[Sinseki Era - 21 Years Prior, Deep Winter]
[Northern Nations · Outside Äußerst]
Early morning, in a cave somewhere.
Gut, sitting cross-legged at the cave entrance keeping watch, felt his chest move slightly, then exhaled a breath of stale air, sensing the aftereffects of Body Strengthening Techniques slowly settling within his body.
The intensity that would have caused unconsciousness after just a moment's practice in the past could now be calmly used for daily cultivation.
Although his body inevitably felt some soreness after training, it was undoubtedly much better than before.
Clenching his fist, he could feel what terrifying power was stored within his tired muscle groups.
Gut gathered strength and threw a punch toward the side, hitting the campfire pile through the air.
Although his fist didn't make direct contact, the force of the wind still scattered the fire pile that had been built up, and the campfire that had burned all night dispersed, completely extinguishing in no time.
Gut stood up and looked outside the cave. The light snow that had fallen all night finally showed signs of stopping after daybreak.
It seemed it was time to wake up his teacher and the others to complete the final stretch of their journey.
After moving a few steps toward the depths of the cave, Gut heard several light snoring sounds. Taking a few more steps forward, everyone resting near the Poverty Air Conditioner's air outlet appeared before his eyes.
Ross, resting against the wall, was obviously the most alert. The moment footsteps sounded, he opened his eyes and looked over.
Only after seeing clearly that it was Gut did he lower his guard, pulling off his blanket and standing up as well.
"Senior brother, is it dawn?"
"Mm, and the snow has stopped." Gut replied, pointing to the siblings cuddling together nearby and requesting: "Go wake up Hafka and the others. While the weather's good, let's hurry on our way."
"Alright." Ross nodded in agreement and walked toward the siblings' position.
Gut looked somewhat helplessly at a certain elf who was facing the Poverty Air Conditioner's air outlet and preferred not to reveal her identity.
Teacher Serie had difficulty getting up early to begin with, and on top of that, this was a winter morning with air conditioning and blankets, making getting up even more difficult.
Especially since the elf had tightly wrapped herself in blankets, turning herself into a caterpillar shape.
Based on Gut's long observation of Serie's sleeping positions, this "caterpillar form" was one of the types most resistant to getting up.
"Sigh~"
"What a difficult task."
Silently sighing, facing a teacher with considerable morning grumpiness, the awakening method needed to be relatively gentle.
So Gut walked in front of the elf and crouched down, gently pressing two fingers on the elf's forehead.
Due to keeping watch at the cave entrance, his fingers that had been blown by cold wind naturally weren't warm.
After suddenly being stimulated by coldness, Serie shivered and her consciousness instantly became mostly clear.
But being awake was one thing, staying in bed was another.
The elf frowned in dissatisfaction, then the "caterpillar" wriggled in place a few times. After moving away from Gut's two cold fingers, she comfortably continued sleeping.
Gut clicked his tongue lightly and continued following with his fingers.
"Forgive me, teacher."
"This is the last time."
Saying this, Gut once again pressed his two fingers on the elf's forehead, only this time with slightly more force.
"Mm..."
Serie hummed in dissatisfaction, tilting her head slightly to escape the fingers, then wrapped in blankets "wriggled" again, seemingly wanting to find a place where her disciple wouldn't disturb her.
Watching his teacher "growing more distant" from him, Gut didn't continue the drama of "she flees, he pursues, she can't escape even with wings," but just stood in place, silently activating another magic.
"Mm... this magical fluctuation is..."
Serie wrapped in blankets suddenly realized what her disciple was about to cast—Photography Magic!!!
"Click!"
As a flash of white light passed, tremendous magic slowly gathered beside Gut's hand, gradually forming the scene captured during spellcasting.
Serie, the subject being photographed, despite being a titan of the magical world who sensed his intention, had a mage's frail body insufficient to support her in stopping his action in time.
Therefore, Gut held this slowly generating photo and said smugly in Serie's ear:
"Teacher, please get up."
"After all, you wouldn't want me to show this appearance of yours to Miss Frieren, would you? Otherwise, when we meet again, she'll definitely mock you thoroughly."
Serie lying on the ground immediately had images in her mind.
Thinking of Frieren, whom she always mocked for laziness, turning around to laugh at her, Serie felt like ants were crawling all over her body.
"Using Photography Magic like this is really despicable, Gut."
The elf in the bedding helplessly opened her eyes, criticized her disciple with dissatisfaction, then had to crawl out of the warm bedding.
"As long as it works." Gut said dismissively, then put away the photo in his hand. He had originally wanted to keep it for his collection, but inadvertently glimpsed the photo's content and stood frozen in place.
