Eric and Orph went over to the commercial capital, a port town where trade was booming. It was an hour's walk away from the Capital city.

“You don’t have to come with me.”, said Orph while looking over towards Eric.

Orph hadn’t spoken much since he gave his name for this expedition yesterday.

“I know.”, replied Eric.

Orph continued to look over at Eric and then moved his sights away and sighed.

Yesterday.

Orph walked over to Dave in a hurried manner and Eric followed him.

“So, the cadets under Shine want to join me and help me in this noble task?”, asked Dave.

Orph nodded, and Dave looked towards Eric. Eric couldn’t meet his eyes, he looked towards Orph and saw his determined eyes again. It’s as if his powers also burned the fire in his eyes.

Eric put both of his hands on his face and replied,” Yes. Yes... I will.”

“Great!”, exclaimed Dave and put his hands on both of their shoulders while smiling.

Dave went to the middle of the expedition members and spoke, "So, here’s the plan...”

Present day.

And that was yesterday, Eric wanted to rest. Maybe help around in the orphanage. They did visit there before leaving today but Bk told them that it’s fine, especially with the new Duke’s men here.

And Eric knew that he couldn’t leave Orph alone, at least not for this.

They soon reached the commercial city. It was filled with people, way more people than the capital city had. There were ships in the port, and stalls on the street, and people looked happy.

“Are we sure we’re under the same King here?”, asked Orph.

Eric didn’t really hear him but was in awe.

“So, this is what a real city looks like?”, he thought to himself.

Orph pointed towards a restaurant and spoke,” We still have an hour left till the meeting time, let’s eat something.”

Eric nodded.

“Viscount left for his journey; will he be successful?”

“The King’s blessing has increased ever since the new princess has been found.”

“Tomato price increases as tomato farmers revolt.”

There were people selling newspapers, screaming out various different headlines in order to get people’s attention. They got Eric’s.

An old man clashed with Eric and woke him up from his inattention.

“I’m sorry.”, said Eric trying to pick up the old man.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Of course, you are!”, replied the old man with a smile on his face. Which made Eric fall back.

“Hey, what are you doing?”, screamed Orph who had already reached the restaurant.

Eric looked over at Orph and before he could say anything, the old man vanished as if he never existed.

Eric got even more confused, was his mind playing tricks on him? He looked over at Orph who looked as confused as him but for a completely different reason.

“Nothing! I’m coming”, replied Eric

Orph wanted to question what he was doing but he amounted to Eric being Eric, then they both went inside and found a place to sit. This was hard to do since the restaurant was filled with people but they were lucky enough to find seats.

They both ordered food, with Orph ordering a hefty amount and Eric just ordering a simple breakfast.

When their food arrived, Eric looked over to Orph’s plate and stared at it.

“What?”, asked Orph who caught Eric in full display.

“I need energy... lots of energy for my body to work properly.”, he continued and shrugged.

Orph then proceeded to eat all of his food as fast as possible leaving Eric in more awe. He was more surprised to see this than the city for the first time.

Orph finally looked over at Eric after consuming his food and spoke, ”This is the first time we really ate together outside of training or at Bks?”

He then chuckled and continued, "Your food is getting cold.”

It was getting cold; Eric hadn’t even touched his food. He never really ate much, especially compared to the other knight cadets. He was always the one to require the least amount of food. Made him the favorite of the cooks there. Although he didn’t know that. He didn’t even know how much food the other people ate.

Eric finally decided that it was time to stop admiring Orph’s attack on food and decided to finally attack his own. It was way gentler than anything Orph did in the past couple of minutes.

While Eric was doing the deed, Orph spoke, “You’re only bringing a sword with you?”

Eric looked up and replied, "Knights or Knight cadets aren’t allowed to use other weapons except for a sword.”

“You know that rule doesn’t make sense and I don’t think Knight Dave would mind.”

Eric didn’t really reply except to make a humph noise which annoyed Orph. The rest of their time there was mostly spent in silence.

“Let’s go, it’s almost time.”, said Orph breaking the silence. Eric nodded. It was time to begin their new journey. They both got up, Eric placed his hands on the table and wondered about what Orph said to him. Deep down he knew that he wasn’t ever going to catch up to them with just a sword, maybe he’d never catch up to them if he used all the weapons in the world at the same time but he had to try. He followed Orph but he couldn’t say anything. Maybe this journey would mean something for him too, except just being there for Orph. He however put those thoughts on hold as he got near the meet-up point.

“You guys ready?”, asked Dave.

Both Orph and Eric had determined faces. They both replied at the same time with a “Yes.”

And so, they started.