The Rules of Blood-Volume Two ; Chapter 48 (264) - Of Course, We Jump
“Are you alright?” Blanc asked, before Tahreni and Lendros pushed him aside.
“Iste beni?” Tahreni asked, worry painted on her face as she crouched down, near Velakia.
Lendros sighed, seeing her calming down, “Mea Amnado, corurima idn onu?”
“Da,” Velakia nodded to the two, their foreign words warm and kind.
Even without understanding them, Blanc knew they were asking if she was fine.
Velakia smiled to her protectors, grabbing their hands, “Sirme.”
The two nodded lightly, moving backward.
“And thank you, Blanc,” Velakia said, “Don’t know what got into me.”
“Nothing to worry about,” Blanc waved her apology off, “But I fear we don’t have time for an explanation. It’s time to go down, eat, and prepare to leave.”
“There is nothing to explain,” Velakia replied, getting off her bed, “It was just a nightmare, nothing more.”
With a nod, they unlocked the door, walking down the stairs.
“Is the kitchen still open?” Blanc asked the young man at the reception, “We slept too well.”
“Haha, were the beds that comfortable?” the man asked.
“Best I’ve ever slept on,” Blanc lied.
“I’m happy to hear that,” the man nodded, before replying to Blanc’s first question, “And yes, we're still open for a bit. Fish again?”
“Whatever’s quickest, don’t want to hold the kitchen for too long if they were about to leave,” Blanc replied, going to one of the free tables.
“Thanks for considering that,” the man nodded as he walked towards the kitchen.
At this hour of the evening, more than half the tables sat empty. Though the storm still howled outside, it seemed most had braved the rain and made their way home.
Those who remained painted a strange picture.
Drunkards slumped over their drinks, mouths half-open in sleep; a few couples, locked in whispered flirtations; and the most eager of challengers, the ones pretending to be ordinary, weaving themselves into the background with practiced ease.
But to Blanc, their performance was parchment-thin.
Still, the act of pretending to enjoy their stay had to go on for a bit longer.
And once that was done, they had at least two days and two nights advantage, even more than that, since they wouldn’t know where they went.
Meaning that if everything succeeded as it did until now, they would be fine to leave the Domain in peace and protect their identities from more… curious ears with even more curious tongues.
Once dinner passed and they paid for their food, Blanc and his companions returned to their room.
“What now?” Velakia asked, curious, as her trust in Blanc increased a fair bit after her nightmare. But Blanc only looked out of one of the two windows in their room.
Rain still poured, steady and relentless, with no sign of stopping for at least half a day, maybe a full one, if luck and the Vita were in their favor.
The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, surrendering the world to a heavy darkness broken only by flickering torchlight the guards carried along the distant main road.
Blanc crossed the room to the second window, its thin glass streaked with rain, and peered beyond the nearby city rampart.
There was nothing. No carriages, no travelers, no challengers. Only the ever-present hum of falling rain and roar of a distant thunder.
He then turned to the nearby city wall or the rampart, as the militaristic Blood Maiores called it. From the window he was looking through, it was a ten-foot jump forward, with a twenty-foot drop.
Not that hard to do.
Then, from the city wall, a humble fifty-foot drop all the way down towards the ground.
That might sting a little,
Blanc thought.
That was the climax of his simplistic plan. A plan he decided to share now.
“Do you want to hear the plan, Velakia?” he asked, grinning, as he walked towards his bag.
“Looking at you, I’m not so sure anymore,” Velakia sighed, “But go ahead.”
“Very well, but first, we change clothes,” he said towards her.
“Here? Now?” Velakia frowned, “In front of you?”
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“Apologies, Your Highness, but as you can see, we are limited in terms of space,” Blanc sighed, “So either here, or we take turns changing in the toilet.”
“Toilet,” Velakia replied the next moment, “You go first.”
Blanc sighed deeply, but grabbed his bag and went inside to change.
Once he was done, Lendros went in, and Blanc began explaining.
“The plan I thought of was to use the approaching rain to our advantage,” he said. “But I knew that alone wouldn’t be enough, so I decided to make a scene, to draw attention. I challenged anyone who wanted to fight me to gather here, making it sound like a grand duel. To make it more official, more believable, I added that if I win, I want the hand of one of Blood Maiores’s daughters in marriage.”
Velakia raised a brow but said nothing.
Blanc continued, “That made the challenge public. An event. Tied to something political. Then, to keep up appearances, I went looking for an inn. But not just any inn, but one near the edge of the city.”
“Why?” Velakia asked, her confusion settling on that last detail.
“Why?” Blanc grinned as he opened the window that led towards the city wall, “My dear Velakia, it’s simple, really, because of course, we jump.”
“Jump? Where?” Velakia’s eyes widened in surprise.
“From here to the wall, and from the wall to the ground,” Blanc said casually, pointing out the window.
Then, noticing Velakia’s shocked expression, he turned back to her.
“Oh, don’t give me that look. Think about it,” he said. “We’ve been seen here the whole day, after I screamed a public challenge to anyone who dares face me. Of course, there were doubts. Of course, they spied on us. But now… now they most likely believe we really intend to go through with it.”
