TRANSMIGRATED AS A GHOST

As they left the city of Lethallan far behind, when it had disappeared from the horizon Marcus checked around to make sure they were alone before pulling off to the side of the road and parking.

He then undid the harness on Blitz before storing the entire carriage inside his item box and looing at everyone and saying, "Now we are going to fly to our next destination. I know you wanted to stretch your legs a bit Blitz, but for the detour I have planned flying is going to be much faster."

Once everyone had gotten ready Marcus transformed into his best flying form being the caladrius and allowed everyone to climb on top of his back.

When everyone was situated, Marcus carefully took to the skies and began to gain altitude planning to fly high enough to not attract to much attention.

Flying to an altitude of around fifteen hundred feet, Marcus was satisfied that it was unlikely for them to be attacked from the ground and began flying in a northwestern direction.

Lilia quickly picked up on this and realized that Marcus was flying in the opposite direction of the royal capital, meaning that the detour he was talking about was much further away than she thought.

However, even when she asked Marcus where they were headed, he just told her it was a surprise and to wait and see.

As they continued to fly Marcus slowly built-up speed before staying steady at around two hundred miles per hour (322 kmh).

Of course, without any protection the wind resistance on those on his back would have been difficult to deal with, so Marcus used his recently acquired mana barrier skill to give everyone a wind shield.

Moving at what was an incredible pace by most people in this world's standards, it took them only a day and a half to reach the Great Tortoise River and the sight of River Landing came into view.

This was the landmark that Marcus had been looking for, and with it now in sight he turned due north towards their destination.

At this point Lilia now realized where exactly Marcus was heading. She had thought he was maybe going towards River Landing but when he passed it by and continued north there was only one place, she could think they could be heading.

'We are going home.'

As Lilia thought this a feeling of anticipation began to well up inside her.

She had not been back since the slaver had abducted her and she was not sure if she was ready to return.

However, she knew that she needed to come back eventually to at least pay respect to those who she had lived most of her life with and find closure in their deaths.

Flying along the journey that would normally take multiple days on foot took them only around an hour as the flew high in the sky at incredible speeds.

Unfortunately, along the way they had been slowed down by an attack from a flock of territorial hippogriffs, though when Roxene began firing off darkness bullets like a mobile turret on Marcus' back, they quickly backed off and allowed them to continue on their journey.

'That spot should do.'

Finding a large clearing a few dozen miles before the village Marcus landed on the ground, let everyone off, and then took his form as Irene once more.

He did not want to cause a massive panic in the village by landing nearby, since an epic grade magic beast the size of a plane would seem like the end of the world for such a small village.

"Well, it is already getting late. Did you want to make camp here and head into the village tomorrow or did you want to push on and get there today?" Marcus asked looking for Lilia's opinion.

He was doing this mostly for her so he would do whatever she wanted, but like he expected Lilia said, "I think we should wait till tomorrow. It would be rude if we showed up as it was getting late, and we do not want to make trouble for them."

Nodding his head Marcus figured this would be Lilia's response since she was a pretty conscientious person, always trying not to make trouble for others.

Of course, Marcus could also tell that Lilia was feeling a bit of trepidation, but as long as she did not outright say she did not want to visit the village he was planning on going.

While Lilia set up the tent Marcus got to work on making dinner.

He had obtained a large quantity of meat from the elephant magical beast so he figured he could use it as the main ingredient for tonight.

Cutting the large pieces of meat he had into small cubes, Marcus began making a variety of different skewers for him and Lilia to eat, while he just threw large chunks of the meat onto the grill for Roxene and the two golden lion cubs.

Naturally with his decently high cooking skill even though the meat was a bit gammy, with the right spice rub and sauce Marcus was able to bring out the best flavors of the elephant meat making it taste like a high-quality dish.

"Dinner is ready."

Calling out to everyone Marcus informed them that the food was ready to eat, and it was not long before everyone had arrived to enjoy their meal.

Giving Lilia six skewers Marcus took only two for himself since he only ate for taste and not for substance.

Though the biggest eater was still Roxene who often ate more than her body weight in food and Marcus wondered wear she put it all, though he was not one to talk since he could seemingly eat infinitely.

Once everyone had their fill of food, they began to go to their respective sleeping areas while Marcus took watch as always not really needing sleep.

With his life sense skill activated Marcus could feel if any living being came into a radius of sixty feet now, and to pass the time took out a large atlas he had purchased in Lethallan before they left.

It had cost him a pretty penny to get since detailed information about geography was a well-guarded secret, but with Dahlia's help and around twenty thousand gold, he got his hands on one that detailed the entire continent.

'Hm if this scale is accurate then this continent is about as big as both North and South America from Earth put together. Yet past the top of Borealia is still around a fourth of the continent which is uninhabitable tundra.'

Continuing to examine the map of the continent, Marcus counted twenty-nine distinct nations on the continent.

At the northern end just as he had expected was Borealia followed by Tralenstein which he had read about in Mrazivy's library and used to be the kingdom that ruled the area that was now Borealia.

These two were actually some of the larger nations on the continent with only the nation to the far south that was mostly dessert being bigger.

After that there were a number of smaller or medium sized kingdoms that took up the continent.

'Though, this could be somewhat inaccurate since it is from fifty years ago but getting this level of detailed information at all was pretty difficult.' Marcus thought while reading the atlas.

Flipping through the atlas Marcus found that of the twenty-nine nations eight of them were partners with the adventures guild while the rest were not or even in conflict with them.

After examining the atlas for the entire night Marcus had a much better understanding of where he was and the surrounding areas, including their major political structures and trade goods.

'When I first parted with all that gold, I felt a deep void in my stomach, but now I can say it was worth it. The information here really is worth more than its weight in gold, and I can always make more money later.'

When the sun started to come up Marcus put his atlas away and woke everyone telling them it was time to get ready to go.

Marcus wanted to get to the village so that they could have plenty of time to catch up with the people there, and then if Lilia was up for it visit the ruins of her old home.

Once everything was backed up Marcus brought their carriage back out and tied Blitz up to the harness.

"Yah."

Yelling out and shacking the reigns Blitz began trotting down the road as they made the last leg of the journey to the remote village that sat at the northern most populated area of the kingdom.

As they got closer and crested over a large hill the view of the village finally came into sight and it would only be another few minutes before they arrived at its borders.

Driving into the village Marcus could already see that they had attracted a lot of attention since it would be fairly rare for a carriage to pass through this part.

In fact, only twice a year did a band of traveling traders make their way up here, and other than that it was quite rare for anyone to visit.

Stopping their carriage right at the border of the village that seemed to have received a new sturdy fence around it, Marcus waited for someone to come and greet them since it would be rude to just barge into the village.

Luckily it did not take long before the village chief along with his son and a small procession of curious villager to arrive.

Yet as they got closer some of them recognized both Marcus and Lilia, and they began to wave towards them beckoning them to come in.

"It is good to see you again Irene, and I am glad that you managed to find your sister and rescue her from those slavers. I thought you had left on a fool's errand, but it seems that you were really able to do it." The village chief said, as he looked at the two of them.

"Wow, when you arrived here from the woods you looked like you had just survived a war but now you have an incredibly nice carriage being pulled by a magical beast. You really have moved up in the world Irene." Amos the village chief's son said

Since they had arrived everyone other than the village chief had been looking at them like they were celebrities, though it was understandable since this was the first time many of them had seen such a nice carriage and a beast as majestic as Blitz.

"Now this is no place for us to have a long discussion. How about you follow me back to my house and we can talk at our leisure.. And I am sure Marianna would love to see you again after all this time."