'still another hour until cla.s.s...'

Mars quickly threw on some clothes and left his dorm room after locking the door and headed towards the cafeteria to get some breakfast, soon he arrived and found the queue for the food was manageable and queued up to get some food, after he got his tray with food he looked around and soon spotted a deserted table and walked over and sat down before he began eating his food in silence until he spotted a familiar person and called out

"Hanna"

Hanna turned and looked around and eventually spotted Mars and walked over with her tray and sat down in front of Mars with a small smile on her face

"it's good you back... when did you return Mars?"

"yesterday morning"

"I see..."

Hanna fell silent Mars was about to return to his food but remembered something and asked

"that reminds me how did that thing go?"

"that thing?"

"your revenge"

"oh that thing... it went well, but thanks to it I have lost all my old friends"

"oh... you mind telling me more?"

"well there's not really much to tell I challenged him to a duel and killed him"

"how did you feel afterwards?"

Hanna opened her mouth but didn't know what to say so she closed it again with a frown on her face meanwhile Mars continued

"surely something must have changed... that's probably what you asked yourself right?"

"th-that's... yes I did ask myself that question but..."

Mars gave a smile and continued

"nothing changed right?"

"...yes"

Hanna lowered her head and bit her lower lip

"don't worry about it that's the normal reaction to that sort of stuff"

Hanna looked up again

"really..? I'm not weird for feeling like this?"

Mars gave a rea.s.suring smile

"nope not at all... well I can see your not entirely convinced, hmm... that's fine too I guess, you'll find your own answer... at some point"

"is that what you did?"

"yes"

"I see..."

the two of them returned to their food and after some time Mars finished and but down his cutlery on the tray and gave a soft sigh before he looked over at Hanna that still was eating and noticed her scars was almost gone only leaving a faint lightning pattern on her face

"oh right how is it going with his highness?"

"with Augustus? we're friends"

"I see... and how's it going with... what's his name again..? oh right Ivan"

"we're friends too"

"huh I thought your old friends left you?"

"Ivan's different then those 2 faced friends"

"I see"

Mars stood up and grabbed his tray

"see you later Hanna"

"yeah see you Mars"

after saying goodbye to Hanna Mars walked over and put his tray in the bin before he walked out of the cafeteria and back to his dorm room and picked up some stuff for cla.s.s before he poked the still sleeping Victoria awake

"I'm going to cla.s.s, you want to come with?"

"sure..."

Victoria stretched before she jumped down the bed and followed after Mars out of the dorm room but before he reached he ran into Chloe which looked rather distressed

"what's wrong Chloe"

"oh Mars thanks G.o.d I need your help!"

"what's wrong Chloe?"

"something happened at the village!"

Chloe was clutching a small metal cube that was glowing with soft red light

"well then we need to leave now, go pack we'll meet up at the gates in 10 okay?"

"o-okay"

Mars ran back to his dorm room and packed his backpack before he left the dorm room he looked around and thought to himself

'and I was just starting to enjoy being back too...'

Mars ran out of the room but before he could make his way to the gate he ran into Elsa

"Mars what's wrong?"

"something happened at Green river, Chloe have asked me to come with her"

"then I'm going too!"

Mars looked at Elsa for a second before he gave a nod

"then back a bag and meet us by the main gate in 5"

"okay!"

Elsa ran off towards the dorms and Mars continued towards the gate where he found not only Chloe but also Varvei waiting for him

"good your here, let's go!"

"Chloe wait Elsa is coming too"

"Elsa... okay"

"try to calm down... do you know what happened?"

"no just that if this cube ever glowed red the destruction of Green river is a real possibility"

Varvei also looked concerned and put a hand on Chloe's shoulder, Mars put a hand on his chin and thought out loud

"we're at least a week by carriage away from the Mother forest... if we ride on horseback we can shorten it to 5 days... if we ride the horses into the ground and change at every town we can probably make it in 4 days... I really wish we had a sky carriage"

while Mars was thinking Elsa arrived, she was wearing some leather armor instead of her usual maid clothes

"I'm here"

"okay good then let's go"

during the next 3 days Mars and the girls rode form city to town switching horses when they could as they made their way south, on the way Mars brought Varvei a long spear which she practiced with in the evenings and just like that on the evening of the 4 day did the group reach Malrton which was only a stone throw away form the outer Mother forest after spending the night at Malrton they ventured into the Mother forest

"this sure is nostalgic..."

Varvei looked around the forest, they were still in the outer forest so it wasn't so hard to traverse the terrain as of yet

"Isn't just another forest?"

"hey this is my home"

Mars took a deep breath with his eyes closed taking in the air of the forest, he half had a feeling of wanting to go back to wearing beast leathers again

"well then let's continue we're still some days away from Green river"

the group continued their journey and with the help of Victoria's sharp senses they avoided most magic beast making their journey a smooth one, until the 3 day since they entered the forest when they reached the barrier forest and ran into a rather nostalgic group of magic beasts, Mars suddenly raised his hand and signaled the group to stop while he looked around

"Victoria you hear them too?"

"yeah... there's a... lot of them"

Elsa walked up to Mars and asked him

"what's wrong Mars?"

"we have incoming from right ahead"

"magic bests?"

"yeah it's a group of stealth acid spiders"

"ugh... spiders"

"yeah I know... Victoria and I will take the front, be sure not to get hit by the acid"

"you don't have to tell me twice"

Chloe patted Varvei on the shoulder and said with a grave look on her face

"take it serious it really f.u.c.king hurts"

"you tried it?"

"yeah once... I almost lost my leg"

"...okay then"

Varvei began slowly transforming as she clutched her long spear in her hands and alertly watched the forest around her

"I hear them too"

Mars also transformed into his half-dragon form and looked ahead as he drew his sword

"here they come!"

Mars quickly formed a few fire lances and fired them off into the distant trees seemingly aiming at nothing when suddenly they hit something, something that let out a inhumane scream as it fell from the trees burning, Victoria also fired off some shadow lances that nailed a few spiders to the trees around them

"there's still 16 of them left stay alert!"

after he yelled Mars activated [Instant movement] and disappeared from view before he reappeared and stabbed his sword into the head of a spider before he reactivated [Instant movement] and disappeared again, while Mars was ma.s.sacring spiders Varvei stood ready with her long spear with her eyes closed, suddenly she opened them and trust forwards with her spear and non fatally hit a spider which caused its stealth to disappear

"Chloe!"

"I got it!"

Chloe that had been waiting for a target fired a fire lance right into the face of the spider instantly killing it

"nice job"

Elsa was also standing with her eyes closed while her wolf like ears were twitching slightly suddenly she grabbed Chloe and pulled her a step back making a lump of acid shoot right past her

"th-thanks Elsa"

Elsa opened her eyes and gave a smile and a thumbs up