"There's not much to say," I said to him, shrugging. "They were ordinary people, and I'm from an ordinary family."

"So… why are you over here, and not wherever you're from?" Sun Jiao asked. "And… I have a feeling that Teacher's definition of 'ordinary' is quite different from my own…"

I smirked. "You might be right about that last bit - I suppose we wouldn't be considered 'ordinary' by the standards of Chipker, or your standards, but where we were from - ah, maybe we were kind of odd even considering where we were. But we were happy." I didn't feel the need to answer his first question. "You haven't told me much about your family either." I frowned. Wait, that wasn't true because he had - it was just that it had been a bunch of nonsense.

"Well, not much to say here either," Sun Jiao said, rubbing the back of his head. "My father was a Rank Two Liberomancer - barely got to that level, and he was a bit of a womanizer. I don't think he ever really loved my mother much - but he would make all sorts of promises to her - she was from a poor family and couldn't write, see. He promised to give her lavish gifts, to build a huge house for her, you know, all that jazz. She believed him for a while, but he lost interest in her when she became pregnant with me. He wasn't around all that much when I was growing up, but I guess he was nice enough to teach me a few of my letters before he up and vanished. He's probably dead by now - but I never heard from him again. As for my mother, she passed away from the pox a few years back."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "Your father sounds like a terrible person…"

"Well, he was nice enough to me," Sun Jiao said. "When he was around - that is. But he did have a bit of a temper whenever he was trying to teach me how to read and write. If I couldn't sound out something fast enough or had forgotten something he'd taught me recently, he'd occasionally smack me across the face or something like that. And it was 'cause of that, see, that I never liked reading or writing and tried to avoid it as much as I could growing up. I'd always sneak out of the house when it was time to learn to read to instead go fishing, pretend to be sick, or do something or the other."

He sighed. I was a bit taken aback by how matter-of-fact he spoke about getting beaten if he got something wrong. Was that normal here? I wouldn't know - though I had of course heard of things like caning being a common punishment back in the day for students who wouldn't behave.

Sun Jiao continued. "If only I could go back in time and slap my younger self - that was the one good thing that my father did - try to teach me how to read and write somewhat. I'd tell myself to put up with what he did as much as I could, because in the long run, it would be worth it and I wouldn't have had to struggle so much later. Things could've been so much different if I had paid more attention during those days, y'know?"

"It's not too late to try to learn that again," I said.

"Yeah, but it's way more difficult now to get the hang of things than when I was younger. Back then, it was so easy to learn. And anyway, without my old man, who's going to teach me anyway?"

"You might be able to find someone if the fish stall ends up taking off," I reassured him. Well, I tried to be positive, though truth be told his pessimism was quite realistic regarding what the most likely outcome would be.

That wasn't to say that I thought it was impossible for him to turn his life around - just that I thought it was highly unlikely.

"Maybe," he said.

Right then, alarms were sounded all over the city.

I was right - the higher-ups were keeping the threat of the dryads on the down-low for now, but they couldn't hide the fact that they were gathering a large number of soldiers before the gates for long. The people would gossip - and rather than having them come up with whatever conspiracy theories came unbidden to their minds, it was better to tell them the truth.

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Even with my enhanced vision, I couldn't really make out facial expressions from this distance of anyone down below. But there was a new… urgency to the way that many of these people moved now, for lack of a better word. Most of them headed inside, though I personally couldn't see what good that would do if the walls were ever breached; but I guess in the face of danger many of them were going to check on their loved ones.

Thankfully though, it didn't look like outright panic was spreading.

We observed the mass of dryads out in the distance and then at the gathered soldiers below us, who did not make any major moves up until Kyle came back.

"Ah, our forces are ready, Master Stefan - just give us fifteen or so minutes, or half an hour at most, and then I think it should be time for you to act," he said.

I nodded. "Just give me the word."

He smiled. "Ah, I had wished to see the famed Spider King of Arconia in action before this, and though I'm not happy that we're being attacked, I can't say that there isn't a small silver lining to this."

I couldn't get a good look at the entirety raiding force from here, but there were at least two thousand people with them - which on the surface didn't sound like a lot, but if they had even a dozen Rank Three fire elementalists they should have no problem dealing with the horde outside.

The vast number of other rank-and-file soldiers was to ensure that the Liberomancers had a wall of shields and iron, if not that of stone, between them and the enemy. They were highly valuable after all, and the loss of even a few would be mourned more than the loss of five thousand men - at least by the rulers of the city, that is. The purpose of most of the ordinary soldiers was to essentially act as meat shields and prevent the dryads from coming too close to the Rank Three Liberomancers.

Of note though, I didn't see the king down there.

I held my tongue and didn't comment on it - because I knew that Kyle likely would not want to answer it.

Didn't kings in this day and age go out with their armies?

I knew back on Earth that wasn't the case anymore - no one expected the President to walk into battle holding a gun, but that was because war in the modern age was quite different from how it had been before.

Even if rulers didn't fight on the front lines most of the time, just by being there it would be enough to rally their troops and boost morale.

One of my aunts who was feverishly anti-war back home would often say that politicians would be far less trigger-happy to start wars if they had to send themselves, or their children, to fight. (From what I understood of history, many kings who did go out to fight still started wars regardless, so I couldn't be sure how much I agreed with her.)

I could see that the king might not want to fly - because if he, as I thought was the case, had some kind of episode while flying he'd crash straight down.

But, as long as he had enough soldiers with him, they could always grab him and take him to safety.

I was sure the royal guard would do their best to ensure that no harm would befall him.

True, there would always be some risk - but at the same time, what was he the king for? Wouldn't that cause the subjects of the kingdom to look unfavorably upon him, like he was a coward or what not? Sure, I could see some disgruntled people who might chalk some of it up to age, but Libeormancers hardly relied on their physical skills to get by.

At the very least you'd think he'd send one of his heirs if he couldn't go himself, though I saw no one who looked like they were from the royal family down there either.

As an example - though Lance had not joined the earlier raid on the dryads after Arconia's siege was over, he had sent Drake in his place.

Whatever - I found it odd, but at the same time, didn't see the point in pursuing it any further. Maybe there was something going on behind the scenes that I just didn't know about?

"Let me know when to start," I said to Kyle.

The gates were opened, and the soldiers advanced on their mounts. I didn't know how far the dryads could see - or if they could make out the raiding party from here. Regardless, they would definitely see the large cloud of dust that the soldier's mounts kicked up as they ran forward. I saw why the raiding party was limited to two thousand - each of the soldiers was mounted so that the force could move swiftly and decisively. If they took more people, they would've needed to get foot soldiers as well which might slow them down.

"Now should be appropriate," Kyle said, nodding.

"[Summon Tyrant Arachnea]!" You didn't have to say your spells or skills when you wanted to use them - only think them, though when you were in large groups like this it was customary to do so anyway so that the others knew what you were doing.

The behemoth of a spider formed at the foot of the walls. There were exclamations from other people on the walls.

"That thing's massive!"

"So is that man really-"

"-the Spider King of Arconia?"

"I didn't know he was here!"

"Are we going to see the comb-"

"[Grand Fireball]!" I cast at my own summon, and much as it had done many times before, it became enveloped in a coat of flames.

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