Mrs Raily led the group as they waved the helpful guard goodbye and made their way into Lonely Ridge Village. The rest of her group was silent as they must have been thinking about the same thing going through her mind.

  "Do you think that note was for us?" Mary finally broke the silence, her earlier lightheartedness nowhere to be seen. Mrs. Raily knew that she had just been pulling Captain Dan's leg there at the ship, she was as serious about the operation as any of them, if not even more.

  "There's a good chance it might be," Mrs Raily answered, "But we can't be sure, there's no need for them to go through all of this just for the tiny possibility that we would hit one of their small, secluded villages."

  "There's a way to find out once and for all, you know?" Mary said, staring intently at the paper Mrs Raily held in her hand, "We just need to say a certain name and we will find out in an instant."

  "No we won't! Who knows what would happen when we mention his name? We might have a target on our backs instantly!" Luke interrupted hurriedly, the poor guy falling into Mary's trick easily.

  She didn't blame him though, even Empath didn't catch that the lady was joking. If they hadn't been spending a lot of time together, she would have believed her skill too. She wasn't at the point where she believed those implicitly yet, she still trusted her hunch and eyes better.

  "Calm down sweety." Mrs Raily didn't even have the time to explain when Brittany patted her son. "She's just messing with you."

  Right with that, Mary turned to the man and gave him a wide smile. Mrs Raily just shook her head as she turned to something else.

  "You did well there Brittany." She glanced at the old lady, even though she was much younger than her and Mary. "Your illusion seems to have held, the guard wasn't able to notice much about our clothes, keep it up."

  They were wearing a few clothes that the natives from the Dynasty said were the closest in style to what people here wore, but it still wasn't the same. Fortunately, they had Brittany for that. The Master Illusionist tweaked a few minor things here and there, and when even that wasn't enough, as with the guard they had met at the gate, Mrs Raily had a way to deal with it. She had managed to pull the man's attention from trying to look deeper into the matter using a bit of Placate and her third skill.

  She wasn't happy about having to use her third skill, but she understood how important this was and how horrible things would have turned out if they got caught up in something that fast.

  "So," Mary said as she stretched, "Should we get this started?"

  Of course, before leaving Voyager, they had a few goals to achieve, the first of which was getting as much information about the Dynasty as possible. Such a matter had to be done in two ways to lower the chance of misinformation. The first of which was getting as many books as possible about the Nation, its history, and its people, and the second was through interacting with the people themselves and seeing how they were being treated and how they felt about their lives.

  Granted, people living in such isolated places weren't the best judges of how the Dynasty treated its people, but it was good enough, and what they had, for now.

  "We will start with a library," Mrs Raily said as her eyes scanned the people walking around, taking in their clothes and the way they carried themselves, aiming to find the best target to approach. "Or at least, a bookstore, who knows if such a small village even has a library."

  The natives on Voyager did say that there should be a library in every town and city as the Dynasty cared a lot about knowledge and learning, but they didn't know the real extent of that. So, their plans were based on the fact that there should be a library in the Village, but they were also ready to find no such thing.

  Soon, Mrs Raily's eyes fell on someone who almost seemed to be flaunting that he would be the perfect target for what they needed. They might even get more than just the location of a library or bookstore from him.

  The young man appeared to have quite the refined temperament as he walked down the street. From the way he carried himself, his pace, and the outward feel of his thoughts and feelings, Mrs Raily felt that she could get what she needed from him. She felt bad thinking it, but the young man truly had a sense of naivety to him that made him a good target.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Mrs Raily glanced at Mary before looking at the young man. She felt that her friend should be better suited for the task of wringing as much information as possible from the target

  She then watched as the Matriarch of the Stage gave the man a once-over before the air around her changed. She was still the same person, her features didn't change a bit, but the air around her couldn't be further from how she usually was, it was as if a calm, wise, and reminiscing grandmotherly figure suddenly possessed her friend. Even the way Mary walked had changed, taking slow measured steps as if the years had caught up to her, leaving her struggling with each step.

