BAM!

Taula defended against the strike of a Minotaur on Floor 30, her axe meeting the creature’s massive club.

She drew back her weapon and let another one of her fellow A-Ranks cut through the monster from behind. The blade sliced clean through the Minotaur’s spine, dropping it instantly.

As the Minotaur fell, Taula drew back her weapon to above her shoulder.

The A-Rank who’d killed the Minotaur turned to her. She was known as Swordmaster who was a woman with black hair and crimson eyes.

"Why are you being so distracted?" Swordmaster asked. "The Taula I know would have punched through that Minotaur pretty easily."

Taula grimaced.

"I feel like Klaus is doing something behind my back..." Taula admitted and Swordmaster’s eyebrow arched.

"Klaus?" Swordmaster repeated. "Is that your boyfriend?"

Taula’s face flushed bright red and she shook her head left to right rapidly.

"N-no, we’re not dating!" Taula sputtered.

"Then why are you being jealous?" Swordmaster asked. "He can do whatever he wants. You’re not dating him nor are you getting married to him."

Before Taula could refute that she was his friend and it mattered, the leader of the A-Ranks slashed through another Minotaur with his blond hair blowing backward.

Out of all the A-Ranks here, he was surely the prettiest one. Nobody knew what noble family he belonged to, but he had to certainly be from a noble family that had looks of the highest tier.

Adam pulled his blade back from the corpse of the Minotaur.

"This is the final floor we were meant to secure..." Adam announced. "So our joint mission ends now. Thank you for the good work everyone, If you want to leave, you can but if you want to check further and fight against the Mini Boss on Floor 50, then—"

A shockwave rippled through the chamber as Taula immediately ran toward the stairs, not even letting Adam finish. Adam sighed with his blond hair sticking to his face.

"Does anyone else—" Adam started.

Immediately, the other adventurers began pulling out and heading downstairs, their voices overlapping.

"My back is killing me from all that fighting!"

"I promised my wife I’d be home by evening!"

"The Guild only paid us to clear Floor 30 anyway!"

"I need a drink after those Minotaurs!"

"Floor 50? That’s suicide!"

Adam sighed again and Swordmaster walked up to him with a satisfied smirk.

"I won the bet..." Swordmaster said, holding out her hand. "Pay up."

Adam reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold coin, Swordmaster snagged it immediately.

"Maybe next time," Swordmaster said as she turned to leave, "if you weren’t such a handsome noble, people would actually listen to your speeches instead of just staring at your face."

Then she headed downstairs too and the Prince sighed, running his hand through his hair.

’I guess I’d better head to Rivera then...’ Adam thought.

...

Taula ran directly to Klaus’s house. The instant she got there, she opened the door and called out his name.

"Klaus!"

Serra was in the living room cleaning her staff and she greeted Taula with a smile.

"Good evening, Taula," Serra said.

"Good evening," Taula replied quickly. "Where’s Klaus?"

"Boss? I think he’s upstairs..." Serra said.

Taula ran upstairs and opened Klaus’s door without knocking. He was currently sorting through several clothes, placing them into his storage ring.

Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"It’s rude to enter someone’s room without knocking first, you know that right?" Klaus said.

Taula ignored that.

"Where are you going?" Taula demanded.

"Where? I’m going to Rivera City..." Klaus said. "Serra and I have something to do there."

’Always Serra... Serra... Serra.’ Taula thought bitterly.

It was like the moment Serra had arrived, she’d stolen Klaus away with those big breasts of hers. Taula didn’t like it at all

"Can I come along?" Taula asked and Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"What did you think?" Klaus asked. "That I was going to let you stay alone in my house? What if you blew something up or destroyed some of my furniture?" 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He threw her storage ring to her.

"You forgot this..." Klaus said. "Pack up your stuff and hurry up, We’ll be leaving soon."

Taula caught it and looked at Klaus.

’Klaus still thinks about me~’ Taula thought. She couldn’t help herself, Taula charged at him and knocked him down with a hug.

"Oi, let go of me, crazy woman!" Klaus said but Taula just rubbed her head against his chest.

"I won’t." Taula said happily.

Serra opened the door and looked in, looking at Klaus raising one hand up desperately.

"Serra, help me..." Klaus pleaded and Serra chuckled.

"What do you want me to do?" Serra asked. "Taula is the strongest here after all. I’d just get myself into the same situation."

And so Klaus was forced to let Taula keep rubbing her face against his chest until she got bored.

...

"Let go..." Klaus said firmly.

Taula shook her head with her arms tightening around his hand like a vice.

"No." Taula said stubbornly as her face pressed against his side.

Currently, Klaus had locked up the inn and told the landlord that he would be going somewhere for a few days.

The landlord had been understanding about it and the man had even offered to keep an eye on the inn while he was gone, making sure nobody broke in or stole anything.

So now Klaus was in a part of Galen Town where people rented carriages for long-distance travel, the air filled with the smell of horses and leather and the sounds of merchants haggling and also Taula was still clinging to him like her life depended on it, refusing to let go no matter how many times he asked.

’Fucking hell...’

There were different kinds of carriages available.

The regular carriages for common folk... they were simple wooden constructions with hard benches and minimal protection from the elements.

Noble carriages with fancy decorations, velvet cushions, and family crests emblazoned on their doors and sky carriages that were used for sky-based transportation, floating vehicles pulled by specially bred flying horses, though those cost an absolute fortune to rent and required licensed mages to operate safely.

