17
At first, sitting inside the moving boxes was terrifying, and Ace along with the other trainees clung to whatever they could grab, out of fear and confusion.
Ray thought it was funny at first until one of the trainees got sick, followed by several others who couldn't handle the moving carriage.
With a slow pace and frequent stops for the group to catch some fresh air, the capital of Necron came into view In the distance. The closer they got the bigger it seemed to become, and Ace finally couldn't believe his own eyes when all he could see was buildings.
He tried to compare it to their own tribe, but only felt ashamed by the comparison.
He could see houses bigger than the walls around the tribe, he imagined the capital might be as big as the wilderness itself, although he had no reference of size for either.
The carriage slowed down and Ace looked outside to see what had happened, the sight outside shocked him, as countles carriages as well as an unending swarm of people, were standing in a huge line.
Joshua had suggested to Ray that they could easily drive around the line of people, but Ray told Joshua it was not allowed to skip the que.
They argued for a few minutes until Joshua unhappily accepted the rules, and the group was experiencing something new and surprisingly frustrating, traffic jam.
Half the trainees had fallen asleep, and the other half was busy practicing ether manipulation while ridding the carriage.
Ace hadn't fallen asleep and he wasn't even tired, but trying to gather ether would be a waste of time for him.
Instead he sat looking out from the carriage window, and observed the new world around him. Watching the hectic life inside a metropolis, and the endless amounts of people walking around, was truly fascinating for Ace.
Ace noticed a crossroad in front, were the road cut off into dozens of new paths, it seemed incredibly confusing to him. luckily, the carriages didn't seem to think so, as they entered the crossroad easily, and made a sharp turn to the right.
Ace had been looking outside at that moment, so the sudden turn wasn't a surprise to him, but that was not the case for the other people inside the carriages.
Panic and confusion once again washed over the trainees, who were either sleeping or training, the carriages was forced to make an emergency stop, when dozens of trainees rushed out to throw up.
Ray looked over at Ace who was driving in the same carriage as him in surprise, he and Ace was the only people left inside the carriage, and even Joshua had been forced to run outside.
Ace wanted to ask Ray when they would be done driving, but something caught his eye outside, and he gasped.
He had been too distracted with all the people getting sick to see where they had stopped, and when he looked out the window again, he saw tents and buildings close by full of weird items.
People were walking around and giving coins or stones for the items, and it seemed like anything he could even imagine was there.
"what is that place?"
Ace asked in wonder while he was starring out the window, and Ray chuckled by the innocence Ace displayed. He had gotten used to the tough personalities of the savages, so when he saw one of them acting like a kid it made him smile.
He leaned over and looked outside the same window Ace was looking from, and saw the market, ace was nearly falling out the carriage over.
"that's a market kid, it's a place where people come with things they want to sell, and people come there to buy things they need. There are dozens of those in the city and none compare to the street of goods in the western part of the capital, the street goes on for hours when walking and they say even undead beasts can be bought in the street of goods"
The others were slowly coming back into the carriages with pale faces and fatigue in their eyes, the ride had been very tough on their stomachs, and they just wanted the hellish boxes to stop moving.
Ace on the other hand was feeling incredible after having seen such a wondrous place, but hearing Ray talking about buying Undead beasts shocked him.
He knew all too well how strong and dangerous an undead beast was, he couldn't imagine one walking freely inside a full of so many people.
"what do they use undead beasts for, Aren't it dangerous to have them inside this place?"
Ray nodded when he heard Ace.
"I agree, and I don't know why someone would ever buy an undead beast. I do know the army sometimes use them as weapons and has even trained a few to obey commands"
That made Ace's jaw drop, and he nearly jumped from his seat in surprise. He wanted to ask much more questions to Ray, but at that moment came an exhausted Joshua back into the Carriage as the last person, and they began to move again.
Joshua felt like he had been beaten with a hammer for hours, in both head and stomach when the carriage resumed. Cold sweat washed over his back, and he looked over at Ray with a pleading look.
"not long yet I can assure you"
Ray said while he almost burst into laughter, at the pathetic look on Joshua's face.
They passed the buzzling marketplace with Ace looking longingly as they moved on, he swore to himself he would return with coins someday…
They didn't drive for long before two soldiers came over and stopped them, one of the soldiers came over to inspect the carriages.
he noticed Ray in one of the carriages, and walked straight over to him.
"this is the military district you are entering, what business do you have here, and may I see some identification"
Ray started to search his pockets and found a plate of steel with a symbol engraved into it, he handed the plate to the soldier who stood silently gazing at the plate for a moment, before he spoke again.
"you are confirmed to be transporting new recruits, leave the carriage and continue on, on foot"
Ray was annoyed that he had to walk the rest of the way, but Joshua and the rest was overjoyed to leave the nightmare behind.
ahead was several huge buildings made of wood, with people going in and out all the time, Ace was very confused by all the similar looking buildings.
They stopped at one of the many similar looking buildings, this one had the word's "recruitment" written on top, and continued inside it to find hundreds of people all in strange clothes sitting in groups.
The room they entered was mostly empty with thirty wooden training dolls as well as burning torches with inscriptions all lined up at the end of the room.
There were no places to sit other than the ground, many people were lying down and sleeping, it seemed like they had been there for a while.
"the ranking only happens once a week, even when the tribes start coming… it should be starting in a little while, so sit down and relax"
Ace and the rest of the group sat down and waited for the supposed ranking, their lives as tribesmen were about to disappear while their lives as soldiers was about to begin.