Chapter 168: Parking Space
"Coming!" Tasha called back, her voice ringing with newfound confidence.
She cleanly sheathed her father’s sword, securing it to her hip.
Leaping down from the moving roof with athletic spirit-enhanced grace, she caught the iron railing and swung herself smoothly through the open door into the warm cozy cabin.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist, breathing heavily from her intense workout.
Because her original noble armor and dress had been completely ruined during her escape from the Death Cult, and because they hadn’t reached a town to buy new clothes yet, she was currently wearing an oversized white singlet and a pair of dark cotton shorts.
’I lost the rest...’
The clothes clearly belonged to Klaus with the oversized shirt hung loosely off her shoulder, falling all the way down to her mid-thigh, making her look relaxed and comfortable, though the lingering scent of him on the fabric secretly made her blush every time she put it on.
"Phew... we’re so close," Tasha reported, offering Mirela a bright grateful smile as she walked toward the alchemical stove. "The portal is right ahead. We’re about to enter the outpost town!"
"Thank you for keeping watch, Tasha," Mirela smiled warmly.
She turned away from the stove, handing the noble girl a heavy wooden tray loaded with a steaming bowl of boiled Ice Phoenix meat mixed with perfectly seasoned white rice, accompanied by a cup of hot herbal tea.
"Take this to Master in the control room, please."
"On it!" Tasha nodded eagerly, carefully balancing the heavy tray.
She walked up to the heavy iron door separating the cabin from the driver’s platform.
Raising her free hand, she gave two polite, crisp knocks against the metal.
"Klaus? It’s Tasha. I brought breakfast," she announced.
"Come in," Klaus’s deep, baritone voice called out from inside.
Tasha unlatched the heavy iron door and stepped into the compact control room.
Klaus was sitting smoothly in the plush leather captain’s chair.
His newly trimmed, shoulder-length silver hair framed his sharp, handsome features perfectly, and he was wearing a simple fitted dark shirt that highlighted his broad shoulders.
He turned his head, offering her a calm, easy nod as she set the steaming tray down on the dashboard beside his large hands.
"Thanks, Tasha," Klaus greeted her smoothly. He picked up a wooden spoon and immediately dug into the high-protein seasoned phoenix meat with his divine metabolism burning through the calories efficiently.
Tasha stood beside the chair for a moment, looking out the front windshield.
Directly ahead of the moving carriage, the massive, swirling blue light of the interdimensional portal expanded, filling the entire horizon.
The magical anomaly hummed with a deep vibrating sound that shook the floorboards of the carriage, washing over the front hood and the massive, bone-plated mountain bear hitched up front.
"We’re finally here," Klaus murmured with a satisfied smirk touching his lips.
He didn’t pull back on the reins as he urged the armored bear forward.
The heavy oak carriage crossed the threshold, plunging directly into the gateway.
The brilliant, blinding blue light of the portal washed over them entirely, the spatial transition pulling them out of the Haunted Winterlands and crossing them safely back into the civilized world.
For a brief, disorienting moment, the physical world ceased to exist.
The roaring biting winds of the frozen northern continent were replaced by an echoing silence, and the landscape dissolved into a tunnel of rushing azure light.
The sensation of crossing the dimensional threshold was always jarring... a sudden shift in atmospheric pressure that made the ears pop and the stomach drop.
Inside the front control cabin, Klaus sat perfectly still in the plush leather captain’s chair with his glowing silver eyes locked onto the shifting spatial currents.
His large hands rested casually on the iron dashboard, feeding a steady controlled trickle of white Soul Mana into the magical reins to keep the massive, bone-plated mountain bear moving straight through the distortion.
’If it was before the townsfolk would be able to recognize this Carriage...’
Just because Tasha didn’t know it didn’t mean that the others wouldn’t so he had made a lot of changes with the help of cute little Anya, now he looked like a normal noble.
Then, just as quickly as it had begun, the blinding blue light fractured and shattered like a pane of glass.
CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!
The smooth crunching of heavy wooden wheels carving through deep permafrost was instantly replaced by the harsh loud rattling of iron-banded rims rolling over solid, snow-dusted cobblestones.
The carriage burst through the southern exit of the portal, officially leaving the Haunted Winterlands behind.
"We’re through," Klaus murmured, his deep voice vibrating in the quiet control room.
He reached out, pulling back firmly on the magical control to slow their momentum.
Up front, the massive mountain bear let out a low rumbling huff with its heavy, bone-plated paws coming to a steady halt just a few dozen yards past the towering stone archway of the portal exit.
Klaus leaned forward, looking through the frost-cracked windshield at their new surroundings.
They had arrived at the Snowy Outpost Town... the rugged fortified border settlement situated at the edge of the human continent in this direction.
This was the exact same place Klaus and Mirela had visited weeks ago. It was the same town where he had worn a ragged cloak to hide his face, bought a pack of cheap cigarettes and a mana lighter from a dingy tavern, and ultimately passed through to steal this very carriage from Lord Varhem’s forward camp.
Compared to the absolute-zero blizzards of the deep Winterlands, the climate here was practically tropical, though to any normal person, it was still bitterly freezing.
Thick gray smoke billowed from the stone chimneys of heavily timbered taverns and mercenary guilds.
The streets were packed with hardened adventurers, armored knights, shady merchants, and weary travelers covered in thick furs, all bustling about their business under the pale, afternoon winter sun.
The moment Klaus’s elite custom-built carriage rolled out of the portal, it immediately drew a massive crowd of stares.
