Several days later.

All surviving water porters and their respective captains gathered in front of the platform, waiting for Paul.

A glance was enough to see that a quarter of the “Red horses” didn’t make it through the siege, and there were some people with gloomy expressions on their faces. However, most of the people here had similar, bored expressions on their faces.

Not only knights and mages that spent their days in similar routine, waiting for orders, ended up bored from similar actions day after day.

When Paul finally appeared, the crowd showed signs of activity, adjusting their postures and concentrating their glances at their commander.

Noticing that and their glances, Paul smiled before stepping on the platform.

“The 5th and 6th special have already started leaving camp several days ago with their personnel and equipment. You saw that yourselves, so, I will be frank,”

“You have time till afternoon, and should return prepared with your battle equipment and supplies.” Paul showed his sword, shield, and several bags with army supplies. “An order for relocation arrived this morning.”

Hearing his words, only a few of the eldest members showed no reaction, while others widened their eyes in surprise. Some even had doubtful expressions on their faces.

However, Paul ignored their obvious questions and continued his speech.

“Scout escort will pass through the local routes and they will accompany us to our destination in the expedition army camp,”

“By the way, leave carriages and equipment needed for water porters behind. We will travel light while other water porters will replace us and use our equipment,” said Paul, and immediately opened his mouth to answer an obvious question that appeared on their faces, “Don’t worry, we will get a new one when we will arrive at our destination,”

“So, gather all your things, feed your horses, and return in the afternoon. Scout escort won’t wait for all late-comers and they will have to travel themselves if they cannot come at the right time.” His glance moved at his subordinates. Though they were glad to hear such news and wanted to leave as soon as possible, nobody broke the line and waited for Paul to finish his speech.

“You may leave.” A smile appeared on his lips as he nodded, sending his people away.

As soon as they heard him, many “Red horses” members moved out, disappearing in different directions. They still had several hours till the deadline in the afternoon, and they wanted to make sure they finished all their deals and prepared for the march.

Only a few experienced and eldest water porters threw their aloof glances at the junior members that rushed out of here. They have long ago finished their preparations and stayed here to use this chance to exchange several phrases with captains and Paul.

Of course, Theo noticed that, but he had nothing to talk about with Paul or other captains, so he slowly moved out towards Edward’s temporary lab when Leonardo left, following the crowd.

...

..

.

A short time later.

“So, you leave this afternoon?” asked Edward. The alchemist quietly listened to his explanation while concocting pills. Only when Theo finished, Edward raised his glance and looked at the youth.

The youth nodded to his words.

“I see,” said the alchemist, releasing a sigh.

At the same time as the alchemist released his sigh, Theo also felt the reluctance to separate from this man in front of him.

“Looks like it’s our last meeting then,” A smile on his lips.

A dumbfounded expression appeared on Theo’s face when he heard him.

“I will leave the army in a week when my contract would expire. I and Maul will continue our journey further to the west,” said Edward, noticing his confusion and approaching Theo to pat the boy on his shoulder.

“It was fun to teach you, Theo,” said Edward.

Hearing his words and realizing that it can be their last meeting, Theo was quick to react.

“Thank you,” said Theo, taking a step back and bowing to the person who taught him so many things in alchemy.

Even though his first impression of him wasn’t particularly good, Theo changed his opinion about him later on.

His lessons helped him a lot in his just beginning alchemy path. Though Theo had an enormous amount of knowledge and wisdom about things related to magic, he felt deep gratitude for the person who helped him with his alchemy fundamentals.

Besides, he learned well what it takes to learn such enormous spheres like magic or alchemy. He knew it on his own example when he passed through many dangers and futile efforts just to learn new information.

So, he just couldn’t stop himself from thanking a wonderful teacher that helped him so much.

“Not at all,” said Edward, moving his glance at Maul." Maul, please give it to him."

At first, Maul made a doubtful expression on his face but smiled when he saw Edward nod once again and disappeared, leaving the room.

Theo also realized what would happen right now and wanted to say something when Maul returned with a thick book in his hands.

Theo’s brows rose when he saw that book.

It looked ordinary, was made of ordinary materials like paper and leather, but the youth’s attention stopped in the center of the book.

It was the diary.

It looked the same as those diaries Edward usually filled during his experiments, but looked older and was of a different color.

