The soldier gave Gust more than a few extra pats, then grabbed Gust’s bag and upended it. Some props, a few smaller bags of food, money, and other miscellaneous items dropped out. However, there was nothing of note.

The soldier shoved Gust’s bag toward him, then ordered, “Clean your stuff up and go.”

After checking all of the passengers, as well as all of their personal belongings, they still hadn’t found a Holding item.

At this point, even Sir Rosenthal didn’t have an excuse to detain the travellers any longer. Although the Conarite Kingdom didn’t care for the Shylock Trading Company, Mark and the rest of his family had a good reputation - it wasn’t as if they could detain them indefinitely without repercussions.

And so, he addressed Mark. “Thank you for your participation. Tell your people that they now have access to the rest of the fort.”

With that, he left. Once he was out of earshot of Mark, he motioned toward one of the mages, who dashed to his side.

“How long can you keep up a detection spell going?”

“Between the five of us, we can keep a detection spell strong enough to cover the fort for two to three hours at a time, but we would need a full day to recharge our mana after that.”

“Hmm. Keep detection spells running as long as you can, starting at midnight.”

“Yes sir.”

Happy to have been freed from the soldiers, the travellers left the wagons and headed into the other regions of the fort.

Fort Rosenthal, being the main military camp protecting the Conarite Kingdom from the Kenta Kingdom, was quite large, and was more like a small, military-centric city.

Wesley and Gust. like the rest, had left the wagons in search of food.

After walking down some streets, Wesley suddenly tugged on Gust’s arm. “Hey Gust, I wanna eat there.”

“Hmm?” Gust looked in the direction Wesley was pointing. It was a restaurant, two stories high, and looked...very expensive. Furthermore, the aromas that escaped from the front doors were...enticing, to say the least.

“No.” Gust firmly grabbed Wesley and walked away.

Eventually, they ended up at a food stall in a food market. This stall specialized in sausages, and the two gorged themselves on all sorts of mystery meets.

When they were done, Gust paid the bill, then frowned. He really didn’t have much money left. Then, he looked at Wesley, and sighed.

Truthfully, he didn’t really believe that delivering Wesley to the Reiniad Kingdom would gain him 5 million gold coins. As for why he was willing to help… he had an idea why, but he wouldn’t admit it.

Well, not that it mattered. He’d already made his decision.

Without money to rent a room for the night, the two made their way back to the wagons and slept aboard the wagon as usual. Kyle, Jen, and Alex weren’t there, presumably they had rented a room for the night.

However, not everyone’s night was so very simple.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Mark had mysteriously become ill, and had announced that he was unable to lead the caravan to the Kenta Kingdom. This responsibility would be assigned to another member of the Shylock Trading Company.

As for whether or not he was really ill, only he knew.

Sir Rosenthal and mages had spent the entire night looking for a trace of the whereabouts of the chaos gems.

But of any person in the fort, Wesley had had the most eventful night. Although it seemed as if he was sleeping peacefully, he was having a unique experience in his dream world.

He was flying through the air, next to an elderly man who was dressed in a simple but elegant light-blue robe, similar to the ones he had seen his father wear in the past.

Although Wesley was sure he’d never seen the man before, he somehow knew the man’s identity. The man’s name was Thomas, his teacher. It was Thomas who was leading him through the air—even in this dream, he was not capable of flight.

“Wesley, are you listening to me?”

“Yes, teacher.” The voice was his, but at the same time, not quite right.

“Alright, well don’t doze off again. As I was saying, we’re nearly at Fort Rosenthal. It will be the first place you’ve set foot in other than Affile Village. How do you feel?”

“Hm.”

Thomas sighed. This new disciple of his clearly had enormous potential, and his disciple had already learned everything he could teach him regarding writing spells. Perhaps it would be at Fort Rosenthal that his disciple would learn how to draw his first seal. However, his disciple’s disposition was just too cold.

A few minutes later, the two descended before the front gates to the fort.

Wesley’s gaze settled on the fort’s walls. Even the tallest houses in Affile Village were but two stories high. However, the fort had stone walls that reached over thirty feet high.

Thomas saw Wesley’s gaze and smiled. “Tens of thousands of soldiers and their families live here. Even so, it’s a rather small place. For example, the capital city of your Pooles Kingdom houses almost a hundred thousand people. Quite amazing, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It is.”

…

The scene changed. Wesley was still with Thomas, but now they were in a room they had rented for the night.

Thomas quickly drew a seal, then left it unactivated for Wesley to examine. “This is the seal for a basic spell, icicle shot. When mages who specialize in ice magic are first taught how to use magic, this is one of the first spells they learn how to write. It’s also one of the easiest to draw.

“Now, even the simplest seals are rather complicated, so it’ll be better if I draw it on a piece of paper for us to examine in further detail.”

Thomas quickly drew the seal on a piece of paper, then began explaining it in further detail to Wesley.

“Now, this seal has five sections that determine the properties of the spell. Most basic spells will have five sections, whereas more advanced spells will have more. If you think of a seal as an equation, the sections are variables that can be changed, mixed and matched, to create new spells. Now…”

The explanation carried on through the night. Eventually, the first rays of sunlight could be seen through the room’s window. As Wesley noticed this, the scene in front of him faded away into oblivion.

With that, Wesley woke up. He sat up, then blinked his eyes. Still dark. Unlike in the dream, he still didn’t have his sight.

He raised his hand and began to draw the seal that Thomas had taught him in his dream. Strange as it was, despite being unable to see everything else, he could somehow see the outline of the seal in the neverending darkness. After just a few seconds of drawing, he swiped his finger across the seal and activated it.

An icicle shot out from the seal and punctured the roof of the wagon, causing a great deal of noise.

“What the hell was that?” Gust instantly woke up, floundering, and saw the hole in the roof. “Oh shit, we’re under attack! We’re under attack!”

He picked his bag and Wesley up, one in each arm, and ran out of the wagon, yelling at the top of lungs that they were under attack. Wesley didn’t know what to even say.

Before he knew it, the travellers who had stayed in the wagons that night had congregated around the last wagon, and Gust was expounding a story in which he had chased a knife-wielding assassin from the wagons in a heroic act of defense.

‘I guess it’s too late to say that it was me, huh.” he quietly muttered to himself.

What Wesley didn’t notice until later, was that the seal that hovered above his mana pool had changed. One small portion was no longer black, but brimming with mana.