Senva pushed forward as he got through the tunnels. He looked at the light shining at the entrance, and he took bigger steps. He was finally getting out. It's been hours since he started walking through this tunnel, lost from time to time. He kept going, His mind kept pushing him and now looking at that light at the end of the tunnel, he felt it was worth it. He looked at his arm, the bloodied shirt and a long gash under it.
The tunnel was pitch-dark, without a single source of light. He was staggering in that darkness for a while and fell to the ground; the consequence was fateful. He left a trail of blood behind him, contrasting the cold floor. The blood, having run from his wounds, pooled and congealed in the damp climate, and the clot had saved him from having further blood loss. It marked his trail.
As he took a step out of the tunnel, a bright sunny sky greeted him, which forced him to squint his eyes, he looked around, and found himself surrounded by trees. He should be in a forest. He sat down at the entrance and took the view in of the surroundings. As he leaned against a tree, he could feel its rough texture. It seemed like these trees had weathered some big storms and, with moss and other shrubs surrounding it, giving path to new lives.
After regaining his breath, Senva looked around, like choosing which path to take, and with a pause he started walking once again. Each step felt like it was filled with determination. He seemed to know where he was going.
The cave/tunnel he got out of should be in the outer regions of the woods. Just walking for a short while, he got out of it but didn't stop walking. Which rewarded him as he soon found himself near a settlement, or it looked like one.
People wearing blue robes and blue painted armor walked around. Some had their armor donned on as they came out of their tents like they were ready for war, while others were just there to have fun and such, it seems. Many sat idle, talking about random things.
Senva walked toward the settlement, his pace steady. Just as he was about to enter…
"Whoa, whoa, where are you going?"
A pair of soldiers guarding the door stopped him. One of them walked up to him as he asked, "ID." and extended his hand. "And what happened to your arm?"
Senva looked at him for a while, like he didn't know what he was talking about.
"Your identification." The soldier said, this time with a little emphasis behind those words. If one could look under the helmet, he would have seen his impatient look.
But Senva still kept staring at him, this made the soldier grow furious. He was about to lash out, but stopped when he saw him taking out a piece of paper from his pocket.
"Should've waited a couple more moments."
The soldier snatched the paper from his hand while remarking sarcastically and looked at it, then at Senva. He did so many times before handing it back. Senva once more didn't respond. He just kept staring at the paper in his hand.
The guard grew impatient and shoved the paper in his pocket before saying out loud, "Get the hell inside. Out of my sight."
Senva tumbled as the guard shoved him. He then steadied himself, and like nothing happened, walked in.
"What's the deal with him?" The other soldier asked, he found Senva's behavior strange.
"Don't know, but then again, Orinthal people were always that way," the first one replied.
"No wonder, but then…" The second soldier stopped as he remembered how brutal Orinthal nation is, even with their own people. He shuddered as remembered the rumors about their deeds.
Senva, oblivious to all this, now had the identity of Orinthal. He walked past many tents, looking around, and observing everything. Everywhere he went, soldiers and knights could be seen.
He kept walking and soon reached the other side of the camp, where he saw a sea of people. These people were not as lax as those inside the camps; they were striding and mounting boulders into catapults that surpassed even the tallest mounds in height. The soldiers filled giant arrows into a giant crossbow mounted on a moving station, siege towers. They had everything that an army needs for the siege. It was getting its finishing touched here.
Senva glanced at everybody who was busy with these jobs and then turned back to the sea of people that stopped a distance away from a mountain, the rocky color greeted whichever eye gazed at it, it told them about its terrible terrains, only daredevils would dare to hike something like this. (A/N if we take the example of non-practitioners)
But there was life even here, at the foot of the mountain, behind a giant wall that blended so well with the mountain that it gave one illusion that there was nothing there.
Senva looked at this fortress before walking back to the camp. His new destination was the camp captain's tent, he wanted to see if he could learn anything useful.
The captain's tent or the person in charge of the nation's army stood out like a sore thumb. It was bigger than any tent in the vicinity, with a pair of soldiers guarding its entrance.
Senva walked around it, and appeared behind the tent, but before he could do anything,
Thump*
Someone or something struck his head. It started getting blurry as he got disoriented and fell to the ground.
"Who are you?"
He heard someone's voice, but couldn't tell who it was.
"Idiot, you ask such a question before hitting."
"Good thinking."
"Dumb idiot."
There was more than one person. Senva could feel his hands being grabbed, he wanted to struggle but stopped like someone told him to do so and his head hung down. He became unconscious.
The soldiers dragged him to a tent, which differed from others, and threw him inside before walking away. There were already many soldiers guarding that tent.
...
"Come in," Erik said as he opened his eyes, sitting cross-legged, meditating.
"Pardon the…. intrus…ion." Collum's words slowed down when he saw a young man sitting beside Erik, black hair, combed to the side but they ended up falling forward to the left side of his face, not covering the eyes but would be if he wanted to, a bunch hanging free over his nose, his eyebrows scrunched together, the freckles that gave him the girlish touch to his facial feature were there no more.
