As hours passed, as children ought to do, the suffocating atmosphere slowly faded as the teens returned to conversing, Bort being the exception. Seeing his peers regain their energy, Loren slapped his cheeks to pull himself out of his stupor. He could spend days thinking about how Bort saw his actions but it wouldn't change that he had taken them, and if given the chance, he would go through the process again.
To distract himself, he looked outside and saw that the carriage was approaching Galan. It was much smaller than Rito and had a more rudimentary level of architecture. A wooden fence surrounded the entire town, a small tench being dug out at the bottom, and various spikes could be seen peaking out of the trench. A formation of guards sat at the top of the fence, each armed with patchwork leather armour and a short bow.
While the village was nothing too special, the children were still excited by its appearance, it was the first time many of them had left the territory of Riot, so their imagination gave the children a romanticised view of the outside world. Many could be seen leaning out the window of their carriage hoping to get even one step closer to the destination.
Loren wasn't as blatant in his fervour, but he had also never left Rito's doors. Being paralysed for a large portion of his previous life left a desire for adventure within him, he was eager to see what life was like in Galan.
The carriages slowly came to a stop, Rito was the first to step down as he walked towards the guards and pulled out a piece of paper, seemingly a document on their purpose for coming to the village.
After the quick conversation, the guards nodded and opened the gate leading to the village, allowing the carriages to enter. The children began to leave their carriages and look around in excitement at the village, seeing the rustic place as a wonderous adventure.
"Sir Rito! Welcome back to Galan, you're earlier this year."
An old man with a white beard walked up to Rito and greeted him, his clean and expensive-looking clothing suggested he maintained a high position in Galan.
"Turk, it's good to see you. How have you been?" Rito returned the greeting as he shook the old man's hand.
"As good as I've ever been, but as you know the trade routes in our little village have been dangerous as of late." The man answered Rito with a smile, but a small amount of tiredness could be seen in his eyes.
"It's good to hear you're well, but it's a pity they've returned. I'll see if I can help again."
"Hahaha, only if you have the time, but I won't forget to thank you if you do."
Loren noticed that their conversation was more than just a greeting, seeing that Rito stated that they'd been in a poor situation before, he assumed that Rito's help was a stipulation for the class to be allowed to hunt in their forest.
The old man paused the conversation as he glanced behind him, a young blonde girl was standing at his back.
"I don't want to talk about this for the moment, why ruin our reunion? I actually had a simple request I wanted to ask of you."
Rito raised his brow. "A request?"
The old man nodded as he beckoned the young girl to come forward. "This is my granddaughter, Relia, she's a stage 2 mage and the pride of our village. I was hoping that she could spectate your class's hunt you see. She doesn't have much experience in combat."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Rito." The girl gave a short bow as she greeted Rito.
Mages were considered academics first and combatants second. Unlike knights, a mage wouldn't usually see a battlefield until they reached the 2nd stage, mostly spending their time learning and studying various spells. Relia was at the perfect point in her path to have her first experience in a battle.
Rito pondered for a moment before agreeing. "If it's just specating it's fine, though I have to remind you that there will be danger."
The old man laughed. "Hahaha, just because she's inexperienced doesn't mean she can't defend herself, she can already load 5 spells with the help of her wand. I have hope she may become a master one day."
Nodding, Rito looked at the group of students eagerly paying attention to the conversation, they hadn't met many mages in their lives, with there only being a handful of mages in Rito.
Eventually, Rito's gaze landed on Loren. "Then she can follow my disciple on his hunt."
Turk looked surprised to find out that Loren was Rito's personal disciple. "Your disciple, but he looks so young."
"He's a little bit problematic, but he has the talent."
'Who's problematic?...' Loren puckered his lips at Rito's unnecessary comment.
Loren walked up to the pair to introduce himself.
"It's good to meet you, Sir, my name is Loren Rito."
After his bow, Turk raised his lips into a smile. "He seems polite. I won't take much of your time anymore Rito, let your students come to the inn for dinner, it's getting late."
"Sure."
