A Walk with Eternity-Chapter 44: Monsters

The travel time to reach the Empire of Amadeus Oceana is about a day and a half, including their ship time to the capital city, which is a mere thirty-minute ride on the waves. They will be accompanied by nine escort knights, which normally would have been more, if Kian had not opposed the number.

That day and a half could be shortened to a day if they were riding on their respective horses without escorts, but since they are not in a rush anyway, the emperor urged them to take a carriage and be properly recognized as the delegation of Slora. They will be staying for more than a month, after all.

The first carriage carried their valuables, luggages, and the gifts. It was a shock itself that all their things could fit in one carriage.

Cimmerian, Ezio, Dolunay, and Milera were in the second carriage. They were having fun among themselves with board games and card games. While on the third carriage were Lysander, Kian, and Syvestian. All three of them were quietly reading the documents they brought with them. Kian was looking through the documented profiles of the possible figures attending the four balls. Next to him was Lysander, and he was reading about a specific topic on magic and bodies that he talked about with Syvestian a few days ago. In front of them was Syvestian, who was busy reading documented research about the Empire of Amadeus Oceana.

There is still about a week before the month of celebration, and delegates from other counties usually come within the month of celebration itself, only staying for a week or two to attend its final night of celebration, which is the grandest of all. There are four celebratory balls that will be held within the month, and while attendance isn’t mandatory, it’s a crucial time to build connections across borders.

While Kian was thinking about the people attending the balls, Syvestian was heavily interested in the empire itself, especially its unique geography. There was something unique about the siren technology that intrigued him.

This one of the many unique geography that he came across with. He finds many beautiful and interesting places in the universe despite not physically visiting them himself while he was a deity. Even just one earth has many wonders itself. It was an interesting series of research.

And now, he’s about to add one more in that series.

In his peripheral vision, Kian noticed the change of scenery. He turned his head to the open window and smiled. "It seems we’re here..."

They now have a clear view of the sea and the seashore city. The sun had completely set and the night was slowly dawning before them. The seashore city was alive, with multiple lights bringing life to the city like stars.

After a whole day of travel, they were ordered to stay the night by the harbor city that was part of Slora, Amoara, the City of Shells. This city was constructed with the Empire of Amadeus Oceana when the current emperor Slora first sat on the throne. It has become the main place for business and trading between many lands and Amadeus Oceana.

"It looks peaceful," Syvestian commented at the beauty. "I find it hard to believe that this used to be attacked by monsters of both the wild and the sea."

"Well, night travels have been banned in this city because it triggers the sea monsters of the ocean. They are usually sensitive at night," Lysander says. "While the monsters lurking by the forest and mountains can be contained by knight guards alone, they are still a class of their own."

A second later, their carriage stops.

"Speaking of the devil..." Lysander couldn’t contain his smirk.

"How many?" Syvestian asks, flipping the next page on the document.

"About fifty first class orcs and twenty second class orcs..." Kian responded.

"How unusual... that’s a whole army in waiting. They’re not usually in that big of a group," Lysander says as he opened the carriage door and stepped out. Kian followed after. A knight was already approaching them before Syvestian could place down his document.

"Y-Your Highness...!"

Panic was evident on the knight’s face. It must be because of the number. It certainly was an unusual number. They couldn’t help but think that this might be a planned ambush.

"Step back and protect the valuables. We’ll take care of it," Kian says. Just then, his other friends from the other carriage stepped out as well.

"Sitting on the carriage all day was getting tiring," Dolunay says with a small grin.

"How convenient. Should we warm up for night training later?" Ezio asks, stretching his arms up. They usually train by day, but because of the travel situation, they have no choice but to move it up to early evening.

"The timing is suspicious though," Milera commented, and Cimmerian nodded in agreement.

"Any clues who might have paid for this?" Cimmerian turns to Kian and the Lysander. Lysander can only shrug in response.

"We’re about to find out who did," Kian says, sighing in annoyance. He really doesn’t know who they might be, but he has a few people in mind that might pull this petty prank.

"Well, consider this one an evaluation."

