The rest of the trip went on uneventfully -any captain of a vessel will tell you that an uneventful voyage is a good one. Ferguson spent most of it writing a report on the day's events, Araven retired to the lower decks to rest for a bit, and Nero spent most of his time idling on the sun deck, looking far out into the sea alone.

Captain Elena sat near the loot with Sharmon, commanding the ship from there, giving the boy some much needed time on his own. As the soft wind blew on his face, Nero recalled the different scenarios where Sharmon had used his abilities. There could be no denying he was a sorcerer of -at the very least- respectable capabilities after seeing him manipulating his barrier against the crawlers and then using his Black Lightning to put Berzen out of commission.

Sharmon had told Nero that the Blood Pact limited his powers for them to be below those of the summoner's... this meant that he would gradually regain his powers as Nero got stronger, didn't it?. That time during the second exam when he had punched him and received recoil damage confirmed that they were indeed bound by arcana, down to their very cores, meaning that Nero had no reason to doubt anything Sharmon had told him so far.

The boy looked at his own palms. He was light aspected, meaning his arcana and therefore the magic he could employ was stable, according to Sharmon's explanation of Dark and Light magics that evening during the second test.

Sharmon's black lightning was definitely Dark Magic. The color, as well as the unstable nature of it -you could tell simply by looking at it, it seemed it would burst out of control at any second- confirmed this... he hadn't given it much thought at the time, but now that he had a moment to cool off and put things into perspective, he remembered Sharmon's spheres of light.

Weren't those... of the opposite side of the spectrum? Nero frowned at this thought. Sharmon, a self-styled great sorcerer, real sorcerer, that was able to not only manipulate his own arcana with mathematical precision, but also other's, like his own summoner's, as well as being knowledgeable in theory to the point of pioneering spells of his own while also able to cast spells from two different schools of magic.

...damn it, he really was the real deal, wasn't he? He had to be, right? But then, what did this all mean?

Why would he agree to being summoned? What did he stand to gain with all this? The way Nero saw it, Sharmon was doing nothing but clipping his own wings by limiting his magic to be lower than Nero's while tying his very life to the Blood Pact.

Why? Just, why? No matter how much he tried to come up with an explanation, he simply couldn't wrap his head around it.

There was likely nothing for Sharmon to learn at the College -he had even said his magic was superior than what they taught at institutions-, so that was out of the question. Money? Fame? Well, he had money now, and fame... he could earn it whenever he wanted.

It only took a small demonstration of magic at Trena -yet another display of proficiency- for a crowd to gather around him and offer him an applause. Fame was far from being out of his reach, in fact it would almost require someone like that to proactively run away from fame to avoid being detected like that...

...wait a second.

For the first time, Nero thought that he could be on to something here.

Sharmon was an unknown figure, not only in Nycea and Armorica, but likely in all of the Estyrian Kingdoms, from Coria to Platea. The other students never mentioned knowing or hearing about him; Araven and Rina had traveled across the continent for months and apparently they had no idea he existed either.

The mask, the attire, the foreign accent... it had to be! Sharmon had to be hiding his identity!

Well, duh. Nero felt stupid for a second, there. It was obvious that he was hiding who he was, that's why he wouldn't give out any information on himself nor would he show his face, either. But what Nero had started to think was that his identity being hidden and his acceptance to the summoning were actually related.

Nero crossed his arms and slowly paced from left to right, much like Araven had done before. Sharmon had asked him once if he had ever heard of him, too; this told Nero that the sorcerer could have been meaning to know if his cover was safe before deciding on his next course of action. Also, during training, Nero had asked him if he had ever been betrayed, to which he received no answer.

What you had then was a powerful sorcerer who, due to compelling circumstances, accepts a terribly disadvantageous summoning to be transported somewhere else... to a place where no one knows him, in order to hide from those who betrayed him.

Nero smiled to himself.

Oh yeah, buddy. I have you all figured out, now.

Now was not the time, but Nero decided that he would confront Sharmon with this inferred deduction. He had nowhere to run; he would tell him who he was once and for all, and maybe they could finally come to some sort of agreement.

