Chapter 54 – The Academy of Adventurers

Three days later, and four Cities visited, Taisetsuna and Nozomu were leaving the Magical Circle in the Capital, Maardu, with their Unicorns.
Rampage kept on snorting as they walked down the street to the gates on the wall because he was carrying two saddlebags with Nozomu’s clothes and weapons, tied to the rope around his torso that Nozomu used to be sure he didn’t fall every time he rode him.

Near the gates, Nozomu rubbed the snout of the frowning Unicorn and said, “Come on, we talked about this! I will give you a treat, and Suna will give you a big Fireball for you to eat! It’s just until we reach the Academy! As soon as we get there, I am going to untie the rope and I will carry the saddlebags so that you don’t look bad, okay?”

Rampage bumped his nose against Nozomu’s cheek and snorted, messing up his hair. He then showed his teeth and clacked them near Nozomu’s nose, as if warning him he would take it off if he were lying.

Nozomu grabbed the big snout with both hands and spoke to the angry-looking Unicorn. “I know, I know! You will rip my nose if I ruin your reputation as a proud and mean Unicorn! You need to do something about that temper of yours, or you won’t make many friends with that attitude!”

Rampage snorted as if he didn’t care what a bunch of Humans thought, and Taisetsuna laughed, making the angry Unicorn look back only to see her and Furnace laughing.
As he was snorting at them, they exited the City, and Nozomu used the rope to climb on Rampage’s back.

Taisetsuna mounted the red-laughing Unicorn and pointed at the map she brought from the Guild, which Koyaga drew on paper. “According to Miss Koyaga, we will need a one-hour ride at full speed to arrive at the Academy. On horses, it would take over two hours. What do you say, Nozo? Your mean friend wants to run, or does he prefer snorting the entire way as he trots like a little horse? Because my pretty red Furnace here wants to run!”

As soon as she stopped talking, and while Nozomu looked back, he saw a red blur going past him at full speed. Rampage kicked the ground hard, and Nozomu almost broke his neck with the whiplash.
…

After one hour, the Academy grounds were on sight. As they were riding along the main dusty road, they crossed paths with some carriages that were leaving the Academy, probably after delivering their passengers, and they also went past some carriages and riders on horses that were going there.
When they turned to a paved road at the right of the main road, the Unicorns changed to a trot, and Nozomu gasped when he saw where he was going.
An enormous building, three floors high, was ahead, in a U shape, and with other buildings nearby, probably support facilities.
On both sides of the road, trimmed dark green grass with one line of brown leaf trees on both sides, and the tree-tops touching each other, made the entire path under shade, as if the visitors to the Academy were entering a very special place through a magical tunnel.
Nozomu and Taisetsuna dismounted, carried the saddlebags, and guided the Unicorns to the left side of the main building, where a few carriages were dropping people off, and a few horses were tied to poles.
The moment Rampage and Furnace noticed where Nozomu was aiming, they changed course and went straight to the main entrance of the building. Even with Taisetsuna trying to convince them to go under the shade where the horses were, they refused.
As the two Unicorns were getting near the building, the crowd stepped to the side to let them pass and to admire the rare and powerful Magical Beings.
A familiar scream reached Nozomu’s ears, and he looked around in search of the owner.

From the right, a Snake-kind girl with long light brown hair came slithering, and stopped in front of Nozomu to hug him, going at Taisetsuna’s neck afterwards, while saying, “Kyia! You both came! And with Unicorns! Pretty and powerful Unicorns! I saw them in the stable in Puurmani, but I couldn’t wait for you because my Party wanted to finish the Quest before nightfall! They are so pretty! They should go to the shade where the horses are; it is cooler there!”

Nozomu shrugged and explained. “By all means, try to convince them to do that if you want, Chuji! Rampage is too proud to be near horses.”

Chujitsuna Hito stood in front of the frowning white Unicorn and said, “What, this pretty thing here is lazy? Does he prefer to be out here in the sun instead of making sure the horses are protected? I was once told that Unicorns protect all animals, even horses and mules, but I guess this one here prefers to shame every Unicorn out there!”

Rampage pointed his shining horn at Chujitsuna Hito while snorting, and she smiled at him. “Not only are you lazy, but you also don’t like to hear the truth. I bet your kids will love to hear that when your red partner over there gives birth to them. I wonder what lies you will tell them. That you were always proud and honoured? Or will you say that today you were stupid and lazy? I can see only two options for you now. You attack me to shut me up, or you go calmly to the horses and make sure no one messes with them.”

The white Unicorn gathered an enormous Magic on the tip of his horn, and Chujitsuna Hito kept on smiling. After one last snort, he turned and went to the horses, with Furnace right behind him.

Chujitsuna Hito tapped her chest and took one deep breath while facing Nozomu. “That was dangerous! Warn me to never do that again! Your Unicorn is mean, Nozomu! Uuf! My heart is trying to come out of my chest!”

Nozomu slowly shook his head and spoke, “You are nuts, Chuji. Not even I annoy Rampage that much! I was about to slap him to stop, but you really need to think things through before acting!”

