Leo and company left the Rufus city in a really low-key manner. Leo decided to join on a caravan of commoners going to the capital. It was pretty slow moving, but it did make the party leave the city safely without alerting anyone. The Shmidts moved slowly towards the capital. It took a long month. During that time all the family members got to rest really well. Before that everyone were on a marathon to get stronger and train like crazy. Also, there was the work for every family member to do. It was a lot of work, but it did paid out. They did get a lot of gold coins this time. Leo building and the hotel got them around 10 gold coins per month which was impressive. After three years they saved around 300 gold coins. It was more than enough for them to get settled in the capital. Even if a home would cost insane amount of money, they could just buy the land, and Leo will do all the rest. Now he was a lot stronger and a lot better with manipulating the earth element.
As for now everyone were just sight-seeing and resting. Some of the trip was on foot and some of it was on the old carriages. It was wintertime, but they lived in the south region, so it was not extremely cold for them. With their power level it was easy to use life energy or mana to cover themselves and keep them warm and comfortable. It was muddy and some of the days they had to deal with some raid or some snow, but the temperatures did not go into the minus territory. Most of the time it was sunny. They basked in the rays of warmth and enjoyed looking at the bright blue sky. They could see it all the time, but now when they were closer to nature than even during their trip it was a new and special feeling. It came from the fact that they felt safe and at peace, while doing their way to the capital. They knew that even if the nobles wanted to go after them, it was already too late for that.
The trip continued and they encountered a few attacks from bandits that tried to rob all of the commoners walking aside the carriages a few times. On one of those attacks around one tenth of the people going to the capital died. It was an insane realization to Leo, but the Shmidts knew about it. Because most commoners were weak and had no special powers it was easy to attack and kill them. Leo and company did not reveal their powers. Elen and the two Shmidt brothers did protect Leo and Elly and some of the people that were around them, but nothing more than that. They did not want to draw attention and if it meant that some people have to die so be it. Everyone going to the capital from the commoners for a better life knew that could die during the journey, so it was not surprising for people to die from some attacks. After this attack Elen explained to Leo that in every one of those kinds of migrations of commoners even with some protection around a third would die. There were just too many people that knew when and where they will cross, and it was easy to ambush and kill and plunder those people of the little resources they accumulated to migrate. The people around Leo's group got the point that they were no simple commoners and the few people that did chat with them did try to keep closer to this group. It did pay out in the end of the day because their part of the row of carriages going to the capital suffered the least amount of casualties.
Leo had a few thoughts of what to do when they will get to the capital, but he had to see everything with his own two eyes first and then look at what to do. They would still be in some danger until they will enrol into one of the top academies. Elen told Leo that the students of the academies and their families, especially the ones that are mages are protected from any harm, so no stupid nobles even in a high position will try to go after them while they are part of the academy.
Leo already decided and told the family members that they will not do any moves until he and Elly enrol in the academy. The noble families could still go and look after them and if they have some connections in the capital the Shmidts will be fucked, and it was not something Leo wanted to deal with. He wanted to just see what was going on in the capital and have an idea to what place to go and what to do if he wanted to achieve his goals.
After around a month of travel they walked up to a hill and people started to exclaim in happiness. Leo got the point that they must saw something interesting so he and the Shmidts also went to see what was going on. What Leo saw shocked him. He saw a huge city surrounded by a very tall and majestic walls. Leo was sure it was the capital Merham. He was excited after such sight. He knew that it was even better from what he imagined from the capital. He was ready for new adventures. The carriages moved quicker towards the capital. The walls that looked majestic from afar looked even more impressive from a short distance. If Leo would take a guess, it looked like it was around 15 to 20 meters tall. When everyone got to the wall to wait for an enter for commoners, the Shmidt family just separated from them and went to enter from the noble gates, that were almost empty from people. This was the moment that a new exciting and thrilling journey of Leo started at the capital of the Usman empire.