Chapter 19: Company

The kingdom of Euthoria was once the greatest and most grandeur civilization on the continent. The eastern nation even boasted a history spanning far before Taman Savtron, the first Edin Imperator.

Many treasures hid in the depths of their ancient cities and extravagant palaces, treasures just waiting to be discovered, however, who knew that it would all come crumbling down in the blink of an eye?

All their millennia of undisputed glory was reduced to mere ashes in the space of just two decades. The root cause- a mysterious organization only known as the Rathaav Eggeshi.

Nobody knew who they were or where they came from. Some rumors even stated that they were a myth started by the nation's corrupt elite to cover up for their despicable deeds.

If only that were true...

The Rathaav Eggeshi were real alright, as real as you and me. Many would've bore witness and testified to their existence, if only they had survived to tell the tale.

Albercus, Capital City of Euthoria

Year 7023 M.E.

By the second decade of the seventh millennium, long-distance migration had since become one of the most lucrative businesses in Euthoria.

Citizens, tired of the harsh taxes imposed on them by the crooked government, would choose to migrate to Edin or at least to one of its closest colonies.

Anything was better than toiling like a slave in your own homeland, and who knew, perhaps a better future awaited them in the far West.

These were the hopes of countless many, the main issue, however, was how to get there.

Between the Edin empire and Euthoria lay thousands of miles of war-ravaged nations, uninhabitable wildernesses, and forbidden lands.

The journey across was perilous, to say the least, and the truth was that most would perish along the way.

Yet even then, thousands of people still applied daily to join the expeditions. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

The Mazi Company was one of the leading traveling companies in the land. They were a professional organization comprised of roughly one thousand magic practitioners, all ranked at least Master class.

Unlike their competitors, they prioritized the safety of their passengers above all else. However, that also meant that their services did not come cheap.

Mazi, their founder was a mid Sage class Earth practitioner and he was a man exclusively known for two things. One, he demanded respect from both his crew and his customers, and two, he loved money and profits above all else.

...

Seated within a small but very well-furnished office was a large muscular man with lustrous curly black hair, small, round blue eyes framed by a pair of bushy eyebrows, and a stubble on his chin.

The man looked happy and content as he slowly sipped and savored the sweet taste of a cupful of expensive red wine when suddenly,

*Gu gu gu!*

There was a knock on the door.

"What?!" He bellowed irritatedly.

"Sir, there is someone who wants to see you," came the shaky reply from outside.

The man sighed.

"We're closed, tell them I'll meet them tomorrow."

"Sir, they say it's an emergency. They would like to-"

"Don't make me f*cking repeat myself!" The man roared.

There was a brief silence on the other side of the door and then a few hushed whispers.

"Sir," the voice defiantly came again.

"They say they are willing to pay you for your time."

Mazi smirked as he took another sip of his wine.

"Let them in," he chortled, his tone a lot more welcoming than before.

The door opened and two people walked in. The first was a middle-aged man who looked like someone who had been bullied for most of his childhood. He was short, fat, and largely unappealing.

Mazi almost immediately felt sorry for him. Chances were that he was a virgin, too... the poor guy.

That said, it was the second person Mazi still found more intriguing. This individual was also short in stature, only petite, and he wore a red hood to conceal his appearance.

Mazi did not pry. Some clients liked to keep their anonymity.

"Mr Mazi," the middle-aged man began.

"Hush!" Mazi interrupted.

"Money first."

The middle-aged man gulped. He then fetched a lumpsome bag of coins from his pocket before placing it on the table.

"Now, how may I help you, gentlemen?" Mazi asked with a broad smile that greatly differed from his earlier no-nonsense attitude.

The way he switched faces was quite concerning, actually.

"My master would like to board one of your trailers when you travel to Edin tomorrow," said the middle-aged man as he looked over at his hooded companion.

"No can do," Mazi quickly rejected.

"We're at full capacity. Accepting more passengers will be a risk to the whole company. You'll have to try again next month."

The ugly man scratched his head nervously. "Unfortunately, my master needs to travel tomorrow. Is there any way we can negotiate?"

'What a wuss,' Mazi mused internally.

"Why?" he asked.

"What is in Edin that you are so eager to get to? Or perhaps... what is it that you are running from?"

