Dante’s Immortality - Chapter 14

He was in a rather good mood, despite the arrow wound in his shoulder that was still flaring in pain as he was jostled by the bumpy carriage. Sir Andres had said that they would make it to the academy within the next few hours, and he was more than happy to be done traveling.

After the attack on the carriage, Layla immediately had their new captives questioned. It was somewhat surprising, to him at least, that the attackers were rebels targeting the academy’s supply lines. Apparently, not everyone was happy with the way House Calman was running things. The mere fact that there were rebels at all was slightly worrying.

Still, their opinion didn’t carry much weight with him after seeing the desecrated bodies of those they killed.

After some more initial questioning, Layla had two of their captives killed, while keeping the one who seemed the most afraid alive for further questioning when Sir Andres returned.

That done, Layla then forced the group to continue moving toward the academy, and further from where the attackers said their main camp was. He was more than happy to continue move further away from the potential threat. Not only was there a hole in his shoulder, but four of their Warrior guards had serious injuries that would limit them during a fight. Thankfully, they were still fit for riding.

After that, the trip had actually started to go somewhat smoothly.

Four days after they resumed their journey, a pissed off Sir Andres rode into their camp with three of the original nine guards he took with him in tow. Sir Andres didn’t say much after he arrived, and when Layla and Alexander explained what happened to him, he simply turned to their tied-up captive and executed him by chopping off his head.

After that, the knight turned to them and told them that the situation with the brigands had already been dealt with before walking off.

He didn’t really think killing the last captive was the best decision. After all, there were still a lot of questions that were unanswered. But after seeing Sir Andres’ angry expression when looking at Layla, he decided that he wasn’t going to be the one to question the knight’s decision.

The trip after that was far quieter, everyone seemed to be in a somber mood. The guards were depressed from their lost comrades, Sir Andres was pissed that he had thrown away his men’s lives to deal with a group of ‘common bandits’, and Alexander and Layla regretted ordering him to do so.

He seemed to be the only one unaffected by the subdued atmosphere. Compared to the others he was actually happy with the way the situation had progressed. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about the guard’s lives, but the tradeoff didn’t seem that bad. If what the captives had said was true, the brigand was made up of almost two hundred combatants. If Sir Andres had ‘dealt’ with them, he wasn’t going to complain about the casualties.

And that was how the rest of the journey had gone, until earlier that morning when Sir Andres announced that they would make it to the academy around noon. The mood after that quickly shifted, and everyone was visibly enlivened by the news.

Even without the Sir Andres’ warning, it was quite clear that they were closing in on Kenguard. The large expanse of trees on either side of the road that they were traveling on was beginning to give way to massive flat farmlands. Even the road was becoming far busier in the last few days.

He was surprised by the number of people who actually traveled in Aleria, especially after his experience in the past weeks. They had even run into the occasional patrol from Kenguard, but those troops seemed more interested in keeping the farms secure than worrying about brigands like the one they had run into.

It was nice to see Alexander and Layla in a better mood, they had been sitting in almost complete silence since Sir Andres had returned. Thankfully, the prospects of finally arriving at the academy broke the awkward silence.

He still had a lot of questions that they hadn’t answered yet. The last few days of silence crushed his plans of learning more about the academy before he was inevitably dumped off to be handled by some servant, but now that the mood had changed, he wasn’t going to lose his chance to get more information before they arrived.

Dante looked to Alexander, his preferred target for questioning, or just conversation in general for that matter. “You told me that people in the Outer Edge region come from all over to go to the academy because it has resources that they wouldn’t have otherwise, but why are you and Layla going?”

Alexander shrugged. “Training. Not the same as the rest of those attending the academy though, me and Layla were sent so that we could lead on our own and gain some experience. The academy is also the best place to get combat experience for us as well, but honestly, that’s secondary. There are only few students at the academy that could match us.”

“How is the academy the best place to get combat experience?” Combat experience should be easy to acquire anywhere in Aleria, much less in the Outer region where they were from.

Layla chose that moment to jump into their conversation. “The academy actually incentivizes combat between students. In order to gain the largest benefit from the academy, you need to win duels and team fights in the arena to get credit. There is no other place where we could get the same amount combat experience against those who are around our strength.” Layla shrugged. “It’s not as though the constant fighting is safe, but there are certain restrictions on the fights to limit casualties.”

