A different carriage had been prepared for Lucan’s journey to the Academic City, Thesali, one that was equipped to actually traverse the significant distance that separated the North from the Center, including traversing the aptly named Grimhallow Forest. Four Northern Warhorses still pulled the carriage, but in the event that they were killed, the carriage could still be driven with the aid of a steering wheel and an acceleration module that regulated the amount of wind mana that would be drawn and converted from wind-attuned mana stones to propel the carriage forward at speeds that needed to be adjusted on the fly after the reins automatically detached itself.
Horseless carriages weren’t a popular, or even a feasible method of travel for most people, which wasn’t surprising considering that carriages weren’t built to transport wind-attuned mana stones and the spell matrices governing the variable type formation spell that allowed the conversion focused upon the most direct conversion possible as burned the mana contained in the wind-attuned mana stones, which also meant that it was the most wastefully inefficient process one could imagine.
So it was only used for emergencies and the amount of Wind-attuned mana stones contained in its storage could keep it going for about an hour, which could very much mean the difference between an assassinated noble and a live one. The movement was too jerky for it to be used to drive in a city proper anyway, but any dreams of doing so were quickly dashed by the fact that not only did the leading researchers in the Kingdom did not yet know how they could burn Wind-attuned Qi from a mana stone directly without the fine control of a mage at a higher efficiency than the natural one, but even if they did, the materials involved in building even the finest carriages had an innate limit on the nature and complexity of the formation spells they could host.
Well, that was atleast Lucan’s surface level understanding of the whole thing. As for what the intricacies of the spell matrices were or why the materials had limits to them, Lucan had no blooming idea.
The real defense Lucan had was the dozen Caravine guards that had been assigned for the mission of escorting him to Thesali in one piece. Two reinforcement stage and ten foundation stage experts was enough of a force to take out a specialist mage under the right circumstances, at least that was what Silvas Anderle’s memories told Lucan. They would all die if a master mage decided to turn his ire against them, but Lucan didn’t think his actions had those kind of ripples yet— hopefully.
Janis Caravine, Heir Apparent to House Caravine, was seated in the carriage with Lucan and Mira. It was easy for Lucan to forget that despite the zeal with which Janis carried out his duties around the manor, he was still very much the heir to a bonafide Noble Family, a Viscount Family at that and his claim was an unopposed one, whereas Lucan was a bastard. So it wouldn’t be exactly untrue to say that among the two of them, Janis Caravine probably had more value in the eyes of any noble scion wanting to make new connections—- any gain they could make by associating with Lucan was cancelled out by the everlooming influence of the duchess, which made him more of a liability or a threat instead.
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Of course, Lucan was a teenager, while Janis Caravine was a grown man fast approaching his forties, one well accustomed to making his way around the facets of noble society, so it was highly unlikely that anyone could take advantage of him or sway him without considerable resources. The same wasn’t true of Lucan, not in the slightest, but Silvas Anderle’s memories, even in the small portion he had managed to access so far, had allowed him to at least comprehend how murky the waters he was willingly treading towards were.
It was Janis who normally took responsibility for Lucan’s safety, commanding the other Caravine Aura Knights as their rightful heir, so he was surprised at the fact that he had chosen to sit in the carriage with them. Until Daven Caravine, the reinforcement stage Aura Knight that had taken up the carriage’s reins on their last excursion to the Sky Exchange, began barking orders to the ten formation stage aura knights with the stern, commanding tone of a leader.
A chorus of “Yes, Commander!” echoed out as the formation stage aura knights snapped into action, one taking up the reins while the other nine fanned out into a diamond formation that enveloped the carriage’s perimeter within it, with Daven Caravine taking up his position at the front tip. At the change in the largely silent man’s demeanor who had no problem playing the coachman, from powerful yet humble vassal to an imposing commander of knights, Lucan wondered if Janis had ever really been in charge.
Lucan couldn’t help but reflect at the ridiculousness of the force arrayed to guard him, now having an understanding of just how difficult it was to train force masters up until the reinforcement stage and how rarer it was to be able to command such highly trained men for an escort mission. Even most nobility could not spare such a force to merely escort their scions to the Imperial Academy, lest they leave their territory vulnerable and even a lesser prince’s guard would not be as overkill as a force capable of dealing with a rogue specialist mage. And this wasn’t even considering what last-resort contingencies Janis Caravine, the son of a Viscount and a Reinforcement stage Aura Expert, might have up his sleeve if pressed to the edge.
Silvas Anderle had shown him that powerful combatants always had contingencies, even if they discovered them mid-battle.
With the formation in place, Daven Caravine at the helm, his knights having taken their places, all on horseback and Lucan, Mira and Janis in the carriage, there was nothing holding them back.
Hoping that his luggage was all there, Lucan took a deep breath and settled into his lightly padded seat.
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