--------Vernicus Kingdom-------

Avior and his companions made their way towards Numina through the Vernicus Kingdom's surprisingly peaceful roads. For the students from Hervalle they expected the nation they'd been at war with the for last few years to have far more signs of fatigue and strain from the war than they saw while traveling through the nation's countryside.

Despite the brutal warfront they hadn't encountered any bandits or deserters only smiling farmers and traders pulling wagons of their goods to take to market. Most of which had only one or two escorts able-bodied farmhands as protection! Even in the Hervalle Empire, largely believed by the students to be the most secure nation in the world, transporting a wagonload of good without at least three or four proper guards would result in being robbed and even killed during this time of war and unrest.

But as the group passed another farmer who warmly greeted the students with a wave and an offer to try some of his fresh fruits as a gift, the students couldn't help but feel shocked at just how untouched by the war the Kingdom seemed to be. Unable to contain his curiosity anymore Virgoh asked the farmer offering the fruits why they weren't worried with war so close.

"Worried?" The farmer replied confused. "What should I be worried about? The war is on the Madeline Front. We had a civil war just a year ago that was far scarier than this and even then that was barely worth worrying over."

"Even during the civil war, you had nothing to worry about? How?" Christina asked this time with bafflement evident in her tone.

The farmer gave the girl a warm look before glancing off further down the road and widening his eyes. "Why it looks like the answer just made itself apparent."

The students whirled around only to be met with the oddest cluster of young men and women they'd ever seen in their lives. Just under two dozen young adults were adorned in anything from a worn leather jerkin to a rusted plate helmet. They all had some weapon although for more than a few it was just a flimsy spear or a club roughly hewn from a tree branch. To the students, they looked like the very bandits they had been worried about seeing, but from the farmer's friendly reaction, it was clear he didn't think they were dangerous. If anything the farmer seemed to relax even more with the ragtag band in sight.

Perplexed, the students watched the ruffians approach at a steady jog until finally stopping, coming to attention with backs suddenly straighter than most soldiers. One of them, wearing a helmet, mismatching leather armor, and a worn sword at her hip, stepped forward, her back as rigid as her companions. Now that they were closer the students realized most of the members in the group were as young as they were, around fifteen years old!

"Greeting citizens! We are Paladins of Justice sworn to do good and vanquish evil." The woman's voice was stoic and did not befit her piecemeal appearance.

As if ignorant of her unusual appearance the woman continued to speak while her voice's firm tone began to wilt as if slightly embarrassed by what she was about to ask.

"Have either of you happened to know of any evil in the area or anything we can help out with? We haven't really encountered anything other than a fallen tree or two that needed clearing today."

She gestured to one of the younger-looking men, "You see it's Jake's first day and we were hoping to show him a proper bestowment of justice." The woman brought her first up as if readying it to sock said "evil" in the mouth.

The farmer seeing Avior and his classmates speechless spoke up instead. "I have a rather evil infestation of voles on my property about an hour down the road brave paladins. It's the large red farmstead with a massive pine out front, my wife would love to feed you all for the effort. I suspect there might even be a Shock Vole among them so I must warn you to be on your guard if you accept the quest."

While the students were trying to parse the odd wording the young woman perked up. "Of course citizen we shall vanquish this evil in the name of the great Lioness herself." She turned to her rigid companions with her own straight back and adopted the tone of a general, "Paladins let's move, we have justice to meter out."

Then, somewhat together, the group began lightly marching down the road to accomplish their new mission.

The farmer turned to the stunned students with a wide smile. "You see? With so many joining the Order of Justice, we have every able-bodied youth just chomping at the bit to help in any way they can. Although some of course end up going to war those that are left do all they can to help us folk as much as they can. Some part of their Justice Creed requires them to always be administering justice or so I've heard." The farmer continued, "I never really cared much for the Church of Radiance and all their gobblygook, but even I have to give credit to the Lady Luxia for getting all these rapscallions to contribute to the country so zealously."

