After Mentor Addilyn forced him to greet the strangers, Vega had to wait inside a beautifully designed room while holding a cup of bitter tea that tasted surprisingly good. Instead of listening to the conversation that was not in his native language, he wondered why his mentor called the place a Green Field Sect. A weird name for a sect that was built hidden in the mountains. On his way here, Vega saw many practitioners flying, standing on their flying swords, which made him drool.
He heard a little chuckle and looked in that direction. It was coming from a friend he hadn't seen for a long time, and he returned the smile. Dion looked graceful wearing the sect's robe. In his waist, Vega noticed a medal with ancient characters that looked like it was carved out with a sword.
From his mana sense, Dion emitted mana that was not too different from his own. Aside from the advancement, the knight wasn't as bulky as before; Dion looked leaner and more graceful wearing a sword strapped behind his back. The sword was not like the normal ones he had seen at the academy. This one had a thinner blade and was longer. In its handle, he noticed a green tassel at the end. Can he also fly on his sword? I wonder how that's going to feel.
His mind fantasized about flying around his own sword while exploring the beautiful mountains. He also couldn't wait to find different plants and creatures he could use for making a new type of potion.
His eyes glanced at a figure taking a sip from the tea. An older man with long black hair who looked too beautiful for a man. Vega knew that the elder would garner much attention at the academy.
In the Green Field Sect, the people had light skin and black hair, something that was really rare from where he was from. Most of them looked oddly similar to his mentor, according to his eyes that was not trained to differentiate people from different race.
When they finished their discussion, the elder both looked at Vega. Feeling the eyes on him, he returned his attention toward the group "The competition is tomorrow. It's nice seeing you Vega." Elder Yichen stood up, looking at him.
The trio bowed before Mentor Addilyn and left the room. The door closed behind them, his mentor looked at him and said, "You know, Dion is waiting outside. I think you should go to him."
Vega was taken aback and recklessly bowed to his mentor. He ran outside quickly hoping to catch his friend. When he opened the door, Dion was waiting for him smiling. "You're finally here." He said.
Vega was speechless, he ran several scenario in his mind what would he do if he met Dion again but all of his preparation was useless so he only answered with, "Hi." Waving his hand. He was a little guilty for keeping his distance with the noble in the academy, even though Dion was always kind to him.
"Are you okay? You seem more quiet. Do you hate me?," Dion still acted the same, joking and smiled at him.
Hearing that Vega teared up, "No, no. I'm sorry."
Dion stepped forward, afraid that he did something wrong. "Why are you sorry for? I'm just not careful, that's all. But the sect treats me nicely. Elders, you know, they don't really have the same hate like--"
"The other adepts? Yes. I heard the stories from my mentor," Vega felt guilty. He was glad that Dion didn't hate him, but how could he? Vega was always good at hiding his real emotions. He does need to apologize better and explain clearly.
"Do you want to go around the place? There's many things that I think you are going to like." Dion unheated his sword and threw it on the ground. It didn't hit the ground but it floated. Dion jumped on the sword and offered his hand.
Vega recalled the time Dion was always pulling him anywhere in the academy. He used to hate that, but now he gladly accept it and stood on the sword that was surprisingly steady.
"Hold on!" Dion shouted and the sword slowly took off.
The mountains was huge, it was bigger than he expected. From up in the air it looked smaller. The Green Field Sect was surrounded with fog all year long. Vega was holding tightly to Dion's waist and made sure that he wouldn't fall. Luckily the sword moved slowly, and he saw the beautiful view from on top of the mountain.
"What sort of creatures do you have here?"
"Similar in a way but the climate made the creatures have longer hair than usual. You know, now I understand how you feel when you first came into the academy. I don't know the cultures here." Dion brough Vega to a farm. "Do you know the kept animals here to eat?"
Vega didn't know that, but when he was in the city some citizens kept animals with them to eat, especially big restaurants. Next to the animals, the sect had field with some disciples working there. "Who are they?"
"Some of the disciples who had lesser talents. The academy made the right choice for not accepting all children. They stole my things, my magic crystals, my weapon, my medals, everything. It's beautiful here, but they didn't have magic crystals like we do in the Islands. They used metals here."
"I know, my mentor scolded me for that," Vega told Dion about his first time being here buying things with a magic crystal.
"Serves you right! But, it looks nice on you. I saw it earlier. I'm glad that you enjoy your time. I remember the first time you asked for my name, you hid it well, you looked confident but I can see it that you're afraid."
