"Perfect!"
Eini replied quickly once she heard that she would be appointed to the same room as Shiba.
Shiba didn't say anything because he felt that it was normal.
Both have been traveling together for quite long, so sleeping near the other wasn't strange at all for him.
Rather than sharing the room with someone he didn't know, he felt that sharing it with Eini was better.
The one who didn't like that was Lina, but she decided to trust them instead of interfering.
Eini was at the border of breaking the rules, but Lina decided that she would allow it as long as it was just sharing a room. However, if Eini tried to skip the rules, she would interfere no matter what Eini thought of her afterward.
Of course, Eini wasn't planning to do anything to skip the rules. No matter how much she liked Shiba, she didn't have the guts to angry her father and sister.
She was just happy because they would spend more together.
Both were led to their room after that.
The one who did it was a female student that had taken the job of a guide for guests and new students to obtain merit points.
Shiba and Eini just went to their room without thinking that as soon as they separated from their guide, she would start spreading rumors about them.
After all, having a couple of genius grade students joining was strange. Genius grade students were strange, but even more, if they were a couple of lovebirds like she felt that Eini and Shiba were.
She didn't know why exactly Shiba and Eini had been considered genius grade, but it was a fact if the academy decided it.
It has been less than an hour since they joined the academy, but they were already famous thanks to the gossips about them.
Without knowing anything about that, Shiba and Eini chose a bed for each one and decided to rest. The next day was when they would officially start their activities as students.
Eini was mostly interested in resources to speed her growth, so she didn't need to bother to restrain her training to look like someone at her age should. As for the lessons, she didn't care at all.
On the other hand, Shiba felt that it would be a great chance to improve his general knowledge about the country and the world since it was still very lacking.
While they were thinking about their new lives on the academy, Gregor was on the merchants' carriage.
It moved quite quick since the beasts moving it were all at the peak of Rank 2.
Shiba and Eini would need to flee if they faced those beasts on the wild when hunting, but those had been tamed by the merchants and obeyed them, so they weren't dangerous at all.
The carriage has been moving far from the forest of illusions. That group had crossed the forest of illusions recently, so their plans were on the other side. of course, given their levels, they had crossed a normal forest, so it hasn't been problematic at all.
"It seems that it will rain. There will probably be lightning too. Maybe we should stop and camp. We wouldn't reach our destination today, and this rocky area is near a forest. The lightning should be attracted by the trees instead of going to us."
Merchants like them were quite good at predicting the weather, and they didn't like to take risks.
They were quite strong to survive on a storm, but it couldn't be said the same about the carriage's goods.
The carriage was quite big, but it was still packed with things.
The most valuable things were on spatial rings on possession of the merchants, but they didn't have enough space for everything, so they still needed to transport a lot of things in the traditional way.
Moreover, Gregor was too weak, the merchants believed that he would surely die if he were struck by lightning.
If they didn't stop, they would cross the small forest and reach an area at the riverside, which wasn't a good place during a storm.
Thus, they decided to stop there and wait until the storm ended before continuing.
Gregor didn't complain about the decision. He knew nothing about traveling, and it wasn't like if he was in haste to reach somewhere.
In ten minutes, there were several protections laid surrounding the carriage.
The merchants were also proficient in using barriers to protect themselves, so they weren't focused only on skill thought to battle directly.
Inside the barrier, even the rain and the lightning would be kept outside, so they didn't need to fear it. The only issue was that the barrier was static, so they should remain without moving.
Of course, if a lot of lightning hit the barrier, it might break, it wasn't that resistant, but they would reinforce it after each stroke of lightning to avoid it.
However, they might be in trouble if all the lightning focused on them, but it shouldn't be the case given the terrain.
Gregor was impressed by the barriers. He had never seen lightning, but he had heard that it was quite dreadful, so he felt that a barrier that could block it was awesome.
The merchants and Gregor were relaxing outside the carriage after the barriers were set.
Although there was about space in the enormous carriage for them, it wasn't that comfortable to be always there. It was a new experience for Gregor, so he didn't mind, but for the rest, it was routine.
That carriage wasn't like those used by ordinary people since no normal beast would be able to move it properly, given its size. They could only move quickly because the bests were strong, and the carriage had been enchanted to reduce its weight greatly.
"I hate storms like this one. It makes me feel that something bad will happen."
The merchants' leader said those words while looking serious, but the only one shocked was Gregor, the rest were already used.
"Don't worry, kid. He always says something like this when there is a storm coming. His wife and son were killed on a storm day, and he is always quite pessimistic about storms since then."
He was still quite newbie as a merchant back then and traveled alone with his wife and his son. Given how long the travels where they always traveled as a family.
On a stormy day, they were assaulted by bandits, and he barely managed to survive because he was lucky.
Of course, back then, he wasn't as strong as he was when he met Gregor, but he was always extremely wary on stormy days.
One of the reasons that made him like Gregor was that he spoke similarly to his deceased kid. It was nothing strange on kids of Gregor's age, so he usually seemed like a middle-aged man who treated kids very well.
"Yes, he always set up the strongest barriers and examines everything too carefully. However, we had never been attacked on stormy days. Bandits didn't seem to like to choose those days to attack us, given our power."
A storm might difficult a battle, and the merchants were quite strong, so it was strange that bandits attacked them on a situation where there was an increased random factor.
The merchants' leader and his family were weak when they were attacked by the bandits, and they weren't even properly prepared, so a storm wasn't an issue at all. In fact, it was due to the storm itself that he managed to survive since it became difficult for the bandits to look for him once they lost him.
"Stop the chit chat and be ready for battle."
The man ignored the complaints of the other merchants and spoke seriously.
"Today, you are more paranoid than usual."
One of the merchants said that, but the face of their leader didn't change at all.
"Pick up your weapons. An armed group comes towards us. Given their speed, we can't flee. If we hadn't stopped, we would have been caught anyway, and at the riverside in the midst of the storm, the worst of the worst."
It was exactly on the riverside near them where he lost his family, and he fled thanks to falling into the water. Given the strong storm, he was lucky to survive, and the bandits couldn't look for him, so he fled successfully.
That man was quite paranoid, but for once, that had avoided a surprise attack.
The rest of the merchants couldn't believe it, but they knew that their leader wouldn't joke like that. He was always serious about taking protective measures, but he never asked them to pick their weapons if there weren't enemies near.
They had never been attacked on stormy days, but they had been attacked by bandits before, so it wasn't something that new for them.
It wasn't long since the rest, except Gregor, also noticed the bandits.
The leader was a rank ahead, so he could detect them from far more distance.
Gregor only saw them when he managed to see them with his own eyes.
The bandits quickly reached the barrier and surrounded it.
They could break it, but they didn't dare to do it carelessly.