Storing a carriage at the academy was possible but it came with a fee. I guess it made sense because it used up more space than just having a horse. It was a good thing that becoming a senior mage had increased my stipend. Maybe I would get even more if I officially became a grand mage.

Of course, buying the carriage had only been the first step. I still needed something to pull it and we were considering modifications. A few days after our purchase we stood around our carriage in the academy parking lot.

"How do we paint it?" Cassie asked.

"Black?" Skadi suggested.

"Black would work." I mused.

"We could add skulls!" Helena suggested.

"You mean real skulls?" I wondered.

"No, just paint them. Nyx would eat real skulls." Helena replied.

"I believe we could convince the esteemed Nyx to not devour decorations. Placing ornamental skulls on the carriage could make it look more imposing, especially if it is drawn by undead mounts." Kaito suggested.

Nyx seemed to ponder that but did not respond.

"We could lean heavily into your image as a powerful necromancer. And you might be able to animate skulls by themselves as low level undead. Maybe they could serve as a security system." Hatsumi suggested.

"Animating just a head is possible, I guess. I just have to modify the spell. A tier one or two head is just not going to do much." I replied.

"Alerting you if your carriage is tampered with would be enough." Kaito replied.

"Sure, but reporting something is hard for a mindless undead. We had the problem in the past when we considered rat spies. A low level undead would have problems communicating a threat. I suppose it would help if the carriage is stolen. I could track it at least." I replied.

"They could just look menacing, or make a noise if someone approaches." Skadi suggested.

"That could work." I mused. Would it be worth the effort to animate skulls though? Animating just the skull without the body was harder than just raising a skeleton. Then again, I did have quite a bit of mana. And Gronir had a bone door at his office, which was animated.

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"Do you think we can put armor on the carriage?" Helena wondered.

"Armour? Like steel plates?" I wondered.

"I am not sure if the axles could handle the weight." Skadi cautioned.

"I believe a full metal carriage would require some engineering changes." Kaito agreed.

"We just have to spot ambushes and take them out before they hit the carriage." Hatsumi said.

"We need traps for attackers! We should add a cage with Iron Beaks at the bottom!" Cassie suggested.

"What?" I asked.

"Think about it. We have a flap that opens and the Iron Beaks charge! There is enough space at the bottom of the carriage." Cassie said while pointing at the empty space. There was indeed quite a bit of room. We would have to work around the axles though.

"It might make it harder to perform maintenance on some parts but I suppose it could work." Kaito mused.

"We could also put them on the top." Skadi suggested.

"That would mean less cargo space." Helena replied.

"We could get a supply wagon too." Cassie suggested.

"That would be too expensive!" I protested.

"If you travel with your undead horde they could carry things as well. But they might slow us down too. In any case, we certainly need to find something to draw the carriage." Kaito said.

"We should at least try the ibex, it would be the simplest solution." I suggested.

"Sure, but I do not think it will provide a lot of speed. We want to be able to travel quickly. Maybe we could arrange for more ibex…" Kaito mused.

"The adventurers guild seems to be permanently low on corpses. Maybe we could order some though?" Helena wondered.

"Or we use horses. Surely we can find some dead horses. All Koyuki needs are the bones, right?" Skadi wondered.

"I guess. If we don't do anything too fancy it would not need that much time either. Maybe just tier two skeletons." I replied.

"Maybe some enhancements? Could you try to make them run faster?" Hatsumi wondered.

I scratched my head. "I could do something like a necrotic bite. I have not considered speed. But with our new discovery it might be possible. I am not sure how quickly I could come up with something though. I guess Gronir would help."

"Where would we get dead horses from?" Cassie wondered.

"There are people taking care of old horses, usually by butchering them. I have no idea what they do with the bones but we could easily find someone in a city as big as Lupos." Skadi replied.

"There is not that much time left until the conference but we might be able to get something. Shall I make inquiries?" Kaito asked.

"It would not hurt. Worst case we use the ibex." I replied.

"We still need to make it look pretty. So we go with black and skulls?" Helena asked.

"We should paint cat skulls on it." Skadi suggested.

"Meow!" Ivy complained.

"Ok, we could paint other cat heads too. Maybe we paint all four cats on it?" Skadi proposed.

"None of us is skilled at painting." I pointed out.

"I feel like a cat skull painted on both doors would be nice. No offense Ivy, but you do look less menacing." Kaito said.

Ivy pouted.

"Maybe we could paint some accents too? A line framing the door or something?" Cassie wondered.

"I will get some offer from painters, can you supply the paint?" Hatsumi asked.

Cassie shrugged. "I guess… What about the cage? And the Iron Beaks?"

"Do we really need explosives under our carriage?" I asked.

"Yes." Cassie replied.

"Maybe a small compartment…" Kaito mused.

Cassie grinned.

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