Evening.

The Southern Marquessate of Rimor. Despite the frigid year, the region was warmer than all other regions of Nemphis. Some of the more warm lands did not even have snow blanketing all over them.

A small carriage, a wagon to be precise, was being pulled by a donkey on one of these snowless lands. The ‘coachman’ was a skinny old man who was chewing a stalk of barley.

The wagon behind would have been empty, if the two weird strangers had not come out of nowhere and asked for a ride. Of course, they agreed to pay- a hefty sum at that. Hence, there was a big smile on the old man’s face.

Of the two, one was a male- a demonically handsome young man. And the other? A young woman, who looked as if she were in her late twenties, with a dainty body and pale face. The paleness only added to her beauty while her yellow hair set her apart from the rest of the crowd.

The male was, of course, Adrian while his ‘selected’ female companion was Vanessa Herrings. It had been six hours since they escaped the delegation carriage, and been a little more than thirty minutes since they boarded the wagon.

Throughout the journey, they exchanged little words between themselves. How would they? For four hours, they were trapped inside a small compartment. And for the last six hours, they had been journeying nonstop through the harsh snow; after all, none of them had fire as their attribute. And now, finally- they were able to relax since there were no more snowstorms and more importantly, they were in a state of rest.

Though most of the time, Vanessa was looking to her left, ahead- where the wagon was moving towards- she would occasionally peak a glance at the young man in front of her, who had his eyes closed.

“What?” Adrian uttered with his eyes still closed, surprising the yellow haired woman who abruptly looked ahead again. “Isn’t sneaking peeks at your own liege’s man considered treason?”

She remained silent. His lips stretched to a smile.

“You received orders from the High King, right? To keep an eye on me.”

She looked at him again, this time- with widened eyes. “How did you-” She suddenly remembered what the princess had said. ‘If he knows something he shouldn’t know. Don’t be surprised. That bastard knows everything.’

“Yes, I received orders. But I am not obliged to tell you anything about my assignments.”

“And I don’t care about your assignments.” Adrian finally opened his eyes and looked into hers. Vanessa felt as if her soul was being sucked into those dark abyssal eyes. Forget resistance, she strangely wanted herself to get vacuumed into them.

The ‘suction’ force from his eyes suddenly stopped, returning everything to normal as before.

“Just know that as long as you don’t get in my way, you won’t get hurt. Otherwise, I won’t even care that you are Evelyn’s guardian.” His tone was carefree, devoid of any threats.

But she had goosebumps all over her body. She was veteran who had made major contributions in both war and stampede. She knew more than most what could actually hurt her and what could not. And the eighteen year old belonged to the former.

She answered in silence and turned her head leftwards again, the sun was setting fast.

For the rest of the journey, none of them uttered a single word to each other.

An hour passed.

At a village not even a kilometre to the Northeast to the city of Ris, the Southern capital of Nemphis, the ‘carriage’ made a stop. Vanessa jumped down while Adrian slowly climbed down like a gentleman.

Just when the old man came to ask for money, Adrian pointed at Vanessa.

“See that woman over there? She works for the Royal family.”

The old man turned away from him and approached Vanessa. Vanessa brought out a small piece of crystal from a small pouch hanging from her waist and gave it to the skinny old man.

The crystal was sparkling but apparently, the old man’s eyes sparkled even more. He knelt to ground and touched the cold soil with his forehead before getting back up again and hopping on the wagon. He went into the village with his companion, the donkey, with a wide grin on his face. His family wouldn’t have to starve for the next few months.

Both of them began to walk Southwest towards the booming city of Ris. Somewhere around a hundred meters away from the city gates, hoods covered their hair and face.

Night. Torches lit up the entire city walls. But it was even brighter at the gates. A squad of six uniformed guards were checking all the entrants to the city.

“Hold! Take off your hoods.” A guard showed two hooded figures the palm of his hand.

Vanessa nonchalantly walked towards the guard, making him and the others go on their guards. Vanessa took out a small piece of paper and offered it to the guard stopping them.

The guard carefully took the small piece of paper and checked it. His eyes almost popped out but he composed himself in no time. He was a military man after all. He returned the piece of paper gently, not even daring to look at the hood covered face of the lady.

He looked at his colleagues and nodded.

Adrian and Vanessa did not waste any time and walked into the gates, disappearing into the busy crowd of the streets.

The guard’s colleagues did not ask him who she was or what she wanted. From his reaction they were able to understand that more people knowing would only increase the chances of a court marshal.

The city was devoid of any snow unlike almost all other cities in the Confederation, even without any fire circlers assigned with melting snow. Though it was night, the city was bustling. However, this was not surprising because Ris was known for it’s nightlife.

But Adrian and Vanessa opposed joining in as they were tired from the long journey. Both of them had already decide that they would retire for the night and go to ‘duty’ the next day.

They picked a random inn and went in. None of them cared much about luxury as they would be staying for one night anyway.

Adrian went to the reception where a young lady, who looked not any older than twenty five, was sitting idly with a sullen face.

“Welcome, what do you want?” She asked with a down voice and that same sullen face.

“One one-bedded room for one night.” He answered.

He suddenly felt a pull on his shoulder, he followed the hand holding his shoulder. It was Vanessa.

“What do you mean by one one-bedded room?” She whispered. “I am booking two rooms.” She turned towards the reception but he gripped her wrist and tugged her hard, pulling her into his arms.

Their ‘intimate’ actions grabbed the attention of the receptionist. A smile formed on her face.

Vanessa tried to resist but to her dismay, the eighteen year old second year student was physically stronger.

“Why do you think I brought you here on this journey?” He smiled.

She stopped squirming and squinted beneath her hood.

“For this sole reason.”