Into The Forest

Selene left the plaza and continued walking. She was originally supposed to meet her father outside the plaza at the guard post when she had finished, but right now she was walking in the complete opposite direction.

There were several groups of parents waiting outside of the plaza, and when they noticed Selene, they all came up to her excitedly.

"Selene, how was it? Is the Awakening Ceremony over?"

"Congratulations on awakening, Selene! How about my son, Matthew, do you know how he did?"

All of the parents thought that Selene was simply the first to leave and that the ceremony was over, so they flooded her with questions.

Hearing their questions made Selene's stomach feel like a void. Speeding up, she began running from the area, towards the edge of the town.

She truly felt like a waste at this point. While for some other people not being able to utilize their arcane spirit might be bearable, especially with the quiet life in Bluewater Town, for her it felt truly miserable. She had spent her whole life with her father, who was a powerful warrior and the guard captain in Bluewater Town. To her, she had always dreamed of one day surpassing her father.

But now, if she had an unusable Arcane Spirit, such a dream was simply impossible. Her father was as strong as he was because of his powerful arcane spirit, which he had trained to a high level. For Selene, who was now destined to be unable to cultivate her Arcane Spirit, defeating him in the future was just a joke.

She felt like she had failed, and under such unfair circumstances, too. She wasn't even given the opportunity to try to succeed and was instead just crushed from the beginning.

Arriving at the edge of town, right in front of the trees of Eldwood Forest, she couldn't help but feel unwilling.

Selene's father had always told her to never enter the forest without him, and so she had only ever traveled the well-known roads that branched out from Bluewater Town.

Deep inside her heart, a fire began to boil while she looked at the forest that had always represented a looming danger to her.

"Fine! You want to make things hard for me!? Just you wait, one day I will surpass my father, Arcane Spirit or not!"

Shouting at the sky, Selene felt her voice become hoarse. Her eyes stung as she felt tears start to form.

Taking a deep breath, Selene's eyes became calmer, and she looked at the forest seriously. Then, in the next moment, she took off, running into the looming trees without looking back. All that was left of her disappearing figure were the small footsteps in the snow which led into the forest.

As Selene ran through the forest on a path that she had never seen before, she began to have second thoughts. However, thinking about her Arcane Spirit, she shook her head and forced herself to continue.

"Who needs an Arcane Spirit anyways? Just you wait, I will prove I can be strong without a spirit!"

Selene had a foolish plan lined up in her head and had it not been for her desperation at the moment, even she would have felt ridiculous for thinking it up.

The reason why she had entered the forest at this time was to seek out the Magical Beasts residing in the snowy woodlands. Eldwood Forest was known to possess a great number of magical beasts, as well as tribes of some other intelligent races.

"Even if I don't have a compatible Arcane Spirit, I have trained since I was 6 years old in order to strengthen myself. If I can still take down a magical beast, then I can prove myself to father!"

Her thoughts like this, Selene continued to rush deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile, back in Bluewater Town, Edward was standing outside the guard post, looking in the direction of the plaza with an expectant expression.

"The Awakening Ceremony should have ended by now, I wonder what is taking that girl so long?"

Edward felt that Selene was a little bit late. However, thinking about it, he didn't worry too much. Each Awakening Ceremony took a different amount of time. He would give her another hour and ask her why she was late when she arrived.

Turning around, Edward entered the guard post to finish the paperwork he needed to complete for the day.

In the plaza, all of the children were beginning to disperse now that the ceremony had been completed. A small crowd of children had gathered around a lone figure, though, not yet leaving the plaza.

In the middle of the small crowd, Malcolm was standing with a calm expression, though the joy in his eyes couldn't be contained. He actually had the chance to join Midwinter Academy!

"Congratulations, Malcolm! You really are awesome!"

"As expected of the governor's son, having a top medium grade Arcane Spirit is really impressive!"

As the praises began to pile on, Malcolm, who was already quite proud and bold, began to feel his ego surge. Today, everything was going right for him, and he was being worshipped by the other children in the town. For an 8-year-old child, this sort of thing was enough to make him incredibly arrogant. Let alone Malcolm, who was already used to lording over servants in his household.

Eventually, the crowds dispersed, and a well-made wooden carriage arrived in the town plaza. Malcolm, who was waiting there, became furious as he watched the carriage driver pull up lazily.

He was the last child standing in the cold plaza, and watching the carriage driver, who was acting nonchalant and moving slowly, he could only feel a surge of anger. After how perfectly everything had gone for him today, facing this sort of small grievance completely flipped his mood.

"You! What are you doing!? Why are you so late?"

Aggressively, Malcolm shouted at the carriage driver, startling him.

"Young master? What do you mean? I left as soon as I got word that the ceremony had ended."

"Humph! You should have driven faster! Why do I have to wait out in the cold for so long? Hurry up and take me home."

Malcolm's tone startled the carriage driver, as he had never heard him sound so domineering.

While many people in the governor's home knew that Malcolm would bully the servant girls, he had never shouted at any of the older servants. After all, Malcolm knew that these people were held in high regard by the governor, so he did not dare to make too much trouble with them.

However, he was still the governor's son, and the carriage driver was the governor's servant. He could only keep his head down and take Malcolm's raging comments.

Finally, Malcolm climbed into the carriage and slammed the door after a few more moments of shouting at the carriage driver.

"What in the world has gotten into the young master today?"

The carriage driver could only helplessly drive the carriage back towards the governor's mansion, still completely bewildered by Malcolm's sudden aggressiveness.