For the time being, he decided to enjoy the soft breeze on his face.

----------------------------------------

"We're done mooring the ship, cap'n!", said Biggs.

They had finally docked at Trena.

"I assume you do not wish to leave your ship again.", said Sharmon to her.

"You assume right. My offer still stands, though; you're free to stay here if you want...", Elena replied in that breathy voice she reserved for him.

Sharmon crossed his arms.

"That might not be a bad idea."

"WHAT!?", asked Nero.

"The pirate leader Wember is still out there, and it is only a matter of time until he discovers what happened at the alcove, if he did not already."

"Meaning he could retaliate. We should be alert.", said Araven.

"Ferguson. Given the circumstances, I think you will agree this is the best course of action."

"I... well, I can't deny that.", he said, pensively.

"And I got enough provisions.", said Elena.

"Then, it is settled."

The group spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of stuff like getting back the planks for the ramp -Sharmon had to actually jump off the ship and land on the docks to get in the shed and retrieve them-, informing Georg of the changes in the arrangements, and the loot was also distributed among the group and the crew mates. When Elena gave him his bag full of coins, Nero became conscious that he was holding an amount of money that would take the bookstore years to procure, and when the captain handed over an even heavier bag to Sharmon, he began to seriously ask himself what the hell was he going to do with that much money.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

He was already figuring he could buy new clothes, go out to some restaurants, buy gifts for his friends, a perfume for himself... but all that would barely make a dent.

"How... much money is this?"

"Your share? Some sixty gold coins.", said Elena like it was nothing.

"...and his?", he asked, looking at Sharmon.

"A hundred."

The romance novel that College student had bought a few days before he performed the summoning had cost her one silver and a few coppers, and it had been a copy that had taken Nero almost two full weeks of hard labor to produce... today he had effectively made one hundred and sixty gold coins in a single afternoon.

...and it had only cost the lives of twenty people.

Nero hadn't directly seen too much of the day's killing, but even if he did... it would have not been his first time. It had only been a year since he had witnessed a man being stabbed to death and robbed not too far from his bookstore. This had been different, of course, and the pirates that died weren't innocent people, but most importantly, Nero hadn't killed anybody, and had tried to stop that from happening in the first place.

He took a little comfort in that.

The crew was done loading the ship by the time the sun went down under the horizon, and after Elena paid all of her crew their allotted amount -Nero had no idea how the distribution system worked on board- she decided to throw a banquet to celebrate a job well done. She ordered the sun deck to be cleared and rented some benches and tables from Georg -the crew carried them in a single trip- and lit up some beautiful lamps she kept somewhere in the ship's deposit. In just a few hours, the top deck of the Vista had become a floating restaurant.

All it needed was the catering. Elena hired a group of cooks and waiters from the restaurants close to the docks and asked them to prepare something with what she had in reserve. Nero assisted them with ideas and tips on how to treat the ingredients, and Sharmon also suggested they separated the meals in courses -something the cooks of Trena had no concept of. Probably motivated by the generous pay they would receive, they immediately got to work and created a menu that consisted of toast bread with spicy dried fish paste as starters, followed by a warm stew that included lents, sausages, tomatoes and other veggies, with red wine from the ship's cellars. A pretty neat fruit salad was served for dessert.

It was boat food. The kind of food everyone agreed that sucked. It was dry, salty, the water used was kept in wooden barrels, the wine bottles were dusty, half the fruit was rotten and had to be thrown overboard and yet it was the best meal Nero and Araven had had ever since their arrival at Armorica.

The situation in that region was so precarious that the worst food Nero knew of was a delicacy of the gods in comparison.

Among the laughter and noises of the party, Nero frowned and looked down at his meal.

"What's wrong, kiddo? Something wrong?", asked Elena, who was sitting very close to him and next to Sharmon, who divided them.

"I'm just wondering... should we be having a banquet right next to Trena? These people can barely eat.", he said.

"We're not celebrating that we have food and they don't; we're celebrating we retrieved the ship and got rid of the pirates that were assaulting the region. We ain't even using resources of Trena for this, y'know?", she laughed.

