Before daybreak hit, Noah packed his stuff and prepared to leave. As he exited the house, he surprisingly found Edgar outside as if he was waiting for him.
"Come on kid, follow me." Edgar said indifferently and started leading towards the woods, finally stopping at a campfire.
"Kid, you said you weren't in any trouble. Is there something I should know?"
Sigh. "The temple wants me to train as a knight for one of the aristocrats…"
"That doesn't sound bad. You'll get to live better than how you are living now. Why are you hesitant to take it?"
"I have a family out there. I need to go meet them at least once…"
"Do you remember their faces?"
Noah nodded slightly and kept quiet.
"Well, are they from here? What are their names?"
As Noah remained quiet, Edgar could only sigh.
"What if you don't find them? What then?"
"I'll find them." Noah looked straight in the eye.
"Hmm… take this," handing a small cloth bag to Noah,"it has a few potions and a sos flare. When you are in danger, just snap it in two and it'll trigger a fire cracker. It will last for about two hours, long enough for someone to find you."
Tapping Noah's shoulder, Edgar continued," for a 10-year-old, you look like you are carrying the world on your shoulders. I know you are skilled enough to hold your own against a F grade beast, but knowing that you are capable of that also worries me. Oh and trust people more, I know that you were looking for ways to escape from here just now. It's good to be on guard, but it's ok to let loose and relax when you are with the people you trust. You'll become bald like me otherwise. Ha ha"
"Edgar… It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that I've already made up my mind on this."
"Kid, you may have the best idea and the best skills but who knows, maybe you'll be able to get greater things done when you work together. Anyway get going, I can already see myself getting an earful from Elma, at least take this advice to heart, okay kid?"
"Yeah… thanks for everything, tell Elma I'll come back with a gift for the baby next time."
===
After departing, Noah decided to head towards the center directly instead of taking breaks at villages as he worried he might get caught next time.
As the morning light made its ways from across the horizon, Noah was already a few kilometers away from the village.
"Hey, isn't that the kid?"
"Let me see the poster. Yeah, that's him, alright."
In front of Noah, stood three mercenaries from the guild in Arul village. Folding the poster back into his pocket, one of them continued.
"Hey kid, why don't you come with us? Edgar wants to see you?"
"Edgar?"
"Yeah."
Although Noah was confident enough to fend off against an F grade opponent, it would be a totally different story if there were multiple foes.
While working with Edgar, one more thing that became apparent was the lack of experience. Noah's experience as an alpha tester was almost useless here as unlike then, there was no assisted aim or movement.
Giving up here wasn't an option either.
'Skadi, thoughts?'
'Hmm… divide and conquer. Master is still not ready to fight against them fairly. They have the terrain advantage and the physical advantage. Try to taunt them to take on you one on one.'
Drawing his sword out, Noah took on the ice temple swordsmanship style.
"Three against a kid seems a lot don't you think or are you all just scared that you would lose if you went one on one against me."
The three started looking at each other before laughing out loud.
"Come on guys, we'll just finish this quickly and get the reward."
'Umm, Skadi?'
'Master needs to work on his taunting skills.'
'What now?'
'Charge and keep potion at ready. Surrendering doesn't sound bad either.'
After checking to see if any of them had any long range weapons, Noah made a run for it. As Noah was loaded with potions, all he could hope was for out running by exhausting them.
A few meters later, Noah could see a carriage being robbed by thieves. Deciding to pit them against each other Noah made way towards the carriage.
The owner of the carriage looked to be almost dead while the thieves kept their focus on collecting the items.
Taking the sos flare and bow out from his inventory, Noah shot with the flare attached to the end of the arrow. As the arrow hit against the wall, the firecracker burst, sending the thieves away while temporarily blinding them from the bright light.
Noah planned to use this duration to make his exit while blaming the ordeal to the mercenaries following him.
Taking a potion out, Noah quickly made the owner swallow it, before making his exit. As the thieves came to, they started fighting against the mercenaries as planned.
Just as Noah was about to make his escape, he could feel a sharp pain on the back of his neck, before he lost consciousness.
"I got the kid. Ice and space elemental abilities. I guess it was a good hunch to follow up on kid when the temple rallied their knights across that many villages. I wonder how much you are really worth…" grabbing Noah, the hooded man headed back towards the thieves. "Come on guys, we'll leave, we got a bigger catch."
===
As Edgar reached back to the village, he could see the whole knights and priests from the ice temple talking with the citizens.
When he walked across the streets he could feel people looking at him discreetly. Edgar didn't bother to check the atmosphere and hurried towards his home.
"Elma, I am --"
Edgar cut himself off when he saw an old man who looked to be the elder of the ice temple and a priest sitting down and having tea with Elma.