Looking at Shinryu with the utmost suspicion, Aiko who was still hesitant to trust the man like her friends, couldn't help but judge him.
"So you 'saved' us just to sell us back to the Empire?!" Jumping up into a fighting stance, her core flared as she guided her resonance energy to her vocal chords.
Lifting his hand, Shinryu sighed as he disrupted her frequency, causing her resonance energy to falter. Persistent, the girl instead ran at the man as she strengthened her body.
Shinryu stood, humoring Aiko's futile resistance. His hand rested on the sword at his hip, and with each breath, his resonance energy affected the surroundings.
Slow and steady wind chimes could be heard as shamanic chants seemingly deep underground vibrated a wide radius. Shin's eyes glowed in an uncharacteristically threatening way.
Aiko who had stopped running only a few feet away started to shiver, knowing that any closer and she would be dead.
"I saved you, not for personal gain. I am patient, but only to a point. You can throw any insult my way but do not confuse me with those monsters who would dare tarnish the innocence of a child."
Staring at the girl, he began to take out his sword. "But hear this, if you continue to fight me as if I hadn't been anything but kind to you, I will retaliate." Stopping as the blade was revealed, the sword's ominous aura began to leak out.
Although only a performance to illustrate his point, Shin's show of abilities stunned the children who had yet to see this side of him.
Friedrich, always observing, noticed no malice in Shinryu's eyes. His stance was loose as compared with someone actually ready to strike. 'Unless he's a sloppy fighter, this is only an empty threat.' He nodded to himself before looking toward the others.
René was in awe of the swordsman who could bend nature to his will. With bright eyes, he stared at the cool looking sword with a mysterious black blade.
'Dur á cuire!' (Badass!)
Malin stood with his arms crossed seemingly not impressed. But on the inside he was a bit intimidated by this display of power.
Ingrid had a faint smile as she sensed his emotions. 'You can't scare us when you suck at pretending!'
Aiko didn't seem to get the memo as she stepped back in fear. Her distrust leading her to automatically believe any adult that comes into their life wants to do unspeakable things to them.
Noticing her fear, Shin stopped his performance. 'Maybe I went a little too far.' Shaking his head, he knew this had the intended effect. 'Now she won't try to attack me, but getting close to her will be 10x harder.'
Shinryu didn't want to try to parent these kids but despite taking away the miasma in their cores, his presence was still necessary. Their cores were constantly at the brink of destruction. If he were to stop synchronizing with them then they could die or worse, turn into a stray.
Thanks to their young age, their cores will still grow a bit before they would attempt to reach the next rank. They still can rank up prematurely but that would make Shin's presence even more necessary.
'With a sturdy foundation, you all will become excellent harmonists.'
Shin and the kids needed to stay close to regulate their cores. So they were stuck together for the foreseeable future. It could be months until they can fully stabilize their cores, but Shinryu wasn't going to give up on them.
'I know I don't have much time, especially after absorbing that miasma. Protecting these kids till they can protect themselves will be the last thing I do in your name Aurora.'
-------------------
In a large castle in the middle of, Caelthorn, the largest city in the Talvaron empire stood a regal man in royal robes and accessories made of pure gold. In a crown made of the highest grade resonance crystals was Emperor Caelthar Veytharion, the 12th emperor.
Staring out a stained glass window of his family's image, the man looked displeased at the words of his advisor.
"Repeat the report. I don't think I heard you correctly." He definitely heard it, but couldn't believe it. Such a promising batch of candidates, gone.
Amir, a hafling, propped up his falling glasses as he repeated the information he received from the Chief of Intelligence.
"Yesterday at around 1600 hours, Camp Ashveil was leveled, leaving only corpses and the remnants of a few buildings. It appeared that a rift had opened but was ultimately closed by someone. It is not yet known whether it was the hired mercenaries, our soldiers, or unknown harmonists."
Taking a deep breath, Amir wiped the few beads of sweat that managed to form despite how cold the room was. "What we do know is that not only are all the test subjects missing, but Garruk, the lead scientist has disappeared as well."
Rubbing his eyebrows, the frustrated Emperor constantly released a freezing cold breeze throughout the room. "Spit it out. What are you hesistating to tell me?"
"W-well, upon further inspection, our analysts found faint traces of the Wandering Tuner's resonance energy. We can assume he played a part in the villagers' escape as he is well known for helping 'victims'."
The slightly pointed ears of the half elf emperor twitched as he punched the glass in front of him. It was reinforced but the vibrations caused the castle to shake. A warrior of his strength knew quite well about Shinryu the Wandering Tuner.
The man had made a dazzingly reputation from saving anyone in need that he came across on his travels. He's neutral when it comes to most wars, but will always side against those he considered "evil".
"What shit luck. We can't even hunt the experiments down without risking his intervention..."
Raising a finger that his master could not see because his back was turned, Amir asked a question. "Why not send the Dreadknights? He is just one man after all."