The photo showed no trace of Serie staying in bed, not even capturing a single hair of the elf. Instead, his own smug laughing face filled the entire photo, with "IDIOT" written in large characters on his forehead, maximizing the mockery.
"When did this happen?!"
Gut looked at his teacher in shock, while Serie, now wearing her winter robe, also turned to look at this disciple.
"Using magic against me?"
"Is your brain not working?"
"I am the great mage Serie who has been active since the Mythological Age!"
Serie vengefully extended her arm, pressing her two slender fingers heavily on Gut's forehead.
This repaid her disciple for touching her head with cold hands earlier, while also erasing the word "idiot" she had magically inscribed.
The elf's words and actions made Gut recognize the gap between them.
Even though he had opened the Path to Godhood and possessed a top-tier talent trait like Magical Transcender, his future upper limit would probably be much higher than Serie's.
But now, compared to his teacher with her terrifying accumulation, his achievements in magic were still far behind.
To reach his teacher's level? It would probably take several more years of hard cultivation.
"Mm—"
The elf, having just disciplined her disciple, yawned long and instructed Gut to fold and pack away her blankets, then climbed into the carriage on her own and lay on the small table to continue her nap.
Gut was helpless and could only follow his teacher's instructions, neatly folding the "cocoon shell" shed by the "caterpillar" into "tofu blocks" and storing them in the luggage.
"Eh?"
A light exclamation suddenly came from the cave entrance. The girl, holding food she had just taken from her backpack, looked at the deliberately extinguished campfire in the distance and asked puzzledly:
"Mr. Gut, aren't we cooking this morning?"
"Mm, we're not." Gut looked at Sola and confirmed.
"It's only an hour or two from here to the city district. We'll arrive before noon, and I'll take you to a great restaurant."
"Yay!" The girl cheered joyfully, and the others naturally had no objections.
In the deep winter of the northern nations, a day without strong winds or snow was naturally good for traveling. Combined with their destination being not far ahead, they might as well rush there in one go and rest completely for a few days.
With everyone working together to pack up, the carriage soon left the cave and headed from the country road toward the city district.
Inside the carriage, Gut sat on one side accompanying his still-dozing teacher, while on the other side, Ross and Zenn huddled together making awkward small talk.
As for the girl who usually livened up the atmosphere inside the carriage, this time she had climbed outside to accompany her brother in driving the horses.
Actually, rather than controlling the carriage's direction, the girl who hadn't traveled far from home was yearning for the natural scenery of foreign lands and wanted to see more sights while the weather improved.
Outside the carriage, Hafka, who was pulling the reins, glanced at his sister beside him and covered her with a nearby blanket, saying somewhat helplessly:
"There's no need to rush, Sola."
"We'll be settling here for a long time in the future. These sceneries will eventually become tiresome."
"No, they won't, brother."
The girl said, leaning against her brother: "What's beautiful about scenery isn't just the sights."
"Even if the spring, summer, autumn, and winter scenery were completely identical every year, the circumstances, moods, and companions beside you when appreciating them will always change."
"Therefore, even the same scenery will feel different when viewed again."
"Moreover, how could there be identical falling leaves or identical scenery?"
"Sola, I..."
Hafka stared dazedly at his sister beside him, looking at the flowing light in her eyes, watching a trace of light snow from the pine trees above fall on her nose tip, looking at the foreign scenery around them with her company. For a moment, he even forgot he was still driving the carriage. His hand gently embraced Sola's slender waist, feeling his heart warm, even his body becoming warm as if being blown by the magical Poverty Air Conditioner.
"Wait, the Poverty Air Conditioner!"
Hafka alertly reached back and felt—the warmth on his back was definitely not an illusion.
Turning around suddenly, he discovered the carriage curtain had been opened at some point, and Gut along with the other fellow disciples were adjusting the Poverty Air Conditioner so the warm air could blow outside, while watching the two of them with interest, each with different expressions.
Zenn was still a child and only looked at the outside scenery after hearing his sister's words. Although Ross remained silent, Hafka still caught his sidelong glances at the two of them. Only teacher Serie was still lying beautifully on the small table sleeping, not participating.
As for senior brother Gut...
This one simply stopped pretending, his meaningful gaze looking at him, at his hand around his sister's waist, with an inexplicable smile at the corner of his mouth.
[Some garbled text appears here in the original]
For a moment, Hafka felt himself turning red.
Whether from warmth or shyness, Hafka reached out to pull down half the curtain to cover himself, straightened his body and focused entirely on driving the horses ahead, no longer paying attention to the gazes behind.
However...
