Chapter 22: Road Home

The scene swept past the window in a slight blur where Matthew looked out from as the carriage rattled on the stone brick road. In front of and facing him, was Rose who was also staring out the glassless window with her hand supporting her chin and beside her was Yuki who was sleeping quietly, tired from the fight with Matthew. On the opposite end of the seat on Matthew’s side, was Cecilia who stared nervously at the carriage floor, fidgeting and stealing glances at the others.

Then there was one more, who sat in between Matthew and Cecilia, a maid. She had bright red hair and slightly tanned skin. Her black and white maid outfit fitted perfectly on her body. Her face was that of a soft and kind person as per the first time the team encountered her at the Hunter Station.

…..

Matthew and Yuki arrived a little late to the station where Rose and Cecilia were already waiting outside. Matthew waved his hand high to catch their attention.

“Oh! There they are!” Cecilia pointed towards Matthew’s direction. Rose looked at the direction Cecilia pointed in. Seeing the two figures she was looking for, Rose jogged over there with Cecilia.

When they reached Matthew’s and Yuki’s position, they, Rose mostly, immediately questioned. “Where were you two? *gasp* Did you get into a fight? You two look all messed up.What happened?” Rose rained down questions at them. Like a mother questioning her children’s well being.

Meanwhile Cecilia softly asked, “are you two okay?”

“Yed, we’re fine. But, could you heal Yuki? She’s… Not really well,” said Matthew.

“Well said,” Yuki supported.

“O-oh, okay. Just hold on a sec.” Cecilia gently placed her hand on Yuki and casted a healing spell. “[Light Healing]” A soft green light flowed from Cecilia’s hand and into Yuki’s body. Yuki glowed slightly green for a moment before it was gone. “There.”

“Fuu~ Thank you. Hngh~” Yuki stretched her stiff body that was just healed. She did not feel any pain anymore. “Alright, now I’m back baby!”

“Good for you, Matthew, do you need healing as well?” Cecilia turned to him, ready to cast the same spell.

However, Matthew refused. “Nah, I’m fine.” Then Yuki suddenly slipped in her own sentence. “Yeah, he was the one who did this to me in the first place.”

“Huh?” Cecilia and Rose gasped in surprise. Meanwhile Matthew was in panic. “Yuki!”

“Yeah, we were sparring each other at the hills back there. That’s why we’re dirty now. I say, Matthew sure knock the hell out of-”

“Okay! Okay! That’s enough Yuki. We don’t need that much detail now.” Matthew covered Yuki’s mouth with both of his hands. “Mphh! Mmh!” Yuki was still talking through Matthew’s hands.

However, it was already too late. Matthew suddenly felt the atmosphere got heavier. The hair on his body was standing up. He sensed a very formidable presence right beside him, scratch that, even Yuki and Cecilia were feeling it.

Rose as if grew in size as they felt really small in front of her intimidating presence. Rose looked down on them with sharp eyes. Her voice was comically low and scary. “You what?” As if flames were burning behind her.

Matthew sweatingly answered in stutter. “Umm umm we, we were just sparring. You know, for fun?”

“For fun?” Rose was still looking down.

“Eek! Y-yeah, no one was injured.”

“You say that after Yuki was just healed?”

“Seriously! No one was SERIOUSLY injured! Please spare me Rose...” Matthew let go of Yuki and pleaded.

Rose only stared even harder at Matthew for a few seconds before she finally cooled down with a sigh. “Hah… Whatever do I do with you…” Rose pinched her forehead.

Matthew also sighed but from relief. “That was close.” He said under his breath.

Yuki and Cecilia watched their interaction and were actually scared themselves. “Wow, even Matthew can’t put up with Rose huh?” Yuki said.

“Yeah… I’ve experienced something similar recently,” said Cecilia.

Yuki was watching Matthew and Rose until something suddenly came to mind. “Hey, Ceci.” She whispered. “Do you think they could be a couple?”

After hearing what Yuki said, Cecilia took a moment to process that before burning up and letting out steam from the top of her head. “W-what are you saying Yuki? No! Stop talking about that!” Cecilia whispered back.

“What, why? You’re 15 aren’t you? Aren’t old enough already for these things?”

“Just don’t!” Cecilia accidentally yelled which she quickly covered her mouth.

Both Matthew and Rose turned their heads toward her in question. Cecilia quickly shook her head. "It's, it's nothing." Her face was very red.

Rose and Matthew tilted their heads in confusion. A moment later, Rose shrugged.

"Well anyway, you sure made use of the time you had." She put her hands on her waist.

"Err hehe~" Matthew could laugh nervously.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward, so Yuki jumped to disperse that. "So, what are we gonna do now?"

Rose immediately retorted. "Wait, we?"

"Well yeah, I'm on the team now. That's the whole reason Matthew and I sparred."

"Hmm is that so?" Rose eyed at the culprit. "Well, I personally don't see anything wrong with it. What about you Cecilia?"

"Eh? Uh umm sure… The more the merrier." Cecilia chuckled nervously, not daring to talk back.

“You heard us, welcome.” Rose threw in a small and gentle smile, completely opposite of before. Yuki smiled back, “thank you! I’ll be in your care.”

Matthew exhaled the breath that he was holding in in relief. ‘Everything worked out it seems,’ Matthew thought. “Ahem! Well, what do you say we go on a quest? There’s still almost two weeks before we’re allowed to go back to the academy to grab our stuff.”

“I’m down for it.” Yuki instantly gave an answer.

“Hmm I’m fine with it as well. We got a senior to guide too,” Rose said.

“Please don’t call me senior.”

Matthew secretly chuckled. “Well, what about you Cecilia?”

“Umm if everyone is going then… Okay.”

