After several hours inside the carriage, the boys finally arrived at the designated destination;
They arrived in a small town in the 12th district, Alferth, which in size was very similar to Hakvill, but as Erwin could see, this district seemed completely coming out from the future, when compared to Hakvill; After getting off the carriage, Erwin paid the coachman who, once he received the money, immediately went away; the two, had to go to a place called "Quantum Vortex": from what Ron had explained, it was a kind of portal, which connected the 12th district to District 0, or Veras.
Ron's student, once down from the carriage, could not help but look at the landscape in front of him with incredibly beached eyes; it was all so beautiful, well cared for and above all, everything was so majestic; despite the fact that for him it was like the future, he still could not conceive of the fact that there could be many other cities and towns like this and even better than this.
However, when he was on the verge of reaching the point called Quantum Vortex, he felt of the looks, many looks, turned towards him: They were curious looks of those people who lived there, and who in seeing Erwin, were blown away in seeing how he was "different" from them: his complexion was slightly darker, his hair was poorly cared for, the clothes were absolutely not fashionable, and they saw in the boy a strange aura, different from theirs.
Erwin felt the pressure of those eyes, and for a moment, he felt paralyzed by what was happening: he no longer felt admiration for that place that almost looked like heaven, but at that moment, he felt a strange feeling of fear and annoyance.
"Hey, don't stand there like a plant..." said Elaine, who careless of the looks of others, stood in front of the boy with firm steps, without worrying too much about what was going on around her.
Erwin, somehow, felt almost reborn after seeing the girl's arrogance, and after taking courage, he began to walk, ready to continue his adventure, albeit with the necessary reservations.
As he walked, Erwin managed to ignore those looks: now that he was getting used to those looks, he realized that, contrary to what he thought, they were not looks of hatred, but rather 'curious' looks, if so could be said;
"It seems that you calmed down..."
"Yes, kinda..." said the boy, who now could enjoy the city a little more and focus less on the looks of passers-by;
They walked for a few minutes, and finally, after following the signs written on some signs placed at the corners of the street, they arrived at the famous Quantum Vortex; they found themselves in front of a huge crowd, all in a row, waiting to cross what looked like a huge door made with thick gray bricks, which were engraved with strange symbols on it; the peculiarity of that immense door, was the fact that from the latter, it was possible to see a strange blue barrier, which gave off a strange energy, similar to mana, but at the same time, very different;
Erwin looked intrigued from the door, noticing how the people who crossed that strange barrier, disappeared altogether; the whole was then controlled by the guards, who checked the documents of those who crossed that entrance; on their chest moreover, there was the golden wing coat of arms, which was the royal symbol of Mykotos, meaning that the guards present worked directly for the kingdom.
"What is that?"
"It's the Quantum Vortex. Thanks to that portal, we will get to Veras... come on, let's go" replied Elaine directly, who without wasting further time, lined up; she, most of all, wanted to get to Veras, being able to finally feel safe; at that moment, the rush and the desire to disappear were making her nervous, to the point that she could barely control her emotions.
Erwin, who didn't know what the Quantum Vortex was until then, expected everything from a ship to some new invention that were unsuspect to him; but he never expected that it was enough to simply go through that huge door to get to his destination.
"Wow... this place is more interesting than I thought!" exclaimed the boy, who following what Elaine did, lined up.
Several minutes passed, almost an hour, because even as they arrived, the line was very long, and also because the guards meticulously checked each person who had to go through the portal before giving them the all-clear;
Seeing the guards, Elaine suddenly stiffened, since she was using another person's identity; of course, Elaine and Lucy were like two drops of water, but Elaine couldn't know if anything could go wrong, and that put her in a strange stressful situation.
Finally her turn came, but she was anything but calm and relaxed, immediately attracting the attention of the guards;
"Your name?"
"Name... Oh! M-My name is Lucy Blazestorm..." said the girl, who for a few moments, was completely lost in her thoughts;
Her interlocutor looked at her carefully, stranged by that answer, making the girl even more nervous, who at that moment was trying in every way to stay calm, but having little results. Elaine, who had remained cold and lucid during her escape from a certain death, was now in total panic when it was close to her salvation.
".... Passport."
The girl, with an agitated way, rummaged through her bag, pulling out her passport, but she slipped out of her hands clumsily, only to pick it up quickly.
"..."
