Chapter 179 - The Circus Has Arrived

Naill went to the backyard, the cold night air cooled his body much more, he sighed as he looked at the crescent moon and felt his heart sink.

The night breeze seemed to carry the weight of his mind and he closed his eyes, but the treacherous mind immediately made the memories flow like a raging river after days of rain.

It was a beautiful night with a brilliant moonlight, he was in the room of Duke Byrnes' mansion, his father was the current Duke, and he had an excellent life, a very strict education, and a regulated religiosity.

He wouldn't be the heir, but he wouldn't follow the warrior's path either, his father wanted him to be a mage; he had some talent, he would be his older brother's support.

Naill admired his older brother with all his heart, despite being his half-brother, his father had been married twice, his first wife died mysteriously, and his second wife, Naill's mother, died after complications in childbirth.

His father was always busy with the duchy, so Naill spent most of his time with nannies and governesses, he mostly saw his older brother and clung to him as a cat clings to a curtain.

His older brother was the best, until the day he went to his room when he turned 15.

Things started to get a lot darker.

Naill, who was deep in thought, was awakened by Anael's hot lips touching his, only then did he realize that he was freezing, and his body was shaking.

White mist ghostly seemed to cover his feet, only then did he realize that he had been outside too long.

"Finally, you woke up, I called you for quite some time. This fog seems to have some hypnotic effect on you humans" Anael said, showing his physical body.

His long blond hair fell in a golden cascade down his back, his glossy red lips looked even more attractive, pursed in annoyance, his pale, half-moon thin eyebrows were quite expressive with disgust.

"Let's get back inside before the other humans think I killed you and run away," Anael said, mocking some more of Naill, who still looked like a fool staring into space.

"Next time don't do that," Naill said in an ice voice, which wasn't very typical of the sunny, curious boy who always seemed warm around others.

He walked past Anael, ignoring the handsome man, who was offended by such coldness when he helped the human despite detesting humans in general.

Going into the eighth day and seeing Emery's increasing improvement, both physically and MANA, finally Johnathan decided it was time for them to explore the city a bit, the festival was about to officially start, the main avenue was crowded with tourists, and the square was crowded with locals and foreigners, the perfect time to walk around without attracting too much attention from the locals.

"Let's buy clothes for you, these clothes are pretty ridiculous..." Johnathan mocked a little at Emery, seeing him for the seventh day in a row taking off his shirt and showing his body was well-built although thin, the sweat was running down his body and he was a little red in the face.

He wasn't hot because of the weather that was hotter than usual in the morning, but because of the constant MANA use that expanded his body's MANA veins and made his body exhausted.

If he didn't have nature's energy to restore the body's stamina, he wouldn't be able to grow as quickly as he was doing now, as his body wouldn't be able to withstand that level of training from the Second Imperial Prince, not with the Original's body having been worn out by the binges of a young nobleman and the "easy" life as a Bishop.

"Let's buy clothes for everyone, these clothes Naill has been very flashy," Emery said taking a soft white cotton handkerchief, clearly a nobleman's handkerchief, which Naill offered getting more giggles from the girls who pretended to talk to the girl's friends, but then looked at their group.

Of course, Naill's clothes were flashy, being the clothes of nobles from the Northlight Kingdom who in the capital wore clothes of flashy colors between ocean green and warm red.

For a person like Emery who for most of his life wore clothes much less flashy and even as Bishop wore clothes as simple as possible in color, the clothes of the people of the Northlight Kingdom were very bright and stood out in the picturesque and somewhat rural landscape of the small city.

Naill, Mattias, and Bryan wore clothes of excellent fabric, with delicate embroidery and very lively colors, as they were young, it wasn't too bad, but it was very flashy, and it was inevitable that Emery's group would draw attention to a street that despite being close to the square and the main avenue of the city were considered not very frequented with few nobles and "good" people passing by.

