Forever your friend.

Chapter 55: Forever your friend.

"Roah," Kalon groaned as he felt a sense of loss in his heart, but all he could see was darkness as it felt like he was plunged into the very depths of the ocean. It was a strange feeling to him as he had never felt it before, but he knew that it wasn't anything good based on the tightness in his chest as he called out for his very first friend.

But as he called out for Roah, there was no response. He felt something lightly tickle his cheek as there was a slight wetness to it. His heart began to beat as he thought Roah's lips pressed against the side of his face, but they too soon faded and left him alone in the darkness.

Kalon gasped as his eyes shot wide open. He felt a soft warmth around his body as the sunlight made its way in through the window and began to warm his body.

"Roah!" Kalon called out again, but yet again, there was no response as he found himself in the bedroom that she had taken him to the night before.

He quickly jumped to his feet and ran to the door, and called her name once again. But still, he got nothing in return. He just couldn't believe that she would leave him like that and began to run towards the entrance of the tavern where the customers were already lining up and patiently waiting for it to open. He hoped that he would walk outside and see her waiting for him.

But as Kalon stepped outside, he felt nothing but disappointment as he saw unfamiliar faces all around, some of them hopeful that he would announce that the tavern was opening but instead headed back inside.

"Kalon? Where did you come from? Weren't you supposed to be sleeping upstairs? What are you doing outside?"Aria called out with a look of concern as she saw him reenter the building and slump over the bar as he climbed up onto one of the chairs.

"Is she really gone?" Kalon asked before tucking his head between his arms and resting against the bar.

"Roah? Yeah, she left late last night once she sobered up. I think she should be arriving in Rastofand soon. But don't worry, she left you in our care and told me to give you this." Aria smiled before handing him a sheet of paper.

Kalon looked at it for a few moments before deciding it was too difficult for him to read. Her handwriting was curved, and each letter seemed to flow into one another. To Kalon, it seemed as though it was just a few scribbles across the paper.

'I hate this. Why can't I ever do anything right? I just wanted to say goodbye to her, and now I can't even read the note she left for me.' Kalon thought to himself as he looked at the paper with the same sense of loss that he felt before he woke up.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to read it?" Aria asked. She found it strange that he just put the paper back down as soon as he looked at it because from what she could tell, there was no way anyone could read that fast.

"I can't read it. I don't understand a single thing." Kalon tightened his hand into a fist and then rested his cheek against it before taking deep breaths. He felt angry at himself for not being able to read, and now it was even worse than ever before.

"If you don't understand it, then you should have just said so. Let me have a try. I will read it with you. There's nothing to feel ashamed of. Even I couldn't read at one point in my life." Aria tried her best to ease his mind and then sat down beside him before picking up the sheet of paper and clearing her throat.

"Ahem, It says. Dear Kalon, I am writing this while we are still on our way to the city of Frisson. I know it might be strange, but I have been looking at you for the past hour or so, and you sleep so peacefully that it makes me want to stay in this moment forever. It calms my heart greatly to know that you can relax around me to this extent but also worries me that you are so trusting of a stranger.

Don't take that the wrong way. We have indeed become friends throughout our journey together, but you trusted me a lot more than you should have right at the start. I hope that you can become a good judge of character, so you know who to trust in the future, but I will get onto business now and save you some time.

I will be leaving you in the care of an old friend of mine. His name is Igris Nocturnal. Despite his goofy attitude and friendly demeanour, he was a force to be reckoned with during the last invasion attempt. I know you might not believe me at first, but he is already over sixty years old and knows a lot more about cultivation than most people in the kingdom.

Although he likes to keep a low profile, he is a lot stronger than anyone you have met so far, so make sure that you don't anger him or else I won't be able to save you. I will ask him to take you to Frisson academy to take the enrollment test, but honestly, I'm still a little worried about it.

I don't know if I taught you enough to pass the test. But given the fact that your natural strength is beyond what I thought was humanly possible, I think you will be okay. But if anything happens and you don't make it into the academy on your first try, I will ask Igris to put you through hellish training to bring you up to standards. Just so you know, he turns into a demon when training people and I have experienced it first hand so let that be a driving force to make sure you pass on your first try, okay?

I believe in you, Kalon. I know you can make me proud. It's funny, but when you bowed down to me and called me your master, I felt a little bit happy. I wondered if I could really become someone's master, but I quickly came to the conclusion that I am far from that level for now.

You almost defeated me when we spared against each other, and I was using around half of my Qi. I would feel embarrassed by the whole situation if not for the scars I saw on your back. I could tell at a single glance that life must have been hard for you as you trained your blade to overcome any obstacle.

I respect that. And from one warrior to another. I wish you the best of luck on your path to becoming a guardian. And I hope we meet again soon. Maybe we can spar again when we are both stronger to see who the victor will be?

I look forward to seeing you.

Forever your friend, Roah Magnus." Aria read out the letter word for word as Kalon sat patiently listening. As she came to a halt at the end of the letter, Aria looked back at Kalon to see his body shaking slightly as his hands now covered his eyes.

"Are you okay?" Aria asked with a caring tone to her voice and put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Kalon shook a little more as his gentle breaths soon became sniffles, and a small stream of water ran down the inside of his arm.

"It's okay. It's okay. I'm sure you will see each other again very soon. I'm sure Roah wouldn't want to see you like this, would she? She would want you to be happy and looking forward to your exam later today." Aria put both of her arms around him and gently hugged him, making sure not to pull him against her stomach too much in case the baby would get hurt.

"She would. Roah would want me to be happy. But she is my first ever friend, and now she is gone! I don't like it!" Kalon shouted out as he cried within Aira's embrace as Igris walked out from the backroom.

"What's, did I miss? What did you do to him?" Igris asked with a shocked look on his face as he questioned if his wife had done something to harm him, but as he looked down at the bar and saw the sheet of paper. He sighed in relief.

"Okay, that's it, enough crying. You're coming with me." Igris said with annoyance in his voice before taking Kalon by the hand and walking back into the room where he had just come from.