'she almost looks like an elf... I wonder where she was form...'

his memory might not be all that clear but he knew for sure that the woman in the picture was his mother and even if she wasn't human Mars still felt love for her as any son would for their mother

'well let's get up...'

Mars raised his upper body again and looked at Victoria that was still sleeping nestled up on his legs and felt a little troubled about how to proceed with getting out of bed

'let's go easy on her...'

Mars started petting Victoria on the head, specifically on the spot between her ears and horns right on the top of her head until alight purring sounded out form the horned panther cub

"good morning Victoria"

Victoria slowly opened her eyes and stared at Mars for a second before she sent a telepathic message to him as her horns flashed with a soft white glow

"good... morning Mars"

Mars gave a smile and continued petting her until she stated her morning cleaning by licking her black and orange-red fur

"and her we.... go"

Mars swung his legs out over the edge of the bed and sat for a moment before he kicked of the covers and stood up and he began putting on some clothes when suddenly someone knocked on the door

"give me a second"

Mars hurried and put on the rest of his clothes before he opened the door where he saw Jean that had a displeased expression on her beautiful face

"what is it?"

"bring your luggage down, we're just waiting on you"

"oh, sorry I will be right down"

after Jean finished saying what she had to she turned and left leaving Mars behind that hurriedly grabbed his armor and stuffed into his backpack before he turned and left the room as he called Victoria

"Victoria, we need to leave now"

"coming... now"

Victoria jumped off the bed and followed after Mars as usual by walking half a meter behind him. Soon Mars and Victoria reached the courtyard where 2 carriages stood ready, one seemed to be for luggage while the other was for people, Mars put his backpack on the luggage carriage and walked up to the other carriage and opened the door and found Ivan, Hanna, Jean and Elsa sat inside

"sorry I'm late"

Mars took a seat next to Ivan and shut the door after him as Hanna that sat the next seat over leaned out and gave Mars a smile

"don't worry about it Mars"

Ivan was quick to try and back up Hanna

"yeah don't worry Mars, we have only waited about half an hour"

"okay if you say so"

Mars gave a smug look to Jean as if to say 'what's the rush' but was coldly ignored as he had expected and turned to look at Elsa that wore a summer dress and gave a smile

"did you sleep well Mars?"

"yeah I had a good dream too"

"that's good"

as Mars was talking to Elsa Victoria jumped in and laid down on Mars lap, seeing they all were aboard the carriage started moving and soon the 2 carriage convoy left though the north gate...

fear

"first blood~"

fear and unwillingness was reflected in the eyes of the goblin mage, it thought of itself as a superior of its own species but against this

"tipple kill~"

it was helpless, the youth stemmed to be teleporting around as he kicked and killed the goblins while speaking in a distorted voice

"multi kill~"

the goblin mage started to chant in its own native and hoa.r.s.e voice but soon felt a cold wind behind it and voice that spoke out

"ultra kill~"

that was the last thing the goblin mage ever heard as Mars kicked it's fragile neck that produced a snapping sound as Mars's foot connected and sent the now lifeless goblin mage flying

"that's that"

Mars clapped his hands and flames appeared and burned the goblin corpses to ash and after picking up 2 tier 1 cores he began walking back to the carriage where among the peanut gallery Ivan looked at him with wide eyes while Hanna's eyes lightly sparkled with admiration of Mars's strength

"Mars are you a s-s.p.a.cial mage?"

"no Ivan it's a physical skill, he moves to fast for us to see"

"r-really!?"

Ivan was slightly stunned before respect and awe spread in his eyes as he looked at Mars that had just walked over

'why is it always goblins...?'

Mars wondered why goblins were so common of a magic beast and asked Ivan about it

"that's because they need the least amount of corrupted od to sp.a.w.n"

"od..? what's that?"

"od is like.... hmm, it's the worlds mana? I think"

"the worlds mana?"

"yeah, I think that's how my teacher explained it, basically od is the mana of the world and when it gets changed or corrupted it sp.a.w.ns magic beasts and goblins are the most common ones"

"I see..."

Mars stroked his chin while he thought

'but Rex said mana was the aura of the soul, does that mean the world is alive and has a soul? or maybe there's a difference in the understanding of mana in Destra?'

Mars stopped his thinking and gave a wave to the coachman before he climbed into the carriage and sat down next to Elsa that latched onto his arm immediately and asked Hanna

"how long is this trip going to take anyway?"

Hanna gave a sidelong glance to Elsa that was rubbing her cheek against Mars's shoulder and gave a fake cough before she looked away with a light blush on her face and answered Mars's question

"8-8 days I think, right Jean?"

"yes it's 8 and a half day to reach the academy city by carriage"

"and we're what, 2 days in?"

"...yes that's right a.s.shole, sorry I mean Mars"

"...oi"

Mars grabbed the hilt of his sword and sent a faint amount of killing intent at Jean, but was once again coldly ignored and gave a sigh as he let go of his sword, Jean had always been treating him cold but the whole 'night training' incident seemed to have made her outright hostile towards him

'well can't really blame her for that one...'

Mars gave another sigh and clapped his hand on his lap twice which made Victoria jump up from the floor of the carriage where she nestle in his lap before he used her fluffy ears to heal his damaged soul slightly as the carriage moved on...

In the evening the 2 carriage caravan stopped and while the 2 coachmen took care of the 4 hoses the occupants of the first carriage stepped out and stretched their stiff bodies while they took in both the open gra.s.sland scenery, Mars looked out over the rolling hills that was spa.r.s.ely decorated with trees and gave a sigh

'we should arrive tomorrow...'

the past week had been slow, being crammed into a carriage for most of the day had made Mars's body slightly stiff only the rare goblins had hara.s.sed them during the trip but soon they also turned into amus.e.m.e.nts as Mars and Jean fought over who could kill them the most amount of goblins in the least amount of time

'well at least she warmed up slightly because of that...'

Jean had stopped treating Mars as dirt and started to treat him more as a rival instead, although she was rather childish about it when she declared Mars for her rival in the middle of a card game

'well at least the random insults have lessened somewhat...'

as Mars was admiring the scenery and soft hand grabbed his and a clear voice spoke out besides him

"hey you"

"hey"

Mars didn't need to look to know it was Elsa that had grabbed his hand, he already knew the feeling of her hand almost as well as the felling of the hilt on his sword

"what are you doing?"

"admiring the scenery"

"...and what are you really doing?"

"checking for hostile beast and bandits on the east side of our camp, but I figured the other sounded more romantic"

Elsa gave a light giggle besides him and gave his hand a squeeze before she asked

"then should we cheek the west side of the camp now?"

Mars gave a smile and returned the squeeze before he gave a nod

"yeah let's do that"