Leo talked to Madison for a few minutes before she was called by her father.
“I’m sorry, my father is calling me. I will see you on the way, then.”
She left to answer his call while Leo went back to his original state. Time passed and it was time to leave for Eldridge.
“Gather around! We are leaving! Only the Blue Chip Merchants!” Leo heard Joshua’s announcements and stood up. He walked slowly to the center where Joshua was gathering all the members of his caravan.
The caravan consisted of about twenty people, each with their own carts or horses. The carts were being pulled by two horses at once. Out of the twenty people, ten people seemed to be guards hired by the merchants to guard the merchandise.
He already knew how strong each of the guards was. Only one of them was a Middle-Stage 2nd Circle Aura Knight, while everyone else was a 1st Circle Aura Knight. Compared to them, he was a lot stronger, but no one here needed to know that.
Once everyone gathered, Joshua spoke to all of them.
“We will now leave. It’s going to be a three-day journey. We will be slowly making our way using our normal routes. Get ready now!” He said that and everyone went to their stations. Everyone seemed to know where they were supposed to be.
Leo walked over to the same horse he rode an hour ago and was about to mount it. Before could, Joshua saw this and stopped him.
“Wait. Before you mount a horse, you are supposed to put a saddle on it.” He said. He took a saddle on the side and mounted it on the horse’s back.
“Now it’s easier to get on it and sit snugly.”
Leo was shocked. He didn’t know that a saddle was an important thing in horse riding. He was grateful for Joshua’s help, but he felt embarrassed for not knowing something so basic. He mounted the horse and felt awkward sitting on the saddle.
Meanwhile, Joshua mounted his own horse. “Follow me, but be slow. Don’t try to race the horse this early.”
Leo followed his lead and beckoned the horse forward. With the ropes this time, he didn’t have to lean forward and nudge the horse with his hands. The horse started walking forward behind Joshua.
The entire caravan slowly exited the city and proceeded to get onto a long road that headed toward Eldridge. Leo saw that the horse started following the crowd so he decided to stop caring about what was going around him and just started training his spells in his mind space.
Time passed and after 3 hours, he finally saw Madison again. She was on a horse too and was making her way toward him. He opened his eyes and looked in her direction.
Madison saw that he was sleeping and was a little doubtful about whether or not to approach him, but she saw that he just woke up and went to him.
“You shouldn’t sleep on the road. We are going to stop in the night to camp. You can sleep then,” Madison said.
Leo smiled. He wasn’t sleeping but that was what it probably looked like to the people looking at him.
“I can manage. But isn’t camping at night dangerous?” He asked.
“It’s the only way. The alternative is travelling in the night which is just as dangerous. It’s even more risky because the visibility is pretty low. We have guards who will make sure nothing can happen to us, anyway.” She said.
“What if a Magical Beast passes through?” He asked.
She immediately replied, “Then I will take care of it. I might not seem like it, but I’m an Apprentice Aura Knight.” She said.
Leo smiled. He already knew it but didn’t say anything.
“Also, the problem isn’t Magical Beasts. There aren’t any Magical Beasts on the way that attack humans. The issue is that the road is filled with bandits. We have to guard against them.” She added.
Leo frowned. He didn’t particularly like fighting humans because he didn’t like killing humans, but if he was required to he wouldn’t hesitate.
“So, since you are training in Aura, are you going to join an Aura Academy?” He asked her.
She nodded. “Yes. My father said that if I reach the 1st Circle by August, I can apply to the academy.”
“Do they only take 1st Circle Aura Knights?” He asked.
She nodded. “The Eldridge Aura Academy is very good. It’s one of the best ten academies in Solaira!”
Leo was surprised. He didn’t think that the academy was that famous. He only expected it to be better than Solhaven’s one.
They kept talking until the sun started to set When the sun was getting close to disappearing on the horizon, Madison left to get to her father. Meanwhile, Leo just observed what the caravan was going to do to prepare themselves to sleep.
Before the sun set completely, the group stopped when they reached a clearing. It seemed like the clearing was artificially made to account for caravan stops like the one they made. It was exactly a single day of travel away. He guessed that they had proper timelines because they were good merchants.
The guards and the merchants quickly got to work. They opened up one of the carts and took out the tent equipment in it. They quickly set up tents and fires and even started cooking food. Leo watched all of this with amazement.
In two hours, the tents were up and everyone was sitting around the huge fire. Most of them were eating food out of a bowl. One of them saw that Leo didn’t have anything so they offered him some food.
“Oh no, I’m good.” He declined their offer.
“I saw you the entire day. You didn’t have a single morsel of food.” The person offering said.
Leo smiled awkwardly. “It’s really okay. I’m not hungry.” He said.
In reality, he stopped feeling hunger altogether because his body just needed magic to supplement him. Food was only a guilty pleasure if he wanted to reward his senses.
“Fine. If you are hungry, you can have some. The pot is right there.” He pointed at a pot beside the fire.
Leo nodded. “Thank you for offering though.”
“Not a problem.”
Once everyone was done eating, they all went to their tents. Only a group of five people stayed outside, guarding the tents and looking out for any potential enemies. But even they were pretty sleepy and weren’t paying too much attention around them.
Leo wasn’t bothered by this. He didn’t care about it because he would know if there was actually an attack coming. He wasn’t planning on sleeping anyway.
He went to his horse and saw that it was sleeping on the ground. It was pretty exhausted from the entire day of traveling. He pet it a little and then sat down beside it. He then leaned onto its back. He closed his eyes and waited for the sun to rise.
