Unannounced

When Red passed out, Matt and the crew hurriedly carried him, mostly Trishka, but they tried.

When they reached the line leading to the high gates of the castle, those in line saw four kids— actually, only one— carrying a passed out kid, who looked like he was about to be kissed by death.

These merchants and soldiers, who, for the first time in an isekai story, actually parted out of pity. They believe that even the most arrogant or most humble kid could very well be their future genius, and every kid was precious... probably. Anyways, they parted the way for the kids because they felt that losing one kid who could have potential was disappointing.

One assassin tried to help them out, but Trishka merely waved her away and continued sprinting top speed to the gates. When the five kids passed by, the soldiers and merchants returned to their line, like an obedient set of ants patiently lining up for food.

When they passed through the gates, the bustling city greeted them. The noisy stalls, the sound of iron armor hitting each other, the sound of merchants exaggerating their produce. This was their city, the City of Curv, the very heart of Empire Greska, the Empire of Humans.

They felt pride swell within their hearts, but later turned to seriousness as they rushed to the friendly healer in town, Truyle.

When they reached her humble 'clinic', or what they call 'room of recuperation', Truyle immediately stopped what she was doing and focused on promoting Red's vitality. She looked at the four confused and terrified kids and let out a soft chuckle.

"He's fine, he's just extremely exhausted that he looks like he's dying. I'll bring his vitality up while you four take a rest." She smiled sweetly as her hands began releasing a mellow yellow light.

She redirected these glows to the tips of her fingertips, and she started chanting. Her mumbles and fingers which were drawing magic circles on air looked like a picture taken off of a manga panel. Her hands swayed and her fingertips left permanent glowing light.

As soon as she closed her hands to fists, her mumbling stopped. She opened her eyes, which were now glowing intensely, and opened her palms suddenly. The magic circle earlier suddenly hummed to life.

The magic circle began expanding, like a spring, slowly losing width the farther it was from the center. Then, the circles started beating to a rythmic tune, closely resembling a human heart.

The longer these lights beated, the more colors returned to Red's pale face. His appearance now appeared calm and asleep, like a dreamy prince.

Trishka and the others bowed deeply to Truyle and handed out 5 silver coins to her. Truyle declined saying it was impolite for others to take care of her own future disciple, which shocked the four.

Now with a common topic, these five started engaging in an engrossed talk about monsters, magic, and how to gain much more experience in life.

meanwhile in Red Lith's head.

Red stared at nothing in particular, or everything. He wasn't sure.

He was awake one moment to fight swarms of Sporenets, and the next, he was in this weird space. Though it was comfortable and was the moment of momentary peace anyone would've wanted to remain in, Red knew better than to lose himself in delusional thinking.

He tried doing anything in the space for god knows how long. He tried manipulating his mana once again but to no avail. He tried practicing his new move but he couldn't even execute it.

The moments that has passed seemed long for Red, but also slow. It was disorienting at best and dementing at worst, neither really better.

He sighed and plopped down on the non-existent floor, basically free falling and levitating at the same time. He tried playing with anything but came up with nothing, so he stayed still.

That was until he heard weird heart beat sounds coming from somewhere. He tried following the sound, gliding through the vast emptiness. He reached to a weird black tear in the space, and the sound seems to be coming from the other side.

With nothing better to do, Red phased through the tear, and was awoken with a jolt, like a student being flushed with freezing water because he wouldn't wake up even though he is well past his first subject for the day.

When he sat up and rubbed his eyes, he felt excruciating pain course through his head. Even though most characters would grit their teeth through the pain and do whatever they wanted to do, Red simply plopped back down to bed and massaged his temples in erratic moves, hoping to alleviate the pain.

After 30 minutes of poking his head, Red got up and slid aside the curtains that were blocking the reception room and the 'divination' table. He was greeted by Trishka, Truyle, Lucy, Matt, and Tryph all engaged in a heated argument.

He didn't know much, but he did catch the words 'beast' and 'summoner'. He decided to listen in on to their conversation.

"IMPOSSIBLE! IF WE CAN REALLY NURTURE OUR OWN DARK AND ICE ORIENTED CORES, WE'D BE NO BETTER THAN THOSE DISGUSTING

LIANIANS!"

"THE POSSIBILITIES ARE LIMITLESS! ONLY THE HEAVENS COULD STOP US IF WE CAN FORM AN ELITE TEAM OF WARRIORS, HAVE 7 DIFFERENT ELEMENTAL BEASTS AT THEIR BECK AND CALL, AND GET A SUMMONER TO GET THEM INTO A CONTRACT! EVEN THOSE STUPID 'LIANIANS' which is very stupid sounding by the way WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO STOP US!"

"THAT'S WHY IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! THERE'S NO SUCH HUMANOID CAPABLE OF TAMING THE 7 CARDINAL ELEMENTS! EVEN IF YOU TRY, YOU'D RISK YOUR SOUL IF YOU GIVE A CONTRACT TO 3!"

Red shook his head. Even he didn't have any idea what they were talking about.