Adam woke up early the next morning, as usual. He quietly got up from bed in a way to not disturb his mother. After exiting the room, Adam went to the cafeteria to meet up with Alfred and the others.

Alfred and the others had already started eating by the time Adam joined them. Looking at these boys, they were clearly more muscular then they had been a year ago. While they did not have large bulging muscles, they were clearly defined.

After joining them, the others asked Adam: “So, what do you think Hansen's big announcement is, today? You have to know something, Hansen would never do something big without consulting your mother!”

Franklin chirped in: “I really hope he doesn't throw us out into the wilderness and tell us to survive on our own.”

“How many times do we have to tell you Franklin; Hansen might be a hard person, but he will never send us off to our deaths.” Alfred retorted.

“I know that! But, if he thought we would make it out just fine, I wouldn't put it past him!”

Darren then said. “Well, you have nothing to worry about then! If he does send us out, we are sure to survive it! I have no idea what you are so worried about.”

“I just really don't like wolves. I have also heard that they have been getting aggressive lately.”

“Just paranoid, that's what you are.”

Adam finally spoke up himself: “Mom never tells me about the contents of their meetings. Thinking about it, though, it has been two years since we started training and we still haven't used real swords.... maybe he will be bringing them out today.”

Everyone's eyes started to gleam as they thought about it. “Swords are kinda expensive, though. But maybe Adam is right. After two years, Hansen finally saved up enough to buy us all swords!”

Quickly, they finished off their breakfast before heading off to meet Hansen. Hansen was waiting for them, so they line up in front of him. After the boys entered into an orderly line, Hansen gave them a look before starting to speak.

“It has been two years since we started your training. Alfred is the eldest of the lot of you at fifteen years old. The rest of you aren't too far behind him in age. Soon you will all be adults! So it is time to move the training forward! First, each of you will be receiving a real metal sword!”

The boy's eyes swelled in excitement as they all breathed in deeply. Hansen then continued: “Also, I will be inducting all of you into a mercenary band as minor hired hands!”

The boys were all caught off guard by this. While they hoped for real swords, they never would have guessed that Hansen would have them join a mercenary band! Some bands took small jobs that were hardly dangerous, but some took the very lucrative jobs that were extremely dangerous!

“What you will be doing as part of this mercenary band is quite simple: hunting! This band hunts between major contracts to pay for themselves, though they hunt the more dangerous animals that normal hunters would rarely dare to!”

Then Hansen said: “Well, first things first.”

He reached in the very same bush that once hid the wooden swords he gave them and pulled out a large canvas bag. Hansen then started pulling out real metal swords out of the bag! Each one was a plain unadorned sword with a scabbard. He also gave out a baldric with each sword.

As he was handing them out Hansen started talking: “Don't pull the swords out of the scabbards until I tell you to! You may all be just a few years from being adults, but you are still children! Never forget that! Today's sword training will be dedicated to learning about how to maintain your sword. During the physical exercises today, you will be wearing the sword to get used to it's weight!”

The metal swords were heavier then their wooden ones had been. Each boys grasped their sword and felts it's weight to get used to it. Adam was the last to receive his sword. Hansen paused before him, his demeanor becoming solemn. He quietly removed a sword, that was different from the others, out of the bag.

The other swords all appeared to be from the same maker, but this one was different. The shape of the hand guard and pommel were mostly the same, but had different dimensions to them. There were also some small simple engravings on the pommel as well.

Adam faintly recognized the sword as he held his breath. Hansen then presented the sword to him saying: “Adam, this was once your father's sword. Alaric wanted you to have it. It was one of his dying wishes.”

Adam brought his trembling hands forward. A few tears leaked out from behind his blindfold as he took the sword and held it tight to himself. The sword was currently a little big for Adam, but he would grow into it. Adam simply whispered “Thank you.” to Hansen as he lost himself to thoughts of the past.

The other boys all felt for Adam. If any of them received a precious gift their parents had left for them, they would be in the same state. After giving Adam a moment to collect himself, Hansen brought their attention back.

“We will first get you used to your swords for two weeks before joining that mercenary band. Once we get you to join them, two days out of every week will be spent hunting with them. You won't get paid a lot and most of what you do get paid will be taken by Madame's. After all, you will be neglecting your duties for those two days you are out hunting.”

When the boys heard that most of any pay they were going to receive was going to be taken from them, they felt a little disappointing. Nobody complained though, they had just been gifted swords that are quite costly for most commoners.

They then started their new training regimen that included metal swords. They had to be extremely careful so as not to cut themselves or others. In the end, no major incidents occurred, though Franklin did end up nicking his finger while he was trying to maintain his sword.