He focused his gaze on the hooded individual as he continued to probe:

"Any crimes perhaps? Or maybe a few bounties placed on your head?"

Mazi could tell that the hooded person was quickly losing his patience however, that was his goal the entire time. Angry people often made rash decisions.

Mazi's wishes came sooner than he expected. He had barely resumed his poking when the hooded individual suddenly sprang from his seat, fetched something from his breast pocket before banging it on the table.

"Will you take me or not?!"

Surprisingly, his voice was shrill and feminine... It was actually a she, not a he! And judging by her tone of voice, she was quite young too.

Instead of being shocked by the revelation, Mazi's attention was quickly stolen by the shining purple jewel.

"What do we have here?" he muttered, his eyes practically twinking with greed.

Although he was no expert, Mazi was positive that the sparkling jewel was not something you found just anywhere.

All of a sudden, he started feeling apprehensive. Just who the hell were these people?

Don't get it wrong, he indeed loved wealth above all else, but he would not let it cloud his judgment.

"I can take you," he said after a bit of contemplation.

"But first, remove your hood. I will only seriously consider your proposal then."

Though she was covered, Mazi instantly detected reluctance after he laid out his terms, .

The middle-aged man, on the other hand, was nothing but a spectator at this point. If you thought he had looked nervous before, you should've seen him now. The man was literally sweating through his shirt.

"M... my lady," he stammered as he tried to dissuade his companion, "you can't..."

"It's fine," the girl cut him off before he could finish. She slowly removed her hood...

Mazi was shocked to his core by what he saw. She was just a girl, barely sixteen, with long pitch-black hair and pitch-black eyes.

However, that was not the shocking part. No, it was the golden symbol branded on the girl's forehead. Although she had tried to hide it with her hair, it was still pretty evident.

Immediately, Mazi's mind shut down and instinct kicked in. He fell to his knees.

"Your Highness!" he exclaimed.

"How are you still alive?!"

The girl grimaced. It had been a long time since someone had called her that.

"That does not matter," she shrugged dismissively.

"So will you take me to Edin or not?"

...

The following day...

"Mommy! Mommy! What's that?!" A boy roughly six years of age was pestering his poor mother.

"That, my son, is called a caravan," she replied.

"Woah! A caravan!" he exclaimed with the naive kind of wonder only a child could possess.

"Mommy, what does it do?" he asked.

The mother was more than happy to explain. 'At least this will take his mind off his hunger for a while,' she thought.

"It transports people and many other things my son. Things like food, jewelry, spices, anything you can think of!"

"Woah, that's amazing! So Mommy where is it going?"

The mother beamed at her child's enthusiasm, "It is going to Edin, my dear."

"Edin?!" The boy exclaimed yet again.

"Isn't that like a billion miles away?!"

The mother laughed. "Yes, it is. The caravan will travel past deserts and rivers, through canyons and great mountain ranges."

"Really mommy?! Can we go with them?!"

A sad look flashed past the mother's eyes. She took her son's hand and tightly clenched it in hers, "One day, my son, one day," she whispered.

The caravan the mother and son duo and a few others were watching was the famous Mazi Company.

More than a hundred practitioners dressed in dark green attire were running to and from the 100-meter-long caravan carrying various goods they meant to take on their long arduous journey.

If you paid attention, you would notice two men who stood apart from the rest. Also, instead of the usual green, their uniforms were a jet black.

"Hey Alek, weren't we supposed to have fifteen trailers?" said the first.

"Why the hell do I count sixteen?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you about that, there was a last-minute addition," replied the other.

"Since when does the captain take last-minute additions?"

"I don't know man, maybe the customer paid extra. You know how he is...

"Also, he said that no one should look at what's inside that trailer," he added, pointing to a small trailer that was located at the center of the caravan.

"What? Why? What's in it?"

"I don't know, Senzo," Alek, the second man, sighed exasperatedly.

"Just follow the damn orders for once."

Senzo, a forty-something-year-old man with a grisly scar that had left his right eye practically blind, was a curious man by nature. He knew he would find out just what was in that trailer.

"Hey chill Alek, I won't look in it," He said with a grin.

There was no rush. After all, the journey was going to be long... very very long.

...