Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"You guys can just stand on the wagon if you want to train your bodies that much," Rain said while he took the reins of the vehicle. "I can drive it by myself."

"Sounds like a plan," Jori said.

"I just hope that all this weight won\'t damage the vehicle…" Liss said and then sighed. "By the way, you have grown a lot, Rain. You are as tall as me… it is annoying to be the shortest of the group now."

"You don\'t have to be tall to do your job well, but I do," Rain said and then made the horses move. "Focus on your strengths instead."

Although he said that, in his last life, Rain wished countless times that he could be at least five centimeters taller. Such a way of thinking stopped when he got into college, though.

In any case, the whole group began to feel a bit troubled after a while; the moving of the vehicle sure made them have a hard time while standing with the weights and everything. Although they were eager to get stronger, they soon realized that what they were doing was quite dangerous. Still, they kept going until three hours later, when their legs began to tremble nonstop.

Before the day could end, the group reached Tristan, and soon they unloaded the supplies that they carried with them on the branch. It seemed that they could move for a while longer, but they decided to rent some rooms in an inn just to be safe since they won\'t sleep well for a while.

Much to his surprise, Rain noticed that the group rented one less room than they should have, but soon Rain saw Jori and Reca sharing the same room.

"I see, I see… I thought that Reca would be like Julie, but I guess she doesn\'t mind people that are like her. Ah, youth…" Rain thought while shrugging. "I just hope that their relationship isn\'t causing some issues for the group."

The next day, Rain didn\'t notice them out of the norm when the group reunited in front of the inn. It seemed that they were acting professionally during the missions, so Rain had nothing to say about that.

However, Rain could imagine a few troublesome scenarios… if something were to happen on the battlefield to either of them, the other might do something reckless and put the others in danger… It was a common occurrence for feelings to cause disasters on the battlefield.

"It is particularly troublesome that both of them are the only members of the frontlines…" Rain thought. "I wonder if this is one of the reasons Branden asked me to join them."

In any case, the group managed to arrive in the city when the sun was setting the next day. There was a small camp in the area that probably had around fifty workers and ten guards… It was a small number.

"Do you guys know when the construction of this started?" Rain asked.

"It should have been two months ago," Terra replied. "There are no earth mages helping since we are only fifty kilometers away from what is considered the enemy\'s territory."

Two months and only the foundation of the fortress had been finished; even from a distance, Rain could see some marks on the walls of the place… when he looked to the side, Rain saw some carriages coming from the East and bringing some bricks to the place. Still, even so… it will take a while for that to be finished.

"Why didn\'t they ask for mages from the organization? They asked for mercenaries, so what is the difference?" Rain thought. "I guess we don\'t have them either… Earth mages that are good at building and preparing things Usually aren\'t good at combat."

"Can any of you talk with the person in charge here?" Jori asked. "I feel like my head might explode due to sheer anger if I see anyone judging us by our age just one more time."

"Isn\'t that a good thing?" Rain asked. "It is pretty good to have situations like that and prove them wrong by their assumptions."

"We try that often, but we never do enough to surprise those who underestimate us," Asche said.

"That is because of the weights," Rain said and then pointed his hands and then split them in half. "Since it is getting dark, we will start working soon. For now, I think we should take the weights until we assess the situation through combat."

"What about yours?" Jori asked.

"... I guess I need to take them as well," Rain said while holding back a sigh.

Rain didn\'t feel like he needed that, but it was the best option in order to improve the teamwork… if he didn\'t do that, the others would feel inferior and then will do stupid things to compete with him.

"We are from Lord Branden\'s organization, and we have come for the guard work," Jori said after they stopped the wagon in front of the fortress.

"... I am the captain in charge here. Thanks for coming sooner than we expected," A man only wearing the lower half of his armor said. "The guards here are working during the day, so we\'ll be counting on you all to defend the place at night. We will be paying according to how many times you prevented the fortress from suffering any damage.

So, try hard not to disappoint us and make us feel like we wasted time hiring you all."