Later that day, Adam decided to go to the wall garden for the afternoon. Adam was wearing his father's sword, he wanted to bring it everywhere with him. Helen also decided to join him on this occasion. The past incident from when they first met was almost entirely forgotten about, or at least never brought up again.

As they walked along, Adam spread his elemental sight around to practice with it. He always had to utilize it in order to figure out what certain things mean. The various colors the soul emits could tell Adam what that person was feeling, but there was no guide to tell him what these colors meant.

As he spread his sight out, he noticed the faint pinkish hued colors that Helen's soul gave off. She always seemed to give these colors off when she was around him, but he was a little baffled to these colors. Through countless observations Adam had been trying to attach this color to various emotions.

He had seen various colors that were very similar. Mostly akin to that of friendship, but this was slightly different. It wasn't the same as familial affection either. He had personally seen some emotions of friendship turn to anger and how they were directly connected. But the exact emotion that Helen exuded eluded Adam. Adam had even seen Alfred exude a very similar but deeper color a few times, so he knew it was not specific to Helen. He just had no idea what it was.

When Adam had first started studying emotions, he had asked the people in question exactly what they were feeling so he could figure out what the colors meant. This turned out to be a bad idea. Some people became very angry at his intrusive questions and others did not even know that they had a certain emotion, it was as though a sad person didn't even know that they were sad.

Adam did not dare to ask Helen or Alfred what this emotion was, nor did he want to wildly speculate on anything. He could only sit back and observe in hope of finding his answer. None the less, Adam continued to observe everything around him while occasionally chatting with Helen. Eventually, they reached the wall garden.

Once again, Adam was unable to make any headway with his path. After an hour or two of gathering spirit essence, Adam and Helen left to return. On the way back, Adam noticed something that made him pause. He had noticed a pair of people who had similar pinkish hued colors emitting from their souls.

These people, who seemed to be close in age to Adam and Helen, were off to the side of the main road. They were close enough that Adam could barely hear what they were saying. Adam's ears perked up, hoping that the conversation between these two could help him understand what this emotion was.

The voice of a shy girl said: “What did you want to talk to me about, Thomas?”

The boy seemed to hesitate before saying: “M-Mary, I have always thought you were k-kinda cute and liked you. W-will you go out with me?”

Mary then spoke with a bashfully excited voice: “Of course! Did you not know I liked you too?”

“I never dared to believe it....”

As that newly made young couple talked, Adam's face started to turn a red color and he quickly sped away. Helen, who had been curious as to why Adam had stopped and then quickly walked away, asked: “Adam, is something wrong?”

“N-no, nothings wrong.”

“....Did you peep on someone?” Helen accused.

“O-of course not! Lets just go home!”

Helen decided to let the issue slip for now. Adam's mind was reeling from the implications of what he had just learned. If that pinkish hue was connected to emotions of love, in this case a crush, did that not mean that Helen should have a crush on him?!

Adam had not thought about having extremely close relationships with girls yet. He had been far too busy. Now it was dangled before him. There was a girl, following right behind him, who may just have a crush on him!

Adam's troubles went deeper, though. The colors Helen's soul gave off were faint, this meant the emotion was not as strong. Alfred's similarly colored emotion was deeper than Helen's own. Long ago, Alfred had said he was doing the training for a particular girl. Adam flipped through his memories and realized that he had only really seen Alfred give off this emotion, that should be linked to love, around Helen.

If Alfred loved Helen, but Helen had a crush on Adam.... what should he do?! Worry assailed Adam's heart as he sped his way home. Hopefully, his mother could give him some advice on this matter, he did not dare to speak about it with anyone else!

By the time they reached Madame's, evening had already descended. Adam parted ways with Helen and went to his room. His mother would be finished working and resting in their room at this time. Quickly entering the room, Adam desperately asked his mother for advice on this troubling matter.

The first thing that Vivienne did was give Adam a gentle hit on his head, while chiding: “That's for peaking at a girl's emotions without asking. Now as to helping you.... I don't think there is anything I can do for you!”

Adam was clearly surprised about this answer. He desperately asked: “Why not?”

“Well, it's not for me to get in the middle of the relationships between children like that. A better question would be; what do you want Adam? Do you also like Helen?”

“I don't know, I have never thought about this stuff before.” Adam responded

“Well, maybe you should. Not doing anything is also an option. Even if you will be an adult in five years, you are still just a child. Just think about what you want. Whether that is to get closer to Helen or try and help Helen and Alfred get together. That is a decision you have to make!”

Adam answered with a slightly depressed “Okay.” He had really been hoping for more help on this matter. Over the course of the next two weeks, Adam tried to think about this matter. He was busy with training and studying though, so he only spent a rather small time thinking about it. In the end, he decided to put it off until he had more time to decide what to do.

