Of Travels & Treasure[Travel/Private]

Magnostadt --> Zou 200 Words:

After conquering Marax and fleeing the dungeon, Yakuroro would drop Zadi off near Magnostadt before turning the carpet's path toward Zou. His Strength Magician friend would likely be heading back to Balbadd, but at the moment there was a detachment of Riem troops between where Marax once stood and the coastline, so the city would be safer for him until they departed. This left Yakuroro on his carpet with a pile of treasure heading towards the home of Ladu Shousui. The Imuchakk had lost trust in the magician's academy after being ignored whenever he tried to apply for citizenship and tuition. But he needed someone with magic expertise to research the ring he now bore. Yaku was not yet advanced enough himself to decipher the magic circle or the nature behind it's Djinn.

There were still so many questions Yakuroro needed to ask, but as he sailed through the air westward, the blue haired mage would soon learn that there was one question that needed answering while still in transit...where the hell did this Finalis stowaway come from!?

((You can say you hid in the pile of treasure or that you held on to the carpet's edge and just didn't reveal yourself till now. Sorry to have taken liberties with your character but the nature of how Marax closed didn't leave us with many other options for how to go about this))

~179/200 Word Count~

All things considered, he had had weirder days... okay, that was a flat out lie, today was definitely at the top of his "weird days" list, and that included the day that he'd had to fight the gigantic pair of shoes that a mage had turned sentient through life magic. Considering that, the fact that this was the weirdest day was truly saying a lot. 

Forcing himself to smile in a pleasant, innocent way, he tried not to think about the fact that if this guy had been just a little bit more suspicious he'd currently be falling to his death. After all, they were flying on a carpet, it wasn't exactly very stable.

Which led to the question of how exactly this guy steered it. It wasn't like there was a wheel like on a ship, and he didn't see the man using the carpet like a horse, it just seemed to move where he wanted it to move. Did it have some form of psychic connection? Moreover, how could he ask that question, this guy was in a position of power that he hadn't wished to give anyone. 

Since he had a lot of questions, and a mission to complete, he decided that he'd have to reach a part in their relationship where they would be able to talk to each other. Thus, adopting an intelligent pose, crossing one leg over the other, causing his position to look almost like he was meditating, he spoke the first line of anything even resembling a conversation between the two of them. 

"You know, I have no idea where we're going but even at this speed, I'm almost certain that it's not going to be a small distance; else we'd be walking. Thus, we're going to be stuck together for a while, right? 


There's no point in there being nothing but silence between us. Besides, you mages are always curious bastards, I'm sure you want to know something or other. Let's not play the silence game."

Despite the bizarre position that he was in, his voice betrayed no twinge of fear, he truly seemed calm and in control of this situation. This was odd, considering the fact that he was stuck in a small area with someone who was almost two entire feet taller than him. Maybe it was the amount of shit that he had been through during his early life that made it harder for him to get scared. 

Freaked out? That wasn't that hard, but scared? It was very unlikely.

422 / 200

As Yakuroro sped through the sky, his long blue hair danced behind him as carefree as he was feeling. The adrenaline of escaping the dungeon had since worn off and with no way to investigate the ring on his own there was little the Imuchakk could do but head to Zou. Instead of getting impatient, Yakuroro relaxed into a calm state and simply enjoyed the winds blowing past him. The Blue Magician would have been content to simply sit in silence all the way to Lady Shousui's estate, but suddenly the unnoticed stowaway made his presence known.

The casual manner in which Alekzander sat and spoke made for a rather surprised Imuchakk as Yakuroro turned around to lay eyes on the red headed Finalis. The giant of a man turned in his seat to face Alek directly leaving the carpet to fly on straight ahead. Yaku wasn't sure who this man was, or how he found his way onto the jade green flying carpet, but he was doing a damn good job of acting like he wasn't somewhere he didn't belong. Yakuroro opened his mouth to speak and then stopped himself. His blue eyes looked Alekzander over once more before the Imuchakk truly spoke, "Curious indeed. My apologies, I wasn't aware that I had another passenger." A smile appeared on the magician's face and his voice was sincere, but underneath the friendly mask, Yakuroro was trying to understand where this man had come from.