“Yeah, but I knew he would not attack me. Unicorns are proud and honourable. There was no way he was going to attack me for saying the truth. He knows very well what he is supposed to do, but I guess he likes to show off a bit too much. So, changing subject! Did you look around? So many people to apply! Can you believe it?”

“Yeah, I noticed that as we were arriving. I wasn’t counting on you annoying Rampage, though. What were you thinking?”

Chujitsuna Hito tapped Nozomu’s right cheek and answered, “I never think about anything, Nozomu! Where is the fun of doing that? Live the day, it’s what I always say! Oh, come with me. I was going to check something over there! You too, yellow-cute-eyes! Follow me!”

Chujitsuna pulled Nozomu and Taisetsuna’s hands and made them run to accompany her.
As they went past the crowd around them, Nozomu heard them whisper something about him and the Unicorns, but he couldn’t figure out what exactly they were saying.
Chujitsuna took them to a semicircle of a group of applicants, easily spotted by the bags with weapons sticking out that they were carrying and that was in front of one wall of the main building.
A familiar clacking sound reached Nozomu, and while Chujitsuna and Taisetsuna stopped at the edge of the semicircle, Nozomu pushed everyone aside to break through.
He reached the other side and saw the weird plant running in circles and clacking his big mouth, keeping everyone away from his master, the plant girl that Nozomu met in the City Tabivere, Tresuria, the Gailie.
She was standing against the wall, covering her face with both hands and trembling. Her vines with the flowers at the tip were also trembling as if Tresuria was frightened.
Nozomu rushed to get to her, not minding the weird plant pet who wrapped around his leg and tried to bite his thigh.

He stopped a few centimetres from the scared girl and spoke in a gentle tone. “Tresuria, it’s me, Nozomu. What’s the matter? Are you alright?”

The plant girl looked at him from the middle of her fingers, and when she recognised who he was, she wrapped her arms around his neck and her vines around his body, and spoke as she slowly stopped trembling, with her head over his shoulder. “Nozomu! This one is scared! So many people suddenly approached and kept on asking questions! Their voices were loud, and they didn’t let this one breathe! This one is not used to so many people coming so close!”

Nozomu caressed her head as he whispered in her ear, “It is alright, Tresuria. I think they were just curious about you. You could have told them to stay away because you were feeling scared, you know?”

“That… that is easy for you to say! Even in Tabivere, never once did so many people talk so loudly and scared so much this one! I… I am sorry, Nozomu… I don’t think I can do this…”

“You told me you wanted to be an Adventurer. Dealing with people comes with the job, you know? Do you mind telling your pet to let me go? He is trying to bite my leg off, but he will break all his teeth before he can do something.”

Tresuria whispered an order, and Draiky immediately let Nozomu go and went to his place near the edge of the semicircle that was surrounding Tresuria and Nozomu, and kept on running and clacking to keep them away.

He gently covered Tresuria’s ears with his hands, and while looking back at the curious group, Nozomu shouted, “Go away! You are scaring her! None of you ever saw a Gailie or what?”

From the group came the mocking voice of a certain Lion-kind boy, “What? Is she your girlfriend or what, moron? Why can’t we talk to her?”

He immediately went silent when Taisetsuna shouted, “You want to talk to her or force her to do something that she doesn’t want to do? If you want to talk to a girl, you say hello, and you are polite and friendly. You don’t force her to talk to you or scare her! Bunch of morons! What do you all want, anyway? Force her to have your babies? I bet trying something like that will be enough reason to expel you, even before entering the Academy!”

Her words came as a wake-up call, and they all disbanded, leaving Nozomu still hugging the nervous Gailie and the Lion-kind boy frowning at Taisetsuna, who had gone past him with Chujitsuna Hito without even looking at him.

Chujitsuna stopped in front of the angry-looking boy and tilted her head with a serious look and said, “I don’t like you. You are mean.”

As he opened his mouth to say something, Chujitsuna Hito showed him his open palm and said as she slithered after Taisetsuna. “I don’t speak with mean people. Go away.”

“You are one to talk, Snake-kind! Everyone knows your kind can’t be trusted!”

As soon as he said that, he saw himself looking at the ground from over three feet high. Wrapped around his right foot was the tip of the tail of a Snake-kind that shook him for a while, as a thundering voice said, “Interesting hearing a new applicant saying that! Especially a Lion-kind, which everyone knows is the dumbest species in the World, with their stupid habit of picking fights with everyone! Go inside to the main hall, dumbass, before I throw you out!”

The Lion-kind boy was thrown over five metres away with a flick of the tail and landed on his feet with a quick somersault. He looked at the Snake-kind man and growled, running to the main building to avoid being hit by a throwing dagger that struck the ground exactly where he was seconds before.

The man then turned to face Nozomu and his group and asked, “Is everything alright here? What was all that mess?”

*The Academy Arc starts. Plenty of opportunities for a mess, and for me to try to kill Nozomu again. Not sure if I will succed, unless I manage to distract Taisetsuna.*