26. Traveling

The wind was playing with Waldina’s ponytail and the short hem of her ninjadress. At moments like these she was grateful for the shorts that came with her outfit. If she ever changed her outfit to a more stylish version, she’d likely keep the shorts still on. At the very least if it was her own choice. Speaking of changing clothes, she had been thinking for a while now about changing her ninja outfit and made a mental note to search for a new one.

The clatter of horses’ hooves surrounded them and Waldina turned her head to the side just enough to get a view of Claudia who was riding her horse slightly behind her. For a noble lady Claudia was surprisingly good at riding the horse, though she had some trouble in instructing the horse. It could also be that the horses Aminoffs employed were skillful enough that the actual skill-level of the rider mattered little.

Waldina, Kiandra and Claudia were currently heading towards Xunte Sintra. Waldina had given in and accepted the proposal for her accompanying Claudia. Aaaand she had received a heavy leather purse full of gold coins as an advance payment. That helped quite a bit in accepting the task. Both in this world and her homeworld money helped quite a bit and a person could get far with just a little bit of money. So it never hurt to have more of it.

Lidia and the other knights continued traveling via the original route in which they had planned to go with Claudia. Their aim was to confuse the knights of earl Cliffertown by acting like Claudia was with them in the carriage on her journey to the end of the world. Lidia would pretend to be Claudia when need be.

And thus Claudia was now with Waldina and Kiandra, on her way to act her part of the great plan. They had taken two horses from the knights and were now travelling on them through the forest between Twande and Drittio. Waldina had made her decision to travel close to her third stage-exam and clear the battle swiftly. Simon and Lidia weren’t too badly against the idea. On the contrary they thought it’d be wise to avoid traveling through the towns even if it came with the cost of travel time. Waldina wished her decision had been the correct one.

Traveling on horseback didn’t give her many chances of leveling up. As a ninja the only skills she could use like this was throwing daggers and shurikens. If only she was better at using water magic, then she could fight with it and still continue moving forward. Kiandra was perhaps capable enough of defending the three of them if need be, but Waldina’s own level wouldn’t gain anything from that. From between her dark thoughts she tried to convince herself that the journey itself would be worth it. After all, she hadn’t really gotten to know this new world in depth and traveling - with a local on top of that - could help quite a bit in getting to know the place.

In terms of their battle power, Claudia - disguised as Diaz - wouldn’t be of much help, at least not yet. That much was clear to Waldina. Simon had given Claudia both a sword and a dagger for her defense, but Claudia’s reactions showed she most likely wasn’t that familiar with using them. Or even if she was, she had never ended up in a situation where she’d actually have to use weapons to fend for herself.

Taking this all into account, if a danger approached Waldina would have to get down on to the ground and defend the noblelady. And those sorts of stops would only delay their journey. Waldina didn’t want to fail in her task of taking Claudia to Xunte Sintra in time, now that she had accepted the task for herself. She wasn’t too keen on the rewards waiting for her. It was more about giving Claudia the chance to live the life she envisioned. She didn’t want to be the reason Claudia failed. Waldina was afraid that Cliffertown would find them or the academy wouldn’t take her in after the semester began. There were so many things she could fail at. The worry only kept growing inside her.

“Jeeesh, time to get back to earth,” Kiandra called out to Waldina, whose face had been one big frown a while now. Kiandra never knew what her friend was thinking, but it clearly wasn’t anything positive.

“Ah, sorry,” Waldina muttered and tried to smile gently at the fairy swinging in front of her. The blue fairy was grabbing tightly onto the mane of the horse. She couldn’t exactly sit on the horse without falling down yet flying at the same speed as the horses’ galloping was exhausting in the long run and thus not a viable option. Thus she opted on grabbing tightly the horse’s mane and swung around.

“No need to apologize to me. It just hurts yourself,” Kiandra shrugged with an empathetic smile on her lips. Waldina returned the smile before once again turning to Claudia, riding behind her. As the lady - or Diaz - smiled back at her Waldina turned back to Kiandra.

