'but still look at those mana stones... feels like there's about 5000 energy units in there and there's 4 of them...'

Mars thought about stealthily taking 1000 energy units off the top of the 4 giant mana stones but quickly dismissed the thought

"come on, let's board quickly"

hearing the vice princ.i.p.al Mars and the 4 others snapped out of their daze and quickly walked over to the sky carriage where Mars opened the door and got in, the inside of the sky carriage was like any other carriage only a little bigger than a normal carriage with room for 8 people along with luggage s.p.a.ce under the table in the middle

"neat"

Mars quickly took off his backpack and moved all the way over to the opposite window and sat down after he put his backpack down under the table and looked out the window at the students that was crowding around the sky carriage meanwhile Victoria crawled up on his lap and lay down

'...wait isn't that Ca.s.s?"

Mars spotted Ca.s.sandra in the crowd and gave her a little wave but she didn't see him as she was too busy looking at the sky carriage

'oh well...'

as Mars looked out the window the last person boarded the sky carriage and shut the door closing out the outside noise

"...wait you brought your pet?"

Mars looked over and saw Karen had sat down next to him, or rather next to Victoria

"well she's not my pet"

"then what is she?"

"she's... my partner? anyway we're both under a mana contract, so I can't just leave her behind"

"I see... do you think she will be useful?"

"with what?"

Karen gave a bitter smile before she continued

"you know there's only one thing the king would summon us for"

"true... sure she will be useful, even I don't have confidence in beating her in a straight on fight"

Karen's blue eyes widened slightly before she gave a smile

"in that case I'm happy she's here"

just as Karen finished speaking did the sky carriage shake slightly before it started to rise into the air

'here we go...'

Mars looked out the window again and saw that the carriage was rapidly rising up into the air before stopping as it reached about 15 meters and suddenly started accelerating vertically as it speed out of the academy and out of the city a few moments later

'we must be going at least 90 kilometers per hour... pretty good speed'

"well now that we're alone I think it's time I told you all something"

Mars looked over at the vice princ.i.p.al that was speaking and saw she had a serious expression on her face

"no matter what the king has to say I will be the only one speaking, you just have to follow my lead"

the vice princ.i.p.al looked at all 5 students with a grave look on her face before she loosened up a little when she was sure all her students had understood her message

"don't worry you are all my students and I will follow and protect you wherever it is we are going"

hearing what the vice princ.i.p.al said the atmosphere in the carriage lightened a little, especially the twins that sat next to her seemed to calm down a little

'well not that I was worried in the first place....'

Mars leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as he started to relax while the other students talked among themselves meanwhile the sky carriage continued flying north and 2 days later the sky carriage arrived at the capital of Destra King's city, the carriage landed outside the walls and the group got out of the sky carriage carrying their luggage

'well would you look at that...'

Mars looked up at the 15 meter tall walls with wonder, the wall was not only study looking it also seemed to be reinforced with formations that covered the entire wall like a mural along with the well armed soldiers walking on top of the wall it gave a overall imposing feeling

"gather around, there should be someone to escort us to the castle soon"

the students gathered around the vice princ.i.p.al and waited, Mars put down his backpack and sat down on top of it while he stretched his slightly sore body

'well the wall is imposing and all but this sure seems like bad manners, making your guest stay outside the walls...'

Mars was slightly displeased but soon a knight looking person in full plate mail approached the group, the only thing his full plate armor exposed was a pair of green eyes that looked at the group of students with badly hidden contempt

"you people, follow after me"

after he finished talking the knight turned and walked away

'looks like I was right... that's more bad manners...'

Mars picked up his luggage and followed after the knight along with the rest of the group and soon they arrived at the gates, the gates were about 10 meters tall and 5 meters wide with soldiers standing guard and cheeking the stream of people that pa.s.sed through the gates in a orderly manner, seeing the crowd the knight stopped for a moment before he began pus.h.i.+ng his way through the crowd

"make way... I said make way!"

hearing the knight's yell the crowd opened up a path for the group to pa.s.s though, when the soldiers noticed the commotion they saluted to the knight before they continued with their tasks

'so this knight is highly ranked... or at least higher ranked then common soldiers... well I guess that doesn't say much'

Mars walked through the gates along with the rest of the group and found themselves in a s.p.a.ce that was cleared out for a secondary defense if the gate should be breached, but right now it was crowded by all sorts of people going on with their day, the knight made his way through the crowd shoving away all that got in his way

"make way!"

'...this really puts a bad taste in my mouth'

Mars looked at the knight that shoved a child away with disgust, before he could take anymore and looked away and noticed the twins were falling behind, Lily in particular was falling behind and looked like she would be swallowed by the crowd any moment

'can't be helped...'

Mars stopped walking and waited until Lily was close before he s.n.a.t.c.hed her luggage

"...what are you doing?"

"carrying your luggage for you so you can keep up"

"thanks Mars"

after thanking Mars Lily walked over and helped her brother Lee with carrying his luggage meanwhile the group pa.s.sed the cleared area and began walking down the main road of King's city and after walking for close to an hour with all their luggage the group form the academy was exhausted except for Mars of cause that as this point was carrying most of the groups luggage, Mars looked up at the castle that still was close too 5 kilometers away and called out to the knight

"hey we need a break"

the knight stopped and turned around and looked at Mars

"...take 5 minutes then"

as soon as the words left the moth of the knight the group stopped and sat down on the pavement exhausted, all expect Mars that is

"you really are something Mars..."

"hmm..? oh, I'm not human remember?"

Mars looked over at the vice princ.i.p.al that was parsing him with a questioning look on his face

"not that, for asking the knight for a break, also thanks for helping with the luggage"

"...well it's nothing much for me anyways"

even though his words were humble Mars still felt rather good about being praised by the vice princ.i.p.al

"get up, breaks over!"

as soon as he finished speaking the knight started walking again almost leaving behind the rest of the group as they scrambled to get up and keep up with the knight

'...should I kick his a.s.s?'

Mars started thinking about teaching the rude knight a lesson but soon dropped the idea

'....don't want to p.i.s.s off the one that gave him his orders, maybe if we say he tripped down some stairs... several times...'

unaware of Mars's thoughts the knight kept leading the way and after walking for another half an hour the group arrived at the gates to the castle, the caste itself was made of smoothed marble and looked like it was at least 5 stories tall with spires that was far higher then the castle itself the knight walked up to the gates and exchanged a few words with the guards before they opened the gate and let the group into the castle courtyard that seemed to be a practice field for the knight of the castle, the rude knight walked into the castle and though the hallways that was elegantly decorated with fine furniture and pieces of artwork and soon he walked into a room and turned to the group

"wait here"

after he finished speaking the knight walked out of the room and shut the door behind himself leaving group form the academy behind

'...now I wonder what's next'

Mars gave a sigh before he spoke

"...well that was horrible"

the vice princ.i.p.al also gave a rather deep sigh

"I'm afraid that just life as a student of Destra's magic academy"