Even though Adam would sometimes act a little awkward around Alfred and Helen, he finally made it to the day when Hansen was going to take them to the mercenary band! The boys were all infected with a sense of excitement. They were just going to help hunt, so they weren't worried about being sent out to hunt bandits or anything like that.

Early in the morning, Hansen took the six boys out towards a gate that was by the middle class residential area. In this area, the mercenary band owned a few houses for their headquarters. It was close to one of the gates so they had easy access to go in or out of the city.

Hansen brought the boys before a set of three houses that had people in the same smart blue uniform milling about. Someone noticed their approach and ran inside. By the time Hansen had brought everyone before the houses, a large burly man had come out to greet them.

“Greetings young ones. My name is Clayton, I am the leader of the Silver Saviors.”

The boys had all straightened their backs in an attempt to look proper in front of Clayton. Clayton gave a gentle smile to the boys as his eyes swept through them. Finally he found a boy wearing a blindfold. He took a step forward saying: “Ah, you must be Adam!”

Adam was startled to have been singled out by Clayton. Using his elemental sight, Clayton seemed to have a large amount of spirit essence in his body that he had not seen in anyone else. Adam had been silently pondering this when Clayton called out to him.

Adam responded: “You know me, sir?”

“Yes. Back when you had fallen into the path of a martial artist, Cathryn sent a few letters out. She was concerned that you might not be able to switch back to being a spiritualist so she wanted to see if there was anyone that would accept you as a disciple. While the Silver Saviors is not a martial school, I am a martial artist. I had thought about personally teaching you, but you had already succeeded in switching your path.”

Adam was surprised to hear this. Cathryn had not thought it important to tell him that she had sent those letters out, so she had never told him of them. Seeing Adam's surprise Clayton thought to quickly add: “Ah, she thought that if you knew, it would effect your confidence in switching your path. She was merely setting a backup plan for you.”

“I do have one question for you though.” Clayton continued: “Why are you still pursuing the path of a fighter when you are a spiritualist?”

Adam embarrassingly told him of his desire to protect his family and his dream to follow his friends. Also, his progress as a spiritualist had totally stopped.

Clayton then spoke: “I see. It is unfortunate that I wont get to teach you how to be a martial artist, but I welcome you and your friends! Let's introduce you to the hunting team you will be joining and gear all of you up!”

Adam and the others were quickly introduced to a large team of twenty-five or so members. They were going to be hunting a herd of wild pigs this time. The pigs had ravished some areas of the forest and could be dangerous. Not as dangerous as wild boars, though. After the quick introductions, Adam and the others were brought to a house and gear started being loaded onto them.

They were given a few pieces of leather protection each as well as packs that carried some provisions and camping gear. It turned out that they would actually be spending the night in the forest! Some of the giddy excitement the boys felt turned into trepidation or fear, but they were with a large group. They felt that they would certainly stay safe.

After gearing up, it was time to head out! Hansen came along to supervise and protect the boys so the mercenaries did not receive too great a burden from the children. Everyone from the Silver Saviors was friendly though, no one thought of the boys as a burden. They instead saw future comrades in them.

As the trip started, Adam and the others were excited. As the day passed, though, they became bored and exhausted. The packs that they carried seemed to have become heavier and heavier as the day wore on. Even with all their training, this was their first time traveling for such a long time on uneven terrain while being weighted down.

After they had entered the forest, a few trackers went out ahead of the group to find both a herd to hunt and a place to camp. Except for a few breaks, the hunting team did not stop, they even ate lunch on the go!

Around mid afternoon, they had finally found a place to set up camp! The exhausted boys slumped in a corner of the camp as Hansen showed them how to set up their simple one man tents and sleeping bags. The boys were not allowed to rest quite yet!

After camp had finally been set up and evening was fast approaching. The boys had wondered about some pits that the others had dug out, but were told they would find out what they were used for later. After this, the trackers came back to report their findings. They had found a small herd of wild pigs that were perfect for this hunt. They planned to start the hunt in earnest tomorrow morning.

The six boys sat around a small fire, cooking a simple dinner meal. One of them started to ask: “What do you think the hunt will be like tomorrow?”

“I don't know, but it should be easy for us. They wouldn't give us an important job to do, right?”

Hansen, who was nearby spoke up: “I will tell you what your job will be tomorrow morning, before we start the hunt. Don't worry though, you won't be put into any dangerous positions.”

The boys could only trust in Hansen's words as they ate their dinner. After they were done, Adam began to feel disappointed that he did not bring his flute along with him. Sitting against a tree, Adam relaxed and began to hum to himself. Adam spent the rest of the night stretching his elemental sight out, while listening to the night and humming. The sounds the forest made were very different from the city. Adam was glad to be in an area so full of the natural sounds of life.

Finally, Adam went to bed to wake early the next morning. Who knew how hard the hunt was actually going to be?