Turk led the class to a large building, probably the biggest Loren had yet seen in the village, upon opening the door to the inn the smell of various meats and spices wafted out towards the class. Smelling the feast, Loren felt himself begin to drool, happy to discover the village could cook food so fragrant.
Seeing the hungry expressions of the students, the old man began to laugh. "Hahaha, our village may be small but we're quite popular for our delicacies, it's our main export."
The class quickly found places to sit, impatient for the meal to begin. As plates of smoked beef and braised pork began to be placed on the table, the students started to dig in, foregoing any politeness or class as they devoured the dishes.
Each student was eating voraciously, but Loren stood out, he was vacuuming plates and licking them clean, the rate of which he ate was twice as much as the others.
"Sometimes I forget how much this guy eats." Loot looked in amazement as plate after plate was stacked next to Loren.
Trina scoffed. "Really? With the mess he makes every time we have lunch?"
"Our food is pretty good isn't it."
Loren turned his head to see the blonde mage he had met just before sitting next to him. Swallowing a mouthful of food, he nodded.
"It's great, way better than anything our school makes."
She gave a small chuckle towards Loren's messy eating habits. "If you didn't hear earlier, my name is Relia. I'm thankful that you're letting me follow you during your hunt tomorrow."
"No problem. Could I actually ask something of you?" Seeing a chance to get a piece of information he needed, Loren decided to ask her for some help.
Relia tilted her head. "What is it?"
"It's nothing special, just wanted to know where your blacksmith was and if it's open right now."
"Our blacksmith isn't too far away," Relia thought for a bit. "it should be open, why do you need to go to the blacksmith?"
Smirking as he lifted his finger to his lips, Loren said:
"Secret, you'll find out tomorrow."
"You're making me curious. I can lead you to it after you finish eating."
"It's fine," Loren shook his head. "you can just bring me now I'm absolutely stuffed."
The two stood up to head to the blacksmith, but as they left the door they were stopped by Loot, who jumped on Loren's back.
"Yo! What's this? Midnight date?" An annoying smile was plastered on his face.
"It's not a date," Loren denied. "she's taking me the the blacksmith. Also, Loot I'm 9 and she's.."
"13."
"She's 13."
"Not that big a gap, as a responsible senior I'll have to supervise the two of you."
Loren rolled his eyes, it was obvious what Loot wanted. "You just want to see what I'm planning don't you?"
Loot laughed as his intention was caught. "A little, you're being so mysterious about it. But will me seeing what you're buying really ruin your plan?"
Giving a broad smile, Loren shook his head. "Nope! I'm confident, you can come if you want."
***
The trio began to make their way to Galan's blacksmith, following Relia's instructions, as they walked through the streets they made conversions between themselves.
"So Relia, you're already at the 2nd stage? I'm really impressed, for knights that's a big achievement."
"Thank you, but it's not that impressive, aren't you in the 1st stage already Loren? At your age, being in the 1st stage is quite a feat."
Loren dismissed her compliment and waved his hand. "It's nothing really, I took a big shortcut. I'm getting a lot of hate for that actually."
"As you should," Loot added, shaking his head slightly. "It's dumb to force a mana surge."
"I know, I know, I've heard that enough." Loren tried to redirect the discussion. "By the way Relia, do you plan to go to the academy?"
Admissions to the academy required an applicant to be above the age of 13 and be in the 2nd stage. Though most entered the academy at the age of 15 and above, some geniuses like Relia made their way into the school fairly easily. This was because those who mastered the 1st path in a year could be considered future masters already, the portion of masters who had taken longer than a year to enter the 2nd stage were few and far in between.
Relia was silent before shaking her head. "It's too far away from Galan, I became a mage because I wanted to protect my village, going away for years would contradict that."
Loot had wide eyes. "Really?! Are you sure? You have the potential to be a master."
Smiling as she nodded her head, Relia said: "I'm sure."
The three continued to talk on their walk until Loren accidentally bumped into a gruff man as they turned a corner.
"Oi! Little sh*t watch where you're going." The man had a short stubble and reeked of alcohol, making the three pinch their noses.
