Eldron entered his room. He was pretty tired from all the training because he couldn’t stop himself after seeing how Liam and Elius fought, and he overdid it. He realized his roommate wasn’t sleeping.

“Hey, today was pretty interesting. You should’ve seen it.”

“Hm?”

Neil raised his head slowly. He was also in pain because of the beating he got from his sister.

“Like what?”

“You know the redhead guy Jay recruited. He fought with someone, and it was pretty intense.”

As soon as hearing that, Neil frowned.

‘That readhead again?’

“Did you know he uses something like a staff? It was pretty similar to mine, but the only exception was he didn’t have a blade attached to it.”

Eldron was usually a quiet guy. Neil didn’t have any problem with him. On the contrary, he respected Eldron because, just like himself, Eldron didn’t have anyone to teach him and learned everything by himself. He didn’t seem interested in anything other than training, so Neil was comfortable around him but still didn’t consider him a friend yet.

“And his movements were so smooth. Can I use my glaive like that? Maybe he can teach me if I ask? Or even better, I wonder if I can join their team?”

“Uggh, you are pretty talkative today.”

Neil turned his back to him.

“Ah, sorry, I got a little excited.”

Eldron smiled and lay on his bed while thinking about new techniques.

‘It must be nice not to have to worry about anything. I wish I were a commoner. Ughh, I don’t want to join any teams. I can already see their fake smiles.’

They both had completely different concerns, and they went to sleep.

* * *

The following day, Liam opened his eyes at the academy’s infirmary. He literally had no wound, and the feeling of his arms was back.

‘Thank god.’

Liam breathed a sigh of relief. While checking his arms, he didn’t even realize the people who were chatting next to his bed. He curiously raised his head and saw Ruvyn talking with Elius’ friend. He was smiling, which was unusual for Ruvyn. He wasn’t comfortable around almost anyone except Liam.

“Ruvyn?”

“Hm?”

He turned around and saw Liam.

“Liam! Are you okay?”

Ruvyn asked with a concerned tone, but surprisingly Liam was fine.

“Yes, don’t worry.”

Then he pointed towards Ian.

“And who are you?”

“Ian. Welcome to the team.”

Ian answered casually.

‘Fuck, I completely forgot about that... Whatever, at least the leader is SS-rank.’

“Hey, what about Ruvyn? If he is not in, I’m not joining also.”

“Don’t worry, Jay accepted him too.”

After yesterday’s fight, when they brought Liam to the infirmary, Ian and Ruvyn had a chance to chat for a while. Then they realized that they were pretty similar to each other. Like how Ian ended up living with Elius, Ruvyn’s story was also like that. His family also disowned Ruvyn, and he got saved when he was on the brink of death by Liam and decided to live with him. So after hearing each other’s stories, they both felt closer to each other. So Ian let Ruvyn join the team too.

“Come on, get prepared. We are going.”

Ruvyn said to Liam while giving him clothes.

“To where?”

“To explore the empire!”

Ruvyn said with excitement.

“Huh? Do we have permission?”

“Elius went to talk with Mr. Idarin.”

“Ugh, fine.”

He began to prepare. Liam was also excited about seeing the city. All students from other cities came straight to the academy without stopping. So everyone was wondering how it was. But to get out of the academy, they needed a permit. Of course, the students who are already living in Sonio City didn’t need one. It was pretty easy to obtain a permit, but only after forming a team. There were no official teams in the academy yet, but Elius still went to Idarin’s office. He was about to barge in without knocking again, but before he could, the door opened, and two pairs of red eyes greeted Elius.

“Ah, it is you again.”

Neil said with an irritated voice.

“Again? Have we met?”

Elius asked but went in before waiting for an answer. Neil also had no intention to answer, so he went on his way.

“Mr Idarin!”

“Elius! Nice timing. I wanted to see you.”

“Hm? For what?”

“How can you be a mage and still fight in close combat?”

That was a question he expected to hear sooner or later. But he didn’t want to give information about chakra and Julius yet.

“I just do.”

He shrugged his shoulders. Idarin gave him a suspicious look but didn’t push it any further.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me, but why don’t you mix both of your styles? You can still use magic while doing close combat, you know.”

Elius awkwardly smiled and scratched the back of his head.

“Hehe, that is something due to not having to master an element yet.”

Idarin was surprised and raised an eyebrow.

