Yuri climbed down the ladder after Estellise and looked around: It seemed that they were in some kind of underground sewer under the castle. The entire area was a bit lighten up by blastia on the walls. The smell was terrible and smelled rotten. He wouldn't be surprised if some food the nobles threw down here would start to move.

"Sewers? Well that's just a cliche", he said just for fun but then noticed how something fell behind him. The ex-knight turned around and widened his eyes as the girl gasped in shock: The teenager who was with them cowered on the ground and breathed heavenly, hiding himself under his arms. Estellise immediately walked up to him and asked worried:

"Ray? Are you okay?" The boy's breathing got less intense over time and raised himself while opening his eyes. They were filled with fear but faded slowly away. He took one last deep breath and said quietly, but steadily raised his tone:

"J-just n-need...to calm...down...alright, let's get outta here." The moment he was done with the sentence he seemed mostly okay, but Yuri didn't bought that. When he wasn't that big of a help up there he definitely wouldn't be now since they were in sewers and that fact seemed to be enough to make the kid even more scared as before. Deciding that Ray is in no condition to fight he said reassuring but still with his usual cynical tone:

"Wow, when you said that you can't handle dark and closed places you weren't kidding. Stay back with her and I handle the front." The blacksmith looked down while standing next to the noble and said ashamed:

"More like human made environments...I'm fine with caves or forests...sorry." Now this was interesting for Yuri. Apparently this kid is more the nature time, huh? However he didn't push the matter, since the boy seemed traumatized and he kinda understood the feeling. He patted his shoulder and smiled at him:

"Hey, we can't really choose our fears, can we?" Ray was relieved to hear that since he lightened up a bit, but before they could move forward, a group of small, round rats approached from the side.

"So...those are monsters...", Estellise said astonished but worried at the same time and Yuri raised an eyebrow to that:

"You never met a monster?" This was embarassing for her since she only stuttered:

"U-uhm..."

"To be specific, they're ratwigles. And there are more of them", Ray pointed at their front and more ratwigles closed in to them. Yuri groaned and got ready for the incoming battle:

"Tch...this is annoying...we do the same as before. You two watch each others back and take care of one side. I take the other side." With that they unsheathed their weapon and threw their sheaths to the side (except of Estellise) before the masses of rats went in for their attack. For any normal person this would have been too much, but Yuri and Estellise had their bodhi blastia while Ray was pretty good at holding his own, even without a blastia. Because of that it didn't take long to kill the enemy horde. Now they just tried to get out of the sewers as far as possible for the sake of Ray and their dignity. The whole trip they made wasn't eventful, since they only moved some boxes and picked up a few items. After a while the girl in the trio said suddenly:

"I need to thank whoever told you about this underground passage." Yuri on the other hand was confused of why she should do that, so he asked:

"Why would you need to be thankful for something like that?"

"I'm trying to get out of the castle, just like you", she explains with a smile but this didn't convinced him to be thankful at all.

"That's all well and good...but there's no need to be all thankful because of it."

"Oh no. We must show courtesy to those who show us kindness", Estellise scolded him with a frown and the man countered:

"Sort of weird to be polite to somebody you've never met, don't you think?" The woman on the other hand continued with her scolding and said stern:

"Manner are never so important as when dealing with those whom we have yet to be acquainted."

"You really think so?", he wondered and Estellise replied serious:

"I know so. Am I right, Ray?" With this she pointed the focus on the young teenager who looked around for an exit. He turned around with the mention of his name and gave his opinion in the little discussion with a thoughtful look:

"Well, without the hint we might have walked around in the castle for who knows how long. And being nice is always good, especially in the business area. "

"Oh, what would you about it?" Yuri couldn't resist putting in his cynicism into the matter and he got the desired result: Ray became irritated.

"You think I can be successful in forging business if I have no idea about it? I need to make orders, bargain about prices, set week plans, blabla."

"I still doubt you actually are your own man. My hunch is that you're some student or something", the ex-knight stated his opinion and Ray smirked to that:

"Gotta come to me in Dahngrest then, if you want prove, mahahaha! Or we could get confirmation by some guild members we walk by." Yuri sighed and took the lead again. He had to suppress a smile though, since the kid was adamant about proving his independence and talent. It kinda reminded him of himself as a child and his fighting style resembled his own: Mostly self taught, with the only difference that Yuri based it off knight artes. The kid seemed to come up with all his moves alone. While drowned in his thoughts he didn't notice how Estellise began to talk with Ray.

