70 Argentum Merchant Caravan

Around noon, Greyson could finally hear the thundering echo of multiple carriages coming his way. Looking in through the gate, he spotted 10 large carriages along with one expensive looking passenger carriage. The carriages were surrounded by 10 guards on horseback and followed by around 50 foot soldiers. The imposing sight shocked Greyson as he thought it was no wonder his teacher said they would be attacked. Although everything looked well-guarded, they also looked filled with important and expensive goods that warrant so much guarding. Stronger and well-established bandit groups could outnumber this amount of soldiers if they wanted to attack. However, this was what he was hoping for so that he could train and continue getting used to his new abilities. Practicing them by himself or with his teacher were not the same as actual real-life fighting where his life could be in danger.

At the very front of the caravan was a young woman in armor. Valiant and charming, the grey-haired woman exuded a soldier's aura around her. She had spotted Greyson who seemed to watching them remembering that there was supposed to be a student joining them to travel to the Beast Empire. Actually looking at him, though, she was incredibly shocked. How could he look so much like her mother?! The hands holding the horse's reins began shaking as her eyes would not leave the young boy's face.

Feeling such a meaningful stare, Greyson also shifted his eyes towards the woman at the front. It was Eden Ley! He could recognize her features from the auction, even though five years had gone by. Eden still gave off the same strong atmosphere as she had at the auction, which was rare in girls who were normally taught to be ladylike. He saw an odd excitement and surprise as she looked at him. Furrowing his brows, he was not sure how to respond to such a stare. Remembering how Luca Argentum stared at him as well, he felt put off by the family. What was with all of them?

Next to Eden was her old maid, Anne, traveling on foot. Noticing Eden's surprise, she also looked over at Greyson and felt the same excitement. However, she quickly got control over herself and whispered over to her master.

"Milady, a lot of beautiful elves have similar features. Do not be too excited. We can slowly ask some questions and get a feel for this young elf. Remember the last time, milady got so excited that you explained the entire situation to someone before confirming their identity and they used us. Even we are not if the seventh highness positive inherited a dragon bloodline like you or an elf-bloodline. Let us not make early assumptions." Careful due to past experiences, Anne did not want to see her kind master to be used by another again. That evil boy had long been killed after Anne found out. Eden wanted to spare him, but Anne would not allow the ungrateful animal to live. She knew best how much Eden longed to find her family and someone using those feelings and hurting her so deeply was something that Anne could not allow.

Hearing Anne's advice, Eden awoke from her trance and hardened her gaze. That's right. She could not allow herself to be taken advantage of again. Calming herself down, her eyes looked towards different area and no longer stared at Greyson. Seeing the woman's eyes leave him, Greyson let out a sigh of relief. Maybe it was just a momentary fascination. The caravan continued moving forward until Eden signaled for them to halt in front of Greyson.

"Are you the student who is joining us on this journey?" Keeping her voice as even and neutral as possible, Eden made sure to not give away any excitement.

"If you guys are the Argentum family's caravan, then, yes, that would be me." Greyson responded.

"Name?"

"Greyson."

"No last name?"

"No, I am a commoner and have no last name."

"I see. Well, you can follow along my maid Anne." Eyes slightly lighting up when she heard his answer, Eden had him stay close to her so she could continue her conversation nonchalantly. Nodding his assent, Greyson greeted Anne who gave him an examining glance in return but said nothing. Slightly confused by the harsh greeting, he assumed she was just not friendly. The rest of the caravan and soldiers paid him no mind, although there were a lot who gave him disdainful glares. Suddenly, Greyson regretted not coming out with his disguise spell activated. He had a feeling that this trip was going to be a lot more annoying with his mixed blood identity out in the open.

...

To his disappointment, Greyson could not have been more correct. Traveling with this caravan, he became the target of the stupidest pranks for the past 2 weeks. When he went to bathe with river water, his clothes would disappear. The food given to him was always leftovers, filled with worms, or not fully cooked. Sometimes they did not even give him any food. Eden also had not spoken to him at all since the start of the trip, so he could not really find anyone to complain to. He ended up hiding his clothes in his spatial ring and hunting for his own food. Honestly, he could not tell if he was youngest or if these immature soldiers were. The worst was when bandits attack the caravan. The soldiers would purposefully leave openings so that the bandits would attack Greyson. No matter how many he was surrounded by, none of the soldiers would assist him. They thought that this would injure or kill him, but they were unaware that training himself was the biggest reason he traveled with them. His only issue was that he was getting bored with a bunch of small fry bandits who he could beat away with one spell. Sometimes he would step in to help the other soldiers when he saw they were having trouble. However, seeing them continue with their stupid pranks, he decided he would stop helping them. Such a thankless task was not worth his effort. Greyson's prowess in battle soon won the fear of the soldiers who realized they were no match for him.Maybe because they feared his power, they resorted to petty pranks without ever trying to actually physically hurt him.

"Here, your food." An older soldier roughly handed him strips of jerky and a stale piece of bread with mold growing on it. Accepting without making any fuss, Greyson just sighed. Once the soldier was out of sight, he quickly tossed the gross stuff onto the ground and pulled out some edible fruit he found while scavenging around the forest. Kept cold and fresh within the spatial ring, the fruit were juicy and refreshing as he bit into them. He thought of cooking food himself, but the scent would travel over to soldiers and they would come bothering him and ruining his food. Thus, finding and picking fruit became the best option. Finishing his meal, Greyson got up and dusted off his clothes before getting ready to look around the forest. The past two weeks the caravan had been attacked quite a number of times which slowed down their movement, however, they were still only about a day's journey from leaving the Snow Country to the bordering Maple Country.

