Erza then briefly explained what happened during her journey until the time the explosion occurred.
Her friends were dumbfounded when they heard that she was barely able to survive from the explosion thanks to her sword spirit's early warning and her Time ability. She was actually very close to death! That level of danger was something that Lisa, Linda, and Qi Di could never imagine.
Erza did not tell them about Ling Tian, nor the fact that she received the inheritance from the Archangel of Hope, Chasiel. She just vaguely told them that she managed to pass few tests and received an inheritance.
Her friends seemed to understand that Erza did not want to talk about her inheritance, so they quickly changed their topic and talked about some exciting and new things that Erza experienced during her journey.
They talked until it was late at night before each of them returned to their own rooms.
The next day, Erza went to meet her new class teacher and the principal. After reporting her arrival, Erza quickly met up with Qi Long and had some heart to heart talks with him. Qi Long kept reminding her to be more careful in her future adventure, and always put her safety above everything else.
Erza then spent most of her midterm holiday catching up with her lessons and meeting with Ling Tian once in a while. Unfortunately for them, starting a guild in Black Snow Imperial City was much harder than they thought.
They could not find the right place to use it as their headquarter and most of the experts in city were already affiliated. In addition, there were already so many big guilds in the city which offered similar services like them, with a very competitive price. In the end, Erza and Ling Tian could not even find a quest to do and were forced to rethink about their strategy.
...........
Lying down on the grass, Erza was looking at the beautiful starry sky. She was currently at the place where Qi Long brought her before.
"Sorry, I'm late." Qi Long was running towards Erza.
"It's fine. I also just arrived. So how was your family gathering?" Erza looked and smiled toward Qi Long before looking back at the starry sky.
"Nothing special… Oh, the Old Ancestor was asking about you. She hope that you can come to visit her when you are free."
"Eh?.. Okay.."
"Did you just recall an unpleasant memory? Still thinking about the Eternal Pagoda Art? I could swear a bloo..." Qi Long noticed the change in Erza's expression and became worried.
"No need. I trust you." Erza quickly blocked his mouth with her hand.
"Thank you." Qi Long was touched by her words. He would really swear a blood oath if Erza deemed it necessary.
"Mmm."
"Can I hug you?"
"Mmm."
Subsequently, Erza's back was leaning against Qi Long's chest as two lovebirds were enjoying each other warmth in the middle of the cold night.
............
Erza then spent her next four months at the academy, studying and practicing. After that, taking advantage of her special privilege, Erza left the academy and went to meet up with Ling Tian. She wanted to put more efforts in developing her new guild.
After spending three days planning things out with Ling Tian, Erza left Black Snow Imperial City and made her way to a city which located at the outskirts of Black Snow Empire. Ling Tian also did the same thing, but he went to the opposite direction from her.
Since it was too competitive at the Imperial City, the two youths decided to establish their foundation at smaller cities first before going back to the Imperial City. It was easier to recruit new members at smaller cities and there would not be too many guilds competing for the same quest.
As time went on, Erza had passed by multiple cities and villages along her way, however, she did not stop as they were not the city she was heading to.
There were not many wild beasts in Black Snow Empire, and bandits were very rare as well. This time, Erza decided to travel on foot as she wanted to see more closely how the citizens of Black Snow Empire lived their lives.
Of course, she did not forget to cast an 'appearance changing' magic on herself since she would like to avoid unnecessary attentions. Questions could be raised if others knew that she was starting to develop her own influence at such a young age.
She would prefer to stay low in the early game, and let others fight amongst themselves first. After all, there was only one throne, while many people were aiming for it.
Erza continued to walk until the sky grew dark where she stopped by an open plain. In the night, the cliff of a nearby mountain hung overhead while the moon's light scattered down and illuminated the area.
Walking just a little farther, she met a group of mercenaries within the cover of the night. There was an encampment of twenty tents with a small campfire lighting up the sky in the middle of it.
Slowly walking toward the group of mercenaries until she was within a hundred meters of them, Erza did not bother to conceal her footsteps, so the sounds of her walking and the rustling of the grass had instantly alerted the mercenaries.
"Who's there?!" A voice called out loudly and woke the sleeping mercenaries. Immediately, the previously calm campground went into an uproar as a large group of men came charging out and surrounded Erza.
Because the moonlight was right behind Erza, they could only make out her figure, but upon seeing only a single person, everyone's face loosened up a bit.
"Who are you, state your name!" A mercenary called out to Erza.
Erza stopped just twenty meters away from the group of mercenaries that surrounded her. "This one is only a traveler who has lost her way, perhaps you could spare a map?"
Erza was indeed lost. Based on the map on her hand, she should be arriving at her destination by now. However, now she was instead finding herself in the middle of an open plain.
The mercenaries all looked at her with a strange face of surprise before another mercenary spoke to her, "Where are you coming from and where are you heading to?"
Erza hesitated for a moment before replying, "This one is heading to Mirage City. If anyone here has the directions, this one will be very grateful." She decided not to tell them where she came from.
"What? You are going to Mirage City?" A person asked in surprise. Like the others, he was staring at Erza with a strange look.
Seeing the expression on everyone's face, Erza was suspicious, "Is there a problem?"
"There's no problem, haha. As it is, we're heading to Mirage City as well; we didn't think that we'd meet someone else headed in the same direction." A person laughed.
"Since all of us are heading to Mirage City, you should come with us. There's still a fair distance until Mirage City, and the road is quite dangerous, one more person in the group is one more person to rely on after all." The sturdy looking man laughed with a friendly expression.
"The captain's right. There's still a long road until we reach Mirage City, if you go by yourself, it'll be quite dangerous so it's best to go with us." A forty year old man spoke to Erza. As a man, they could not bear themselves to see a young girl like Erza travelling alone. Even though her current appearance was not a devastating beauty, it was still not too bad. She was just like an average 17-18 years old village girl.
Erza hesitated for a small moment before nodding her head. "That's fine then. If everyone doesn't mind, then I'll share the road with you. It's quite fortunate that I've met you. I'm not familiar with these roads, so I was lost."