Ashton and his two companions had a long journey on the roads ahead of them. The capital city of the Harman Empire has no warp gates connecting it to the rest of the country.
The founding emperor was weary of people at the edges of his realm being able to step directly inside of his city's walls. So, he forbode the construction of them inside of the capital, and inside of the central noble's territories.
"Master Ashton, this trip would be much quicker if we could just warp to the capital. Man, Emperor Alexander was overly paranoid." Titus was on a high, he hadn't stopped talking since he left his barracks.
"Not entirely. I would have come to the same conclusion. When there are inter-noble wars, each side will deactivate their warp gates, it is the same premise with the capital. Assassins and foreign armies could easily invade if they quickly take an outer county."
Titus understood the weight of the decision now, but he was still unassumed. The carriage slowed as it exited from the forest and started to travel along the city roads. Instead of traveling through the city to get onto the imperial road for the capital, Titus realized they were heading for the warp gate in Whayne City.
"Master Ashton!" The smile on his face was ear to ear. "Where are we going? I always wanted to see more of the empire!"
"Titus Magnus, this is not a trip for taking in your surroundings. You are on an assignment."
Ashton was growing impatient with Titus's personality. He assumed, despite all indication, that Titus was capable of taking his mission seriously.
[Is this my fault for not making it clear from the beginning, or is this just how he operates...]
As the carriage approached the warp gate, the flag it was flying went unnoticed to the guards. At first, they tried to admonish the coachman for forcing the crowd to split as he approached the gate.
They told the coachman to go to the side as they weren't accepting carriages at the moment. Their tone was commanding, which Ashton apricated from his home's peacekeepers, but as he was about to slide the window of his booth open, Titus opened the carriage door and jumped out.
"Hey! Buddy, don't you see the flag on his vehicle?" Titus lunged into the guard's face and pointed up at the crest waving in the wind.
[A griffin wielding swords] As the guards looked up at the emblem, they realized the situation they had gotten into. As they looked into the open door of the carriage, Ashton's eyes met theirs with a fire.
Ashton wasn't angry, his eyes were naturally lit with intensity. Through the spreading of Ashton's recent exploits, he was known as upright and mighty. So, the heat in his eyes had scared the guards, they thought Ashton was angered from their incompetence.
"My Lord!" The guards knelt as their hearts stopped beating.
Ashton called them to their feet and ordered for the warp gates location to be shifted from its current destination to Albert County.
The warp gate was like a doorway through space, the thousands of magical arrays it is constructed of allows it to connect to any location where there is a copy. Of course, the travel has limitations such as distance and the operators of each side having to manually connect each end.
"I hope Albert County accepts the link, Lord Ashton. It is ahead of schedule after all. Haha!" The coachman was enjoying the situation. The schedule each warp gate maintained throughout the empire was sacred. Millions of people depended on it.
Titus was still outside of the carriage talking to the warp gates guards, he was posturing, announcing himself as the most honorable knight of the southern sector. But as the signal they had sent out became accepted, and the warp gate started to consume the mana from nature to open, causing Titus to turn his back on the guards and head back to the carriage.
"What are you doing Titus Magnus?" Ashton asked as he closed the doors of the carriage.
"Master Ashton... I am trying to get ready for our leave.."
"No. You must go ahead through the gate. Go and announce my arrival."
Ashton wasn't being arrogant, it was infact the opposite. It was standard for nobles to send a servant ahead of themselves, and due to Ashton only bringing a couple people with him, that duty fell onto Titus.
It was confusing, Titus didn't know anything about Ashton's world.
"You can count on me!"
Titus may not have known the exact reason he was being sent ahead, but he knew he was acting in Ashtons stead. He knew he must act with his head held high.
After bowing to Ashton, he dashed through the gate and as his surroundings changed, he noticed the silver armors brandished with a red eagle in formation around him.
He felt their vitality, he knew they were knights that far outclassed him. For a passing moment, he almost drew his sword as his blood started sprinting and his instincts screamed fight or flight.
But he took a breath, he was in a situation he had never been before. He faced death before, but never like this. If it was a battle, it would have been hopeless. Yet it wasn't a battle, he was the voice of his lord in a friendly territory.
"My name is Titus Magnus. Knight of Lord Ashton Whey."
His announcement split the knight's formation and revealed a nobleman standing behind them.
"Make way for my lord's carriage, he shall be here soon." Titus wasn't making a broad announcement, he gave an order. All while looking directly at the man in charge.
"You heard him. Make way for Lord Ashton."
The knights scattered reluctantly, they didn't like Titus's attitude and by extension Ashton.
Ashton and Darian had visited each other's estates since before either of them could walk. Count Albert and Shaun were both the same age, they attended the same schools and magic academies as each other and were friends since childhood.
Both counties sharded close ties and all of the knights there knew Ashton, they have watched him spar and battle with their young master. Thats why they were slightly angered, they thought Ashton was becoming arrogant as his reputation grew.
While Ashton's carriage approached the warp gate, on the other side of the empire, inside of the heartland of the eastern half of the country, Aaron Raine was loading up his own carriage.
"Are all the men ready?" Aaron asked the lieutenant of his own personal knightage.
As his knights mounted their horses, Aaron took one last quick inspection of his luggage. He confirmed his gold, food, tents, clothes and made sure all of his necessities were with him.
"Very good. The gates schedule is about to be switch for Albert, lets depart."