Chapter 5

"Please take care of her, Reymund." Adi pleaded as she held her son's shoulders. They are standing in front of their house while the sun still hasn't rise up.

"Mom you told me that a thousand times already." He said as he rolled his eyes and adjusted his bag in his shoulder.

"And you," Adi cupped Seiran's face, "do not skip meals. Always sleep on time. Avoid getting sick as much as possible. Don't strain yourself too-"

"Mom we should get going already." Reymund cut her off. Adi hit his head because of it and hugged Seiran as she did to Adi too.

"Be careful. Both of you." She said and waved goodbye.

"We should arrive at the capital in 3 days. Is it alright for you if we camp outside?" He asked Seiran, who's having trouble keeping up with his pace because of her heavy bag.

"Yeah, I don't mind." She answered.

"Let me help you with your bag." He offered and reached his hand but Seiran shook her head.

"I should consider this as my training." She said. Reymund matched his pace with the girl so she wouldn't get tired easily.

"Hey, wanna take a ride?" A man driving a carriage asked beside them.

"Sure, thanks." Reymund said. He lift Seiran up behind the carriage and sat beside her. He tapped the carriage as a signal for the man to go on.

"So how far is my family's place up to here exactly?" Seiran asked while wiping her sweat in her forehead. Reymund gave her a bottle of water before answering.

"A kingdom away."

"How far is a kingdom away?" She asked again after drinking form the bottle. He reached out for his bag and pulled out a piece of folded paper. He opened it and showed it to the girl. He thought of teaching her about their empire so she could have some kind of common knowledge. Having none of this knowledge could be questionable for other people.

"This is our Lin empire." He circled a large part of the map in the middle.

"It consist of 6 kingdoms." Then he pointed the land where there are small traces of lines that indicates the border of each kingdom.

"Where you come from is here, Hale Kingdom." He pointed at the biggest part of the land then onto the smallest one.

"This is where we are right now, Garn Kingdom."

"Based on the story book that Adi read to me, a kingdom's ruler is called a king and queen right?" He nodded.

"Then what's an empire? Do all 6 kings rule the 6 kingdoms together?" She asked.

"Each kings have their own kingdom to rule but there is what we call an emperor. Emperor is the most powerful human, more powerful that the kings and queens and our current emperor resides here." He pointed at the center of the Hale kingdom. Seiran became quiet for a but and asked another question but before she could, the carriage stopped.

"You guys are going to the capital right? Sorry I'll be going to the other way." The man said.

"You don't have to say sorry." Reymund said as he helped Seiran get off the carriage.

"Thank you for giving us a ride." Seiran said. the old man hit the horse's butt and went to the left path. The two walked towards the right one.

"So how far exactly is the Hale kingdom to here? In the drawing they're beside each other." She asked then Reymund laughed at her question.

"We're 500 kilometers away from your family that's really really far." He said then out a distance between him and Seiran.

"We're 1 meter apart. 1000 meters is 1 kilometer." He added. Seiran nodded finally got what he meant and made an 'oh' sound.

They stopped for a but to have their lunch and continued walking till night time. Reymund made a small camp and they quickly retired for the night.

Second day of their departure came, Seiran asked more about magic this time.

"So, does each person have their own color of magic circle? I remembered mine and Adi having light blue while the other person I saw a long time ago had darker shade of blue."

She didn't bother mentioning that it was actually her sister's when she attacked her.

"I'm a warrior so I only have basic knowledge when it comes to magic." Reymund answered.

"Magic circles' color are based on what kind of magic mages are performing. If it's fire then it's red, air is yellow, nature is green then water is blue. Healing is special, they have a mixture of green and blue. The darker the color, the more deadly the spell is." He explained.

"Is there a black circle?" Reymund stopped in his tracks but quickly came back to himself and answered.

"Yes but it's the most dangerous thing in the world. Only 6 people in history can do that. They have to promise that they would use it for good. 2 mages didn't agree and the whole world did everything to kill them. Those are the dark history everyone knows. The whole world was in chaos, twice, because of them."

Seiran felt goosebumps in her arms as she listened to Reymund so she quickly changed the topic.

"How about white?"

"That exist too but only the elemental beings are capable of making those." He said and saw the confused look of the girl. Before he could answer, Seiran's stomach growled loudly. Reymund laughed at the sound and Seiran hit him from too much embarrassment.

They stopped beside the road then gave her some bread.

"Elemental beings," he continued while eating, "there are four of them. I've read that they have the physical look of a human but with pointy ears and as small as a human's hand. They also look like each other. Their difference to one another is that they have a faint light that around them with different colors each."

"Read? You haven't seen one yet?" She asked while stuffing her mouth with the bread.

"No one can actually see them except for one person, the one who gave informations about them."

"Hmm that person sure is lucky to meet them then." She said and drank some water.

"That person is your mother." Seiran spat out the water she was drinking and coughed. Reymund pat her back and wiped her mouth. They both walked again after eating.

"Anyway," he continued, "your mom also said that she could only summon them one at a time as it requires too much magical power. When she summoned the water being, she ended up not using any kind of her magic for 2 whole months. Same goes with the other beings."

It's the first time Seiran heard of her mother so she's still surprised by the fact that they're talking about her now.

It was almost night time so they started to hunt for fish from the river they are passing by. Reymund set up the tent again and made a bonfire. He put the fish in the sticks and roasted them.