He was wearing a black jacket with high collars, a white shirt and black pants, shoes placed by his side as he sat cross-legged. If not for his eyes twitching and him shaking his head from time to time, Collum would've assumed he was meditating.
Erik also looked at Valcroy and sighed internally: 'This will take a while.'
He turned back to Collum, who was still looking at Valcroy, but he got out of his daze.
"Young master, the nobles in the war room…."
"Let's go," Erik cut him short and said, but before he walked out, he stopped, turned to Valcroy.
"You can not leave until you can maintain focus for more than 5 minutes."
Valcroy's eyes opened wide, his blue eyes reflecting the shock in them as he uttered, "But…"
Erik didn't bother and walked away, while Collum gave him one more look before following him, his mind in some other place. Valcroy could only shut up and do as told. He sat there for a while thinking about how he should meditate, but nothing came to mind. He was blank on this subject. He felt he still had more improvements to do in terms of body strengthening through other means, but now Erik was teaching him how to see and feel the mana. It was a mandatory thing, but only after the knights reached the limit of their body strengthening through ordinary means.
He was skipping a few steps but only in the sense of mana feeling. Erik forbid him from using mana to temper his body. It would ruin his foundation if he did that and what was a building with a shaky founding but a ticking time bomb.
After thinking for a while, he sighed. For meditation, he needed to clear his mind of wandering thoughts, but his mind was filled to the brim with them. He couldn't even concentrate for one second before his mind wandered off to some other realm, much less 5 minutes.
He could only try his best. He closed his eyes, and started meditating, but before he knew it, he was thinking about things that even he didn't know he could.
Erik, meanwhile, arrived in the war room, which was so lively one would confuse it with the fish market. He looked at the nobles arguing while pointing at Mallory and demanding an explanation for something. Mallory, meanwhile, just stood like a rock, not responding to anything. Her head hung a little low, but he could see her clenched hands and tell that she was furious.
Erik's gaze moved from her to the nobles, especially at the mayor, who was looking at her with his mouth corner lifted crookedly.
"What's going on?" He asked. Collum when he heard that wanted to dig a hole and bury himself in it. He got so distracted by Valcroy that he forgot to bring Erik up to speed.
"Young master, how can you do this to us?" A noble, blonde hair, oval face, pompous suit that was studded with gems and metal, walked toward him, shaking his head like Erik had committed a severe crime.
Erik said nothing and let him approach him. He looked toward the others and saw them looking at him, giving him a disappointed gaze.
"And what did I do?" He asked, his expression indifferent, relaxed. He could tell what they were after, but still played along. He gave Collum one look, though, before turning back to the blond guy, who was now standing at arm's length.
He put his hand on Erik's shoulder, a clear disrespect, but he didn't care. He was confident for some reason.
The nobles of Iron'Heits had tried different methods and concluded that Kendrick was either injured or in seclusion, the first one seemed unlikely, so the second one had more chances and with someone with Kendrick realm, secluding for years or even decades was normal.
'Either he's an idiot or has some backing,' Collum thought otherwise as he looked at the blonde, who was acting arrogantly. He knew Kendrick was testing Erik, but that didn't mean that anyone could come and humiliate Frostborne. They were reckless, but they were also a proud bunch who wouldn't stand humiliation.
Erik was a strange one who didn't care about etiquette and manners, but he was like that only with Valcroy and let him act normal. If someone else tries that, they'll have their head at stake.
He gave the blonde guy the stare which one gave to a dead one, and the blond guy shivered as he stared into Erik's cold blue eyes. He gulped and was about to turn around but stopped upon hearing the mayor voice, "How can you do this to us, young master? First you took our supplies from us and now you are keeping us here as prisoners."
"Yes!"
Many others followed and added fuel to it. The mayor had a sad expression on the outside, but inside he was snickering, taunting Erik.
'How would you get out of this?'
Seeing his comrades voice out their discontent, the blonde guy grew more confident and stood his ground, staring directly into Erik's eyes.
Erik didn't break eye contact with the blonde, whose confidence started shaking once more as he looked into those cold blue eyes. He almost jumped once as he took a step back. He felt like their color changed from white to red for a moment.
Seeing him act like that confused many, but before they continued playing politics, Erik told Collum, "They know about the tunnel."
This news was a bomb to Collum, he didn't remember anyone following him and he was very discreet when he dropped Senva into the tunnel before sealing it.
"A surveillance magic scroll." Erik continued, making Collum's expression turn ugly. That could be the reason. He wouldn't be able to tell if someone used a magic scroll to do that. But using such a precious resource to surveil one of your own was what made Collum gnash his teeth.
The nobles were also shocked when they heard Erik and wondered how he knew about that. The truth was, he didn't. He just took a shot in the dark and their expression told him he was right. Speculation was all he could do. Now that he knows about their special card, or a spent one, if the scroll is not reusable which he doubts they would have as a reusable scroll it tens of time more expensive than a regular one and they were exceedingly rare, especially one with surveillance magic in it.
"How...." they asked, but he didn't reply and took a seat. Looking at these jokers, he asked, "And why should I let you use the tunnel?"