A large group of people gathered together outside of the forest outside of Pelith. There were at least a few hundred people. Among that number were twenty-seven children. All of them were nine-years-old and getting ready to take their trial.
In the center of the crowd was a group of men who all Advanced Rank fighters or better. It was their job to drop the children off at various locations in the woods.
A town elder provided prayers to the children, and blessed them with anointing oil...well at least the ones who were not marked.
"The gods who reside in Celestia watch over us all. May they guide your blades, quicken your arrows, and fortify your bodies so that you may survive the trial ahead."
A number of the gathered crowd said in unison, "So shall it be."
When the elder finished, he stepped back into the crowd as another member of the town leadership stepped forward. He gave each child a packet filled with a strangely sweet smelling, yellow powder.
Rena recognized this as the drug they used to knock the children unconscious. The men who would deposit them in the woods had the antidotes and fed them to the children the moment they dropped them off.
The antidote was extremely fast acting and the person would be completely alert and awake as if nothing happened only ten seconds later.
Rena looked around at the other children in her group. She recognized several of them.
Among those were her cousins. Thomas was grinning at her while sitting next to a few other cousins; Peter, Marl, Jakoby, and Vik.
She quickly turned away from them and locked eyes with a friend of hers. Rena smiled gently at Elena, a daughter of one of the bakery in town that Rena loved to frequent.
Three people were gathered together at the base of a dead tree. One of them was one of his people, Vik. The other two were unknown, but one was a Marked One.
Vik gave a wink to him and indicated that they were not quite ready to take care of it yet.
"Hold! Friendly. My name is Thomas von Petra of one of the minor branches. I see you already gathered with my cousin, Vik."
Vik and the two others greeted themselves, which made Thomas' skin crawl. It took every ounce of his self-restraint to not cut the Marked One's head off right there, however, it was still a useful tool for now.
"Well, I have compatibilities with Sword Arts and Shield Arts...you all?"
The Marked One answered first. "None here...I just had to come because of my mark. I can't use it either though...I know how to use a knife a little, so I have this hunting knife."
Thomas breathed an inward sigh of relieve. Since it couldn't use the mark it had, he had one less thing to worry about. After that, Vik and the other child shared their skills, so they held a strategy meeting.
Thomas pretended not to know the way out of the woods so that he could continue gathering his allies and searching for Rena.
She would be his, and he could not wait to sever her head from its shoulders. The title of Lord of house Petra would be his, and the she-devil will stand in his way no longer.
Besides, not only did he have his Sword and Shield Arts, but he also had Fire Magic and Water Magic at his beck and call. Rena had no weapon Compatibilities at all, and she wouldn't be allowed to learn magic until later.
All of this combined into making her a perfectly easy target. He just had to be the one to find her before a monster did, so some random beast wouldn't take away the satisfaction of his first, real kill.