/

Estellise was a bit angry at Yuri. Not because he was evil or something like that. No, she was angry because he didn't believe the young man being talented. She knew it would be rare but seeing how passionate and obviously knowledgeable Ray was, she couldn't understand why nobody would believe him. She decided to cheer him up with a compliment:

"I think it's formidable, being so young and still so independent!" First Ray looked confused but then brightened up in mere seconds and exclaimed loudly:

"That's because I'm a prodigious genius!" Apparently he was loud enough for Yuri, since he replied offhandedly:

"Sure you are." Estellise tilted her head. It sounded serious but remembering his attitude to the teenager she asked Ray for confirmation:

"Was that-"

"Yes, this was sarcasm. Why do you ask? I think it was pretty obvious", Ray interjected with a curious tone and the noble replied:

"I didn't have that many classes, since I wanted to focus on self defense in case somebody would try to attack me."

"Well...understandable for a princess." Estellise nodded in silence but something about this sentence bothered her. A few moments later she realized what was wrong: She never told them she was the second heir of the throne, did she?

"How did you-"

"I got my sources. You should keep it a secret in public though. If you want to tell Yuri, it's your thing. Don't worry, I'm good at keeping secrets", he reassured her with a smile she rated as genuine but Estellise needed to know how he knew about her identity. The only ones would be the ones inside the castle and there's no way a person from another continent would know just like that.

"What kind of sources?"

"Let's say my relatives gave me a lot of information. Come on, let's go." This made a bit more sense to her. If he was related to retired knights or diplomats while she was younger then he would have the opportunity to know about it. Still, she had her doubts but decided that she shouldn't press the topic. People would call her naive but she truly believed that the teenager was a nice boy, even if he was quite mysterious sometimes. However she was worried about his past. His scars on his hands didn't seem to be only from forging except if he was self taught, but this would raise the question on how he's still alive. The robe he wore was big enough to cover his entire body as if he tried to hide something. She may be raised in a castle, shut off from the outside but this meant more time for observing the things she saw, even if she needs some time before noticing something. Sure, humans and their emotions weren't her expertise but she wasn't the only one who had difficulties with this. After while they arrived at the ladder which probably led to the outside and Ray immediately climbed up first. Estellise waited for Yuri to climb up next but he only waited and stared at her expectantly.

"So? Go up already." She blushed a little bit and said carefully:

"Uhm...why?"

"Well, it's safer if I go last and the two of you go first, right?", he said with a confused tone and Estellise saw, that he didn't got the issue. On the other hand she didn't want to say the problem with him climbing after her flat out so she just said with a shy tone:

"...I don't think that's a good idea..."

"Huh? I don't really see a problem...oh. Okay, understand." Yuri climbed up the ladder while the girl pouted. Was she so unfeminine that he didn't react at all? She was a bit insulted even if it would have been embarrassing if he looked from below. Still, she was glad that they didn't treated her differently based on her heritage and noble appearance, especially Ray since he knew about her secret.

/

"It's already morning. I wasted an entire night. Looks like it led to the royal quarter", Yuri said a bit frustrated, but Ray didn't care. He was free. Outside. He took deep breaths and wanted to scream in delight but decided to hold back for now. Ray looked at the others and saw Estellise looking around in amazement. Understandable for him, since a princess wouldn't even be allowed to go out on the backyard. Fitting her curiosity she whispered astonished:

"Everything looks so different from the windows of the castle."

"Ah, come on. You sound like this is your first time out of the castle." Ray had to fight back a snort at Yuri's disbeliving comment which led to some stuttering from the noble:

"Uhm...well...I..."

"I guess a lady who lives in a castle can't just take a walk outside whenever she wants", the ex-knight said with an empathic tone and Estellise replied slowly:

"Yes...you're right." Yuri probably still thought she was still just a noble or if he had suspicion than his poker face was one of the best the teenager ever saw.

"Do you smell this, people?! THIS IS THE SMELL OF AIR AND FREEDOM!", Ray yelled out and threw his arms in the air since he couldn't keep his happiness down anymore. He tried and he failed, so nobody could judge him in his opinion.

"And you'll lose it rather quickly if you keep yelling like that...well, at least we got out of the castle", Yuri sighed and held his hand in the air. The blacksmith smirked when an idea came up in his head: What would a sheltered princess like Estellise do in such a situation. His expectations didn't betray him when the girl walked up to the male adult and poked it with her index finger. Yuri laughed in an awkward manner while the teenager had to pinch himself to not die from laughter. Estellise tilted her head in confusion and asked:

"Um, was that not right?"

"Nah...it's fine...", Yuri assured her but Ray, who calmed himself down, raised his hand and demanded:

"No it's not! Gimme some!" The adult smirked to this and gave him a high five. Then he turned around to the embarrassed noble and asked:

"So, Estellise...what are you gonna do now that you're out?" The determined look on her face came almost instantly when she replied:

"I'm going to find Flynn."

"Do you know where he went?", Yuri asked while making sure nobody saw them yet.

"The other day, he said he was going off on a knight's pilgrimage", she explains and Yuri seemed to be lost in memories. Probably from his times as a knight, if Ray had to guess.