“I better teach her how to use a sword as we camp tonight. Or at least how to properly hold the sword,” Waldina added with a good-natured laugh.

“What, don’t you trust in the combination the two of us make?” Kiandra teased with a voice filled with amusement.

“I do trust. I just don’t trust in her staying out of harm’s way,” the ninja grinned and checked that Claudia hadn’t heard them. She was still looking ahead, a smile adorning her face.

“Haha, I get it. I bet Claudia might get a bit overexcited. Like in Twande,” Kiandra wondered, reminiscing of their time and wandering around in Twande.

“Yes. I bet Xunte Sintra will be a great place for her getting a look at other than noblelady’s life. She totally needs it as she wants so much more than to be a pampered, fragile lady. But we’ve only got a month's time to get Claudia to act like Diaz, a boy from the countryside. If we actually want to succeed in this plan,” Waldina got more serious as she talked and she nearly slipped back to her thoughts again, but Kiandra managed to interrupt her:

“Do you know of Xunte Sintra beforehand? Like the version that existed in your world?”

“I do,” Waldina nodded, thinking what to tell and what not. “In AO it was a city where all the bigger countries came together. Like literally. Each bigger country had at the very least a road that led there.”

“How on earth it’s not under any country’s control? Nor dispute over power?” Kiandra amazed while thinking through her past experiences of the world, from different timelines. Humans were always engaged in some sort of battle and usually without a good reason.

“Well, in AO it was explained that Xunte Sintra is simply ‘no one’s land’. Like it’s literally surrounded with a powerful barrier making it immune to any and all attacks from outside and inside. In game terms it was a safe area,” Waldina explained further.

“In this world I think it might simply be a place which has an autonomous position, perhaps due to strong guardians. And so everyone is untouchable in Xunte Sintra and everyone has the same opportunities to study and learn there. It might be the reason why Claudia’s mother enrolled her there,” Waldina continued, though visibly more unsure. Her information was merely based on the information she’d received from playing the game, and only parts what she’d heard from Claudia and her knights.

“Hmm, Xunte Sintra sounds like a great place to move to,” Kiandra winked ever so slightly, and Waldina smiled shortly.

“Perhaps. Maybe once everything’s over we could settle down there,” Waldina’s words caused Kiandra’s eyes to twinkle brightly. “Once I’ve completed all those damn stage-exams and proved my worth to Slehtkubi’s leaders, just to laugh at them.” Kiandra’s face darkened a bit, but she contented to just nod in approval. At the very least Waldina was now entertaining the thought of settling somewhere in this world with Kiandra. She knew she was selfish in wishing her friend to stay with her forever. Yet she truly enjoyed the ninja’s company. She was grateful for the freedom Waldina granted her and she wanted to enjoy this freedom right next to her. She had been given a home and she didn’t want to look for another one.

“Aargh, my bottom really can’t take more of this,” Claudia complained some hours later, after they had been traveling via horses for hours. As Waldina heard the words she signaled the horse to slow down. She was by no means a master rider, but she had some experience of it. When she was younger she had attended horse riding lessons for a couple of years until she got too busy with her other hobbies.

“Sure, let’s take a break here,” Waldina replied as Claudia got closer to her. The lady looked at her friend’s movements with uncertainty and then she carefully pulled the reins. The horse, kind as it was, quickly slowed its pace to match that of Waldina’s horse’s. Finally their steps came into a stop and Waldina jumped down the horse. Claudia followed her example and to Waldina’s surprise, managed to get down without any problems. Perhaps the lady was more skilled than what she had let on with her prior actions and statements.

“Wow, extra height really helps in these kinds of situations,” Claudia amazed, pointing to her disguise as a Diaz. Waldina felt a light sting of jealousy in her heart for the artifact Claudia had, though she managed just fine as a short ninja girl. But it wouldn’t hurt to be just a tad bit taller.

