Chapter 45: Departure (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: DarkGem/Frappe
Two days later...
The ship from the Wizard’s organization was still on the way, more than five days away from here. Angele returned to his family’s manor once, planning on talking to his father. However, the baron was already out on the mission on the Anser Plain, so he instead had some fun time with Maggie and Celia. He also left a letter addressed to his father. He decided to stay in the school awaiting the ship while continuing to train his sword and archery skills. As he also meditated every day, he felt as though he was living a quality life.
After lunch, Angele went to the archery skill training ground. The training platform was grassy and many targets were built under a large tent. Each person had an individual line in front with the bows hanging at the side. The grass shone as it reflected the light under the sun. A breeze blew over Angele, but the only thing he could feel was the heat from the sun.
There were already some people practicing in the archery training ground when Angele entered. He selected the line by the right far end like he used to. He took the brown wooden bow on the side and pulled the bowstring several times.
“Nice, someone is taking good care of these bows,” Angele said and nodded. Several girls walked into the training ground, but they stayed at the lines at the left side. Angle could still hear their conversation.
“Mary, would you like to try it?” one of the girls asked.
“Sure,” the girl name Mary answered. Angele heard the sound a bowstring would make when it was fully drawn. Angele felt slightly curious and looked over to their line. He saw a wooden arrow flying across the line, but it didn’t even pass the 20-meter mark before dropping down to the ground.
“Nice shot!”
“Such skills!”
“Mary, you’re so good!”
The girls around Mary looked surprised, an expression unable to be faked. They clearly thought the result was great.
“20 meters is most likely the best result I can get, yet Mary made it look so easy!”
“Me too!”
“Mary Sauron, you are such an archer!” The girls kept praising Mary.
“You guys are making fun of me, right?” Mary asked jokingly.
“We’re not. Haha.” The girls started laughing.
“If my brother was here, he would at least hit the target. 100 meters is nothing to him,” Mary said.
“Yea? My sister can do it too. She can easily hit the 5th ring.” The targets they used in school were the standard 9-ring ones with the bullseye located right in the middle. An average student could barely hit the target. If one were to hit the 5th ring, however, he would get a high mark in the archery course.
“Talking about archery skills, I hear Angele’s impressive at it. He could hit the 9th ring 9 out of 10 times. Some even said he was one of the best in the school. Is that true, Caitlyn?” one of the girls asked.
“Angele could easily do that. He brought me to the shooting range several times when we were dating. Hitting the 9th ring at a 100-meter distance didn’t pose any problem to him,” a girl said with a calm voice, but she sounded prideful.
Angele felt a bit awkward after having recognized the voice right away. That was the girl whom the original Angele fell in love with, thus he decided not to listen to her nonsense. He grabbed an arrow from his quiver and nocked it onto his bow. Angele didn’t ask the chip to assist in aiming; only shooting the arrow by relying on his intuition and muscle memory. Before, he could only shoot countless arrows accurately and precisely by relying on the chip. But now, he could aim targets precisely without requiring its assistance any longer. The wooden arrow he shot struck the bullseye from 100 meters away, an outstanding feat compared to other students’. Some of them began cheering as they barely had any chance to see someone with such accuracy and precision.
Angele didn’t cease continuing to shoot arrows, but he stopped aiming for the bullseye and only choosing to hit the 3rd or 4th ring. He still landed every shot, but people stopped watching him. Angele didn’t want to attract too much attention since he merely wanted to do some basic training. After about 15 minutes, he grabbed the blanket to wipe off his sweat after emptying three quivers. Angele didn’t use the protective thumb ring because his finger was as strong as a knight’s.
Angele put down the bow and walked along the hallway. He decided to greet the girls when he passed by them. It was the girl the original Angele liked, so he thought he should at least make things clear. Angele turned back, walking toward them. Five pretty girls were still happily chatting.
“Anything we could help you with?” one of the girls asked.
“You’re Caitlyn, right? Long time no see. How are you doing?” Angele walked toward a blonde girl and asked with a gentle smile on his face. They stopped talking for a while, looking at each other confusedly.
“I... I’m not Caitlyn. She is...” the blonde girl said, pointing to another blonde girl on her right while having a strange expression.
“Well...” Angele showed a speechless face before he started smiling again.
“I’m Angele. Caitlyn, long time no see,” Angele said as he turned to the girl on his left. Caitlyn was blushing, unable to maintain eye contact with Angele. She knew her lie had been unraveled and could feel her ‘friends’ looking at her disdainfully.
