Chapter 70: Farewell

Dawn broke and morning dew dripped off the tip of a blade of grass. A foot suddenly crushed the blade. Figures began to appear like a large army .

Hundreds of students gathered around the area near the northern gates as they prepared themselves for their departure.

Not too far away, Teo hurried and sprinted towards the northern gates while carrying his backpack and a large sack. His eyes fatigued eyes were still focused as he was afraid of missing Rowen’s departure.

Many gathered around the area but like a swift blade, Teo directly cut through them and ran towards the largest tree close to the northern gates.

As Rowen finished packing her stuff into the nearby wagon, she apprehensively looked to the distance, moving her gaze back and forth through the thick crowd of people.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up as it focused on a short figure carrying a large sack approaching her team. She quickly starting moving to greet this person and when she finally came close, a warm smile appeared on her face and tightly embraced Teo.

“Teo! You finally came!”

The sack he carried dropped to the floor, as he gave Rowen a hug as well.

“Hey hey Teo, what about your sister-in-law? Where is my hug?” Riss asked as she interrupted this precious moment

Gina suddenly appeared besides Riss and pulled her left ear up, pulling her away from the siblings and gave them this precious time together. The siblings smiled at Gina and Riss as they appreciated Gina’s thoughtfulness.

Then from his backpack, Teo took out the necklace that he made for Rowen. Seeing the necklace, Rowen as slightly surprised as although the pendant looked the same, the stone within it changed too much. The small black pearl that sparkled like the night sky! It looked very beautiful.

“Sister, this is for you”, Teo smiled as he took the necklace and handed it over to Rowen.

Rowen examined the necklace closely as she realized that it was not only the stone that changed but also it’s chain. The chain was not made of ordinary metal and knew that this what Teo had promised to do.

Teo then took out a letter and gave it to Rowen.

“Sister, take this. Read it when you’re alone after you leave. After you finish reading it, please destroy this letter, don’t let anyone else know about it”

Teo spoke in a whisper and Rowen knew that it was something serious. She smiled and nodded as she quickly slipped the letter into her pocket.

Teo did not waste anymore time as he grabbed the sack and shouted.

“Sister-in-law! Elder sister Gina!” Teo waved his hand gesturing them to come.

The two approached the siblings as Gina asked, “What’s the matter Teo?”

From the large sack, Teo took three pairs of boots out.

As they saw these pairs, Rowen, Riss and Gina’s eyes widen as they realized Teo’s intention.

The boots were of high quality materials, and complicated looking inscriptions could be seen on them.

“Everyone, this is Lia, Windle and my farewell presents to you guys, I hope they will be of use.” Teo said as he gave each a pair.

Realizing what Teo and the others had done, their hearts felt warm. They knew that the three juniors were taking inscription classes together and also knew that Teo had quite a fortune for a second year student.

“Thanks brother-in-law, your sister-in-law will cherish them!” Riss said as she suddenly gave Teo a kiss on the left cheeks while hugging her new pair of shoes.

Teo was stunned as his hand touched his left cheeks.

“Teo, I can’t believe you got me a gift too… I..” Gina was embarrassed after receiving such an expensive looking gift. She looked around the area and checked if anyone else besides the four of them was looking, then after ensuring no one else was paying attention, she gave Teo a kiss on the right cheek as well.

Soon after Gina’s face became quite red as she had never kissed anyone before. She left like an older sister to Teo but they were still after all not siblings.

Teo was caught off guard and was kissed by two lovely seniors

“Heh, Teo you are so lucky getting kisses from these lovely sisters,” Rowen teased as she gave Teo a kiss on the forehead and then quickly taking something out of her bag.

In her hands as a chainmail that was crimson in color, she then handed it to Teo and said,

“Teo, this is from me. This chainmail is made out of blood iron. It is quite durable and very light”

As she spoke, her eyes slowly trembled as tears started forming.

“Hopefully this will protect you while I am gone,” she softly said

Rowen had spent a large amount of her savings to buy this for Teo, and while blood iron was cheaper than dark iron, it’s defensive ability was quite good.

“Teo, you must train harder than ever before. You have to be so strong that I won’t have to worry about you,” Rowen smiled as she said this.

“Don’t worry sister, I will train hard”

Despite having the perfect defensive ability due to the protection array on his chest, he still felt warm knowing that Rowen deeply worried about his safety

-HOOOOOMMMMM!-

Suddenly a loud sound of a horn being blown could be heard by everyone in the area. Many of them knew what this sound meant; It was the signal for the student’s departure.

“Teo, I’ll come see you when you graduate!”

Teo nodded and hugged Rowen very tightly

“Sister, I love you! Stay safe!”

“I love you too Teo!”

Teo stood there as he watched Rowen’s group enter the wagon one by one. Rowen sat down at the very back, looking at Teo’s figure as he watched them leave.

“Sister! Everyone! Please stay safe!!”, Teo shouted as the wagon was passed through the academy gates

Teo waved his hands at them and Rowen also waved back

“Don’t worry Teo, I’ll be watching your sister’s back!!”, Gina shouted

“Don’t worry Teo!! They’ll both be watching my back!!”, Riss shouted

Even during such an emotional moment, Riss still managed to crack a joke.

Teo could only smile as their voices slowly vanished off to the distance. Tears flowed from his eyes as once again, he had been left behind.

‘Sister, please stay safe! Please keep your promise! We’ll meet again soon!’ Teo tightly clenched his hands on the blood red chainmail that he received from his sister.

-----

A large caravan headed towards the north west carrying many students and Mirth academy elders.

Within the wagon, Riss was opening carrying her new boots for everyone to see, while Rowen and Gina were already wearing theirs.