“It surely helps,” Waldina let out a laugh whilst tying her horse into a nearby tree. They were in the middle of the forest and she had no idea of their exact location nor the dangers. While riding she’d noticed many different animals and monsters, but those had mainly been eyeing them from far away. She’d have to scan the area more carefully once they’d set their camp.

“Let’s take a short break before continuing the trip,” Waldina stated after observing their surroundings. Kiandra let out a couple of complaints, especially regarding food, but Waldina pretended she hadn’t heard a thing. She turned to look at Claudia weighing up her options. Then she decided to trust.

“Look, Diaz. I have an ancient artefact and I don’t want others to know about it unless necessary. I’m sure you get what I’m saying?” Waldina’s words were probably needlessly sharp, but Claudia didn’t flinch at all.

“Of course. I won’t speak a word of it,” Claudia nodded with a serious expression. Her eyes shone with curiosity as Waldina took out the cloth hiding her bracelet. The bracelet shining with purple lights made Claudia’s eyes go all round and big from astonishment.

“What on earth…?” The words slipped out of her lips before she could stop them.

“Ah this… It shows all sorts of information about this world and well some sort of tasks I’m required to complete,” Waldina explained, trying to find the right amount of truth she wanted to share with the lady. She glanced at Kiandra pleading for help.

“That’s so cool!” Claudia started happily and took a step closer to Waldina. For a nanosecond the ninja hesitated before moving her hand in a way that Claudia could see the interface of the bracelet.

“Is that a… map?” Claudia tilted her head questioning. She was quite sure the thing Waldina’s bracelet showed was some sort of map yet vastly different from the maps she’d seen before at her home in her family mansion. She had never really held much interest in maps. Even during this journey of hers, her knights had been the ones to check the map and route.

“Yes,” the ninja nodded while keeping her gaze fixed on the map in front of her. They were still closer to Twande than Drittio, although it was faster to travel through the forest with horses than via road with carriage. Not to mention galloping and not trotting. But the distance was great and the day halfway through was done.

“Once you get your energy back, we’ll continue,” Waldina told frowning. “According to the map we’re still close to fairly popular hunting grounds and we don’t want to end up as accidental victims here.”

“Or victims of thieves,” Kiandra added, receiving an angry glare from her ninja friend. Waldina had left out that part on purpose so that she wouldn’t cause unnecessary worry for Claudia.

“I wonder if I’m capable of helping you in the battles?” Claudia’s face was full of both excitement and fear.

“Probably not yet,” Waldina replied in a curt manner. “And please, don’t do anything to endanger yourself unless you’re absolutely sure about what you are doing.”

Claudia grimaced after hearing the words. She grabbed the sword sheathed at her hips and fixed her eyes on it. It was relatively heavy, but by no means too heavy for her. Perhaps the disguise artefact had given her some parts of masculine powers as well. It cheered her up ever so slightly.

Then Claudia stepped away from the horses, between two large trees and slashed through the air with her sword. Waldina raised her eyebrows for the view yet not a word came out of her mouth. Claudia continued slashing with her swords, changing the angle every once in a while. A smile spread across her face. She hadn’t been peaking at her knights’ practice in vain at all.

“So, you still have the same opinion?” Claudia turned to Waldina and sheathed her sword back to her waist. Waldina checked the level number hanging on top of Claudia’s head. The number wasn’t zero but it wasn’t in double digits either. Obviously numbers were measly numbers and her actual skill level might be different.

“Hmm, gotta admit, you’re way better than I initially thought,” Waldina admitted apologetically. “Though I still ask you to in every and all situations to prioritize your own safety.”

“Even if I could be helpful to you?” Claudia frowned, deeply dissatisfied.

“If it endangers your safety, it’s not helpful,” Waldina kept her look as stern and serious as possible. She tried to remind herself that in this case Claudia wasn’t just her friend. She had promised to protect her whilst traveling through the country, all the way to Xunte Sintra. She was her protector now.

Claudia didn’t argue back. She just nodded. She felt so very very small. Then she returned back to her horse and groomed its mane. She just wanted to be more than a lady in need of protection.