The start of our biggest adventure

A few days after we left our hometown, we were in the carriage while Alexander was humming a song and we were approaching the end of the king's limits, beyond the flat landscapes there was a wall surrounding everything, and when we got there, there were a few guards that stopped us.

I stepped out of the carriage and went with the guards.

“Why do you want to leave the kingdom?”

“I have a request from the guild and a permission to do it, here they are”

I handed over some papers to the guard and he started to inspect it, after a few minutes they gave us back and hit my back.

“Good luck out there”

I nodded and entered the carriage again and lifted my thump, both Elizabeth and Alexander smiled and the moment we crossed the gate we saw how the road changed, there were downhills and right below us there was a giant forest.

“Alright, this is where your true potential comes into play, ready you two?!”

Alexander was talking with his horses and they responded back with joy, they started to gallop and I saw how the walls were.

“I never thought this kingdom place would have such a long wall, you knew about this, Elizabeth?”

“What do you mean? Of course, I knew, did you forget about it when you entered?”

“Oh, yeah… it’s been sometimes so I did forget it about, haha”

Elizabeth looked at me in a weird way but she didn’t want to dig too much into it, I looked at the map and pointed with my finger our current location.

“This is where we are right now, right?”

“Correct, to get into the first spot that we need to go is going all the way down beyond the forest, it seems that just a little further from the trees is the location”

I stopped looking at the map and looked at the forest and sigh, I couldn’t see the ending of it and I sat down as I put myself with my arms outside beside Alexander.

“Are they tired?”

“These two? Of course, no, they can run all night if they want, but I don’t want them to work out that much, don’t worry”

The horses neigh at me and I smile, I let my body go down as I look at the top of the carpet that was covering the carriage, Elizabeth approach at me and poke my forehead as she smile, Alexander move her head a bit, even though I couldn’t see his expression I knew that he was smiling.

We were having a happy trip and we arrived at a town nearby, we stopped to get something to eat and let the horses rest for a bit. After we bought some supplies, we went to the carriage no before I saw a store of grimoires.

“Something caught your eye?”

“It’s a grimoire store”

“Grimoires or staffs are only for mages, Ryu, and you are neither of those”

“But maybe I could use some tips, I’ll be back”

“Wait! Ryu!...”

“If you want to go with him I can wait in here”

“No, I’ll be just in his way, if he wants to get stronger so be it”

I entered the store and the place was full of books, but as I entered, an old woman pointed at me with a stick

“Mmmh… you are not a mage and neither a wizard”

“No, I am a sword user…”

“What does a sword user want in a grimoire store, I’ll tell you now. I don’t give my services to the ones who do not prove proficiency in magic”

I extended my hand and shot water to the wall

“Now look at what you've done! I just cleaned this store! You will mop that RIGHT NOW!”

“Y-Yes mam…”

“Huh?!”

The old lady put her hand in her ear

“YES MAM!”

“That’s most likely, but you don’t need to yell”

While I was cleaning the water I talked with the old woman.

“I want to know a few tricks to know how to use my magic, I have proficiency in water as you saw but I do not know any spell, and I don’t even know how to do it”

“Like a said young man, if you are not neither a wizard or mage, I cannot help you… or maybe you have something that could help me”

“You mean money, that is no problem”

I took a gold coin out of my pocket and gave it to the old lady. The eyes of the old lady shine brighter than before and he took the gold coin as she tried to remain with the same attitude.

“W-Well, if this is the way, then I suppose I could teach you a thing or two”

“I don’t have the time to stay on here so if you give me a book or something that would help me out”

“These youngsters nowadays… I tell you right now, studying the arts of magic are not as easy as you think, first you need to know basic enchants and how to use your mana, otherwise your spells will be weak”

“I understand but I am a fast learner, ma'am, I can deal with it”

The old lady sighed and she went to look deeper into her books until she brought me a yellow book.

“This has some spells that you can practice, but are not water specific, to learn how to run you first need to know how to walk”

“I know, thank you ma'am, I’ll have it in consideration”

“See you, young man”

I went back to the carriage and went inside, when we got out of the town I opened the book and saw a ton of symbols and paragraphs describing the use of mana, Elizabeth looked at it and she had a face that showed me that she couldn’t comprehend what she was reading.

“The flow of the mana works as a river or the blood in your system, you know that works in a straight line but when you want to use it you need to focus on one point, how does that even make sense? I don’t get it…”

Elizabeth said while I was looking into it.

“I think I get it, you know how a river works right, when you entered your hand the flow is just inevitable, and when you want to use this power for your benefit you need to focus on one point, on making that river yours”

“How did you come to that conclusion?!” —Elizabeth said while looking at me.

I laugh and I pet her head.

“I just know, a bit of interpretation, don’t take it like is literally what it said”

“Is that why I don’t have any magic power? Even dad had one…”

“Don’t worry, Elizabeth, I don’t have any magic power either”

“That doesn’t make me feel better, Alexander!”

I extended my hand and started to let out a ton of water in the road, I was trying to focus on one point my hand, while I was extending my arm I also grabbed with my hand, the grip was strong and until one moment I made it, I made a bubble of water and I show it to Elizabeth and Alexander.

“Guys! Look! I… I did it…”

The bubble exploded and I was feeling dizzy, Elizabeth held me before I fell and she sat down while letting my head rest on her thighs, I looked at her and she was smiling.

“Don’t push yourself too much, Ryu, remember that even if you have a proficiency in water magic, you don’t have that much mana”

“Yeah… but I can make myself work on that too, if I train enough, I can make myself not feel so tired…”

“It’s not like you need to train yourself for this, Ryu, you know, we are a team of three so even if you want to have another card in your sleeve that’s fine but as Elizabeth said, you are not suited for a use of mana, so-“

“I understand that you are worried too, Alex… but It’s fine, I want to learn this because I want to, I know the two of you are more than capable to defend yourselves, but I do want to have a secret trick for encounters, we don’t know the risk that we will find in this travel and I want to be as prepared as I can”

Elizabeth smiled at me and stroked my hair while I fall asleep.

“You don’t think you spoil him too much; I am even jealous of the relationship that the two of you have, wish I can have something like that sometimes”

“It’s fine, Ryuzaki has always worked harder than anybody I have ever seen, and he has helped me a lot, he knows what he is doing but sometimes he needs to share it too”

The day ended but our travel just begun