We walked through the orange landscape in a straight line, 2 hours since we set out and people are already complaining about the cold…

Those guys wouldn’t last a second against the Winter Congregation.

The students in front of me started whispering quietly “Why did the teacher call the hadohians devils? Isn’t the king trying to get rid of the prejudice against them?”

I glanced back and red-hair, he seemed to be deep in thought.

I wonder what he thinks about his father’s new policy.

A squeaky sound next to me drew my attention. Lucky jumped onto my shoulder and made me lose balance for a quick second.

“I forgot about you buddy… My bad.” I whispered to him as I patted his head.

Unsurprisingly, my black furred companion drew in everyone’s eyes when it made a sound, I guess nobody noticed it walking with us before?

“W-where did the killer find a cat?” One of the girls behind me said.

“Is that a cat? I’ve never seen one before!” Her friend responded “It is! I saw one when I went to ‘Marketplace’ with my family.”

“SO CUTE!” They both said together.

I picked Lucky up from my shoulder and held him in my arms. Annoying, snotty, rich ‘upper’ brats.

“Gehh… did you just feel that cool sensation on your skin, Marina?”

“Giiiii, yes! That was scary, let’s get away from this freak.”

The boys around also took some interest in the cat after noticing the attention Lucky received but it seemed to be more… Opportunistic in a way.

I also noticed the gaze of 2 people I haven’t really run into that much in school.

Thompson and that fucking bald… I guess now that I look at him, Roger kind of resembles a Smidgeball, if he didn’t have a human body. Just give him sharp teeth and a horn and he’s a stone eating ball.

I guess those 2 guys are friends? Things kind of make sense now, it was probably this Smidgeball’s job, making Thompson come at me and it was probably due to a scolding from red-hair that the guy left me alone.

It’s probably safe to assume Sophia told red-hair about the whole thing.

The cold increased as we arrived at the walls of Guardian, there was a unique smell of rotten fruit and burnt oil in the air, the brick road was covered in black spots.

“Are those celentra figs? I guess the winter is almost here, huh…?” A guy with a jacket tied to his waist and a chain tied to his wrist mumbled from ahead of me.

Celentra figs? Is he talking about the black spots on the ground? I guess they do resemble rotten, stepped on fruit… I wonder what they taste like, hopefully better than the smell.

“Woah the gates here are made of marble? And the walls are so big!” A voice from the front of the row said.

“If you look closely, you might notice the black shine on the gate as well.

The reason for that is that the gates are covered in burnt Frolcish oil, when a Frolcish dies, it secretes a type of oil that, when burnt, becomes a strong attraction for wild animals. It works as a reproduction system for wild Frolcishes as the oil combines with animal poop to create a new egg!” Zick said, sounding very proud, what a surprising development for his character...

Frolcish? I wonder if Lucky would want to eat one…

“Aren’t Frolcishes very small though? How many would it take for the entire gate?” One girl asked.

“Well, those little rabbit-frogs may be small but each one of them contains quite a lot of oil. About a 100 or so is what it takes from what I recall.” Zick responded.

“As for what the gate is made of, it is made of a type of stone that is used exclusively by the military of Rintiya. White flextone, it resembles marble but the white flextone is a very flexible yet very sturdy type of stone, it is used in many military facilities and contraptions.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The students excitedly whispered about the incredible sophistication of the architecture on display.

The wall had short branches and green leaves sprouting all over “Why does the wall seem like it’s made out of wood though…? Ohhh is that sweaty wood?” I mumbled to myself.

It seems I spoke a bit too loudly as everyone including Zick turned to me with surprised expressions.

“Well well, if it isn’t the infamous Lifes. Right you are, care to explain how you reached that conclusion? It seems the rest of your classmates are a little confused” Zick asked me. Clearly he’s taking his vengeance with this request…

“Can I refuse…?” I asked.

“Not really.” He responded.

I wonder what he means by that, what would even happen if I refuse? Whatever I might as well just cooperate.

