Chapter 73 - Rewards

The group soon left the capital wondering about the Future, but not that much. Thanks to her accomplishments, Liry has some value now and since the prime minister knows that he will pick a fight with the leader of the natives if she kills her, he decides to take a roundabout way to get rid of her, by sending her to lead as many battlefields as possible as one of those methods. Still, her charisma was high, and he probably didn’t know the real extent.

“I am going to miss her. I am not sure if I should wish for another battle for us to stand side by side. In any case, I can understand now why Reina likes her so much.’

Heirina had a point, but Zelos still felt that her charisma was a bit unnatural. As if she was a bad person, that was easy to say. She wasn’t, but she knew of her charisma and that made her troublesome in Zelos’s eyes.

The group left the capital without encountering any trouble and soon found themselves winding their way through the rugged mountain terrain. They were familiar with the path, having traveled it before, so the journey was relatively easy.

However, as they made their way deeper into the mountains, they encountered a small hiccup. Nightstorm was feeling rather moody. Zelos had run out of apples to feed him, and without any money to buy snacks for the journey, Nightstorm was feeling a bit neglected.

As a result, they had to slow down their pace, giving Nightstorm a chance to rest and recover from his sulk. Zelos felt guilty for not being able to provide for his loyal companion, but there was little he could do without any money to spare. He didn’t even have money to buy his own extra snacks.

Eventually, the group reached the point where the river started, and soon they took a break. It was still early in the morning, so they had time.

“I guess I spoiled you too much. From now on, you will only get three apples per day. You will have to make it with more green than red on your diet.”

Nightstorm grunted in protest, but Zelos didn’t feel like bulging in. His horse was reliable, but he needed to be less selfish. If Zelos could endure with the less food daily, then his horse could do as well.

“The mission is almost over… captain, don’t mind if I take a few weeks off after this job? I truly need a break.”

“You will probably get bored after one week, but suit yourself. Dad is becoming quite lenient lately, so he might agree with that.”

The reason for that was probably the fact that Hei would end up giving a lot of time off for Heirina as well. Putting that aside, after seeing some families lately, Zelos couldn’t help but realize that in times of war like that, it was rare to find a family that didn’t have some missing family members. Even the imperial family was no exception.

Speaking of family, Zelos couldn’t help but think of his parents right now… he got only one trait and since the time he was born, he need received any experience for his trait. That meant that his mother should have died during the childbirth and his father died even before that.

“I guess it is almost impossible to find a worst starting point,”

Before Zelos could keep thinking about that, he heard the sound of water being moved like before and soon he saw a boat being controlled by Eldor.

“Get in.” 

As usual, Eldor didn’t feel like wasting time and soon the group followed bis orders to head to the natives base. Going downstream was a lot faster than going upstream, so they only had to travel for a day and a half.

The group soon found themselves standing outside Reina’s office, ready to give her a report for their mission. Despite knowing that Reina was likely already aware of what had transpired during the war, she still wanted to hear directly from them.

With a sense of anticipation, they entered the office and sat down, preparing to recount the events of their mission. Reina listened intently, her expression unreadable as they spoke.

They detailed their actions on the battlefield, from the initial skirmishes to the final confrontation with the enemy generals. They spoke of their victories and losses, the challenges they had faced, and the strategies they had employed.

Throughout their report, Reina remained silent, her eyes focused on them with a piercing intensity. It was clear that she was absorbing every word, weighing their actions and decisions carefully. When they had finished, there was a moment of silence as Reina processed their report. Then she nodded, her expression finally betraying a hint of approval.

“You have done a fine job. I wasn’t certain if you all were up to the task, but my guess wasn’t wrong.”

That is a weird sequence of sentences, but Zelos knew better than saying that kind of thing before he was about to get paid. Call him calculating, he wouldn’t care. He can wait a couple of minutes before using his sharp tongue. In any case, Heirina looked hesitant about something, but she eventually made up her mind.

