Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Rain went to explain to Lotto at night what was going to happen. He had to leave the inn he was in through the window and use magic in order to avoid suspicion. He also asked him to send a letter to his parents.

"I don't want to get involved in politics, and yet, I am acting like a secret agent," Rain thought and then shrugged.

As for how he was going to work without being recognized. Rain couldn't do much aside from using a cloak and hood or something. His size still reveals that he is a kid, so there was no point in doing anything fancy. He couldn't keep the forearm guards with him all the time, and he couldn't use earth magic like usual, though. It was truly a pain of a job…

Before the sun could even rise the next day, Rain headed to a warehouse on the east side of the city, and there he found a wagon with two people on the sides. They nodded at him before leaving the place in silence, and then Rain found Lorene inside wearing commoner's clothes while surrounded by a bunch of boxes.

"I will deal with the navigation; you just focus on the road, on the sides, and on our back to avoid attacks," Lorene said. "If we leave now, we should reach the gate when it is opening."

Rain nodded… he was being paid to do all the work, so he didn't mind all that. It also would be a good experience for him to get on high alert for such a long time.

Although Rain didn't use Horsemanship that much, he was still able to guide the two horses pulling the wagon well. He did some missions where others were with him and then taught him the ropes of itz after all.

In any case, while the sun was rising, Rain saw a bunch of wagons leaving the city as well and heading toward all sorts of parts of the kingdom. He never did his morning training close to the walls, so he never noticed how many people would leave the capital so early in the morning.

"Did you notice anything when we crossed the gates?" Lorene asked when they were one hundred meters away from the city.

"Are you worried about the guards?" Rain asked. "All of them looked sleepy, and I made sure to hide my hair in the hood so they only saw my face."

"While some of the gate guards aren't talkers, they talk too much when they drink," Lorene said. "It won't be weird if some of them work for some families and pass Intel to them about suspicious people coming and going."

"Is that so?" Rain asked.

Since he wasn't going to be able to use his legs, Rain made sure to increase the weight on his arms. In the end, he regretted that a bit since he had to keep them steady most of the time.

"Now, I guess I will just control the dust, as usual, to improve my control without using too much mana," Rain thought.

Before long, the road split into West and North, and Rain turned the wagon to the north. Now that he thought about it, he didn't know much about that region… mainly because it was Pacific on land, but the sea wasn't. Since it has some ports, it was common to be attacked by pirates and the sea folk when the ships moved too far away from the land.

"I didn't see anyone aside from the magic people until now… and those two dragons," Rain thought. "I guess it will take a while before I can see the dragon people, demi-humans, the beast people, and the sea folk…"

"When are you going to talk about how you met Braden and how he recruited you?" Lorene asked.

"Perhaps once the mission ends, and you are at your home, and I am very far away from it," Rain replied.

"You sure have some attitude, I suppose. Considering your hair and appearance, you must have noble blood, and the fact that you don't treat me like I am above you confirms that," Lorene said. "Do you come from a fallen family? I suppose you would trust Branden that easily since he was in a similar position… I can't be sure since you don't look like the ambitious type."

Rain felt like sighing… she wasn't half bad at analyzing others. Rain wondered if he should just shut up and ignore her. He could as long as he does everything else related to work. Still, the trip will last one week before they reach their destination… it will be too tiresome to act like that for so long.

"Yes, I am…" Rain said. "In a land ruled by a powerful noble family, a member of the household fell in love with a commoner. When their forbidden romance was discovered, tragedy struck, and the noble vowed revenge. Disguised as a masked vigilante, he sought to bring down their own family, but as his quest progressed, he faced a choice between vengeance and forgiveness. That is my story."

"Yeah, right… well, we have time to kill," Lorene said while looking back and could see the capital shrinking in the distance.

It looked like keeping Lorene quiet will be more difficult than keeping her safe. Still, at least Rain could use her and learn more about the north. She seems like the type who would forget her goals while she talks… even though nobles are taught to learn more while talking with others than revealing things that they know.

"Do you guys have any idea who might be targeting your lives?" Rain asked.

"... We have a lot of enemies behind the scenes; we can't say for certain since we can't assume anything without risking making mistakes," Lorene replied after a long sigh. "As far as I can tell, all of the other great houses would benefit from our fall.