Alex and the rest decided not to train for today. They prepared for the next day's event instead.
The next day, the second-year students gathered in the arena. The first-year students were also in there, but they were in the audience seats instead. Alex looked around and found all the first year were present. When they arrived, Alex immediately put a deaf ear to the 'Kya kya' noise from the students. He turned to Firia.
"Do the first-year students know about this?"
"Yes. You are the only one who wasn't present last year. You are a 'Training Maniac' after all," Firia teased Alex.
Alex was surprised but he asked, "What do you mean by 'Training Maniac'?"
"The only thing you did was training and training. If you are not the dean's student, you can't train all the time like that, you know."
"Ugh, I need to thank Teacher for that."
Alicia and Firia giggled.
The dean entered the arena, "Students! Now, the time has come. It is time for you to train on the battlefield. Today all of you will set off to the Bawon Fortress. The estimated time for this journey is fifteen days. Summing up with the journey to go back home, you will have a month to kill those monsters over there. But there is good news for you. After this event, you only need to self-study in the academy for the rest of the year."
Upon receiving this good news, the students were overjoyed especially the second year. After all, who didn't want a laid-back schedule like that? The first-year students looked at them with envy.
"But... because this is also the last event for you, second-year students," the dean stopped a bit and said with a very serious tone, "That also means, those who failed to reach rank 3 as the requirement for advancing to the third year, will immediately be expelled."
The students immediately went quiet. All of them gulped hard. Once they failed, they would be expelled. Though a few already reached rank 3, those students could be counted with fingers on your hands. That meant, from almost 400 second-year students, those who already reached rank 3 were not even more than ten.
The second-year students' faces became pale. The first year turned their head to the side. They didn't envy them anymore. After all, if they failed this event, that meant they had to leave the academy.
After the dean gave his speech, the students immediately went off to the caravan. More than fifty caravans lined up in front of the academy. They had been paid to bring the students to the Bawon Fortress.
Each caravan carried seven students along with their luggage. There was no guard on this journey. The academy left everything up to the students, especially since there was Alex in their ranks. Although some monsters attacked the group, there were no bandits or robbers who attacked them. The academy's symbol was printed on the caravan and since this event was held every year, no one would be stupid enough to attack this group. Unless they were bringing a big group of friends.
However, the students didn't realize that a few teachers were disguised as members of the caravan. This was to ensure that there were no big groups of bandits consisting of powerful men who would attack them. Despite that, the teacher wouldn't make a move if there were nothing to be worried about.
Fortunately, there was no accident on this journey. All the students had arrived at the Bawon Fortress safely. In front of them, a high fortress wall stood tall from generation to generation. Although some renovations were done on the wall, the foundation was still solid. Almost thirty meters high, the wall looked almighty in front of them.
On their left, they saw numerous big trees. The trees were around twenty meters or more in height. No wonder the fortress wall was also that high. These big trees covered all the light that went to the ground, which made the inside look dark. The creepy feeling gushed out from within. All the students gulped hard in front of this magnificent yet eerie scene.
They arrived at the bottom of the Fortress Wall. The leader of the caravan gave the letter from the academy to the guards and they let them in.
Alex observed the guards carefully. Even the normal guards were around rank 2 warriors. He was astonished by this. But what was more shocking was that all of these guards had an aura, he could see that all of the guards were constantly battling with the monsters in this forest.
"Are they this year's batch?" One of the guards whispered to his colleague.
"How many of them will survive this time?"
"They are just like a newborn chick. They don't know what kind of thing that they will face on this battlefield."
"Hmph!"
Although they whispered to each other, Alex who was a rank 6 could hear them clearly even when other students couldn't. He frowned. It seemed the situation here wasn't that great, he thought that it was the right decision to group up with Alicia and Firia. He recalled when Alicia almost died in the dungeon one year ago. He shuddered when he remembered what happened back then. All in all, he would follow them so he could make sure something like that wouldn't happen again.
Not long after they passed the gate, they arrived at their destination. The destination was a kind of barrack that was usually used by soldiers. A few soldiers were standing by in front of the barracks.
