Over the course of a week, Hiro and the caravan traveled across Renton and drew further from the unexplored frontier as they approached the capital city. Aside from the first bandit attack that led to several casualties and quite a few injuries the caravan experienced no further disturbances.

Occasionally Noel would direct the caravan to a few towns or cities to sell the equipment they looted off the bandits or to sell and purchase some goods. Noel also took some time to introduce Hiro, Quinn, and Eris to the lords of these domains who were acquaintanced with their Father.

Through these interactions, Hiro came to learn that while his Father was a Baron, he was widely respected among the other nobles as a competent mage and leader. Supposedly he garnered a great deal of respect even among those of a higher peerage such as Viscounts and Earls, and in all likelihood, Baron Whitmore would likely see an increase in his peerage in the course of his lifetime being gifted large tracts of land.

Finally, after departing another city and traveling for a day the capital city of Liwein came into view. Noel who was sitting beside the coachman turned to Hiro and Quinn and said, “We’ll be dropping you two off at Academy first at the northeastern part of the city, afterwards we'll rendezvous with the Master at the markets with the young miss.”

“Where will you be staying?”

“The Master has naturally prepared accommodations at the southern part of the city. As for all the necessities you two will need, other than the clothes we’ve brought with us further accommodations have been prepared and should have arrived at your dorms.”

“I see”

...

As the caravan entered the city Edward and his mercenaries waved goodbye as they took their pay and parted ways. But before Edward disappeared into the distance he shouted, “Oi brat! Next time feel free to hire us again, we’ll even give you a discount!”

Then a mercenary beside him whispered into his ear and then he turned around and shouted, “Never mind they’re stingy, but I’ll give you a discount!”

Hiro waved back, and the rest of the caravan parted ways. The guards from the Whitmore Manor split off and escorted the cargo to the south while Noel and all the children made their way to the eastern district.

The East District of Liwen was a relatively large residential area with the northern part of the district being exclusively for the rich and powerful. And while there were a large number of people in the eastern district, the north part of the district was actually rather empty. Most of the residents of the eastern district were simply too afraid to head further north and the only ones you could see walking down those streets were either servants or armed guards.

As Hiro looked out the window he could see several large and elaborate mansions with beautiful gardens filled with all sorts of rare plants. There were also some rather plain mansions with simple decorations, but then there were also mansions that were extremely gaudy.

Hiro shook his head as they passed by one of such mansions which appeared to be almost coated entirely with gold. The front of the mansion also had several dozen sparkling statues of a naked man flexing his muscles constructed entirely out of gold and gems. And even though there were several barely clothed women cleaning the statue as he passed by Hiro noticed that these statues were actually coated by an extremely thin transparent barrier that kept them from even touching the statue.

Hiro couldn’t help but frown as he thought of what a waste this was, “To think someone would use so many rare metals for this…. I wonder just how many magic items could have been forged with all these resources. What a waste.”

Gold was one of the few non-magical ores that possessed the ability to conduct mana. I say non-magical because unlike magical ores such as Mythril, Gold is unable to store mana, but unlike Iron or Steel, it doesn’t inhibit mana.

Thus as a result gold’s natural conductivity, the rare metal was often mixed with other metals and magical ores to create special alloys one could use to forge magical items. This was part of the reason why Hiro’s previous armaments were mostly made of gold, even for a Hero it was truly too difficult to have a full set of equipment constructed entirely out of magical metals.

Soon enough the carriage reached a large gate guarded by two incredibly tall men in obsidian armor. Noel turned around and motioned Hiro and Quinn to get out, and as Hiro left the carriage he noticed that the guard's eyes were a blood red.

He walked up to them, and upon closer inspection, he noticed that these guards weren’t Human but instead appeared to be a type of golem. Noel turned to Hiro and said, “Take out the invitation.”

Hiro and Quinn nodded and pulled out the invitations they received slightly over a month ago. He held the invitation out in his hands and it slowly began to float over to the obsidian guard's hands. Suddenly as the letters lay in their palms they burst into flames and flew into the air as they formed two small fiery birds.

The birds flew in a circle in front of the guards, and as the guards, red eyes flashed with a red light the flames turned a crimson red and that flew down towards Hiro’s and Quinn's wrist. The birds' claws firmly grasped their wrists and despite being made entirely out of fire, oddly enough, they didn’t emit any heat in the least.

The birds slowly began to shrink and form a crimson around their wrists marked with some wings and a small magic circle. The obsidian guards spoke in a very deep and monotone voice, “These bracelets serve as proof of your admission, you may now pass.”

Hiro raised his hand and looked at the bracelet. Then he turned around and looked at all other children they brought with them and asked, “What about them?”

However, the obsidian guards merely stood where they were and continued to keep guard. Then gates before them opened, and a knight in silver armor and a red cape walked out,

“Don’t mind them, they’re only designed to guard the gates, they don’t possess the intelligence to do anything more than fight and recite anything that they’ve been programmed to say”

The Knight put his fist over his chest and saluted Hiro and Quinn, “I’m Owen, Magic Knight Instructor, I welcome you to the academy.”