“How come you haven’t mastered anything yet? Four basic elements should take only around 2 or 2 and a half years for an average wizard.”

“Yeah, I wanted to master all of them at the same time, so I gave equal attention to all instead of focusing just one. I’m a few weeks away from mastering the four of them simultaneously.”

“Wow, weird, so you are saying you also haven’t created any spells.”

“No, I still have less than ten nodes.”

Idarin facepalmed after hearing that.

“Do you know how to create a spell unrelated to any elements?”

“I guıess… In theory.”

“I’ll tell you this since I’m hundred percent sure that your father didn’t. To create a spell, you have to give a command to mana. Never forget, the mana around us is also alive.”

Elius seemed confused, so Idarin gave him an example.

“For example, let’s say you wanted to create a spell that enables you to control the objects around you. You have to tell the mana precisely that, and if it is possible to do, you’ll see the image.”

“I kind of get it, but doesn’t that mean I can create any spell that inner fighters can do?”

“Good question, but no. Most of the spells they use is putting a great toll on the body. You can’t use it unless you have mana inside your mana core.”

‘Wait, can I use them with chakra then?’

Elius nodded.

“I see, thanks, Mr Idarin.”

He got up and prepared to leave.

“Shit! I almost forgot, can we go to explore the city with my team?”

“Fine, take this.”

A pouch appeared on Idarin’s hand, and he threw it to Elius.

“Your father wanted me to give it to you, don’t spend it all at once.”

“Nice! Thanks.”

He excitedly accepted the silver coins.

‘Getting permit was supposed to be this easy? Whatever.’

He quickly went to the entrance where his teammates were waiting. Instead of stopping, he ran past them with a smile and shouted.

“Let’s go!”

They didn’t understand what was going on, but they followed him. The city was full of life. There were people everywhere. Elius began to enter every shop he saw one by one, wanted to taste every food he saw but managed to restrain himself. After a few hours of running around, they decided to eat something and saw a restaurant. The place didn’t seem too luxurious, so they went in. The inside smelled really good, they were about to sit, but Liam pointed out towards somewhere.

“Aren’t they prince and the princess?”

Nora and Neil were also there.

“Ah yeah, that’s them.”

After receiving confirmation from Ruvyn, Liam went to them.

“Hey, what’s up, prince and princess, want to eat with us? We are all schoolmates here.”

Then he sat next to Neil before waiting for an answer.

‘What the hell are they doing here?’

Neil’s mod immediately worsen.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

Neil said irritatedly. Nora was also feeling like Neil, especially after seeing Elius. For some reason, she felt furious as soon as she saw Elius.

“Yeah. What-”

Then she realized Ian, who was behind Elius.

“Come on, Neil, that’s okay. We are all schoolmates here.”

Neil was shocked after hearing that. She had a short temper, and one of the things she hated was being disturbed while eating.

“Yeeah! She is right!”

Liam shouted.

“Lower your voice, idiot.”

Ruvyn hit behind Liam’s head and apologized to them repeatedly. No matter how much Neil opposes, they sat with them anyway. Elius was constantly examining both Nora and Neil. A vein popped up on Nora’s forehead.

“What are you doing?”

She asked Elius.

“I’ve never seen a prince or princess before. You look so normal.”

“How did you expect us to look?”

“I don’t know. I just said I’ve never seen one. Are you strong? Are you rich?”

Then Elius gasped.

“Do you have people under your command? What are your powers.”

Before Nora could say anything, Neil sighed.

‘Another idiot.’

“Yes, yes, yes, and our father rules the empire, so take a guess.”

Elius’ eyes shone.

‘Woah.’

“Wait, did you just say yes to everything? Excuse me, but do you think you are strong? Hahaha”

Nora began to laugh. That made Neil embarrassed.

“O-of course I am. There is nothing that my katana can’t cut.”

Nora’s laugh got even louder after hearing that.

“Katana? Hey, my dad is also using katana.”

That piqued Neil’s interest.

“Huh? I already know, every katana user on the continent, how come I’ve never heard of your father?”

“I don’t know. His name is Wilbert. Actually, I’ve never seen him in a real fight, so I can’t tell how strong he is. Hmm.”

“No matter how strong he is, he can’t be as good as ‘The Demon’.”

‘Ah, here we go again.’

Nora rolled her eyes because he knew how much Neil admired The Demon.

“Who is that?”

“You don’t know?!”

Neil shouted.

