36 Chapter 36 – Wind Castle
Year 2, Spring, Month 1, Fourth Week.
‘Arghh... Can't we walk faster?... The kids from other villages look way worse than ours... I hope we can just get this over with fast...’
Sania looked indifferently to the other commoners walking in the Path. She started the journey four days ago and they should be arriving at Wind Castle soon. Even though she pretended to not care, she was curious about the city.
When the Serions came for the inspection, Sania was one of the few 15 years old present. Her grandfather didn't want both of his granddaughters to be sent for the registration ceremony, so he chose Sania to go.
Aside from filling numbers to keep the Kingdom unsuspecting of their actions, she also got a special mission...
Soon, the walls of Wind Castle became visible. The only thing that caught Sania's attention was the walls' size and width, the rest was pretty much plain and uninteresting. The four meters construction made it impossible for a normal person to jump over it. The Guards stationed on top of the walls, placed at odd distances also brought a sense of security.
It didn't take long for Sania’s group to join the hundreds of commoners waiting in line to get inside the city. Although the large five meters gate could accommodate up to ten people at once, the Guards guarding it made sure to only allow the miserable commoners to walk in one by one, reserving the spare space for carriages or mounted visitors.
........
“I did it! I did it!”
Anya couldn’t keep her excitement for herself, so she started jumping and yelling. After two weeks of studying under Karl, she finally drew an Array successfully. The Extraction Array was one of the easiest to learn but it had taken away her sleep in these last few weeks.
Her fellow disciple, Wein was also stuck in his first Array. Instead of teaching his direct disciples the same Array, Karl decided to teach Wein the Absortion Array. This way, once they learned the Arrays they could help each other learning the other Array and also help him drawing it in the tools.
Besides the direct disciples, Karl was also teaching the level two disciples how to draw the Array, again he divided them into two groups to learn the two Arrays separately and help each other later. The level three disciples and the students were focused on learning how to process the magic materials and how the tools in the village worked.
“Anya, Wein, while you finish learning the Arrays I want you to come up with an idea for a magic tool to help the village. Right now, I'm focused on the new WET and in the magic fields, but after I finish them I want to start preparing for the next project... We need to advance faster...”
“Yes, Master!”
........
A couple of hours past noon, the Caiset’s group finally entered the city. Fortunately, they were allowed to enter a few minutes before the Guards started barring the entrance.
Since the registration ceremony only allowed for a limited number of people to be tested daily, it would last several days. To prevent the commoners from waiting inside the city, they only allowed the entrance of a certain number.
Even so, they didn't control the exit of the commoners. They counted on them leaving as soon as possible because they didn't have food or shelter inside the city.
The group didn't have to look around to locate the Magic Association where the registration happened, because the unending line of hungry-looking and poorly dressed commoners would point to it.
Sania looked around carefully, trying to get used to the city's layout and find a chance to slip up. She wasn't here to attend the ceremony, her place was already filled by another girl. Since the Kingdom only checked the numbers of 15 years in the village and their gender, they could easily replace her with someone who was hidden at the time of the inspection.
When they got near an alley, Sania exchanged a nod with the leading adult before dashing into the alley.
Once she got to the cover of a few boxes, she looked back to check if someone saw her. Fortunately, nobody paid attention or cared about a poor girl walking around. She quickly checked her weapons, a dagger and a spare stone knife, moving them to her side where she could easily access them in case of need.
She smiled, pleased with the sense of security that the weapon brought her. Then, she opened a straw bag, which was carried by the leading adult almost all the away to avoid suspicion, and took out her coat and boots.
To avoid raising suspicions, she could only wear the usual straw wraps that cover her private parts, on the way here. Although some commoners wore better clothes, they were usually from post villages or lived in a city. If the guards saw her using boots and a coat made of good material, they would suspect something.
Of course, she was also taking a risk by using it now, but how could she move inside the city without any protection?
Her garments weren't ordinary. Her boots had a Lightness Rune, specially upgraded to improve her movements. While her coat had a Toughness Rune and a Wind Coating Array.
Previously, Karl made some adjustments to fit her situation, both the Wind Coating Array and the Lightness Rune in her boots had to be calibrated to offer the right degree of effects, preventing them from disrupting her moves instead of improving them.
Karl drew the Rune and Array estimating environmental magic energy concentration higher than Caiset’s but lower than the energy concentration outside the village.
After putting on the garments, Sania moved to test them, making simulated attacks and other moves. Then, she placed the LQ energy crystal in the holder inside the coat to test the Array with the improved effect. For this last test, she took a few more minutes.
She planned to use the regular effects (without being powered by the crystal) to move around the city and only use the crystal to power the effects if she met problems.
........
“Did you know he was gonna proposed that?” Omero asked in a serious tone.
“Yes… I'm sorry grandpa, Karl trusted me to keep it a secret until he told the Council... I thought you'd be pleased that he wants to separate from the Kingdom, isn't it what you wanted?”
“Diana, you should know better... His plan isn’t less dangerous than mine, only pushes our revenge further… I planned to stay here and fight but he holds more support than me... It's my fault that the villagers see him as a hero, I wasn't counting on him being so willful... You should tell me this kind of information so I can take measures before the damage is done...”
“But grandpa, Karl's idea isn't that crazy, he said that...”
“Have you forgotten about our revenge? What they did to your parents?”
“No... It's just that we need to consider the villagers' safety... Can't we wait a little more to fight against the Kingdom?”
“We don't have a choice now, do we? The stronger we get, the more they'll support him...”
........
Sania moved fast around Wind Castle's lower districts, looking for a special mark as her grandfather instructed. She tried to stick to small and dark alleys, avoiding crowded places and being spotted by people.
Unfortunately, these kinds of places were frequented by people with bad intentions. Before she could exit a long dark alley located at the back of a tavern, she was stopped by two men.
Sania was used to the smell of villagers that couldn't bath regularly, but the men's smell made her want to throw up. Their appearance wasn't much better, the taller man grinned showing four to five missing teeth while the other man licked his lips.
“Hi, miss... Do you mind joining us for some fun?”
The taller man bowed while asking in a mocking tone, while the other couldn't help but laugh out loud. Because of her garments, they took her for a well-off lady.
Surprisingly, Sania responded by smiling wickedly. If it was her sister, she would have been annoyed and even afraid, but how could she not appreciate giving someone a good lesson.
“Of course kind Sirs, I'd love to...”
The men laughed even harder and moved to engage her. Sania calmly placed her hand at her side, grasping her dagger while her other hand moved to place the crystal in the holder inside her coat.
The men became confused and even thought that she was losing up her clothes, which made them approach her faster. When they were less than two meters from Sania, she dashed forward, surprising them.
Sania was slightly lowered and bent forward, giving her the perfect position to slash the taller man’s belly. The men screamed in pain while she moved to thrust the dagger in the other man's side, but she miscalculated his height and ended up thrusting the dagger at the man's chest.
He struggled a little, before dropping to the ground. The other man, who was pressing his pained belly, became shocked by her actions and fleed the alley screaming.
Sania looked at the bleeding man on the ground. She had to leave the alley before Guards or other people came, but she couldn't stop staring. It wasn’t her intention to kill him, she had never killed before.
After a couple of minutes, Sania crouched and cleaned her dagger in the man's trousers before fleeing the scene as fast as she could.
‘He's better dead anyway...’