"Sorry." Loren apologised quickly before going on his way, not wanting to converse with the drunk.
"Hey, I've never seen you two before?" The man's words were slurred, he was obviously intoxicated.
"We're knight trainees that came to Galan for hunting experience." Loot gave a curt answer, wanting to leave as soon as possible.
The man looked slightly shocked to find out why they were in the town. "F*ck, already? Sh*t... Wait, aren't you an earthborn, since when did Rito take you people in?"
Loren furrowed his brows, the man essentially called Loot a slur. "Hey! You can't just-"
"Leave it Loren, it's fine lets go."
Loot pulled Loren and Relia away from the man but Loren continued to glare the drunk as they paced away.
"Loot! Are you sure you want to let him get away with that?!"
"I'm sure, I'm used to it." Loot had a melancholic smile as he repled to Loren, still thinking about their interaction with the drunkard. "Haha, it's actually been a while since someone called me that, Rito is a good place.
His last words carried a hint of sadness with him, which made Loren think he wasn't actually okay with what happened.
"You two, I'm severely sorry about that, our town doesn't have such dates ways of thought. I don't even recognise that man, I'll let my grandfather know as soon as possible." Relia bowed her head, ashamed that only a few hours after their arrival, one of the students from Rito faced such prejudice.
"It's fine," Loot looked back to where the man had been standing. "It's a little nostalgic to see people like him."
He stretched his back, looking up to the starless sky of Altera.
"People like him can talk all they want, once I become a master they won't be able to ever look down on me like that."
Loren smiled as he saw that his friend didn't simply accept his position but was instead looking forward.
"Yeah you're right, what can a guy like him say to you when you become a master."
Eventually, the three finally made it to the blacksmith without any more incidents.
Loren walked inside and went to the counter. The blacksmith was a buff woman with short hair, she had been in the middle of forging a sword, not expecting a customer so late into the day.
"Hello, ma'am." Loren smiled as he sauntered up the women, looking around the store.
The woman looked at Loren at first but then saw Relia standing behind him. "Relia? What brings you here so late?"
Seeing her ignore Loren, Relia had a wry smile. "My friend here had something to buy Karen."
"That's me." Loren pointed at himself, still smiling.
"What do ya need? I'll let you know I'm not taking commissions at the moment, just accepted a few swords to be made."
"That's fine, can I just grab 6 shovels?"
The woman raised her brow at the request while Loot and Relia were confused upon finding out the reason Loren wanted to go to the blacksmith.
'What does he need so many shovels for?'
***
A drunk rotund man was rushing out of the gates of Galan, entering the forest, his 'friend' was the current guard so no one knew of him leaving.
With bated breath, he ran through the forest and came upon an encampment of men who looked similarly drunk as himself. They all carried weapons by their sides and wore old, torn leather armour. The man clutched his knees as he gasped for air, standing in front of a gargantuan man who wore the skin of a limb bear over his head.
"Braken! That knight class, they're early this year!"
The gargantuan man had two women in each arm pouring alcohol into his gullet, he looked down at the slobbering man with a laugh.
"Hahaha! So, you come back to interrupt our feast for what, a few little kiddies?"
"You don't understand Braken, one of the teachers of that group is in the 3rd stage like you. He massacred the previous group, I saw it before... I joined you."
The man's warning fell on deaf ears, in fact, Braken only looked more excited by his words.
"Bond stage?! That's great! I was getting slightly bored here anyway. It's the middle of buttf*ck nowhere, even the women here are subpar, at least I can have some entertainment."
"But Braken..."
Braken's smile turned into a glare as he looked down at the man. "What? Do you think I'd lose to his?"
The man straightened his back in fear, sweat running down his back. "O- of course not!"
"GOOD! Everyone, you immature f*cks are finally going to see a real battle! I've had enough of cleaning the sh*t off your asses, this time imma take centre stage. You're all gonna see the might of Braken of the Bloodhound mercenaries. HAHAHA!"
The group of men all cheered, downing their grog, excited to finally see what their boss could really do. The sound of their yells spread into the night.