Christina was the first to recover and respond, "So the reason there's no crime is all the young people have joined the Order of Justice?"

Answering her confused tone the farmer replied firmly, "Yep, not only are the youngins not becoming bandits, but any bandit who makes their way into Vernicus will be met with a raving hoard of paladins eager to finally have an opportunity to bestow Justice. You all saw how eager they were to kill off some voles just imagine how many of their Paladin squads an actual bandit camp would attract."

Jessica tucked her red hair behind her ear idly as she spoke her thoughts aloud, "If the young people of Vernicus are acting as free labor to patrol and even exterminate pests for farmers it's no wonder the Kingdom's managed to prevent falling into ruin during the war so far. We really should find a way to ruin their young people's morale in order to win."

"Excuse me?" The farmer spoke thinking he misheard.

Blushing Jessica tried stuttering a reply that was cut off by Avior's words, "Please forgive my companion, we are traders from Numina some struggle with the Vernicus dialect more than others."

The farmer gave an "oh" look of understanding before squinting his eyes as he inspected the students confused, "Traders? What are you all trading, it's rare to see so many traders without any goods and so many weapons." He said the weapon part eyeing Jessica's sheathed greatsword especially so.

Avior spoke up once more to answer the inquiry, "I apologize I misspoke. To say more correctly we are escorts for merchants. We expected there to be plenty of work in Vernicus due to unrest from the war, but as I'm sure you can see," Avior gestured to the Paladin of Justice squad disappearing in the horizon, "It appears our expectations that merchants here would require more protection were sorely misplaced, so we have decided to make our way back home."

The look of suspicion vanished from the farmer and his smile returned, "Ah I understand forgive my suspicion, but you all look rather young for guards. I heard Numinians look youthful, but I never knew how true that was until now! When I first saw you all I almost assumed you were Paladins of Justice. Hah!" He let out a laugh at his own words, "Well I hope you at least visit the capital while you're here, or if you're really looking for serious work the army is always recruiting I'm sure they'd be happy to offer signing bonuses for such a well-equipped team."

Avior gave him a friendly smile before politely saying they would look into it and letting the farmer go on his way. They would of course be going nowhere near the Capital where it was far easier for them to be found out as the Hervalle runaways they were.

The group proceeded down the road for a few more hours stopping only when dusk began to fall. Believing they had made plenty of space between themselves and the Madeline Front they elected to set up camp for the night.

In the clash with the Comet Legion, a few of them had left their bags behind. Surprisingly, however, when they met back up with Virgoh and Avior the two had all the bags they'd left behind although a few had been badly damaged by the fires they'd set. As a result, even though the group was slightly lower than expected on provisions and camping equipment they still had enough to drape a few partially burned tarps overhead between some trees and set up a sleeping area.

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The group didn't have a Mage specializing in the Earth element which would have made things especially easy, but even so, Piran and Victoria understood enough of the earth element to form a knee-high wall around their camp to help keep out any unwanted critters.

Christina's expertise with the water element showed itself as plenty useful as she drew water from deep underground up to the surface to form a makeshift well, providing a much-needed source of fresh water for the students.

Once everything was set up the party's unnecessarily high count of three fire specialists, James, Jessica, and Victoria summoned magical fires for warmth and to help heat food.

Truly being Mages made camping easy.

Everyone was so happy to be able to use their magic to do something that didn't involve fighting for their lives that Avior refrained from mentioning how they were supposed to be pretending to be merchants and that merchants, unless extremely wealthy would not have as many Mages as they were now openly advertising to any passerbys.

Eventually, Victoria seemed to come to the same conclusion as Avior and made the others build a single normal firepit for the camp instead of constantly maintaining their eye-catching magical flames. Expecting the others to go to sleep soon after such an exhaustive day Avior took it upon himself to retire to his bedroll first where he could better inspect his progress on accelerting his mana growth with closed eyelids.

However, against Avior's expectations, the students opted to stay up surrounding the campfire and began swapping stories.

