The East Kingdom

One Week Earlier...

"I'm so excited! This is the first time I've ever traveled anywhere for a vacation, Mr. Arno." Erika said.

"This trip isn't for fun, girl." I responded, in a serious tone.

"But you said this quest was going to be easy. We have to wait a week and a half for the next carriage back home anyways."

"That means nothing. We'll be using that time to train. It seems like your progress has plateaued this past month, which means I need to push you harder."

"Yeah, but-"

I cut her off,

"You still want to be a sorceress, don't you?"

"Well, yeah..." She muttered under her breath.

She became silent and started to pout.

The two of us were riding in the back of a donkey drawn wooden cart on its way to the East Kingdom's border. The day prior, we accepted a quest to deliver a bag of letters to the West Kingdom's embassy in the capital city of Unko. The task was simple enough and all our travel expenses were being covered by the adventurer's guild.

I was hoping this change of pace would be what Erika needed to make some new progress in her training. Since our little run in with the mafia last month, she hasn't really developed much further magicwise.

Our cart came to a stop as we approached a closed gate, which blocked the road. Beside it was a guard post. A group of four men dressed in dark red ronin garbs immediately came out and approached us.

They first went up to the old man driving the cart. The old man handed one of them a document, which the ronin inspected and handed back to him with a nod. Next they came around to Erika and me.

"What business do you have in the East Kingdom?" One ronin inquired.

I proceeded to pull some forms from my satchel. Upon taking this quest, Brandy, the guild's receptionist prepared all the proper paperwork we needed to enter into the country.

As the names imply, the West Kingdom is the westernmost nation and the East Kingdom is the easternmost nation on the continent of Circino. Certain parts of the nations border each other and despite currently being in a time of peace, the two have had a history of bloody conflict between them over the centuries.

"We're with the Adventurer's Guild. We have a job to make a delivery to the embassy." I said while presenting our documents.

The guard proceeded to look them over.

"Everything seems to be in order. We still have to do a search for contraband. It's nothing personal, it's just part of the protocol we have to follow." He said.

The guards carefully inspected every square inch of the cart, as well as through our bags. Neither of us had anything to hide so we simply complied.

As they conducted their search, one noticed Erika sulking.

"Why the long face, young lady?"

"Oh it's nothing, Mr. Guard. It's just that this is my first time visiting another country and Mr. Arno over there says I can't have fun because I have to train." She responded, obviously trying to guilt trip me.

"Aw, don't be such a stick in the mud old man. I'm sure you remember what it's like to be young." The guard joked.

I stayed quiet. I couldn't say that I could relate. When I was her age, while my companions Henri and Lucian were able to begin their studies at the Royal Mage Academy, I had to put off being admitted because I ended up getting drafted as a battle mage by the West Kingdom's military. I can't say I had particularly fond memories of the East Kingdom, considering the last time I was here was to fight in a war.

"Alright, well you should be all good to-... wait a second."

The guard suddenly pointed at me.

"Would you mind uncovering your face for a moment, old man?"

"No problem..." I responded.

Erika suddenly became tense as she stared at me nervously with wide eyes. I slowly began to pull off my hood and take off my face covering. The guard stared intently at me as he inspected my face...

"You're all good. You're free to pass through."

They opened the gate for us and the cart proceeded onward. I covered myself back up.

Erika had a surprised look on her face.

"How did you do that, Mr. Arno? I was scared for a moment. I thought they were going to see your face." She whispered.

"It's the same principle as the color change illusion spell. I just used magic to temporarily project a different face onto myself." I responded.

When I revealed my face to the guards, I created the illusion that my face was that of a heavily scarred old man. Due to Erika's limited mana, I could only maintain the spell for only about thirty seconds. Once she gets a bit more adept, I should be able to maintain this trick for longer periods of time, which I'm sure will come in handy at some point.

"That's pretty neat... while we're on the topic, since you're forcing me to train, is there anything new you can show me." She asked.

"Yes, actually I had a new exercise I was planning on showing you. It expands on the color change spell."

I pulled out a black pen from my bag and held it in my hand. I focused for a second and it suddenly vanished.

"Where did it go?" Erika said.

I then made it reappear in my hand.

"It didn't disappear. I simply used magic to bend the light around the pen, making it appear invisible. The process is quite similar to changing an object's color, it's just a step slightly further. For the rest of this ride I want you to try and make the pen invisible."

I handed the pen over to her. She began to focus her mana. For whatever reason, she felt it necessary to make constipated sounding noises during this process, which was obviously no help because all she managed to do was turn the pen white.

"Hmmm, is there some kind of hint you can give me, Mr. Arno?"

"No, this is a test. I want to see if you can figure this out on your own."

"But-..."

I shook my head at her.

"Alright, fine..." she muttered, giving in.

She proceeded to attempt the invisibility spell over and over and over... and over again. All of which were to no avail. I simply sat back and observed as the cart made its way toward the city of Unko.