After talking for a while, Aurelia decided to promptly leave.

Once she did, Illyan sighed in relief.

While it was a refreshing conversation, it was still a little unnerving. He felt that he had to watch every word in front of this young woman, or he would suffer one day.

Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be unreasonable.

Since she only hoped they would keep their distance without divulging each other’s secrets, Illyan didn’t have a reason to oppose her.

In fact, it was something he preferred.

Illyan didn’t plan on getting close to people anyway. In fact, his relationship with the peasant quartet and Vael was already too close for his liking.

He always preferred time alone since he was younger. He would always run off to do something on his own, like herb foraging to rejuvenate his mind and enjoy the serenity.

But even so, he was still human, and the thirst for human contact was within him.

Unfortunately, other misgivings sprouted within his mind. He just didn’t want to lose everything again…

…….

Three days later, at dawn.

Illyan had already packed all of his belongings needed for the expedition.

He even took the longsword and other weapons he got and hid them inside his bags.

The longsword was his best weapon as of now, and fighting with it could give him the bit of advantage needed to kill his enemies. The throwing knives were a must too, but his best hidden weapon was the black needle. It was almost finished, but it had already become so sharp that even thick wood was easily penetrated.

He also took his medicine suitcase, where he had all the tools and herbs to deal with any injury or disease.

All in all, Illyan felt that he had prepared everything he needed before putting up a sign on the doors of his manor that he would be gone for the expedition.

With that, he left for the institute where he arranged to meet Korin and other academics…

He didn’t hurry, as he already knew the exact amount of time he needed to pass from his manor to the institute. He knew he would arrive at the exact time they should set off. And he was right, as the moment he arrived, he saw over a dozen carriages with people inside, prepared to set off towards the northern gates.

There were also people who were seeing them off and the curious crowd that made the event even livelier. Children were cheering while the men and women were hoping for the expedition to be successful.

Only the academics that were part of the expedition didn’t seem to be very merry. Most of them seemed a little scared or annoyed.

“Kaoran! Come sit here!” Korin, who was looking around with a vexed expression, finally brightened as he waved his hand from one of the carriages.

Illyan nodded in greeting as he sat up on the side of the driver’s seat next to Korin.

“Good morning.”

“Do not ‘Good morning’ me! Why did you take so long? Did you sleep in?” Korin playfully hit Illyan’s shoulder as he asked.

Illyan almost frowned at this. He didn’t like unnecessary contact with others.

But he held his emotions as he smoothly answered.

“I like being punctual. Waiting here early doesn't make sense.” Illyan just shrugged.

“But even so, being early is better than being late, right?” Vanda, who put aside the cloth between the driver’s seat and the inside of the carriage, looked outside with a smile.

“I won’t be late since I calculated my speed, time of departure, and length of the route I was going through.”

Illyan gave both of them a side-eye before taking out a book with mathematical formulas, ignoring them.

Korin and Vanda were a little speechless after hearing that.

Vanda turned her head to Korin with a questioning gaze, but he could only shrug with a wry smile.

Sometimes, Illyan was a little quirky and didn’t do things like others.

A normal person would rather go ten minutes earlier than calculate something so meaningless.

But not him.

Realizing that this was the result of his teachings, Korin just smiled as he also turned silent. Of course, this was quite simple to calculate in the realm of mathematics, but it was still good to see Illyan’s passion for learning.

Only that way could he help Korin with his life goal…

…….

The line of carriages was going through the main road of the town as most of the stalls disappeared and instead a mob of crowd filled up the space to cheer.

Illyan looked at that and felt it was laughable. These people probably thought that the recent attack was external from the mountains and felt indignant, yet the real perpetrators were in front of them, hailed as heroes.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Humans were deceptive beings. That’s what Illyan understood when he came to society a year ago.

In the north, the strongest survived with only basic strategies. But here, the rules were endless, yet so many didn’t heed them. Especially those who set up these rules.

Unfortunately, all was hidden in the sea of fake smiles and pleasantries.

Because of that, Illyan decided the moment he sucked up all the knowledge from Korin, Vael, and the entire library, he would vanish without a trace. An ascetic life suited him better.

This environment felt like a prison to him. He felt shackled and helpless.

His mind was sublimated during these times as he learned that pure violence wasn’t always the answer.

He became more deceptive, more cunning. Naturally, he was far from being comparable to old foxes out there, but he felt he was doing fine.

He at least hoped he wouldn’t get deceived easily by others.

As he thought about this, he looked at the driver of the carriage he was sitting on. He was sitting beside him and Korin, but he was absolutely silent.

To be honest, Illyan completely ignored him at the beginning.

When the driver noticed his sight, he smiled and bowed with a crooked smile.

Illyan nodded back before turning his gaze towards the front.

Soon, he again stopped thinking about the man as he saw another batch of carriages far in the front.

There were at least two dozen of these carriages. However, the difference was that most of them were of much higher quality than those the academics were riding in.

The other difference was the small number of people who could fit in one, as luxury was the priority.

Illyan could easily guess that some important people were in these, like nobles or the acolytes.

There were also some wagons full of supplies. Illyan could even recognize two people driving the wagons: Bor and Ujir, two merchants he met during his ride to this town. However, Ujir, the one who seemed to have dealings with acolytes, had several wagons under his command, while Bor had only one.

