254 Zack and Aizu (1/2)

Yale needed a few seconds to recognize Zack and Aizu, he hadn't seen them in six years, and they had grown a lot, but they were far easier to recognize compared with George.

Zack was similar to his old self, but the expression on his face was far more serious than before; losing against Heruk that day had affected him a lot.

He wasn't too tall; Yale was a half-head taller than he was. Moreover, he didn't seem to have a well-built body. Of course, that was a misconception because Zack didn't neglect the Warrior Path; it was just that most students like George had bulging muscles and Zack didn't because battling melee wasn't his style.

No one in the Nacesai Academy could underestimate the strength he had in that skinny-looking body, but that in truth it was very fit and had surprised everyone who had seen him without clothes.

Zack didn't forget his dreams about archery and continued training in it without stop for all the six years. Even though he hadn't been able to advance to the apprentice stage in archery, his arrows could hit very distant targets based on pure strength and ability. Sadly, that wasn't enough for training archery, and he didn't know the secret about it.

On the other hand, Aizu's body had changed a lot since she wasn't a kid anymore. She was already a grown woman, but it was easy to recognize her seeing her face.

She had very good looks, and everyone in Nacesai City considered her as a beauty; her looks had mesmerized many men in Nacesai City, but she had ignored all of them. She never cared about the backgrounds or the talents of those people. In fact, a lot of them had been beaten by her due to their insistence in pestering her.

She had a natural resistance to anything related to marrying someone or even having a relationship with a man due to her past with her clan; the only man she would allow to be near her was her master, who she respected with all her heart.

She had been freed from her engagement with the lewd old man when Heruk's Clan was destroyed, but her clan didn't need too much time to create another engagement for her to another old man with a similar reputation in another city.

Of course, the city where Aizu's clan was planning to sell her to that other old man was the same one that Yale had just destroyed with the help of the beast horde, the golems, and some mages of Nacesai Academy.

Aizu's clan wanted to obtain the favor of the True Empire to join them in good conditions; that clan was one of the first ones in surrender to them in Nacesai City because they had already started colluding with them since that moment.

However, even though Aizu didn't know anything about the True Empire nor those years later a war would happen between the two cities, she had refused to agree to such marriage and decided to face her clan; the Nacesai Academy and everyone who knew her situation supported her decision.

She had just been freed from the fate of marrying a lewd old man and her clan just thought in engaging her to another lewd old man, which was something that provoked the loathing of the decent people in Nacesai City.

That day, she stood in front of her father and personally cut all the relationships with her clan; the clan tried to retaliate by kidnapping her because she was an important asset for them as she had been sold to the True Empire. In fact, they already obtained a method from the True Empire to put a mark on her soul to threaten her with enslaving her if she disobeyed.

Unluckily for her clan, Swordmad and Sainac were present and protected her from everything Aizu's clan had planned against her. After all, Aizu was still an important talent in the Nacesai Academy, and she was Yale's disciple, so both Elder Rank Experts had taken good care of her.

All the members of her clan had moved to the other city when the war between the cities started, and they were still inside when the beast horde attacked those inside the city, so it wasn't difficult to guess their fate.

Of course, Aizu was happy about their fates because she hated them more than anyone could imagine; her only regret was didn't see their deaths personally.

”You two look very well.”

Yale hadn't interacted with too many people in the time he was in the Nacesai Academy, so George and the two of them could be considered his childhood friends; Yale was happy to see them again and that they had chosen to follow him to Imperial City.

”Master...”

Aizu had been waiting for six years to meet her master again, but at that moment, she was unable to react. She wanted to hug him, but she didn't know if Yale would be angry if she did that.

While she was hesitating, she noticed that someone else had jumped towards her to hug her.

The one who hugged her was a cute wolf half-beast girl. Aizu had heard from Sainac that Wyba could transform, but it was still difficult to believe it even seeing Wyba with her own eyes.

”Wyba?”

Aizu saw that Wyba nodded. Wyba had recognized Aizu's scent and had been very happy to see her again, so she jumped to hug her. After all, Aizu was also someone who had spent time with her when she was just a cub.