"Ohhh, that thing. Going around the cities of the empire piling up good deeds?"

"Yes, that's why I'm going to the City of Blossoms, Halure." The teenager perked up. Halure? This was the place where one or even his only friend in Dahngrest wanted to impress a certain strict and cold but actually nice girl. He wondered if his friend was okay or not. The potential as one of the strongest fighters in Dahngrest or even the whole continent was there if it's only about power but Ray still worked on the courage problem. Still, he had to be in the present now and tuned back into the conversation when he heard Estellise ask Yuri:

"Were you ever outside the barrier?" He could swear that the ex-knight flinched a bit. Evidence that something bad happened "a little while ago". Still, this moment was only lasting an instance and Yuri said thoughtful.

"A little while ago...I'm not sure if I should just leave the lover quarter as it is but...I already took on the mission to escort the kid so..."

"I bet they can handle themselves. Anyways, lead the way!", Ray exclaimed loudly and pushed his (forced) bodyguard to the lower quarter and Yuri tried to calm him down:

"Alright, alright."

They were walking for a while, trying to not get any attention pointing on them and there were several times where he and Yuri had to hold back Estellise because she was curious. Personally Ray didn't like it in the royal quarter. It was way too clean and noble for his tastes. He liked it more simple and even small, as long as it's comfortable. Seeing how they weren't found yet he joked:

"Hey, funny that nobody found us yet, huh?"

"You there, fugitives! Halt, I say!"

"The jig is up!"

"Fools! Enough grandstanding. Arrest them! Yuri Lowell, this time you won't escape." The urge of shouting a lot of inappropriate things was only suppressed by the presence of the princess. Those things had to happen to him as it seems and Yuri wasn't doing a great job on distracting Ray when he commented with a sarcastic tone:

"Great job kid."

"I'm pretty sure they have an inbuilt Yuri-Detector from what I can see. But yeah, shouldn't have jinxed it", Ray admitted reluctantly and Estellise asked with a nervous tone:

"W-what should we do?" The grin on Yuri's face made Ray grin himself, especially when he said:

"Easy. Ray, wanna take one of them?"

"Sure!"

"Alright. First you take one of these...", he picked up a little stone and the teenager did the same," and then do this!" It was quite funny to see how the two wannabe knights fell on the ground as if someone shot them with a cannonball but they couldn't stay there and hurried to the Lower Quarter. Arriving there the blacksmith felt a lot more comfortable. Sure it was dirty but if actually felt like a home and not like a giant decorating flower. Only downside was the fact that everything in this area was wet and smelled even worse than it usually probably was. The source of the stench and water came from the fountain and Ray noticed that there wasn't a blastia anymore. Suddenly an elder male voice with a strange accent sounded through the area:

"Yuri! Where've you been?!" An older man approached the ex-knight, who remarked casually:

"I got an invitation to the castle and had the most marvelous time."

"Of all the...and who's the young lady and the kid?" Looking over to Ray and Estellise and tilted his head a bit in confusion. The latter walked up to him and bowed politely which was probably drilled into her before she could even speak:

"Pleased to meet you I'm Estellise."

"The pleasure is all mine, Miss." Doing the same the old man bowed down too and then looked at Ray. Seeing the opportunity he throws his right arm in the air, pointing into the sky and looked down dramatically before exclaiming enthusiastic:

"And I'm Ray Verrier, best blacksmith in the world and this meeting makes me overwhelmed!" Silence filled the air for a short time with Yuri facepalming, Estellise looking intrigued by his behavior and a blank face by the elder. Seconds later however it changes to a smile and he laughed heartily:

"Hahahaha! Interesting boy you picked up! Er, more importantly, about those Imperial Knights..." Seeing as the topic was a local one he followed Estellise who walked up to the fountain and looked around for a while. Since he didn't had anything better to do he started with some small talk, hence he said jokingly:

"And, what do you think? A bit too dirty for your standards?" After frowning at this statement for a moment she closes her eyes and smiles while saying admiring:

"I would be lying if I said that this area wouldn't be dirty, but I believe that is not their fault. But it's so...lively around here. Everybody seem to know each other."

"Humans are frail beings. If you don't have the strength, make it up with numbers", he said with a hint of spitefulness but Estellise didn't notice this and only frowned at his scientific definition.

"Not how I would've phrased it but you're right. These people need each other, so they work together. It's beautiful...It's sad though, that their aque blastia doesn't work anymore." Ray snorted to her sad tone and pulled out some kind of goggles, which had blue lenses, a bronze coating around it and black rubber to fix it on his eyes, while saying disapproving:

"Meh, people rely too much on blastia...huh, pretty high quality considering where it was." After Ray squinted his eyes and looked at the fountain for a while, he put his goggles back into his side pocket of his vest. Suddenly Estellise asked innocently:

"Aren't those blastia too?" With a grin he stated proudly:

"Nope, made and calibrated them myself! Blastia might be the most versatile ones, but with the right stuff you can make something small like this without a core. Even if barriers are quite impossible right now."