Nero gave her a polite smile.

"That's true."

He didn't want to sour his relationship with her by telling her he thought the party was bad taste, especially considering he himself had helped organize it. It would have been hypocritical of him.

"We're also giving work to some people. The economy here needs this money."

Nero sighed.

"Right."

That was a good point, and it's not like the situation in Armorica was his fault. If anything, he had done nothing but help in one way or another ever since he had arrived there. Same could be said for Araven, who was enjoying his meal in silence. In fact, he had been rather quiet for a while, now...

"What about you, man? You alright?", he asked the blonde.

"Hm? Me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine.", he said, while still eating.

Nero frowned.

"If there's something troubling you, I wanna know. You've been a huge help and I don't want you to fall behind or anything like that."

Araven gave him a grateful smile.

"...it's nothing big. I'm just worried about Rina."

"You can't. I'm the one who worries about stuff here."

"Sorry to steal your job," the blonde chuckled, "It's just that... it's been more or less five days since I've last seen her, and I'm a little concerned."

"Her, huh."

"Rina."

"Yeah, of course you're talking about Rina. There's no other her for you."

"I already told you, it's not like that."

"Hey, Elena...!", Nero called. She looked at him with interest, "there's this girl I've been traveling with for months, and this is the first time I've been separated from her for so long. I totally miss her, but she's not my girlfriend, okay?"

Not only Elena, but everyone at the table who heard that burst out in laughter.

"You're a moron.", Araven frowned.

"Sorry, sorry. Maybe it's the wine." Indeed, Nero wasn't used to drinking alcohol, "but just remember, she's with Luna. There's no way things can go wrong, they're both as tough as they come."

Araven smiled again, running his fingers on his cup.

"I... yeah, you're right."

"Woah, woah. What was that? What were you gonna say?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"What is it? Dude, we've fought together against a golem, a buncha crawlers, tons of bugs, and we raided a sea cave full of pirates. You really can't trust me?"

"The alcohol is making you silly, Nero. You should stop drinking."

"Maybe it is, but I'm still right."

"Give me that."

Araven took away his cup and went to replace it with some black syrup the chefs had prepared just in case someone got hungover or didn't drink alcohol.

"Here, cool off your head. You're too accelerated."

"Psh, fine."

Nero gulped down his syrup, as if to prove something, and landed his cup on the table as if he had just downed a very strong cocktail.

"Y'know... partners in crime as we are, I think we shouldn't keep secrets from one another..."

Araven quickly glanced at Sharmon before turning his green eyes back to Nero.

"I think that makes sense, for a change. You're in no state to have a conversation, though."

Nero let out an exaggerated sigh, leaning onto the table and resting his head on his arms.

"I'm... perfectly fine..."

Araven raised an eyebrow. Nero had literally fallen asleep on the table right in front of him.

"Hahahaha, look at the kid!", laughed Elena.

"You know what this means...!", said one of the crew mates.

He got up and came back a minute later with some ink and a brush.

Oh, no.

"What should I draw? Gimme ideas!"

"A dick!", someone shouted.

However, Sharmon was staring at the guy with the ink.

"...lord sorcerer, do you mind if I paint something on his face? Something harmless.", the mate made sure to clarify he wouldn't be drawing that on his summoner.

For a second, the party quieted down as everyone stopped their conversation to wait for his answer.

"Draw him glasses; the boy likes to read. ", he finally said.

Everyone cheered.

"A mustache, too...!", added Ferguson, who was sitting on the far end of the table and was having a blast with the mates he had worked with that afternoon.

The rest of the evening carried on in a merry atmosphere; Araven helped the crew wash everything and return the stuff back to the inn -Georg had asked them to do that since he needed it early- and then carried Nero to the room he shared with him and Ferguson before lying on his own bed.

The blonde hadn't drank nearly anything compared to the other two, so it was only a matter of minutes before he was the only person awake in the cramped room. He took a small and beautiful gem from his pocket and stared at it for a little bit. Then, it began to shine in a bright turquoise, making him smile.

And with that, the group's fourth day in Armorica came to an end.