"That boy is impressive." Some ways away from the group, Mrs Jane and Ellie’s shadow guard silently trailed behind them, their awareness spread out to the maximum, ready to hound down even the smallest anomaly.
"I already told you, he’s something else. If he does something unprecedented, just take it in stride." Mrs Jane said with a shake of her head.
As for what they were talking about? Well, through their Mana sense, they could observe how Osho’s Mana was spread out around him slightly and seemed to meld with the surrounding Mana, making it harder to detect him through pure Mana sense.
Naturally, the two of them could still spot him with ease as this skill was far too rudimentary to hide from the senses of Expert rank Tamers, but they could see that as he was actively using it, he was also visibly improving.
"Still, to understand Mana cloaking with just a brief interaction with light Mana and its reflective attributes is certainly impressive. It’s hard to believe he has no background and is still so talented." The man remarked, and Mrs Jane regarded him briefly.
"Your prejudice is showing again. One isn’t talented simply due to their background." She sensed the man wanted to retort, but he held his tongue.
Back to the group, who had just finished their last ride.
By now, they had gone through a good number of the rides in the park, slowly building up courage to go into the Rollercoaster that was aptly named Bloodbath.
They wanted to get lunch first.
The group made their way to a few stalls that sold all sorts of things, with their attention being on a stall that primarily sold meat skewers.
"What can I get you kids?" A middle-aged man said with an enthusiastic smile, a red ferret asleep on his head.
"We’ll have ten meat skewers, please. Whatever you think is good." Ellie replied with her usual bright expression, and the man nodded in affirmation.
"Alright, young lady. Coming up." He said before going into the stall.
The group assumed it would take a bit of time, so they all found a bench to wait.
"Man, this has been pretty fun so far," Kurt said as he stretched.
"Yeah. I can’t remember the last time I got to go out and unwind ." Sam said, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Well, with how busy we’ve been recently, it’s not a surprise." Osho pointed out.
"It’s kinda sad, though," Irene sighed. "I mean, we’re barely adolescents, yet we are already so swamped. Imagine what people at more advanced stages need to do. Especially Beast Tamers who frequent the wilderness. For them, it’s wake up, fight to the death, heal from injuries, rinse and repeat. They do their best to get to the next rank, and when they reach their ceiling, they just fight with barely any breaks. So either they die or get old and retire, hoping they made a difference." Just like that, the mood had been positively killed.
"That’s just how it is, isn’t it?" Kurt spoke with an unreadable expression. "As annoying as it is, we were born into a world where fighting for your life is the norm. The Beast Tide is a clear example. All of this," He gestured around them. "Can be gone in the blink of an eye. Safety is never guaranteed. The only guarantee we have is our strength, both as individuals and as a collective." He explained slowly.
"That’s right. It seems like a losing battle now, but the reason it’s is because a lot of people are fighting for the future. The deaths and sacrifices made are all to push humanity forward. To make it so that at some point, beasts aren’t even an issue, and safety isn’t an illusion but the norm. Right now it looks a bit bleak, After all, even in college, most of the available paths are things that help humanity as a collective, and individuality is a bit of a strained concept since we are all cogs in the machine that is our race. But the hope is that in the future, our descendants won’t have to face what we did. So yeah, it seems overwhelming, and it seems like moving forward, we will have less and less time for ourselves. But at the same time, the generation after us will have a little more time to themselves, and so will the one after that. Continuously and gradually until eventually, it’s not even an issue anymore." Ellie said with a smile.
"If you don’t believe me, just think back to our history lessons. It was literally described as hell on Azure Star back then. We barely had a foothold and were seen as nothing more than an abundant food source for beasts. But our ancestors never gave up, and now, not only are we not so weak, we are gradually moving up that ladder towards the apex we were once at, but only because everyone in the past played a role in uplifting the future generations. That’s what it means to be a human. So don’t be discouraged, Irene." Then Sam added cheekily.
"Besides, there are lots of jobs out there that have lots of long breaks. If you’re concerned about not having time for yourself, then go for those." Irene huffed at this, but she seemed to be feeling a bit better. Then she faced Osho, who had a thoughtful look on his face.
"What say you, Osho? Anything to contribute?" Her question made him glance at her for a moment before he spoke.
"I agree with what everyone here said, about uplifting the coming generations," He lingered before asking. "But what if a single powerful individual appeared? Someone so overwhelmingly powerful that we wouldn’t need to wait for the following generations? That all our issues could just be resolved in one go?" Everyone was surprised by the question, especially coming from Osho.
"... Sounds like some chosen one. It’s a bit of an unreliable idea, in my opinion." Kurt answered frankly, and the others agreed.
"Yeah. Where did that come from? It sounded a bit..." Sam trailed off, and Osho just smiled.
"Naive for someone like me? I get it. It’s just a bit of fantasizing on my part. I mean, it’d be nice for something like that to happen, no matter how unlikely it is." He chuckled, and all of them stared at him weirdly.
"So even the almighty Osho can fantasize, huh?" Sam said a bit teasingly.
"The sky is a tangible environment that can be shattered, and the Supervisor for our exam yesterday had an intangible Phantom as a beast. Is the idea of an overpowered character appearing one day really that outlandish?" His retort made Sam fall quiet.
"Alright, kids. Here are your orders." A tantalizing aroma filled the air, and everyone turned to see the middle-aged man holding two plates filled with meat skewers.
’Food!’ Gale who had been quiet thus far chirped and got off Osho’s head (yes, that’s where Gale has been) and hopped on his lap.
Ellie got up and transferred the money to the man who looked happy enough as he returned to his stall.
The group and their beasts then ate their skewers happily while intentionally moving away from any deep topics, but almost everyone noticed how Osho kept throwing glances towards the intimidating pendulum ride that seemed more scary than the Rollercoaster literally named Bloodbath.
"Bro, trust me, it’s not worth it."
"I still wanna ride it."
"Dude, listen! You’ll regret it!"
Seeing that Osho seemed hellbent on getting on the pendulum, the group sighed as they realized that they couldn’t convince him otherwise.
"Whatever. But we’re still doing the Rollercoaster first. Also, we should probably get going." Ellie pointed out, the reason being that the park was starting to be filled with more and more people.
It made sense. After all, people were slowly closing from work, and kids were slowly closing from school. As time passed and the day progressed, people would be free from their duties for some time, and many would use it as a chance to do some recreational activities.
In fact, the group noticed the Rollercoaster was already in use, and as they watched it move, they realized more and more that the name for it was appropriate, which made them want to ride it even more.
They quickly finished their meals and started going towards the ride.
’Osho, why lie?’ Gale suddenly asked curiously, and Osho let his confusion at the question be known.
’You said you just fantasizing? But you were speaking of yourself, weren’t you? Why lie?’ The bird clarified.
’Ah, that. Well, lemme tell you something, Gale. Sometimes, there are things people believe not to be so no matter how you explain your point. So the best way to convince them is to show them. Actions speak louder than words, after all.’ He explained, and Gale looked dazed as he processed the words.
’Oh! Like how many won’t believe I’m fast if I tell them I’m fast. So I go fast to show them instead!’ He exclaimed and Osho smiled inwardly.