The Journey to Battle

The carriage ran through the dark road, with only the front being illuminated by a small blue light. Adelyn sat in the carriage with her party, the windows completely blocked off as the light illuminated the room.

Custos gave them a free ride to the City of Battle, which was quite nice of him. Looking at the book, it most likely would’ve taken multiple days in order to travel to the City of Battle. This should cut their trip down to one day.

Adelyn wasn’t used to the windowless carriage. There were windows, but it was blocked off so they could turn on lights without attracting any monsters. It did feel a little bit claustrophobic though, even if there was a fair amount of space.

“Sooo-” Adelyn said, leaning against the back of her seat. “How are you guys doing?”

The other three seemed to be doing their own methods of coping with boredom. Ed was asleep, Cozy had borrowed Adelyn’s book to research the next city, and Teddie seemed to be playing with his stuffed animal. Two out of three of them answered.

“This is going a lot better than I expected,” Cozy said. “Getting all of those supplies for free was so nice. We don’t have to worry about food for a while.”

“Plus it’s been fun,” Teddie said. “Scary… but fun.”

“I’m glad you three are enjoying it!” Adelyn said. At this point Ed seemed to have just woken up, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah…” Ed said. “Didn’t expect to be going on a road trip this long. But, I’m all for it, ahah.”

Adelyn was satisfied, even if she didn’t like how much of a detour this entire trip was. It was just what she was stuck with, though that did make her curious.

“Why are you all headed to the capital, anyways? I don’t think I ever asked that,” Adelyn asked.

“Oh, that’s obvious!” Cozy said with her usual chipper smile. “The capital is the center of development, the home of the best products and machines in the entire country! It’s obvious why any merchant would want to get their hands on some products… some deals…”

“Well,” Ed said. “If it’s so obvious, wouldn’t that mean more competition? That might be harder over carving out your niche…”

“I’m a cut above the rest,” Cozy crossed her arms confidently. “More competition just means I’m going to stand out more when I beat all of them.”

“I’m impressed by your confidence,” Adelyn said. “Though uh… from what I read wouldn’t your age be a concern? I wouldn’t say we’re… merchant age, really.”

“If you start young then you’ll only get better as you’re older. My prime will last the longest out of anybody in this country, you just watch and see,” Cozy continued.

“Wow,” Teddie said. “I couldn’t imagine that… ahah. Good luck on that. You’re pretty smart, so I can see it.”

“Well, that’s enough talk about me,” Cozy said. “Hey, Ed. I already know Adelyn’s, but what about you?”

“Me?” Ed said, pausing for a moment to think. “I want to get into the Lunar Academy. It’s the best school in the country after all. For tech and magic, though I’m more into the magic stuff.”

“Developing your magic is really cool!” Adelyn said. “I’m mostly self-taught, I didn’t have a school for magic where I come from.”

“You’re amazing for someone who’s self-taught,” Ed responded. “If I had your talent I would be the best in the world right now.”

“You’re pretty amazing too, you know. Light magic is super rare here, isn’t it?”

“It’s… a gift,” Ed said. “I got lucky. I just need to make use of it better.”

“You could just go to the City of Magic,” Cozy suggested. “There are plenty of great schools there. It’s not a bad shot.”

“Well, would you just settle for second-best?” Ed responded to Cozy. “Adelyn is right, my ability is rare. I feel like it would take the best teachers to understand it.”

“Fair, I can’t argue with that.”

Adelyn realized she had two very ambitious teammates. She didn’t mind though, they were very strong and nice too. She was happy to have the two of them fighting alongside her. Plus, they saved her skin multiple times.

Though, there was one more person she was curious about.

“Teddie, how about you?” Adelyn turned to him. The other two seemed to look at the boy too. Though as they all looked at him, he seemed to become nervous.

“Ah, uh… me?” Teddie asked. “Well… it’s not as interesting as you guys so…”

“Come on,” Cozy said. “Anything is fine. I don’t know too much about you.”

“It was just you and Adelyn wandering about alone,” Ed added. “You said you met her when she fell from the sky, right?”

“Yeah… I was playing with some animals when she fell,” Teddie said. “She took it quite well though…”

The boy held his bear tight and thought for a moment. He was probably thinking about what exactly to say. Adelyn only saw him when she first woke up, she didn’t know too much about him otherwise.

“I… I came because I thought it would be something fun and different,” Teddie said. “That’s all. I didn’t want to stay wandering in the forests forever, but I never felt great about leaving them either. I guess… I was just looking for an excuse to go.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Adelyn said. “Not to be rude but you were a little bit shy when you first approached me.”

“I guess I was... I’m glad I followed you though,” Teddie said. “At the very least, getting to see the City of Nature was super fun…”

“Pretty menial goal to throw your entire life at risk for,” Cozy noted. “I mean, you’ve seen the dangers. What would you do if you got hurt?”

“Well…” Teddie thought. “Then so be it. Lots of animals risk their lives every day. I’ve seen a lot of them come and go, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t trying to live their best lives. Plus, at the end of it all they return to nature. So… I don’t think that should stop me.”

Adelyn didn’t expect Teddie to have that kind of worldview. She liked it, though she obviously didn’t want Teddie to get hurt.

“Well, if you think about it,” Adelyn said. “Once we’re done and you go back, you can tell a bunch of animals about the cool things you did! Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“I guess it does… thanks.”

Teddie smiled a little bit. Things always felt better when he did.

“So,” Ed said, interrupting. “What’s the plan for the City of Battle?”

“Hrm,” Adelyn’s mind shifted to thinking about Ed’s question. She opened Grimace’s encyclopedia and looked at the information on the City of Battle. A deeper read through the section on the city seemed to provide some new insight.

The book spoke of the City of Battle as one of the primary tourist locations of the country of Lunasa. This was primarily due to all of its sporting events that are hosted there, primarily based around combat. It is also renowned as one of the safer cities due to the high amount of military that lives within the city.

Lunasa has been very peaceful for a long time, so a military force has not been of priority. This has led to the governor refocusing the city on said sporting events, as it boosts the economy significantly. It is still not to be trifled with, however, as they are very serious about safety and regulations.

Adelyn read all of this out loud to the rest of her team. Cozy seemed to think for a moment.

“Does the governor oversee any sporting events?” Cozy asked, thinking of an idea.

“Hm, let me see,” she responded. “It says here there are a few regularly scheduled yearly events. Including a… tournament?”

“A tournament?” Ed asked.

“It’s partially military tryouts and scouting, but it’s also for entertainment too. Apparently the winner gets one request from the governor. The others still have a chance to receive attention if they perform well, so it’s not necessarily a ‘winner takes all’.”

“I’m not too good at fighting, but if you guys want to enter then that could be a way…” Teddie said. “I’ll try to look for a different method while you all do that.”

“Sure!” Cozy said. “We’ve all been feeling good since we were beating that hydra, yeah?”

“And Kaos,” Ed added. “I’m sure we could handle a little competition.”

“Then,” Adelyn closed her book. “We have a plan. It said everyone from any region is welcome, so I think it’s the best way to get attention.”

Adelyn thought to herself that this was probably a bit different however. There had to have been a lot of rules and regulations to go through, and who knows what kind of people she’ll find in a city made specifically for fighting. She figured it would be safer, but there were going to be many challenges still.

At least she was ready for them, she thought.