"How did you create something like this?" Chuckling at her thirst for knowledge and her shining eyes Ray explained more thoroughly as if he would be in front of a student:

"For this I just needed lenses which would be stable enough to use aer as an energy for doing calculating and analyzing stuff. I used mithril for the lenses and bronze for the coating since it would be too expensive making blastia body parts. To make the mithril into glass was a bit tricky, but I managed to do so."

"But how does it absorb aer without a core?"

"The formula for cores is really complicated, yes. That only means however that I have to use another formula that is easy enough to put it on different things. But how...is. A. Secret ~!" The noble pouted at his playful behavior and Ray doesn't feel bad about it at all since it was a private matter to him how to make something like this and he was probably the only one on this planet who knew how to use them efficiently as far as he knew. Before Estellise could press the matter more however a familiar voice rang through the lower quarter:

"Yuri Lowell! You may have incapacitated my two men, but you cannot escape! Be a good boy and turn yourself in!" Yuri groaned at this and mumbled while walking towards the exit:

"Why only me? This kid also escaped...well, our cue to go. Looks like I won't be here for a while." Wanting to comment to his sentence Ray breathed in for yelling but the elder man beat him to it:

"Never getting bored when Yuri is around. After this we're even for getting us that money back."

"Just make sure you don't kick the bucket because you blew everything into some crazy party."

"Heh, same to you. Make sure you don't go dying in any ditches."The level of sassiness on both sides made the teenager assume that the ex-knight learned his sarcasm from here. Nevertheless the noble bowed down in politeness:

"It was nice to meet you sir."

"He'll probably be quite a pain in the neck. You make sure you take care of yourself, Miss. You too kid." Ray gave him a thumps up and exclaimed:

"Sure! Let's go!" Turning around he could see how the old man made a hand sign and in that moment the knight was rushed by dozens of people. The trio smiled at this and wanted to get out as far as possible when a second wave crashed into them and they were squeezed from all sides. Trying to get out he heard several people talking to Yuri, words of encouragement, scolding and so on.

"Don't you make her cry!", some random woman yelled and Ray instantly replied to that:

"See?! Even other people say that!"

"I have no idea what you're-Hey! Quit pushing!...Ouch! Who hit me? I'll remember that!"

"Here, this might come handy when you go to Halure!"

"Hey, this thing is almost empty!"

"What did you expect? Almost nobody goes out of the barrier, so you just have to fill it out yourself. You should go to Deidon Hold first." The context was lost on Ray so he assumed Yuri got a map or something like that. After a long struggle they finally got through the masses and the ex-knight was full packed with gels, bread, a map and other supplies which he commented with a whistle:

"Well, that's a lot of stuff they gave you."

"Wow, Yuri. They're all going to miss you so much", Estellise said as amazed but Yuri decided to play it down or he was just cynical, since Ray couldn't really tell the difference:

"Honestly, they're probably thrilled to finally get rid of me."

"I second that." He grinned when Yuri frowned at him and searched his pockets for more stuff they gave him.

"Hey, no need to be mean...Hey, hold it! Who put money in here?! I can't take this!" Before the ex-knight could go back however the teenager holded him back at his shoulder and said mockingly:

"Yeah, no. I wouldn't go back if I were you. Besides, you don't complain for all the supplies, so suck it up. I'll pay you later if you insist on giving it back."

"Tch...fine. Still, I don't feel all that good on taking this." As they began to walk off the knight who followed them approached them with a high speed but fell to the ground as a dog with a pipe and a scar across the left eye used its tail to sweep of his legs. Yuri grinned and complimented the dog:

"Nice one Repede."

"A dog?", Estellise said surprised and Ray waved his hand with a smile:

"Sup buddy!" As he wanted to get closer to Repede, the dog jumped back a little distance and growled at him. In this instance his smile fell a bit but he tried to stay casual, even as Yuri raised an eyebrow to that.

"Well, now it's north to Deidon Hold", Yuri announced and brought the noble out of her trance:

"What? Oh, right!"

"I don't know how long we'll stick together. Here's to the road ahead, Estelle, Ray." As Yuri ended his sentence Ray gave him props for coming up with a nickname that sounds actually pretty nice for him. Of course he didn't said it out loud since he was busy observing Estelle being amazed by her new nickname.

"Yes, I...huh? Es...telle...Estelle...Estelle. To the road ahead, Yuri, Ray."

"To the road ahead as you said!", Ray rhymes and gave him a chuckle from the two of them.