120 The Assistants

Later that day...

With the elimination round finally coming to its end, Allen and James met by the entrance from where the contenders entered earlier after their registration.

Their surroundings were teeming with a lot of contestants that were making their way out of the arena. A lot of them had bright smiles on their faces, a number were the opposite, and some didn't stick around for too long and left at once.

"Thank you for helping me enter mister!" James enthusiastically waved Allen a goodbye. The latter only nodded in response and set the kid off.

Walking down the road, the kid was thinking of what would be the best rhymes and words for the fifth stanza of his poem, which was about magic.

James surveyed around him, the path walk was filled with vendors selling tournament-related wares, "Hmm, maybe I should buy some."

The kid went towards a stall, but he paused on his steps and realized something, "Wait! I didn't even get the mister's name!"

***

The arena was the still holding a lot of people leaving through the stairs leading out of the main spectators' area. If teleporting wasn't currently restricted, the place would have been more spacious by now.

On the platform, the esteemed guest were approaching Esmund.

"Mr. Esmund, you will not be able to deny it any longer. Congratulations for a successful first round!" Rowin congratulated with several claps.

"I will inform of this to the Matriarch. On behalf of her, congratulations Sir Esmund." Dianne slightly bowed.

"The archbishop has been questioning me since time immemorial to report. It seems I have something worthy to say to him." Dominic said with his hands behind his back.

"Thank you for your remarks, everyone." Like earlier, Esmund was all-smiles again.

"Yes, yes." William joined in, "He had been celebrating early on even before the competition was over." He said while slowly clapping and approaching them.

Esmund's hands secretly curled up into fists. Of course, Esmund knew that William was actually talking about him standing up when Gavin supposedly passed Dorothy on the leaderboard rankings.

Suddenly, William added, "He was expecting that the first round shall be a success, which is. His confidence is not there as a mere display."

"Who are you by the way? I never heard of a young person like you joining in the adults' conversation." Dominic raised an eyelash.

'Heh.' Esmund snickered in his mind.

"Dear reverend, I think I have heard the Bishop of the Capital complementing of you." William smiled back in response.

"Him? He is a good friend of mine!" Dominic spoke in a more courteous tone.

Dianne chimed in, "I better go, I have to send a letter to the Matriarch about this competition's success." She bowed again and left the area.

"Farewell, if Retollian willed, I will be returning to watch for the next round." Dominic also left.

William: "You know, you are quite popular. I should also be going now."

"Yes, I am very known, Sir William. In fact, a lot of people should be approaching be outside by now." Esmund smirked in response.

"Mhm." William nodded, "You have a lot of men waiting for you. Have fun entertaining them, sir." He didn't stick around any longer and left the platform with his chin up, leaving behind Esmund.

As William left Esmund's sight, the latter deeply breathe in and muttered, "I am going to make you pay you young imbecile…" His sentence was cut off as he inhale deeply again and sighed.

A man wearing gray robes was now beside him. He appeared without even making any the slightest sound!

He and the gray-robed man were the only ones left on the platform. The latter asked, "Do you want me to do something, sir?"

"No. Ignore it." Esmund answered back. He relaxed his hands and stretched them out with each other, "I do not want to offend the kid."

***

In an inconspicuous location near the arena, there was a carriage parked along with a black-white stallion. The stallion was bigger than a normal-sized of the same kind of animal.

William walked towards the carriage and knocked on the door. The door opened and he entered inside.

The interior of the carriage was bigger than it seemed from the outside. Of course, this carriage wasn't any sort of such transportation, just the steed alone was unusual for a normal passenger.

There were three people sitting on the opposite sides where the seats were, one was a woman wearing light armor. Beside her was a young frail man with shaking hands, and on the other seat was also a young man with a countenance and posture of a dignified person.

"Sir William, you finally returned." A woman wearing exquisite and shiny armor along with a sword strapped on her belt greeted.

"Thank you, Chelsea." William's tone now was deeper and more somber.