Cars didn’t exist in this world, which Klaus found endlessly frustrating every single day.

The lack of modern transportation meant everything took forever and journeys that would take an hour by car required days by carriage like their journey to Rivera.

If Klaus had good connections and was one of those reincarnators that magically knew how to build a plane or combustion engine from memory, he would have tried to introduce technology to this world instead of relying entirely on magic for everything.

However, he was none of those things.

He was just a regular guy who’d played video games and watched anime. He barely remembered how his smartphone worked back on Earth, let alone how to construct one from raw materials.

The internal mechanisms of engines, the aerodynamics of aircraft, the chemistry of fuel... all of that was far beyond his knowledge. He could use technology, but understanding how to build it from scratch? That required actual engineering knowledge he’d never bothered to learn.

So he was stuck with carriages like everyone else.

The carriage owners, seeing new customers arriving, immediately began calling out, competing for their business with increasingly enthusiastic pitches.

"Fine carriages here, handsome sir! Best vehicles in all of Galen Town!"

"Look at you, young master! So distinguished and refined! My carriage would suit a gentleman of your caliber perfectly!"

"Comfortable ride for you and your lovely ladies! Special price today only, just for you!"

"Sir, sir! Over here! You look like a man of refined taste and culture!"

"My horses are the fastest and strongest in town, good-looking sir! You won’t find better!"

"For such a handsome gentleman as yourself, I’ll give you my very best carriage at half price!"

"Young master, I can tell quality when I see it... and you, sir, are clearly a person of quality!"

’Why are they saying young master? Are these fuckers seeing my ugly face?’

Klaus ignored them all with his eyes scanning the available carriages with critical judgment.

He was looking for people whose horses were clearly properly well-fed and maintained. One of the people calling him had one horse smaller than the other that was clearly neglected.

Klaus turned to Serra.

"Do you have any contacts here too?" Klaus asked and Serra shook her head.

"The squad didn’t use carriages much," Serra said. "We just used our legs."

That was how they had walked for three hours to get to the North Dungeon.

"That sounds like hell..." Klaus muttered.

His eyes soon found one good carriage that looked like it had protection engravings on the body. It was also spacious. In other words, it was a very good carriage.

Klaus passed the side to see the owner and found the owner was already conversing with someone.

’Fuck! Why is he here?’ The person in question was a blond-haired, extraordinarily handsome man who looked far better than the average noble.

The Prince in disguise... Klaus wanted to pull back, but Taula had already arrived next to the guy.

"Adam!" Taula said. "Do you want to use this carriage?"

Adam turned with surprise on his face.

"Oh, Taula?" Adam said. "I didn’t expect to see you here. And yes, I’m using it."

"I want to go to Rivera City..." Taula said and Adam raised an eyebrow.

"What a coincidence," Adam said. "I want to go there too."

He smiled.

"You’re welcome to join me," Adam offered. "I’ll pay for everything, so you don’t need to worry. You helped us out in the Galen dungeon significantly so consider this my thanks."

Klaus’s face twitched... He didn’t want to be anywhere around this prince.

However, an hour later, the carriage was already far from Galen Town, gliding smoothly down the main road with no other vehicles visible in either direction.

’I couldn’t resist the urge of a free ride...’ Klaus thought, mentally berating himself for his weakness. Money was money, and saving travel costs meant more gold for herbs and gacha pulls.

Klaus looked around the interior.

The carriage was pretty spacious, but it just had enough sides for people to sit and maybe sleep on the ground in the back if they brought sleeping bags which was where the Prince, or rather "Adam" currently was.

He was in his sleeping bag with his eyes closed looking completely at peace.

Serra had fallen asleep on the long bench opposite Klaus and Taula, clutching her staff tightly even in sleep.

Her head was tilted to one side with a peaceful expression. She looked younger when she slept and less burdened by the weight of her squad’s deaths.

Taula had fallen asleep on Klaus’s lap, using his thigh as a pillow.

One of her hands was curled near her face, the other resting possessively on his knee. She made small contented sounds occasionally, like a cat purring and as for Klaus, his paranoia wouldn’t let him sleep.

’What if we get attacked while everyone’s sleeping?’ Klaus thought with his eyes constantly scanning the windows and the road behind them.

The carriage had protection enchantments carved into its body, sure, but those could be overwhelmed with enough force or sustained assault and they were traveling through wilderness between towns.

’Maybe I’m being too paranoid...’ Klaus thought, trying to force his shoulders to relax but the feeling wouldn’t go away then he saw it.

Klaus looked out the window and saw a red crackle from somewhere behind the carriage... it was a bit far away at first and just a distant glow against the darkening evening sky.

The crackle came closer rapidly, accelerating through the air.

Klaus’s eyes widened as he realized what it was... a fireball, streaking through the air like a comet aimed directly at them.

It collided with the magical barrier surrounding the carriage, dispersing into nothing but sparks and smoke on impact.

The barrier held, glowing translucent blue for a moment before fading back to invisibility but Klaus could see a large group of people riding horses while heading toward them from behind.

At least a dozen riders, maybe fifteen, spread out in an attack formation designed to surround and trap their prey.

Immediately, the carriage bells rang frantically as the driver up front realized what was happening. His voice cracked with genuine terror as he shouted.

"BANDITS!!!!"