Chapter 62: Wings to Sena

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: Wings to Sena

With the calendar turning to the final days of July, the countdown to the start of the academic semester dwindled to a single morning.

Up in his small attic room, packing took almost no time at all. For most of his youth, poverty had dictated a spartan wardrobe of faded cotton shirts and patched trousers. Even after amassing millions of credits, Eric had never bothered splurging on designer civilian wear. The few serviceable dark tunics and spare trousers he owned fit easily into a modest leather travel bag.

He spent far more time methodically auditing his spatial inventory.

He had already cleared out the useless monster hides, leftover chitin carapaces, and vendor scrap, leaving his internal storage pristine. Stored neatly within the spatial folds were the Wavecaller, his freshly restored and reinforced midnight-black scout armor, an emergency supply of nutrient rations, and the three-month reserve of Soldier-rank mana stones dedicated entirely to Coal’s steady nourishment.

On his right index finger, the deep-blue jade of the Ring of Tranquility rested unobtrusively, radiating a continuous, soothing coolness that kept his mental pathways razor-sharp.

He swung the leather travel bag over his left shoulder.

*Ready to head out, buddy.*

Within his spiritual sea, Coal let out a soft, affirmative rumble of anticipation.

Downstairs, the front porch was thick with quiet emotion.

Emily stood beside the weathered wooden railing, surrounded by the five children. Little Lily was clutching Eric’s trouser leg, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, while Alex sniffled loudly, rubbing his red nose with his sleeve. Even the older boys, Mark and Jake, looked visibly downcast, while Mili stared down at the porch boards, biting her trembling lip.

"Big brother, don’t go!" Lily whimpered, burying her face into his knee. "Who’s gonna carry me on their shoulders to the park?"

Eric knelt down with a warm, gentle smile, gently brushing the tears from Lily’s cheeks before ruffling Alex’s messy hair.

"Don’t cry, kiddos," Eric coaxed softly, his voice full of reassurance. "I’m only heading off to academy grounds. You won’t even notice the weeks passing before I’m back with more snacks and mountain stories than this house can hold. Mark, Jake, you two are the big brothers now. Help Sis keep this place secure and tidy, got it?"

"We will," Mark nodded solemnly, squaring his small shoulders to look like a dependable man.

Emily stepped forward, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, though she maintained a steady, supportive smile. She gently placed both hands on Eric’s shoulders.

"Don’t worry about the little ones, Eric. They’ll be fine," Emily said softly, her voice steady despite the emotion catching in her throat. "Sunshine Home is safe now, thanks to you. Focus entirely on your path out there. Eat well, train diligently, and remember to take care of yourself first, okay?"

"I will, Sis. Don’t worry." Eric pulled her into a brief, warm embrace.

The crisp chime of an auto-cab sounded from the curb of Elm Street.

Eric turned, picked up his bag, and walked down the stone pathway. As the cab pulled away from the curb, five small hands waved frantically from the wooden porch.

"Don’t forget to call us! Goodbye, Eric!"

Eric lowered the passenger window, leaning out with a wide, bright wave. "I’ll call the moment I check into the dorms! Look after each other!"

The cab delivered him directly to the Riverdale Regional Airdrome.

His destination: the sovereign capital of the Kingdom of Auremont.

Unlike peripheral border settlements, the central capital hosted only two tertiary academic institutions, the twin apexes of the nation’s awakened infrastructure: *The Royal Academy* and *The Central Research Institution*.

While the Royal Academy reigned supreme in forging devastating combat vanguard legionnaires, frontline skirmishers, and tactical legion commanders, the Central Research Institution stood as the kingdom’s intellectual backbone. CRI pioneered high-tier beast evolution protocols, deciphered ancient bloodline matrices, and devised state-level nurturing methodologies. Without CRI’s discoveries and bio-elemental breakthroughs, the martial power of the kingdom would grind to a halt.

Soon, an impoverished border-town orphan with an Bonepecker Crow would walk the very same corridors as the kingdom’s most renowned evolutionary scholars.

Passing through the automated runic security barriers, Eric boarded the massive, multi-tiered commercial skycruiser.

Stepping into the pressurized cabin, a flutter of nervous adrenaline bubbled in his chest. Across two lifetimes, both on modern Earth and here in Valoria, he had never actually set foot inside an aircraft.

He located his assigned window seat, secured his harness, and watched with wide eyes as the skycruiser’s runic gravity-repulsion arrays hummed to life. With a deep, reverberating vibration of mana engines, the colossal vessel ascended smoothly into the sky.

Looking out the reinforced crystal window, Riverdale rapidly shrank into a patchwork of tiny slate roofs, gradually swallowed by the jagged, snow-dusted silhouette of the Parva Mountains, before the vessel punched clean through a sea of pearlescent white clouds.

"Incredible..." Eric muttered, mesmerized by the rolling expanse of silver mist stretching endlessly below the swept wingtip.

He recalled an excerpt from an ancient cultivation codex: *Powerhouses who breach the King Realm shed the mortal coil, manipulating the atmospheric domain to soar freely without mechanical aid.*

*King Rank...* Eric mused, his dark eyes glittering with quiet hunger. *I wonder what it feels like to tread the sky on your own two feet.*

Yet the romantic novelty of aerial transit degraded quickly.

The flight to the capital was scheduled for an unbroken twenty-four hours. Auremont was vast, spanning thousands of kilometers of perilous wilderness zones, dangerous rift buffer territories, and jagged mountain ridges separating the outer frontier provinces from the core territory.

Within five hours, restlessness set in.

With restless children murmuring, passengers shifting, and cabin attendants walking up and down the narrow aisles, attempting to circulate liquid mana was out of the question, any sudden deviation caused by an external jostle risked damaging delicate meridians. He scrolled through the seatback entertainment pad, browsed a few dry historical documentaries on the founding of Auremont, and soon found his eyelids heavy.

"Sigh... I should just catch some real sleep," Eric mumbled, rubbing his temples.

Since advancing to Soldier Rank, structured meditation had entirely supplanted natural sleep. It had been months since he had simply closed his eyes and drifted into unconscious slumber.

Reclining the cushioned seat, Eric closed his eyes, let the soft hum of the gravity engines wash over his senses, and allowed his consciousness to drift into silence.

*CHIME.*

A melodic, crystalline tone resonated through the cabin’s acoustic arrays, gently pulling Eric from a deep, undisturbed sleep.

The refined voice of the lead purser filled the cabin:

"Attention, esteemed passengers. We have initiated our final descent into the sovereign heart of the Kingdom of Auremont. Welcome to the City of Joy, Sena. Local time is precisely 09:00 AM. Please ensure your personal arrays are synchronized and your spatial permits are prepared for terminal inspection."

Eric blinked away the residual grogginess, sat upright, and pressed his forehead against the cool crystal glass.

Below the breaking cloud deck, the rugged frontier wilderness had completely vanished.

In its place sprawled a breathtaking metropolis of staggering proportions. Towering crystalline spires wrapped in glowing mana conduits pierced the clouds, interconnected by shimmering aerial skyways where floating passenger skiffs glided like silver fish. Surrounding the boundless perimeter of the city was a colossal, hexagonal barrier of translucent golden light, humming with ancient, unshakeable power.

Eric’s breath caught in his chest.

Riverdale had been a dusty border settlement clinging to jagged rocks.

This was the center of the modern kingdom.