6 Bellwell

Because the academy only begins in two months, they took their time traveling leisurely.

Eva has become slightly spoiled recently as they would occasionally stop for her to take a nap or because she wanted to explore an incredible-looking place. Though he did not mind her cute behavior since they weren't in a hurry anyway.

A week had passed after the day of the incident.

As expected, Eva had completely mastered her spell in no time, summoning arrow mid-air wasn't a problem anymore. Right now, she was learning another E-Rank spell that was slightly more complex than the previous one.

Ted wasn't sure if Eva could pass the entrance exam or not. After all, she had only started training recently but might make it with her monstrous talent.

During that short period of time, Eva has successfully broken the ice with Ted as he no longer acted coldly toward her.

She was dumbfounded when he had opened up to her. Time flies just by talking to such an interesting person and other than her parents, he was the only person with whom she enjoyed spending time together.

Not to mention the way he looked at her wasn't like most men in her village. Eva has gotten so used to how men looked at her that she had developed a kind of ability to know if someone had an evil intention toward her.

However, the strangest thing was that Ted lacked common knowledge like how people dressed and showed interest in ordinary things. Eva supposed that he was just a noble who had never seen a village before.

The first reason why she considered the possibility was that a few days ago, Ted gave her his jacket to protect herself from the chill. Back then, she felt like she wearing a treasure on herself. Never in her life had she expected to wear something so soft and breathable.

Secondly was his power as no ordinary person would have been able to move at such a high speed back then.

Commoners who can use magic wouldn't be so powerful. Every noble had a private instructor to teach them so even with considerable talent in magic, without money, it was extremely difficult to stand out.

How were they supposed to pass the entrance exam if they can't learn anything ahead of time?

Due to this, nobles had developed a sense of superiority over commoners, believing that only they could be powerful while peasants were trash.

But whatever his social standing, she would still follow him as he was the only person she appreciated and could trust.

While Ted was traveling with Eva, the only thing to entertain himself was chatting with her. But with time, he came to appreciate their moment together. His thirst for knowledge had pushed him to learn new things from her.

Just because he has stopped acting coldly didn't mean he trusted her. Eva was at most a 'friend' but not someone he could count on. Until now, he had been preventing himself from getting affectionate with her to avoid getting hurt once she leaves him in the future.

"We have finally arrived at Bellwell! That is where I had...lived..." As a bunch of houses came into their sights, Eva exclaimed in joy. But as soon as memories of her parents came flooding back, her voice quieted down.

Ted watched Eva silently at the side. He could relate to her as he had also suffered the same thing in the past.

Forgetting about her parents shouldn't be an easy task, but they had made the mistake of their life by abandoning her just for some little profit. If during their stay at the inn, they met them by sheer coincidence, Ted will make sure to prevent them from taking advantage of Eva again.

While nearing Bellwell, Ted was fascinated by the scenery he had only seen in books. Seeing it by himself was much more impressive. So many people gathered in one place and everything was new to him.

Most houses were made out of straw and wattle. While a little far away, there were stone buildings with glass in their windows.

Those luxurious buildings probably belonged to the Lord of the Manor, the most important person who owned all the land within a village.

Contrary to the silence he was used to in the forest, the ambiance was lively with sounds of wooden wheels turning roughly over uneven cobbles of paved streets. At the market, noise of people discussing and arguing with each other added to the vibrant atmosphere.

Surrounding Bellwell, were wooden fences with sharp peaks and measuring two times his size to protect people from wild animals.

Only 5% of the world's population could use magic as one only had a tiny chance of developing a mana core at birth. Without it, it was impossible to convert mana into energy.

This is why Ted was puzzled as to why Eva's parents sold her for a little amount of money instead of grooming her since having a child who possessed a mana core was incredibly rare.

At the entrance, a long queue awaited them.

With nothing to do, Ted passed his time by observing others.

Standing patiently in the line, Ted couldn't care less about people who were looking at them with curiosity or evil intention.

Most of them couldn't use magic and those able to would be living in a big town rather than in a poor village.

If anyone came looking for trouble, he would welcome them with open arms.

Comically, Ted still glared at whoever looked at Eva with evil intentions. The fact that he had no idea about what they were thinking or planning annoyed him greatly.