56 Field Trip

"I can't...do this...anymore," I panted under the bright sun shining down my back.

The trees slightly dazzled from the sunlight from the slight raindrops remaining on its leaves. The road was not paved but rather made by people walking through the same route repeatedly. I held a tree branch in one of my hands as a stick to help me walk up the never-ending altitude of a mountain I was required to climb.

Luke handed me a cool bottle of water that was kept cold from the use of his mana. I grabbed the bottle from him and poured it all over myself to cool myself down from the strong rays of the sun.

Normally, when you went up a mountain, you were supposed to feel colder from the different oxygen levels that in turn forms more clouds to cover the sun.

However, it was the exactly the opposite of from how I remembered it to be. Maybe this world did not fully follow the concepts that my past life followed due to the existence of mana.

I packed thick sweaters and jackets in my backpack in case it would get colder. However, my extra clothes were now so useless that I would only be able to use them as a place to sit on. Or maybe as an extra bed if I had to sleep on the ground.

I currently wore my gym school uniform meant for fall while everyone else wore their summer uniform.

"Why are you packing summer clothes?" I asked Luke when it was clearly the middle of fall.

"It's going to be really hot since we're climbing a mountain. Didn't you learn this in kindergarten?" Luke responded like I was the crazy one to pack warm clothes

Sensing that a lecture was going to come from Luke, I quickly answered, "Yea, but still it's the middle of fall so it's going to be cold until we actually start climbing the mountain."

'Just wait until you start suffering from the cold,' I thought back then.

This was how I came to suffer from the burning sun.

"Look the other way!" Allan yelled when my shirt became translucent from being drenched from the water I poured over myself.

Luke covered Allan's eyes while Cillian looked the other way and Ellen started to panic.

"Here a sweater!" Ellen handed me one of my thick sweaters to cover myself.

I threw the sweater back to Ellen as I wasn't going to put on a sweater when I was already drenched in my own sweat. At this rate, I would die from the fierce rays of the sun.

"Rika!" Luke scowled when my sweater landed on the grass.

"Do you really want me to die?" I asked Luke with mad laughter.

I was going crazy from walking in the aching sun for three hours straight without a break. The mana consumption rate was way too high to keep myself cool when the temperature difference was earth-shatteringly big. I initially thought that having an infinite amount of mana would allow me to do anything I would want to do, but unfortunately mana had a lot of science behind it.

Since I was a delicate eleven year old, my physical body could not store as much mana as I thought I would be able to. That brought me to this situation where my mana recovers pretty fast whenever I use it, but not fast enough to match the fast consumption rate.

The difference between what I visualized and reality of the situation composed how much my mana would be consumed. When I looked up to see how much more I had to continue this torture of an exercise, the intimidating mountain stared back at me.

'Oh great!' I thought when there seemed to be no end to this mountain.

"I think Rika lost it," Allan whispered to Ellen.

Luke stepped back as he got surprised from my sudden laughter instead of the familiar groans and complaints about my aching back and legs. Even though I did get crazy when Luke's study sessions get too long, it was never been to this extent where I laughed like a madman when I seemed like I would faint anytime.

"That's why Daniel should have grouped just me, Ellen, Shelly, and Miliana together." I screamed while stumbling over nothing from the lack of energy.

Daniel went over to the podium to say his usual announcements at the end of the day. "I will be grouping you guys into groups of five for the field trip where we will climb a mountain."

"Can we just make our own groups," I raised my hand.

Daniel ignored me to continue on with his announcement. "This field trip will be special since we'll be mixing groups with the other class of the same grade."

'Hmm. What's the point of that?' I thought curiously.

"Hey Rika!" Cillian greeted me.

I ignored Cillian and sat beside Ellen on the hover bus. I guessed they had enough confidence that the hover bus wouldn't break down. After all, they did investigate the hover buses thoroughly after all those incidents in the summer.

"Rika, not that way!" Ellen shouted when I walked clumsily towards the edge of the mountain trail.

'A waterfall! I must jump in it,' I thought as I went crazy from suffering under the burning sun.

I spotted a tall waterfall beside the cliff we were on as the trail was paved near one of the cliffs of the mountain. I staggered towards the source of water as I wished to free myself from the hot weather.

'The waterfall is only about 30 metres high anyways,' I observed how many metres I would have to climb again to get to this spot.

"Rika!" Ellen screamed as I jumped towards the waterfall.