"How can I not? I saw people being controlled without wanting to the first time I set foot in the academy."
"Yes, I'm sorry for that. Each culture has their 'uniqueness', I think. Here we go." They landed on a street filled with stalls. At first, it reminded Vega of the apprentices trading hall, but different. Instead of magical things, the street litterred with common items. The smell of food was pretty common here. Accessories was also something regular, he spotted many variety of accessorie, from the wooden ones until the ones decorated with gems. He saw a creature hung from the stall and gasped looking at the shape, "isn't that a fish? They have fish here to?"
"Of course. In the mountains we have fish, but unlike yours, these are from freshwater. See there? I think we don't have it in the ocean. Look at their slim body? It was because the fish here had to swim against a stream, mostly."
Vega eyes couldn't be satisfied with only a day being here. He even felt interested to buy one of the crazy looking talismans but he only had magic crystals, I doubt they would take any coins from the academy here.
Dion led them to a building. It was not a big one, in fact it was the most inconspicuous. The unassuming wooden beams and the carvings on the door made Vega thought of something old and hidden.
"I understand. Here, the best ones found in old buildings. I think the reason was right after the war, a lot of people suddenly got rich and retreated from their practitioners life and lived normally as a businesses people. There are differents in their ideology, so the older ones chose more antique but durable stuffs, the newer generations liked flashy things better."
Vega felt uncomfortable and a little bit embarrassed for liking the more showy stuff. He was too different from his mentor in this aspect. Both liked nice stuff, one was into the simple ones but held meanings, and the other liked something more beautiful looking.
Inside the door, Vega saw a lot of people. The restaurant was loud, he didn't like it one bit. His friend flashed his medal to one of the waitress approaching them. The waitress bowed and led them to a private room.
This room was as nice as the room he was in before. Vega understood why people here liked expensive things, because he liked it too. The one he didn't understand was why his mentor lived so simple even though she was part of the family. Several candles decorated the place making the room felt warm. The table was made with an expensive quality wood even better than what they had in the academy. It wasn't only the quality but the table had pictures drawn on the side making it more like art rather than a furniture.
Vega took a seat on a comfortable futon. A whiff of a sandlawood made him relax being in the room, "I can't get tired of this. You must really liked it here."
"It has its own benefits. For one, I liked how the academy had more resources compared to the sect. Here, because there's so many of us, the resources are scarce. Even with an elder as a mentor, I didn't many things. We have to work harder for ourselves. Not free classes, no free library, nothing's free here. We have to pay for everything. We train our body, so we do have more practical stuff to do here. You know I don't like to sit around and read, right?"
Vega remembered finding Dion was easy, either he could find him in the field exercising, or outside. Really different from him, who liked to go to the library, one of the reason is to fill the gaps in his knowledge about the Islands in general, another because he liked the books and didn't like crowds.
Not long after a waitress came awaiting for their orders. Vega didn't know that his friend was really good in languages. Dion didn't stumble upon any words and talked like a true native.
After the waitress left, Vega asked him, "How can you be fluent already? It's only been, what, five months?"
Dion laughed, "Because I like speaking? And I'm a noble." He said nonchalantly. "I know you hate nobles, but that is a sound argument. We do have better life and education than the commoner, but I think they have to start treat other people better."
Vega took a deep breath trying to muster courage for telling Dion the truth, "Dion, listen." When Vega put his serious face, Dion stopped what he was doing and looked at Vega with inquiring gaze. "I'm truly sorry. At first, I can definitely tell that you're a noble and I befriended you for my own benefits. I didn't agree with most of your lifestyle. I still don't like nobles but before I didn't think you as my friend at all. We're going to miss what we lost. When you disappeared, I realized that I have been a shitty friend. If you don't want to be friends with me after this, I understand."
Dion was really quiet for a while. It made Vega felt scared for the first time thinking about what would happen. Most of the times he liked it unpredictable, but this, he didn't want it to be unpredictable.
Dion finally let out his breath and said, "Thank you for being honest. I actually didn't know that you feel that way about me."
"No, no. It was just--"
Dion raised his hand stopping him, "I know. Something traumatic happen to you, but it's normal to hate your friend or your family for that matter. There's nothing to forgive, you didn't do anything wrong. You never betrayed me, that's all what matters."
Vega smiled glad that Dion forgave him. Vega still felt bad until Dion consoled him and joked around making him to go back to his normal self. The whiffs of food came and broke the awkward atmosphere in the room. Vega couldn't help himself and grabbed the food making Dion laughed, glad that they resolved their friendship being away from each other.