"Hello, Sir William. After visiting for the alchemy tournament today you have to East Gate City immediately for an appointment with Duke Edward Meros." The dignified man reminded.

"I'll have to do something first before I leave, Frederick. Inform the coach." William said.

"I will." Frederick nodded and went out of the carriage.

"H-Hi S-sir W-W-William!" The frail man waved hello to the younger Morgan.

"Heigens." William nodded back. He then sat beside Frederick's spot.

Frederick opened the door and asked, "Sir William, we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"The coach resigned. He left a letter." Frederick passed an envelope to William. The latter, however, was torn into pieces and thrown to the trash bin.

William: "Resignation accepted."

"Now, who will..." Frederick wasn't able to finish his sentence when William chimed in.

"Including his life."

"I'm sorry what, sir?" Confused by the interruption, Frederick asked for a clarification.

"I accept his resignation, including his life's." William said while grabbing a book to read from under his seat.

A chill visibly went down Heigens' spine and he immediately warned, "S-s-sir, your reputation will surely s-suffer!"

"Sir William, although I am sent to obey your orders and to protect you, I will never do such an illegal action." Chelsea patted something under her pants.

"We will never let you do that, sir." Frederick sternly replied.

The younger Morgan looked at the three opposed persons. He could only sigh and say, "I am in a bad mood today. Forgive me for being rude."

"It's alright s-s-sir!" Heigens replied.

"I will drive the carriage for you then, Little Sir." Chelsea smiled while jokingly adding. After then, she went outside to drive the carriage.

Frederick then closed the door.

It didn't take long and the carriage went off.

He sat beside William, "So, what seems to be the problem?" He asked, his demeanor now was different compared to his airy attitude earlier. Although he was still showing a cold, hard face.

"I can solve it myself. I'm smarter than the both of you combined." Obviously annoyed by being interfered with his own matters, William shooed the both of them away.

"This is going to be a debate of attributes, I see." Frederick's face became colder, "Then so be it." As he was about to say another word, Heigens said:

"You m-might be s-s-smart, but you are only a t-t-teenager!"

"Older people will die first." William retorted.

"T-t-that a-attitude of yours w-will be y-your demise!" Heigens sputtered.

"Then good, I will die immediately so I will never have to look for my damn brother who left me!" William shouted frantically, "Everybody near me disappears without me noticing, my mother, my big brother..."

"T-t-then you aren't s-s-smart, you are b-b-blinded! You d-d-do not know how to keep t-t-them!" Heigens pointed his index finger towards William.

William: "You..."

"Y-you said everybody n-near you d-d-disappears without you noticing, b-but you are the one w-w-who left your own f-f-father!" Heigens blurted out.

William clenched his fists over the opened book on his lap. He gritted his teeth and bowed his head down.

His lower body and his arms were shaking. Along with his fast breathing, it might seem like he was about to explode out at any moment.

Heigens: "Y-y-you are a co..."

"Heigens." Frederick interrupted. He made a silencing gesture towards the other in a bid to stop him from continuing.

Heigens noticed and understood what Frederick was trying to convey and glanced away.

'You had to make him too upset.' Frederick rolled his eyes away from Heigens. He redirected his sight towards William.

Listening closely, Frederick perceived the sound of fast yet quiet breathing. He rubbed William's back to calm him down.

***

In nearly every location in the world, poor people would always be present. Everywhere, even in great cities, a poor populace wouldn't be nonexistent, and as their numbers increase, slums would surely appear.

Allen arrived at the slums through array teleportation. Well, inside a building in the slums.

Looking around him, the most noticeable object to behold was a bed. Along with it were a wardrobe, a shattered glass mirror, a small chest by the door, and a small window.

It was a small bedroom.

"I have made a slight mistake on my calculations." Allen murmured.

"But these array teleports aren't trustworthy to begin with." He continued.

Arrays for teleportation were a luxury for internal energy practitioners, as unlike magicians who could teleport by just purely using mana even without such mechanisms, they needed catalysts for that action which were the arrays.