“This is my 1st diary. When I started learning about alchemy, I wrote my thoughts and detailed my alchemy procedures, writing different methods I used,” said Edward, noticing his surprise to clarify.“ It has all the basic practical knowledge about a pill concoction. However, there are also several interesting things there. At first, use my thoughts to improve your control over alchemy flame, create your first pill and only then move to different things, written there,”

Taking the diary from his teacher, a pleasant feeling appeared in his heart. Though such a gift might seem a small one, it was precious to Theo and very valuable. Theo knew Edward shared his own secrets with him when he tried to help him with control over the alchemy flame. Such a diary could have many more similar small secrets. Finally, he didn’t doubt that Edward gave him such gift from the heart and had no ulterior motives.

“Thank you,” said Theo, clenching the diary and once again bowing with his head. His long life and experience already proved to him how rare can be a small sincere gift. So, Theo memorized this day and would return the favor to his benefactor in the hour of need.

However, Edward seemed ready for that and stopped him from bowing once again.

“If you want to thank me, just become a famous alchemist, prove that you are worthy of my gift.” A smile appeared on his lips as he patted his shoulder.

“Besides, there should be several basic methods on how to make explosions. Try them when you get bored from medical alchemy,” muttered the alchemist while a fanatical flame started increasing in his eyes.

A concerned smile, anticipating the final blasting experiment, would have replaced a grateful one completely if not for timely help from Maul.

“Okay, Ed, don’t forget that he still needs to prepare. He can’t waste his time for participating in your sudden experiments,” said Maul, pushing Edward back to his table. “You still have work to do. So, you better continue working or we will be late for our ship at such rate,”

Several moments later, Maul returned to Theo with several pills in his hands.

“Hope we will meet again in the future,” said Maul, smiling and patting Theo on his shoulder “Here is my gift. Use them when you will be ready for your realm breakthrough. They will increase your chances,”

“Thank you,” said Theo, nodding and taking those pills. Though these pills weren’t so valuable as Maul thought they would be for the direct member of Freinos family. The youth smiled anyway. The gesture was much more important than the price or rarity of the gift.

“Not at all,” said Maul. “By the way, check that diary before you create your 1st puppet, there are several good pointers left in there.”

“I will,”

The puppet nodded before accompanying Theo out of their building for the last time.

...

..

.

At the same time as Theo bid goodbye to his alchemy teacher, another apprentice just returned to report to his master.

In the unknown territory, there was a man in a black cloak, sitting near the river on the enormous stone. All of his clothes were black, and only his brown-colored eyes attracted attention. It seemed as if he was meditating, sitting, and looking at the passing water. However, only a few people knew he was purposefully yielding, giving a chance for a surprise attack.

Such scene continued for several moments when a sudden shadow appeared from the man’s back. A swift sound of a dagger approaching the man’s neck and aiming into his arteries resounded, breaking the quiet scenery.

However, the shadow was too slow. The man just rose upper body, turned a bit, and dodged that dagger, disappearing and appearing behind the attacking shadow with his own dagger next to his neck.

“Another failure, my apprentice,” said the man.

The shadow that has just appeared out of nowhere released a tired and defeated sigh before transforming into the shorter version of the man in a similar black cloak and clothes.

“I have completed your orders, my master,” said the apprentice. “I delivered weapons and resources to slum groups. They were already in the right physical condition when I left them. They are ready now and would easily become a distract group in the hour of need.”

“Good,” said the man. “What else?”

The apprentice seemed to be reluctant to tell additional information for several moments.

“They almost stumbled on the local intel forces and would have ended up dead if not for my timely help. Though it’s just a vassal territory away from major centers, their intel forces can’t be looked down on. There are many experienced veterans there,”

“So what? I know about that, the Freinos city intel force is just too young and hasn’t met with our organization yet. They won’t even realize who is behind, thinking that another vassal territory attacked them.”

“I know, master, but I just wanted to ask why are we wasting our time and resources here when we can help the 5th prince, conquer the throne.”

“You are still young and don’t see the bigger picture. It’s already a question of time till our new master would become king. He doesn’t need us right now. So, we are busy, here, solving potential problems for him in the long term after he would become a king.”

“But, I still don’t understand.”

“Enough. You will realize everything at the right time. Now, you better concentrate on improving your skills.”

“I see,”

“Is it all that you wanted to report?”

The apprentice nodded to his words.

“You can have some free time then.”

“Thank you, master,” said the apprentice before bowing and disappearing.

When he felt the apprentice was hundreds of meters away from him, the man released a tired sigh, looking at the heavens.

“The 5th prince, I am waiting for that day, the day when you will complete your promise.”

“This is just a sample of what we can do in exchange for that.”