"This carpet is heading to Zou. I'm a magician by need, but a merchant by trade! As you can see, I have quite the hoard to sell! Bwahahahahaha!" The hearty laugh and the greedy grin Yaku took on would make his lie about being a trader hard to dismiss as false. The elegant blue robes and the expensive looking jade carpet would only serve to support his image as a wealthy merchant. Unfortunately for Yakuroro, Alek was aware of his people's reputation as dangerous territorial raiders. His cover as a polite and amiable merchant would be in stark contrast to the monsters the Imuchakk were known to be. That alone would be reason enough for Yaku's lie to be suspicious, but hopefully the half truths he'd worked in would be enough to fool the unexpected guest.

Having satisfied Alek's inquiry, Yaku no took the offered chance to pose his own, "So who are you exactly and on what grounds are you travelling with me? I'm a merchant you know, hitching a ride won't be cheap." The man rubbed his fingers together to visually represent his interest in being paid for giving the Finalis a ride. But hidden under that greed was a query into Alek's purpose here. From behind the smile, Yakuroro's ears and eyes would prob Alek's response for information. From the one of his voice to the logic behind his words, all of it would be taken with a health dose of skepticism. After all, who in their right mind would fully trust a stranger who appeared seemingly out of now where on a high speed flying carpet!?

~200+/200 Word Count Complete~

"I hate to be a bother," he said, keeping that same smile on his face, his tone seeming slightly unnatural in the fact that he was keeping a warm smile on his face whilst speaking in an apologetic tone. 

",but, if it makes you feel any better, I can't say that I was expecting to be a passenger of your travelling furniture either. This wasn't part of the plan." 

The plan... well, the plan had gone out of the window a long time ago. Ever since he had heard the scream of the hell-hound, he had had a bad feeling that the jig was up, but now it was only proven even more to be the case.. how wonderful, he was going to have to make things up on the fly. 

That was where he lived best, caught in the cracks between knowing what to do and being lost. Being able to come up with a plan when given no time at all to think was kind of his specialty.

Well, no; conquering challenges was his specialty, if it wasn't for ... whatever the hell had happened, he would have won the dungeon but coming up with things off the top of his head was a major part of that. 

However, when he heard that they were going to Zou, a part of him froze. It wasn't fear that was in his body, it was a heavy sense of dread. They were going to Zou? 

That place was almost as bad as the lands of the Imuchakk, the Zou-ans were highly imperialistic and had very little patience for the concerns of other men. It was rumored that one of their court mages actually tortured people to get the way of his emperor, and the other court mages weren't much better. 

Alek was going to have to adapt his plan ever so slightly. Slipping his hand into his pocket and slipping on a ring that he had stolen from the treasure, it was highly decorated in ancient writing that would hopefully add a bit of pretense to the plan that he had just come up with to try and defeat the concept of going to Zou. 

Paying them a visit was fine, but if this man devoted his loyalty to them... he would have to act upon that, and that didn't seem like it'd be easy considering how strong this guy had to be. 

"Yes... you're a merchant who just happened to invade a dungeon. I'm sure there were plenty of potential buyers in the depths of hell." 

The way that he said that would have given an implication that he had actually seen what had happened in the dungeon, even though that was not actually the case. As it turned out, he only knew the boy had won the dungeon because the four of them were the only ones that had been teleported outside of the dungeon, which meant they were the only outside agents.

It was a bit of a mental leap to assume this, but since the man had likely not noticed him on his way through the dungeon, he could probably get away with this line of impersonation. Besides, better to make a stab than to not prove his point. Pulling his hand back out of his pocket, he was now wearing the ring and was showing his hand to the man for the first time. 

"You want to know who I am, Merchant-king? I'm Vasilias, the guardian of the power you just acquired." He had no idea what the power was, but he was going to have to come up with something on the fly. Besides, it wasn't exactly a lie, he was the self-declared 'guardian' of the power, if only to stop it going into the wrong hands. 

"You just acquired a power large enough for a magi to warn every single nation in the world about it. If any nation were to get that power right now, the rest of the world would have no real defense against it. 