The other, less important people, like the soldiers, were standing in basic formation at attention as they waited for orders.

The generals and other officers were sitting on their horses in front of their respective platoons. It almost seemed as if they were going to war.

And a lot of the soldiers even looked like that. Their faces were pale, their hands trembling. They knew this lengthy and arduous journey would be extremely dangerous.

It was hard to capture a mountain troll in the mountains, especially when more mountain trolls were wandering around.

There were even horses harnessed to wagons where the military ballistae were stored.

It was obvious that the organizers of this expedition were very serious about this.

There were also several other forces that were clearly divided from the main soldiers.

The first was a band of people in robes. These robes were different from those of the acolytes. Illyan had already seen these robes once. It was in the underground arena, where there were people with the same style and coloring of clothing. Caleb himself had similar garments.

These were from the Venomous Viper Gang.

Thanks to that, Illyan, for the first time, saw Varel, a man whose son had been kidnapped, tortured, experimented on, and subsequently killed by him.

At first sight, the man didn’t look dangerous, but Illyan felt this man was actually more deceptive than others thought.

Illyan noted his appearance as he turned his attention to others.

The other force’s theme was the color red. Most of the people wore red robes and attire, making it even easier to recognize who they were.

‘Heart Bearers, huh. Wonder what they have to do with this.’ Being ignorant of the chaos his interference caused and the secret deals of these organizations, Illyan could only guess.

As Illyan thought about that, he saw the man on horseback in front of his men. It was a man with fiery red hair and a tall stature. If Illyan wasn’t wrong, this man was the current leader of the gang.

Illyan could feel the strong fluctuations coming from him and felt that this man was at least on the level of Aziro.

The difference was that this man’s balance was extremely high, as he didn’t even hold the reins of the horse, which made Illyan realize he was also a martial artist.

He was going the same double path as him.

However, the glaring similarity of his was the thing that surprised Illyan the most.

When he looked around, he wasn’t surprised to see a familiar face next to the Heart Bearer leader.

‘Aurelia… Wait, is she the daughter of this guy?’ Illyan was a little surprised.

Wouldn’t that make Vael the father of the leader of the Heart Bearer Gang?

Illyan certainly didn’t expect that.

He immediately started to ponder all kinds of implications this caused.

Meanwhile, Aurelia was also looking around a bit.

When she made small eye contact with him, Illyan saw her cold face and nodded to her.

She also nodded to him before turning her head away.

Illyan looked for other important people but didn’t find some of them.

Aziro was nowhere to be seen. However, Illyan could guess that he and the acolytes were in the carriages.

On the other hand, he saw the mayor finishing some kind of speech from the balcony of a manor, making the crowd cheer even louder.

He wouldn’t be going, but he had the responsibility of keeping the crowd satisfied and under control.

Academics weren’t really interested in this speech and didn’t want to stand here like soldiers did, so they came later.

In the end, the entire expedition team was almost prepared to leave.

It was just that some of the academics had to be identified before they left on the expedition.

One of the officers came riding on his horse with some documents in hand, going around the carriages.

Illyan was one of them. Most of the apprentices and academics were going on the command of the institute or voluntarily, so the mayor didn’t care about them.

But Illyan, who was indispensable to the expedition because of Perus’s grievous injuries, was ‘requested’ to come as well. Unfortunately, he couldn’t refuse—not until he decided to leave the town for good.

This was also the reason why Illyan and Korin were sitting next to the driver.

“Doctor Kaoran, is he here?”

The officer called out urgently as he read some information from the parchment.

“Here.” Illyan called out clearly.

The officer looked at him and then at Korin, who nodded at him, and he sighed in relief.

Korin was quite famous for going on these expeditions, so he was easily recognized. Now his nod was kind of a guarantee that Illyan was truly Doctor Kaoran, and the officer wouldn’t be forced to search for the man or need a way to prove his identity.

“We can go inside now,” Kaoran called out as he immediately left for the inside of the carriage.

“I will go after. I don’t like cramped spaces,” Illyan answered curtly.

Korin smiled in understanding as he left Illyan alone.

In the end, the carriages finally set off as the numerous foot soldiers slowly marched beside them.

The soldiers were like one big entity as they walked in unison, except for a few mistakes made by rookies.

However, these mistakes were jarring when looking from outside the formation, as Illyan noticed these rookies.

Funnily enough, he recognized one of them too.

“Terren, huh. Didn’t expect that rascal to turn out like this.” Illyan was surprised. While he made mistakes, it was not something surprising considering that he was a trainee for just over a year.

In fact, Illyan only noticed his newbie moves because of his strong perception and Terren’s strong nervousness, which made him make these mistakes.

But at the end of the day, Terren had grown several centimeters and bulked up a large amount of muscle mass. Even his temperament had grown more serious.

Illyan noticed his changes over time when they rarely met, but now, when he saw him among the elite soldiers, he finally realized how big the change could be for a normal person in just over a year.

‘What about a decade? Or a century? How will I turn out by then?’ Illyan was intrigued by how his future would unfold, not knowing that this forced expedition would completely change his life…