The carriage ride over to the Renacla County was one spent in peaceful quiet as the five of us relaxed inside the comfortable - yet discreet - carriage that the Empress had told us to use, with a nearly identical one following behind us carrying another seven people to aid us on whatever this excursion had in store for us.
Those seven people were the Arch Mage Kolia, Knight of Cinder Budan, and five of the Empress' Guards, providing us with a wide array of backup to aid us in all sorts of ways, be it magical, physical, or stealthy in nature.
Amongst those five Guards - aptly named Wisps - was one that we were sort of familiar with from years ago; the Wisp that had been assigned to guard over Leone whenever she visited the March Asmodia, and the woman who had told us about Leone tattooing herself with something rather dangerous far earlier than she should have.
Whew~