Noah moved toward an empty area of the encampment.
"So, what is your bright idea?"
Preston followed him with June and Errol at his sides.
Noah looked around and nodded in satisfaction.
"Captain, there should be around fifty soldiers in your troop, am I right?"
Preston answered with a confused expression.
"Well, yes. Fifty-three to be precise."
Noah continued.
"And I believe that the items from the inheritance ground will stay with you until the envoy from the Royal family arrives, right?"
"That is true."
June and Errol were already shaking their heads since they understood Noah's intentions.
Noah made a gesture and the "Breath" blessing inside Nigel's space-ring materialized on the ground.
Its appearance attracted the attention of the entire camp since the density of the "Breath" instantly increased by one-fold.
Preston's mouth was hanging on his jaw, he still hadn't inspected the goods that the students retrieved and he was quite shocked to see such a precious mineral in that gigantic shape.
"I thought that it would have been a complete waste to keep such a miraculous resource hidden in a space-ring, you and your soldiers should at least make use of it until the Royal family arrives."
Preston came back to reality hearing his words.
"N-no! That's the personal propriety of the Royal dynasty! We can't."
However, his eyes fell continuously on the blue mineral as if they were captivated by it.
Noah went next to him with a bright smile on his face.
"But we are doing this for the Royal dynasty! Making their soldiers stronger will increase the stability of their dominion. Don't you want to protect them? What if a day comes when you are too weak to fight their enemies? Also, we aren't doing anything that endangers the item, we are simply storing it in an open field."
Preston moved his gaze from Noah back to the "Breath" blessing.
"Storing it in an open field you say…"
He mumbled for a few more seconds and then a smile broke his stern expression.
"Right! We are simply keeping it here for, ehm, safety! The space-rings are not safe anymore during these dangerous times, I should guard this precious item personally!"
Noah coughed lightly at his side, interrupting the captain's speech.
Preston turned and saw that all his soldiers were staring at the mineral with eager expressions.
Noah helped him in his delusion, answering to his previous words.
"Captain, I think that this stone is too precious for you to single-handedly protect it. I can't rest well thinking that you are all alone out here. Nevertheless, don't worry, I will stay with you the whole time!"
Noah made an ample gesture and turned to the other soldiers, subtly winking at them.
Some of them understood the meaning behind his signal and hurriedly made a military salute, joining Noah in his promise.
"Captain, I will not leave you alone!"
"Neither I will allow my mighty captain to endure this burden alone!"
Little by little, all the soldiers understood what was happening and swore to "protect" the "Breath" blessing.
June shook her head as she neared Noah.
"Couldn't you simply do all of this inside the captain tent?"
Noah smirked and lowered his voice to answer her.
"In that case, it would have been my idea. Now, it's Preston's one, the Royals can't use our time spent like this as an excuse to lower our rewards."
June's eyes widened seeing how much planning Noah went through to exploit that situation.
"You are actually this evil."
Noah snorted.
"You can't always rely on violence to obtain something, not at our level at least."
June wanted to argue but found his explanation reasonable.
"Since everyone is so faithful to the Royal family, we can start immediately our protection of their goods!"
Preston shouted, interrupting their conversation.
The soldiers cheered and neared the "Breath" blessing on the ground but noticed that Noah was already sitting in one of the closest spots available.
They wanted to retort but their captain did the same, followed by June and Errol.
A messy scene unfolded as the soldiers pushed away one another to secure a spot in the nearest positions.
In about ten minutes, the commotion settled and all the cultivators in the camp were silently meditating in front of the blue stone.
Two weeks passed like that.
Everyone was so engrossed in their cultivation in such a favorable environment that they totally forgot to check if there were news from the Royal city.
On the night of the fifteenth day, a loud shout woke them up from their meditation.
"What the fuck are you even doing!?"
Everyone turned to see a woman in a golden armor staring at them with an angry expression.
Preston immediately stood up and performed a deep bow.
"Her Majesty Lisa! I wasn't informed about your visit, what a pleasant surprise!"
All the other soldiers stood up and greeted the woman from the Elbas family.
'She is Thaddeus sister, the one that led the other batch of students from our class.'
Noah recognized her from behind the guards and cautiously sneaked to the borders of the group.
Lisa yelled again.
"Of course, you didn't know! You didn't contact us for two whole weeks, we were afraid that one of the nearby countries had found this place. However, the formation wasn't broken so we excluded that possibility. So, what exactly were you doing?"
Preston recognized his mistake and performed another bow.
"I'm deeply sorry! We…"
His voice softened as he continued.
"…were guarding this precious "Breath" blessing."
Even as he said those words, he realized how unreal they were.
Lisa stood speechless for a while before shaking her head.
"Never mind, just hurry up and gather the items that I have to bring back to the Royal city. Also, I will bring the students with me, I will stop at the academy along the way."
"Everything will be done immediately!"
Preston turned to his side but noticed that Noah had disappeared from his position and was already slowly moving toward Lisa from the borders of the group.
He arrived in front of her and bowed.
"And what happened to you?"
Lisa spoke, staring at the youth.
Noah had large eyebags and an incredibly pale complexion, his eyes were red and he seemed to be malnourished.
"Oh, don't you worry, Her Majesty, I'm just a bit tired from the hard trials of the inheritance."
The soldiers that heard his words wanted to curse him loudly but refrained to do so due to Lisa's presence.
Since those weeks were probably the last time in which Noah could have had access to the miraculous mineral, he went all out in his training sessions, even resorting to potions to keep himself awake an in a normal condition to maximize his training schedule.