As such, I'm here to make sure you don't align with any nation. Having allies and friends is fine, but the moment you promise your staff to the heart of a single nation... just know that most others will fall like dominoes afterwards. 


As powerful as you would become, that would end the world as we know it, and that is something that I can't allow to happen. Do you understand?"

Yakuroro remained calm even as Alekzander tried to unravel the truth from the Imuchakk's lies. But for every loose thread Alek tugged on, the blue magician expertly wove another few strings of deceit into the tapestry of their first meeting. It was not wise to challenge Yakuroro in a game of lies and wit.

"Yes... you're a merchant who just happened to invade a dungeon. I'm sure there were plenty of potential buyers in the depths of hell."

What was this red head talking about? Yaku's smile melted into a genuinely confused expression, "Dungeon? You mean the Citadel? We didn't invade anything. I was accompanying a friend who suggested we investigate the place. Honestly, I was hoping to find treasure, but I wasn't expecting to stumble upon so much..." The smile slowly returned as Yakuroro spoke about the treasure he'd obtained. As he spoke, he grabbed one of the jewel encrusted golden crowns from his horde and began rubbing it against his cheek affectionately.

"You want to know who I am, Merchant-king? I'm Vasilias, the guardian of the power you just acquired."

As Alekzander proclaimed himself a guardian and showed a ring as proof, Yakuroro placed the crown back on the pile of treasure and then leaned in a bit closer to peer at the accessory. There was no magic symbol and no signs of rukh fluttering about to suggest it was in any way arcane in nature. "Hmmm...." Yakuroro thought carefully as he couldn't be sure whether this "guardian" was real and listened to the rest of what he had to say while rubbing his chin.

"You just acquired a power large enough for a magi to warn every single nation in the world about it. If any nation were to get that power right now, the rest of the world would have no real defense against it.


As such, I'm here to make sure you don't align with any nation. Having allies and friends is fine, but the moment you promise your staff to the heart of a single nation... just know that most others will fall like dominoes afterwards.


As powerful as you would become, that would end the world as we know it, and that is something that I can't allow to happen. Do you understand?"

There was a pause as Yakuroro crossed his arms and closed his eyes. It was a lot to take in, especially since Yakuroro wasn't aware of the magi, this power being spoken of, or that the message had been spread across the world. For all he knew, Magnostadt and it's Chancellor Ephraim were only aware of the dungeon's appearance because it popped up in there own backyard. Now Yaku was being informed that he had somehow obtained a great power of some sort. Sure, Yakuroro had obtained and sealed a Djinn inside his own ring, but was that really such a great power that it could rule the world?  That is the very reason why Yakuroro was heading to Zou, to find an answer behind the secret of the ring's magic.

The blue haired deceiver used truth to support his lies as he expressed his overwhelmed confusion, "Look, I know I would get a lot of money selling all this gold...but I doubt I could affect the world just by being rich. Are you telling me this treasure is cursed or something?" For now he would feign ignorace over the power of the djinn sleeping inside Yaku's metal vessel. If this man was truly a guardian of the power, then he should know what happened inside the chamber room. If not, then he was just a man wearing a ring for show to support a facade. Either way, Yakuroro would not kick him off the carpet and instead made an offer.

"My name is Yakuroro, from Imuchakk. But I am a traveler and no nation binds me. If you wish to accompany me on my travels, you'll need to pull your own weight and pay for your own goods. Guardian or no, I don't take passengers for free. That being said, my first stop will be through a string of villages in the Jade Mountains where I plan to sell off the treasure bit by bit." It would sound a bit silly to go around selling off treasure in small pieces at poor outskirt villages without much wealth. But that was Yakuroro's true course of action as he did not want to show up at Lady Shousui's with a pile of gold that still needed fencing. That cunning witch would probably find a way to cheat him out of his wealth if he had. Instead he would sell most of it until all that was left could serve as a humble gift as opposed to a requisitioned tax.

"Citadel?" Alek asked, his voice seemingly doubting the man's story. "You and I were both in there, Yakuroro. You know that the only thing citadel-like about that structure was its design. It was a fortress, beyond anything you could ever imagine. With more men stationing it than any other citadel but ones belonging to a nation's capital. 