He chuckled lightly before continuing, happy to see Velakia's face as she connected the dots of his plan, her eyes widening with every word of his.
“That means every challenger, every scout, every threat to our journey, will come here, to this city, instead of chasing us down through the Domain. They’ll think we’re staying put, waiting for the rain to stop, while we're actually days away from this place or any challenger,” Blanc concluded.
“And they won’t even know the direction we’re headed,” Velakia muttered, thinking about it.
“Exactly,” Blanc grinned, “See? Simple.”
“Frigtheningly so,” Velakia nodded, “But what gave you the idea?”
“The rain, the cities we’ve passed, and our bodies,” Blanc shrugged, putting his old clothes in the bag, before closing it as tightly as he could, “They don’t know we have Raw Vita, they think of us the same as them, with normal bodies, meaning the rain, the cold of wet clothes, or the jump would most likely kill them if they were to try. Luckily for us, that is not the case, is it?”
“No, it bloody isn’t,” Velakia replied, a smile on her face.
After Lendros stepped out, a fresh set of clothes on his back, Velakia quickly laid out the plan to him and Tahreni before disappearing inside to change.
Both listened intently, eyes drifting toward Blanc every few moments in disbelief. But by the time she was done, their expressions had settled, and they understood what needed to be done.
Once Velakia emerged, Tahreni slipped in next, quick and efficient.
Five minutes later, they were ready.
Blanc moved to the window and threw it open as wide as it could go, rain and wind rushing in as he looked down toward the city rampart nearby.
“How’s your bone density, Your Highness?” he asked, barely suppressing a laugh.
“Good enough for this jump,” Velakia muttered, eyeing the drop towards the ground. “Not sure about the next one.”
“We’ll figure that one out when we get there,” Blanc replied, getting on the edge of the window, “See you on the other side.”
With that casual remark, he jumped.
For the second it took him to fall, Velakia found herself holding her breath for unknown reasons.
Only letting go of the air in her lungs when Blanc fell safely on the city rampart.
Next was Tahreni, who, with a nod to Blanc, jumped forward with such vigor, she almost jumped past the wall, straight towards the ground.
Luckily, Blanc caught her by wrapping his hands around her waist, pulling her down.
“Sirme,” Tahreni nodded towards him the moment her feet touched the stone rampart.
“You’re welcome, I guess?” Blanc muttered, just as Velakia was next.
“Catch me too if I jump too far,” Velakia said towards Blanc, her words reaching his ears despite the heavy rain.
“Don’t jump too far now,” Blanc replied as he took a solid stance, waiting for her.
A breath, and another. She was slightly nervous, but she had worse.
With that thought in mind, she nodded before jumping.
And landed beautifully right in the middle of the rampart itself.
“All good?” Blanc asked Velakia as she straightened herself.
“Yes, all good,” she nodded in reply.
Lastly was Lendros, who, with a nod, jumped last, almost meeting the same fate Tahreni did, but was successfully caught by Blanc and Tahreni and brought back on the stone wall.
Blanc looked quickly around; nobody was in sight to see them. No guard patrolling the ramparts under this weather, and no guests at the inn curious to stare into the dark.
Blanc thanked the Vita quickly before tuning to look at the ground below. It was one scary drop, even for him.
He rearranged his backpack, tightening it as well as he could around his body.
Seeing this, all the others followed him.
“Well then, how do we do this?” he asked, looking at the ground.
“I don’t think I can do it,” Velakia shook her head, “Most of my Raw Vita was based around speed and agility, not strength and durability. Tahreni is the same as well.”
“Fuck,” Blanc sighed, “Can Lendros do it?”
“He should,” Velakia muttered before turning towards her male protector, “Topi soj as ari lagure nis?”
“Lemeborb afar,” Lendros nodded confidently.
“He is confident he can,” Velakia translated.
“Then it’s easy,” Blanc chuckled, “How do you say jump in your language?”
“Ari,” Velakia replied without thinking, “Why?”
Blanc turned towards Lendros, grinning, “Lendros, you Tahreni ari, me Blanc, Velakia ari, eh?”
Lendros frowned, not understanding.
Blanc sighed, pointing his hand towards Tahreni, “Lendros, Tahreni, ari.”
He then turned on his heel, placed a hand between Velakia’s back and backpack, and one behind her knees, grabbing her off the ground, “Blanc, Velakia, ari,” he said as he got up on the edge of the ramparts.
“What are you doing?” Velakia asked, surprised.
Blanc looked at her face, chuckling, “But I told you already, Your Highness, of course, we jump.”
And with that, Blanc stepped off the ramparts with Velakia in his hands, disappearing into the rain as he dropped straight down.
Velakia’s scream was lost to the storm, swallowed by thunder and wind as they plummeted the fifty-foot drop toward the ground.
Lendros followed an instant later with Tahreni holding tightly in his arms, the two of them vanishing into the downpour behind him, nothing more to the outside world than shadows falling together with the rain.
Volume Two ; Chapter 48 (264) - Of Course, We Jump
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