Chapter 16: Moon Gazing (1)
Q: How many Dominions are there exactly?
A: Unknown, but currently, the mainland has inheritances of six.
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It's the eleventh day after my transmigration and the day before the end-of-year festival.
Now, what would normal students at Starlight Academy do at this time? Attend the festival and prepare for the next academic year? That's probably what's going to happen, but before that, we made plans to camp on the precarious mountain on a whim, where wild spirit beasts as well as other savage things roam amok. Though that would be unlikely by our problem.
The swift, stiff gust of winds were the only problem so far on our journey. The mountains were on the colder side, but with all the climbing, I barely felt any cold. It has been four hours since we left the academy, on horses at first to the foot of the mountain, then entirely on foot, and such climbing in such a brief period could even make spirit practitioner tired. And that too with a heavy load on our back. Fortunately, my strength had advanced to Grade-C yesterday, or so the load was of no trouble.
"This place looked as good as any, right?" I said, pointing at the rocky sides a dozen metres away from me.
Surely, we won't want to climb to the peak. Though Ben-Kyle duo wanted to go exactly there, we voted against it to dismiss that. On the brighter side, this side of the mountain was not filled with snow or ice. Starlight City always gets the better of the mountains, unlike Victoria, which is situated on the other side of the mountain range.
The Starlight City was a natural fortress with the Starfall mountain range, surrounding from south to west. The mountain range protects the land from the extreme cold. That was not all. The mountain holds many natural or unnatural treasures that help the spirit practitioner in many ways, bringing wealth to the city.
"This place is not that good for moon gazing," Yasmine said. "Though we can rest here for a while."
Yasmine was not in her usual gown now, but in leather armour with a sword at her waist, though everyone else other than Julies and Yeriel carried one with them. Yasmine looked like a heroic knight and more of a leader of the group than anyone else, and I think she had it in herself.
Yeriel was the one who was at her worst. Unlike everyone else with their trained body of knights, she was a magus apprentice. Though her spirit energy reserves could recover her exhaustion fast, there was still a limitation on it. The bald fellow helped her to carry the load, but did not limit her excitement.
The girl with the lowest physical strength in the group was the most excited about the camping as she had never seen all the moons together in one sky so up close, not to mention the year-end moon gazing was a tradition among her people.
Apparently, this world had not one, two, but five moons, but rarely did they align in the same sky. The five moons come into the same sky once a month, but in most months, it is not as apparent as today.
Honestly, the Night of Brilliance was one single most important event in the Realm. Many things happen during this time — good or bad. I wanted to give it a look as well, though I would have been fine with just gazing out of my window. I was never really an adventurous type, however, that needs to be changed.
We rested there for a while. Yasmine handed me a flask of water for me and Yeriel. The sun was still in the sky, radiating in its after glow. The sunset in Starlight city is always breathtaking, not to mention when we were on the mountain. There were still a couple of hours before it turns dark, and almost six hours before all five moons would appear in the same sky. I wondered if the site would be satisfied enough with all the climbing I did.
Ben and Kyle were doing their best, so I did not need to worry about any beasts attacking. Not to mention Yasmine was beside me, who was a far better knight than the duo put together. Well, I should be good enough, too. Ignoring my skills, the stats are enough for me to contest with Yasmine, who will get her knighthood in a couple of days.
Genuinely, I felt down just thinking about it. If only Scar had not wasted his good body on alcohol. Well, no point in diminishing on what already passed. My trainings were going well, and I have some talent for high arts, though I would need some help from a proper magus to get anywhere. Then again, who won't need any help to learn high arts of the order of Magi?
There were also those mindless training on spirit energy that helps in control. A couple week ago, I was your average salary worker, and now with an Adventurer with a sword on my back. Anything could happen att his rate. Perhaps a dragon will appear and give us ride now. Nah, there was most likely no dragon on the mainland.
Abruptly, my thought process was interrupted as I heard a familiar voice.
"Surprise, surprise, never thought to meet you here, brother," a female voice said, and I did not even need to turn my head to know who it belonged to. It was none other than my Tsundere half-sister, Lily.
When Ben and Kyle heard the voice, they were alarmed at first, but when they realised it was Lily and Sir Lorne, they relaxed. The newcomer duo were in the same costume as they came to my dorm a couple of days ago, though more disorganised now. Lily was less heroic than her first appearance, while Lorne was still with that stone face as if no emotion will ever shower on that stone.
Sir Lorne gave a nod to me, acknowledging my presence where my good sister did not even bother to greet me on accords to her Tsundere personality. Lily was with the ancestral sword, and it surely did not look good on her back. The sword was over a metre long, while Lily was not short, she was not tall like me either. Perhaps I just did not want to see her with that sword.
My loyal underling glared at her for me, as he knew how meaningful it was for me, even though I gave up on that sword. Not only that, the news of that was all over the academy by the second day. Lily was never the person to keep her achievement secret.
"What are you guys doing here?" She asked.
"We are here for the moon gazing," Yasmine said, though her expression was not the brightest. She did not take it smoothly on the whole matter though she never said a word about it.
Somehow, I felt somewhat relieved to see it. Really, I was considering thinking if all the feelings I had towards this beautiful maiden came from just Scar, or there are some from me too?
"What a coincidence, we had the same thought after our hunting," Lily said and asked. "Mind if we join?"
Yasmine looked at me for approval and seeing me nod, she nodded as well. And thus, our small team of six turned into a team of eight.
Apart from being annoyed by Lily, I was relieved to see Sir Lorne, a First-Class Knight, here with us. I had only been here in this world for eleven days, and this mountain range might not be the most dangerous place in the Realm, but it still held danger that even a lone knight fears to wander on his own.
With the occasion being if not the most auspicious phenomenon, and this chapter of moon gazing not being a canon of the original book, something could happen here. My mind of a reader has a gut feeling about this.
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