“Okay, okay, I’ll tell you. He is the most potent katana user of our empire. In the war that occurred 16 years ago, he single-handedly wiped out almost 70% of the enemy force. But then, he disappeared. No one knows what happened to him. But the thing we know, he was almost as powerful as the legendary figures.”

Neil wore a proud expression.

“Damn, he sounds strong, and did you say legendary figures?”

“Ha? Don’t tell me you even don’t know about them? Were you living under a rock this whole time?”

Ian answered in Elius’ stead with a nod.

“Well, you could say that.”

Meanwhile, they had already finished their meal, and now they were having a drink. Liam and Elius both ordered lemonade. Liam had a sour expression since he couldn’t drink alcohol, even though he was a minor, which was normal for berserkers to drink alcohol at younger ages. That was his first time drinking lemonade. He reluctantly took a sip.

“What?! So good!”

That was the same reaction Elius gave inwardly. Liam quickly chugged it down.

“Hahaha!”

Then he grabbed his mug and threw it on the ground. The mug shattered with the impact.

“Another!”

Neil was watching all of this with his mouth open. But it didn’t end there. Elius must have liked what Liam did, so he also threw his mug.

“Another!”

Then both Liam and Elius began to laugh.

* * *

“I can’t believe you got us kicked from there.”

Ruvyn was shaking his head while walking on the street.

“I got it they kicked out, but why are we here, Nora?”

Neil snorted.

“Come on, that’ll be fun. It has been so long since we walked around like that.”

She said while trying to stay close to Ian. At the same time, Ruvyn was giving Liam and Elius a weird look.

“Don’t look at me like that. It is their fault not to know our traditions.”

That was Liam’s defense.

“What do we do now?”

Ruvyn sighed and asked the group.

‘Not doing anything with you anymore.’

Neil was about to tell Nora to go back. But Ian turned towards them.

“Since you grew up here, why don’t you show us around a bit?”

“Yes, let’s go!”

Nora quickly accepted with pink cheeks and led them throughout the city. She also dragged Neil with them, so they visited every corner. Nora was constantly close to Ian and trying to start a conversation with him. But their conversations didn’t last long.

‘I guess he is not a talkative type. Ahh! What a cool guy!’

That made her even more attracted to him. It was almost midnight now, and they spent the whole day together. But no one seemed to complain about that except Neil. No matter how much Nora dislikes Elius at first, she is started to like him after spending some time together. He was a fun and lively kid, and he seemed harmless. They were on their way back to the academy, and everyone seemed tired except Elius. Nora was holding Ian’s arm and walking happily behind the group, but Ian suddenly stopped.

“Huh? Is something wrong, Ian?”

Instead of answering, he turned his gaze toward an alley.

“Don’t you feel it?”

“Feel what?”

Neil asked irritatedly.

“The killing intent.”

Elius answered and quickly jumped the shop’s roof next to them. The houses and shops in the empire were at most two floors, so it was nothing to jump there. Since it was so dark to see anything, Elius expanded his mana and searched the area, then his eyes grew.

“That way!”

He pointed towards the alley, and Ian began to run towards there without hesitating.

“Wait!”

Nora blindly ran behind Ian. In a second, everyone was running towards the area where Elius pointed. Elius raised his hand, and a fireball flew into the air while illuminating the alley. Thanks to it, they were able to see what was happening.

There was a guy in black, and the only visible part of him was his eyes. He was about to stab a young-looking girl covered in wounds, but with the sudden appearance of a fireball, he got distracted for a second.

That slight hesitation was enough for Ian to interfere. He quickly entered between the man and the girl. Ian was very familiar with the clothing style of the man, so with a serious expression, He gave a sharp look. Unlike Ian’s expectations, the man chose to retreat, but the air got chilly while the man was putting some distance between them, and a wall of ice appeared behind him. He was about to change his escape route, but another ice wall appeared. Before understanding what was going on, the man got trapped in an ice prison.

“My turn!”

Liam quickly ran towards the wall Nora created and swung his sword. The ice wall shattered with a loud sound, and he also was expecting to hit the man, but there was no one. Elius quickly jumped next to the woman and used his low-level healing spell. Minor wounds immediately healed, but her pulse was so weak.

“She is poisoned.”

Ian said while examining the deep cut on her shoulder.

“We should take her to the academy.”

Elius carefully picked her up. She was looking young, almost as young as them. Without wasting any time, they began to run towards the academy.