James was unexpectedly the first to volunteer, "This is the first time in my life I've gone outside of Hervalle. A part of me never thought I would leave I guess. It's so wild seeing what it's like outside of the Empire. Everything's so...so different."

Jessica seemed surprised by her companion's words, "You never thought you'd leave the Empire? Even as a graduate?"

James turned his trusting eyes towards Jessica as he explained where he was coming from, "I grew up on a farm a day's ride from the capitol. Before I was scouted as a potential Mage I had never even thought I would leave my village, let alone the country. Even after graduating, if I even made it that far, I assumed I'd get a small-time Mage job supporting some noble or something. Never did I think I'd be going on an adventure like this one. So thank you guys, you've all pushed me far farther than I've ever thought to push myself. Risk included I can't wait to find Avior's friend with you all while seeing where the rest of this crazy journey takes us."

Victoria and Virgoh spoke up at the same time cutting each other off. Eventually, with Virgoh's encouragement Victoria ended up being the one to speak next. "This is my first time outside of the country as well. I grew up rather protected and never had any real independence until I began attending Hervalle Academy. I never expected to find people I could get along with there. Let alone trust to go on a quest so crazy as this one with."

Virgoh was quick with a teasing reply, "Yeah I never thought you'd ever talk to anyone being so quiet all the time. Then suddenly you and Christina seemed to hit it off. I'm glad she at least made you open up even if it was because you just wanted to outcompete her."

Victoria tried to prevent herself from wincing as she remembered the real reason she started trying to be more friendly around Christina wasn't just competition, although that was how they started hanging out, but once she learned of Christina's "background" Victoria's friendship with the girl became a means to help her get closer to the true ruler of Hervalle and help her father in the process. With these things in mind all Victoria managed to reply to Virgoh's teasing with was a light, "yeah" and a weak smile.

Ignorant of Victoria's inner thoughts, Virgoh, far more focused on trying to embrace the nostalgia of the moment to distract himself from thinking about Avior's secret, shared a little about himself next. "This is my first time outside of Hervalle as well. I grew up in the grasslands in Hervalle's northern territory in one of the many nomadic tribes that call the area home."

Virgoh continued deciding to gloss over some of the more important details, "After my tribe disbanded, the Duke of the Grasslands, Nico Grosslain, took me in and treated me like his own son. Still, I isolated myself with training and never really made any friends until I began training with Christina and Victoria at Hervalle. They were my first friends." Virgoh gestured outward with his hands in a sweeping motion. "Now, after going through all this not only do I feel as though for the first time I have people I can trust to have my back in a fight, but I've also found new friends in James, Piran, and Jessica as well. "

Jessica let out a laugh, "Haha! Don't forget Avior as well!"

Virgoh barely held his warm expression together as he spit out a response through gritted teeth, "Ah yes, and of course Avior. How could I forget him most of all." With the warm moment broken apart by being reminded of the monster hiding in plain sight, Virgoh dropped the rest of whatever he was going to say and focused his gaze on the burning logs of the fire.

Piran, characteristic of his snooty character, spoke next, "I appear the most well-traveled out of you all then. I'm actually from Numina, and although my family moved to Hervalle soon after I was born, I still think my exotic ancestry has led to being able to hold unique perspectives others often lack."

Jessica and James both let out audible groans as they had, of course, heard this before from their egotistical friend.

Unaccustomed to Piran, Christina spoke up in response, "Oh that's so cool! Where in Numina were you born? Have you ever had a chance to go back and visit Numina since moving?"

Not really expecting anyone to show interest Piran was a little taken aback, especially since he knew the answers he would give would not maintain his attempt to be perceived as affluent. "Ah I was born just outside of the great Warport Skoll, and I have not yet returned as my parents lost contact with my family soon after we emigrated to Hervalle."

Not letting him get away with just that Jessica let out a snort, "Just outside of Skoll? You mean more than a hundred miles north of Skull in a bandit camp. And as for losing contact with their family don't your parents still have an open bounty in Numina for their heads?"

