章 52: We Don't Welcome Your Kind

Greyson was oblivious to the entire disaster in his home as he flew leisurely on Zephyr towards the Idris Kingdom. In the midst of his flying, however, an indescribable ominous feeling came over him. Unable to control the anxiety that resulted from his instinct, Greyson felt preoccupied almost the entire trip over. If not for Lucius, he would have been attacked and killed by the magic beasts on the way.

"Grey, this can't continue! Get a hold of yourself! What exactly is wrong?"

"Lu, I really don't know. I just can't shake this horrible feeling away. What IS wrong with me? Maybe it's my instinct telling me to be careful in the Idris Kingdom?"

"Grey, I am LITERALLY a DESTINY cat. If something bad were to be coming, I would be the first to realize. Why do you think so many people covet my race? Although it could be due to our extremely cute and beautiful exterior, it's most likely because we can keep them from danger most times. We sense danger towards ourselves and our contracted human partners, and we sense good karma thus leading them towards treasures and good fortune. I feel that good karma is in store for the Idris Kingdom, I don't know why you feel otherwise. Are you nervous about leaving far away?"

"I just don't understand."

The conversation slowly just ended with that.

The fifth day of his distraction, the feeling just disappeared. A imaginary weight was released from his heart that allowed Greyson to finally breathe easy and relax. A strong temptation to return home to the church and the academy ran through his mind. He could not believe that this feeling was just a random occurrence, however, he knew that he was already so close to the Idris Kingdom and he could not be late in order to make it in time for the entrance exam. Shaking his head, Greyson decided to just ignore it as the feeling had already passed and no longer affected him.

...

"Hahaha, I killed 40 which means I win! I'm sleeping the rest of the day." Lucius smirked with his head held up proudly.

"Hmph! I killed 39 and I am 2 stages below you! You act like we are the same level..." Greyson pouted while regretting his decision to bet with the cat. He knew he had been goaded into it, but how could he resist this annoying cat's constant buzzing in his ear?

After protecting Greyson for the five days he was distracted, Lucius said that he deserved to rest the remainder of the trip to the kingdom. He constantly complained how his old bones couldn't handle anymore fighting and that he had a useless human partner. Woe is his life. Finally, Greyson snapped when he saw a rampaging herd of Moon Deer. Honestly, they were weak and fairly harmless creatures who only became dangerous when they panicked and became a stampede. Lucius eyes flickered with a calculating light as he suddenly suggested that if he kills more Deer than Greyson it showed that Greyson was more useless than him and that meant that Greyson should be the one on protection duty as the weaker one in the contract. Angered by his taunting words, Greyson agreed quickly only to regret just as fast. He had completely forgot that the cat was still at a higher level than him.

Not losing his hopes, Greyson still pushed himself as hard as he could to continue taking down the deer to only be slapped in the face with reality. ONE! One stupid deer difference... It would be a lie if he said he wasn't sour, but he had never been a sore loser so he just tapped his shoulder indicating for the cat to jump on. Sitting on the ground, Greyson began to meditate and recharge in order to summon Zephyr again and start flying.

Days quickly passed by as Greyson kept his promise and was the only one who fought off the magic beasts away. He didn't mind it so much when it was in the air because he got much needed practice in coordination with Zephyr. Little by little, Greyson could feel his combat ability increasing and his familiarity with Genesis also grew making the sword more of an extension of his arm than just a tool. Without much trouble on the way, the two had completed their journey in a week and a half. Coming up to the imperial capital, Greyson could see its magnificence from miles upon miles away. The city was enormous. Named after the founder of the Idris Kingdom's true love, Aurora City was as beautiful as its namesake. White marble academy buildings, beautiful agriculture, an enormous castle, paved roads, even the structure of the city was apparently in the shape of the royal seal of the Idris Kingdom when seen from a bird's eye view. Curious to know if this were the truth, once Greyson had arrived at the city, he urged Zephyr to fly over top of the city instead of landing a little ways away from the gate. As is the case with most rumors, it was half true. The inner city truly was in a circle and shaped into the rose seal of the royals, however, the outer city was enormous and chaotic. The further and further Greyson's eyes traveled from the inner city, the more poverty became evident. Beauty of the inner city distracted from the true destitute majority of commoners. One could not see it unless you looked closely. In between the beautiful architecture hidden in the alleys were the weeds that grew around the attention-grabbing rose. Persistent and ugly as the weeds were, the gardeners of the city could not remove them.

The more he traveled outside of his small town, the more the monster that is the nobility became evident to him. Obviously he did not assume that all nobles were corrupt, but he could tell there was an overwhelming average of them that did not truly care for commoners and only wished to scrape every last coin from them to add to their own savings. It was hard for him not to be disheartened to see that the powerful in their country were not as he once imagined. With things like magic and hereditary titles, that inherently made some born more powerful than others, Greyson could only feel that equality was an impossible ideal.

"C'mon Grey, let's just go down and find a place to stay." Lucius broke Greyson's reflection after a little while. Turning towards his friend, Greyson took one final look down before nodding and looking for an inconspicuous place to land. It did not take long as most of the city was surrounded by forest if you fly far enough away from the city gates.His eyes glowed green as he activated a new wind spell, Wind Legs. Taking only a couple minutes, Greyson flew through the forest towards the main gate. He saw an enormous crowd of people all filtering into the city going through the city guards and paying the gate fee.

"Three silver coins!" The guard looked down at Greyson before yelling.

"Three? Everyone else was charged one." Greyson did not want to start fighting, but he was not going to be taken advantage of.

"For you, it's three!" The soldier only glared and repeated himself. Greyson looked at him and decided it wouldn't be worth it before passing the man three silver coins. After he passed the coins, Greyson made a move to pass the guards, but the man quickly moved in front of Greyson.

"What is the meaning of this? I paid the fee!" Greyson could no longer hold his anger in and glared at the man while grabbing at his sword.

"We don't welcome your kind, mutt. Go scurry off back to your disgusting parents or did they not even want you, too?" The guard sneered. Greyson no longer held his anger in, he knew the man had no right to bar him from entering or charging a higher fee. His eyes switched to black as he continued to glare at the guard. Feeling the pair of eyes on him, the guard finally started to feel threatened. Suddenly, black hands shot out of the shadows and secured him in place before Greyson's eyes switched to brown and he activated Earth Body. His body strengthened, he kicked out violently at the guard sending the man flying backward. Looking over dangerously at the other guards, he dared them to make a move. However, all of the men took the warning and did not make a sound. Greyson angrily stalked off from the gate and into a relatively empty valley. He decided to activate the disguise spell he had learned after finally realizing why the Principal kept his disguise up. His silver hair soon turned to a normal brown color and his eyes reverted to a dull brown. His long hair shrunk in and became shoulder length before Greyson tied it back per usual the men in Snow Country. Walking out of the alley and straight passed the guards shouting around and looking for him, Greyson tried to look around for a nice inn.

...

"Her Majesty Kalerea..." whispered an old woman looking at the scene.

"Hm? Nanny, why are you mentioning mother all of a sudden?" The teenage girl next to her looked curiously in the same direction. However, she saw nothing but a guard on the ground and the rest looking for the attacker.

"What happened at the gate anyway?"

"Someone just attacked one... a half-elf... he looked just like Her Majesty the Queen which just made me reminisce for a moment."

"Looked like mother? But all my brothers had looked like my father..." The girl said confused.

"Maybe I just saw incorrectly. I'm just an old lady now and my eyesight is not what it used to be." The feeble old woman just sighed quietly before walking away with the other girl.