"Welcome, students. Welcome to the student barrack. This barrack will be the place you will stay for one month. We have cleaned this barrack up. You can use them as you see fit. We will divide you into two groups by gender. Male students will go to barrack A, B, C, and D, while female students will go to barrack E, F, and G. Which bed you choose is up to you as long as it is within those barracks. We are the ones who will prevent you from doing something 'BAD' in these barracks. You are free for today, and please gather again here in the morning for further instruction," the leader seemed to emphasize the word 'Bad' in his instruction.
Now changed to other topics, there was the letter 'A', 'B', 'C', etc. at the top of the barracks, which made it easy to differentiate. Alex decided to go to barrack 'C' because that barrack seemed unpopular, which was convenient for him.
Before he went, he made sure to check Alicia and Firia first. Of course, Sherry would go with him.
"Alex, let's meet up after this. We can enjoy a bit today," Alicia said.
"Sure."
They went to their respective barrack. Alex found that each barrack could accommodate up to sixty people. But the barrack he chose only filled around half of it while the other barracks were full. Well, he didn't care about it, though. He took a bed a bit further than the rest of the people in it since it was more convenient for him in case he needed to cultivate or do something else. Sherry also took the bed beside him.
After putting his luggage away, Alex and Sherry then went out and waited for Alicia and Firia. After a while, Alicia and Firia got out. They had changed their clothes now. After all, they were going to 'Date' in this Fortress, how could they not prepare? Alicia wore a blue shirt with a skirt to her knees, she tied her hair into twin tails which made her look lovely. Firia wore a white shirt with a leather jacket and tied her hair into a ponytail. It made her look youthful with full spirit.
"Alex, do you wait long?"
Before Alex answered. Sherry interrupted him, "Wuu! (Very Long)"
Alex became awkward and Alicia along with Firia could only let out a weird smile.
"Well, let's go!"
The four of them walked around the Fortress. The atmosphere was like the capital city, lively and filled with people, especially merchants and adventurers. They went from one shop to another and tried some delicacies.
But, Alex felt something off. He was feeling they were being watched all this time, he already felt like this when they were still in the barracks. But it seemed only Alex had this weird feeling, so he kept quiet.
Unfortunately, there was one 'Coincidence' that was going to happen.
When they walked around, an old man was walking toward them.
"Hoho, young Alex. What a coincidence meeting you here!"
"Sir Leyfon?" Alicia was surprised. The old man who was approaching them was the Acacia Kingdom's Current War Minister, Leyfon Rimbawon. Alicia was very surprised to see the old man appear in front of them. It seemed like a shocking thing to meet him here.
"I am Firia Merona from Merona House. Nice to meet you, Sir Leyfon," Firia raised her skirt a bit and introduced herself like a noble lady, oh wait, she was indeed a noble lady.
"Hoho, I know you, a young lass from Merona House. No need for formalities, I don't like them either," then he turned to Alicia, "Young Princess Alicia, it's good to see you here. The cute princess back then has turned into a beautiful young lady."
"Thank you, Sir Leyfon. Father sends his regards for you."
"Oh, Young Raymond did? Haha, I visited your home two months ago. But all of you were in the academy. Well, since you are coming here anyway, that's fine though. Welcome to Bawon Fortress."
"Thank you Sir Leyfon."
Then, he turned to Alex, "Young Alex, it was almost a year from that meeting. It is a coincidence we met here today."
Alex almost vomited blood when he heard that, he cursed in his mind, 'Coincidence my ass, you are watching us all this time. Do you think I don't feel your presence all this time?'
Of course, he couldn't say that loudly. He replied, "Cough. Yes, Sir Leyfon, it's been almost a year since that meeting. It is such a 'nice' surprise to meet you here."
"Yes… yes, it is indeed. It seems that our meeting here was brought about by fate."
'Shameless! This old fox, what is he planning?' Alex smiled, "True."
"Since we seemed to be destined to meet here," as he said that, his expression turned serious. "I have a request. Would you-"
'Is there some problem?' Alex frowned. Alicia and Firia were also listening seriously. What kind of trouble could the war minister have? Would it be regarding monsters? After all, they were in front of the Death Forest.
After a moment of pause, he continued, "Would you have dinner in my home?"
Everyone stumbled, they didn't expect this at all, "EEHHH?"