One of the soldiers glanced at Wesley, then looked at Gust. “This your kid?”
“I mean he’s my kid but he’s not my son. So basically i’m responsible for him, but if you were to take him off my hands, I wouldn’t mind.”
The soldier was not amused and stared at Gust with a stoney face.
“The kid won’t need to be checked. You, though, step forward.”
Chapter 10
The soldier gave Gust more than a few extra pats, then grabbed Gust’s bag and upended it. Some props, a few smaller bags of food, money, and other miscellaneous dropped out. However, there was nothing of note.
The soldier shoved Gust’s bag toward him, then ordered, “Clean your stuff up and go.”
After checking all of the passengers, as well as all of their personal belongings, they still hadn’t found a Holding item.
At this point, even Sir Rosenthal didn’t have an excuse to detain the travellers any longer. Although the Conarite Kingdom didn’t care for the Shylock Trading Company, Mark and the rest of his family had a good reputation - it wasn’t as if they could detain them indefinitely without repercussions.
And so, he addressed Mark. “Thank you for your participation. Tell your people that they now have access to the rest of the fort.”
With that, he left. Once he was out of earshot of Mark, he motioned toward one of the mages, who dashed to his side.
“How long can you keep up a detection spell going?”
“Between the five of us, we can keep a detection spell strong enough to cover the fort for two to three hours at a time, but we would need a full day to recharge our mana after that.”
“Hmm. Keep detection spells running as long as you can, starting at midnight.”
“Yes sir.”
Happy to have been freed from the soldiers, the travellers left the wagons and headed into the other regions of the fort.
Fort Rosenthal, being the main military camp protecting the Conarite Kingdom from the Kenta Kingdom, was quite large, and was more like a small, military-centric city.
Wesley and Gust. like the rest, had left the wagons in search of food.
After walking down some streets, Wesley suddenly tugged on Gust’s arm. “Hey Gust, I wanna eat there.”
“Hmm?” Gust looked in the direction Wesley was pointing. It was a restaurant, two stories high, and looked...very expensive. Furthermore, the aromas that escaped from the front doors were...enticing, to say the least.
“No.” Gust firmly grabbed Wesley and walked away.
Eventually, they ended up at a food stall in a food market. This stall specialized in sausages, and the two gorged themselves on all sorts of mystery meets.
When they were done, Gust paid the bill, then frowned. He really didn’t have much money left. Then, he looked at Wesley, and sighed.
Truthfully, he didn’t really believe that delivery Wesley to the Reiniad Kingdom would gain him 5 million gold coins. As for why he was willing to help… he had an idea why, but he wouldn’t admit it.
Well, not that it mattered. He’d already made his decision.
WIthout money to rent a room for the night, the two made their way back to the wagons and slept aboard the wagon as usual. Kyle, Jen, and Alex weren’t there, presumably they had rented a room for the night.
However, not everyone’s night was so very simple.
Mark had mysteriously become ill, and had announced that he was unable to lead the caravan to the Kenta Kingdom. This responsibility would be assigned to another member of the Shylock Trading Company.
As for whether or not he was really ill, only he knew.
Sir Rosenthal and mages had spent the entire night looking for a trace of the whereabouts of the chaos gems.
But of any person in the fort, Wesley had had the most eventful night. Although it seemed as if he was sleeping peacefully, he was having a unique experience in his dream world.
He was flying through the air, next to an elderly man who was dressed in a simple but elegant light-blue robe, similar to the ones he had seen his father wear in the past.
Although Wesley was sure he’d never seen the man before, he somehow knew the man’s identity. The man’s name was Thomas, his teacher. It was Thomas who was leading him through the air - he himself was not capable of flight.
“Wesley, are you listening to me?”
“Yes, teacher.” The voice was his, but at the same time, not quite right.
“Alright, well don’t doze off again. As I was saying, we’re nearly at Fort Rosenthal. It will be the first place you’ve set foot in other than Affile Village. How do you feel?”
“Hm.”
Thomas sighed. This new disciple of his clearly had enormous potential, to that his disciple had already learned everything he could teach him regarding writing spells. Perhaps it would be at Fort Rosenthal that his disciple would learn how to draw his first seal. However, his disciple’s disposition was just too cold.
A few minutes later, the two descended before the front gates to the fort.
Wesley’s gaze settled on the fort’s walls. Even the tallest houses in Affile Village were but two stories high. However, the fort had stone walls that reached over thirty feet high.
Thomas saw Wesley’s gaze and smiled. “Tens of thousands of soldiers and their families live here. Even so, it’s a rather small place. For example, the capital city of your Pooles Kingdom houses almost a hundred thousand people. Quite amazing, isn’t it?”