The hand around his sister's waist seemed not to have withdrawn, perhaps because he was reluctant to let go.
Inside the carriage, Gut watched this red arm and fell into thought.
One hour later.
[Äußerst], outside the city gates.
Perhaps because the weather had improved making travel easier, or perhaps because Hafka had driven with full effort, the carriage arrived at its destination much faster than Gut had expected.
In just one hour, they completed what was expected to be nearly a two-hour journey.
After looking at the scene outside the city gates, Hafka lightly tugged the reins twice, bringing the carriage to a gradual stop.
Then he lifted the curtain behind him, and seeing teacher Serie still lying on the small table sound asleep, Hafka looked at Gut and asked:
"Senior brother, do we need to queue to enter the city?"
"Mm... let me check the queue length." Gut said, poking his head out of the carriage.
As a great city standing in the Northern Nations, even in the relatively quiet winter, the area outside Äußerst's gates remained quite bustling.
Traveling merchants, distant travelers, and mages who had come seeking fame—crowds wanting to enter the city lined up under the guards' direction, undergoing identity checks one by one before entering.
Although Äußerst's entry inspection certainly couldn't compare to the tedious strictness of empire borders or Imperial Capital Eiseberg, which required submitting documents and waiting several days.
But looking at the slowly moving queue, if they lined up now, entering the city would probably take several more hours.
Thinking that everyone hadn't eaten breakfast yet, Gut decided to exercise a little willful use of authority, saying to Hafka: "Let's go, no more queuing."
"Good!"
With confidence, Hafka's eyes brightened considerably.
Lightly pulling the reins in his hands twice, he skillfully drove the horses around the queuing crowd ahead, charging straight toward the gate from a side road with exceptionally smooth movements.
After all, as a noble from the Royal Capital, Hafka had never had much habit of queuing.
At the gates, the guards' document-checking movements paused as their gazes all turned toward this carriage coming from the side road.
"Not queuing? Could it be Empire noble members?"
"Looking at this carriage's modest appearance, it doesn't seem much like nobles..."
"Even if they really were Empire nobles, so what? Our Äußerst currently isn't under Empire jurisdiction. Even Empire nobles don't enjoy any special privileges..."
The guards discussed among themselves until a nearby captain coughed lightly, stopping the discussion.
"Silence, return to your respective posts and continue your duties. I'll handle this carriage."
"Yes!"
The guards dispersed as ordered, continuing their work, while the captain walked to the side gate, looking somewhat troubled at this carriage approaching him.
Due to Äußerst having belonged to Empire territory or been a vassal during various historical periods.
Therefore, even though it was now an independent city-state, it still had some unclear relationships with the Empire.
In fact, not only Äußerst, but most human city-states in the northern nations were in this situation.
Moreover, some city-states' rulers were themselves branches of the Empire's royal family and nobles with blood relations, or had accepted the Empire's protection and support, thus willing to cede partial city sovereignty and revere the Empire's Emperor, accepting His Majesty's limited control.
This included recognizing Empire nobles and allowing Empire nobles to exercise corresponding noble privileges in their city-states.
Äußerst had previously had such situations, but times had changed. The great mage Serie from mythological stories had already built the Continental Magic Association in the city. The higher-ups intended to develop this city into the future Magic Capital, so appropriate decoupling from the Empire became an indispensable link.
Canceling Empire noble members' priority entry rights for private matters was part of what had already been implemented.
However, regulations were regulations.
If nobles were really sitting in the carriage, the captain didn't plan to stop them. At most, he would persuade them and request they queue when entering the city in the future.
After all, his monthly salary wasn't much—why risk his life?
Really offending noble lords would bring a lot of subsequent trouble.
Therefore, after the captain stopped Hafka's carriage with his hand, he walked to the door quite politely, knocked twice courteously, then asked softly:
"Hello, please show your identification and accept inspection."
Inside the carriage, Zenn was about to search for identity documents when Gut suddenly lifted the curtain, then picked up the still-sleeping elf beside him and held her out.
Zenn: ...
Serie: ...
Captain: ...
After a deathly silence, the captain suddenly stood at attention and performed a solemn salute.
"Lady Serie, I apologize for not recognizing your carriage in time."
"Everyone need not undergo any inspection and may pass freely."
After hearing the captain's permission, Gut brought the elf back inside, placed her beside him again, and said with a smile:
"As expected, this one's still the most useful."
The elf whose sleep had been suddenly interrupted still looked somewhat dazed, seemingly pondering something.
A moment later, the carriage entered the city district.
After her eyes cleared, the elf raised her small hand, and with a "Bang!" sound, a certain rebellious disciple was blasted out of the carriage.
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Powerstones?
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