Piran's face took on a deep shade of red as he began trying to stutter out a response.

James came to his rescue, slugging Jessica in the arm hard, before speaking up for his friend Piran who had just had some of his secrets dumped into the open for their new friends to see. "Ah Jessica teases, Piran's parents are mercenaries, and are always on the move, sometimes we joke they're bandits, but please understand it's just an inside joke."

Piran was relieved at James's lie to help ease his embarrassment, but he was still hurt at Jessica revealing a secret he had told her in good faith. So without hesitation, he lashed back. "Yeah, at least I know who my parents are!"

A remark which led to James preemptively wincing as Jessica's fist met Piran's face sending him sprawling onto the ground.

Eyes almost shooting flames Jessica held herself back from continuing her beat down of the purple-haired student instead half screaming out an explanation to explain the slander. "I know who my parents are! They died as heroes to save me! They're a thousand times better than your outlaw parents who couldn't even manage to stay clear of crime for their kid!"

A sputtering Piran, face now red with rage appeared to be readying himself to kill Jessica as a blade of air formed up beside him. Jessica for her part at least seemed to think she might have gone too far stepping back slightly but not down from the fight completely.

The other four realized how far things had escalated and to their credit, moved quickly. James tackled Jessica to the ground before she could draw her greatsword while Virgoh concealed Piran's vision with his mana and Victoria disrupted Piran's wind blade by hitting it with a fire lance. Finally, Christina used her mana to dump water on Jessica, Piran, and unfortunately James, who was caught mid-tackle with Jessica.

Once doused Piran and Jessica were far less fiery transitioning instead to giving each other icy glares from opposite sides of the campfire much to James's chagrin.

As for Avior, he was still pretending to be asleep doing his best to avoid being pulled into any drama at all costs. He never was particularly good at de-escalating, something Avior chalked up to his social skills which he believed came up short in most situations.

Victoria and James used their fire mana to help dry the wet three out, although Jessica mostly dried herself out, and the atmosphere returned to one of silence.

A silence quickly broken by Christina's attempt to break the ice before it became to thick. "Well for the record it's mine and Avior's first time out of Hervalle too. We grew up in a small village and never left it except for when Glendale took us with him to attend Hervalle Academy. I remember being scared to leave and only managing to because I knew I'd be with Avior. When we got put in different classes I almost freaked out." She turned towards Virgoh and Victoria with a friendly smile on her face, "Luckily you two were there to help me through everything. I really couldn't have asked for better friends."

All five students around the fire did their best not to roll their eyes at Christina's words. The students at this point understood that when Christina said "village" she meant the Royal Estate, well all except Victoria who knew it was an actual village just one jealously guarded by Hervalle's own spymaster.

Still, they took her words besides that at face value. From everyone's experience, Christina seemed to be the most genuine person they knew. Besides the whole pretending she's not royalty thing.

As for her suspected Crown Prince of a brother... Virgoh cast a careful glance in Avior's direction as if afraid the young boy was going to suddenly wake up and eat them all alive.

At the same time, Victoria also spared a thought towards worrying about whether taking connected people like Avior and Christina out of the Empire could have negative consequences for her father before concluding that it was a risk worth taking if it meant she could show her value to her father by getting close to such important figures. Besides she doubted they could have left in the first place without the secret Overlord Bastian giving his approval.

James, Piran, and Jessica all had the same thought of wondering how they'd stumbled their way into such an important group while Christina just reveled in the thoughtful looks around her that showed her attempt to get people's minds off the fight between Piran and Jessica had been successful.

After a little more time sitting around the campfire in deep thought, the group headed to their respective bedrolls and called it a night with Jessica and Christina volunteering for the first watch.

As it got deeper into the night Avior finally felt himself drifting off as well still enjoying the nostalgic atmosphere of this adventure. He just hoped Prim was doing alright wherever she was.