The crunchy steps of Nestor's bare feet echoed in the silent forest. Brown and yellow dried leaves were spread all over the ground, more were slowly falling from the trees as time passed.

A chill breeze, reminding him of the first months of autumn made Nestor turn rigid for a moment, his clothing wasn't adapted to resist the cold. He was shirtless and had only a simple pair of leather trousers.

'How bizarre, I can't feel the warmth of sunrays but this cold, it seems very real.'

Nestor had been walking for over a week or so, at this point. The deadly duel he should have experienced not that long ago started to feel like a distant memory.

This imaginary space generated by the mantra felt desolate and lonely, devoid of sentient life. Only the lush vegetation kept Nestor's mind busy all along. As an expert, for his time, in the scope of herbalism, he was very curious about what he could find here.

The earlier part of the forest was very lush and abundant, not only he found many herbs and trees from Earth, but also new strange plants he was curious about.

Still, he kept himself from ingesting anything foreign to him. For once he found a tall herb, its stem had the shape of a half moon and the leaves sprouting from it were long and slim. Along its body, there were also many flowers white and red, small in size and their shape reminding him of roses. At the far end of the plant, there was a blue, chalice-shaped flower, which inside was containing a strange colorless liquid.

Nestor felt very intrigued, thus he decided to examine it up close, just a small sniff and strong drowsiness affected him all of a sudden. To remain awake he had to focus for a few minutes until the unexpected effect disappeared.

'That was dangerous, I had never encountered such a dangerous herb before. Sure, deadly concoctions can be made through herbs like belladonna or the hemlock, but they still need to be ingested first.'

The raw strength of the herb's serum surprised Nestor, who now realized how reckless his curiosity had made him be. It was, in fact, best to keep his distance from striking, eye-catching plants like this one.

'Anyway, now that I have done it, I might as well take notes about this one. If I'd ever find it back in Ceres I'll be sure to collect it.

To be fair, I am not sure about how dangerous it truly is. I assumed it to be deathly poison since it affected me even without touching the liquid. But it could simply stop to its soporific properties, who knows...'

Nestor decided to name the strange liquid: Tamara's tears. It reminded him of a young woman he met long ago, she had been a patient of his. Of weak constitution, she was the daughter of a wealthy family in Florence and had recently married.

Nestor had been tasked to help Tamara survive her pregnancy, which had put an even bigger strain on her body. Together with other doctors and herbalists, they tried their best to assist her.

In the end, Tamara managed to give birth to a healthy child, she thanked everyone for their precious help and gave Nestor one of the few sincere smiles he ever saw.

Only a few months after, he came to know of the lady's demise. On a tranquil night, she silently passed away, amidst tears of joy for she fought and won against the odds, and of regret as she would leave her child without his mother.

Nestor kept walking facing the opposite direction of the cavernous system he came out of, leaving behind his shoulders a tall, steep mountain range.

Nevertheless, the solitude felt heavy, fortunately here seemed like he wasn't feeling hunger like in the real world. By eating a few of the plants he recognized he could keep on marching.

Still, his feet were hurting and in general physical, fatigue was very real, so much that he had to slow down. Another two weeks flew by, under his feet was only withered grass and barren lands, every so often an old dried tree trunk would differentiate the monotonous landscape.

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He was tired, at this point, there was nothing for him to do. Nestor could only keep walking, traveling towards the far end of wherever this was. At a certain point, he couldn't but question himself.

'Why do I even keep going? Nobody told me to come out of the cavern, explore the forest, and find a way out. Maybe I should just lay down and think, about what I've seen and done...'

Nestor slowly crouched on the hard ground, before completely lying down. He closed his eyes, and in his mind started walking backward between his memories. He felt at peace.

'I guess sometimes I must stop and pause myself. To look back at the path I've already traveled, the destination alone can't make the journey whole.'

Back on the training grounds, seven to eight hours had already passed and the rest of the trainees had finished their sparring.

