, are you trying to kill me, take some distance and use the damn bait!”.
The driver had a bitter expression, he just followed orders and was shame-scolded, but he still did as he was ordered.