Even though the area between the outer and inner walls was huge, with so many people gathered in this singular spot, it was still a miracle that they didn't need to sit on top of each other.
With the initial hurdle of having the ancients accept him into their group now passed, Layn could finally relax. Even though just being amidst the enormous crowd of those people was still taxing on his emotional state, the archmage managed to grow beyond this anxiety. Right now, it turned into nothing more but a constant itch on his awareness, something that he could easily deal with or just flat-out ignore.
"Still, for your luck to be so bad…" Suddenly speaking up, Irea stopped Layn from contemplating over the details of his surroundings. "This place isn't anywhere close to where you could learn the basics!"
Shaking her head in what was most likely supposed to be a disappointment, Irea actually failed to hide the excitement in her eyes.
"Oh? How far would a place fit for me to learn the basic be?" Rather than being discouraged by the words of this girl, Layn decided to be proactive about this matter. After all, there had to be a reason behind that excitement in the girl's eyes. If it was just a passing remark for her, she wouldn't have that look in her pupils.
"How far? Ugh, that's a tough question. The nearest place that comes to my mind is Yanyan academy… But I don't think it will be good for you to join its ranks. From my experiences there…" Clearly hesitating to answer Layn's question, Irea looked as if just bridging that place's name was enough to unsettle her.
"What would you advise me to do then? If that Yanyan place is no good…" Instead of forcing his way towards this academy, Layn simply allowed the girl to fill the blanks. Since she approached him with some kind of clear yet hidden purpose, pursuing the matter of that Yanyan place would only make it harder to actually reveal her intentions.
"To start from the very beginnings… How about you and me will go and…" Before the girl could even finish her sentence, a crisp sound of a hand smacking the back of her head disturbed her flow.
"Don't even think about it. Listen…" Once again using some kind of technique that allowed him to appear out of nowhere, the leader of the ancients put his hand on Irea's shoulder. Putting his weight on it, he forced the girl's knees to cave in, making her sit down on the ground.
"... I might not be an expert or a teacher of any sorts, but I still think going to the academy will be the best for you. Not only will that earn you an identification token, something that you will soon find to be in a dire need of, but it's also the perfect place to find the techniques suiting you." As he ended his sentence, the man's face suddenly soured. "But there is no denying of how shitty that place is. While on the desert, the strong eat the weak is taken literally, in that academy, unless you will bully others, you need to prepare to be bullied yourself."
After saying his piece, the leader of the ancients looked sternly at the sitting girl. Reaching forth with his hand, he swung his forefinger to left and right, right in the girl's face before finally leaving.
"You heard him." With a look of helplessness appearing on her face, Irea clearly didn't dare to refute her leader's actions, even after he already walked away.
'I wonder if she's just wary of him hiding somewhere near…' Taking that strange ability of the man to appear right in the worst timing, Layn couldn't help but wonder. For him, all of the techniques used by the ancients were akin to the long-lost magic of the world long-gone.
In Irea's eyes, this technique was most likely something quite good, but nothing out of ordinary. From how no one around them seemed to react to Irea's leader appearing and disappearing like that, it was clear that it wasn't something all that coveted or rare. But without even a single shred of idea about the real inner-workings of any of the ancient techniques, Layn had no way to understand the underlying principle of it, and thus, was defenceless against any move born in the ancient era.
"Yeah, I did. Let's change the topic then. Mind telling me something about this… barrier? What is it? Who made it?" This was the real point that Layn was curious about. Given how the enormous amount of magical energy was involved in the creation of this barrier, he could hardly even imagine a force capable of erecting such a barrier.
"Who? Isn't that obvious?" Looking at the archmage as if he was some kind of insect who didn't know better, Irea showed this kind of contemptuous face for the very first time. It seemed that Layn unknowingly stepped on the landmine.
"I'm sorry, but it doesn't seem like the history behind this place is amongst the memories that I still hold." Instead of flaring up at the clear disapproval hearable in the girl's voice, Layn instantly lowered his head as to show ample respect for the matter. If just a bit of humility would end up as the only cost of learning more about this insane barrier, then Layn would have to be crazy or stupid to not pay it.
"Eh… Okay then. The current barrier… it was erected by the demonic shadow god. It's a patron of the demonkind that lives on the other side of this vast desert. Before the change, this entire area was under the influence of the light-god blessing, granting us the entry and a slight power-up while in the desert."
Explaining the situation as if it was something pathetically obvious, Irea continued to cast occasional glances at the archmage.
'I wonder if she's worried that I will ridicule her.' That was the only way in which Layn could explain the strange looks that the girl was casting at him.
"So, how did you know that one god would trump over another?" Accepting the narration that the girl provided as something beyond any discussion, Layn asked. After all, if he were to start arguing about whether beings like gods existed or not, all his hard work to curry some favours in this particular group of ancients would be for nought!
"Trumph? No, it's not like that." Putting a strange smile on her face, Irea finished. "They came to a standstill and decided to reach an agreement. For three months, the shadow god will reign supreme. Then, for the next three months, our god of light will bless this land. That's how it always been and that's how it always will be."