(That is the question indeed…) 

Looking at the slightly nervous princess in her brightly coloured dress which had an excess of frills, Dax started smiling.

"First I need you to strip~"

"What?"

-

"Uuuu."

Having dragged Xi off into the town Dax quickly found a leatherworker and paid her a premium to completely rework the dragonkin princess' wardrobe. 

"So, what do you think my dear customer?"

Looking at Xi Dax no longer saw some n.o.ble from a far off land, instead, she looked somewhat like a mercenary or at least a traveller. While her long golden hair which had been elaborately braided remained untouched, her frilly blue dress and fine shoes were no more. Xi now wore a robust brown leather poncho over light leather armour which was reinforced with metal but still somehow retained a feminine feel due to numerous embroidered decorations.

"... It's perfect, good job."

Looking at the heavily blus.h.i.+ng princess which was obviously not used to wearing pants Dax still retained a large child like smile, which was similar to the shopkeeper's fox like one. 

"And I should just forget I've ever seen you or this lady, right?~"

"You sure do catch on fast, I might come to depend on you in the future."

Handing the shopkeeper a pouch of gold coins (still with a large smile on his face) the qiton started emitting a large amount of bloodl.u.s.t.

"And I trust you will take care of any evidence left behind?"

"Of course~"

"Good~ Pleasure doing business with you, Xi we're leaving."

"R-right."

Following after Dax like some sort of newborn fawn as she was adjusting herself to walking in some brand new robust travel boots, Xi looked like she wanted to ask Dax something but didn't have the courage to do so.

"What is it?"

Unable to endure the constant hesitation of his new cover, Dax stopped in his tracks and turned to the princess with an overbearing expression.

"W-was it really a good idea to threaten that shopkeeper?"

"Ah, that wasn't a threat, it was more like a greeting."

"Is that so?..."

"Yeah it is, now we need to find you a weapon, what kinds can you use?"

"... A sword I guess?"

"You guess?... Have you ever used a weapon before?"

"I have not."

"Well, that's just great. Then we don't need to bother with that, let's join back up with your dear knight."

"Right!"

Still looking like some sort of newborn animal Xi followed after Dax with an unusually energetic spur to her steps, the reason for which became extremely clear to Dax as they met up with the knight once more.

"So, h-how do I look?"

While playing with her hair and having a slight blush on her face Xi nervously asked her knight for his thoughts retaining to her new clothing while Dax spectated.

(Oh boy….)

Feeling like he was about to see some romance Dax prepared to take mental notes with a thin and warm smile on his face as he turned his attention towards Chad.

"Like a hunter, let's get going."

(Oh lord… He's a dense as a neutron star that one.)

(That sounds so rich when it's coming from you Dax~✿)

(Yeah, yeah I know. I am working on it…)

Seeing how obviously dejected Xi was acting because of Chad's straightforward answer Dax silently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Good luck."

"... Thanks…. W-wait! I-I mean-"

"Yeah, yeah I know. Let's get going."

Switching from his slow walk into a light jog Dax quickly caught up with Chad which had swapped his s.h.i.+ny looking plate amour for some far more inconspicuous leather armour with a metal reinforced chest piece.

"So what's the current destination?"

"We're going to the capital of the Greendale kingdom to ask an old acquaintance of my lady's farther for a.s.sistance with the current calamity, if that doesn't work we'll continue on to the imperial capital."

"That sounds perfect, I also have some business in Greendale to take care of."

Being a continent spanning empire, Dax's current opponent was made up of serval more or less autonomous kingdoms that held certain rights to self govern and make their own laws while falling under the umbrella of (and paying tribute to) the empire. The multiple kingdoms and self governing territories amount of autonomy depended on a complex connection of n.o.ble houses and powerful merchants and trade and could range all the way from an almost completely independent state to nothing more than a puppet of the imperial capital. 

The kingdom of Greendale swung more towards the independent category, as they had an extremely robust economy based on their export of mined mana stones and a competent armed force to keep the peace it was simply not worth it for the imperial capital to strengthen its hold on the country. While it could be extremely profitable on the short term to take over Greendale and/or subject it to increased taxes nothing was done to it, as the country served as a pillar of stability for the southern part of and stimulated economic growth in the region.

The reason Dax was interested in Greendale was rather simple, it was an economic hub and where goods flowed trough in high concentrations so did information. Moreover, the capital of Greendale itself was relatively close to one of the high density ambient mana hotspots the qiton's satellites had long since located and a possible base of operations of the faction which produced the walking corpses which had attacked Dax.

"It's getting dark soon, let's camp out over there."

"Yay…."