It was at that moment that one of the guards, suspicious of the girl's behavior, approached Elaine, and without warning, she began to rummage through her belongings; Then, he controlled the girl's body with decidedly abrupt ways, giving a lot of discomfort to Elaine, who, however, knew that at that moment she could not create any other problems.
After a careful check, the guard who took care of the checks made a small nod with his head to the guard who in the meantime was observing the passport and the girl, not noticing any anomaly.
"Where are you headed, miss?" asked the guard, starting to lower his attention;
"I'm headed towars Veras city..." replied Elaine, also more relaxed now, as the worst had just passed.
"Okay. In order to pass, you must pay 5 gold coins..."
Elaine rummaged through the small purse placed on the belt, and without too many frills, she pulled out the 5 gold coins; while the girl pulled out the coins, the guard saw the bag full of money going pale; he made a quick reasoning, and realized that inside that purse there must have been more than 100 gold coins; too much, for a little girl of that age, wondering how such a young girl could own all that money.
At first, he thought it must be the daughter of some rich aristocrat, it was not an impossible thing; but after looking closely at her she radically changed his mind, as the girl was wearing really poor clothes.
"Girl... where did you get that money?" said the man in a threatening tone of voice, who got up from the chair, then put a hand on the sword;
Elaine noticed the danger, and tried to back down, however, another guard behind her blocked her way only with her physique.
[Shit!] The girl thought, who felt totally naive for showing all that money in front of them, thus compromising the new plan.
For a moment she thought of fighting, but judging the level of the guards, she realized that there were too many for her to face them alone; she could ask Erwin for a hand, but at that point it would degenerate more.
No longer knowing what to do, she tried to escape using all her strength, but was immediately tackled by another guard, blocking her with no chance of free herself by strengthening his arms and locking her in a non-lethal, but impregnable vice for a young girl.
"Leave me!" the girl screamed, starting to stingle in the vain attempt to free herself, without succeeding. I try to boost her body with mana as well, but as her strength increased, the grip of the guard who kept her still increased.
"You're under arrest for theft, little girl!" The guard exclaimed, almost satisfied with the work done, while the people, intrigued, began to gather around them;
"Hey! What the hell are you doing!" exclaimed Erwin, who surprised, and at first bewavered by what was happening, did not hesitate a single moment to go to Elaine's rescue.
"Stop, you idiot!" The Elf exclaimed, attempting to stop Erwin before he could risk getting hurt because of him;
"... An accomplice? Well...Since you're a guy, I'll go a little heavy with you!"
The guard, without waiting a single moment, made a quick leap in Erwin's direction, drawing his sword in one swift forward motion so that he could catch Erwin unprepared and go all in on the surprise factor.
Erwin was surprised by that quick maneuver, remaining dissarred for about half a second; the blade of the sword was directed towards his arm, with the aim of mutilating his arm;
However, thanks to his reflexes, Erwin was able to change the motion of his body enough to avoid serious injuries; nevertheless, however, the blade of the sword hit him at the level of his shoulder, causing him a strong pain that forced him to get on his knees to better manage the pain.
[....How did he avoid the blow?] said the guard in amazement, who had attacked Erwin in a safe way... or at least, that's what he believed.
[D-Damn it! What the hell is going on?!] instead thought in pain Erwin, who certainly did not expect everything that was happening now at that moment.
"What the hell did Ela do--- I meant, Lucy do?!"
"Your friend stole some money!" exclaimed the guard, while with a dry blow to the air, he removed the traces of blood that had remained attached to the sword. The guard then watched Erwin, noticing on the boy's belt the same purse as Elaine, infuriating him.
"So you're really his accomplice...You're under arrest, you dirty thief!"
"But what the hell is he talking about?!" - exclaimed Erwin, who, he was no longer understanding anything about it, categorically rejecting the accusations of the guard, who was becoming more and more threatening - "This money was given by my grandfather!"
"Do you think I can drink such a babe? It's not possible that people like you can own all that amount!"
"People like us?"
Erwin couldn't understand what that sentence meant, but it was enough to look at his gaze to understand that for some strange reason, the guard in front of him seemed to hate him with all his heart.
"Stop!"
Suddenly, a male voice branched out in the middle of all that crowd, capturing the attention of everyone and the guards, who petrified themselves in persenting that tone of voice so decisive, but also so damn familiar.
