Journey Begins

The sun was hanging right in the middle of the sky, shining its strong yellow rays towards the earth below. The peaceful calls of birds flying high in the sky and the swaying of leaves from the green trees that bordered a dirt path flooded the ears, bringing a sense of calm and nature.

On the dirt path, a carriage with an entourage of ten people was seen slowly making their way. Leading the carriage on the front were four teens…

Shoma and Yasu were in the very front, happily conversing as they talked about their life and dreams.

"Oh my goodness! You have the same dream as me!" Yasu exclaimed out loud in excitement at their conversation.

Behind them, was a sulking Nen… His figure slouched forward in defeat as he stared at the two teens in front of him in jealousy.

He didn't start off like this… Upon leaving the village, Nen told everyone that he would take the lead again but once again, he had led the group in the wrong direction. After a few minutes he was quickly corrected, but this time, it had come from Shoma.

Rightfully so, Nen did not believe him as he had never seen Shoma navigate and being from a village, there was no way that he would be able to read a map and even more, navigate through it.

After having Shoma lead them for half an hour, an arrogant smile appeared on Nen's face as he barked out that Shoma had no idea where he was going and just as he was about to retrieve the map from Shoma, he was stopped by Yasu.

Shock filled his face as Yasu told him that Shoma had been leading them on the right path. In disbelief, he turned to Akito who also nodded sadly towards him, confirming that Shoma had been leading them on the right path. It was from that point onwards that Nen had a completely defeated expression on his face and he sat there quietly as he watched Shoma and Yasu slowly begin to converse amongst each other.

"It's nice to see Yasu smile like that," said Akito as he also looked at the two teens in front of him. He then turned to Nen, seeing him still dejected…

"You got to cheer up," Akito consoled him as he gave him a pat on the back.

"Akito…" Nen slowly spoke as he turned his gaze to him, "Am I meant to just be horrible at navigation?"

"I have countless experiences of travelling around the kingdom but still get lost. But now, a random village kid that we picked up at a village is able to navigate better than me on his first try…" Nen monologued as he stared up at the sky, questioning the meaning of life.

"You call them random villagers?" Akito asked in a confused tone.

The two teens were the complete opposite of the word "villager." Nothing about them made it seem like they were from a village. From their way of conducting themselves and to their strange pets… Oh yeah speaking of pets…

"You wanna go and check out the other guy?" Akito asked with a tone of curiosity as he turned around and stared towards the back of the carriage, in hopes of changing Nen's mood.

Hearing this, Nen let out a resigning sigh as he pulled on the reins of his horse, turning himself around.

Since the start of their journey, Isao had spent it behind the carriage. He was lying down on Ui's back with his eyes closed as he replayed the events of yesterday's fight.

No matter how he replayed it, he was not able to come up with anything that would result in him landing a proper hit. He could feel it in his gut that Ken was still hiding his martial arts and still yet to reveal it to him. That final strike that he delivered to Isao was a clear example.

His eyebrows scrunched in difficulty as he suddenly sat up with a complex sigh.

"Damn… something's really got you riled up…" he heard a voice sound near him.

Partly startled, he turned towards the voice and saw Akito and Nen making their way towards him.

"What's the matter?" Nen asked curiously.

"Your father…" Isao spoke, "Have you ever seen the true extent of his strength?"

Hearing this question, both males who had just made it to Isao stopped to ponder. Hearing this, a slightly surprised expression appeared on their faces as they realised that they had never seen Ken's true power…

"Your father's really strong…" Isao told Nen with a slight smile.

"Of course. My father is the strongest in the world. There ain't a single person in the kingdom that could beat him," Nen agreed heartily as he puffed his chest out in pride.

"Do you guys also use swords?" Isao asked.

"Partly…" Nen replied, "I am a spear user but I'm still learning the sword as well."

He then nudged Akito was a smile appeared on his face, "But this guy is a sword user. He's actually getting really proficient."

"What about you? I've never seen someone have such a strange mount," Akito questioned back.

Isao simply held out his hands, "These are my weapons."

Silence…

Both Nen and Akito stared at Isao in disbelief at Isao's answer. Their gazes went from his face towards his legs.

"Ah," Isao let out as he realised what had happened and he pulled out his daggers, "These are for hunting."

There was still disbelief visible on the faces of the two.

"Believe it or not… It's hard to get a clean kill on an animal if you use just your fists…" Isao replied with a deadpan expression but nothing seemed to have changed in their expressions so he gave up and decided to change the topic.

"This is Ui. She's a striped hyena that I've raised for about a year and a half. I found her mother dying and took her in my care after she passed," Isao introduced them to Ui and she seemed to understand as Ui suddenly raised her head and turned towards the two and bowed her head.

An amazed expression appeared on the faces of both their faces as they saw what Ui had just done, they both blurted out, "She knows how to bow?"

"I've been training her since I got her," Isao replied as he turned his gaze towards the plains that could be seen in the far distance, "What's home like for you guys? Being the son of a general, I bet home is amazing."

"Heck yeah, it's amazing! We got servants who tend to our every need and we have a training ground and everything that you can imagine," Nen answered in excitement as he boasted about home, his previously defeated expression no longer visible on his face.

"That sounds amazing," Isao replied with surprise, he had never been outside of the village before so this was an eye-opener to him. He never had an idea of what the life of a noble was like and was very curious about it.

"Haha! It is. And now that you are a part of our gang, we're going to take you home too. You'll get to see how great our home is," Nen laughed as he patted Isao on the shoulder, seemingly befriending Isao already.

Hearing this, a slightly shocked expression appeared on Isao's face as he did not expect Nen to be so friendly and trusting. Nevertheless, a smile appeared on his face as he saw that there was no trace of deceit on Nen's face.

As his smile appeared, Akito asked, "I want to know. How long have you been training? None of us have ever been able to land a cut on him."

Hearing the question, even Nen's head was turned as he stared directly at Isao with eyes that burned with curiosity.

"Hehe… I've been training since I became a teenager but I'm not that good. I just managed to catch him off guard because he didn't expect it from a villager," Isao embarrassedly laughed as he denied the praise.

"Could you show me your martial arts?" Nen asked.

"There's nothing too great about it…" Isao hastily replied, "If anything, I would like to learn from you guys."

"Don't downplay it. To be able to even graze my father, a general, means that your martial arts is something special at the very least."

"Okay. I will show you when we stop for our next break," Isao replied as he reluctantly nodded.

"Haha! Great! I'm finally going to land a hit on the old ma-"

Just as Nen was about to finish his sentence, the carriage door suddenly opened as Ken's body stuck out, hanging onto the carriage with his hands as he ordered towards Shoma and Yasu, "We'll stop here for lunch! Take a break!"

As soon as he said this, the whole entourage came to a halt and some of the men began to walk to the storage compartment of the carriage, preparing to take the food out to be prepared.

Ken then turned around to face the three young adults, a smile appeared on his face as he spoke, "get ready, Isao. Now that you've joined our family, I will teach you our martial art."

Hearing this, Isao's eyes glowed with excitement and battle craze as he nodded and got off of Ui.

"Get ready. You are going to have a duel with Nen in five minutes."