As the tolling of the church bell resounded throughout Ethel, people would occasionally glance in the direction of the church and offer a quick prayer of appreciation. Others would just ignore the bells and continue on with their day, while a rare minority would make a face of disdain. Matthew passed by all of these citizens as he jogged in the direction of the church bells.

Thanks to his fitness regimen which mainly consisted of stamina boosting activities (not to say he completely disregarded strength building exercises), he was able to maintain a fast pace and quickly transitioned from the commercial district to the residential. Matthew had a lot of questions regarding the four Old Gods that have been pestering him ever since his conversation with Rebecca. Like why are the months designated as consecutive trimesters of each Old God? Everyone had a story of how the emergence of the Demon King and its army ruined their life, but in Matt’s case it took away the last good thing going for him in his life.

Matthew sighed and purged himself of the dark emotions latching onto him. They would only serve as a distraction and bring back bad memories if he kept thinking about his hatred for it. Besides he already arrived in front of a small church. It was made of stone and featured tinted glass on the sides allowing sunlight to shine through. The building was surrounded by stone walls that came up to a meter, with freshly maintained grass and plants inside.

He followed the designated pathway that led straight to the doors and entered. The first thing that entered his eyes was a giant mural depicting Rebecca shielding a child with her body from a variety of monsters.

“Excuse me young man are you by chance Matthew Fredericks?” A voice broke him out of his observations. A pudgy bald man hurried down the red carpet that lined the aisle in between the pew style wooden benches. His brown gown was held together by some rope under his bulging belly, and in his grasp was a letter with Matthew’s name fancily written.

“Were you expecting me?”

“Yes as soon as you were to arrive I was to hand you this letter.” The man thrusted the letter into Matthew’s hand, and proceeded to observe him in detail. “To think you would personally know the Pope at such a young age…” Matthew’s ears perked up at this and almost ripped open the letter before remembering he wasn’t alone.

“Thank you Father. I’ll take my leave now.” Matthew exited the church to the disappointing gaze of the priest as he too was curious of the contents of the letter. Once he was outside and made sure no prying eyes were nearby he opened the letter.

Dear Matthew Fredericks,

Congrats on your acceptance to the Royal Academy, of course this result is to be expected of Rebecca’s chosen. Rebecca has been watching over you and acknowledges confusion and concerns you may have, so it is my duty to answer them for you. As for why you’re unable to use air magic, it seems Rebecca had to sacrifice that magic in order to strengthen your affinity with water and ice.

Matthew paused and couldn’t help but feel extremely annoyed with the Goddess. It was only annoyance though, as the prospect of wielding ice magic was extremely appealing. This didn’t mean Matthew wouldn’t miss the utility of air magic, especially due to the fact it had some of the easiest to control flying spells. Not that he ever got advanced enough to utilize any of them.

On to your second question, it would be too difficult to train you in our divine abilities through text alone. When you arrive in Gryffindor, I shall naturally seek you out and we’ll develop those skills thereafter. As for your final question, people felt betrayed by the Old Gods once they learned of the Demon King’s origin. They unleashed their misguided anger on. Once humanity relearned of her efforts to protect them that malice became gratitude, although there are still people who distrust the gods.

I have digressed a bit from your last question. The reason the months are named after the Old Gods is due to the insistence of the Magic Research Association. They believe that disrespect of the Old Gods will weaken their magic. If you have any more questions, I’ll be sure to answer them when we meet each other.

Safe Travels,

Pope Alexander II

It was a plausible justification as chanting spells requires people to speak the respective God’s name somewhere in the process. Although Matt recognized the MRA, he wasn’t completely well-informed regarding some details. He did know they were a group of magicians pursuing any possibility with mana, and he was unable to join them due to their strict requirements which created an elitist perspective amongst themselves. Matthew made a mental note to add “Join the MRA” to his journal, and proceeded back to The Familiar Spade.

With the setting sun accompanying Matthew’s stroll back, he observed any mercenaries he passed by. Most of them were nothing special judging by some of their mismatched armor, and Matthew categorized them in the E-D range. As he finally saw The Familiar Spade in the distance, a group of four exited the building. The way they carried themselves and their equipment was a clear indication that they were considered the cream of the crop.

The only person who spared a glance at Matthew was the cloaked figure, as the other three were busy discussing the pros and cons of adding a new member. Once his attention went back to his party, Matthew focused on sensing out their respective auras to gauge their strength. Excluding the bearded man as he was clearly focused on magic, Matthew was unable to read the levels of any of the remaining members.

“Huh they’re all at the very least at the 6th stage.” He stared in their direction until they disappeared out of sight, before entering The Familiar Spade and was greeted by the typical tavern atmosphere. Hardy men and women letting loose after a hard day of work with cheap booze and food. A young lady in an apron noticed Matthew’s entrance and guided him to the rest of his group in one of their private rooms.

The private room was filled with various pieces of furniture for people to relax on, and décor to brighten up an originally dull wooden room. The teens in the room were separated in their small social circles, and Matt noticed his three friends sitting on chairs observing a caged creature.