“W-well, I’m assuming everyone knows about this type of wood that’s called sweaty wood, right? it secretes this substance that’s similar to sweat when the temperature around it rises…” Everyone nodded around me, apparently too curious to realize they wouldn’t normally listen to me.

“I just happened to run into this phenomenon once when I was on a hunt, me and my friend brought some sweaty wood from one of the dead trees around us and when we tried to light it on fire” Zick let out a whistle “Big mistake…” He added.

“Right, a big explosion went up into the air and our fire went out immediately after.”

They all started whispering about the information, one was asking why would you want explosive wood on your walls.

“My friend later found out that the explosion does not harm the tree itself, the vaporized sweat only explodes outwards and only when it comes into contact with flames.

That’s about everything I know…” I concluded.

“Right, as Lifes here said, sweaty wood explodes when it is set on fire. It is worth mentioning that the wood has to be somewhat fresh for this to happen.”

Zick stopped and turned to us again with his hands on his hips.

“The walls are made like that, obviously, as an offensive-defensive system but, with what I said earlier in mind, can someone tell me the biggest flaw of this system?”

The prince raised his hand and received permission to speak. “Might it be that the wall is dysfunctional after the first activation?”

“Spot on! Like the young Hyland said, this wall is basically just a vulnerable wooden wall after the sweat explodes once, meaning, if the enemy tries to burn the wall once, the entire thing needs to be replaced with fresh sweaty wood.

In theory that is.

You see, inside Guardian, we have a special artifact with a Seal that rejuvenates natural substances, we also use a special watering technique with rejuvenation stone powder and the sweaty wood is completely functional again!”

The proud instructor had a wide smile on his face as he turned and walked into the now open, white flextone gates.

One of the guys next to me glanced in my direction and averted his eyes right away before approaching Zick “I-I know he just gave us an interesting explanation and all that but, should you really reveal all of those secrets when… ‘he’s’ here, instructor?”

I was wondering if someone would bring this point up…

The other students realized they were acting amicably towards me and started backing away and whispering about their mistake.

One of the girls requested the other students' attention while looking at Zick who nodded in response “I know all of us have heard about the fall of Slayer, it was a group of brainwashed children who had been convinced they were doing the right thing!” What?! How did they get this information? And who are you to imply that we weren’t doing the right thing?!

“Maybe we should give Lifes a second chance? He even said he had a friend who figured out how sweaty wood works, isn’t that really incredible?”

“What is she talking about? Those murderers should all be executed and forgotten…” One guy said.

“That friend was probably a hug-” I couldn’t bear to listen any longer.

This piece of trash who was about to shit talk Snoopsi, my eyes were focused solely on this waste of air. The voices around me grew vague and distant and I slowly walked towards the guy who drew out his sword and backed away.

His forgettable facial features turned into a vague, dark, circle with 2 slanted lines in the middle and an upside down half crescent at the bottom.

The vague figure in front of me fell to the ground and started crawling backwards.

Someone put a hand on my shoulder and I was about to break his fingers but before I could even reach his hand my entire body got pulled down by some force, my face hit the bricks and I realized there were now 4 guards with their spears aimed at me as Zick held me down with his Seal.

The sounds of coughing around caught my attention as some students around me fell down, holding their chests while struggling to breathe.

“Calm yourself. Right now!” Zick said.

I took a deep breath and my body slowly cooled down, the pangs of pain in my chest became clear and agonizing.

Everyone walked into the city and left me laying down on the bricks, panting.

I looked up at their terrified faces and the one that stood out the most was the prince’s. It was more so the lack of expression that stood out, he took an uninterested glance at me and turned away.

Zick used his status as a former captain of guard to calm the guards down. He looked at me as I was getting up on my feet and sighed deeply.

In a swift motion, the instructor climbed over a small stage inside the fortress and turned towards the rattled students.

“Welcome to the circle of defense, the fortress city of Guardian!” Zick announced.