When he awoke, he was lying on a bed in a tent. He immediately realised that in addition to his elbow, wrist and ankle, his face also hurt, after which he sat up. He looked around, he was alone in that tent, but from outside he could hear talking. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his ears, on his hearing. They were not just talking, there were also those who laughed, those who raised their voices and so on.

His ankle was bandaged, but he still managed to stand up, although it hurt quite a bit.

He stuck his head out of the tent, apparently he was in an encampment, where there were soldiers and also ordinary people around campfires. He also realised that he was not the only one with some bandages, in fact, there were also those who were worse off than him, and by far.

At least he knew he was in friendly territory, so he stepped outside the tent. He walked to the nearest campfire "Good evening, could one of you tell me where we are?"

A soldier answered him "In the camp outside the city."

"In the city of Scelevo?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

All of a sudden, he was hit in the neck, and when he turned to see who had done it, he discovered it was the silver-haired soldieress.

"You're awake at last!" she gave him another slap, on his left arm this time "Took you long enough, didn't it?! You slept for half a day."

Indeed, it was more or less noon, the sun was high in the sky. The bonfires were only for warmth, as it was quite cold.

"Where is..." he lowered his voice "Dricea?"

She motioned for him to follow "Follow me, I'll take you there." so, she led the way to the largest tent in the camp "Is that allowed?"

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Once inside, Dricea was standing at the right side of a table, with her were two other people, but they did not appear to be soldiers, they wore neither armour nor carried weapons. In any case, as soon as she saw Dricea, she tried in vain to run towards her, as her sprained ankle prevented her from doing so "Dricea!"

"My hero- I meant to say, Sat." in a way, she gave the impression that she was relieved to see him "Wait, don't move, I'll come to you."

After reaching him, she helped him to his feet.

"I thought it was the soldiers of Trante's kingdom, that's why I ran away... Excuse me, I'm sorry."

"It's fine, the important thing is that you're fine."

Finally, Sat learned that those keeping Dricea company were the general and deputy general of the army of the kingdom of Faradrar. To make a long story short, after learning of the destruction of the capital and its occupation by the enemy army, instead of going to reconquer the rubble, they had preferred to rescue those who had managed to escape. Moreover, they had camped outside the walls of the city of Scelevo as the city closest to the Way of Grace, where many of the survivors were headed. They could be said to have escorted them.

As for the city of Scelevo and its inhabitants, well, they were in no danger, as it was one of the headquarters of the adventurers' guild. Even the kingdom of Trante would never, ever go against the adventurers' guild as an institution, given that its headquarters were located in the aforementioned kingdom.

After which, waiting for Dricea to finish discussing with the general and his deputy, they both returned to the inn, where Fracius was waiting for them.

"Sat, Dricea, I thought you had left during the night without telling me anything."

"Nah, we wouldn't have done that, not after all you've done for us. However... We have to say goodbye."

"I see..." he had grown a little fond of them, so he was sorry when he heard him say that "In that case..." he took off his hat "It was a pleasure to be able to spend time, however brief, with the two of you."

"It's the same for us, isn't it, Dricea?" she merely nodded.

"Goodbye, then."

"Goodbye, Fracius, and thanks again. Ah! And good luck with your invention, I hope one day to be able to use it."

"Good luck to you too, and be sure to save our two kingdoms."

As much as he would have liked to spend some more time together with the demon, Sat was fully aware that he had to move on, that he had to continue his journey to the kingdom of Nianoto, to the hopefully first ancestral statue.