'So nice,' I thought as the soft water patted my back as I fell down.

I anticipated a big splash once I got into the river, however I found myself inside a shallow pond.

'Huh? Where am I?' I thought as the water only reached my knees.

I found myself in front of a big grey castle made out of stones rather than bricks. There was a big fancy carriage quite a distance away from the me that sat inside a pond. The girls that got off the carriage wore big puffy gowns while the boys greeting the girls wore traditional military uniforms.

"Wasn't I supposed to be on a mountain?" I voiced my thoughts out loud.

"Who knew there would be a teleportation gate there?" Cillian sounded surprised.

I turned to see both Luke and Cillian right behind me. As usual, Luke was smiling stiffly while Cillian had a bit of curiosity in his eyes.

"Why are you here?" I asked Cillian and Luke.

"Luke jumped right after you jumped as he tried to follow you," Cillian teased Luke who already looked terribly mad.

"Well, at least we're still in the first district," I tried to convince myself when my surroundings resembled a medieval landscape.

Everyone wore old fashioned clothes like we were inside a movie set based in the 1800s in my past life. There were no signs of glass or plastic as it was replaced with stones and metals to build the sturdy houses and castles. From what I could tell, there was no evidence that I was still in the first district.

"We're in the fifth district," Luke crossed his arms after getting out of the pond.

"What! No way," I tried to deny.

"Well how else would you explain the reason for the appearance of our surroundings?" Cillian pointed out.

Before I could reply, a group of knights came running towards us wearing a military uniform. "Intruders! How did you get inside the mansion of the Suilett family?" the leader of the group asked aggressively.

"I think you're misunderstanding something here," Cillian attempted to explain to the knights.

"This is the younger brother and future sister-in-law of the future heir of the Suilett family. How else would they possess such fine clothes?" Cillian attempted to convince the knights.

"That is true. Look at what they're wearing," A knight pointed out to his leader.

The leader of the knights nodded after studying us closely. "I apologize, please come this way inside the castle."

The knights escorted us inside the castle and called for the butler. A old man with his nicely parted white hair wearing sleek glasses in his black and white uniform came to greet us after we were handed towels to dry ourselves.

"I will tell young master Lucius and lady Belle of your visit when they come home from their outing," the butler narrowed his eyes as he seemly didn't buy the explanation of the knights.

"I believe that we're now in the fifth district," I faced Cillian, exploring the castle with his eyes while Luke stayed silent.

Luke sat in the couch near the crackling fireplace while Cillian and I touched and moved the unique antiques that decorated the room.

'So this is how people lived in the old days,' I thought while looking at the oil paintings that smelled foul.

"I thought you were supposed to be climbing a mountain?" A adolescent boy wearing a frilly top with nice trousers paired with shiny leather boots stepped into the room.

A girl wearing a puffy pink dress, decorated with jewels with moderate heels, walked behind him as she closed the door.

"The teleportation gate in the middle of a river in a mountain brought us here," Luke answered while getting closer to the fireplace to dry his hair.

"It's such a coincidence that you guys fell into a teleportation gate to the fifth district when we just happened to be on a mission here!" Belle excitedly said as she seemed ignorant of the heavy atmosphere of the room.

Belle grabbed onto my hand to drag me out the room, "Let's get you changed!"

Belle called for the maids while pushing me inside her room. When the maids came, Belle stepped out to give the maids the space to do their work.

Belle's closets only had dresses and more puffy dresses filled with petticoats and jewels that decorated them. I sighed as all of the dresses looked absolutely horrid (even more than the ones I wore during social week).

"Here's the dresses that lady Belle wore when she was younger," the head maid recommended me a frilly, puffy yellow dress decorated with laced ribbons.

I reluctantly changed into the first dress that the head maid showed me as the other maids worked on detangling my hair and putting on fancy accessories to complement my dress.

When I finally re-entered the room after two hours of the maids' hard work, Luke and Cillian were already sitting on the fancy patted chairs. I laughed as Luke and Cillian were wearing a frilly blouse with a ribbon decorated with jewels and sleek trousers paired to long boots. They looked hilarious when the puffs on their shoulders appeared bigger than their face.

I sat down on a chair across from them as I tried to suppress my laughter while everyone was already seated. Tea was being served by Belle as the servants were sent out of the room when I entered the room.

When everyone got comfortable in their seats, Lucius sternly announced, "we came here because a war is about to start in the fifth district."