“Look at what my brother-in-law gave to me,” Riss bragged at Tordin and the others

Tordin looked at the matching pairs of boots of the three ladies, and despite looking similar from each other, they were designed a little differently.

“Miss Tofen, please quiet down, we still have a long trip ahead of us,” the elder who was responsible for watching them said.

The Mirth academy was in within Atef prefecture. From the academy, they had to cross 4 other prefectures to get to the edge of the wildlands. It would take them around two months by horse to get to their destination.

The wildlands were lands that was intentionally left unoccupied by the empire. Several beasts and bandits roamed around these lawless jungle, as this land was used to temper both young and old.

The deeper they went, the more dangerous it was. Beast of all kinds lurked within these lands, from ordinary wild beast to variant beasts.

Variant beasts were beast that could naturally absorbs world Qi as they grow. The older a variant beast was, the stronger their strength would be. Despite their potential, they were not the strongest among beasts. Variant beasts are subspecies of much larger beasts known as War beasts.

War beasts were ancient beasts that had gigantic bodies, many were taller than buildings while very few were larger than mountains.

The large birds that the Imperial family used were a type of War beast that the empire tamed and grew. They lived for thousands of years, similar to the peak cultivators of the world.

Fortunately, the barrier that protected the empire also weakened any beasts that was born outside the empire and thus most of the known beasts within the wildlands were either variant beasts or lower.

“Where’s my pair?” Tordin teased Rowen

“Huh? Why would you get one?” She snorted

-----

“I can’t believe I overslept!” Lia grumbled as her face sank down onto the table

Windle was on the other side while having his head down as he slowly ate.

“I feel ashamed as well… I was too worried about waking up in the morning that I couldn’t sleep early”, Windle confessed

“Why didn’t you wake us up??”, Lia complained

Teo showed a defeated smile and explained

“If I went to get both of you, I would’ve missed them too!”

Their plans were to see off their seniors who took care of them during these two years, but like excited kids on a field trip, Windle and Lia could not sleep early and when they eventually fell asleep, they could no longer wake up in time.

On the other hand, Teo didn’t sleep at all. He didn’t want to risk missing their departure so he stayed within the inner world the whole time. As his body rested, his mind was awake.

Lia and Windle felt regretful not being able to say farewell to their respected seniors. They also could not argue with Teo as they knew the importance of this day was to him.

“Oh right, these are your items I made for you,” Teo said as he pulled out a few items from his sack and placed them on the table.

For Lia, a pair of boots, chestguard, bracers, and shin guards and her sword. For Windle, a pair of boots, a full plate of armor, a helmet and the sword that Lia crafted.

All the armor except for the boots were done with inscriptions because Teo believed that currently this was enough for them. This would also minimize the risk of others knowing of his arrays.

Lia’s set of armor was very light and only protected specific parts of the body. Windle on the other hand focused a little more on the defensive capabilities, but despite having a full plate of armor, it was not thick and gave him a balance between protection and speed.

“Finally!” Lia’s spirit instantly livened up

“Thanks Teo”

“Thanks”

Aside from the boots, Windle had bought his set of armor with a year’s worth of salary, While Lia crafted most of her armor herself. Although they weren’t the best, they were quite decent.

She even offered Teo to make a weapon for him but he declined and chose to carry two short sticks with him instead. This was his weapon of choice. It was not because he was afraid to kill, but it was what he was most familiar with.

-----

As the days passed by, the trio finally moved on as the academy’s third year students.

After returning from spectating the first day of the ranking tournament, the group decided to hang out at newly restored flower garden within the central district.

“The seniors this year seem to be a lot weaker compared to senior sister Rowen and Gina,” Lia stated

Windle shook his head and said “It’s too early to tell, but it’ll be good for us if they are weaker”

They were preparing for next year’s free-for-all tournament, where students of different years can compete against each other. They were scouting the strength of the seventh years and below since they were their competition next year.

‘Isn’t winning the inter-year competition good enough?’ Teo thought to himself

He didn’t see the point of defeating their seniors who clearly was stronger than them. There were many students who chose peaceful careers in the future, but like the them, there were also some who chose the path of a combatant.

These people who took the path of cultivation or elementalism were resolved and put in effort into training. A difference in years would be a big disadvantage for them, and thus winning amongst peers of the same year was a better chance of coming up on top.

“We should plan our schedules to train together. Teo you have talisman classes in the morning right?” Windle inquired

Lia had already informed him that she had already roped Teo into their plans.

“Yeah, it’s quite a short class, it only lasts for an hour and a half”

“Good! Since Lia’s class is also in the morning, we can train together but do you guys want to attend the combat classes or just train in the martial faction on our own?”

Since the combat classes were not mandatory, they could choose to ignore it and train by themselves. With Gina and Rowen’s teaching, they already knew the basics of creating their own training menu, and the importance of self discipline during their training.

“Let’s check out the combat classes for a while, if it isn’t too helpful we can just train on our own”, Teo suggested

{Thank You! Merci! Sylvain R. for supporting this series}

[Author's note: This chapter marks the end of the second arc.

Also a notice, I am thinking of slowing down updates on RRL, as the only chapters I currently have are unedited, like this chapter. I wanted to finish the second arc so I posted this chapter even if it was mostly (95%) in rough form.

I take a few days off to form the general outlines of the upcoming arc as well trying to improve quality of these rough drafts as well. If I am happy with the rough draft, I am thinking of posting it on my website then once it's edited, I will post it on RRL.

Let me know what you think, the decision is not yet final as I want to hear the opinions of anyone he is reading my work. Feedback on the story/storytelling so far would also be nice!

As most of you should probably notice, I hate putting announcement chapters, and often only use the end of an actual chapter to announce things on RRL, more announcements on my website if you wish to know the decision I will be making after I read your suggestions. Thanks!]