All of them turned to Syvestian, stepping out of the carriage.

"I haven’t exactly witnessed you fighting monsters all on your own, and we’ve been reunited for two months now," Syvestian stated. He then beams a smile and continues, "Show me the best you can and I might let you off easy on training tonight."

They keep seeing all sides of Syvestian today. At this moment, this was their mentor talking in front of them. That was all it took to spark up their competitiveness and immediately run to the scene.

Oh gods, how competitive can they get? Syvestian thought to himself as he walked to follow along.

All six of them found the remaining eight knights struggling completely against the orcs. There was one knight that fell on his feet and is currently getting attacked by a huge orc. Without hesitation, Ezio dashed to help, using his speed. He used his feet to kick the cheek of the large orc the weakest link was struggling against.

"What a hard face you have here!" Ezio laughed as he exerted less strength than what was needed. "It doesn’t matter though!"

His body did a complete 270 mid-air to the left to switch his body position and switch from his right feet to his left. Ezio then landed a heavy blow on top of the head.

The orc’s head was planted on the ground, and Ezio landed safely. He dashed out once again before the knight he helped could even say anything.

"Are you alright? You can stay back, we’ll handle all of them."

The knight flinched in surprise hearing Milera’s gentle voice. Milera already has her huge hammer in her hand, glowing in her orange sunset-colored aura.

"A-Ah! Yes! I apologize, mi’lady!" The knight immediately stood up from the ground and bowed. Milera can only smile.

"No worries, protect our treasure please."

"Understood!"

Next to Milera was Cimmerian with his precious bow and arrow. His right eye was glowing in green, giving him water-clear vision. He targeted the smaller orcs which were annoying to deal with because of their dirty tricks.

Lysander was next to him, bringing out his sword from his own shadows. "Leave some of them for me, will you?" he told Cimmerian, and Cimmerian smirked at that.

"Hurry, because Dolunay might beat you to it. She’s a little frustrated from our little game."

Dolunay was indeed looking a little impatient. Glowing in her violet aura, her gaze shows how annoyed she is at the moment. Five orcs were heading her way, seeing her as a weak link, despite it being the complete opposite.

"Thank heavens I have something to place my pent up frustration on."

With a swing of her hand, all five orcs were forced on their knees down to the ground, causing the ground to break.

"Careful, my love."

Dolunay didn’t react to Kian’s whisper in her ear. She glanced at him, and he was smiling at her.

"We’re in the mountains, don’t wreck too much havoc around you. You might cause a landslide. We wouldn’t want that now, do we?" Kian calmly soothes her, but Dolunay only rolled her eyes.

"Go and do your thing, Your Highness."

Kian could only chuckle at that sassy response as his blue aura lit and showed itself. Kian took flight with his long sword and immediately looked at the larger group that Ezio and Dolunay had yet to touch. On the corner of his eyes, Lysander and Milera were each taking on a group of ten orcs all by themselves.

By the looks of this... I’ll have to go all the way to the rear, Kian thought to himself and flew to the farthest back.

He landed right where he wanted, and he was immediately surrounded by first class orcs.

"Do your best to warm me up now..." he mumbled under his breath, pulling his sword up to his shoulders. He wore a wide grin. "Time to show the master how much we’ve grown without him..."

At the very front of the scene, the knights were watching in complete awe, at the beauty of this circle of friends even in battle. And although in awe, they are somewhat terrified as well. With just six of them, they were slowly pushing back the army of orcs that came to ambush them.

The fact itself is such a surprising display of their actual strength, which they have never been able to witness.

I don’t know which are the monsters here... the orcs or them... The knights thought among themselves.

Syvestian, on the other hand, was looking satisfied, smiling from ear to ear as he spectated this whole battle. A bittersweet feeling hit him, knowing that these were the same children he trained when they were barely in the stage of adolescence.

They have truly brought out the full potential of those textbooks, and I don’t think they’re even trying hard to defeat these orcs, Syvestian thought to himself, feeling all fluttery in his chest.

Truly, it was a mentor’s joy to see his own students show off their full potential.

Even if he technically raised a new set of monsters.