“I know Lust said it’s a few days’ worth of travel but come on. This is so boring.” Rex said as he groaned. The level of boredom had reached an all-time high. The start of the trip wasn’t this awful. The four had plenty to talk about, but the topics dwindled after the first day. Now, there wasn’t a single conversation that hadn’t already been held. From the team’s beliefs in the Genesis Program and its ending to Xander’s planned proposal to his lover, not a scrap of information was missed. They practically knew everything there was to know about each other. Rex let out another loud moan.

“Keep it down back there,” Robyn said. She was fed up with her teammates complaining. It was hard enough to stay awake and keep the horse in line. The constant negative energy behind her only made her job worse. Robyn was tempted to ask someone else to take the reins, but she knew she could get them to their destination.

“Like it or not, this is the fastest option. We should arrive within the hour, so just hold on a bit longer.” Nicholas said. He was lounging in the carriage alongside Rex and Xander. A dark book was in his hands as he skimmed through each page. Not everyone aboard the ride was bored out of their minds. Nicholas was no stranger to long car rides from his previous life, so he knew better than to come ill-prepared. Even Xander was wise enough to bring an activity to do.

“Not everyone was ready for a long ride, nerd,” Rex said. He was bitter that no one advised him to bring something to keep him occupied. He had been ready and willing to start a fight with the Demon King, but he could have never expected his greatest enemy: free time. The Unnamed Team was constantly faced with quest after quest and a never-ending barrage of events. It was odd to have nothing to do. One would expect a griffin to attack or goblins to appear, yet both the world and Genesis were quiet.

“Looking up more spells?” Xander asked. It wasn’t uncommon for mages to learn new spells via books, but that wasn’t how The Unnamed Team operated. Genesis would simply give the skill to anyone that could read the book and met certain criteria. There was no need to delve into the book unless someone was looking for a specific concept or further understand a spell.

“I wish. This book is written in demonic. I can’t make sense of the thing.” Nicholas said. He showed his friends the writing he was desperately trying to read. Each letter was a symbol unknown to him. It was unlike the alphabet from his original world and far from the odd language used in this realm, known as Common. As expected, no one was familiar with the writing, and Genesis was unwilling to act as a translator. The only saving grace was that some of the book was written in a language Nicholas was familiar with. Not Common, but his native tongue. Peppered in the book were words and phrases that came from the team’s old world. It was odd, to say the least.

“Didn’t Lust give you a crash course on the language?” Robyn asked. She was still in the front of the carriage, guiding the horses, so she could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation. Her participation wasn’t necessary, but she felt alone in the front. It was why she was awkwardly leaning back to hear more of the discussion. There was nothing interesting on the road, and the horses were simply following the trail ahead of them. Many demons had walked this path, enough that the foliage had part ways to guide travelers. There was little need to constantly guide the horses.

“Yeah, but she couldn’t give me the proper skill. Now I’m stuck just looking at a book with words that don’t make sense.” Nicholas said. In the past, one could teach a person a language skill if they spoke that language themself. It was how he and Robyn possessed the skill [Speech: Animal]. Shen, the guardian of the Echoed Woods, bestowed that ability upon them. It wasn’t farfetched to believe Lust could do the same, but the feat proved to be more difficult than originally thought.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Rex said with a smile. He fondly remembered the first few months that the team operated as a unit. Back then, The Unnamed Team started as a ragtag group of peasants who couldn’t read, let alone slay a simple slime. It took quite some time before they understood this world’s language. Like children, they were taught to read and write all over again. Thankfully, it was to be expected in this world. Most peasants and commoners didn’t have to read or write, so they never bothered to learn how. It was why most adventuring guilds offered free tutoring sessions with the completion of a few missions.

“Does it say anything important?” Xander asked. Given that The Unnamed Team was heading into the heart of the Demon Castle, a book written in demonic might offer useful information. It seemed logical. The only problem was that no one could read the bulk of the book. A silent regretful sigh escaped him. Xander should have pushed harder for Lust to read it. She seemed against the idea but never explained as to why. It was an important book, almost to a level of confidentiality.

“Something about Demon King Chris and how he’s old…or something. I’m still not sure. It also talks about heroes that’ll come in a few hundred years and kill him.” Nicholas said. He tried to piece together the words he understood to form a cohesive story. He was still perplexed by the presence of a language foreign to this world. The only people that could possibly understand it were within the carriage or on their way to slay angels. It certainly wasn’t text that could have been written by natives of this realm, but who could have written it? The book was ancient. It would have been nothing more than dust if magic wasn’t used to preserve it. That fact only added to the multitude of questions in Nicholas’s mind, but he was the only one concerned.

“Ironic considering the first guy died of old age,” Rex said. Out of the many unanswered questions the team faced, the original Demon King’s death was the most puzzling. Demons, by their nature, lived naturally long lives. Aging was much different compared to normal humans, and it practically halted once the demon matured. They typically only perished when someone deliberately came to kill them. All of the circumstances around the previous king’s death were odd too. He died unceremoniously, and the location of his body was unknown to all but the sins and current Demon King.

“Yeah, that part still-“ Xander tried to say before he was interrupted.

“Gentlemen, if you look out our front-facing window, you'll see the silhouette of the Demon Castle. Please take this time to gather all of your belongings and prepare for arrival. We’d like to take this time to thank you for using Robyn’s Carriage Services. If you enjoyed your trip, please call one eight hundred-“ Robyn started to say with a calm, informative, yet eerily robotic, voice.

“We get it.”