Carl noticed his gaze and approached Matthew while practically shoving the caged harpy into his face. “Look at this bad boy! Wait it’s a girl though so that wouldn’t make sense... You get my point though right?” The harpy shot Matt a pleading gaze but he dismissed it as he was more curious as to how Carl got this monster off of the man’s hands.

“This is the same harpy we were following before right? How’d you get it off of that guy’s hands?”

“There was this group of four people who said they bought the beast for Carl if he’d consider joining them in the future! There was an elf too!” Dylan responded as he and his brother approached Matthew.

“What happened to you? You suddenly disappeared back there.” Zack queried.

“Oh I forgot my mother told me to visit this shop. More importantly I think I passed by your mysterious benefactors Carl.” Matthew shifted the topic of the conversation, as he knew Carl loves having all the (good) attention onto himself.

“Apparently they’re a B rank mercenary group! That means they’re really strong and I’ll be one of them when I grow up.” Matt blew a sharp whistle as they may have the potential to become an A rank group. Mercenary ranks were based on a G F E D C B A S scale ordered in weakest to strongest. Anyone whose overall strength was ranked S could contend with an army and demolish cities single handedly. The only existence that Matthew knew in that category was the Demon King, and it took the full might of the seven heroes to slay it.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by James grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. “Alright you all have had your fun now it’s getting late so try to get some rest. Boys and girls will be in separate rooms, and don’t worry your luggage is already in your rooms. If any of you try to enter a room with a different gender I’ll drag you back home myself got it?” James was particularly mean mugging the boys as he said this.

There were eight girls and seven boys, which meant three of them would have to be in a room with James. He handed each group of four their own set of keys and guided them to their rooms which were all on the same floor. To the delight of the four boys they were all put in the same group, and wouldn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of being supervised by an adult in the same room.

They all changed into their sleepwear and Matthew tried to fall asleep, but his friends would much rather talk late into the night. Thankfully James came by and told them to go to bed already which they quickly obliged. The next day everyone grabbed their luggage and followed James out of the tavern.

He led them all towards the western entrance of Ethel (they all entered from the eastern entrance) saying that they were going to continue their journey. They were greeted with an expansive green plain that stretched ever onward, opposite of the dense cluster of forests that surrounded them on their way to the city. There was a fort in the distance a few miles out that was connected to Ethel via The King’s Road.

Instead of heading to the obvious landmark, James led the group off into the plains which rose questions and concerns amongst the kids. One of the boys couldn’t contain their curiosity asked “Do you even know what you’re doing Mr. James? I thought we would get another caravan and now we’re walking to the middle of nowhere…Just what are you thinking?”

Matthew observed the group and could tell some of the weaker boys and girls were starting to considerably slow down. He looked to James who recently stopped for an explanation.

“I just needed sufficient room that’s all. You guys can put your luggage down by the way.” A symphony of thuds and sighs resounded in the field while James took out a golden whistle and blew it sharply. This drew confused looks as no one could hear anything, but Matt realized he was summoning a mount as our transportation. After a few moments a rapidly approaching blur appeared from the sky.

“Hey what is that?”

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“Did he attract that thing?”

Various voices spoke out their concerns which only fell on deaf ears. As the figure of the beast became more apparent, Matthew identified the creature as a griffon. “Holy shit this man tamed an A rank beast?!” The griffon was clearly bigger than most its breed at around 6 meters, imposing its figure upon the group as it landed. Its mixture of brown and white fur didn’t even have a speck of dust on it, and a steel box slightly bigger than it was strapped onto its back.

Carl, Zack, and Dylan all dropped their jaws like the rest of their fellow classmates. James turned back towards them and said “Close your mouths and follow me if you want to make it to the capital on time.” Its eagle head sent a penetrating stare at every one of the students, and an especially long one at Carl and his plus one.

“I think that Griffon thinks your harpy is a snack…” Dylan’s thoughtless comment caused the harpy to panic. Carl slapped the back of Dylan’s head and tried to comfort her. As the group approached the side of the griffon, the beast lied down so James could jump onto the platform and open the door. He came back with a ladder and told everyone to throw their furniture to him.

Everyone threw their luggage and climbed the ladder one by one. They were greeted by a spacious interior with walls inscribed with all-manners of sigils. The room was bare, so people opted to sit on the cold metal floor. James locked the door after he entered, and for a moment everyone inside felt weightless but it came back in seconds.

Matthew re-examined the sigils from the wall that were now glowing with a purple arcane energy. He didn’t understand what they all meant, but assumed they were supposed to adjust the gravity of the room. This was just another example of progress in the field of magic the past 500 years.

He looked back at the rest of the kids who decided to form a giant group and talk about their expectations for the Royal Academy, the fact they were riding a griffon, and what to name Carl’s new harpy. James told them it would take five hours for his griffon, to enter the Griffon Kingdom’s inner ring and arrive in the capital, Gryffindor.

Instead of participating in this discussion Matthew opted to take a nap that would hopefully last the whole ride. The wall was a bit uncomfortable at first, but he got used to it and eventually fell asleep. Hopefully no one would bother him on the way there.