"Today is the day…" Koren's eyes were restless and his speaking was endless

"Shut the fuck up I'm trying to read, and go to bed we have to go early" Sebastian barked angrily

"Jeez..." Koren shuddered at the cursing but Sebastian had a point, the sun was already up and Koren had leave for Corendale in an hour or two.

"It's so exciting though, only country officials are allowed to enter Corendale."

Sebastian shrugged

"I don't know why your so excited to go to a battlefield."

"That was twenty years ago." Koren rebutted

"Twenty years, twenty hours, they're all the same." Sebastian mocked

Koren sighed deeply and promptly fell asleep.

"Get up!" A sharp voice rang

Koren who was still half asleep started to look around dazed.

"Huh, what's going on?." he mumbled

Steve, Aaron, and Sebastian shook their heads in disappointment but Koren quickly got back to his senses.

"When is the ship leaving?" Koren asked as he jumped off his bed to grab his bag.

'Weapons check, clothes check, rations check, books check.' He quickly checked his bag for his stuff before running downstairs.

"The ships leaving in four hours!" Aaron shouted from upstairs

"Bye!" Koren yelled as he swiftly ran out of his house down to the train station.

Koren already sorted all of his goodbyes and farewells the day before so that he wouldn't need to do it the day of the trip which was a pretty smart decision by him. He boarded a train and sat down in an empty spot on the train.

"Damn, If your brothers didn't wake you up you would've missed the train," Sebastian stated but Koren instantly dismissed his worries.

"Damn, well I guess I have to sit here for the next three hours."

Thellaria is extremely large and it's no surprise the Empire is massive in size. Koren's house would be considered near the sea, but even with an extremely high-speed train, incomparable to ones on earth it would still take 3 hours to make it to the ship docks. Not to mention the one-month ship journey to get to Corendale.

"What am I going to do for a whole month in a ship?" Koren complained as he set all his stuff to the ground.

"We can work on your axe combat, from what I head from the Ambassador the crew is made fully of Dwarves."

"That's if they want to teach me."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, but they widened almost as if he had thought of something important,

"This is a perfect opportunity for some physical training."

Koren began to tremble at the words physical training, flashbacks of his stamina training replayed in his head.

"H-How am I supposed to do physical training on a ship?" He stuttered

"Well, I don't think you understand what I mean by "physical training."." Sebastian replied mischievously.

Koren shuddered at Sebastian's tone but his sleepiness soon engulfed him once again.

*

From what seemed to be inside a crate, three figures were crouched up side to side with barely enough space to breathe. Muffled voices were heard from outside the crate, but the figures did not dare to make any noise.

"This is the medical stuff?" A low voice asked as the crate began to lift off of the ground.

A groan of frustration was exerted by the same man.

"Why is this so heavy?" He complained

The three people began to hold their breath, afraid to even make a peep of noise.

"It's a one month journey, of course, there is going to be a lot of medical supplies." A new voice replied

The crate began to shake unnaturally as a new pair of hands began to help with the crate.

"Oof, this is heavy."

After a few minutes of shaking and sudden drops, the crate was finally set down in the ship's supplies area. And out emerged three suspicious individuals.

"Oh, thank the lord." A skinny man prayed as he exited the stuffy crate, following him a large man, and a woman exited the crate.

"If I had to spend another second next to you two monkeys, I would have killed myself!"  The woman exclaimed as she began to search for any conspicuous passerby.

The two men produced ugly faces in response but promptly remembered that they were on a mission.

"Master wanted us to catch the boy and to sink the ship so both of you prepare for that soon." The women mentioned as she grabbed her things from the crate.

"Soon? You mean in a decade, master wants us to do it a week into the journey why should we do it so early?" The skinny man viciously remarked, showing a clear dislike towards the woman.

The large man nodded in agreement.

The woman started to bite on her bottom lip knowing the skinny man was correct but a quick response came upon her.

"Master did say we should expect something unexpected and,"

She continued

"If we don't succeed at this you can consider yourself dead, did you see what he did to Salaz!" She blurted reminding the group of the horrifying scene of watching their friend have his head bashed into a table. 

They all shuddered at the memory and simultaneously held onto their head.

"Who are you!" A dwarf yelled as he stumbled upon the group, which immediately alerted them.

"Fras, take care of him." The women ordered casually

The skinny man known as Fras shrugged as he instantly threw a dagger towards the dwarf's head shooting into the dwarf's head, instantly killing him.

"Cert, deal with the body."

The large man summoned a deadly fire, instantly turning the dwarf's dead body into a pile of ashes.

"Now my friend's let's make master proud."

*

Koren who had his head laid onto a table was instantly awakened by the sudden stopping of the train.

"Are we here?" Koren asked as he opened his mouth to yawn

'Yeah, let's get off." Sebastian replied as he led Koren off the train.

"Aah, seaside air is the best!" Koren exclaimed as he took a fresh breath of air in.

"I agree!" A middle-aged man with wide spectacles replied

"Oh, Mr. Ambassador!" Koren immediately did a ninety-degree bow as a form of respect.

"Oh, no need for that, also call me by my name, Sak." He laughed showing off his pointy ears clearly.

The Corendale Ambassador is someone who is definitely worthy of a bow, he was one of the first Elves to solidify a relationship with the Empire making him something similar to a national hero to Corendale. He is also the one who approved of letting Koren stay in Corendale for a year.

"How was your trip here." He asked with a charming smile that would make any women's heart flutter.

"Ah, it was nice!" Koren replied enthusiastically

"Good, good."

Sak and Koren talked as they walked towards the ship port.

Koren was originally going to leave a month later with the rest of the Tournament winners, however, Sak insisted that Koren rides with him as he took a liking to him.

Sak led Koren onto the ship port where a long line of ships sat, but one was leagues above the rest. While most of the ships were made out of wood, this ship was made out of pure metal which meant it was powered with magic due to its heavy weight. It was also twice as large as any normal wooden ship.

However, Koren knew from his brother Aaron who went on this trip before, that they take a normal wooden ship which was quite disappointing.

As Koren started to walk onto one of the wooden ships Sak quickly called his name.

"Koren, that's the wrong ship!"

Sak faced the luxury ship with a face of pride

"That's our ship, you think I would make you ride on that?"

Like giving candy to a baby, Koren instantly favored Sak more than any person in his life other than, well, Sebastian due to this over the top treatment.

Sak led Koren up the ship where he was met the captain of the ship who just like the rest of the crew, is a dwarf.

"Ah' hello!" The captain's loud voice struck Koren like a car but he smiled in response.

"Hello, nice to meet you Captain, I'm Koren." Koren held out his hand which was met with the captain's strong and rough hand.

"Nice to met you, Koriin, I am Airgror!" Airgror yelled as he brutally shook Koren's hand.

Sak chucked heavily at Koren and Airgror's meeting before leading Koren to the ships living quarters.

"This will be your room  if you need anything come to my room at the end of the hall." Sak pointed to a room on his right before handing Koren a key to his new room.

Koren entered the key into the room's door and when he opened the door was met with a luxurious new chamber. It had a large white bed in the far right of the room and a nice wooden desk to read and study. The room also had plenty of room to practice his axe skills and workout.

"This will be where I will be staying for a month huh," Koren muttered as he jumped on his new bed.

"Doesn't seem so bad." He remarked as he fell asleep, once again.