Chapter 24 - Eye Spy

His usually calm demeanor begins to shift, as Uncle Zerath continues to use his right eye. As the Eye of Truesight begins to dart around the room like a gyroscope sprayed with canned air, it suddenly stops, as the color drains from his face.

Placing his eyepatch back on, he turns to face me, his eyes and face downcast.

"Well, what is it? Did you see him?" I say, as my anxiety continues to grow and grow. It was as if a weight was slowly being added on top of my chest.

"Your boy is, alive. Somehow. For now." With every word, it was as if the world continued to weigh heavier and heavier down on me. All I could think of doing was running to him as fast as possible.

"What does that mean?" I ask, breathing heavily at this point.

Looking up at me, he sighs deeply.

"You're son is alive. He's actually in good health. The issue is his living conditions. It appears he is currently staying in a village within the central continent of Mercari. A T- demonoid village." He says, stopping his sentence short. What?

"So what? Demonoinds are fine to communicate with, and if he's on Mercari, that's still manageable within a year or so. If we use Fae Travel that is." I say, yet for some reason, Zerath looks even more defeated than before.

"That's the thing. It would be okay if it were most demonoids, as most of them are amicable with the Fae Royals and Fae Territories. The issue is, the village that he's staying in is one of the outliers. Tiamat's." He says, flinching back as he says it. After delivering that news, the chain is broken, signaling his end of the bargain has been maintained.

But I can't even begin to care about some silly debt.

Tiamat. The Scourge of the Magic War. Known by many of the mystical races by many things, yet all under one banner.

Tiamat. Better known as Devil-kin, or Devil Spirits.

Tiamat were the main fighting force within the Magic War seventy years ago. That race single-handedly nearly wiped out wind sprites and humans in one fell swoop, only stopped by their own team turning on them to secure peace.

At this point, only a handful of clans survived, and they lived independently for the most part. Some people claim that the surviving Tiamat had left behind their violent past and urges, yet I won't be so fooled.

I am a Wind Sprite. Antonio is a Wind Sprite.

The moment that fact is uncovered, he'll be killed like the rest.

--- Point of View: Antonio Icefield, Present Moment ---

A horrible chill just ran up my spine.

Either way, it's been about a month since we departed from Taft. Overall we've made good progress.

Earth and Water magic have been crucial for me at this point, with Ice being my main form of defending and Earth the main way we have shelter at night.

The first night or two were awkward since we slept in nothing more than a box heated by a combination of my wind and fire magic, yet Surge and I have gotten closer, and slowly those awkward nights became a thing of the past.

Sure, it still feels a bit weird, but it's better than being unsafe and outside in the cold.

Since I'm always circulating mana throughout my body, by the time night falls I only have enough to make a box around ten feet by ten feet, with a five-foot-tall roof. Then, I cut oxygen holes in the roof and release a gentle breeze of wind magic. Combining Wind and Fire mana before casting creates a warm wind, as long as I add in more wind mana that is. Otherwise, a quite powerful flame is produced.

Once the box is heated, I force the air to continue to circulate as I sleep. That keeps the box nice and toasty until we eventually wake up and continue our journey.

Although Surge is a non-combatant, traveling with her is quite enjoyable. She seems to have some affinity towards living like this, as she's able to detect enemies, animals, and even cook much better than I can.

Our talents complement each other well, as she warns me of enemies and gives me a loose direction of where they come from, then as soon as I see them, I blitz them with spikes of Earth or spears of Ice.

It also appears that Surge has grasped the strength I possess to a certain degree. It's not as if I'm trying to hide it or anything, she's going to find out eventually anyway, but she never seems too concerned about any enemies we come across, no matter the amount.

After about a month straight of this kind of travel, we're finally beginning to come up on the Demon Range.

It should take us a little over two more months until we're in the Shredded Plains, yet I can tell that Surge and I could really use a town visit right about now.

"I told you we should have headed south, we could have made some money and hired a carriage to take use over the range, or at least taken the official routes." Surge said, one of her usual complaints.

"I know I know I get it. It's not like we can turn back now, we just have to tough it out for the next two months, then we can earn some money in town and stay at a nice inn." I say that, but realistically, I have no idea how to earn money in this world.

I've always been either living in a manor, or a village, and focused mainly on training and making myself stronger. I mean, I understand the currency in this world, the conversion rates between them all, and even the relative value of each nation's currency to each other. Only the largest four nations of course but what of it, money is money.

The only thing I don't know is how we're supposed to earn it. We're kids, can we even get a job?

"Oh yeah, Surge. How exactly are we going to be earning money?" I ask, genuinely confused. Then, Surge looks at me, confused for a moment. That confusion then turns into a smug grin.

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?" She laughs before continuing. Yeah yeah, laugh it up. "But that's a silly question, we'll just become adventurers."

I almost let out an audible 'huh?' of surprise but was able to keep my mask from crumbling.

I guess that does make sense. In a world of magic, where monsters are abundant, it would only make sense that adventuring could be seen as a real profession.

Still, how are we going to become adventurers? Isn't there gonna be some age limit or something?