“Yes. It is.”
…
The scene changed. Wesley was still with Thomas, but now they were in a room they had rented for the night.
Thomas quickly drew a seal, then left it unactivated for Wesley to examine. “This is the seal for a basic spell, icicle shot. When mages who specialize in ice magic are first taught how to use magic, this is one of the first spells they learn how to write. It’s also one of the easiest to draw.
“Now, even the simplest seals are rather complicated, so it’ll be better if I draw it on a piece of paper for us to examine in further detail.”
Thomas quickly drew the seal on a piece of paper, then began explaining it in further detail to Wesley.
“Now, this seal has five sections that determine the properties of the spell. Most basic spells will have five sections, whereas more advanced spells will have more. If you think of a seal as an equation, the sections are variables that can be changed, mixed and matched, to create new spells. Now…”
The explanation carried on through the night. Eventually, the first rays of sunlight could be seen through the room’s window. As Wesley noticed this, the scene in front of him faded away into oblivion.
With that, Wesley woke up. He sat up, then blinked his eyes. Still dark.
He raised his hand and began to draw the seal that Thomas had taught him in his dream. After just a few seconds of drawing, he swiped his finger across the seal and activated it.
An icicle shot out from the seal and punctured the roof of the wagon, causing a great deal of noise.
“What the hell was that?” Gust instantly woke up, floundering, and saw the hole in the roof. “Oh shit, we’re under attack! We’re under attack!”
He picked his bag and Wesley up and ran out of the wagon, yelling at the top of lungs that they were under attack, before Wesley could say a word.
Before he knew it, the travellers who had stayed in the wagons that night had congregated around the last wagon, and Gust was expounding a story in which he had chased a knife-wielding assassin from the wagons in a heroic act of defense.
‘I guess it’s too late to say I did it, huh.”
What Wesley didn’t notice until later, was that the seal that hovered above his mana pool had changed. One small portion was no longer black, but brimming with mana.
Chapter 11
A while later, soldiers arrived and examined the scene. Unfortunately, the “culprit” had not left any evidence. With nothing else they could do, they returned to the barracks and r
eported the happenings, along with Gust’s story as to what had happened, to Sir Rosenthal.
“How audacious!” Sir Rosenthal slammed the table. “The Kenta Kingdom thinks so lowly of me that they’re trying to assassinate civilians in MY fort? Double the patrols, and check every person who enters or leaves the city!”
“Yes, sir!”
Meanwhile, Gust and Wesley were making through the gate facing the Kenta Kingdom. Not because of the “assassination”, but rather because they didn’t want to wait for the new Sylock Trading Company representative to arrive in a few weeks to continue their trip.
After a few hours of travelling, saw another fort, similar in size to that of Fort Rosenthal. Soon after, they entered the gates without any trouble - the soldiers only gave them a cursory glance before letting them in.
However, once they were in the fort, they saw that many people were rushing towards the center of the city.
Curious, Gust grabbed a lady who was running past and asked, “Hey lady, what’s going on here?”
The lady looked at Gust and wrenched her arm back in disgust. Not that she could be blamed - Gust hadn’t washed up in quite a while. Nonetheless, she answered his question.
“You’re not from around here, huh? Today’s Kenta Independence Day - as such, the greatest warriors of each age group are going to compete at the center of the city today. The best part of it all is that seats are free!”
With that, she left.
“Hmm. Sounds interesting. What do you think, Wesley?”
“Sure.”
With that, the two made their way to the center of the city, where they saw a giant coliseum that looked to seat the city’s entire population, although with some squeezing involved. Just the arena itself could easily hold a few thousand people.
Luckily for Gust and Wesley, the event started right as they found their seats. To the cheers of the audience, a lone man clad in fierce steel armor, and adorned with a red cloak stepped onto the arena. In his right hand was a short sword, in his left, a large, round shield.
He raised his arms, and the stadium, which had just been filled with the incessant chatter of the masses, instantly went silent.
After a few seconds, the man brought his sword and shield together with a clash.
“HOU HOU HOU. HOU HOU HOU. HOU HOU HOU.”
The entire stadium rang with primal war cries, startling Gust and Wes, who had been utterly unprepared for it.
Gust shook it off and watched on, amused, but suddenly he heard some high pitched screeches from his right.
‘Ah… isn’t Wesley getting a little too into it?’
Wesley was currently screeching at the top of his lungs, jumping up and down like a madman.
‘Ah well, it’s about time he’s been allowed to let loose and have fun.’
