Paralyzed (Tboah!AlbeCale)

38) Angsteru Crossman's feelin' guilty uwu

There was also the pungent smell of alcohol emanating from them, and the strangly familiar gut feeling.

'... There's no way.'

Cale Henituse should be back at the count's estate right now. He should be resting from his illness and figuring out what to do about the odd rumors. There was absolutely no reason as to why he would be this far from home.

After all, the carriage had only been moving for about a couple hours if he didn't count the one hour break. Loosely judging by the speed and amount of time spent traveling, shouldn't the carriage still be within the capital's city limits?

It would usually take days traveling by carriage to get to the Henitue territory, so there was no way the person across from Alberu was Cale Henituse. It was only their voices that were similar, and everything else was only based around feeling.

The only way they could have moved this fast was if a highest grade mage had cast haste spells on the horses, or if they teleported the entire carriage all the way to Rain City. Alberu knew that the purple haired man was a mage after getting hit by magic attacks back at his palace, but...

'The existence of a highest grade mage is something incredibly rare.'

In fact, they could probably be counted on a single hand, and the only ones Alberu knew of were Rosalyn, the old master of the tower of magic, and perhaps the old second in command in the magic tower as well, and that was if the latter two were still alive after what happened in the Whipper Kingdom.

At this point in time there aren't any living archmages, and it would be absurd to think that an esteemed dragon would be involved in this incident.

So it would be near impossible to be in Rain City unless the person steering the carriage right now happened to be a highest grade mage...

Alberu's mind suddenly stopped working as a large bump in the road caused him to jostle in his seat quite a bit. The person across from him seemed even more unprepared for it, as they most likely rolled off of the bench. Alberu felt them land on his shoes, making him shift away, not wanting to get involved with this stranger.

Many smaller bumps followed the first large one, letting his headache worsen.

It was at that moment.

"Ugh—mm."

Alberu's expression froze. This stranger... Didn't he sound a little bit too similar to Cale Henituse?

He controlled his facial muscles again, but couldn't stop himself from mentally analyzing every single sound the stranger made. Eventually the bumps slowed down a bit, and that was when a rustling noise was heard. It seemed the stranger was shuffling around.

It was at that moment.

Thunk! Thud.

'!!'

Alberu sat, completely paralyzed, as he attempted to understand what just happened within a fraction of a second.

The carriage had just hit a very large bump in the road which sent his body jumping up in the air a tad, but then a loud sound struck the wall right next to Alberu.

Also, ignoring the fact that there was something on his lap that wasn't there before, Alberu could now see a little bit out of his blindfold. The stranger had bumped Alberu's head as they bashed against the wall, which shifted the blindfold a little.

As his eye adjusted to the light, he peeked down.

"Fuck."

The colors were muted and the atmosphere was dark, but Alberu could clearly recognize them.