The bright light of the sun and the small breezes that flowed through the warm weather, hit Lucas' face in the perfect way, illuminating his hazel eyes, and brightening up his young face.

Experiencing the beauty of spring never got old. Even Batain, who had wanted to punch something after being held to his promise of taking Lucas with him, found the temperate weather refreshing.

That was, at least, until he looked back and saw Lucas once more and wondered why he hadn't just said no to the kid.

The two rode in a magic carriage which Lucas studied to distract himself. It actually worked quite similar to cars from Earth. One infused mana within a mana-conserving canister, and inserted that canister into the carriage. Then the mana would constantly clash with itself, exploding, causing the carriage to move forward.

The design was still crude with steering being basic but it was still quite commendable in Lucas' eyes, at least for its ingenuity.

After about half an hour, Batain frowned., turning to Lucas who was making his fourth round examining the carriage with his mana sense. "We're gonna stop at a friend's house. Just don't do anything unless I tell you to."

Batain was supposed to be going on a trip to the Southern Lourree Mountain Range, specifically a village calledd Heussel. Well, actually the range extended quite far, reaching the lands of the Vusals but it was typically separated into chunks that depended on other geographic locations.

The Lourree was a river that stemmed from the mountains and cut west through the northern Kingdom of Westreau and western kingdom of Westermel, into the ocean. Batain was moving to a particular mountain in the range, south of the river, hence the name, the Southern Lourree Mountain Range.

This trip wasn't just for fun either. He'd been tasked with getting some various metals and ores within the mountains though he could play around on the way there. Given that he ignored Regis' challenge, this was his new duty to the family. It was somewhat of a pain in the ass but much less so than having to actually administrate land, and formally compete with his peers.

'That piece of shit Leroy doesn't do anything, why doesn't he do anything about him?' Batain lamented his role in the family. Regis never bothered punishing or dealing with Leroy, his oldest son, despite the fact that the man often completely disappeared for months, and never contributed to the family.

This internal whining only lasted a few seconds. In reality, while these were annoying to deal with, often, they were also opportunities for him to do something. He'd been a mercenary for quite a while, over a decade, and he had nothing to show for all that time besides a few scars. At least here, he could help his family.

Lucas complicated things though. His 'missions' were always somewhat dangerous with various bandits and brigands hiding around the less protected areas, so he typically went alone. Bringing the kid with him would only make things more of a hassle.

Honestly, what was this kid's mother thinking? He'd thought Emelie to be pretty intelligent and strong-willed, and then she disappoints him like this, letting her son go with him on some random trip.

What happened to that uncouth barbarian who would've hurt your son?

Utterly ridiculous.

Still, at least she was right in one thing. Lucas needed protection. Batain served as one form of that, getting rid of any threats but just in case, Batain had sent his friend a letter. Once he'd finally gotten confirmation a week later, he'd set off and Lucas followed.

The two quietly observed the scenery, Lucas subconsciously realizing how it refreshed him. It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, at least in his other lives, but it was nice.

Soon enough, they arrived at a small house. They'd past a couple small houses and even a few villages but it became quite clear this was where they'd stop.

The house itself looked normal; it was everything around it that made it too strange. The house was small, and appeared to be a hunting cabin at first glance. However, the cabin had a metallic top that was somewhat reminiscent of a solar panel, with cartoonishly short fences that even a squirrel could hop over. To top that off, sitting on the steps to the cabin was someone who Lucas could barely see.

Turning onto the small trail towards the cabin, Batain stopped once they reached the fence, hopping off the carriage with a grunt. Lucas finally got a good look at the man.

He had dirty oily pale blonde hair completely different from the more regal tones of Lucas' family. This hair only barely covered his gaunt face. The man could be considered vaguely handsome if he took care of his appearance but judging by his equally dirty and extremely lean frame, he didn't do himself that liberty at all.

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He wasn't simply skinny though; he had quite a bit of muscle packed on. He just had no fat on his bones to soften his physique. To add onto that, he had long limbs, making him appear like a particularly popular image of a monster back on Earth.

"Hey, Enzo", Batain shouted at the man sitting on his porch.

The man had been looking at them the entire time but upon hearing his name, he nodded at Batain. "Oh, Batain. By the old empire, how are you?" His voice was relatively smooth considering his appearance but it still held a bit of rust to it.

"Living as much as she does." Batain rolled his eyes when saying this. However, Enzo nodded, getting up, and walked over to where Batain stood. He stopped just before the fence and touched it.

Suddenly, the seemingly normal metal fence lit up a bright yellow before going back to its dull metallic silver. He looked back up at Batain, his light blue eyes slightly flickering as he tried to focus on the man. "Is that the kid whose dagger you asked me to make in the carriage?"