Sweetbow taught Greyson a lot about the geography of the continent that he lived on. First of all, the Moon Empire was the ruling force of the Snow Country because they would always have at least one sometimes two magician kings. However, Snow Country was the weakest of all the Human Empire countries. At first, Greyson had believed Moon Empire to be the ruling power, only later did he realize how ignorant he was. In the human populated areas, there were 36 countries. Eighteen of the countries were around the same level as the Snow Country. They were called the outer region countries that encircled the inner region and center region. Snow Country was apparently on the verge of getting kicked out of the outer region. Currently there was only one magician king in power and he was old. Other surrounding countries were eyeing Snow Country and hoping to take it over. No matter how barren the land, that was still a lot of wealth that could be seized. Usually outer regions had two if not three magic kings. Inner region countries have multiple magic kings and sometimes one magic emperor, however only first stage magic emperors. There were 12 inner region countries. The last six countries were center region countries that have one fifth stage magic emperor and usually a couple other lower level magic emperors and many magic kings. Real powerful human magicians existed in those countries. Those six countries were the rulers of the human race each with their own ruling family. Usually any major decisions will be made through an agreement with all six countries like going to war with the surrounding races.

The Beast Empire was to the southwest of the Snow Country, so to reach the closest border the caravan had to pass through four other outer region countries. Maple Country would be the first that they would travel through. Greyson was already extremely excited because the closer they got to the country, the warmer the weather started to feel. Obviously, Maple Country was still rather north of other countries, but it was still warmer than Snow Country. He could even feel the fire element in his surroundings become denser.

Before Greyson could run off, though, a voice called out to stop him.

"Magician Greyson, please wait a moment." It was a soothing feminine voice, but Greyson could only feel that the voice was grating to the ear. Turning around, he saw a familiar maid servant. This maid was Mae. Her master was the young lady inside the expensive passenger carriage. One of the daughters of the original main families that combined into the Argentum family. She was the most beautiful and powerful daughter whose status was only second to Luca Argentum, Claire Argentum. Claire was the same age as Leopold. Her beauty was not falsely advertised and she even treated her servants nicely. Throughout the first couple days of traveling, she would order the caravan to take a break so the foot soldiers could rest or send out higher end food that was prepared for her to the rest of the group. Greyson's first impression before even meeting her was very good after seeing her orders from inside the carriage. However, her attitude after meeting dredged up terrible memories from Greyson's childhood.

Unfortunately, this girl was just like Claude's cousin, Catherine. Her personality really was not bad and he knew that she held no evil intent towards him. She just wholeheartedly was obsessed with him. His looks and powerful magic talent captured her attention. At one point, he had inadvertently saved her from a bandit. Afterwards, she developed an unhealthy adoration for him. Her maid, Mae, would call him to her carriage and at first, he would go until he could see the issues with her behavior. She would yell at Greyson if he stood too close to Eden or Anne, or even some of the soldiers. Growing tired of her jealous tirades, Greyson began ignoring her and her maid. It was not like he had to always cater to her anyways.

"Mae, just go back. I do not have any feelings towards your master and I am growing tired of this back and forth. Are you not also bored of walking over only to be rejected?"

"Magician Greyson, what words are these? Of course, I am not tired. Working for milady is a blessing. She just wishes to speak with you. Will you follow me back?"

"No. I am going to go around and look for any possible threats in the area. Tell your lady to just rest in her carriage lest she goes around attracting trouble."

"Oh, I have to go back right away! Milady, will be so glad to hear that Sir is worrying for her!" Mae's eyes lit up with a clever glint. She quickly said that before running off back to the caravan party before Greyson could get a word in.

"Ah! Mae, please! Don't...." Greyson face quickly fell to dread and mentally kicked himself for saying something stupid. He should have just left without even speaking with her.

"Hmph, that annoying girl is just like a pest that won't go away. You should just ditch this group anyways. That woman Eden keeps asking weird questions, too. All of these people from the Argentum people have issues. The soldiers are close-minded and immature. The bandits who are coming are also weak." Lucius finally spoke up from his shoulder.

"Honestly, I have thought of it, once I am in the Beast Empire, I will probably ditch them quickly. Entry into other Empires is hard because they are always on the lookout for suspicious figures who are looking to be spies or enemies. Merchant caravans are much easier to welcome because they provide supplies which the Beast Empire does not have. The Argentum family has a lot of connections through their merchant company even outside of the Snow Country in the more powerful countries." Greyson massaged his temples as he explained his reasoning for staying. Obviously, he did not enjoy subjecting himself to such treatment, but for the ease of his journey it was still better to travel with a group that had identification that could quickly get him through every city and country gate.

"I really wonder what the issue with that Eden girl is, though. She keeps asking about your past and even your bloodline. Why is she so curious?"

"I'm really not sure. But I don't feel any ill intent from her so maybe she has some clue into my identity? She could just be asking questions to be sure." After thinking about the questions, Greyson was actually rather excited to answer because he was starting to feel that Eden knew something about him and his biological parents. No matter how much he asked, however, she would not answer why she was curious. Only keeping everything to herself and asking questions every now and then like how old he was, where he was found, who raised him, etc.

"Ugh, I'm just so sick of all of them." Lucius groaned.

"Me, too. Let's just try our best to endure for right now."