It wasn’t just the sheer size and luxury of the oak carriage that caught the locals’ attention. It was the beast pulling it.
The bone-plated mountain bear Klaus had divinely re-engineered was a nightmare to behold.
Standing easily eight feet tall at the shoulder, covered in thick, dark fur and jagged, natural armor plating, the beast looked like a raid boss that had wandered out of a dungeon.
As the carriage rolled slowly down the main thoroughfare, armed mercenaries practically threw themselves out of the way, flattening their backs against the wooden walls of the nearby buildings, their eyes wide with terror.
"By the Goddess..." a scarred mercenary gasped, his hand trembling as it hovered over the hilt of his broadsword. "What in the hell is that monstrosity? Is that a mutated Dire Bear?"
"Look at the carriage! That’s high-tier capital noble craftsmanship! Who the hell is driving that thing?!" another merchant whispered frantically, pulling his loaded mule cart into an alleyway to clear the street.
Inside the main cabin, the girls were looking out the thick glass windows, taking in the sights of civilization.
"We made it..." Tasha whispered, pressing her hands against the cold glass.
Her light blue eyes were wide, reflecting the bustling streets. After spending days convinced she was going to die in a frozen wasteland, seeing actual buildings, smoking chimneys, and ordinary people felt like a literal miracle.
"It’s a lot noisier than I remember," Mirela noted with her goat ears twitching as the sounds of shouting merchants and clanking armor filtered through the oak walls.
In the control cabin, Klaus ignored the terrified stares of the locals.
He expertly navigated the massive carriage down the cobblestone streets, his eyes scanning the wooden signs hanging over the buildings.
’We can’t just leave this thing parked in the middle of the street,’ Klaus thought pragmatically. ’The bear alone is going to cause a panic if I don’t secure it, and I need a place with mana locks to make sure no idiot tries to break in and steal the Phoenix egg while we’re out.’
After a few minutes of slow rumbling travel, Klaus spotted exactly what he was looking for.
Near the southern edge of the outpost town, separated from the main cluster of noisy taverns, was a massive fortified livery and carriage-house.
The building was constructed from thick stone blocks and reinforced iron beams, designed specifically to house the oversized dangerous mounts and elite caravans of high-ranking nobles and top-tier adventurer parties.
Klaus steered the mountain bear toward the wide open archway of the facility, pulling the carriage into the spacious straw-lined courtyard.
"Whoa there," Klaus commanded softly, pulling back on the control.
The bone-plated bear let out a compliant rumbling growl, sitting back heavily onto its haunches, causing the entire courtyard ground to tremble slightly.
From inside a small, heated wooden office near the stables, a burly, bearded man wearing a thick leather apron stepped out.
He was holding a clipboard, wiping grease from his hands with a rag, fully prepared to greet a new customer.
However, the exact second the stable master’s eyes landed on the eight-foot-tall bone-plated mountain bear sitting in his courtyard, his clipboard slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the cobblestones.
All the blood instantly drained from his rugged face, leaving him as pale as a ghost.
"H-H-Holy Mother of Light..." the stable master stammered, stumbling backward until his back hit the wooden doorframe of his office. "P-Please... don’t eat me... I have a wife and kids..."
CLACK!
The heavy iron door of the control cabin swung open.
Klaus stepped out onto the exterior iron runner, completely ignoring the freezing air.
He didn’t bother putting on a heavy winter cloak as he looked less like a weary traveler and more like a descending god.
The stable master stared at Klaus with his jaw dropping open.
The aesthetic perfection and overwhelming spiritual pressure radiating from the silver-haired man completely short-circuited the stable master’s brain.
Klaus casually stepped down from the runner with his combat boots crunching onto the straw-covered cobblestones.
He walked over to the terrified man, his glowing silver eyes looking down at him with a calm lazy expression.
"I need a premium parking space," Klaus drawled smoothly. "The largest, most secure private stall you have. I want it sectioned off from the rest of the mounts..."
"Y-Yes! Yes, My Lord!" the stable master practically squeaked, hurriedly scrambling to pick up his fallen clipboard, bowing so deeply his forehead nearly touched his knees. "We have a reinforced stone bay in the back! It’s lined with Tier 2 magical suppression wards! It was built for a Duke’s wyvern, so it can easily hold your... your magnificent beast!"
Klaus reached into his spatial inventory.
With a subtle flick of his wrist, he produced a heavy gold coin... salvaged from the immense wealth he had looted from that guy who Klaus had forgotten his name.
Flick!
The gold coin spun through the air, catching the pale sunlight.
The stable master scrambled frantically, catching the heavy gold piece in both hands with his eyes bulging at the value of the currency.
A single solid gold coin in a rugged outpost town was enough to buy the entire livery outright, let alone rent a parking space for a few days.
"Keep the change," Klaus stated deadpan. "My bear doesn’t eat human flesh, but he doesn’t like being crowded. Keep your stable hands away from the carriage. If anyone tries to break the locks or touch the cargo inside while I’m gone, my beast will bite their head off. Are we clear?"
"Crystal clear, My Lord! Top privacy! No one will breathe near it!" the stable master promised fervently, slipping the gold coin into his deep pocket and gesturing frantically toward the massive stone bay in the rear of the courtyard.
Klaus nodded.
He turned back toward the carriage, raising his hand.
"Alright, girls," Klaus called out. "We’re parked. Let’s go."
The heavy oak side door of the main cabin opened.
Mirela stepped out first with her dark goat ears perked up, her flawless face offering Klaus a sweet devoted smile.
She looked stunning in her fitted maid uniform as her tail swayed contentedly.