Chapter 84: Free

I put out my hand, Umara placing hers within as she gracefully stepped down from the carriage. We linked arms, the two of us walked up the steps and through the front doors to a butler. 

“Greetings, Lady Talerria, Sir Cooper. Please, follow me to the guest hall. The lady awaits your presence.”

Umara thanked the man and let him lead, bringing us to a large set of doors. 

A room with tall walls of glass and a pleasant humidity greeted us as we stepped through the doors, a sparse garden surrounding a tiled rotunda. At the center of this small greenhouse was a large round table with several guests already chatting. 

I scanned through all 13 of them, recognizing only one of them. 

Ponteck Gulliard, the current Rank 1 Elite. 

He really didn’t like me much, his face darkening significantly after catching sight of my face. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t hatred, merely irritation. But some people didn’t need to hate someone to actively plot their downfall. Everyone else displayed some degree of curiosity, entirely unaware of who I was. First impressions would be important here. 

“Umara!”

A voice rang out, a girl in a dress standing and gracefully running over with a bright smile. 

Umara returned the smile and put her arms out, hugging her friend. 

“Happy birthday, Mina.”

“Thanks! I’m glad you could come. And you must be John. Pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Pleasure’s all mine. Thanks for having us.”

“Of course. Come sit! Everyone is here, we’re about to get started.”

I smiled at her as she walked us over to the round table. 

She presented a generally cheery disposition at first glance, but Umara had told me some details. Having graduated from the Magisterium, Mina was a soldier. Due to her status, she wasn’t required to stay at the frontlines all the time, so she was transferred to Duchess Talerria’s Warlock Corps. The relationship between the two families was a foregone conclusion. 

But unless she was some intelligence officer doing paperwork behind a desk, she would’ve seen quite a bit of action already. She graduated two years ago, an extra two years to experience the horrors of war, plenty enough to become more than a bit jaded. The Scourge, while in theory easy to fight, offered plenty of trauma in return. 

I could even see a scar on her collar, as well as a small one on her arm. It looked like even the rich and talented were forced to fight for their lives occasionally. 

After being ushered over, Umara and I sat down. Then, Mina clapped her hands. 

“Alright! I’ve got an exciting event planned and it was last minute so I couldn’t be sure, but nothing has changed so we’re moving forward. Last night, a Flicker herd was making its way through one of our nearby fields!”

“Oh! You don’t mean…”

“That’s right!”

She clapped excitedly, everyone’s eyes brightening except for mine as I glanced around confusedly.

“We’re going Flicker hunting! I’ve also got enough bikes for everyone to use, so we’re heading to the site ourselves!”

“When?”

“Now! Come on!”

Mina waved, and everyone jumped out of their seats to follow with bright smiles.

I stuck with Umara, heading in a line out to the backyard of the estate. 

There, right in front of the open back gate, were 15 motorcycles. 

I was stunned for a second while walking over, reaching out toward my own and feeling the sleek metal body. 

It was equipped with segmented metallic wheels, making me concerned as to how they expected metal wheels to grip any kind of surface. 

The wheels were also a bit wide, probably for ease of control. Thinner wheels tended to be more difficult to work with, sacrificing traction while turning. 

Other than that, it was a basic bike geared more toward the streets than any serious outdoor sporting. 

And, like all vehicles in this world, it was driven by magic instead of motor. I wouldn’t get to hear it purr, so I hoped it would at least be fast. 

The suspension also seemed pretty solid after I checked it. Spring manufacturing seemed good enough in this world. 

After checking it out, I looked over and pat Umara. 

“Hey, what’s Flicker hunting?”

“You’ll find out soon. More importantly, can you ride one of these things? If you can’t, you can come with me.”

“Heh, it would sooner be the other way around. I’ve ridden bikes like this before; slightly different construction, but I’m sure I can handle it. ”

“Alright. Just don’t get hurt. We aren’t like the knights who don’t have to worry about crashing.”

“True.”

I nodded while throwing my leg over the bike, slotting in a small keycard sitting on the seat and turning. 

The bike glowed as it powered on, and I proceeded to tamper with some of the buttons and levers. 

This bike wasn’t a twist handle, but a push lever. Not only that, but when Umara pointed out some of the other controls, I found out that these things had something similar to gears. 

There were speed levels, basically gears, that allowed the driver to fine tune his control over the acceleration. The bikes were powerful enough to throw you off with a slight press of the thumb, so the lower levels dampened the power throughput while the higher levels unlocked it. 

