"Is everything there in the wagon?" Asked Alice who was loading up the wagons with their luggage.
"Yes, I think this is pretty much it." Said Ranulf.
Alice and Grey were off on a month's journey to Amon village which was located in Nahum forest, the purpose of this journey was to train grey's body to handle his venomous aura of Ormr linage.
'Train my body sounds a lot intense but all I have is to take bath in the blood of a panb, By the way, Panb is also a snake-like naag. They are higher naag who are old and matured, them turning from naag to panb depends on various factor. I have to take bath in the blood of this snake thrice in an interval of a week after that I would have to stay in that village to rest, maybe there are some side effects of that bath.'
"Brother come back fast, okay." It was Emilia, she had a sad face.
"Don't worry, your brother is only going for two months." Grey placed his hands on Emilia's head to reassure her.
"You make it sound like so less time. Who will I spar with if you go away and I have been sparring with you for the last 5 years and you never took it seriously? When I was little I thought I was always winning but as I was growing up, it was pretty obvious that you were just pretending to lose. If you come back and don't spare with me seriously I will-" Eira didn't complete her words, maybe her incomplete sentence was a threat to Grey and he took that threat.
'Scary, scary, like really scary. If I don't give my all next time she might actually murder and when did she find out that I was pretending to lose all this time.'
"Fine, next time I fight with you. You will lose." Said Grey.
"Yes, you better give your all next time." There was a big smile on Eira's face. ' She is happy suddenly' thought Grey.
Grey felt a tap on his shoulder, it was Sylphy, she was holding a big bag which she was barely lifting. She handed that bag to grey 'Huh? What in this bag? Heavy'.
"What's in this bag? It's heavy" asked Grey.
"It's a bag filled with books that you can read on your journey, I picked these books for you. Hope you like it. Take good care of those, those are my favorite books." Sylphy was giving Grey her favorite books.
"I'll take good care of it." Grey was happy.
"Okay are you ready Grey?" asked Alice.
"Yes mom"
"Okay then we will be setting off." Said Alice while sitting inside the Wagon and Waved everyone goodbye.
"Bye everyone, bye dad. Bye Grandma, bye Eira, Emili, Bye Sylphy." Grey waved everyone bye.
"Wait, take this." It was Ranulf who stopped them he handed me something, It was a sword "It's a special sword that was given by my dad and now I give it to you. Imprint your blood in it and it will recognize you as its master. This sword will take shape as you grow and it will become your most ideal weapon as you need it to be. It will eventually be useless to you if you inherit my power to make any weapon through the ice but this sword holds a deep meaning for me and it did for my dad too. It's your turn to give this sword a meaning." Said Ranulf while looking at the sword.
"It's a beautiful looking sword, am I even worthy for it?"
"It's up to you whether you are worthy or not, it's up to how you interpret it."
"ill take good care of it." Said Grey. While happily accepting the sword.
"Have this too, it's nothing much. But this is a crystal if you use it you can send a message to me but it will disappear after one use. If you miss me send a message to me through it." Said Ms. Lozen.
"I will let you know about my journey through this crystal. But I will be confused when to use this because it will disappear after one use." Said grey while keeping this crystal in the wagon and finally got into the wagon and waved everyone final goodbye.
The wagon set off for the journey, the wheel moved out of the gate. Grey turned around to see the big mansion and his family standing at the gate.
'It is like a dream for me. I might have lived a life before this, but that feels like a distant vague memory for me. Maybe this is my first life. Whatever it is, I am truly happy.'
10 – 2
It's been a couple of days since they set off for the journey.
'Aunt Sofia drives the wagon and handles the horse, the hunting is done by mom and aunt Sofia together, cooking is mainly handled by Sofia because mom is very bad at cooking. Sometimes we spend the night camping and other times in various inns. Ah yes, there were also times when we were attacked by bandits, but they were massacred by mom. I stayed inside during this attack and mostly I hear their scream, I hope my mom is holding back on them though. No, not really I wish I could have seen them getting beaten' Grey had a sadistic smile while thinking about it.
"By the aunt Sofia, you are strong and you can cook, you are mostly perfect. You could have become imperial maid, why did you choose to become the maid of Ms. Lozen?" asked grey curious.
"Because I owe my life to Ms. Lozen. My village was raided by bandits, most of the adults were killed, our belonging was taken. Women-" Sofia paused and corrected herself "The bad guys took children and sold them as slaves, Ms. Lozen freed all children and demanded the imperial to track down all the kids and hunt down all the human trafficking places."
"Oh, I am sorry." Said Grey, he couldn't even look at Sofia's eyes.
"You are a nice kid." Said Sofia, she sometimes can't believe that Grey is just an 8-year-old kid," You don't ask questions when I mention difficult things like human trafficking and kids getting sold, you don't ask why bandit would do that, don't you have any questions?"
"After reading many books with Sylphy about various subjects, I have a vague idea what you mean and also it would be insensitive if I ask you this question." Said Grey.
"I am proud that you are my young master," said Sofia.
It was later that night, They stopped at an inn to take a night's rest. Grey was sleeping, he was tired of the journey. Alice was sitting at the table near the window and was lost in her thoughts.
There was a knock at the door and followed by a knock came a voice "Mrs. Alice it's me.". It was the voice of Sofia.
"Come in."
"Mam, sorry to disturb you while you were resting." Said Sofia.
"No, I wasn't resting and you don't have to be so formal, you know." Said Alice she pointed towards the chair beside her "Come here, sit down.".
Sofia sat down "Mrs. Alice, there is movement in Santor nations army. I fear that might interrupt our journey."
"Don't worry, their movement has nothing to do with us, they won't cause us trouble." Said Alice while looking at the moon, she remembered something "Oh, that's right", Alice took out something from the bottom of the table, it was a bottle of wine and pointed her finger towards the tray of close kept at the corner of the room, Alice bought those tray of glass and asked, "Should I pour it for you miss?".
"No, give it to me." Said Alice, Sophia handed her the tray. Alice took two glasses and poured wine in them and handed one glass to Sofia.
"But Mrs. I can't I have a responsibility to protect the young master."
"It's fine fine, one glass won't hurt."
"But miss-"
"Just drink it."
They both started drank the glass while talking about the various topics. after all, they were of the same age and were more like friends.
"I must say, Grey is handling the traveling surprisingly well," said Alice.
"He is a good kid, Mrs. Alice. If I ever have a son I would like my son to be like Grey. No, I would like to serve Master Grey, rest of my life." Said Sofia.
"That is reassuring, Grey is in safe hands then,"
They both slept and the night went by and the next day arrived. They continued their journey and day after day kept passing by until a month passed. They were at the entrance of Nahum forest and finally, they were near the destination of the journey.