Mounting his griffin, Spes pushed his hand against his chest, wryly smiling after feeling how fast his heart was beating.
"I'm not so sure about this..." he turned towards Decus behind him.
"Don't worry, I'll be right behind." Decus warmly smiled, trying to reassure the young man, as it would be his first time riding a griffin all alone.
He had already mounted one on multiple occasions previously, but they had all been assisted. The first time was during their departure from the Royal Capital, where he tagged along with Decus.
The second time was right before the captain herself, after he had a drinking spree with Vota. And now, for the third time, he would be flying all alone.
"Why would the captain order this..." Spes asked as he fidgeted left and right on his griffin.
"Ask her yourself." Decus could only shrug his shoulders, not knowing what to say. He wasn't a psychic to know every thought that came out of his captain's brain.
"So, you ready?"
Decus didn't know whether his question would pressure the young man in front of him, but he still asked, as the party couldn't leave without a go from him. They were all waiting on the two of them. Even the always-late Vota was starting to make a fuss about how long they were stationary.
Spes smacked his cheeks with both hands, steeling his will with the sharp pain.
"I-I think I'm ready!" he shouted nervously at Decus as he held tight on his griffin's reins. Decus nodded and whistled loudly after confirming that Spes was ready to go.
Hearing the signal, Crystal, who was at the very front of the griffin formation, slightly turned her head before flicking her reins, taking lead of the flight. Her knights immediately followed, then came Vota and his men, and finally, it was Spes's turn.
"You can do this, Spes..." the young man whispered before flicking his griffin's reins, making it crouch, then leap high into the air and spread its wings wide, keeping them both aloft with each flap.
"Woooo!" Spes screamed, as he led his griffin unsteadily. At this rate, he might get himself ejected from his seat.
"Just let go and use the reins only when necessary!!" Decus shouted behind him, seeing what was happening. A drop of sweat streaked down his face, fearing for Spes's fall.
Hearing Decus's advice, Spes let go of his grip on the griffin's reins. He immediately felt relief as the griffin somehow started flying steadily.
"Good! Now just slightly nudge the reins to the left!" Acting like a personal griffin tutor, Decus gave another instruction to help Spes master the process.
Spes did as asked and laughed out loud, seeing that his griffin slightly changed course.
"I'm doing it, Decus!" he shouted, a wide smile forming on his face as he experimented with his newfound skills. Slowly and carefully, he maneuvered the griffin in every possible direction, his speed increasing as he got more comfortable.
"Don't get too excited, Spes!" Decus warned, seeing Spes about to go off course.
"S-sorry! I didn't know it would be this fun!"
"I know! Just don't forget you're riding a living being with limited stamina! Just go with everyone's pace, okay?"
"Okay..." Spes responded, slightly feeling bad, realizing that he could've overworked his griffin. So he immediately returned to his lane and followed everyone's pace.
Without Spes shouting and flying all around, the party quietly moved at a constant speed, only the sounds of the blowing wind reigning all around. It was a boring process for everyone. Maybe only the captain could keep herself busy, as she was the one directing everyone's path. But it was not the case for the rest of the group. So they all had to find ways to keep themselves away from boredom.
Vota was already snoring deeply on top of his giant griffin. The Medicus was already half-drunk, gazing at the setting sun with a bottle of rum in his hand. As for Decus, he was surprisingly in deep sleep just like Vota. The only difference was that he wasn't snoring.
Spes was the unlucky one, as he didn't find anything to preoccupy himself with. Other than admiring the beautiful sunset—which he was already getting bored of—he had nothing to do...
What was worse was that he had to endure Vota's snores. And the fat young man was right in front of him. As he was about to wake him up and get a friend in his boredom, he suddenly recalled Vota's words before they departed.
"Don't think about your aces, kid!" Vota's face materialized next to Spes, giving him a big thumbs-up.
"Can't believe I almost forgot about that!" he whispered to himself as he stared at his two rings.
These were the spatial rings he had been offered: the blue one from the King, and the black one from the Archmage Vis.
The blue ring didn't have anything of importance for the moment. Inside were all the supplies and basic necessities he would need for the journey. There was also the King's decree that was to be handed over at the Alliance's Capital.
Spes slightly frowned as he went through the decree. He realized that he had almost completely forgotten about their main quest.
"I've been too preoccupied with both the Captain and Vota's trainings..." he whispered, realizing that so much had already happened in the past few days.
He decided to do a mental recap of everything so that he wouldn't forget something as important as the main quest again.
It all started with the explosion, right after which he learned of the Kingdom's hero-summoning secret. An explosion that would give him powers that could somehow detect hero artifacts. That's why the party had been formed: to send them to the Allies' territory to retrieve a hero artifact that would be needed for another hero-summoning ritual.
Three artifacts were needed for that summoning—one of them already hanging around his neck: Hero Roberto's necklace. The other one was to be retrieved at the Alliance. As for the last one, it would all depend on his hero-artifact magnet powers.
In their party was the King's ex-Royal Advisor who caused the entire Kingdom-level danger, who—despite being arrogant and ill-mouthed—turned out to be a good friend to Spes.
There was also the daughter of the Inquisitor General himself, who had literally tossed him around during their first meeting. She somehow ended up as Spes's training partner.
And finally, the handsome Decus. He was just a cool guy with a big heart.
Spes smiled, realizing he had gone from being a mere apprentice—that was just the fancy term for errand boy—to whatever was happening to him right now.