There were only three levels, adjusted with a switch. I tampered with it a few times before nodding. 

“Alright, I’m good. Let’s get this on for good measure.”

I took off my suit coat, throwing on my protective coat. I even had my hood necklace on just in case.  

In a sudden burst of inspiration, I went sifting through my dimension. 

I hadn’t found much in the way of weapons, but that was because they were deeper and more powerful, thus more elusive. 

But there were some things somewhat unrelated to combat that I had found. Even in my earlier dimensions I had found things like mild protective gear that was pretty useless for me. 

However, there was one nice accessory that I had found that would come in handy right about now. 

After smiling, I felt an object appear in my hands, lifting them up to eye level. 

……

“Aviator goggles. With fur lining and a leather body. Groovy.”

Umara glanced over when John mumbled, seeing him pulling something over his head. 

Those goggles he spoke of were placed over his eyes, the straps wrapping around his head to hold then securely in place, frayed wool poking out where they met his face. 

But she couldn’t help the gawk as she ceased her tampering with the bike.

“Oh my lord. What are those?”

“They’re protective goggles. To keep the wind out of my eyes.”

“Huhu…”

She sputtered with a smile. In the corner of her eye, she could see everyone else looking over with judging expressions. 

And yet John stood there with a goofy grin on his face, looking oh so confident. 

Umara laughed, unable to see anyone else but her boyfriend. She cared so little that, despite seeing them, they didn’t enter her mind.

“Haha, they’re ugly! Here, I have some you can use.”

“Nonsense! These goggles are meant to be functional, not stylish. And they represent far more than mere eye coverings! The people who wore these were daredevils, and I don’t plan to shun their legacies with some basic glasses.”

“Oh, well excuse my insolence then. I just thought that enchanted glasses might work a bit better.”

“Nein! All you need to worry about is keeping up.”

He sat down on his bike while smirking. 

She giggled while settling into her own. Inwardly though, she was eager. 

She couldn’t be more familiar with these bikes. Mina had been a fan of them and was rich enough to buy and play with them all the time. As her friend, Umara had been a part of that. 

Even as kids they were pretty good at using them, let alone when they grew up. Most of the kids of high nobility, like those here, had learned to ride these at some point in their life. 

She was more than confident in her own skills. How could she ever fall behind? It was a funny joke, and she couldn’t wait to drive circles around John. She would show him what she could do.

At that moment though, she saw John’s bike spin. 

With some odd maneuver, his back wheel spun around while his front wheel was rooted in place. Like that, he turned until his back was facing her.

Then, he pressed the accelerator and caused the wheel to spin on top of the dirt pathway. 

It wasn’t a lot, but it kicked up some dust straight into her face, making her cough while waving it away. 

“Asshole! What are you doing?”

“Oh, don’t mind me darling! I’m just figuring things out.”

“Yea right! Get back here!”

“Haha!”

She pressed down and rolled forward, slowly chasing him around the group in an attempt to get close and grab him. 

But he just evaded her with some well timed bursts of speed. 

Right as they started to enter their own little world though, Mina shouted. 

“Alright! Time to head out!”

“Oh, right.”

Umara stopped and ducked a bit, her face reddening as Mina laughed. 

After that, everyone rolled out of the gates, John in their midst. 

The Hawk Estate was located within a city, but in the direction they were going, there was a massive open gate just calling their name. 

They drove to that gate and were automatically let through. Beyond that, there was nothing but fields of green and farmland as far as the eye could see. 

“Alright! Everyone follow me! It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes to get there! Keep an eye on each other, and let’s try not to have any crashes!”

With those words, Mina drove off ahead of everyone, accelerating onto an untrodden path. 

All the bikes fell in behind her, gradually accelerating before hitting a comfortable but fast speed. 

There were four couples who had decided to pair together on their bikes, so there were 11 bikes instead of 15. Umara, who brought up the rear, glanced at all of them before searching for John. 

And she found him as he slammed down the accelerator, flying past everyone. 

Her eyes widened as he leaned back and yanked, bringing the front wheel of the bike up in the air. 

“Hahaha! I still got it!”

Everyone watched with incredulous faces as he held a back wheelie for several seconds. He then struggled to hold it for longer on the uneven terrain.

