After the truth was revealed, Ivan looked at Eric, "The seer has revealed the truth. What Zion described matches what was shown, and so Calie is the one who must apologise to Zion and Sarah." He crossed his arms.
Calie looked appalled, "What? I'm not apologising to someone lower than me!" She shouted.
Eric frowned at Ivan, but he also knew there was no chance to argue now. He grits his teeth, then looks down at Calie, "Calie, apologise to them."
Calies face fell, and she somehow had both a sad and angry face simultaneously, "What? B-but uncle-"
"Just apologise and get this over with!" He snapped at her.
Calie pouted and stamped her foot angrily but turned to Sarah and Zion, "Sorry." Her tone clearly showed how insincere she was, but Zion didn't want to argue with a child, so he just nodded.
Sarah also gave a nod, "Fine." Calie harrumphed and immediately turned around and stomped off. Eric watched her leave and gave Ivan a strange look before following her.
Ivan just shook his head, "Alright, kids. Back to training." He called out, and all the kids went back to their training.
That night, Sarah sat on the bed, brushing through her hair as she seemed thoughtful, and then she looked at Zion, who was seemingly asleep.
She sighed softly and lowered her head but then jumped lightly at his sudden voice in her head, '"What are you overthinking about Sarah?"'
"Oh, Zion... you're still awake?" She looked over at him.
Zion raised his head to look at her, '"I can sense your emotional state, kiddo. Plus, it's sort of hard not to notice when you keep sighing heavily."' He gave her a teeth-bearing smile.
Sarah sighed again and hugged her legs, "I promised when I started training that I would protect you... but if it weren't for the seer and Sir Ivan, I wouldn't have been able to protect you today." Her gaze was troubled as she looked towards Zion.
He stood up and walked over to her, and sat in front of her, '"You are still a child, Sarah. When you become an adult, you'll be stronger, and you'll be able to protect others better. Just give it time."' He gently nuzzled his head into her arms.
She gently rubbed his head, now the size of her lower leg, "Okay. I'll be patient. But I'll work harder than before. I promise you that." She gave a faint smile at him, then yawned.
He just smiled and licked her cheek, '"Now sleep. You have classes again tomorrow."'
Sarah nodded as she laid back down and snuggled into the bed. Zion smiled and gently pulled the blanket over her. He then returned to his sleeping spot and curled up, putting his tail over his face as usual, 'This kid...' He smiled to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
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Two years pass in the blink of an eye. The time was spent strengthening the bodies of those who haven't trained for a long time, allowing all the children to be around similar levels.
The class of level 6 10-year-olds all fought against dummies skillfully. Zion hadn't changed much with the small training they did, other than managing to level up a couple of his combat skills. He's only earned around 200 more EXP in those one-on-one beast fights the students participate in occasionally.
Oh, and also eating a few of the beasts with elements attached to them when Ithil, Aala, or Sarah killed them.
Zion was sitting back this time, watching the way the kids fought the automated dummies, when he noticed Ivan walk forward, "Alright, everyone, stop and listen up." His gruff voice was somehow clear as all the kids immediately stopped and listened up, facing Ivan. Once everyone was facing him, he spoke, "In two days, we will be taking this combat class into the outer areas of the Hollow Forest to train in real combat."
His words caused the kids to get emotions ranging from fear to excitement. Sarah clenched her fist around her sword handle in silence as her eyes burned with determination.
"Tomorrow, you have a day off. You'll all be allowed to go to the city's shopping area to get supplies. It's up to each of you what you get. When we leave, if you realise you forgot something, then too bad. There will be no extra chances to shop. What you get tomorrow is what you take." Ivan looked around at the faces of the various kids, "You're all dismissed for the rest of the day." He turned and walked off.
Sarah, Aala and Ithil all gathered up with Zion and stood together. By now, all sorts of groups had formed. Even the annoying pair of Calie and Krakow had little groups of people who sucked up to them due to them being high-ranking nobles' children.
'"Alright. Ithil, Hollow Forest is your home, right?"' Zion looked at the taller elf boy. In the last two years, he was still slim, but he had grown to about 5'2 already.
"Yes, my home is towards the middle zone of the forest, right on the edge of the outer zone on the northern part of the forest." Ithil nodded his head.
"Anything we should be worried about?" Sarah asked. She had grown quite a bit too, she was now about 4'4 tall and like always, kept her hair in a ponytail braid since it kept it tidy and out of her way. Her body was already beginning to show lean muscles since she had been training for 5 years now.
"Well, as far as my clan has discovered. The outer zone mostly holds rank Ds with a few rank Cs. Maybe 10 in each main area of the forests. The middle zone is mostly inhabited by rank Cs and above. Then of course the centre zone... no one's been there long enough to find out." Ithil explained.
Zion seemed thoughtful but was actually quite excited, 'Finally. I can get stronger again!'