Preparations

"?????" Rey was doubting his ears because of what he heard. All of this for him?

"D-dad..." he looked at his father with gratitude is his eyes. He couldn't believe that his father bought so many things for his first journey. He himself would have only asked his parents for some money and other supplies necessary for travelling, but in no situation did he expect in the slightest that his dad will give him all this.

Looking at the items in front of him, he could only guess how much money his dad spent on all this stuff and whether he'll be able to ever pay him back.

"So that you know, these things are pretty expensive and hard to get in Rosewood. That's why I expect you to use them carefully and do not waste anything because this is the only time that you'll be getting anything from me. After this, you'll have to buy them with your own money."

Even though he said all this, Nathan had a satisfied look on his face after seeing Rey's expression. Although he had to spend a fortune to acquire everything (which he had plenty of, unknown to Rey) and use a few of his connections to get them all so quickly, as a father he wanted the best for Rey and one look at Rey told him that he was successful in doing so.

Aside from them, Amanda was having a complicated reaction because she knew absolutely nothing about any of what Nathan just did.

On one hand, she was extremely happy that Nathan went out of his way to get these items but at the same time, she was mad calculating the cost of each item.

What was more frustrating was that Nathan absolutely sucked at bargaining and would just buy them at the price that the seller quoted. She was remorseful about the fact that, if only Nathan had told her about this, she would have been able to bargain so much and save a lot of money.

Truly a missed opportunity.

After the initial shock and gratitude had lessened, Rey took in the sight in front of him, greed reflecting in his eyes.

He could see that the weapons were very well crafted with a slight aura radiating from them, signifying that they were not forged by any ordinary blacksmith.

The potions too were not the ones that one could buy in the market easily or at any local store. He could discern to an extent by looking at the bottles they were in that they were pretty expensive.

As for the rest of the items, because his travelling experience was almost negligible, he couldn't figure out what they were.

Instinctively his hand moved forward to grab the cool looking sword but was instantly swatted away by his father.

He looked at the point of impact and saw that his hand had already turned red and there was a tingling sensation.

"Before you touch any of this. You have to agree to since of our conditions if you want to go."

Hearing his father, Rey didn't like the sound of it and had a bad feeling about what was to come. According to him nothing good can ever come out of parents' conditions.

"What!?" Rey asked ina slightly sour tone.

"First, you'll have to travel till the capital with Ed and his party. From there you can go on your own.

Second, on reaching the capital you'll be staying with one of your mother's friends till you are ready to depart.

And lastly, you have to call us twice every week to let us know of your location and condition. If you failed to do so unless there is an emergency, the consequences will be dire."

Nathan's time changed at the end, which gave Rey the chills.

"Well that'll be all. Any questions?" Nathan immediately said in a rather cheerful tone which caused Rey to shake his head.

After getting to know the conditions, Rey was more relieved than he expected. He found none of the conditions to be excessive beyond reason.

For the first one, he himself would have preferred to travel with Ed as it was time saving, so he was immediately in support of it.

The second was more of a surprise as he didn't expect his mother to have friends in the capital. As for the condition, only the rich and the influential lived in the capital, so spending some time with someone rich, why not?

Though it took him some time, after thinking logically, he also agreed to it.

"If you agree then there's nothing to worry about. You can take these items and start preparing. I think they'll leave in three to four days."

Rey was happy on getting his father's consent and started to store the items in his inventory.

"Nathan, can we talk?" seeing that Rey was busy, Amanda took Nathan to their bedroom.

'Shit!' Nathan cursed internally as he didn't feel good about the way his wife asked him. He expected her to be angry because of the expenditure, but now that it was happening, he was scared.

He was ready to accept his fate and prepared to get an earful at the least but as soon as they stepped inside the room, Amanda leapt at him, hugging him tightly.

He was taken aback by the sudden hug and fell on the bed. He was shocked by Amanda's actions but after some time he also reciprocated the gesture.

He wanted to say something but noticing that his wife was totally engrossed in the moment, he acted against it.

