Ke Er Lan Di didn’t ask any further. “Brother Eighteen, let’s head out now.”
I looked at the remaining food and empty red bottle of wine on the table. I smiled wryly. “Lord Ke Er, you had said that you’ll be going to treat this meal.” I already couldn’t care about my face at such a moment.
Ke Er Lan Di replied in a daze, stunned, “Yes, that’s right. My apologies that I’ve forgotten about it. Boss, settle the bills.”
After seeing that Ke Er Lan Di paid for the bills, I heaved a sigh of relief. This could be counted that I owed him a favour. I grabbed onto the cloth covered Sukrad’s staff and followed him out the inn. His subordinates were waiting there radiating valiance. There were two riderless horses, one of them should be Ke Er Lan Di’s and the other should be prepared for me.
“Eighteen, please, this is your mount.” Ke Er Lan Di politely pulled a white, tall and large horse in front of me. His subordinates looked at me with curious gazes. The drizzle outside had already stopped, but the sky was still gloomy. It seemed that it had been a long time since I rode a horse. I didn’t know if this horse would treat me well.
Ke Er Lan Di seemed to know what I was thinking about as he smiled and said, “Rest assured, Eighteen. I know that you’re a mage so I picked a relatively good natured horse. Do you need my help to get on the horse?”
I shook my head, when I was at the Kingdom of Xiuda, I had received Teacher Wen’s hellish training. My physique was still alright. I grabbed on the saddle and stirrup to sit on the horse. The horse was good-natured, like Ke Er Lan Di had said. There wasn’t any resistance when I sat on his back. I let out a sigh and began to enjoy the feeling of riding the horse. It really felt as though I was looking down on the land when I sat on the tall horse.
Ke Er Lan Di smiled. “Brother Eighteen, I’ll give you an introduction. These are my brothers. They have a cavalry title at the very least.”
When I surveyed the group of cavalry, there were 18 of them, excluding Ke Er Lan Di. All of them looked cold and collected with a stern expression. Their emotions were hidden. Their cultivation weren’t weak from the aura emitting from their bodies. They were near Sky Knight rank. It seemed that Ke Er Lan Di wasn’t simple since his subordinates were all experts. I nodded towards the crowd. “It’s nice to meet all of you. I’m Eighteen. Please take care of me.”
Ke Er Lan Di said, “Alright, let’s get on our way.” Upon saying that, he turned the horse around to head out of the city. I hastily followed his actions to moving the horse into action. It was a pity that it didn’t really listen to me. It did move, but his speed was very slow. Luckily, Ke Er Kan Di and the rest didn’t move too fast. After adjusting for a while, when we left the city, I was able to put up with it forcefully due to my talent.
Ke Er Lan Di and I were riding at the front of the column. He often told me interesting things that happened in the army. It looked like this fellow was extremely well known in the Kingdom of Dalu. He joined the army when he was fourteen and slowly accumulated his contributions to reach his current position. There wasn’t anything to do with luck in getting his position. He was currently 26, so he was much older than me. But there weren’t any traces of time’s baptism visible on his face.
“Brother Eighteen, I don’t know which magic do you practice.”
I answered, “I learn light magic and studied at the Senke Magic Academy.” Senke Magic Academy was the biggest academy in the Senke City, which was beside my home. It was definitely well known in the Kingdom of Aixia, but it still wasn’t comparable to the Royal Magic Academy.
Ke Er Lan Di didn’t doubt my words. “Can I ask what’s your current level and realm that you have reached in magic?”
I shook my head. “I’m not too sure. It should be at the Magic Scholar’s realm that you said.”
Ke Er Lan Di nodded. “Is light magic hard to learn? I heard that the elemental light magic doesn’t have much offensive power.”
After hearing what he said, I couldn’t help thinking the reason why I chose to learn light magic. The me from before would never expect that I would reach such a progress in magic today. Sigh! Perhaps, it was destined.
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Volume 11: Chapter 10 - Sinister Clouds in the Dark of Night
“Brother Eighteen, what’s wrong?”
“Ah!” I got caught up in my memories. “Nothing much, I was just thinking about when I first started to learn magic. You’re right that at the beginning, light magic doesn’t have any offensive power, but it gets better once you reach the intermediate level.”
Ke Er Lan Di said, “Nobody cared about light magic before, but it’s different now. Everyone is fighting to learn it. Those that haven’t laid their foundations in magic have gone to learn light magic.”
I asked, stunned, “Why? It’s really very hard to train to higher realms in light magic. Its improvement speed is much lower than fire magic.”
Ke Er Lan Di sighed. “Talking about this, you need to know about the God’s Envoy. You know who the God’s Envoys are, right? It’s that fellow that succeeded in getting our three Human kingdoms, Demons, and Beasts to reconcile. I heard that he was initially from your Kingdom of Aixia. His light magic is extremely incredible. It’s said that he’s already beyond the Magister’s realm and is just a step away from the realm of Grand Magister. Currently, everyone from the Kingdom of Aixia treats him as their pride.”
There was such a thing? Why didn’t I know that? I felt very comfortable hearing him praise me. “That’s what I heard from the rumours, but how powerful is he truly, I want to seek for his guidance if a chance arises.”
Ke Er Lan Di laughed. “Alright, let’s increase our pace. If not, we’ll miss our resting point tonight.” Upon saying that, he spurred his horse forward. I could only follow him and grit my teeth.
Riding a horse wasn’t fun. My entire body was extremely sore after half a day of riding. I was lucky that my physique wasn’t bad and managed to endure it. The sky darkened. Due to accommodating me, we hadn’t reached the next city.
Ke Er Lan Di pointed to the forest by the roadside. “Let’s rest here tonight and continue tomorrow.”
His subordinate said, “Lord, if we don’t catch up some time, we won’t be able to reach the fort at the appointed time. What do you think?”
Ke Er Lan Di waved his hand. “It’s not something important. It’s alright to be late a few nights. I’m also a little tired. Let’s rest here today. We’ll just wake up earlier tomorrow to head out.”
My heart warmed after hearing his words. ‘He was really thoughtful. Ke Er Lan Di was a really good guy, worth befriending and even if it was to recruit me.’ I silently led my horse to follow the troops into the forest. After tying the horse, a few cavalrymen cleared some space. Some started to light a fire, and some began to bring out their bedrolls that they carried and placed them on the floor. Everything was in order, it could be seen that they were all well trained.
Everyone crowded around the fire and ate their rations. The sky had completely darkened. Ke Er Lan Di really knew how to enjoy himself, as even though it was only rations, they were still good food and wine. It was the same kind of wine that we drank at the inn.
“Ever since I joined the army, I always liked this wine. First it’s bitter, but the sweet aftertaste moves me.” Ke Er Lun Di said that, slightly intoxicated.