Chapter 234: Inconvinience
(A/N: Please read the author"s thought for a quick update on updating timings.)
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"Of course, sir. How should we address you?" The person there asked.
"Alfred is fine. There is no need to have t.i.tles with someone like me. How about you?" The Head Master said.
"I am Riaz. We are the Eastern Moguls, a small merchant group from Eldridge."
"Thank you for having us. We will set up our tents on the side," Alfred said and turned to the teachers.
"We need two tents and a stable. The teachers can keep guard." He said to them.
They took out a bunch of tents from their dimensional rings and started setting them up. The students looked at the tents with mixed expressions.
Everyone was confused since they didn"t need to sleep. As they were all 2nd Circle Aura Knights at the least, they would just need to recover their aura and meditate to rest. There wasn"t a need to put up tents for that.
However, a lot of them appreciated the comfort of being in a tent. The n.o.bles all felt that it was good for them to be inside rather than interact with the people outside.
As for Leo, he saw the tents as pointless. He wasn"t planning on entering them since he preferred the fresh air outside.
Once the tents were set up, Asher came to the students who were still on their horses.
"Now, get down from your horses. Release the pressure your aura is creating. The Head Master will take care of them while you can train in the tents. If you don"t want to stay in the tents, that is fine too. Just don"t venture far from where we are now. This place is known to have bandits."
Leo smiled. No bandits would be able to enter at least a 2-mile radius without being discovered by the Head Master. Even he could detect any people entering from half a mile himself. And even if an army came, what threat would they pose to a 5th Circle Mage?
They all got off their horses. Once they did, Asher took all of them to a makeshift stable that they made. As for the students, most of them were going into the tents. Only Leo didn"t.
"Are you not coming with us?" Lyra asked.
Leo shook his head. "No. I"ll stay outside."
"How are you alright? I thought you would be drained after releasing your aura for the entire day?" Marcus asked.
"I didn"t. The Head Master took care of me. So I don"t need to rest. I"ll just hang out with the people from the merchant guild," he said and walked away.
As the students got set up in the tents, Leo went to the stable where the horses were. It was just two metal poles hanging upright and a roof on top. There was also a horizontal bar for them to tie the horses, but that was it.
He picked the outermost horse which was resting on the ground. He leaned back, resting his head on it, while perceiving what was happening outside.
The people in the merchant group were not making any noise at all. Even before they arrived, the only reason they knew someone was there was because of the fire. The entire camp was incredibly alert which was why they were spotted quickly.
When their group got there, they saw that the camp was very solemn. This made everyone who cared start paying more attention to why this was the case. The Head Master, the professor, some of the students, and Leo all made these observations. .
After an hour, the people from the merchant group stomped out the fire they started. It seemed like they finished eating and were going to rest. However, a lot of the guards were still out, patrolling.
Leo noticed that out of the guards, there were over 5 2nd Circle Aura Knights and even a 3rd Circle one too. They seemed to be guarding a very precious artifact since they were being this careful with it.
He scoured through the carriages and the people with his perception, looking for the artifact in question, but he couldn"t find it. After his failure to find anything, he gave up. It was probably in someone"s dimensional ring so there was no way he would be able to look for it. f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com
With that conclusion, he stopped caring about the merchant group and started training his spells. The next two hours went by without any trouble until he felt someone enter the range of his perception.
First, it was a single person, but that person was joined by a group of more than 40 people.? They were slowly encircling the camp from afar without being detected by anyone from the camp. Leo immediately opened his eyes to look for where the Head Master was.
He found him sitting on a rocking chair, looking in the direction where the intruders are coming from. Beside him, Asher was sitting on a normal chair alongside. Only Selena was nowhere to be seen.
The Head Master turned around to meet Leo"s eyes. He smiled before turning away, leaving Leo in a cold sweat. How did he know that Leo was looking at him? Meanwhile, the Head Master gave a few instructions to Asher.
"We have a few intruders. Tell the merchant group to be a little cautious," he said.
Leo could hear Alfred"s words which made him worry more. If the Head Master only looked at him to see if he had been alerted by the intruders too, that meant that he was catching on to his true perception.
At this point, the people who were closing in were very close to the half-mile mark, so if the Head Master knew that his perception could reach that far, it would give him a hint that the 3rd Circle Aura Knight wasn"t a good depiction of his true power.
As he was thinking this, Alfred gave more orders to Maria.
"Call the students. This is a good time to let them experience a fight. It will prepare them for the trials," he said.
Maria left to call the students who were recovering their aura. As Asher did his job in alerting the Merchant Group, the Head Master looked at Leo again.
"Come here, boy," he said.
Leo"s mind raced with fear as he walked toward the Head Master. He was afraid that something would happen to him, but at this point, he couldn"t do anything about it. Trying to run would be pointless. A Peak-Stage 5th Circle Aura Knight would catch up to him even after a ten-minute head start.
"Yes, Head Master?" Leo asked him why he called him.
"Please, just call me Alfred," the Head Master said.
Leo became a little uncomfortable with calling a person that much more older and powerful than him by his first name. Alfred smiled when he saw this.
"When you become as strong as you are now, then age will not matter anymore. The only thing that remains is mutual respect for everyone who is alike."
"But I am not as strong as you," Leo replied. His heart was starting to sink because he realized what this meant. The Head Master had discovered his secret.