Won and Brittney had their duel soon after Marco and Richard. They had been the quickest thus far, as Won obtained a striking victory against his opponent. He didn't use any supernatural power, while Brittney had done the same as Richard, she contracted a spirit and was capable of generating powerful water darts to throw at his opponent.

It had not been enough, as Won demonstrated incredible speed and agility, instantly closing in, threatening her life with a black, obsidian dagger pointed at her throat. He won the duel.

Cohnal and Frank were next, the tall, handsome elf arrived in the arena with such gracious movements that Frank doubted him being able to wield a weapon. However, as soon as Cole declared the start of the battle, an enormous battle axe appeared in Cohnal arms, making Frank's smiling expression twitch in annoyance.

A wild grimace twisted the elf's soft features, as Cohnal immediately started a crude, brutal charge against Frank.

"I concede!", without thinking twice Frank declared his intention of withdrawing from the duel.

"No! You can't stop me now! That's my prey right there! Get out!"

Mad screams of injustice were spewed out from the elf, ignorant of how bad that decision was.

"So you wish to fight more, good, good! I hope you didn't forget about the rules of the duel, giving up means that I will be automatically your opponent.

We'll do it like this, both of you against me, so that we'll make this quick."

Needless to say, the duo couldn't win against the Captain and had their arses beat hard enough to fall unconscious but still, they didn't report any serious injuries.

'Hehe! That's right, everything went well in the end. If you choose to fight Cole you'll report way fewer injuries, since he knows how to hit hard without injuring you that badly.'

As Frank thought about the salty bill Red would have to pay to get all healed, his smile widened as he dodged quite the bullet.

Won younger brothers were the next two up to duel. One could say that their duel's outcome might have been decided beforehand, but as long as they fought hard enough Cole was fine with the outcome. They both displayed outstanding martial prowess and ended up knocking each other out. It was a draw.

Green and Karla were to fight soon after. However, something unexpected came up this time, and Cole had to get back on his words shocking everyone.

'Damn it! Not Again!'

The knight was fuming with rage, so much he stomped on the ground with all his strength, leaving a one-meter (3'3) deep, perfectly shaped, footprint of his steel boot.

In the knight's hand was a black coin Karla had thrown him after declaring her withdrawal.

The coin was finely crafted, it had a perfect round shape with a hole in its center, and various letters were engraved around it. It said 'Of Ein Van Albert, grand noble of the eastern council. At the end of the inscription, was a small symbol, the laurel crown that represented the second Consul.

Having that coin meant you were able to convey orders to anyone below the rank of Commander, and Captain Cole was just below that.

The knight gritted his teeth and proceeded with the next duel.

'I swear one way or another I'll get to know why you're affiliated with them. Just wait, it'll get back at you for exploiting the nobles' authority in front of me.'

The knight's hatred for them ran deeper than what seemed on the outside. He may tolerate some of their policies and the insidious propaganda, but once they came and made direct contact with him something instantly snapped. Old memories came back at him, nibbling at his sanity.

The heavy bloodlust made the trainees cower in fear, anyone could feel the dangerous aura that the veteran knight emanated, for a beginner, it was no joke.

Yet Karla slowly walked up to him, her palm spread open, and her black eyes stared right at him, demanding the precious coin back.

However, at that moment she was imagining Cole as a dog on a leash, trained to be loyal to the council and respecting all the rules set to be by the higherups. But she was wrong, in Ceres, nothing was either black or white.

Yes, Cole was a proud knight that served under the Council to fight and protect it til death. But he wasn't a caged animal at their complete mercy, every officer of the army had some leverage on what they could and could not do.

To make them truly obey, sometimes, a written rule or agreement wasn't enough, only strength could bend their will on a whim.

Cole's crazed expression suddenly bloomed, and a mad grin stared at her as if mocking her previous pretense.

'Karla? Why? Has she finally gone crazy?'

Even Frank, who that knew her since they were little, couldn't believe her behavior. At the same time, every other trainee thought the same, even after seeing what happened to Red she still chose to get on the Captain's bad side. Was it truly worth it?

"You want it back huh? Come, take it from me if you can!"