7.2

Dear John,

I am glad to hear more about your progress in Moxnet Academy. More importantly, I am happy that the money pouch that I have made for you held up. Please do tell me if you need an extra one made, I will be sure to deliver it to you along with my next letter.

Regarding the lucky charms that you bought for us in your last letter, though father and mother were elated, they rather you spend your gold coin on yourself and not on our family.

And who is this Angeline person who help you picked these trinkets? I know you mentioned that she was ‘just the hero’s party member’ but I couldn’t help but to wonder who she is. Hopefully she isn’t after you for your eccentric teasing, because I can say I don’t miss that part of you!

As of writing, Meli grew a few centimeters to her height, she had been nagging me to inform you so. Ever since you and Miril left, she became much more responsible with herself. Did you know that she’s been secretly trying to grow cherry tomatoes? Yesterday she showed me a small plant and boasted to me that she did it all by herself, there were cute little flowers all around it. Hopefully by the time you return, the three of us can enjoy its fruits.

And regarding that brother of mine, he wanted to give his thanks to the charm that you gave him. He is now in the capital of the empire, occupied to the point where he did not have the time to write back to us, could you believe that? Though, he did say that he would be coming back in two weeks, I suppose that much is forgivable.

I hope what I said makes sense to you and does not come across as rambling. I am still in the process of trying to improve my writing skills, perhaps you can give me some guidance?

Before I leave it at that. I would like to ask of you to send us pictures of you in a formal suit when you partake in the Ball of Paragons, surely the academy has devices for picture taking? Meli and I were hoping that you could send that to us if it is not that much of a hassel.

As always, be easier on yourself.

Love,

Mera.

John took a deep breath when his eyes found themselves at the very end of the parchment of Mera’s letter, his face grinned while he spun a pen with his fingers.

“This Mera, ahaha… Who knew she was that curious about Angeline, then again she did say to tell her interesting things…” he pushed the tip of the pen up his cheek and released it, pondering whether if he should tell her about Evie. “Yeah, I am probably better off not telling her that for now. Who knows, she might add a few more pages the next time she replies.”

John chuckled to himself as he counted the many pages of Mera’s letter, to which one of the pages was a drawing of the tomato plant alon with a smiley face from Meli.

Ten days passed since he left Parac Village and enrolled into Moxnet Academy. Days here for him have passed by so quickly that one moment he was attending classes, participating in workshops and clubs, the next he found himself collapsed on his bed in deep sleep.

“Yeah, I am not doing all of that next week. All the trial sessions are killing me,” he said to himself and shook his head when he thought of his hectic second week in the academy.

He had signed himself up with so many activities for the first week that his head felt like it was going to explode, all the plans he made sounded great in his head, but when he was moving from one part of the academy to the other, he knew he mismanaged his energy levels. Aside from socializing with his newly made friends, who are the folk from the hero’s party, he barely had time to do what he wanted outside of that busy schedule.

Now, on this Friday morning, he was taking it slow in his room to write a letter. There were no events planned for him until the Ball of Paragons that starts later in the evening.

The Ball of Paragon that he almost forgot about.

“Ahhhhh, today’s the ball already!” he complained to himself. “Crap, crap, crap!”

It was not that he did not know what today was—the most anticipated event of all the female students of Moxnet Academy.

Putting aside the legend that couples who danced together will be bound by fate tonight, he himself was looking forward to the ball thanks to Evie who asked him to be her partner.

“If my eyes were working properly last night, she did look a little bit excited when she brought up about the ball?” he tried recalling Evie who had a silk dress on her last night while she checked up on him by the balcony to his room moments before he throw himself on to the bed to sleep.

Unlike him, the dragon girl had avoided participating all non-mandatory activities in favor of reading books on her own time. As a way to further this positive relationship of theirs, he and Evie had agreed to meetup with the other whenever John was free—which was the few minutes before he would go to sleep. John had regretted for having registered for so many activities for the week, if given a choice, he rather laze around with Evie talking nonsense.

Not gonna lie, that dress and ponytail hair of hers was—

John then suddenly slapped his hands to his cheeks, “Don’t get off topic. Mera’s letter won’t write itself, and after this the guys and I…"

Knock, knock, knock.

His door resounded clearly, an energetic voice then followed up.

“John! Wakey, wakey, let’s go! Are you still sleeping? Come on, Scy and Gobbert are already waiting for you while they get a carriage.”

It was Randolph. He was here this early in the morning to get bring John along with Gobbert and Scywell to buy their suits for the Ball of Paragons at the last minute.

“Ah, it’s time already... Give me a second, coming right up!”

