Only one of the children brought by the guard captain had been awakened, but he had no soul mark on him. After additional research, it was discovered that he had previously signed a slave contract, but the contract's owner had already been killed by the guard captain.
Following further investigation, all of the children's backgrounds were verified, and it was discovered that they were all captured in the same place and were all members of a wild tribe.

Yes, in this wide world, some people lived outside the Kingdom, forming tribes. There are several tribes outside the Kingdom, and some of them are rumoured to have master ranked beast tamers, but for the most part, the tribes will not have anyone higher than a platinum rank.

The tribe leader is only at gold rank in the case of a significantly smaller tribe, and all of the children saved by the guard captain were from such a tribe.
The bandits discovered the knowledge that a four-star beast tamer had been awakened when they invaded another tribe since tribes normally have a way to communicate with each other.

Following that, the clan was completely wiped out, and all of the youngsters who remained alive were taken, prisoner.

And one of them was Lucas, who had awakened as a four-star beast tamer.

The mystic regions were not exclusive to kings and large nations.

There are several such mystic realms in the wild as well; in kingdoms, the capital city is usually built around this type of mystic realm because it is considered the kingdom's core.

So, in the case of a small tribe, the people would normally locate such a mystic realm and accompany their young ones there, and in the case of a large tribe, the tribal base would have been developed around that mystic realm.

All of their clan members were ecstatic when Lucas awoke as a four-star beast tamer, however, they decided to keep it a secret.

But, for reasons unknown to them, this information was leaked, and their clan met such a tragic end: Lucas' entire family was slaughtered in front of his eyes, the entire tribe was wiped out, and only a dozen children survived; these bandits usually target children because they can be sold for a higher price than adults.

Lucas's tribe was decimated and he was abducted more than a month ago; he was beaten and tortured for two weeks because he refused to sign the slave contract; he knew there was no going back once he signed the soul contract.

But he was continually beaten up, his fingernails were ripped with pliers, he was pierced with swords and knives, and his bones were shattered every day, trapping him in the domain of life and death.

When he feels it's time to die, he'll be healed back to his former state, and the torment will continue indefinitely. Lucas was just 15 years old at the time, and it was already astonishing that he could hold on for two weeks while being tortured every day.

During the third week, he lost all hope because he was absolutely broken in and out.

Lucas eventually gave up hope and signed the contract while in a state of neither life nor death.

After another two weeks, nothing had changed as they were being transported; Lucas' tribe was not closer to the kingdom, and his tribe was located far away.

The guard captain only saw the bandits as they were travelling through the kingdom's outskirts.

Lucas had to go through treatment for over a year after being rescued because he had turned into a husk with no emotions.

He was constantly tormented, as one side of his mind was filled with all the horrible things that the bandits did to him every day, and the other side was filled with him blaming himself for awakening as a four-star beast tamer; if he hadn't awakened as a four-star beast tamer, his family would still be alive and his clan would not have perished.

When the Guard captain had free time, he would always pay him a visit and console him as he learnt about all of the trauma he had experienced from the therapist.

The Guard captain was enraged that such evil individuals exist, even if the guard captain is not merciful, as he would kill someone without blinking, but he is not someone who would harm innocent children.

Lucas was in a decent spot after a year of therapy, and while he still resented himself now and then, he was much better.

Because he had already passed the age requirement for enrollment, the Guard captain assisted him in entering the number one academy, "Wisdom Oak."

Lucas enlisted in the military after finishing three years at the academy, against the guard captain's opposition. As a result, the guard captain decided to keep him with himself, and Lucas, who had lost all of his family, had only one person left in his life who he actually cared about: the guard captain, who has always been there for him and saved him from that never-ending horror.

Lucas used to play small pranks on the guard captain, but he was aware that he had gone a little bit too far the last time, but the guard captain did not punish him severely, instead of assigning him odd jobs such as this.

The Dragon academy was not far from where they were now, and they could get there in less than an hour if they travelled by road, but they chose to travel via teleportation formation because it was safer.

After observing four persons approaching the teleportation formation, a staff worker who was half-awake in a glass cabin came out.

The staff was only half-awake when he heard approaching footsteps.

He grumbled under his breath, 'Why does someone want to use the teleportation portal this early?' with an unhappy expression on his face.

He took a step out of the glass cabin with an unpleasant attitude.

But as he saw who was approaching the teleportation gate, his demeanour changed completely.

He greeted the guard captain with a smile on his face.

The guard captain nodded and stated the teleportation destination.

The staff promptly rushed towards the portal to set up the coordinates, as he was setting up the coordinates he glanced in the direction of Arthur and Mike, 'One should be the five-star beast tamer who awakened yesterday, what about the other? Is the other one a guard captain's relative? That appears to be the case.

The fact that two five-star beast tamers awoke yesterday is still a closely guarded secret, thus no one was aware that two persons had a five-star aptitude.

The destination was quickly set, and the four of them entered the teleportation portal.

"Looks like, after so many days working for all these morons, I can finally go back," muttered the man standing near the teleportation formation with a devious smile.