I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 213: The Return

Chapter 213: The Return

"A letter for Nickron," Stanley explained as his fingers drew a large circular magical structure in front of him. "They ought to know that a few of their mages are going into what could turn into a large-scale battle. Whether or not they care is up to them."

Irene was always amazed whenever magic was used in front of her. Her eyes never left Stanley as he conjured up the circle and placed the letter in an unknown place.

"Is it easy to send a letter to a place like Nickron?" Irene wondered. "There must be a lot of mages in one place."

However, Siverly took over and explained what she was thinking.

"It is easy to send a letter to Nickron, but it isn’t because of the high volume of mages," Siverly explained. "It’s because the rock that fell to the earth and created a crater there is the largest mana stone in existence."

"There is a crater?" the girl asked.

"Well, it used to be," Siverly continued. "Now it’s a lake and the stone in the middle is an island. You can imagine how large the stone was for it to become an entire island."

"I can barely imagine that," she responded a bit dreamily, in disbelief, but willingness to try and believe. "And you’re from there?"

"I lived there up until a few years ago," Siverly explained. "Stanley was born there as well. Notice our grey hair. The mages with other colors of hair are only part mage."

"I never would have known," Irene continued in amazement. Her eyes then went to a few others who certainly had the silver hair that the two mages she knew the best had.

Siverly seemed to find these things a bit uninteresting and quickly escaped to the other mages. His threshold of patience was small.

All morning, the apprentices had been going to the town to retrieve the items for the mages. The first order was getting warm cloaks for all of them. Not only that, but their horses had been locked away in the stables because they were accused of slaughtering animals.

Surprisingly, that was where most of their money went. Even with the pretend sob story that the knighthood was lacking horses in a hard time, the stable owner only halved the original amount of coins he asked for.

With that, the apprentices were back up the hill with more supplies, including food, the requested cloaks, and waterskins for the mages who had apparently been lacking during their travels.

Since it was still early enough in the day and the weather was biting, they decided they might as well press on and burn daylight. It would likely take nearly a week to make it to the wall segment near the Duke’s Tower. At least, that was the estimation when the apprentices were on their own.

As they traveled, they realized that the mages were a bit more fussy. They wanted to eat more and tired more easily—how could they blame a bunch of people who were library dwellers for their lack of strength? However, it also showed just how much they needed the knighthood’s protection. Not every conflict could be decided through magic. It would only further skew people’s opinions about them.

The first night that it was particularly cold, all of them lay down their blanket rolls and intended to get some rest. Irene observed as Siverly took a mana stone from one of his pockets and tossed it into the fire. Her eyes widened when the fire turned blue for a moment, and she stood up quickly.

"Is that alright?" she asked.

"Just wait," Siverly responded before turning away and taking up his spot on the ground between Mella and Stanley.

To her surprise, the cool breeze that brushed through occasionally stopped disturbing them. It also felt like the fire was hotter and kept them warm. However, she saw a bird try to fly over them and was shocked to see that it hit something invisible and sank to the ground.

"A dome," Siverly explained without being asked. "With a hole in the top so we don’t suffocate to death from the fire."

"How amazing," Irene responded with her eyes wide.

This trick caused the next few nights not to seem so impossible to endure. The issue of warmth was taken care of, and she felt proud that they had succeeded in convincing the mages to go along and help them.

If they needed to go into villages for supplies, they would leave the mages in a forest or hidden on the other side of a hill and retrieve items for them.

One of the times they returned, having just left Samson’s former village, Irene couldn’t help asking Stanley if he knew about the mill.

"Did you know the place where we met was completely destroyed?" she wondered.

"The last time I saw Samson, it was already in rubble," Stanley explained. "That was the work of people. They chased us out like rats and made sure we couldn’t come back."

There were times he said something damning that reminded her just how much the mages were treated unfairly by people. She hoped that by the end of the battles, people would have changed their minds. The mages were already a vital part of their operation. Irene believed that soon there would be a time when she begged for them to stay in the Duke’s Tower once more.

The final night, the apprentices and mages discussed the plans for the next day. Felix had an idea and chose to take the lead.

"If it’s alright with all of you, I believe it is for the best that we leave as soon as the sun rises," he explained. "That way we will have one day of travel and won’t have to stay somewhere overnight. I am worried about our brothers who still live at the front lines."

The mages who didn’t like sleeping early or waking up early were a bit hesitant at this, but since they had already given themselves to the cause, there wasn’t much more that could be said.

"Lead the way, Felix," Stanley merely stated.

Just as Felix decided, the travelers woke as soon as the sun rose, and the mages were surprisingly receptive to it.

It allowed them to leave quickly and rely on the horses. They only needed one break through the day where the mages complained a little bit, but not as much as they normally did.

When they finally made it back to the plains where the Duke’s Tower lay nestled against the mountains from the southeastern angle they came from, a gasp escaped Irene’s lips the closer they came and the more they were able to see.

The encampment had gotten quite a bit bigger since they left nearly a month before.