However, that's where the similarities end. There were no soldiers in that place, only monsters and the walking dead. The smell of rotting flesh and the shivering sensation of necromancy plagued the very air that you were just breathing, Yaku. 


Do not lie to me and tell me differently, I am not so easily fooled that I will just believe whatever you say. That place was a hell-plain - Besides, it was a place to trap people, luring them in with power and influence and leaving them to become more of the skeletons that lived there. 


Or, did you not question how there came to be skeletons? Did you even notice them? Did this carpet just fly above them?"

The man seemed honestly confused, although considering the chess-like nature of this conversation, it was honestly possible that he could just be feigning curiosity. But, since there was a chance this man wasn't sure what had just fallen into his lap, he decided it was best to explain. 

"Okay.. if we're going to do this, I'm going to be honest. Guardian of the power, yes, but I wasn't installed on it by the dungeon itself. I was summoned to it by the emperor of Reim, and my father - Captain Kay Vasilias. 


I was ordered along with my cohort to make sure no other nation got their hand on the weapon. I assume he intended to make us use it in the name of the Empire but... well, he should have phrased his order a little bit more carefully." 

The way that he spoke what could be treason and how he admitted the truth so honestly could have been disarming. 

You might be asking yourself why he was suddenly so honest... it was because there was no point in lying. He was wearing a Fanalis Corps suit of armor, anyone who was familiar with Reim knew about it. 

In his immediate adrenaline surge from hanging off the carpet, he'd not noticed that. Once it had grasped his attention, he realized lying was not going to get him anywhere.

"The thing is, at least from the understanding I got, the person who told the Emperor about this told every nation in the world about it. 


If what I'm told is correct, which I have no reason to believe otherwise, then this power is far beyond simple gold. You gained something in that dungeon, consciously or unconsciously, that you don't truly understand yet. 

That power, whatever it is, is enough to change the power in this world. The dungeon suddenly popped up out of nowhere, according to my mission briefing, and it disappeared instantly as well. As a mage, you must know how impossible that is. 


Fire magic, earth magic, even gold magic has been known to exist. However, total creation and instantaneous destruction? Not to mention mass teleportation... whatever happened in there proves that this isn't something you can just dance around with. These aren't the kind of things you based around something as pointlessly simple as money, 'Merchant King'" 

This wasn't like him.. this seriousness. He was usually a light-hearted, sarcastic joker but something about this situation had made him take it absolutely seriously.

"I don't know what you encountered in the dungeon, but I never actually "saw" anything remotely close to undead. I think we were attacked once by something using strength magic...but in hind sight that must have just been Zadi playing a prank on me..." Yaku paused at that as he hadn't considered his own companion to have been responsible for the dark bruise still lingering on Yakuroro's back. Silently, he cursed Zadi for having fooled him as it was usually his job to fool Zadi! Perhaps somewhere in Balbadd, the black magician would sneeze or feel his ears burning. With his silent revent contemplated, Yakuroro waved the thought away and continued, "After that there was a dark cloud that appeared but whatever caused it vanished as fast as it manifested. While that might have been scary, I wouldn't have called the place a hell on earth by any means...."

After this, the red head went on to explain an "honest" review of his identity and purpose. Yakuroro had now way of knowing if "Vasilias" was telling the truth with his sudden confession any more than he could have known if the claim of being a guardian had been true. But the uniform the Finalis wore was certainly in the styling of Reim armor work. Yaku still did not trust Vasilias' word, so he kept his left hand baring the metal vessel at rest so the long sleeves of his robes would hide it from view. However this new information was certainly easier to swallow so Yakuroro would relinquish some truth of his own.

"So perhaps I am not a merchant and perhaps I did obtain a power in the "dungeon" but if so, I honestly do not know anything about it, or even how to use it for that matter. That is part of the reason why I'm going to Zou. I know someone there who is more experienced in magic than I. Hopefully they will be able to shed some light on things. In the meantime, we're almost to the Jade Mountain range, we should reach the first village soon. I really do need to sell off this treasure. Bwahahaha!"