In the end, Arlo accepted Roy as his student.
Like Vizards said, it was time for people like him to pass their legacies to the younger generation.
Arlo chose to pass his techniques to Roy.
He was the Fourth Baldwin who would be learning the unrivaled technique called Limit Breaker!
"This conversation ends here."
Right then, the surface of the golden aura barrier entrapping them rippled like water.
It disappeared.
They walked.
A stone archway connected the backyard with the Manor's entrance
While talking with each other, Arlo and Roy entered it.
Julian could be seen following them.
Every two and a half step, they would be struck by light and then reenter the shadow of the walkway.
"Pack your bags. The Adulthood ceremony is only two weeks away. We'll be setting out in an hour's time to reach the empire in 14 days. Your training will take place on the road." Arlo said to Roy.
Hearing his words, Julian felt bewildered.
"Don't you and Roy have a dinner to attend tonight as per the Count's request?"
"Nope, I don't!"
"Me neither."
Roy and Arlo replied to Julian at the same time.
Arlo had only recently stopped living a carefree life.
He was experience what it meant to live life as a dream before he came across "Roy" and "found" him worthy enough to wake up from his "dream" in order to train him.
Still, following orders were no longer a part of his nature.
Not to mention, he didn't want to humor the spawns of Achlys.
They disgusted him to no ends.
Roy, on the other hand, had no intention of giving deference to the Count, who had always treated him like thin air but had recently started to change his attitude towards him thanks to his uncle.
Roy turned to Arlo. "I heard a caravan will be taking the unawakened ones of Baldwin County to the Forbidden Capital after a week. Since it is a known fact that tamed beasts and knights and mages guard it, bandits and monsters wouldn't dare to attack it. Wouldn't it be a better option to join the caravan instead of heading making our way to the Forbidden Capital on our own?"
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Julian chimed in. "We'll be saved from the trouble of having to fight off beasts on the road if we join the caravan."
Arlo flashed them a sinister smile, "We'll be taking a different road to reach the County. It wouldn't have bandits as it's infested with beasts. But, we'll certainly be confronting hordes of beasts. You should try to fight them alone. Take it is a part of your training."
Julian felt that Arlo was too much.
"Isn't it too ridiculous to make one person fight a pack of beast?"
"Is it?" Arlo ignored Julian and turned to his nephew. "Roy, don't you want to break your limits and best the blessed one? Don't you want to know... the truth that has been kept away from you?" Arlo whispered the last sentence so that only Roy would hear it.
Roy's eyes brightened in conviction.
"I do!"
Julian pressed his hand against his head in exasperation.
'Crazy! It's exactly like I overheard my father saying. The baldwins are all crazy bastards!! They cherish fighting and defeating their opponents over their honor, pride, and life!!!'
After a moment, Roy questioned his uncle, "Which road exactly would we be taking to reach there?"
"Constantine County has a shortcut that connects directly to the Outskirts of the Forbidden Capital. It's a long-distance teleporter. Two roads connect our two counties. We'll be taking the smaller path to reach it in 4 days. We'll go there as I train you so it might take longer. But we have a little more than 14 days to get there. It would only be a matter of minutes to reach the Capital from Constantine County. The teleporter was bestowed to the Constantines by the imperial family, and it's looked after by mages from the center too. The chance of it malfunctioning is 0. They are the only ones who have direct access to the Capital." Arlo explained his plans to his nephew.
A thoughtful look appeared on Roy.
It was a known fact that not even the Heavenly Dukes had direct access to the Forbidden Capital. It was named as such for a reason.
Only the Imperial family and their guests could enter and exit it freely. Other people had to pass through the main gate that was heavily guarded.
But from the way Arlo was speaking, it seemed like the family members and guests of the Constantines could go there whenever they liked.
'It looks like the Constantines aren't as simple as I thought. They must be really close to the imperial family since they're so heavily rewarded by them.' Roy judged the constantine as a powerful family that wasn't mentioned in the novel because it probably got destroyed.
"Why, though?" Roy stopped and turned his head to Arlo, "Why does the Imperial family give them such preferential treatment?"
Arlo pointed Julian out with his thumb, "Sir Timothy of Constantine, the great grandfather of this kid, had lived as the king regent of the Sun Kingdom for several years. There were many to entice him, but he remained faithful to the rightful heir until his very last breath. He died in his fifties because he saved a kid from certain death in exchange for his life. That kid was the King of the Sun Kingdom. And the current emperor of the Great Sun Empire is that kid's grandson. You get it?
"The royal family of yesteryear has become the imperial family of today, but they still haven't forgotten who they owed it all to. When the kingdom grew up and became an empire, the emperor personally rewarded the constantine. Their lord was bestowed with the rank of Count, and they were given a County, and they had been enjoying living in peace and prosperity because of that one selfless act of their ancestor."
Finding out Julian's impressive background, Roy gazed at him like he was a treasure.
Under his gaze, Julian scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and coughed out.
"This is my first time hearing about this. I didn't know our ancestor was such a glorious history that even the Previous Sun King and the current Sun Emperor Felt indebted to him. I have never heard him getting mentioned back home. Maybe there's record of him in the library. But... I have never been interested in history. So... I missed all the history classes in school and focused solely on memorizing, researching and understanding magic papers, and sharoneing my skills at fleshing them out."
"I understand," Roy appreciated that Julian was being honest with him.
'Huh?'
A moment later, Roy felt a tremor emerging from the depth of his body.
Arlo and Julian walked past him, not noticing the change in him.
A wave of nausea hit Roy.
What's worst was the stabbing pain in his heart.
He clutched his chest subconsciously.
At that very moment, his vision turned blurry.
Furthermore, he was seeing everything in red as if tears of blood had welled up in his eyes.
He subconsciously opened his mouth to inhale oxygen but found out that he was struggling even to breathe properly.
Immediately, he felt drained as if a vixen had sucked him dry a thousand times overnight.
The following moment, darkness suddenly took over his consciousness.
Thud! He fell heavily to the ground; the sound produced reached Arlo and Julian's ears.
They stopped in the middle of their step and made their heads turn towards him.
"R-Roy? Are you pranking us?!"
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