Chapter 6: Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

Waking up to the sunlight which hit his face from the large window to his right, Alex slowly opened his eyes and sat up from his slumped position against the carriage door. Groggily getting his mind back into action he let out a small yawn and looked at the interior of the carriage which he had quickly fallen asleep in. Opposite Alex sat an identical bench to what he was currently sat on, covered by red, velvety cushions, the seats were extremely comfortable which Alex could attest to since he didn’t even recognize when he had fallen asleep.

Currently he sat alone but he could hear his new travel buddies outside having a conversation, slapping his cheeks softly to try and forget about the tragic events he had just experiences, he slowly opened the carriage door and was momentarily blinded by the sunlight which hit him hard.

Alex looked at the two Church of Helios members who were still dressed in their uniforms and saw them sitting around a dead fire pit while eating some sort of sandwiches. With his mind stuck on what they were eating, his stomach growled causing the two to turn around and pay attention to the newcomer who walked towards them and sat near them on another log.

For a while no words were said as they handed Alex one of their sandwiches which was made of chicken, lettuce, and some sort of white sauce which Alex hadn’t seen before. Scoffing the food down with the help of some water, his hunger was momentarily satiated as he rubbed his muscles which were surprisingly saw from the little exercise he had done.

“We were a bit preoccupied previously but now we can all take a moment to introduce ourselves, I’m Michael a priest belonging to the Church of Helios, this here is Rebecca one of my team members.” After introducing himself and his colleague, the man named Michael waited for Alex’s response.

“Thank you for letting me come with you, I’m Alex. I was trying to head to the academy before the carriage I was on got attacked. You said you found the carriage, right? What will happen to it?” As Alex thought back onto the events of the previous day, he felt a dull pain in his stomach as he thought about Noah who he had only known for a couple days. Rather than feeling that emotion of rage which had controlled him yesterday, his mind felt surprisingly lethargic as he thought about the atrocities which the bandits had committed.

“Do you realize that what you did was wrong?” Breaking Alex out of his thoughts, the bespectacled girl names Rebecca ask him a question which brought a frown to his face?

“Wrong? But I saved them, and you guys even thanked me.” Asking them out of confusion, Alex struggled to understand why Rebecca thought he made a mistake.

“Yes, you may have saved those girls, but you didn’t do it the best possible way. You killed the bandits and saved the girls before you even got any training from the academy, do you realize how insanely luck you are? If those bandits were half competent or had any tiered items you would have been dead and then the bandits may have been spooked and moved bases, most likely killing their prisoners.” Stating his mistakes with little emotion in his voice, Michael reprimanded Alex as if he was a teacher telling his student the mistakes he made on his exam.

“If you want to succeed as a climber you can’t settle for ‘good enough’, it’s either perfect or you cause a mistake that makes you and your party die. And yes, we had to thank you in the village as how would they react if their newly found savior was harshly reprimanded? They’d see the church as jealous pricks who wanted the glory.”

As Alex listened to the words which greatly impacted him, he contemplated on his actions. As Michael had only spoken the truth, Alex realized that none of his actions were logical, and he had been running purely on emotions. Instead of seeking help and reporting the location of the bandits to ensure they did not escape, he rushed into their base just to be outnumbered where he would’ve died from a single strike if his ring of protection didn’t activate.

Looking at the sleek design of the silver ring, he rubbed it gently as if to thank it for it’s help. Looking into the eyes of Michael who was also staring at him to see how Alex would react, Alex’s next words brought a small smile onto Michael’s face.

“Thank you for your help, my actions had been guided by my emotions which made me act recklessly.” Realizing that the boy had taken his words in, Michaels usually strict face now looked happy as he thought back at his own time at the academy and the various mistakes he had also made.

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“It’s fine, the one person who can judge you on your actions is yourself, you can choose to listen to what others say but the way you act should reflect the type of person you want to be. The world always needs more heroes.” Dropping those words, Michael started to pack up the small campsite they had set up and walked into the carriage followed by Rebecca and then Alex.

As those last words had resonated deeply within Alex’s mind, he contemplated deeper than he had ever before on who he wanted to be, whether he grew to be a hero who shielded the weak, or a devil who brought calamity, only time would tell.

 

 

“Your mana control is surprisingly good, but you don’t make proper use of your strength, you have to use your whole body not just your arms when you strike.” In a small meadow where grass came up to their knees, two people could be seen sparring with each other. In their hands one held a wooden sword while the other held onto a log which’s bottom had been carved away to form a shotty handle.

As Alex continued to swing at Michael, his strikes were continuously parried or evaded, in contrast to Alex who was covered in sweat, Michael let out a small yawn reflecting the amount of effort he was putting in.

“You rely a lot on your mana which could rival a guild members child, however you clearly lack training with that overgrown stick. What sort of training have you been doing until now?” As Michael had his curiosity peaked by the kid who seemed both experienced and completed new at the same time, he couldn’t help but ask the question which plagued his mind.

“Well, I did a lot of training to ‘get my body in shape’, as my family told me. I also trained with a sword, but I never liked using one that much.” As Alex answered Michael’s curiosity, he reflected on the different types of training he had experienced until now.

Although he constantly wanted to try and perfect his fighting style with weapons, the girls always forced him to focus more on his body than the intricacies of a specific weapon. Whenever he asked why this was the case, he was simply told that if he didn’t want to die, he would continue with this training, and if he ever so much as mumbled after that response he would be dragged into a game of dodge-the-arrow with Celia.

Putting his own sword down and signaling the training to stop, Michael walked towards Alex who had a question mark over his head, confused by his sudden actions. Further surprising him more, Michael proceeded to grope and prod various parts of Alex’s body which caused him to freeze in surprise.

“Uhmm, Michael? Sorry but I don’t swing that way…” Letting out a small voice and walking away from the strange man, Alex looked at the priest who let out a small chuckle and kept saying interesting over and over while holding his chin in a contemplative mood.

“I see now, it’s definitely not the normal form of training but whoever your teacher was really didn’t want you to die on the first floors. While you may be extremely lacking compared to your peers when it comes to weapon proficiency, your muscles are well developed, and your combat sense is also trained. Rather than letting you get used to a specific weapon which you will eventually swap out anyway, your body is now ready for whatever sort of combat style you want to take. Whoever it was wanted your ‘foundation’ to be extremely reliable.” Explaining further on the training which no one had ever bothered to explain to him before, Alex though about all the times he had felt his muscles tear after his workouts and the number of arrows or swords he had to dodge. Now that he understood that this was their own way of looking after him, a warm feeling enveloped Alex’s body as he felt the love from his adopted family.

“If we don’t leave soon then we’ll be late! You don’t want the bishop to be angry again, do you?” As a soft voice came from the inside of the carriage nearby, the two training partners held a sheepish look as they walked into the carriage after refreshing themselves.

Although his journey may have taken a misfortunate turn of events, Alex would finally reach the Capital of the Sol Empire where his next step in life awaited.

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