“Reina, will you lend your strength if there comes a time when Liry will need it?”

“It is hard to say. As I told you, my allegiance is to my people. I like her, but I can’t start a civil war for her. At the same time, she proved herself to be quite resourceful this time around, so we might not have to do anything. It is a bit naïve to bet on that, but while there is a chance, there is hope. Anyway, here is your payment.”

Reina passed a bag with a single coin for each one of them… it was a sunstone coin. The most valuable coin… it looked like she was trying to prevent them from asking other things about the subject.

“You guys should spend the night here and rest before leaving, there is also the extra that I am planning to give you guys and that will take some time to prepare.”

Everyone looked at each other… it was already lunch time and since Zelos was broke, he wouldn’t mind getting some extra free meals. The horse needed a break as well. Moving in the mountains and then staying on a boat for more than a day was very troublesome and unnatural for them. Thanks to that, Heirina made her choice.

“We will accept your offer.”

Soon enough, lunch was served and then Zelos are like there was no tomorrow. Heirina felt embarrassed and the others only showed awkward smiles. As if Zelos wasn’t being shameful enough, he went to sleep in the corner of Reina house for the rest of the afternoon. Once she confirmed that he was sleeping, Reina decided to continue the conversation.

“He defeated two generals, am I right? He didn’t give many details of how that happened.”

“He was alone when that happened, we were protecting Liry when that happened. According to what I heard, on the first time, he surprised the enemy with his glove that can block damage to some extent and on the second fight, he had a large wound in his chest and he was pale as a ghost when we found him.”

Now that she thought about it, Heirina realized that Zelos’s trait was too strong to be a simple healing trait. The next day when he received wounds, he would look completely fine. That wasn’t something normal healers could do…

Kaitrine felt a bit of hesitation. She wanted to share a few insights she had about Zelos’s traits, having worked closely with him, but something held her back. It didn’t feel right to divulge that kind of information without his consent.

Despite being the one who had spent the most time with Zelos while fighting, Kaitrine couldn’t shake the feeling that revealing personal details about him would be against her family’s policy. That being said, she didn’t respect Zelos all that much, and she didn’t mind overstepping any boundaries.

As the discussion went on, Kaitrine kept her thoughts to herself, silently observing as the others spoke. She knew that if Zelos wanted to share those details with anyone, he would do so himself. Until then, it wasn’t her place to speak for him.

“He is doing the right thing by putting himself through harsh battles to get stronger. As far as I can tell, you all have a lot of potential, but you aren’t used to taking risks unlike him.”

Heirina furrowed her eyebrows when she heard that. While Zelos was certainly brave, he was also pretty much insane as well. It was all because of his trait. He was also in a hurry to become stronger, the others wanted to improve as well, but that wasn’t the main goal of their lives.

In any case, the group decided to relax as much as possible as well since they finally didn’t have to worry about anything. Zelos only woke up when it was dinner time once again to eat enough for three people and then he went to sleep again. At that point in time, the group had given up on trying to understand how he worked.

When morning came, the group had breakfast together, but then soon Reina guided them to her office and there they found some boxes for each one of them. Reina told them to sit down and then opened the boxes for each one of them.

“I am not that familiar with your fighting styles, but from what I saw, I believe that these will serve you well. First, Heirina. You are good at defending, but you should use the chances to use your perfect defense to counterattack. I won’t tell you what this can do, you will eventually learn it.”

Heirina accepted the swords, noting their unusual design. The blades were indeed thicker and heavier than what she was accustomed to, and their curved handles were unlike anything she had seen before. Yet, there was something about them that felt right in her hands, as if they were meant for her.

“Thank you very much. I will make good use of it.”

“Now, Irlan. You are supposed to be good at reading the enemies moves and avoiding them. However, just waiting for them to attack first isn’t a good idea. This spear should help you improve your current fighting style.”