The guards of the portal turned around, and saw two people emerge from all that crazy who, judging by their gaze, were really angry at that moment;
"What the hell are you doing to these people!?" said angrily the man who had screamed shortly before, casting glances of fire at the guards, who sadly backed down a few meters;
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
*The man in question was of tall stature, his skin was pale white and well-groomed, he wore a beautiful beige coat that covered the entire clothing he wore, but showed black pants, accompanied by beautiful leather boots of the same color; his face was dry and had some wrinkles, he had a slightly eagle-like nose, with his eyes that had a strange dark green color, which made his presence fearful; his gray hair, were slightly long and tied backwards with a small elastic band, thus showing his large forehead; He wore a goat of the same hair color*
*The person next to the older man was a boy of similar age to Erwin's; he wore an elegant suit, with a solid flesh color; his hair was short but well-groomed, with a very natural bright blonde color; his face was that of a child, with the eyes of light blue, which seemed to shine with its own light; on his belt, he wore a sword, whose lining was completely white, with the gold details scattered along the lining that were in the shape of a cloud. *
One of the guards took courage, deciding to stand in front of the man, who could hardly hold his calm.
"M-Mr. Moonshade! You see, these guys stole some money! We were just arresting them but they resisted!"
The man, apparently calm, looked at the two boys, who at that moment were shaken by what was happening; he looked at them carefully, almost as if he were watching their soul, and after a few seconds of silence, he finally sighed slightly.
"Leave these guys alone, they're with me."
As soon as they heard the phrase that came out of the mouth of the man in front of them, it was as if the guards died the next instant, whitening suddenly; at that point, in a hurry and fury, they helped the boys get up, even helping them to fix all their stuff.
"S-Sorry! I didn't think you were guests of Mr. Moonshade!" the three guards said cowardly in unison, that in order not to be taken up further, they suddenly moved away, hastily returning to their task.
"What manners..." said the man, snorting at what he saw. Elaine and Erwin were blown away by what happened, not understanding why the man had helped them.
"Who the hell are you, sir?" replied Elaine, who at that moment was anything but happy with what had happened to him, slightly sore from the grip of that damn guard.
Observing the situation around her, she realized that the only one who could stop those three idiots from their shady intentions, had to be a very important man, of very high prestige;
[Maybe, is he their boss?] Elaine thought, who, however, observing the man in front of her, realized that he looked too 'clean' to be a guard.
"Uhm, you must be Lucy, I'm right?" said the man, scrutinizing the girl with careful eyes – "Gosh, your mana is so pure for still being a little girl! I guess you specialize in medium-to-long distance spells, right?"
Elaine was blown away by such claims; she could not understand how, with a simple glance, that man had been able to understand what kind of magic the girl was most akin to.
It was something she had tried to keep hidden and did not want to use, since her mid-range magic was similar to her mother's, and it brought back unpleasant memories.
She wanted to have answers, since there was a risk that she had been discovered and since that man, at the time, was extremely suspicious, but he didn't have the time given the elderly gentleman quickly focused on Erwin;
"You are Erwin, am I right? Well... your mana is not as refined as your friend's, but it is closer to that of the boy next to me..." said the man, who with a smile, pointed with his thumb at the boy next to him, with the latter looking with curious eyes at Erwin, who felt slightly embarrassed;
"Contrary, you have an abnormal instinct for your age...Are you some kind of Humanoid Beast?" he asked the elderly gentleman sarcastically, but remembering how impressed he was by the fact that Erwin dodged a blow that, in a normal situation, would certainly cut his arm off.
"Sorry... but how do you know our names?" he asked slightly embarrassed by the compliments Erwin, but he could not let his guard down, not after what had just happened, feeding suspicions before the man in front of him, even though the latter had just saved him.
"Well, i wasn't sure about your identity, but i heard the girl's name from there, and I thought that maybe you must be the girl I was looking for!" Leonard said, pointing to an area several meters away from them, maybe even a kilometer from where the guards had attempted to attack them.
"Is it really possible to hear from that distance?". cautiously asked Elaine to the old man in front of her, starting to look with even more suspicious eyes at Leonard, who did not understand the reason for that reaction, since he was the one who had rescued her and Erwin; however, he decided not to pay much attention to it, since he believed that the girl acted like that only because she was shaken by what had happened.
"... Well once you reach my level, you will know the answer.... And by the way, I also recognized you because of Ludwig, who described both of you to me in exact detail."
"Uh? Do you know Uncle Ludwig?" asked Erwin, surprised to hear from that old man such a familiar name.