John jumped from his seat and put on the jacket that he had on his bed, wore a messenger bag that resembled his old one, for some reason he was too used to how easy it felt when he wore it so he had bought one from the academy’s convenience store—but this one had no space expansion magic. With that, he set to leave with Randolph and went to where Scywell and Gobbert were.

They met up by the courtyard, after exchanging a few light greetings here and there, the four of the boarded the carriage and took off in the galloping sounds of horses.

Their goal was simple, hitch the fastest carriage by morning to the capital of the Empire to a personal tailor that would be able to make them all custom suits under an hour.

“Ahh~” Gobbert let out a yawn and was the first to speak. “Scywell, do we have anything planned for this week? I don’t feel like I want to go on a five-day mission after the ball.”

“We still haven’t investigate the ruins near Kershent Village. You need to be in top shape if the intel Helen got was valid. It won’t be five days long but it will easily take three in the worse case scenario.”

“Awww, Scy, does it really have to be that bad?” Randolph complained. “I don’t want to tell my girls that I have to leave right after a passionate dance after the ball. That would suck so much.”

“This is no joking matter, Randy. People’s lives could be in danger and—d” Scywell stopped when he saw John who was listening closely to their conversation. “My apologies, I do not mean to discuss serious matters when we are supposed to behave like proper students.”

John swatted his hand at the hero dismissing the formalities, he leaned back into the cushioned seat, “It doesn’t matter to me. You are talking about people’s lives here, I don’t have the right to say anything against that.”

The hero then placed a hand to his chest and lowered his head deeply, “You have my upmost gratitude, John.”

“Come on, Scy, John is one of us now. Don’t treat him like how you speak to those government officials. Look at how fast he was able to beat yesterday’s practical maze, he was part of the top 20 as us.”

“It was just a coincidence that I happened to choose the right path…”

Gobbert’s eyes suddenly popped open in response to John, “I’ve got it! What if we bring John along on our next mission. He doesn’t have to fight with us, he can help out with Angeline with his healing magic. What do you say, John? That way we can return to the academy sooner!”

“Gobbert!” Scywell reproached in a furious tone. “He is just a bystander! Don’t treat his life as expandable as ours!”

“T-that’s not what I meant, I was thinking maybe he can gain some on field knowledge….”

Gobbert’s voice slowly faded as the atmosphere around them dropped to unusual lows, physically and metaphorically. Frost started to form around the windows of the carriage, John’s skin to crawled and his breath fogged while he watched the shift in Scywell’s emotions.

This chilling sensation… The hero uses ice elemental magic?

Scywell who got onto his feet had a piercing look in his eye, they threatened Gobbert to abandon this topic or else he would…

Randolph quickly spoke up, “Woah, Scy. Calm down, alright? You and I know Gob would put himself in harm’s way in order to protect anyone he can, here is a reason he is our tank remember? Unless this mission is confirmed to be extremely dangerous, it won’t hurt for John boy here to learn from us would it?”

“…” Scywell’s hard expression soften a little after he looked at Randolph who had a straight face.

“I don’t want John here to get hurt as much as you. How about we ask Helen and Angeline before we think about letting John on the mission? Helen would know if it is safe enough for him.”

Scywell took a deep breath, closed his eyes and stopped the ice magic that responded to his intense bursts of emotions. He went back to his seat before speaking in his usual calm tone, “…Alright. I apologize for my behavior earlier, Gobbert.”

“I-it is fine. It was only my suggestion, John here hasn’t actually agreed to it.” Gobbert said.

“Hmm? That sounds interesting, but if it is as bad as Scywell thinks it is I don’t think I should go.”

“See? He hasn’t agreed to it.”

“If he did, with his [Heal] and our experience, no enemy will stand a chance against our way!” Randolph elbowed John who was beside him. “I bet that when you join us, you will end up getting famous for your heroism!”

John smirked, “Ha, who knows? That is if I join you people this weekend. I am not exactly as free as you would like to think. I still have a letter—”

“That weird silver haired girl?” Gobbert asked in surprise. “The one that doesn’t speak to anyone? Are you still speaking to her?”

“Well, that’s not…”

“At first, I thought she was some aristocrat’s daughter with this unusual vibe I get from her. But I don’t think I ever saw her outside of Professor Peter’s class. She’s the one who gave him the letter last week, yes?” Randolph looked at Gobbert who gave a nod to his rhetoric. Randolph shook his head, his auburn hair flapped as he made an uncomfortable face, “I don’t know, John. She seems like those suspicious characters they warn us to no associate with, you know, because a handful students are actually from foreign countries and they might just spy— Ah forget what I’ve said.”

