Hale's journey to Aleon was quite smooth.
He got to see a lot of land, towns, and cities he never knew existed. So much mana and other infusions were incorporated into so much architecture, it was astounding.
Gate City was a good example, the large stone circle above the Duke's castle in the center acting as a teleporter, that must have easily taken decades to build alone.
The further into royal territory he got, the more prevalent infusion structures were located.
There were nine royal territories in total.
The Astor domain was in the center, and occupied the largest amount of land. Surrounding the Astor domain were the other eight family domains.
The one Gate was located in was the Xyren domain, north to Xyren was the Kaion domain, and to the south was the Deioss domain.
The domains surrounding Astor were seven on each side, so there were already too many names for Hale to remember, but he certainly loved how much more there was for him to go.
"Master Hale, we're soon to enter Aleon's ground."
Hale's eyes widened at the coachman's words, "Aleon? We're near?"
"Yes we are, young master."
The carriage Hale was riding in was quite large, definitely enough to be considered for a prestigious school like Ayen.
Today was the fourth day of traveling, so about another day or half of one and he would arrive at Ayen Academy.
Hale did another glance around the cabin of the carriage, it held an area to sleep, and the cushions were softer than the bed he had slept on back at Gate.
It was luxurious, to say the least.
The only time that they had stopped was if the dark horses at the front got tired. Even then, the horses regained their stamina after merely a couple of hours of rest.
They were blue rank horses, Fault told him of the ones they travelled with on the way to Gate, but now he was awake to see these ones.
They were a dark color, the eyes even seemed to glow a deep blue color. They weren't armored, but it seemed like they had scales on some parts of their body.
Not to mention the height of them, they must have been at least three meters tall. They were huge.
Hale turned his attention back out of the window to the side of where he sat. Flat land, a large forest that stretched, and even a few other towns he could see.
But what really caught his eye was far out in the distance to his right, he could see dozens of floating islands.
"Uhm… how are those pieces of land floating?"
The coachman turns his head back and looks over, "Ah."
He smiles and explains, "During the Human-Daemon war, one of the old heroes had an infusion that allowed him to manipulate the weight, or gravity, of things."
Hale blinked as the coachman continued, "The pieces of land floating are areas he frequented and just connected his infusion with that property to them, thus making them float."
"Damn…" Hale whispered to himself.
There were a lot. Some were large enough to be called mountains, while others were like the size of a building.
They were really far out, so they must have been a lot larger in person.
"The best one is Aetherreach."
"Aetherreach?" Hale turns back to the coachman.
He nods, "Capital of Vestir domain, to the northwest of Astor domain. An entire large city is just floating so high in the air we needed someone from Gate to make a transporter to go up and down it. Haha!"
He smiled and lowered his voice, "Aetherreach is the tallest piece of civilization in the entire world, so high up you can see the stars as if they were in your face. Some say you could touch one of the moons if you stood on your tip-toes up there."
Hale gulped at the thought.
'I want to go there one day…'
So, the carriage continued as Hale darted from window to window, gazing at the views provided throughout the Astor domain.
A huge number of settlements and people lived within the large domain, dozens of towns were interlinked, and made a large civilization on one side.
It was so unlike what he was used to at Tenna, he didn't know what to think of it.
Back at Tenna, it was one road in, one road out. No other towns for a long time, and all that was there was the Forest of Beasts.
Where the most mithril in the world was gathered other than mining.
At least that's what he was told in school.
All in all, the journey to Aleon so far was nothing but amazing for Hale, he only wished that he were able to practice using his infusion.
He had his own way of practicing a tiny bit, and that was just figuring out how to activate it.
When he wasn't staring outside, he was sitting in the back of the carriage and sensing how fast he could get mana to flow through his infusion.
He sensed mana, but he couldn't directly feel, see, or hear it.
A sixth sense that humans have evolved after the first infusions were formed eons ago.
He felt it start out in his spine, and it spread up to his shoulders, and eventually ended at his elbows.
He kept cycling it through his body, at least he thought it was his doing, but he realized that the mana just does so naturally.
He realized a few things when he was alone with his thoughts. Most of them were already taught when he was in infusion preparation at school, but now that he could feel it, it was worlds different than just being told it.
One, an infusion is a filter, it converts raw mana to its shape and makes the ability of the holder. Two, the mark not only takes and circulates mana, but it contains it as well.
He knew this because he couldn't feel that sixth sense anywhere else on his body.
Three, infusions are genetic, with a mix of his own person.
For example, if a child's father gave him a toy, and the mother took half of it and replaced it with her own half a toy, that would be the genetic infusion made. Yet, the child would crush those two halves into its own shape, and make an entirely new half to fit the old one.
The new one had a chance of being entirely different from the original due to the child's addition to it. Then, the old toy is added to the child's body, in a sense, and the new part of it that was created by the child is what the infusion becomes.
At least that's how Hale thought of it.
He couldn't think of it in a simpler way, so he stuck with that explanation for it.
'Perhaps I could be a philosopher one day, too.'
He laughed to himself.
Fourth and finally, infusions are treated as a vital organ, when they're more accurately, a type of muscle. They can be trained, they can become stronger, and most importantly, they can contain more mana.
Hale put what he knew and figured out those four things during the time he's travelled thus far.
Truly wondrous, the abilities of mana seem endless thanks to infusions.
He began to think of his own ability now, and what it did when he activated it.
He couldn't analyze it closely as of now, but it felt powerful, that's for sure. Jerrin had told him that his infusion seemed to do with propulsion and nod just a boost to physical strength.
But what caused the daemon's body to tear apart on contact?
He certainly wanted to train it, and find out.
But for now, he yawned.
'Sleep.'
He lies down and covers himself in a dark red blanket, the cushions morphing to fit a bed.
He truthfully couldn't wait to arrive at Ayen, his excitement for attending school was through the roof.
When he wakes up, he'll ask the coachman more about Ayen.
His golden blonde hair cascades over his forehead as he lies down and closes his eyes.
…
The coachman was riding the carriage peacefully, there had been no issues to the ride, and the boy in the back was quite nice, even if he talked a bit to himself too much.
It was a good change of pace from the snobs of noble families. Not all of them were bad, but a good number were quite rude to him.
Jerrin sang his praises of Hale's infusions, so it made the coachman curious about it, but he decided not to act on his curiosity.
Once Jerrin shot through Gate, it was just Hale and him for a while, so he found it nice that at least his company wasn't obnoxious.
Though, their time was nearing its end as the city of Aleon came into view as he turned.
The city had many glows to it. Mainly blue and yellow sparked through the evening sky, blue lights flew toward the city and away from the city. Though, the brightest was a shining white color, near the tallest building.
The capital of all humanity, Aleon, drew near.