After listening to him, Madison was determined to become a proper 1st Circle Aura Knight by the time the admissions for the Eldridge Aura Knight Academy started so that she could get in.
They kept talking for a little bit more before she went back to her father. After half a day passed, Leo could see that the forest around them was starting to clear out. He started looking for the city in expectation.
After another thirty minutes of traveling, they finally left the woods and got to a huge expanse of farm fields. There was nothing but fields around them for miles. Leo realized why there were so many fields. They were to plant crops to feed the city. The fields for Solhaven were away from the forest.
They kept traveling along a road that was paved through fields. After another two hours, Leo finally saw a hint of the city.
In the distance, he could make out a set of buildings that rose to a huge height. The walls were also massive, but the buildings rose to more than double their height. It all looked tiny from the distance, but he knew instantly that the city was massive.
As they got closer, Leo started to see exactly how massive the city was. The walls were more than double the height of the ones at Solhaven. The buildings were huge. However, all of the buildings were at the core of the city. The buildings in the Outer city were also big though. Some of them were even bigger than the tallest tower in Solhaven.
They got to the gate where there were a lot of people trying to go in and out of the city.
Leo immediately noticed how there were a huge number of 2nd Circle Aura Knights surrounding him. They were commonplace here, as common as 1st Circle Aura Knights in Solhaven. He even saw a lot of mages traveling through the gate, which surprised him.
He didn't think nobles would be traveling by foot alongside commoners here, but it seemed that low-ranking nobles weren't given as much attention as in Solhaven.
They quickly got to the checkpoint they had to pass to go through.
"How many people?" The guard asked.
The merchant replied quickly. "23." He had included Leo.
"Is everyone part of the merchant group?" The guard asked. He was looking at a set of papers that the merchant had handed him.
Joshua stepped in. "No, sir. This boy is from Solhaven. Can we have him registered?" He asked.
The guard nodded. "That will be 10000 Starcoins." He said.
Leo was internally shocked by the amount, but hew as prepared to pay it. Just as he was bringing out the money, Joshua stopped him. He took out a note and handed it to the guard. The guard then looked at Leo.
"Name?" He asked.
"Leo." He replied.
"Full name?" The guard asked. He was slightly irritated for asking a second time.
"It's just Leo. I don't have a last name." Leo replied.
The guard's expression softened. "Oh. Age?"
"14."
"Purpose?" He asked.
"Aura Knight Academy," Leo said.
The guard was surprised. He looked up at Leo and then turned to Joshua.
"I didn't think Merchant groups sponsored candidates for Aura Knight Academies." He remarked.
Joshua shook his head. "We don't. Our only job was bringing him here. He paid for that too," he said. The guard was even more surprised.
"Well, you must have saved a ton of money if you can pay for an Aura Knight Academy, kid. Especially the one we have here. Welcome to Eldridge."
He said and handed a metal card that had a stamp on it. His name was engraved onto the card with a metal pen along with his age. There was also a date which showed that his card was issued in the year 127. Leo took the card and put it in his pocket.
"Thank you. I hope you have a good day." He said and walked along with Joshua.
Joshua was filled with questions but chose not to ask him. The thing about not having a last name meant that he was an orphan since birth and was still an orphan. Otherwise, he would have adopted someone's last name.
How had an orphan become this strong by himself? It meant that Leo was incredibly talented. Joshua knew that he had to form a good relationship with him. It would help him greatly in the future if he knew such a talented person.
"Do you have any place to stay, Leo?" Joshua asked.
Leo shook his head.
"You are welcome to stay at our headquarters. We can offer at least that much since you helped us during the trip," he offered to Leo.
Leo shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, but I already have a plan. I am going to stay at an inn for now. I will take my leave now." He said.
Before leaving, he turned to Madison. "I'll see you at the Eldridge Aura Knight Academy then, Madison. Train hard."
Madison nodded vigorously. Leo quickly left the place before he had to talk to anyone else. He wanted to first set up his stay in the city. And since it was getting dark, he wanted to get an inn quickly.
After that, he was going to look into renting a place to stay for the next few months before trying to apply to the academy. So he started it all by searching for a good inn.
This was incredibly easy for him because he just needed to look for a concentration of people making noise. That was what lively inns looked like, and lively inns generally offered better stays than others.
He quickly found an inn matching the category. It was very close to him, so he walked to it. He was initially following the noise, but when he was in an eyeshot of the inn, he was able to locate it more accurately.
He entered the inn slowly and looked around. There were a lot of huge men and strong women sipping beers while talking happily among themselves. They noticed Leo enter and ignored him immediately.
He wasn't bothered by this though. He walked to the front where there was a person managing the desk there.
"Hi! Can I help you?" The girl asked. She looked like she was only a couple of years older than him.
"Yes, I'm looking for a room to stay for tonight." He said. "Do you have any available?"
The girl looked at the book on the desk and ruffled through the pages. While doing that she frowned when she got to the end.
"I'm sorry. The only empty room we have is a premium suite. Everything else is booked. Can I suggest any other inn?" She asked.
"No, I'll just take the premium suite. How much is it?" He asked.
The girl sized him up and looked at him weirdly. She profiled him into a category that wouldn't be able to afford the room in a million years, so she thought he was joking.
"The room is 10000 Starcoins, sir. Do you really want it?"
Leo smiled and put down a note. "I'll take it for two days. Thanks."