What Layla said made sense, if you could constantly fight different people who are around your strength without losing your life, the experience would be invaluable. Unfortunately, she only mentioned limiting the casualties. It was still somewhat better… but he would need to be careful before jumping into any fights headfirst. “What do you mean by getting ‘credit’ by fighting in the arena?”

The question made Alexander visibly excited. “While meals and housing are free for the first semester, by the courtesy of House Calman, everything else has to be bought through credit. You can get access to food or medicine that gives world essence, multiple enchantments, and sometimes even access to dungeons through credit when they are available.”

Layla saw the questioning look on his face and added to what Alexander had told him. “It is a special enchantment that we learned about from travelers that came from the inner Aleria. It’s pretty much a currency that can be carried around on a single card and is only useful at the academy, you’ll see when you get to the academy later today. Apparently, in inner Aleria, something similar is the main form of currency.”

The credit system itself was interesting. If the only way to get more credit was by winning fights, and it would aid you in gaining more world essence or better training, it seemed like a situation where the strong get stronger, and the weak getting weaker in contrast. The competition in the academy would be far fiercer than he had thought, and the fighting would be far more dangerous as a result.

It also seemed that he might have wasted his time looting the archers so thoroughly. Layla had told him that the enchantments would be expensive, but it never occurred to him that she might have meant a different currency that he had never heard of. “When you said that enchantments would be expensive to use at the academy, did you mean that it would cost more credit?”

His question elicited a wince from Layla. “No, the credits are easy for us to produce, but the essence crystals that power the stronger enchantments are not. We have to charge actual money to get a return on the massive cost associated with operating them. Truthfully, those enchantments are meant to only be used by wealthy nobles.”

Her answer made sense to him, and it just meant that he would still need to find a way to earn money when he got to the academy.

There was still one more thing that he was curious about though. “You said there were travelers from inner Aleria in the Outer region?”

His question was met with an awkward silence that Layla eventually broke. “We get them occasionally, but recently there have been more along the border surrounding our territory. They are all surveyors who were scouting the Chaos region. Apparently, there is going to be a new campaign soon.”

Dante froze. “Did they say when the campaign would start?”

Alexander frowned. “No, but we should still have a few years…”

All conversation came to a halt after that discussion. It was for good reason too, a new campaign into the Chaos region meant there would be a lot of deaths in the outer regions.

The information meant that he would have to change his plans drastically. He was going to prepare for years before attempting to cross the Chaos region, but if he didn’t make it to inner Aleria before the campaign started, his chance of surviving as a combatant that didn’t belong to a powerful house was almost nonexistent.

It wasn’t until several quiet hours later that their carriage began to slow to what seemed like a crawl. A smile lit up on Alexander’s face. “Finally!” He immediately got up and shot out of the carriage.

Layla’s mood also improved drastically, she stood and stretched. “This arduous trip is finally over.”

They weren’t the only ones happy to finally arrive at Kenguard, he was ready to finally see the academy. Stepping out of the carriage, Dante took in the startling scene around him. Every inch of the road was crowded with people. The reason their carriage was crawling forward was because it was stuck behind a long line of different wagons, carriages, and carts that led up towards a hill where they were cut off from view.

Alexander, who was bubbling with excitement next to him, grabbed him and began dragging him towards the top of the hill. “Wait until you see how amazing the academy is!”

He was just as eager as Alexander, but nothing could have prepared him for the scene in front of him.

What he had thought to be a hill was just the rim of a massive crater that had Kenguard sitting in the middle of it, the entire city must have been four times the size of Alazel. Dante just stood there, absorbing the scene in front of him for a moment, there must be tens of thousands of people inside of it. The entire city was bustling, looking almost as though someone had kicked over a giant anthill. It was filled with massive buildings and vast open fields that people were training in.

He was trying to identify which of the massive building were the academy, but giving up, Dante turned to Alexander and Layla. “Which building is the academy?”

In response to his question, Alexander began to laugh. Layla waved her hand, motioning to the entirety of the city in front of him. “That is the academy.”