Noah's trip became quiet.
After his demonstration of ruthlessness, the other students had become quite scared of him.
They were still young after all, their lives as nobles never allowed them to have any traumatic experience.
There were a few exceptions though.
The Eeggi siblings would usually bring him food during his cultivation sessions and June began to respect him as a true senior.
The Eeggi's felt indebted since he saved Ruth's life while June was a battle maniac, she respected strength above anything.
The atmosphere felt a little awkward to Noah since he was among the youngest of the group.
He was currently holding a book with the second Kesier rune hidden between its pages.
Some sweat ran down his forehead as he trained his sea of consciousness.
When he felt that he had done enough, he put back the rune in the space-ring and closed the book.
'This feels really strange.'
It had been more than three weeks since they set off and Noah did nothing but train.
However, he was now in a peaceful environment.
There was no imminent danger nor someone close to him that he was trying to save.
That lack of external pressure that forced him to become stronger left him with some dissatisfaction.
'The first hurdle on the cultivation journey is the access to techniques. The second one is the immense boredom caused by the extended periods of training.'
Noah liked to train, he liked feeling his strength increasing day by day, but he had to admit that he also liked to use that power at some point.
'I should not ask for more dangers now that I'm finally free from them. With my luck, I will end up in some mess sooner or later.'
His mental energy was expended and he had already cultivated for the entirety of the previous night, he was left with nothing to do.
'Maybe I should ask June to spar again. She is the only one that can face me here. I wonder what kind of spells she has.'
He stood up and moved toward the girl meditating on one of the mats near him but then Thaddeus' voice resounded through the ship and he appeared on the main deck.
"We are about to fly over Elbas city, I believe many of you will be interested in seeing it."
'Fly over?'
June stood up and moved toward the border of the deck when Noah spoke to her.
"June, isn't the academy inside the Royal city?"
June's eyes widened like she had seen the most unbelievable thing of her life.
Noah was confused and continued.
"What?"
June seemed to return to reality and spoke honestly.
"Sorry, it's just that I never saw you speaking to someone on your own will."
Noah was momentarily stunned.
'Now that I think about it, I never did anything else except cultivating in this life.'
He never cared much about people even in his previous life.
Since he found a purpose in his other one, he completely disregarded anything else.
He shrugged his shoulder to answer and waited for her reply.
"The academy is inside Arolyac forest which is near the capital. Its exact location is known only to the students and to those in the Royal family though."
"Oh, and why is that?"
"Arolyac forest is a danger zone but many precious materials are hidden inside it. Part of the students' duties is to gather them and send them to the capital."
'Mh, it seems the perfect area to train the next generation of cultivators. Also not knowing the exact location makes it harder for the families of the nobles to reach to them, diminishing their influence on their heirs.'
Then a doubt formed in his mind.
'Wait, she is a battle maniac, how does she know so many things?'
"How do you know all of this?"
June spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"It's the story of our country, everyone knows about it. It's common knowledge."
'I guess I really should pay more attention to topics outside cultivation.'
He sighed and moved to look at the landscape below the ship.
Rivers and plains occupied the scenery but, in the distance, a massive figure began to appear.
June neared him.
"Didn't you have an instructor when you were a kid?"
Noah vaguely remembered the face of Li Neregnes back in his childhood.
"Kind of."
The massive figure became more detailed and their conversation was interrupted by their astonishment.
Enormous was the word that better described the city that they were looking at.
It was more than one hundred kilometers wide, it started to occupy all their field of view as the ship neared it.
Many buildings eight and nine-story high were shown from above the imponent defense wall.
As the air-ship flew over it, its streets became visible as it did its population.
It seemed that every corner of the city was bustling with life.
Noah saw caravans speeding across the larger roads with magical beasts carrying their carriages.
Massive buildings appeared toward the center of the capital and, in its exact center, a giant castle stood higher than any other structure.
"That's the Royal Mansion."
June spoke when she looked in the direction of the castle.
"The level of extravagance in the capital sure is incredible."
Noah replied.
"Most of the extravagant things are made in the Academy. This ship is one of those."
Thaddeus had moved behind them and spoke with a proud tone.
June stiffened but Noah simply asked another question.
"Why is that? I believed that once you graduated from the academy, you would work in the Royal city."
Thaddeus smiled.
"We are officially working in the capital but the best research ground remains the academy. We are surrounded by precious material and have the best talents in the country, why would we move elsewhere?"
Noah nodded with his gaze still inspecting Elbas city.
'It seems yet another world compared to Balvan mansion.'
He repressed a smile from appearing on his face.
'It's even better than I thought!'