"What? Gordon Mountains! That’s at the borders of the kingdom, I can’t—"

Aria fumed. She was about to reject the request, but when she fixed her gaze on the knife, imagining the queen’s anger when she found out I’m dead, well, she pressed her lips thin.

"At one moment I thought you didn’t care about me anymore. You almost broke my little heart," I said while dangling the knife before her.

For a second, silent, Aria clenched her fist, her face creased, having second thoughts about it. "You’re trying to escape. That I cannot allow. If your request goes beyond Gordon Mountains, then I’ll have to stop you by force. Even... even if you stab yourself. Is that clear?"

It was chilling. I could see just how serious she was. Aria’s tone had gone cold, almost threatening. Those snake eyes of hers held a reminder of her true nature. I’ve seen her turn magical spears into ash. If I let my guard down, she could probably snatch the knife from me by turning my hand to ash. She wasn’t just risking it... yet.

"Of course. But just so you know, I’m not actually planning to escape. I have a lot I need to achieve from this house. I just need a better bait to toss into the ocean. A news that would motivate the baronesses."

"And that is?"

"I don’t know yet. When we go out there, I’ll find it."

Her eyes narrowed on me. She wasn’t buying it. Well, it was actually the truth. I wanted to survey the Gordon Mountains properly also, to find a reason to actually motivate the baronesses. Since I need Quinette to attend to me first, I’ll just find a problem only my dragon potent can solve. And fix it. Just like a test of my power.

"So are you taking me or not?"

"We’ll be flying there." Aria stretched out her dark wings, flapping them free. She tried to grab me, but I stepped back, raising the knife. "No, stop. We are not flying there. Get the carriage."

"What? That will take far more time. If we fly we can get there faster."

"Like getting closer to me guarantees you’ll take the knife away, Aria."

"Get the carriage."

"Is that the last demand?"

"Yes. Get the carriage. And it’ll be a peaceful ride. Nothing more."

"Follow me." She glided through the air toward where the carriages were, while I walked on foot. Lucky race — they don’t have to walk all the time. We were being packed in a large stead. Its frame was made of fine wood, carved with architectural masterpieces. Each carriage was separated in its own lot.

Each carriage had a different design for different occasions. The most elegant — or what I found more refined — was a double-seat, small carriage, wooden but painted matte black, with every metal part of it being gold. A nice color combo.

I admired the work of art. "Aria, let’s take this one."

"If we take a carriage we’ll reach there by noon. It’s not fast enough. This would get us there faster." She then gestured to something sheeted. But from its build, it looked like a carriage also, with a weird structure.

"What’s that?"

She pulled the gray velvet sheet off it, revealing — as I suspected — another carriage. But this one didn’t have reins for a horse to hook on to pull it. I strolled to the carriage, tracing my hand on the body. It was made of metal, which made me rather confused. Wouldn’t it make it hard to pull?

A different thing was the glass at the front, which I supposed was to help the driver see where they’re driving. Last, there were two leather seats — one with a wheel and some clockwork before it, the other with none.

It was too much to understand at one glance.

"Aria, what is this supposed to be? Where would you hook the horse to? If you want us to be quick, using a full metal carriage wouldn’t work."

"It’s a new creation. Called a car."

"Car? Never heard of it."

"Well, it uses mana stone to run. Officially it was gifted to the queen, showcasing how useful mana stone can be... but she abandoned it, finding no pleasure using it."

"So it moves like a carriage?"

"Yes it does. Three times faster, they claimed."

I stared at the car, as she called it. This metal-made object could move. Still skeptical, I climbed in. Aria helped me with the door. I was seated in the leather seat comfortably. Still gripping the knife.

Soon after, Aria joined. She got in through the other door, seated before the wheel. She did something — I had no idea what she switched — but the car began making a mechanical noise, which vibrated the seat. I turned to Aria.

"Is it meant to do that?"

"Of course." Aria looked at me and giggled.

The way I was glued to my chair, well, it was a bit funny. Because if I said I wasn’t terrified, that’s a lie. But more troublesome was maybe the queen. I mean, using the queen’s property was something I don’t think Aria could hide.

"Are you sure the queen would be okay with this?"

"When the car first arrived, I was the one who learnt how to operate it so I could ride the queen around. But after the first ride she hated it, cause it was a bit noisy..." A brief moment she went silent, reminiscing the moment, with a joy.

"So what did she do after that?"

"The queen noticed I enjoy driving the car, so I was given a choice. I could either keep it, or if not interested, I should destroy it. This was the queen’s gift to me as her loyal servant."

I rolled my eyes. "Lucky you."

After gripping the wheel like she was obsessed with it, she did her magic and the car began to move. Like a miracle. No horses were galloping. Just Aria, pushing a pedal under her feet, and we were already in motion. I exhaled, glanced at Aria. She held a knowing smirk, like I saw a pig fly.

Driving through the estate road, not long after we arrived at the main estate gate. The speed was definitely not a lie.

Not long after, we left the main estate into the road out toward town.

A long journey with a lot of time to waste. I was seated, watching Aria steer the wheel, and somehow got a grasp of how this thing worked. How she steered the wheel in the direction she was heading.

While she drove for a moment I checked behind for anyone following. I kept my focus on the road expectant.

Nothing...

’Hmph looks like I was wrong.’

So I kept that aside for now.

Focusing on something else.

Mana stone, on the other hand, was something I had never heard of, so I inquired of Aria. The answer I got was pure — so when the dragons arrived, their race emitted a passive mana. Since their origin world had all things holding mana, the passive mana then leaked out into things. Morphing plants, trees around, and lastly, the remains sank into the earth, consolidating into mana stone.

I stroked my chin. "I wonder what other things morphed due to mana." Before I could process that question, the car was sent into an abrupt stop. I slammed my head against the dashboard— sending sharp pain to my skull. The knife slipped from my hand.

"Argh. What was that? What did we crash into?" I rubbed my forehead.

I stepped out of the car. There were metal spikes pierced into our wheel, preventing us from moving. Well, even if we got them out, I don’t think there’s still function — the rims were bent and twisted, taking away their circular form.

Aria got out just after, her eyes widened in horror. "No, no, no." She shook her head continuously. It seemed unreal.

"There was nothing there, didn’t see anything on the road while driving."

And yes, I believed her. I squatted, examining the spikes. This was a trap. The sand gathered over the spikes — someone had planted them here. I scanned our present location. In the outskirts, far off the estate, nothing but a treeline and a lone road leading deeper into the forest.

"Bandits?"

A crunch. I snapped toward the trees where I heard the sound come from.

A shadowed figure stepped out. No — not one. More footsteps, coming from all around us. Some even hovered in the air. They were dressed in dark clothes — well, I’ll call them rags, as they were tattered. Their faces were concealed. They weren’t holding weapons.

I believed the dragon kingdom was in total peace among their kind. But what I was witnessing was the opposite. They had horns, wings. This wasn’t human. But also... dragons.

’I don’t see any halos of them. Well guess I was right. There weren’t behind us, but ahead of us.’