"Uncle Ludwig? Hahaha, of course, he's the one who called me to pick you up!" Said the man with a smile on his lips, patting Erwin's shoulder hard – "My name is Leonard Moonshade, and I am the professor of the Academy of a Thousand Magic Arts."
Elaine and Erwin exchanged a quick look of astonishment: both, they did not expect to meet a professor here in a district so relatively far from Veras; Elaine came to the conclusion that perhaps, this phantom man named Ludwig, had called Leonard to make sure they could enter the academy without any problems.
Erwin also came to that conclusion, thanking several times Ludwig, who at that moment there had literally saved his life, since in all probability, those guards would have killed him without any hesitation and without anyone that could stop those guards;
Both boys, at that moment were still shaken by what had happened, and despite the worst being over, they no longer felt safe in that place.
"N-Nice to meet you, professor!" - said Erwin with a slight bow that tried to mask his fear thinking of something else, followed closely by Elaine, who still remained silent – "... And you are?" Erwin said in a slightly curious tone, looking at the boy next to Leonard, who had been silent all that time.
"... I'm Brenin." said the boy, who with an almost careless expression, raised his left hand for a few seconds, and then lowered it. Erwin looked at the boy, and he got the impression that the boy in front of him was much stronger than he looked, despite the fact that at the moment he seemed so disinterested about everything.
Looking at the two boys, Leonard had come to two conclusions: the first, was that Ludwig was right to call them special, since there were not many boys with talents similar to theirs, believing them suitable at least to face the test; the second, was that he realized that both of them were still shaken by what had happened a few moments before, and that they were trying hard not to give it away, succeeding even to some extent. Moreover, around them, the air had become strange, with many people who, despite everything having been resolved, were only looking at Elaine and Erwin suspiciously. He concluded, therefore, that perhaps it was better to get out of here.
"Well guys, now that we've all introduced ourselves: how about we get out of here?"
--------
*P.O.V by Erwin.*
After the big initial scare, finally, also thanks to Leonard, we could use the portal to get to Veras;
After what had happened a few minutes earlier, I realized how different this place was, how strange the people were. At the same time, I observed those people as if they were some kind of monster who had just landed from unknown lands.
Ron's words were rumbling more and more in my head, and I could finally understand the words that him and then Elaine said to me. Perhaps, it was also for this reason that Ron didn't want me to leave Hakvill...
Even though at that moment I was 'disseptuted' with what happened, at the same time, however, a certain curiosity arose in me: were they really all so stupid? Did they all judge people by appearance?
So many other questions immersed my mind, feeding the flame of the curiosity more and more inside me; I don't know if it was a normal thing, but I was excited at the idea of discovering the world in its entirety: I had been stupid to think that the world was all roses and flowers, and this little "reality check" had made me understand more things, so it wasn't that bad.
After Leonard kindly offered to pay for us the trip, we entered that portal, no longer looking back; Leonard, Elaine and Brenin entered first, passing by without any problem.
I hesitated for a moment, afraid of that strange energy that the portal generated; I sighed to try to loosen the tension, throwing myself into the portal with my eyes closed.
As I crossed the portal, my body was as if pervaded by a strange icy air and at the same time, it was like my body was hit by a wave of hot energy; it was a strange feeling, to the point that I had to open my eyes to understand what was going on: but when I did, the incredible happened: I was no longer in the 12th district, but I had ended up in a world that defining magical is reductive; I found myself in the middle of gigentesque towers that defied the sky, perfectly linear roads and various works of art of rare beauty; I then saw many wizards and person walking in the middle of the road, not caring about all that beauty around them, as if all this were normal.
Disoriented, I kept looking around, and I saw something that left me disoriented: I noticed what looked like carriages, but instead of having horses, there were beings made of metal, which in some ways resembled a horse, but who had something restlessly frightening.
Even more surprised, was the fact that on the roads, I saw some strange vehicles, whose shape resembled that of a box with strange wheels with heavy air; they made an almost annoying noise, and from behind they emitted dark fumes, which smelled so much of burnt.
"Took you a long time to get here, boy!" exclaimed Leonard, followed by Brenin and Elaine, who, like Erwin, had been blown away by that place that for them, was almost science fiction.
"But... what is this place?!" I exclaimed, completely overwhelmed by all those novelties;
"This is everyone's reaction when they come here for the first time!" - replied the old professor, with a certain note of pride in his ways of doing things.
"Wait! Then this is...!!"
"That's right! Welcome to Veras, kid!"
END OF CHAPTER 19 – WELCOME TO VERAS.