Chapter 44: The carriage

As they got out of the palace gates, not even having to walk down the flight of main stairs, they found their carriage with a familiar horse waiting for them right outside the door.

The carriage driver was still the same strange man, but there was a unique light in the eyes of the horse as they looked at them.

"Hello there, Swing."

"Miiiihihihi~!" When Andrew greeted the horse, the creature smiled happily. The carriage door then opened for them on its own.

"This is our new family member, Arcos. And we have to get back quickly, do you understand?"

"Miiiii~."

The horse made happy noises as he invited them inside the carriage. The driver still remaining as lifeless as ever. But there was something strange about this whole interaction.

For some reason, the prince couldn’t help thinking about how this whole thing was a display to draw his attention to something. Something deeper, something strange.

He did not know what his new leader wanted but he looked at the horse, looked into his eyes, and thought about how unique this creature was.

He looked pretty strong, the horse looked pretty normal by appearance but his eyes were that of a smart beast. Perhaps he was a special breed? Was that what the leader wanted him to notice?

He didn’t understand. Still, he got on board after greeting the horse and the carriage driver, getting a reply from only the horse.

"Hello Swing~." Betty hugged the beast before getting inside the carriage.

"I missed you, you know. The things in the royal stable were a bore." Sammy also caressed the beast as if to have missed him.

She had seen many creatures inside the royal palace, but nothing could beat their essential carriage.

"Let’s go home." Lily placed her head against the beast’s, smiling warmly as she showed a different kind of warmth towards it than the other passengers.

They had different connections with the beast, but there was one thing that they all had in common: their obvious ignorance of the carriage driver.

"Umm, why don’t you all greet the strange carriage driver?" Arcos asked innocently, still not certain of what these people wanted to show him.

But the four of them inside the small carriage only smiled at him, shaking their heads, telling him that he’d see it soon as well.

"Alright, everyone. Hold tight." Without anyone giving the signal, the carriage driver moved his reins and the horse started walking down the flight of stairs, shaking the carriage from the outside.

People watched as the carriage came down the stairs and made its way towards the main gates leading to the outside, fastlike in its movements.

The people who saw the quickly moving carriage should have reacted in a surprised or at least afraid manner. Many times the same carriage passed through narrow market streets of the capital city, almost hitting the people on the road.

"What... what is going on?" It stunned the prince sitting inside.

The carriage was almost going to hit the people but then it’d take a sudden turn so that the people were avoided. The close call alone should be scarring these people off, but the common people didn’t even react to the presence of the carriage.

In fact, this was the case when the people in the throne room couldn’t quite perceive the people he was with right now.

"What is this carriage? What... What is that horse?" He was almost afraid right now, someone as well worsted in the truths of magic and the world.

What would happen if some common person like the fat noble that brought Lily here in this carriage were to see this? How would they react?

The ladies knew it wouldn’t be as adorable a reaction as their young Arcos. In fact, they hadn’t told him the most fun part yet.

"Just wait and watch, hehe." Betty didn’t want to spoil the fun for him so she just waited with the others.

"Miiiiiihihi~."

Soon, they had passed through the capital, passed through the gates of the city, and come to a far enough distance, taking a path that was rarely used by the carriages.

From there, a change took place within the carriage.

"Huh?"

-Oooooooooooong!

As they watched, the wooden interior of the carriage vanished, replaced with what seemed like a comfortable, soft bed.

Cushions appeared out of nowhere, and the small space of the carriage expanded two folds, almost becoming three times the previous total size.

The wooden doors and walls of the carriage vanished as well. They were replaced by a transparent barrier that stunned the young prince.

And if that wasn’t enough, when he looked around him, he did not find ground beneath them. Instead, there was a green foliage of trees... slowly going further and further away from them.

"No..." The prince realised the truth only when they had reached the greater heights of the sky, just a little above the clouds. "A Pegasus?!"

He looked to the front and the simple brown horse that he had seen before had become a creature twice its size, with a wingspan that alone was three times the creature’s height.

It wasn’t brown anymore, but as people believe, it wasn’t a white horse with white wings either.

The wings of the creature were silver, changing color into a million others when sunlight hit them. The creature itself was a blue beast, its skin almost as soft-looking as the clouds around them, his eyes almost gold in color, with hints of black stars inside them.

"MIIIIIIHIHI~!"

The creature flapped his wings as he ran through the sky, ran atop the winds and crossed several kilometers in matters of seconds.

The capital city that they were in just a moment ago seemed so distant now that the prince had to blink a few more times to believe the truth.

But by the time he had finished blinking, the city wasn’t even visible to him anymore. All he could see around him were clouds, and all he could see under him were small things built by the lesser organism, by men, by mortals.

From this distance, the world seemed so small to him... he couldn’t believe it. He was flying like this for the first time in his life, but these people?

The people who watched him with a delighted smile as if watching a child having a unique first-time experience?

Was this how they always travelled? On the back of a Holy Beast?