"Ughhh... Man, I feel so sleepy." Soren to himself as he was struggling to open his heavy eyelids.
"Kyuu~?" Lavenza asked as she was swimming around the room and looking at Soren.
"I just feel like I didn't sleep enough last night and the phone call during the middle of the night didn't help either, so please just let me sleep... *groan* For maybe 5 more minutes..." Soren explained with an annoyed voice as he was barely managing to stay awake before feeling like succumbing to sleep once again.
*sigh* "Kyuu~..." Lavenza shook her head as she sighed and then decided to wake up Soren in her own way.
...
In the meantime, Rohan was already making breakfast for the three of them and was listening to the CNC for the important news. Just as he was about put down the final dish on the table, a loud curse word was suddenly heard in the kitchen. The moment Rohan heard that, he decided to check on Soren and Lavenza quickly, only to find out that Soren was laying both on the ground and the couch with a painful expression while he was holding his stomach, while Lavenza was swimming and swaying slowly as she had a dazed expression.
"You guys sure know how to wake up. He he." Rohan commented happily as he let out a chuckle and looked at the two individuals who where resting in the guest room. After a bit of time, Soren and Lavenza managed to recover somewhat and after cleaning themselves up, they went into the kitchen where Rohan was already eating breakfast and listening to the CNC's usual commercial advertisements.
As the three of them were eating their breakfast, Rohan broke the silence first and said in a serious tone:
"We have to talk about your current issues."
"WHA-" Soren was caught by surprise when he heard those words and started choking for a bit before calming down and asking nervously:
"W-Wait, what do you mean about my issues?"
"Your combat abilities, strategies and your general lack of experience with combat. That's what I'm talking about." Rohan answered as he was drinking from his cup.
"Oh... I see." Soren answered as he realised what Rohan was talking about.
"The plan now would have been for you to learn from me for the next three or four months from the guild's training classes, but due to a sudden work call, I won't be able to train you. You can still take part in those classes, but you won't be able to learn what I want to teach you, besides those classes will only teach you just some basics and you already have learned those." Rohan explained to Soren as he was finishing his drink.
"Then...?"
"For now finish your meal, get yourself dressed up and we are going to meet one of my acquaintances." Rohan answered back as he started cleaning the dishes. After around then minutes, Rohan suddenly asked as he remembered something:
"Also, did you answer one of my calls last night?"
"Yes, they called in the middle of the night and asked for you, but I told them that you weren't available. I tried to wake up while they were calling for you, but you were sleeping like a log and wouldn't wake up, even with a couple of gut punches." Soren explained as he was having a thoughtful expression.
"Gut punches?"
"You wouldn't wake up even with those."
"I wouldn't expect to take any damage from you since we have a big level difference." Rohan commented as he was crossing his arms and having a thoughtful expression.
"How big?" Soren asked curiously.
"At least thirty levels. Anyways, enough talking about that, get yourself dressed up and let's get going in ten minutes." Rohan decided to end the conversation and went into his own room to change from yesterday's clothes, to some clean clothes.
After ten minutes have passed, Soren and Lavenza came swimming out of the house and saw Rohan waiting on the side of the road.
"We are ready." Soren answered as he was wearing some clean and casual clothes, as well as wearing his beanie hat.
"Kyuu~!" Lavenza nodded as she made a gesture that showed that she was ready as well.
"Alright, for now we wait until a carriage arrives." Rohan answered as was looking at the road. The road itself didn't have many people around, but it wasn't deserted as well. Since it was the start of a new month, usually there would have been more adventurers from other continents around, but there was barely anyone new around this area. After fifteen or so minutes, a carriage appeared and Rohan signaled it to stop.
"Take us to the Sea Knights' Commercial District Training Grounds." Rohan told the driver as Soren and Lavenza were entering the carriage and then was the last to enter. After a bit of time later, the carriage stopped outside of a big building and the three of them got down from the carriage. While Soren was looking around area with Lavenza and Rohan was paying the driver, a couple of mermen in blue uniforms appeared and one of them asked:
"May I ask what kind of business do you have here?"
"Ehh... Ummm..." Soren was feeling a bit suprised by the sudden question.
"You should know that coming into the Sea Knight's training grounds without a reason will result in immediate imprisonment of up to an entire week." The Sea Knight spoke emotionlessly as he was slowly gripping on his sword.
"Alright, that's enough you guys. I think I already gave your commander a call to tell him that I would be coming today." Rohan decided to interrupt the Sea Knight's threats.
"Can we have some sort of identification to confirm your words?" The other Sea Knight asked as he gestured for showing him his identity.
"Here. Soren, show yours as well." Rohan took out his Adventurer's card and showed to the Sea Knight and Soren followed slowly after after taking it from his bag.
...
...
"I see. We were expecting you Sir Rohan. Please enter and tell us if you need to bring any guests." The Sea Knight spoke formally as he gave back the card to Rohan.
"The kid and the serpent are with me." Rohan answered as he was putting his card away.
"Here." Soren then gave him his Adventurer's card and after a bit of waiting, the Sea Knight gave back the card and said:
"All clear. Tell the commander that Sir Rohan has arrived and that he has guests with him."
"Let's get going then." Rohan said casually as he signalled to Soren and Lavenza to follow him. After that, the three of them made their way towards the commander's room. On their way there, Soren saw where the Sea Knights were training and what kind of training regimes were doing. It consisted of stamina training, repetitive drills or constant one on one training battles, but for Soren, there was the possibility that those weren't the only things that were doing for training.
After they left the training area, they entered into some sort of fort, but it was smaller in comparison to the abandoned fort and as for the interior, it was pretty similar to the abandoned fort, minus the cracks, the broken walls and was overall cleaner. Once ten to fifteen minutes had passed, the three of them suddenly stopped in front of a door in the third floor and Rohan spoke quietly and seriously:
"Stay calm and don't feel intimidated."
At that moment, Rohan opened the door and Soren was greeted with an unusual sight. It was an office, but it had a lot of weird decorations, like ceremonial swords, armor stands and all kinds of bits and trinkets. To Soren, this office looked more like a junkyard, rather than the office of a commander, but since it was the commander's office, it was expected to see the commander sitting on his desk and working on paperwork.
The commander himself had black and gray hair, dark gray eyes and had a scar that went from the top of his head, through his right eye and corner of his mouth and stopped just before getting to the chin. He was also wearing a black formal outfit that slightly resembled a tuxedo, but without the bowtie.
Soren was slightly surprised by seeing the man's appearance, but he didn't show it on his face and waited for the conversation to start. After a few seconds, the man broke the silence and spoke first with a deep and coarse voice:
"You know, I am not the kind of person who likes owing others, so I did decide to hear on what you have to say, just for the sake of helping me out back then, but that doesn't mean that I am going to be a pushover, just for you."
"You should know then that I would never come to you, of all people, if I didn't have a good reason to do so." Rohan retorted with a condescending smile as he was crossing his hands.