Batain blankly stared at Enzo for a second before responding. "No, that's actually the random kid I brought with me for no real reason."

Enzo seemed to stare suspiciously at the carriage until his eyes briefly glinted in understanding and narrowed in annoyance. "Do you have to be so rude?"

"Only if you waste both of our time asking me dumb questions. And you can curse as much as you want. The kid doesn't care."

Enzo side-eyed Batain while opening the miniscule gate that opened up to the cabin's property. "Call him in."

Batain turned back for a second to shout to the carriage. "Lucas, let's go."

Hopping out, the boy stretched his legs before following Batain into the house. Entering, it was unsurprisingly a mess. It managed to accomplish the grand task of being worse than Batain's room though of course, this was because Batain was limited by the fact he was living in a mansion with other people. He couldn't make too bad of a mess or he'd get kicked out. It'd already happened once.

Upon closer look though, most of the mess wasn't just casual stuff like Batain's clothes over the floor but bits of metal and wood.. and thennnnn you had the casual waste of food, and the stains on the wooden floor.

By the time Lucas entered, Batain was already sitting down on a chair while Enzo was nowhere to be found. Lucas would've picked a chair to sit on too had the abnormally lean man not returned from what seemed to be a cellar or some sort of underground floor.

"Here."

Lucas stared for a brief second at the dagger he was offered, before looking up at Batain who had stood up and walked towards them. Batain nodded warily back at him.

Lucas grasped for the dagger, almost anticipating something similar to what had happened with the saber he'd held. The silence and lack of anything special weaseled its way into his mind, while Batain let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Enzo, however, frowned. "You taught him how to use a mana amplifier, right?"

"No- yeah I did." Batain resisted the urge to respond with sarcasm to the question. By that point, he'd be the one wasting their time with his snark.

Enzo's frown deepened at the sarcasm that would've been sure to come had Batain finished his initial sentence but he didn't comment on it. "So why isn't he doing anything?"

"You haven't told him to do anything."

"It's his weapon. What kind of idiot doesn't try out his weapon?" Enzo's passion in the rhetorical question was truly unmatched but it only deepened Batain's frustration. Enzo was a blacksmith he came to, often, just in case he wanted something. The two weren't really friends, usually just business partners.

Ignoring the man, he turned to Lucas. "Throw a little slash at my hand. Doesn't have to be good."

Lucas frowned but obliged, not saying a word. He readied his mana before infusing it into the dagger and fusing it with the mana already present there. Using his hold over his own mana to control the entire thing, he forced it out of the dagger, feeling the oddest sensation.

He would've felt it back when he used Batain's saber had he been conscious back then, but it was very apparent to him here. His mana was being expressed as fire by the sword itself!

This didn't mean he lost control of his mana. Rather, it was like he was in a symbiotic relationship with the weapon, with each able to use each other's mana as they pleased. Of course, it wasn't that complex. The dagger wasn't sentient, and it relied on Enzo's blacksmithing to do such a thing.

Shooting out a blast of fire inside the small room, Lucas looked on as it collided with Batain's hand and then disappeared. It was a skill Batain had been trying to teach him in private.

The reason people didn't use mana sense on others wasn't just because people could notice it and they didn't want to be rude. Well, to be fair, that was one of several reasons but one large one was due to mana cloaking. If mana sense was sending out an incredibly thin sheet of mana to explore your surroundings, mana cloaking was doing the same but holding it around your body.

There was very little point in using mana sense on someone who was mana cloaking unless your mana quality was simply so high to the point it couldn't even be considered the same substance as your target's, in which case it wouldn't really matter if they had a mana cloak at all.

The point remains though that in order to prevent people sneakily using mana sense on you, a mana cloak is the best option. This was the same concept Batain was using.

The slash of fire that Lucas sent out at him was fire created from Lucas' mana. Batain simply collected his mana into a barrier in his hand, protecting it from harm.

Lucas understood these concepts but still had trouble applying it. It was difficult to, considering that he had to practice in Batain's room. Though it was still under suspicion because of the golden pillar, it was still better than practicing where everyone could see him.

Enzo nodded, before turning to Batain, still nodding.

Batain merely shrugged and turned to Lucas, telling him to get back in the carriage. About to follow suit, he opened the door.

"You've got a child of Empre as your disciple, you know that?" Enzo stopped him.

Batain snorted, ignoring the question. "Would you like some more bazals or should I get you some more ores?"

Enzo shook his head.

"Then get off me."

Enzo continued shaking his head, though he let Batain go. The third son of Regis walked back to the magic carriage and started it up again. "Fucking conspiracy theorists", he grumbled before driving off.