Chapter 211 - Lunch and Discussion

Jien and his unit led the way for the other three, though it had been a few days since their arrival nobody seemed to have gained a true sense of direction. Still, the confidence that Jien led them with brought them the belief that he had somehow familiarized himself with, at the least a small part of the massive city that was the academy. He led the group along the main streets rather than side alleys given that they were now forty members strong.Along the way Carmichael continued to talk with Jien, keeping pace with him rather easily despite his quick pace. Jien for his part responded to the conversation, mostly pleasantries with shorter but still respectful answers. He found out that Carmichael and his group were actually from the region of the Halbus Mountains to the north of Silvios City. They and the majority of the other one-armed members of the academy apparently were from the same group, worshippers of a god known as the One Armed Sword Saint. They lived within the mountain range itself between Elitrix and the land of the beastkin, Aorsi. In fact, some of their members were beastkin that had fled their kingdom, though the number was small.While Jien was busy learning about One Armed Sword Sect as they called themselves, Rebecca had managed to budge the tall bandit boy, Bennet away from Julie. She had to be fairly aggressive, which was the exact opposite of her prior attitude. She practically hip checked the boy who was still holding his stomach and trying to bad mouth and intimidate Julie with a mixture of excuses and demands for a rematch to prove his worth. Her maneuver shoved the boy out of the way and directly into his own group. He stumbled and would have collapsed onto the ground if he had not been caught by two of his members helping him back to his feet.The girl with blue ribbons ignored the grumbling and complaints, taking Julie's arm and dragging his into the midst of her own group of merchants and lesser nobles. Though Julie was a bit intimidating the group did their best to learn more about her and introduce themselves. The group under Rebecca's command were from all over the empire but Rebecca herself hailed from the port city of Alruesta. Her family were merchants that had started as simple fishermen out off the coast but after several generations had managed to build themselves into a respectable merchant family, still mainly based in fresh fish and other seafood.Many of the others had similar stories. Some were merchants based in the capital where their families worked on selling various wares, foods or in some case even research to interested parties. The others of her team were lesser nobles, in the hierarchy they would have been a step lower than city lords like Jien's own family. They were mainly based out of the capital as well, where they would serve as messengers and support to nobles throughout the empire in reporting to the royal family and attending court. They were perhaps the only reason that Jien's father and the parents of the others in his entourage were not running back and forth to the capital every other day.Julie only understood some of this, as she had spent her childhood in the fighting ring. However, she at least understood the basic concepts and showed an adequate amount of interest in knowing more about the systems that the empire ran on. This reaction in turn brought her the attentions of a few of the merchant and lesser noble boys of the group who eagerly attempted invite her to meet with them to chat about it privately for a study group.Before the boys of Rebecca's unit could get too far into their attempts, they arrived at the mess hall they had been walking towards. Julie didn't hesitate to use the excuse to move back to her own unit swiftly, ignoring the invitations given. Rebecca could only glare at the males of her unit along with the other girls, looking at them like they may as well have been bandits on the side of the road. The boys in turn shied away from the harsh looks of their female counterparts, rubbing the back of their heads sheepishly as they all entered the large room dining hall with its long lines of tables and benches.Soon all forty of them had their trays packed with food, finding a relatively open length of table and quickly claiming it for themselves. As they ate, they continued to chat, even managing to bring the group that was led by Bennet. Though the boy was rough around the edges and a little full of himself, but he was actually fairly knowledgeable. They spent the meal talking on general topics and the excitement of the soon to start first term, purposely avoiding anything personal or too in depth.