Noel walked forward and similarly put her fists over her chest, “It’s been too long Captain.”

Owen smiled and walked forward giving Noel a hug, “Noel, ah it’s been too long! I assume these are your young masters and the new recruits?”

Noel nodded, “Yes, also among the recruits we have three suited towards being a mage, one fit to be a magic knight, and the rest can train to be squires.”

“I see,” Owen turned to Hiro and Quinn, “And what of you two?”

Hiro paused and thought to himself, “I think I’ll try out the Magic Knight curriculum.”

Owen laughed as he smacked Hiro’s shoulder, “That’s the spirit! Rise to the challenge! I just hope you’re up to the task.”

Hiro smiled, “I think I’ll be perfectly fine.”

Owen nodded his head, “And what about you?”

Quinn turned to Owen and said, “General Education.”

Owen's paused, “Eh, are you sure? Magic talent is usually hereditary, and even if you don’t possess your father's talent in the arcane arts with the Whitmore’s resources you can still become a competent mage.”

Quinn shook his head, “No, I’m sure.”

Owen scratched his head and looked at Noel. Noel was similarly lost for words, “The Holstein said they’re free to do as they please. It’s not really my place to tell them otherwise.”

Owen looked at Quinn, “Well alright, but if you ever decide to learn magic or if you ever want to learn to use a sword feel free to come to me. I’ll work some magic and transfer you to a different course.”

~

After Noel dropped Hiro and the rest of the kids off, she took the coaches and headed back south to meet up with the baron. After saying farewell Owen led Hiro and the children to their dorm with a few servants helping to carry the luggage.

The dorms were located to the east side of the campus being comprised of primarily several dozens of interconnected buildings about three stories high. Owen walked up to one of the caretakers and got them to lead all but Hiro and one other child to their rooms. Owen turned to the two of them and said, “For the two of you, we’ll get your examinations over with.”

Hiro tilted his head, “Examinations?”

Owen turned around and began heading towards the northern part of the campus, and as Hiro followed after him along with the other child who was selected to take the exam, he asked,

“We have to take an exam?”

Owen nodded his head, “The Academy is a royal institute whose funding is strictly managed by the royal house. Raising mages and knights alone is a massive expenditure that can only be accomplished due to the Kingdoms funding and generous donations from all the noble houses. It’s why we invite all the children from the noble houses to the academy unconditionally.”

“I see”

“However magic knights are a different story, the expenditures on raising Magic Knights alone exceeds the combined sum of mages and knights several times over. We simply can’t raise every noble’s child to become a magic knight, this privilege is something only given to the royal family. So to enter the Magic Knight curriculum one must pass an exam.”

“Ah,” Hiro nodded his head, “That makes sense”

He understood that raising mages and knights truly was an expensive undertaking so he didn’t argue with Owen. Instead, he quietly followed him to a practice field lined with scarecrows. There were already several children there taking the exams.

The exam was relatively simple. One merely had to hit a scarecrow with the strongest attack they could muster in front of the Head of the Magic Division, the Head of the Knight Division, and finally, the principal who was also the Head of the Magic Knight Division.

Hiro positioned himself in front of one of the scarecrows and turned to Owen, “I just need to hit this with my strongest move right?”

Owen nodded, “Feel free to use any of the weapons lying around. Just don’t use any magic scrolls or magic items.”

“I see. Ah, you don’t mind if I damage the surroundings do you?”

Owen laughed, “The practice range has been reinforced with magic, go all out!”

Hiro smiled and turned back around. A thin layer of blue covered his body and he clenched his fists. He took a deep breath and the almost all of his energy began to gather towards his right arm causing the light around his arm to turn from a blue to a white.

However unlike before the light wasn’t stationary, but instead it began spinning rapidly. The energy around his arm spun and spun and spun almost as if it were a drill while the remaining energy gathered around his feet. Suddenly Hiro shot forward like a bullet closing the distance between him and the scarecrow to a few feet.

He planted his left foot down on the ground and twisted his body releasing a powerful blow with his right fist. All the energy around his right arm spinning suddenly charged towards the center of his fist and as the light came into contact with the scarecrow it caused a massive boom as the scarecrow was uprooted and sent flying across the field towards a wall.

Suddenly, several magic circles appeared in the air flashing with a bright light in an attempt to slow down the broken pieces of the scarecrow. However under the force of Hiro’s blow, the all the magic circles collapsed allowing the fragments of what remained of the scarecrow to bury themselves into the wall causing a massive crack to appear and pieces of the wall to fall off.

The area before Hiro was also devastated as pieces of the ground were dug up and dirt was sent flying into the air as the scarecrow was uprooted and obliterated.

Hiro turned to Owen and asked, "So how was that?"