“Alright, let’s head in shall we?” Matthew said as he led the way, until…

“WAITTTT!!” A womanly voice suddenly shouted at them. All four of them turned around toward the direction of that shout. They saw a woman in a maid outfit running towards them.

All of them were confused by her action, except for one. Upon seeing the figure making her way towards them, Cecilia immediately hid behind Yuki who was ever more confused.

Upon arrival at the group's location, the woman stopped and panted. "Please… Please wait… Hah… Hah…"

Matthew was the first to speak up. Matthew motioned his hands up and down to calm the maid down. "It's okay, it's okay, just breathe."

"Hah… Okay… Okay…" The maid gathered back her composure that was fitting of a maid. She straightened her back and stood in a proper manner, although her forehead was still trickling with sweat.

Seeing the maid was calm and composed now, Matthew asked, "who are you?"

"Pardon my rudeness, I am nothing but an ordinary maid serving under the Noble House of Crystal."

"A Noble?" Matthew asked again. The word 'Noble' gave a clue to them.

"Yes sir, I did not come here intentionally but I only stumbled upon your presence," said the maid.

Matthew only smiled awkwardly. "Okay…"

"I came here because I saw milady's presence amongst you."

Rose immediately caught who the maid was referring to. The others also caught the hint when one of them was acting strange.

It was all exposed when the maid called out her 'milady'. “Lady Cecilia, please return home.”

After the maid said that, everyone turned towards her. Cecilia, who was hiding behind Yuki, slowly came out. She did not say a word at all up until the maid spoke.

“Milady, please return home. Your parents are awaiting your return. Do you want them to worry?” The maid said with a soft and gentle tone.

When her parents were mentioned, Cecilia finally softened up. “Okay…” Her voice was neither sad nor angry, it was more in worry. However, the way her head was hanging in front showed that she was upset.

The maid smiled softly as if she knew what Cecilia was thinking, her words after that confirmed it. “Milady may invite your friends as well.”

Cecilia’s head immediately tugged back and her back straightened. Her eyes were wide open. “REALLY?”

The maid chuckled, “yes, I am sure that milady’s parents would welcome them as well.”

Then Cecilia turned around with a very happy and excited face toward the others. She happily said, “will you guys?”

Everyone was breathless for a second. After getting a nod from the maid, confirming their next action, they all agreed. Cecilia was very happy that she was literally jumping in joy. Which led to the situation now…

…..

The carriage had been moving along the brick road at a rather steady yet slow pace. The destination was actually quite far from where they were. The Hunter Exam took place around the area on the border of the Omni Kingdom and the Cyss Empire which was to the north of the Omni Kingdom. Where they were headed was in the province owned by the House of Crystal on the west side of the Omni Kingdom.

There were eight states within the Omni Kingdom in total, seven of them governed by the Nobles and one was the capital where the Royalties took charge directly. The region governed by the House of Crystal was quite small actually compared to the others.

A few hours has passed since they departed, now they were nearing their destination already. The horses pulling their carriage had not yet taken a rest as they planned to make it before nightfall. The horses must be really tired by now, Matthew thought when he heard their neighs.

Along the road, Matthew had already slept a couple of times and now he was not sleepy anymore. He also had not once seen Yuki wake up when he did, he assumed that she never did. Cecilia was hiding behind the maid, so Matthew could not tell. Rose on the other hand, Matthew had not seen her sleep at all. He was honestly amazed at that.

When Matthew watched her as she stared outside, Matthew wondered, ‘what could she be thinking about?’ Rose was an analytical person that much he knew. Rose could be thinking of random details when she sees something and starts diving deep into it for no apparent reason. That was how she was.

Matthew had a short flashback of when he was studying with Rose about how teleportation with magic worked. The research that they studied on was a scholar from the Elven Kingdom, Alf in both magic and science.

Elves believed deeply in the god they worship, Rika whom they believe as the god of magic. Therefore, magic was their specialty and ONLY magic. For an elf to plunge themselves into science was anything but normal.

Back to the point, when studying how magic teleportation worked, Matthew did not understand even one sentence. However, Rose was able to fully understand it although not with ease. It also took her time and her own brain to work it out, but she definitely got it and that was amazing already.

What amazed Matthew even further was how much detail she explained it back to him in which naturally, he did not get at all. Still, it was a sight to behold. Matthew had thought of becoming as good as her in academics as well, but it failed miserably.

Seeing Rose just staring out the window with an empty yet serious expression like that made Matthew wonder what she could be thinking about. Whatever it was, it was probably something far too complex for Matthew to comprehend.

He did not realise how long he had been watching Rose, probably a while because Rose glanced once at him before staring back out the window. Matthew could only flinch when she did that.

Her face grew red and her expression was even more serious. Maybe she was angry because he interrupted her thinking by doing that.

'Sorry Rose.' Matthew apologised in his heart.

Matthew was getting bored with nothing to do in the carriage. All he could do was just observe the surroundings as the carriage passed through it.

But that was only for a short time until the driver slid the window behind the maid open and shouted.

"We are getting close to our destination now! Prepare to board off!" Said the man.

Matthew, who was getting restless before, stretched his legs. "Finally, we're getting off." He said as he exhaled.

Rose bent over a little in hopes of seeing their destination. Yuki stretched and yawned as she just woke. Cecilia poked her head out the window as she caught sight of her home.

A large white mansion with grey concrete walls surrounding it along with green lushes and properly attended bushes. White and violet flowers grew on the bushes. The sun was setting behind the mansion, lighting the sky and the sides of the mansion in orange hue as night approached closer.

Cecilia felt warm inside when she saw the mansion and tears almost flowed down her cheeks. She did not think that she would be this happy to be home.