As much as Amanda was worried about the money spent, she let it all go because the moment was too precious to be ruined by pretty concerns.

"By the way honey, where did you get all this stuff from?" even Amanda was curious as to how did Nathan acquire all the stuff so quickly.

"That...I asked Gerald for the weapons, you know how much he likes them.

The potions were from a client of mine who is also a potion master and was kind enough to give them to me.

And the camping gear was just rotting away in the storage, so I gave it to Rey."

"Is that our gear?"

"Yep from back when we were young."

"It brings back memories."

"Sure does. Do you remember that time when....."

While they were reminiscing about the past, Rey moved to his room to have a better look at the items.

He tried a few movements with all the new weapons and was surprised at how well they felt in his hands as if they were made specially for him.

After that he checked the potions one by one. They were by far the most interesting thing to him largely because of how expensive they looked.

And the little doubt that he had about them was cleared as soon as he checked their information. It was clearly stated that they were brewed by a potion master and was a very high quality. Rey had only heard about potion masters and that their products were considered to be the best of the best.

After checking every one them, he roughly estimated their price and was shocked by the price that he came to which was nowhere near their actual value.

He was completely mesmerized by them and by the time he came to his senses, it was time for dinner.

Nothing special happened during dinner and his parents just asked him about what route he planned to take and some other minor stuff.

After finishing everything, he decided to go sleep.

.......

The following three days went by in the blink of an eye. He was too busy reading about different things that he should know for travelling in the open and planning the minor details of his plan.

His whole day was spent like this and even during meals, he kept questioning his parents, who were.... a little less enthusiastic about his questions.

And soon the day if the departure arrived.

The day before, Ed contacted him and told him that they'll be leaving early in the morning and he should be ready by then.

Rey being overly excited, agreed instantly until he realised that he never once woke up before 10 a.m., in his entire life and now he had to wake up before dawn.

He tried to convince Ed but because the preparations had been done and arrangements made accordingly, he had no choice.

Completely lost, he went to his mother who ensured him that she'll wake him up on time.

Rey was relieved that his worry had been resolved and went be his day normally. But little did he know that his mother was waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

Just before dawn, the door of Rey's room slowly creaked open, revealing an indiscernible shadow holding something big and bulky in its hands.

The room was illuminated slightly by the light coming in from the hallway which fell on the bed, revealing Rey's position.

With the light guiding the way, the shadow moved silently through the room and reached the side of the bed.

It looked down in the peacefully sleeping boy and an invisible smirk appeared on its face. It lifted the unknown object some more till it was near its head and with a sparkle in it's eyes

*SPLASH*

A liquid was poured over Rey and he woke up screaming. He felt a liquid running down his body which he perceived to be water and looked around the room but couldn't find a trace of anyone being present.

His heart was thumping hard and his hair was dripping with water and eyes with fear. He was still not over the incident but was distracted by Sophie laughing.

[Haha, that was so epic! Haha...]

"What was epic?" Rey was irritated. Here he was scared by thinking who could've done this and his system could only laugh.

"You should've alerted me if someone was here. What if they were here to do harm?"

[Alert you and ruin my fun? No chance and by the way you should get ready, Ed will be coming soon.]

After talking to Sophie, he remembered that he asked his mother to wake him up and that she could be the one behind all this. But the thought was quickly dismissed because no mother would do something like this and ruin the mattress.

Giving up on finding the person, Rey freshened up and made his way down, still feeling sour from being woken up in such a manner.

He found his mother in the kitchen who immediately presented him with something to eat.

When his mother was serving him, he noticed that the corners of her dress were damp and the doubt resurfaced.

As he was about to ask his mother regarding the matter, he got a call from Ed asking him to hurry up and come to his place.

Rey decided to leave the matter as it is and hugged his mother for a long time before taking all his stuff and going to Ed's house.

He couldn't see it, but his mother was sad and the corners of her eyes were moist as she wouldn't be able to see her son for quite some time.

She kept standing outside until Rey was nowhere in sight and then went inside.