Scywell raised a finger before Randolph wanted to switch topics.

“No, you have a point there, Randy. John is from a small village, so he might not know how things work around here. The empire does not have great ties with a few nations at this moment, even our neutral relations with the nearby Dwarven Kingdom is currently under threat. Some people even fear an insurgence is occurring deep within the empire by people who wish to see the empire fall.”

“Even among the students?” John squinted his eyebrows and doubted that Evie was a spy. It simply made no sense that someone as powerful she was would do something so petty.

Then again…

The Elder Dragon he encountered in Reperane Woods was the living proof of unrestrained power, the thought of seeing Evie who had similar, if not equivalent power held any malice for the innocent was something that sent a cold chill down his spine.

Are they related?

John shook his head, dismissing the thought, Don’t overthink things, John, you know better than most to not judge someone based on what they might be. There are many dragons in this world, and Evie just happened to be one. He thought to himself and stopped before the thought consumed him.

“It’s because it is the students that we suspect even more so,” Scywell insisted. “Do watch yourself around others, John. You never know who ends up becoming your enemies, I learned that first hand…” Scywell’s face became dark upon reminiscing his past. “…Best not to make the same mistake as I did.”

“Didn’t Angeline said it was impossible for it to happen? The spies, I mean.” Gobbert tilted his head. “She said she checked the student registration records for this year, only about eight, nine, of them are from places far away from Dezarith?”

“Oh yeah! You are right, Gob! I’ve completely forgotten what Angeline said the other day. Ahahaha! I though she was blabbing about some new technology or artifact so I kind of forgotten it. Well there you go, Scy, Angeline did her background surveys, we it should be fine.”

“Is that so? Then it seems like I have gotten things wrong the second time for the day.” The hero shook his head with a light smile then placed a hand on his head, “I hate to admit it but Gobbert’s desire for more rest is mutual for me now.”

The four of them shared a few more conversations and laughter before their carriage arrived at the capital of Dezarith Empire, Registoria.

Their smooth ride to the capital ended when they’ve reached one of its many checkpoints that were stationed by the great eight walls of the empire. Registoria, being the place where the immortal emperor resides in, had a vast population of 50 million, the capitol was also often referred as the ‘true’ part of the empire before its great expansion, anything outside of Registoria could be said to be additional or unimportant.

Unlike the lands beyond the great walls that were under the jurisdiction of Dezarith Empire, Registoria was ruled by the immortal emperor alone. The nobility of the empire, no matter how much of land they had under the empire’s name, had no say in the governing of this place.

The further John travelled into the capital, the number of checkpoints grew and each iteration of the security grew stricter and stricter. At first the guards demanded the driver’s identification papers, after a few checkpoints, they started to demand the whole carriage to be scanned by magicians for any suspicious items. The demands kept on increasing and it was only until Scywell decided to hand his hero insignia to the driver as a show of proof to the guards that the stalling from the troublesome security checks did stop.

And it only took them no more than an hour to finally get pass the various checkpoints by the great walls.

“This is why we needed to leave early. Who knows how long we’d have to wait if we played along with them,” Scywell muttered as they made pass the last of the security checks.

Randolph leaned back and had a smirk on his face. “At least we aren’t going to the inner Registoria until next month. That takes even a full day for us.”

“Don’t remind me, Randy.” Scywell shook his head, his golden hair dropped and covered his grey eyes.

“So this is the capital?” John asked as he look outwards of the large carriage that they were in and feasted his eyes onto the vibrant city of Registoria.

“Despite the tight security, it is not that bad. First time here?” Gobbert said.

“Yeah. This place explains why Miril wanted to come here so badly. Everything here is just, rich, not to mention how large it is. It would take years for me to just not get lost.”

Gobbert continued, “Don’t worry, the place we are going is relatively near. It is just right about— Oh we are here!” Not a moment that their ride slowed and the scenery around them were of magnificent brick buildings, Gobbert got to his feet and exited the carriage with great enthusiasm.

“What’s up with his energy?” John asked as the three of them waited for the carriage to come to a stop before following Gobbert to a tailor shop that was embellished with all kinds of clothing designs at its windows. Scywell answered, “Gobbert’s relatives own this place. His uncle from the Barcus side of his family took him and his brother in after the passing of his parents.” The hero nudged towards the various clothes that were on display behind a large windows pane before entering the shop.