He laughed like a madman while doing so, the enchantments across the wheels glowing as he sped up and down, drifting around the group, pulling ahead of Mina before falling back behind toward Umara. 

She watched as he completed a round, pulling up to her side and throwing up a sign with his hand. He called it the shaka, something he did almost like a greeting. 

And she threw it right back at him with a bright smile, thinking about what it meant. 

John had a lot of odd mannerisms, sayings, metaphors, and more. She had started to mimic and play along with most of it since it was fun stuff like this. It made her feel closer to him. 

He was from an entirely different culture where things seemed to be a lot more relaxed yet was founded upon fundamental respect. It was so different from what she knew, but she had come to like it a lot.

He saw everyone as his equal, nobody above or below him, unless they tried to kill him. This much was clear by how he treated both nobles and commoners alike. He didn’t hesitate to hold verbal battles with some of the highest nobles in the kingdom while giving other commoners his professional courtesy. It all depended on how they treated him.

He could be totally casual with those he was familiar with, no matter their status, while not giving off the image of a hoodlum. And when he cleaned up, dressing nice, he looked no less noble than actual nobles. If anything, he acted more noble than those who were supposed to be. 

It was why she liked him so much. 

In a world where everyone calculated every word they spoke to her, where those beneath her tried to kiss her feet, those equal to her tried to use her for their gain, and those above her treated her like she didn’t deserve their time or attention…

He was a breath of fresh air who she could be herself with. A person with principles and no rules. 

They could throw dirt into each other’s faces, play tricks, tease until red-faced, and at the end of the day they would throw each other onto the bed and make out like there was nobody else in the world. 

It was so natural, so fun, and felt so right that she couldn’t imagine it being any other way. 

They were just two people, a boy and girl fighting to make it in a difficult world, fighting their own battles to carve out a place for themselves. What was a boyfriend and girlfriend, a lover, a spouse, if not someone to support you and someone to love? 

If it was any other way, then it simply wasn’t correct. 

When she was going through the Magisterium, keeping her head low simply to bide her time and get past all of the suitors who pursued her, she felt that, despite not liking what was happening, she was the one in the wrong. 

Political marriages were normal. Pursuing someone based on their status and wealth was normal. Sure, there were stories of the noble finding forbidden love with a commoner, but those were either in books or ended with the commoner becoming nothing more than a concubine, leading a harsh life 

Umara’s parents loved each other, but she considered them lucky. Two nobles who fit each other well happened to love each other. 

She still didn’t believe it was a guarantee to find love in your spouse. So she, like countless others before her, had gradually started to resign herself to what was meant to be. She would be able to pick out a better one with the open mindedness of her mother, but it would be all the same. 

She had seen it before, heard about it before. She would get married, continue to cultivate her power, and then have kids in order to continue the family line. It was cyclical, as was everything else related to nobles. 

But then, she found something else. Something, someone, different. 

She found excitement, felt constant embarrassment, and reddened in shame since all of it gave her butterflies. 

She found real love in a man who didn’t even know about her status and didn’t care even when he found out. A man who held himself to high standards, someone who was grounded, generally humble despite small bouts of narcissism, and someone who didn’t try to tiptoe around her thoughts or feelings. 

It was all a matter of respect, and yet he was still able to have all the fun he wanted, second hand embarrassment be damned. 

Compared to everything she had done with him in the past few months, compared to him as a person, everyone else seemed so dull, so lifeless. Nobles living for nothing other than their business or wealth, everything they did merely being a means to an end. 

Even now, as Umara watched John speed across the grass fields, circling around the group, wearing those ugly goggles and cackling while doing tricks on his bike, she could sense nothing but fun and excitement. He was here at the birthday party of someone he didn’t know, in front of total strangers, and didn’t give a single damn about the weird looks they gave him or the silent judgments inside their mind. 

He looked like a kid, and she was one of the few who knew that just a couple days ago, he had been saving adults and children alike from living terrifying lives of slavery. Yet he only regretted that he couldn’t do more, guilty of the decisions that he had to make. And very few would ever know who truly did it, who it was that stood behind the American legend. Even less would see him and know the prestige his name carried. 

So she just sneered at the faces those nobles made. What did they know? They were just as ignorant as the peasants they abhorred. She couldn’t even take them seriously anymore, let alone fathom loving one as much as she did John.

And she was realizing more and more just how free it made her. 

Almost as free as John looked sailing through the air without his bike.

Wait.

“John!”

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