A few hours later, the sun’s first rays of light could be seen on the horizon. The caravan’s survivors were huddled around a mound of bodies that, just a few hours ago, had contained the miracle of life. After a brief burial ceremony, Mark turned around to address the survivors.

“Alright everyone, it’s time to get a move on. Gotta keep living. Chop chop.”

Many headed for the wagons, but those who had lost their friends or family spent a few more moments to grieve. Regardless, after a few moments, they too, left to continue their journey.

But the wagons felt strangely empty.

Wesley quietly sat next to Kyle, Alex, and Jen in the last wagon, while Gust was nowhere to be seen. In fact, they hadn’t seen Gust in the last few hours at all. They would have assumed that Gust had died during the attack, except they’d seen him rummaging through some of the boxes on a wagon just a few minutes after the fighting subsided.

Wesley, however, had more pressing things to deal with than Gust’s location. He was sure that Gust was in the caravan still, and that was enough.

Over the last few days, he’d lost his family, made a new ally, and had taken another life for the first time. In the spur of the moment, he’d lost himself in his emotions, as any other kid would have.

But he wasn’t just a normal kid. Given that mages bodies are continuously nourished by their mana, their brains were generally more efficient and powerful than that of most non-mages.

Thus, they learned, “grew up”, and “matured” much faster than ordinary children. Unfortunately for Wesley, he wasn’t any more mature than a typical kid of his age, as he had been pampered by his parents and had only recently formed his mana pool.

But last night, he’d been too calm. Even he could understand that something was wrong - it was as if he’d already gotten used to death surrounding him. Even now, as he was surrounded by those grieving for their lost family and friends, he didn’t feel a shred of sympathy. As such, once he’d been helped into the wagon, he’d immediately sat in the corner and started meditating.

Meditation was the first thing that was taught at every elementary institute of magic, even before the simplest spell or a single bit of theory. Proper usage allowed a mage to better assess the capabilities of their mana channels and mana pool, a necessity to gauge one’s combat power so that one wouldn’t overuse their mana, which could lead to incredible exhaustion or even death.

Of course, it carried with it the normal benefits of meditation, amongst which was a calm mind to allow for better logical reasoning, which was what Wesley current desired.

Before he could concentrate on working out his thoughts regarding the last few days, however, Wesley was immediately shocked by what had happened in the region of his mana pool.

A magic seal with nine individual layers, with the highest layer being the smallest and the lowest layer the largest, had appeared in the area above his mana pool. However, instead of glowing with mana, the seal was pitch black and dormant, almost as if it were...dead?

The more Wesley thought about it, the more confused to got, so eventually he gave up, and simply concentrated on his initial issue.

An hour later, Gust jumped into the wagon, looking a little disheveled, but with a bright smile on his face.

Kyle waved toward him and asked, “Where’ve you been? We were about to steal Wesley for ourselves! He looks so cute when he’s concentrating like that!”

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WIth that, he glanced over at Wesley.

Gust looked over as well, and smiled. “I’ll sell him to you!”

Clearly sensing that the other was joking, Alex decided to play along. “How much, good sir?”

“5 million gold coins!”

Alex put a hand over his chest and gasped. “5 million! Do you think I am so easily swindled? By my honor, I will fight thee!”

Gust laughed and sat down. “Aha! I spit upon thy honor. Taste my blade!”

The two continued their role-play, and accompanying laughter sounded out from the last wagon.

…

Mark was sitting in the caravan’s first wagon, deep in thought. Most of the wagons held the usual stuff people would expect from a merchant caravan - food, clothes, and tradeables.

However, two of the wagons held multiple crates of chaos gems, which were strictly military supplies. In fact, in the Conarite Kingdom, chaos gems were controlled in a very strict supply chain. The gems were excavated, cut on-site, engraved with seals, and then transported directly to a secret underground facility where they would only be brought out in times of war.

However, an agent of the Kenta Kingdom had contacted Mark - apparently, some of the guards who worked at the underground facility were willing to turn their heads for a fair amount of money.

And they had said that they would like Mark, as a reputable merchant, to transport a number of the gems to the Kenta Kingdom. For the risk involved, he’d be paid handsomely for each trip. But honestly, Mark was only planning to do this one trip. The guilt of betraying his home country, and the nervousness of doing something so illegal, was killing him.

If one day the Conarite and Kenta Kingdoms waged war against each other… would it be these gems that would kill his countrymen?

He sighed.

It’s better not to think about these things. With this one transport, he’ll be paid enough to live for the next few years in luxury. He should just focus on that instead.

...

A few hours later, it was time for lunch.

To save time, the caravan kept moving, but people ran between the wagons to hand food out.

A young man around Gust’s age jumped into one of the wagons, and started handing out meals to everyone on board.

“Hey Jason, any signs of bandits or anything out of the ordinary this morning?” One of the guards whose shift was in the afternoon questioned.

"Nothing, so far. We haven't seen any sign of the bandits since this morning."

"Good, good." The guard felt relieved. The quicker he was done with this mission, the better, as this time he'd been given a real scare by the bandits. Maybe it was time for him to settle down and find a wife.

After finishing, Jason prepared to jump off the back of the wagon to proceed to the next one. However, as he was about to jump, he saw something shine in the bottom right corner of his eye.

On closer inspection, it was an emerald. A cut one, at that! With a grin, he glanced around, and seeing that nobody was watching him, picked it up and shoved it into his pocket.

…

Meanwhile, food had been delivered to the last wagon as well, but the runner hadn’t left.

Instead, he was busy listening to Gust’s bullshit stories.

“No no, believe me, I came in from across the sea when I was ten years old as part of a pirate’s crew! I was pressed into service, I tell ya! When we reached land over on the south-eastern beach of the Reiniad Kingdom, close to its border with the Clairmont Kingdom, I hopped out and ran for it!

“Those bastards gave me a good chase, they did, but since I was so much smaller than them I could wedge myself through busy alleyways and shops they couldn’t and lost them after a few minutes of running - but I had nothing left except my trusty old bag.

“But due to my irresistible charm, I was able to swindle - ah, umm, talk my into a small fortune, and thus was able to pursue my dream of exploring the world. And so, here we are! Although, that little fortune of mine is running low, so don’t bother robbing me, I’ve only got enough left for me, myself, and I.

“But hey, aren’t I awesome? Hmm?” Gust spread his hands apart as if he were preaching.

Alex, Wesley, and the runner, who was a young teenager, clapped their hands and were impressed by Gust’s claims. After all, he wasn’t so much older than them, but he had experienced so much!

Kyle and Jen could only glance at each other in exasperation. Had they also been that gullible at that age?