Despite that, his right ear started bleeding…
Eventually, the war cries subsided, and the coliseum was quiet once again.
An announcer shouted his greetings to the audience. “Ladies and Warriors, thank you for coming! For the independence of our nation, countless warriors died in battle. Today, we honor their deaths! Are you ready??!”
“HOU HOU HOU.”
The stadium exploded again.
“Alright, so you know the drill. Five age groups, a hundred combatants each, and at the end of the day, five winners. First up, the kids!”
A hundred kids, all less than ten years old, ran up the steps to the arena, wooden weapons in hand. Once there, they spread out until they spanned the field.
“3, 2, 1… Fight!”
Instantly, the kids in the arena charged at each other, bashing each other with the wooden weapons.
Thankfully, several soldiers had been placed on the edges of the arena to dart in and save any kids who’d been beaten and could no longer participate from the arena, so that their injuries could be treated.
Although he couldn’t see the spectacle, the raw sounds of fighting, as well as the crowd’s cheers, painted a vivid image in Wesley’s mind.
Eventually, there were only two kids left. The two had been worn out from all of the fighting, and could not properly display their learned techniques any longer. They simply traded blow for blow, struggling to stay upright.
Eventually, one of them lost consciousness, and the winner shouted toward the the sky, then collapsed as well.
Again, the crowd exploded into war cries, but this time, Gust’s face was wrapped in darkness, and he did not join in.
“Come on Wesley, we’re leaving.”
“Hmm? Okay.”
Although Wesley was having the time of his life, he could hear the seriousness in Gust’s voice. It was time to leave.
They walked out of the coliseum, and after purchasing some essential supplies with what little remained of Gust’s money, the two left the city, making their way east, toward the Larwin Kingdom.
The two walked in silence - Wesley was daydreaming about what he’d experienced at the coliseum earlier, and Gust was busy brooding. It wasn’t until that night that the two talked again.
They were tying themselves to tree branches so that they would be up high out of the reach of any beasts as they slept, when Wesley finally spoke up.
“Hey Gust.”
“Yeah?”
“How much longer until we reach the Reiniad Kingdom?”
Gust thought about it. The Kenta Kingdom was very small, and they were only crossing a small part of it - after walking for half a day, they had already nearly exited the Kenta Kingdom. However, between them and the Reiniad Kingdom was still the Larwin Kingdom, and on the border between the Larwin and Reiniad Kingdoms was the Alaki Mountain Range.
All in all… “It’ll probably take another month or so… and then it’ll probably take a while longer to find your family. You said they were rich, right?”
“Mhmm. They should be a noble family.”
With that, Gust nodded. “Then we’ll probably have to head to the Reiniad Kingdom’s capital city, Lumient City. Do you know what family she’s from?”
“Uh, her name was Patricia Lumient.”
“...Little man, are you stupid?”
“Huh?”
“The capital city of the Reiniad Kingdom is Lumient City. Your mother’s last name is Lumient. The ruling family is the Reniad family, but the Lumient family is first-ranked Noble family of the Reiniad Kingdom. Kid, your family is goddamn rich!”
With new motivation, Gust happily began describing how he was going to use all of the money Wesley’s family would give him.
However, when Wesley eventually dozed off into the dreamland, Gust stopped.
He tried to peer through the darkness, to see if Wesley was awake. After seeing that Wesley wasn’t moving, he whispered, just to check.
“Hey Wesley, you there?”
Finally sure that Wesley was asleep, Gust untied himself from the tree branch, then climbed his way down the tree.
Although he normally carried a hand and a half sword, he’d never learned how to use one, and it was painfully obvious each time he used it.
For example, that night when the caravan had been assaulted by bandits, he’d instantly lost his duel with the first bandit he’d met.
However, it wasn’t as if he’d never been trained in weaponry before. It was just that the weapon he’d trained with in the past was incomparable to a half and a half sword.
He reached into his bag, and pulled out a pair of sheathed kukri. With a sigh, he quietly set his bag aside, then sneaked his way out of the area.
It was time to train again.
Chapter 12
In the darkness, a lone figure could be seen, going through the motions of weaving, dashing, and slashing through invisible enemies.
After a few minutes of this, Gust came an abrupt halt and gasped for breath.
“I swear, I’m really out of shape.”
Years of poor dieting and lack of continued training had clearly dulled Gust’s movements. Nonetheless, he conti
nued his exercises, and as the night continued, his movements became more fluid as his muscle memory returned to him.
In fact, he became so focused in his training that he only returned to where Wesley had been sleeping a few minutes before Wesley woke up.
Memory Seal- Volume 1 Page 9
