Turns out that traveling for days is kind of boring. Specially since internet didn't exist. As Kira drove the carriage, Hiro tried to meditate to pass the time, but he couldn't. The carriage jumped every now and then, disrupting his concentration. Those weren't like modern cars.
Giving up the thought of meditating, he tried to strike a conversation with his temporary bodyguard.
"Instructor Kira, This King shall ask. You are very strong, right?" That was a question that he never was sure about. He heard that there was a way for commoners to become strong as well, instead of using magic, but he never asked what was it. He was pretty curious about it, so with a curious face, he asked again after receiving a nod in response. " Since you can't use magic, how did you became so strong? What is the commoner's way of power?"
"Cultivation." The instructor's rough voice sounded like lightning bolts in his head! 'Wasn't this supposed to be a world of magic? How can it have cultivation as well?' "We gather the energy present in everything around us and absorb it in our dantian. This energy is called Qi. With Qi, we can do a big variety of things. Cultivations also has many realms. The only reason magic is still the most powerful, is because cultivating simply takes too long." As he shaked his head while explaining a bunch of generic stuff, Hiro was busy thinking to himself.
'Could it be possible that This King's path to his throne isn't paved by magic? Was choosing to be a noble the wrong choice? No, that's not right, This King can still do the legendary dual cultivation! If This King cultivate magic and Qi at the same time, how strong will This King be? Could it be possible to fuse Qi and Mana?'
"How does one start cultivation?" He couldn't help but ask. Even if he had to tolerate another infodump, he needed to know where to start.
Kira looked at him for a second, wondering if he should answer or not. In the end, he sighed and took a book out of his pouch and gave it to him through the window in the front of the carriage.
"This has everything one would need to know to cultivate. You can read it on the way." Kira was not a talkative person, it seemed.
But since Hiro had something to do with his time, he gladly started reading. It was an interesting book titled "The secrets of Cultivation", it told tales of cultivators and the known realms, as well as how to cultivate and breakthrough said realms.
Through the journey, nothing else of notice happened. During meals, he would talk with Kira about his cultivation and how did he became his sword instructor. Turns out that he was an old friend of his father from when they were kids.
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Hearing about his father made him interested in the subject, so he kept asking about it during dinner. His father was a capable mage, stronger than average, but not higher then that. His father rank before death was B.
His father died during a mission. A mission is where a mage gathers companions to hunt monsters or take care of problems somewhere. He used to do B rank missions before Hiro was born, but after he got his heir, his mind was more at easy, so he decided to go for broke in an A rank mission. If he could become an A rank mage, his status would soar to the heaven!
Except for a few monsters, no one was able to reach rank S, so rank A is where the elite was! But the only way to be recognized as rank A is to fulfill a mission of that rank.
Hiro sighed hearing stories of his father. The man was a fool. He ran out to kill himself just after his heir was born. No wonder the family was in tatters.
"That's enough, This King will be going back to the carriage, don't mind me, This King will sleep there. It's more comfortable than a tent." He stood up and walked away, leaving Kira to take out the campfire they made to cook and warm themselves.
"Tomorrow we will reach our destination." Was the only thing the middle-aged man said before throwing dirt in the fire, putting it out. Hiro turned back for a moment and nodded. He was not in the best mood.
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The sun shined in the morning, and by afternoon, Magehold was in sight. And what a sight it was. It was marvelous. It had stone walls as high as a giant, making it look like a fortress, but it was simply too big. If Hiro had to say, it was almost as big as skyscrapers back in Earth!
The big wooden gate was open, and it had at least a dozen guards guarding it. As they walked by, Kira showed an emblem of some sort to the guards, and they nodded to him, letting them past.
And then it was the city. There was people everywhere. The ground was paved in stone and the houses and stores were all around. The houses were made out of stone as well. Making him wonder if it was all constructed by magic.
People of all kinds talked all around, making background noise he knew well from Earth. Everyone was clothed different as well. He could very well notice who was a noble and who wasn't. It was not that commoners had bad clothing or ugly clothing. It was just that nobles were simply too colored! That made him remember of something of Earth's history.
When dye was hard to produce, it was used as a show of wealth and nobility, the more colors your clothes had, the more wealthy you were. So that's how it is!
To be honest, he would prefer to use commoner's clothes, all those colors he saw in other nobles just made him have a 'fantastical' feeling. His clothes were not that colored, perhaps because his family couldn't afford too much dyed clothing. They were royal blue with little details of silver.
As he was looking like a country bumpkin in the street, looking everywhere in fascination, Kira tapped his shoulder and started walking ahead.
"Let's go, Young Master, we have a reservation at the Moonlit Inn. We have 3 days until the Five Stars Exam begins. After we get our rooms, i'll go register your name for the exams."
Hiro nodded with a smile. That meant he had at least 2 days to explore the city! He had a bit of money to spend, although he couldn't tell if it was a lot or not. He never bought anything since his birth, so he didn't knew the value of money yet. His pouch had the grand total of 5 gold coins.
'Side quest, explore Magehold city!' He really was a chuunibyou.