Chapter 402   - Haunting memories

The group had nearly covered most of their journey back from Zrey and were just about to pass the border from the Alure kingdom back into the Redwing kingdom. During this entire Journey, Jack had remained silent, his head was clearly filled with thoughts about what had just happened. In the carriage with them was Katy.

She had officially taken the role of being in charge of the other slaves, and they had agreed upon it as well. Ray also felt like she was the most loyal out of the group due to being the only one person with the official Redwing marking on them. Katy had been wanting to talk, but the silence between Jack and Ray had made it awkward for her, until when finally Ray broke the silence first.

"Jack, what happened to Rachel wasn't your fault. When things happen in life, you can't let the 'If's' change that. For example, if two carriages were to crash into each other that day, and a merchant's goods were to be spilt, the merchant would go about his day worrying about, 'If only I had woken up sooner', Or 'If I only had stopped to take a break'."

"The 'If' is in the past, and we can't change that, similarly we also can't see or confirm the future. Perhaps 'If' he didn't crash into a carriage, then he might have been killed by bandits that day." When Ray spoke, Katy realised that it seemed as if he was speaking from experience, but Ray appeared quite young.

At most he had to be in his early twenties, she thought. However, Ray was speaking from experience. There were many times he had tried to save the dragons in the past, yet he always seemed to have failed. He too thought about how he could have done things differently, but as time went on, he slowly started to learn.

Thinking about his own past, Ray's head started to hurt once more. He lifted both his hands and placed them over the back of his head.

"Are you hurt, your majesty!?" Katy said, rushing to his aid.

"Are you okay, Boss?" Jack also said, now snapping out of his daze and looking concerned.

Images of the dragon settlement Ray had tried to build in the past appeared again.

Up high in the middle of what looked like a forest, surrounded by thick heavy trees, and Dragons, many dragons, the most Ray had seen. Then, the peaceful image seemed to cross over with another one, with the whole place being destroyed, the dragons having been killed.

The headaches slowly started to fade away, and so did his visions. 'Is it a past memory I chose to lock away? why can't I remember it clearly? Maybe it happened a long time ago, I was getting rather old back then.' Ray thought.

"I'm okay, you two, you can sit down now. I think I might just have a little bit of mana sickness." Ray replied.

Katy sat back down in the carriage, while Jack did too, but he didn't buy what Ray had just said. He had never ever seen Ray becoming sick from mana sickness before and even when they were entering Zrey, a similar thing had happened.

As the carriage carried on along, Ray started to notice something, the scenery around him became more familiar as they went past a mountain. While traveling the path, they seemed to see some people who were walking in the same direction that they were heading towards.

"Wait, Stop the carriages!" Ray shouted.

As he stepped outside, he quickly realised that they had already passed through the borders of Alure and were currently in the Redwing kingdom territory.

"I didn't notice it as well," Jack said. "I thought we would be running into some trouble."

"What are you guys talking about?" Katy said, while looking confused.

"We passed the borders." Ray said, "On the way here and for a while now, the Empire has been hiring different guilds to stop the people from entering the Redwing kingdom." As Ray said that, he watched people continue onward on the path, which meant only one thing. They were heading to Avrion. The only city in the Redwing kingdom.

"So why did they suddenly stopped then?" Katy said.

"That's why I'm concerned. The empire wouldn't suddenly stop. They have more money and resources then they know what to do with. They would have picked and chipped away at us for as long as possible." Said Ray. "They're planning something. Jack, you stay here with these guys I'm going to go on and take a look up ahead."

"Wait," Katy said. "Why don't you take one of the horses, it'll be faster than you running there. We can move some stuff about and one horse should be enough to pull the other carriage, while we use your special one for all the treasures."

"Don't worry, Katy," Jack said. "Ray has something a lot faster than a horse."

Standing off to the side, Ray placed his hand on the ground and then a large magic circle appeared. Next, out of this very magic circle, a giant wolf slowly appeared, one that was as large as a house.

"It's been a long time girl," Ray said, as he hopped on. "Let's go."

In almost a flash, the large wolf could be seen running off in the distance.

"Does this person ever run out of surprises?" Katy said.

Travelling on Noir at great speed, Ray was able to see a clearer picture. He could see that quite a few people from the towns that were on the border of Alure, seemed to all be heading towards Avrion. While riding, he eventually reached a point where he could see the city on-site. But on the big green grass, there were a few others that recognized him as well.

"Hey, isn't that Noir?" Martha said.

"Oh, it is. Maybe he can give us a lift." Kyle said.

It was still a faraway to walk from where they were to the city, and Noir had more than enough space to fit them all on.

"Noir? Are you guys talking about that giant beast!?" Scarlett said.

"Hey, over here!" Kyle shouted.

With Ray's hearing, he was able to pick up that someone was calling out to him, that's when he spotted Lenny more easily than anyone from a mile away. Since Lenny was similar to that of a giant with how tall he was.

Steering away slightly, Ray decided he would pick them up and take them to the city, since it looked like that was where they were heading to. Soon he had arrived near them.

"You guys need a lift," Ray said. Suddenly, his eyes latched on to one person in the group. "MMMm Mother!" Ray said with a stutter.

"Hello, my little sunshine. You never told me you had such a cutie pie as a pet. It's so fluffy."

They all thought one thing, how in the world, with a mother like this, did Ray turn out to be the way he was.

*****

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