To say no one had ever commented on this unusual pairing, would be a lie. There are always short sighted people that cannot help but jump out to be abused. One of those happened to be another teacher from the academy, who just so happened to be interested in the young and beautiful sorceress. After finding out that she was married to Regis, he said some very vulgar comments about her, including some not so subtle threats which she didn't bother to care about, after all, there is never a shortage of callous and hateful people in life. However when it reached Regis's ears he went into a rage. At the time Regis and Eris were only in the purple gold rank, whilst the teacher in question was firmly in the Platinum rank, this was also one of the reasons Eris chose not to make the situation a big deal.
Unfortunately for that teacher, he met a certain warrior who had never cared about the difference in strength. Regis waited until the teacher was on his way back to his sleeping quarters, and attacked him without warning.
The teacher as an earth magician was not weak, especially since he was a rank higher than Regis, but by the time the guards of the academy had reacted and the other teachers showed up to stop the fight, Regis who was covered in blood was still beating the unconscious teacher. It was said to have taken half a dozen Platinum rank teachers and countless gold rank guards to subdue the enraged Regis.
After learning what the fight was about, no one dared to say anything about Eris whether they wanted to or not. The teacher in question was also beaten too badly by Regis, that he has not yet recovered from that night. The academy didn't have room for those who had no use, so the teacher was dismissed from his position. Whether Regis's family and that teachers family became enemies was not something the academy cared about, they kept the person who was more useful of the two, which just happened to be Regis.
But now that the husband and wife have gotten stronger, there are very few discordant voices that will talk about their seemingly unusual situation.
Erin walked over to Eris and held her arm familiarly, "Aunty, I didn't know they were sending you here to protect us".
Eris looked at this little niece of hers, showing a touch of softness on her calm and rigid face, "There's been a little trouble in the forest, so the headmaster sent us out just in case".
Erin hadn't heard about the trouble yet, but seeing that her aunt and uncle were here, she felt more at ease taking this group back, so she quickly said "Okay, well whenever you're ready to go".
"We're fine, you can continue as planned" Eris assured her.
Erin, as the most noble of the senior students sent in this direction saw that her aunt had no intention of leading, knowing that the two of them would only be there to guard, quickly began to order the large team to set off.
Knowing that the situation was far more dangerous, the group no longer allowed the recruited students to ride horses alone. Most of them hadn't even begun to learn how to use their talents in magic or aura, so them being out in the open was simply a living target for the beasts that infested the forest.
Many large carriages full of the powerless recruits were kept in the middle of the caravan with the senior students ahead and the supplies behind, surrounded by rows of academy guards. The large convoy walked along the official roads with great vigour.
With the addition of so many people, the trip back to the capital would take close to a month. There were two cities they could stop by to rest and replenish supplies, but other than that they would have to camp out.
The official roads were usually safe due to the constant patrols of the kingdoms army, but even the army couldn't be everywhere at once, which was the reason for the danger travelling in between cities.
The convoy travelled until they came upon one of the mapped water sources. Choosing this relatively open field as their camp ground for the night.
Rings of guards were set up with the students and supplies firmly protected inside. Tents were pitched and fires could be seen dotted around the area. The guards didn't dare to slack off for a moment, most of them had seen the horrors of the Rind forest and dared not underestimate it.
Isla and Sila were assigned to a tent with four other women. Other than some superficial politeness, the two didn't bother to get to know them. They simply went to grab some food from where it was distributed, hastily washed themselves with a cloth and a bucket of warm water and went back to the tent.
The tent wasn't anything special, there were no subdivisions inside, just a large space encircled by the canvas sides. The women all subconsciously divided the space between each other.
Isla and Sila had packed sleeping bags, so they set theirs up together, and quickly snuggled up to each other. The other women weren't so lucky, the nights in the wild were not very friendly to they who hadn't yet started practising. Constant sounds of shivering rang out through the inner camp.
The guards that were on duty looked at the guards around each other and chuckled. They had gotten used to the harsh night winds, but these children had never felt the suffering until now.
The lively atmosphere continued until midnight when roars and bellows echoed throughout the forest. Eris and Regis were quickly awoken by the sounds, the guards had already begun to set up defences.
The academy had a strong talisman department which provided the guards with numerous amounts of magic infused talisman spells. Erin who had awoken ordered the senior students to help defend. The magicians stood behind the guards to provide extra assistance, while Regis and Eris stood on standby,just in case a powerful magic beast appeared.