“Oh…”

“Come on John, don’t get all gloomy, Gob’s younger brother was 17 by the time they passed away, it’s a long time ago. He is just happy that he gets to see his family after a long while.” Randolph opened the door and gestured John inwards as though he was a butler waiting for his master’s return, “Now move your ass so we get to have our suits made for the before the ball.”

They entered the shop and was greeted by a handful of people who, from the looks of it were Gobbert’s many cousins, while the surrounded Gobbert with great enjoy. Welcomed him, asked about how his travels with the hero went and whatnot. Even Gobbert who had a large body frame looked like he was about to be drowned out by their many queries and celebration.

John and Randolph found Scywell had resided himself silently at an inconspicuous corner as he silently watched Gobbert busy trying to speak to his cousins one by one while he asked the whereabouts of his younger brother.

“So, this is why you wanted us to come early. It was not the security checks that would take up the most time, it was this wasn’t it Scy? You wanted Gobbert to spend some time with his family so you kept declining Angeline’s offer to get our suits the town near Moxnet.” Randolph pushed a finger into the unassuming hero’s cheeks, knowing full well that he could get away with it.

“…Stop annoying me.”

“Whatever you say, Scy. I prefer to come here either way, I hear they are one of the 5 shops that nobles love go for their clothes. I don’t mind waiting for Gob if it means I can get myself a suit that makes all the ladies love me.” Randolph said presumptuously.

Scywell rolled his eyes at Randolph’s silly remarks, he then return to watchong Gobbert without speaking.

Seeing that the hero was not in a joking mood, Randolph retracted his finger and spoke in a more earnest tone, “Hey, Scy?”

“What is it?”

“You’re a great friend, Scy.”

“…”

John kept his silence and let the two of them to be as he casually browsed the selection of clothes that the Barcus’ tailor shop had to offer. He busied running his fingers through the various fabrics that were placed orderly by the different racks, feeling the textiles as he waited patiently waited for Gobbert to finish his family reunion.

When all of that was done, Gobbert introduced them to his uncle and aunt, their names were Warren and Marianne respectively and are the owners of Barcus’ Tailor. As expected of Gobbert’s family, Gobbert’s uncle had a large muscular build just like his nephew, it was bizarre to say the least, that someone such as Warren was a renowned tailor in Registoria.

“I am not one for unnecessary introductions, Scywell, Randolph, John, I’ll have your measurements and design something that will fit you like a glove.” Warren said right after greeting the three of them, he snapped his fingers, “Gob, time to refresh your memory,” then tossed a measuring tape to Gobbert.

Gobbert nodded enthusiastically when he caught the tape, moving faster than one could blink, he vanished before their eye and appeared behind Randolph with the measuring tape in his hands.

“H-hey! Don’t just scare me like that!” Randolph complained.

“Stay still. Will be quick.” Gobbert replied mechanically.

“Rare seeing Gob like this, Mr Warren,” Scywell said.

“He was always my best workers, that is, until he joined you of course. Have any style you want your suit to be, hero? Any of them catch your eye?” Warren asked, gesturing towards the many completed suits he had on display.

“I’ll have something like those there, as long it looks the part, I have no qualms.”

“Got it! And what about you John?”

“Uhh… I don’t know,” John turned his heads sideways, throwing his glance around the room, sure there many interesting suits—and dresses but he was no taking them into consideration of course—around him, yet John had a hard time picturing himself in one that suits him. He wore suits on formal occasions in the past, but that was many years back when he had just entered A’vetheas, he had lent from others and never officially own any due to him never had a liking for them. “Something like dark blue? Not too black—"

“Wait, wait, John, don’t move, keep your head in that upwards position,” Warren stopped him all of sudden, he squinted his eyes and made a pose with his fingers in front of John. “Hmm… Interesting… You height isn’t quite the part, but your posture is quite excellent… You look quite the part too…” Warren nodded to himself, then quickly said aloud. “Gob, I’ll handle John, show Scywell page 21 on our catalogue and Randolph page 86 and 91, let them pick a design they like the most.”

“Handle me?” John wanted to take a step back but before he could, Warren Barcus had placed his large hands on John’s shoulder.

“I don’t think any of my designs will suit you… But! That doesn’t matter, because I already have something in mind,” Warren tapped at his own forehead. “It’s rare for me to work with a foreign noble, your black hair has just the exact density I am looking for!”

“Foreign noble…?”

“It was a figure of speech, son. Meaning you have the looks and style of an elegant person! Come, I’ll make sure your dance will be a success with a customized suit from me!” Warrren said before he started to push John to his worktable, his face grinning excitedly.

“Elegant is not really what I do…” John muttered.

“Bah! Just save your comments until I finish your piece, you’ll love it!”