A deathly silence was brought to the room as the Emperor finally turned around revealing a large burn mark on his neck. "Just one man?! The last time he 'passed through' Talvaron, 214 years ago, he uprooted 5 kingdoms and killed the emperor. His actions were somehow pardoned and his mere name scares the old bastards that we call noblemen"
Continuing his rant, Caelthar almost slapped his right hand man silly. "Not only would we be drawing attention to ourselves if we sent out our strongest fighting force, but the old farts would have my throne for trying to start a conflict with a powerful harmonist while we're in the middle of a war!"
Fearing to speak, Amir waited a few minutes for the emperor to calm down. "Then... What will we do?"
-------------------
Back at Shinryu's campsite, he had already smothered the fire as he prepared to begin the long walk to Eryndor, a kingdom just outside the Empire's territory. Since they were already at the border, they could get there by carriage in a day or 2.
'But we'll need to rent a carriage first.' Having only 3 bronze tokens to his name, Shinryu had already devised a 'get rich quick' scheme. Not only would he be able to get money, but the children would learn a few things as well.
Looking at said children, Shin nods at them, indicating he is ready to leave. Aiko who stood a few feet away from the group, was silent.
Although, the kids would prefer to survive on their own, they had been imprisoned for several years now so they were never trained on how to live in the wilderness like any growing harmonist should.
"Alright, stay close to me. If you get lost you may get eaten by the legendary child eater." In an poor attempt to spook the kids, Shin only received deadpan looks.
Ingrid took pity on the man as she went on her tiptoes to pat his back. "Very scary, Mr. Shin. I almost screamed in fright!"
Malin however, didn't think too highly of his theatrics. "What a lame old man.'
Coughing in embarrassment, Shinryu began walking toward Brindlebrook, their first stop.
"Also, don't call me Mr. Just Shinryu or Shin is fine." Hearing this, Ingrid nods. Although Shin had his back turned, he could still somehow see her nod. "Good."
The group walked for 5 hours before seeing the outskirts of a town from on top of a hill. They had taken a few stops to rest, but experienced no hardships in their travels. Usually, the animals in the forest didn't take kindly to people stomping through their land, but Shin's presence alone pacified them.
It seemed like all the life in the forest came to an agreement. Because of his rank and years of experience, he could affect an area that spans multiple miles long.
Even the other harmonists in the forest felt this unprecedented change. They didn't know the reason, but they were thankful their path home was peaceful.
Staring toward the path ahead, Shin observed his surroundings. Focusing his ears on the sounds around them, he could hear the faint flapping of wings high up in the clouds.
Turning to the kids, he had noticed their exhaustion a few miles back. He had many methods of transportation, but he wanted the Novices to get used to traveling through different terrain.
Now that their destination was in sight, Shin decided to give the children a break. "I'll take pity on you. Wait here a second."
Before anyone could ask what the man meant, they watched as he squatted a bit before jumping high into the air at breakneck speeds. They quickly lost sight of him within the clouds and couldn't help but gasp in awe.
Friedrich being the first to recover couldn't help comment. "Holy shit..."
Not long after the wind began to pick up as the frequencies in the air seemed to be activated by something. Seconds drew by as the sound of flapping could be heard. Then out from the clouds came a giant bird the size of a mansion. It's massive body and long wingspan casted a dark shadow upon the clearing below the hill.
On its back was Shinryu who stood as still as a rock as if not disturbed by the speed the bird was moving. Flapping its wings as it landed a Sylvan roc, one of the guardians of Veilgrove, stared at the group with disintrest.
Jumping off the roc, Shinryu introduced the group to his friend. "Kids, meet Aerathil. She is one of 3 guardians of this forest. Our paths crossed about 200 years ago. We'll ride on her back till we reach the outskirts of the town."
Ingrid who was naturally drawn to Aerathil's lustrous emerald feathers and moss-like appearance, instinctively reached out toward the creature. Sensing her intentions, the roc tilted her head in curiosity before bowing toward the small girl.
Shinryu was speechless at the sight. 'Such a proud guardian allowed Ingrid to pet her?' He had noticed something peculiar about Ingrid's core and frequency because he had to be constantly synchronized with them. But he couldn't tell the extent of her talents before now.
Ingrid was what harmonists called a "Wind Spirit". Wind spirits are a type of harmonist that has the ultimate affinity for air frequencies. So much so that they can easily connect with others that share a similar affinity like Aerathil.
There are such cases for other elements but every instance of someone with such a talent only occurs a few times a century. Once she can stabilize her core on her own, she would be akin to a goddess of wind.
'If the Empire finds out how talented this group is, they may do everything in their power to hunt them down.' Although their cores are now more susceptible to corruption, they can still be nurtured to be key members of the emperor's army.
Muttering to himself, Shin became visibly aggrieved. "Can't I die in peace?!"