BXBX NOVEL Chapter 354 - Convoluted Plan
Zaos waited for Aleni to hop on since the whole idea of letting the horses go toward different directions in pairs was to make the eventual pursuers follow the wrong tracks. However, she was also planning to erase the traces of Zaos\'s horse. She followed behind for three hours until nightfall doing that work at an inhumane speed. Zaos could only sweat cold while imagining the training she had to undergo to become that fast...
"I didn\'t know assassins had this many abilities…" Zaos thought.
Somehow, Milliendra slept until night, but even though the rain weakened, she woke up and began to cry… that was bad. Her cry could be heard from kilometers away.
"She is hungry… please, be a good girl, and I will find something good for you… somewhere," Zaos said while looking around.
They had stopped in a grove that would protect them from the rain and the cold wind of the night and also because the horse needed to rest.
"What does she need to eat?" Aleni asked. "There is a village nearby, and I can get anything without being noticed."
"... fresh goat\'s milk will do," Zaos frowned since Aleni was supposed to know that. "Still, it will be hard to find it at night."
Aleni vanished in the blink of an eye, but Zaos still could feel her movements while she moved away. Somewhere in his head, something was telling him that newborn babies should drink that kind of milk while they were so young, but he had that when he was a kid, and he didn\'t have anything. It was probably some knowledge from his old world trying to pop into his head, but not all rules applied to both worlds, apparently. Zaos calmed Milliendra while using healing magic, but the effects wouldn\'t last forever, not to mention, she really needed to eat periodically.
"... I need to take out my armor," Zaos thought. "Unfortunately, you won\'t have many places to sleep properly, so you will have to get used to my arms… still, you really drain my mana, huh."
For the time being, Zaos was fine since his focus was high. He also had many amulets to help, but he was pretty sure that the power of Milliendra would only grow stronger. That will probably make her powerful, but it also will force her to live without touching others… those who had little mana would be in danger.
"What a destiny…" Zaos muttered.
After a couple of minutes, Zaos felt Aleni\'s presence approaching. She was almost as fast as he could be when he enhanced his legs with wind and Earth magic…
"You returned pretty fast… if I remember well, the nearest village is ten kilometers away," Zaos said.
"I also found a basket, straw, and a piece of cloth," Aleni said. "I can make a bed for her out of it."
"Well thought out… you do that while I feed Milliendra," Zaos said.
Aleni nodded, and then she passed the bottle of milk and a wooden spoon to Zaos. At first, he had a hard time making Milliendra drink it, but eventually, he got used to it. After a while, Milliendra burped, and Zaos knew that she was satisfied. Zaos helped her with digestion by moving around and massaging her back. That always made him fall asleep when his mother did it to him, but that wasn\'t working for Milliendra, probably because she spent the day sleeping.
"You should get some sleep," Zaos said. "We will move at first light, and you have been running around nonstop."
"Understood," Aleni said, and then she approached a three and rested her back against it.
It was pretty weird for Zaos to see someone who he just met obediently following his commands. They were supposed to be partners, not leaders and underlings. In any case, that was something he could think of later.
At some point in the middle of the night, Milliendra fell asleep, but Zaos still didn\'t relax. As far as Aleni was aware, the kingdom didn\'t have many assassins, but he still needed to be careful. For the time being, he could keep going without sleep for a few days. However, he would need something more than a horse eventually if he wants to make sure that the trip will be comfortable enough for a newborn baby. He also needed to decide their destination…
"We should go East and then get a boat… stealing one might be possible, but controlling it by ourselves isn\'t," Zaos thought. "Maybe I should ask that favor to the Captain smuggler."
During the whole night, Zaos planned their future actions carefully. He couldn\'t allow a single mistake to happen if he wanted to leave the country without alerting the pursuers to which direction they were heading.
The next morning, Zaos and Aleni began to move as soon as possible, and then they moved toward West once more for a couple of hours. They stopped in another grove, but this time not to rest, but to ambush any merchant that might be traveling on their wagon. As soon as the first target appeared, they waited for a while until the bald merchant had passed by them. However, Aleni quickly advanced and entered his wagon and then hit him on the back of his head. The merchant fell unconscious, and then they obtained control over the wagon.
"Are you sure we shouldn\'t kill him?" Aleni asked.
"We could, but then eventually, the people from the place he is from will notice his disappearance," Zaos replied. "Your attack will make him feel a headache for a while, and when he wakes up, he will find himself slightly tied up on a bed with a knife near the most valuable part of his body and a letter nearby alongside a bag full of gold coins. The letter will say to him that he will lose that very same part if he mentions anything about the incident."
"It seems like a convoluted plan," Aleni said.
"I agree, but it will buy us enough time," Zaos said.