Having walked for most of the day while clearly not being accustomed to it, Xi used the last of her energy to run over to the spot Dax had indicated before laying down flat on the ground.

"Please don't lay there my lady, you'll catch a cold… This really is a great spot to set up camp, good job spotting it Dax."

While first and foremost being worried about Xi, Chad stopped and looked at the clearing which was a few hundred meters away from the main road. Not did it have clear lines of sight all around but there was also some amount of top cover while it was on a slightly higher ground than the surrounding area, preventing the campsite from being flooded if it rained heavily.

"Yeah I have been wandering for a while now so spotting these places is quite easy, now let's set up, I'll get a fire going."

Quickly clearing out a patch of ground Dax gathered up a few rocks to form a rudimentary fireplace before he disappeared into the forest to look for kindling.

"It sure is great we found this mercenary, don't you think so Chad?"

While Xi hadn't really gotten to know Dax all that well yet and he had been a bit mean to her sometimes, the princess clearly felt like he took his job seriously and she could depend on him to keep her safe.

"... I am not so sure that it was us that found him, more likely it was the other way around."

But alas the knight was a bit less naive than the princess.

"What do you mean?"

"There's something he's not telling us and it is fair to say that this mysterious demonkin is not some simple mercenary, he's far too strong for that. Please keep close to me at all times my lady, Dax is not what he appears to be."

From the first moment Chad had placed his eyes on Dax, he was certain that there was something off about him. Even as the mysterious demonkin carried a sword, it appeared that he had no need for it and Chad's instincts told him that Dax had been constantly reigning in his blood l.u.s.t along with fighting prowess, giving the somewhat experienced knight the impression that Dax was truly something terrifying which was trying to hide for some unknown reason.

(Those sure are some sharp instincts you got there Mr knight, but you're being affected by them far too much and it's giving you away~)

While gathering firewood a few hundred meters away from the knight princess pair Dax could still clearly hear them talking.

(Oh well, there's really no reason to get along with them… Just as long as I can use them as cover to get to Greendale, after all, a lone traveller is getting more and more suspicious the closer I get to the imperial capital…)

Being completely honest Dax didn't care much for the princess and knight pair, their survival was insignificant to him as he only needed them as cover to complete his primary objective.

(But those homunculus' were quite the abnormality, investigating them might lead to something interresting… I should properly use that princess as bait to lure out their comrades.)

Having thought over some of the current options available to him as well as his general situation Dax returned to the campsite and started the campfire, after which he started meditating with his sword lying within reach.

-

(Where am I?... Ah that's right we abandoned the carriage.)

Waking up inside a cramped one person tent Xi took a few seconds to remember what was going on before she turned around and tried to go back to sleep… Tried being the key word.

(Toilet… What was I supposed to do again?)

Finding her boots and wearing her new leather poncho over her sleepwear Xi left her tent to take care of her business. 

(Isn't that cold?)

On the way back to the campsite her eyes had finally adjusted fully to the spa.r.s.e illumination of the campfire and moonlight as she spotted Dax, he was still in the same location he had been in when she went to sleep, meditating a few meters away from the fire.

(... What was that?)

Just as the princess' eyes started to wander away from Dax as her body reminded her that she should get back to her tent by s.h.i.+vering slightly, something caught Xi's eyes when she looked away from Dax. It was some sort of faint red glimmer and when she looked back towards the demonkin mercenary her vision suddenly became blurry as her senses dulled without her herself noticing. 

"Who are you?"

Suddenly there stood some sort of small child with long black hair next to Dax wearing a red dress and for some reason, the child didn't raise any form of alarms in the dragonkin princess' mind as she walked closer to the figure which held some sort of strange allure.

"Do you want to play?~ Then pick up the sword~✿"

unbeknownst to herself, Xi's senses continued slipping further into the dark as she heard the sweet and entrancing voice of the child.

"Yeah, that sounds fun…"

Before she realized it Xi stood next to Dax and reached out for his sword with a smile on her face, she was eager to play with the child while feeling an uncontrollable need to touch the crimson sword.

"What are you doing?"

"Eh? W-what is happening?"

She only snapped out of it when Dax grasped her hand as she was about to touch the sword, snapping the princess out of her trance and erasing any recent memories at the same time.

"Yeah, don't ask me about that, go back to your tent and get some sleep."

"O-okay, good night Dax."

As the clueless princess returned to her tent and went back to sleep Dax looked at his sword.

(Behave, that one is not food.)

(..... Tch.)

(What was that?)

(Nothing~ Understood Dax, that one is not food~✿ I'll try not to eat her in the future~)

(No just don't f.u.c.king eat her at all, how the f.u.c.k is that so hard to understand?)