  "What lovely weather you have here," She said once she was by the young man's side, "The Village's location is truly enviable, the number of places I've seen that would hold a candle to it are few, and I've seen a lot."

  The young man seemed to be surprised by the sudden voice from next to him, the only thing that kept him from overreacting was who the speaker was, a sweet old lady reminiscing about the past, and not just a bit of pride at having his town praised.

  "We do have quite the sights, don't we?" the young man said as he looked at the ocean ahead of them, then at the surrounding mountains, "It's like a piece of heaven secluded from the outside world, with huge mountains, lush forest, and the open ocean, all in one place."

  It didn't take long for Mary to be leading the young man through points she wanted to be brought up, while making it look like he was the one boasting about them without any nudging or guiding. The man did notice the gang walking behind them, but he must have thought that they were part of the same group and were just letting Mary have her fun, he looked content with just having Mary to talk to.

  "I mean, the Dynasty is the most advanced Nation in the world for a reason," the young man said, his pride almost bursting after all they had talked about. "The others can barely keep up with us when it comes to runes and their implementations. It's simply unfortunate that we never looked into putting all our efforts into exploring the ocean. We were happy with having access to the few islands around us, not going deeper into the unexplored waters."

  It was only when he said that that Mrs Raily really started paying attention to her surroundings.

  Because they were from a much more technologically advanced world, it hadn't registered for her at first how different the village was from how a normal medieval village should have been. It was even different from what she heard the others describing the few villages they had been to. The street lamps had weird inscriptions on them that she could only guess turned them into something she was more familiar with. Even some shop signs had a neon-lights feel to them.

  The more she looked, the more she noticed such small details and objects, signs of magic being used to help with everyday life.

  "And our people too," Mary said as she nodded slowly.

  Mrs Raily almost had a whiplash from that sentence, part of her even wondered if she had missed a bit of the conversation as she was engrossed in looking at the natives and their casual use of magic in their day-to-day lives. She didn't though, she had been perfectly tuned in to the conversation.

  She didn't know what Mary's words were supposed to mean in the context of the conversation they were having, or in what way they linked to it. But she guessed that might have been what the old lady aimed for, giving only a small hint, a suggestion at where the conversation should go, and letting the other party fill it with the first thing that came to mind, giving the best representation of what they truly felt.

  "Exactly." The man's smile was blinding, as if he were extremely happy to have finally found someone who truly understood him. "So many geniuses are amongst us, and with just a bit of help from the Empress, they can soar to the highest heights. We are quite lucky to finally have a ruler who could stand up to those old fogies in the Council. I'm sure that if not for them standing against Her Majesty's every decision, we would have been in a much better position than we are now."

  The young man showed the most hostility ever since Mary started that conversation with him, making Mrs Raily note the term the Council.

  "The Council..." Mary just sighed and shook her head, as if she had nothing to say about that entity.

  "I feel the same." The young man deflated. "We can't do anything to them, just hope that this time, the Empress will finally be able to uproot them once and for all."

  After that, Mary led the conversation casually through a few more subjects before stopping as she looked at the young man with a gentle smile.

  "Unfortunately, I'll have to return to my group," she said apologetically, "I've kept them waiting for a while now. Thanks for the company and conversation, it was enlightening and fun."

  "No thank you," the young man said as he waved her off, "It has been a while since I had such a fun and engaging conversation, I would love it if there was a second time."

  "Me too," Mary smiled, and Mrs Raily felt that her friend wasn't just acting at that point. "I would love to have such a chance."

  As they paid their farewell, Mary didn't forget to ask him about where the library or bookstore in the Village was, and getting that from him, they went their separate ways.

  "You're kinda scary when you want to be, you know that?" Luke said after they had moved far enough from the young man and Mary had returned to her usual self

  "Oh, sweety." Mary smiled gently at him. "I've always been scary~"