Strengths of array teleports varied from one another. The higher one's main level of power, the faster and wider the range of the teleport would be. Additionally, three types of array teleports exist; one was the singular type, the second was purely for transportation of non-living objects which of course has limitations on how many could be teleported, and the last one was for mass transportation of groups of living beings, with including non-living objects too.

Why do the second type exist? It was because for an array teleport to work, an energy provider was required which was none other than the traveler itself. But due to it only for being purely transporting non-living things, another array was needed on the location where the object would be teleported to at; using twice or more of the amount of energy needed. Hence, it was separated from singular and group array teleports.

Allen sensed somebody was coming from behind the door.

The door swooshed open and a girl walked in while limping. She closed the door and went straight for the chest.

Unbeknownst by the girl, a man was standing right in the middle of the room, gazing at her emotionlessly.

She walked weirdly towards the chest. Upon a closer look, Allen spotted a grazed wound on her knee.

Allen paid no heed and he went to the door. He grabbed the knob and was about to turn it when he looked at the wound again.

***

Earlier...

William's carriage was speeding through the street. The magical stallion attracted the eyes of the onlookers, some of which immediately removed their sights upon who have seemingly seen a lot of such animals.

It was Ryon City, where there's an abundance in alchemical products either finished or processed. It's no wonder that some people would generally be used the such magical beasts.

In cities, one would most likely see such domesticated magical animals as those locations could be a hub for trade and goods.

However, not all cities were like that; for example, although Eastern Horizon City was a city, powerful people seldom travel towards there. The city could be considered rich, yes, but what made it rich was its mineral mines, would powerful personalities with their priced steeds even go there just to purchase minerals, when they could just send somebody on their behalf?

As the carriage stride towards the street, it finally reached the slums.

"W-why do we even h-h-have to go into the s-s-s-slums?" Heigens asked with visible nervousness, "This p-place is such a h-h-hazard! It's s-so dirty and d-d-dangerous. Who k-k-knows it could be filled with t-t-thugs? We m-m-might get sick! A dragon c-c-could come out of t-t-the ground! Or k-k-knives will r-r-rain from the s-s-skies! Or m-m-maybe the s-s-slums is a secret h-h-h-hiding place for an u-u-u-undead army! AHHHH!!!" He tightly pulled his hair while shouting frantically.

'Here comes the nervous boar again.' Frederick rolled his eyes and he spoke to him, "Calm down, Heig."

Frederick was still rubbing William's back. The latter was sobbing quietly with his head ducked.

"W-w-what if we s-s-suddenly hit something!" Heigens shouted.

-bang-

The carriage slightly shook. The weak shaking disappeared immediately afterwards, and the carriage continued to run.

From the outside, Chelsea opened up a slidable small window behind the coach's seat and asked, "Sir, we have hit somebody. I think it was a child."

William paused on his sobs and raised his head. His eyes were red from all the sobbing. "Continue travelling, we shouldn't waste time on such a trifling matter."

"Mhm." Chelsea closed the small window and check a book beside her. The book was filled of William's schedules to where he should go to.

'The slums is the shortest way there.' She thought and closed the book. Chelsea looked back for a moment to check on the person she hit; but it was already far from the naked eye.

"I hope that child did not get any serious injuries." She worriedly spoke.

***

Back to the present…

In the slums, a group of children where gathered in a circle conversing with each other.

A young boy ran to the group. Looking exhausted, he was still able to speak, "Mr. Frank's giving free snacks again, let's go!" He didn't stay longer and ran away.

"What?"

"Wait for us!"

"Hold up!"

"Don't leave us!"

The children all ran towards the same direction.

"Ella, try to catch up!" A boy shouted to a limping girl.

"You go ahead! My leg still hurts." Ella replied while holding her injured leg.

"If you say so." The boy answered back and left at once.

While she was walking, the wound's pain intensified which made her hiss. She immediately walked towards the entrance of an alley and clutched the skin around the injury.