Naill's black hair stood out against the red fabric of the loose-fitting shirt and with ribbons on the light-colored arms that made a bow at the wrists, obviously, the dark-colored coat with mother-of-pearl buttons was not used, after all, it was already flashy enough wearing only this shirt.

Anael, who was still holding a grudge for yesterday's treatment, mocked Naill some more but was summarily ignored by the human, which made him even angrier.

Mattias, who was being taught by Knight Giuliani, a future paladin, had a more robust body and was a little taller than Naill and Bryan, so the clothes fit very well and caught the attention of the ladies who "passed" through the house being renovated.

Bryan was a standout in his own right, after all, he was a different species, but the navy green fabric highlighted his shiny black skin, his pointy elf ears twitched with the laughter of the girls and children who whispered about him.

Emery, on the other hand, was still wearing Old Dolores' clothes and the only piece of clothing, his pajamas, that he already had. He was much taller than the others and the clothes were tight and very uncomfortable, so he was the most affected by the lack of clothes.

Emery's group caught the attention of the daughters and sons of the local bourgeoisie, young men of good financial means but not so attached to old nobility traditions about not mixing with others who were not influential and well-born nobles.

What was beautiful was to behold, besides, they seemed to be apprentices to a Master Mage, which was a big deal, especially for the small town that only heard from apprentices and mage students talking about magic teachers and Master Mages from mid-sized cities or the capital.

Johnathan wore a white opera mask, which was quite strange, but when they saw the Master Mage's hooded robe which was a gray color with emerald green snake embroidery on the sleeves, and a crest on the chest with a shield of a snake coiled around a plum rose tree with a blue orb floating above both of them, images that were owned by the Wizards' Republic, which showed that he was a person consecrated by the most powerful mages on the continent and recognized as one of them, so people in them instead of antagonizing him, they looked at him with respect.

"All right",

He agreed, not thinking much about it apparently, but he felt much more excited to be able to stop training and go see the city.

What should have been a peaceful morning for Emery's group was interrupted by the sound of elephants.

"The circus is coming!" excited children started running down the street, some young and old also looked excited as they talked.

"You said the street would be quiet." Emery didn't miss the opportunity to scoff at the cousin who made him sweat so much.

The street was quiet, but there were people like Naill who gave candy and candies to the children almost every day, of course, they did a job here and there mainly buying things like nails, hammers, informing about the price of furniture, plus some little local information.

Like the main river of the city, about the autumn festival, about the commerce, Mattia, a person who came from the common environment, also collected little information about the festivities if there was something that changed from one festival to another, what were the typical attractions and of course, making small requests to buy leather straps, fabric for the curtains, rugs and asking if there was anyone who installed plumbing and erected walls, among other small things that were rewarded with a few copper coins or candy.

Except plumbing, Johnathan and Emery could do almost anything with magic, but it was a way for Mattias to get information and befriend other villagers who didn't live nearby, but it was enough to look like normal people moving out.

They got a lot of information, but it all seemed pretty common, of course, they ended up buying various colorful fabrics to make the supposed curtains and rugs, the truth they didn't know why they were fixing that house as they wanted to leave as soon as possible of the city.

"I can't do anything if you get the attention of others" Johnathan replied with a shrug. The same man said very seriously that they had to have a safe base of operation and that it was not full of rats, spiders, and any other pest, in addition to the training they did to improve themselves.

After all, they didn't know if they'd be able to get out of town anytime soon, but Johnathan didn't answer Emery's questions about how long and how many times he'd been back in town.

The circus had arrived, and it was something that happened every year at the autumn festival and always made the children more cheerful and the city seemed to vibrate along with the merry music of the trumpet and the fire that rose with the talented demonstrations of the fire-breathers.

Clearly, in a magical world, the fire-breathers didn't just breathe fire but juggled fire transforming it into various forms of animals and, in the end, it ended with a clash between larger animals which left everyone with awed and glowing eyes.

Even Emery's eyes were bright, wanting to see the circus, but he felt the energy of nature revolt beside him, a force too great vibrating.... Bryan seemed to be losing control of his powers again.