Silvindor, a name known throughout everyone in the Kingdom of Goldenvale.
The naming of its capital was rather simplistic, considering the etymology of the kingdom's name itself is Gold, then naturally, the capital which was its governing city came to be called Silver.
And that's exactly where Cole and the party of fellow adventurers were heading towards to right now.
'Who would've thought a person such as me would get to go to the capital…' Thought Cole, slightly unbelieving of the fact that such a person from this small town would have the leisure of visiting such an important city he had only heard of from books.
"--"
"Hm?"
Cole didn't hear what Aeliana said the first time, and so, he just raised his brows dumbfoundedly.
"You only have this much equipment?" She repeated her sentence.
"Ah– Oh, yeah. I've only got this worn-off sword and my bag which is basically empty… I thought I wouldn't have the need to hold back on everything considering I was returning home, but it seems that this and that happened, and here we are."
"Oh…"
Aeliana's expression turned slightly sad and then quickly brightened again.
"But it's okay Cole, we can share our rations with you, after all, we think you saved our lives since our sole suspicion is that you took care of the monster and you're hiding it, trying to be like those protagonists from books that hide their powers."
She hit a bullseye.
"Huh? No, I didn't get rid of the monster, I lack the power to do so."
Cole retorted back with a soft voice.
"You can't feel my mana, can you?"
"Hmmm," Aeliana grunted with her eyes closed, trying to feel Cole's mana signature, but to no avail.
It was as if trying to detect something smaller than the subatomic particles themselves, which is nonexistent.
"Tch, you're right. Either you're really unawakened or you're just that good at concealing your mana."
Aeliana wriggled her brows with drooped eyelids, clearly displaying her suspicions.
"Sigh, believe what you wish. That aside, I'm sorry for such a late introduction considering we've been walking for the past five minutes together, but my name is Cole Deimos. I'm seventeen years old and a manaless adventurer."
Cole adjusted the conversation to fit the current moment, and in doing so, he got a click of the tongue from Aeliana.
"Then, I'll go again because I think I didn't introduce myself properly before. I'm Aeliana Windleaf. I'm nineteen years old and a wind mage, I'm also the leader of these guys."
She broke into a grin as pride began to take over her emotions.
"You've got too much energy, Aeliana. Anyways, nice to meet ya, Cole. I'm Brander Valton, I have an affinity for fire magic as you might've seen me back on the battlefield. Overall, I'm better with the sword than magic, but mixing both together becomes a pretty good combo."
"I see."
Brander scoffed slightly as he looked down at his sheathed sword when he ended the sentence, and then gave the signal to the rest of the party. The slightly reddened tips of his dark brown hair waved about as he began talking, "About the hand of the Gargrim…"
Before Cole could begin to speak, Thorne, the Earth Pirouette Master, stepped forward, a friendly expression on his rugged face.
"Well met, Cole. Thorne's the name. It's a pleasure to have you join us, even if you lack the magical touch. I'm forty years old, but I think I can still get along quite well with you young ones."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Thorne." Cole tried to return the smile and then turned towards a girl with hair that was slightly of color at the end.
'It's a bit… blue?'
"Ah, my name's Lilya Marine. I saw you back at the battlefield standing like a dumb-dumb and was really worried your butt got blown off by that fiery-fire. As you saw me, I guess you could say I'm a bit good with water magic."
"Oh, yes. It's interesting and unique how you can manipulate it so properly, I envy you."
Cole complimented her and spoke rather smoothly compared to his first conversation with Aeliana.
"You're a good and smooth-womanizing guy, aren't you?" Lilya said while holding her flushed face with her palms.
"Far from it, you're flattering me, ahaha." Cole chuckled awkwardly at the weird sentencing of Lilya.
He seemed to find her speech pattern unique rather than disturbing for a grown girl.
'I don't blame her, it might be side effects of the eclipse.'
Cole bobbed his head up and down in pity.
Then, his eyes ended up on another woman of the party.
'Whoa this woman has such pretty breasts– eyes, I mean.'
Quickly moving his eyes away from her curves, he received a small, enticing chuckle.
"I am Selene, young man. You could say I'm a wind user too, just like Aeliana."
"Oh, I see."
With a slight blush on his face, Cole tried his best to keep it hidden from them.
'She realized I looked at her breasts, argh!'
Yelling from within, his eyes finally came into contact with her.
'It's the ice lady…'
He remembered her.
With a stoic expression all the same as Cole's, she closed the distance and outstretched her hand.
"I'm Lyra." She kept it short as her slender –yet cold– hand came into contact with Cole's.
She had such a beautiful and melodious soft voice for the ear to the point she made Cole unconsciously want to hear more of it.
"Oh, since I said it before you already know, but again, I'm Cole… And about your hair, we're matching."
He smiled a little as he twirled some threads of his own snow-white hair, which matched the white tips of Lyra's hair.
"Ah, I suppose so. They started to take a tinge of white once I awakened."
Lyra also checked her own hair, scanning it slightly as she spoke, fulfilling Cole's inner wish.
"I use ice."
She said with her expression all the same, indifferent. She constantly exuded out nonchalant and detached vibes from reality.
"I noticed you."
Cole spoke with the same tone, taking in the details of her face.
Sharp and thin brows as if drawn by an artist, a smooth nose as if taken care of constantly and carved by a master woodsmith, and hazel-blue eyes that seemed to contain the infinite within–
"We're finally back at our carriages!"
Aeliana celebrated as they finally neared a few solidified earthen walls, disturbing Cole's unnecessary scanning of Lyra's face.
"Oh, so we won't be going by foot?"
"Duh."