Angele’s mission had been accomplished, so he became satisfied. He wanted to show to these girls that he wasn’t familiar with Caitlyn. They would spread the rumor for him after. Angele died for this girl during the challenge, but she didn’t even come to visit after. A worker placed him on a carriage and brought him back to the castle alone. Though Angele was a completely different person now, he didn’t want her using his name to avoid troubles. Angele had been angered when he first heard what Caitlyn said when she was dealing with Vivak. The situation became awkward and in the end, Caitlyn ran away from the scene without looking back.
“Angele, Caitlyn said that you were her fiancé. Is that true?” the blonde girl asked.
“No way.” Angele shook his head, “We were just classmates learning from the same teacher back in Rudin. I have no idea why she would say something like that,” Angele continued before laughing.
“I knew it. Angele, you’re quite famous in our school and we all know you’re proficient in archery and language,” Mary, the girl with short black hair, said. Angele talked with the girls for a while and returned to the dorm after. He had reached his goal, so he didn’t want to waste time on them anymore.
Angele knew what Caitlyn was thinking and knew how much of a phony she was. Caitlyn most likely thought that Angele would be more than happy to come back to her if she said something like ‘Angele is my fiancé’ and try to make it seem as if Angele couldn’t live without her. Dating Angele would increase her reputation and incur the admiration of other students since many students admired Angele at present. She thought Angele still dearly loved her, never giving up the chance to be with her. However, Angele wasn’t the same weak playboy anymore and knew exactly what he ought to do.
After the rumor spread out, nothing much changed. However, people started treating the Candias’ and their friends like a joke. No one treated them seriously any longer such that they would gossip about them during dinner. Vivak didn’t try to teach them a lesson after hearing the truth, only warning them several times. He said it was because they used to know Angele. But no matter what, Angele didn’t want to entangle himself into this anymore.
A week’s time quickly passed, and Angele’s stamina increased to 2.9. The galleon from the Wizard organizations finally arrived at the harbor.
Somewhere at Marua Harbor was a small path made of stone that led toward the sea. A thick layer of black stones was upon it with the ocean right beside the path. The waves ceaselessly crashed against the docks. Angele was waiting there along with ten other people. He had his white swordsman suit worn, a black backpack on his back and the silver crossguard sword by his waist. Angele’s body was well-toned and robust, which somehow contributed to his charm. Adolf and two bodyguards were standing beside him. They were here because only they knew which galleon was of the Wizard organizations. Adolf wanted to ensure everything goes as he planned.
Noontime it was, with the sun pouring rays of light constantly as though it was about to scorch the ground. Heat came like the waves of the sea, making the people unable to stop wiping the sweat off their faces. Finally, a fleet of merchant galleons appeared on the horizon as it headed slowly toward the docks. All had the ‘whale and trident’ insignia on their flags and most of the galleons carried a lot of cargos.
“Those are the merchant galleons of Sea View Trading Company. Make sure you board the last one, don’t screw up,” Adolf whispered by Angele’s ear with a serious tone.
“Understood,” Angele said as he nodded in understanding.
Angele slightly raised his head and looked at the arriving galleons. The sky and the ocean were akin to sapphire, identical in color as though they had converged as one. The galleons that were adorned in blue and white were slowly drawing near to the docks. The wind was very strong, carrying Angele’s hair with its every whim. Angele could also hear the constant noise of the waves hitting the docks.
Two white seabirds chirped and flew over the crowd. People around were talking. It seemed that they came here to board the trading company’s galleons. There were about a hundred people on this 100-meter-long path lined up on the dock.
“Stop looking, those people are just here as a façade. Not many of them will actually board the galleon,” Adolf said as he patted Angele’s shoulders.
“The truth? How many are people here like me? Do you know, Master?” Angele understood what Adolf was trying to say, so he asked.
“I’m not sure, but the young ones who board the last galleon probably have the same purpose as you. You’ll know once you board it. Someone will explain everything to you,” Adolf shook his head as he said. The galleons were drawing near. From afar the horizon, they seemed like dots in their perspective, but as they drew nearer, they looked humongous. The merchant galleons were of the same size as the cruisers of Earth.
“Wow... What do they use to power those things...?” Angele was surprised at the size.
“They use something special. No way the sails are making them move. The sails are probably just for saving ‘energy’.” Adolf looked at the incoming merchant galleons and said.