Galen Vesa

Perhaps this is what boredom looks like? Maybe? I'm not sure since to me it felt no different from my usual days. Aside from the silly fact that nobody bothered me those past few days.

After the faithful breakfast, Water transported the elves back to their forest, a deed for which she once more cleaned up my recovering mana. And that was that.

Altina buried herself under a mountain of paperwork so I had no contact with her. Cora did, well whatever she did it didn’t involve me. Zee spend most of her time with her sister and I avoided her since she would tear up and start thanking me over and over again. Chuko, Li and other maids were mercilessly exploited by Beatrice and toiled to complete the remaining guild work. Some of the clerks left even before I returned to the guild, so I have no idea what become of them. Some of the girls weren’t really that close to me so they avoided my presence now even more than before. Vittoria loathed me with a passion and, well, I kept away from her. The guards were not much of a company. There is a limit to how much one can listen to the same dirty jokes and be stared at.

That left me with, me. Yup, not the most stellar company and not the most useful one. While I was gone, Altina cancelled all arrangements for blessed marriage contracts and refused anything that had even a mention of my name to it, so I became jobless. I thought that at least I would help with accounting like before but no luck there. Audit requests began to dwindle before I left and after some obscure controversy nobody wished to explain to me, all but few customers moved their books to different guilds.

With nothing better to do I spent my days atop the guild hall, next to my chimney. Well, I did offer my help but Beatrice turned me down, saying, for what little work left it would take more time to teach me what to do instead of just letting a maid do it. So, that was that.

The children I brought back were gone, picked up by their crying families. Well, most of them. There were a few that showed outright disappointment and a few that did not show up. Just what kind of a parent you would need to be to abandon your child? On the other hand, in this world, what can I know? Those that left behind became guild dependents. The big bad wolf had no heart to kick them away. It would explain why she still tolerated my presence. I’m beginning to think she is too soft for her own good. Like I would totally kick myself out if I were in her place.

One of the lesser nobles did asked for me and conveyed his most sincere gratitude. He vowed to come to my service if I would ever find myself in need. His name failed to register in my memory so I doubt it will ever happen.

I did have to answer several questions from this world equivalent of interstate law enforcement agency, the judge magistrate but this time they were happy with a written testimony and did not send anyone to interrogate me. A curious thing isn’t it?

Hertia did force the wolf to swear she would notify her if I come back. Given that we were free of her company, Altina still had to send that letter. Perhaps I should talk to her about it? Rooth was… a practical teacher. He forced into me habits and skills rather than dry academic knowledge. There were some aspects of magic I did not understand and I wouldn’t mind a second opinion.

And so, the days and nights went by with me staring at the sky. I did want to go shopping but given my undeserved fame, I had lost any chance of doing so. Just imagine an assassin going through the market in broad daylight. Yeah, that would not end well. Instead I opted for what the guild master proposed and waited for the merchants to arrive at the guild with their wares. I passed a list of what I wanted to Beatrice and… queue the waiting game.

Watching another splendid sunset, I scratched a line with my nails on the chimney when a truck hit me.

Imaginary truck I may add. My back flared up with blinding pain as my mana once again pushed its boundaries, stretching me thin from the inside.

I have no idea what caused it, well, I have. Like that pesky entity first stabbing my core, almost blowing me up and now doing gods know what to my body. Ever since that day, my mana not only speed up its recovery but also began to push the boundaries of my inner world.

The giant orb would lay dormant, condensing mana onto itself and after reaching a certain…pressure? Certain compression ratio? It would suddenly release all that stored energy, instantly multiplying its volume while at the same time reducing its inner pressure. After a moment of rubber banding of space and time within me, the orb would start this cycle again, once more gathering pressure but into a much larger volume. I don’t think I could call it an orb anymore. While before I could see its shape, now it became the sky under which my inner forest grew and spread. As for the forest, Cora told me that it had not yet reached the new edge of the shade provided by the mana orb.

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Anyway, during every such stretching, my back pain would return for whatever reason, which was bad but tolerable. What wasn’t tolerable were the next few seconds during which my body would shut down. Just like a hard reset of a machine, I had to wait for my body to reboot and recover, reload or whatever, before I could move again. In the meantime, I felt like a doll with her strings cut.

And it happened every few days. The only good thing that Logic pointed out was the fact that whenever the orb stretched me out, it took much more time to gather enough pressure for another push.

Having a hard reset atop a steep roof is not a good thing tho. I thought as I tumbled down the sloping roof and after a brief moment of weightlessness, crushed to the ground.

“You good?”

Holding a box in her arms, Chuko bet over me as I came to a stop on the stone pavement that run around the guild building.

“Peachy.”

I forced a smile as my other limbs were yet to come online.

“No sleep cold earth. Bad. Bring sneeze.”

When the ripples inside me subsided, I hauled myself up with as much dignity as I could muster.

“I weren’t sleeping. I slipped.”

Her frown told me she wasn’t convinced.

“Assasins no slip.”

“Well, I do. “

She squinted at me as if I just committed some kind of blasphemy. Out of the blue her foot sailed towards my neck. I sidestepped to save her from injury, so her leg went only through air and the momentum twisted her body around. With the box messing up her balance, she swayed backwards beyond the point of recovery. Thankfully, my pillows cushioned her fall before her head could thwonk against the pavement.

“Careful or you might slip too.”

I propped her up and walked away while she puzzled at what happened. I don’t know how high I was on Chuko's list of tolerable people. Possibly somewhere way behind Li and the wolf. Either way she was easy to be around and I valued her presence.

Something I could not tell about the owner of a pair of cat eyes staring at me intently. Holding a slab of iron she referred to as her sword, Inra bow before me and uttered some of the most troublesome words I heard so far.

“Master! I beg thee, spar with me!”

Sigh. I really, really want to sigh right now. I think.

“Why? I am no warrior. You will not learn anything from me. Go ask someone who can measure with you.”

I walked away into the hall building. Perhaps I will ask for some tea and busy myself with a book from the guild’s library. Which I did but unfortunately…

“What is going on in here?”

Beatrice inquired after she carefully bypassed the kowtowing catgirl.

“I have no idea. Something about not moving until I accept her challenge. Don’t know where that came from.”

“The why won’t you just face her instead of disrupting the entire Guild.”

Eh?

“Both of you, training grounds near the barracks. Now.”

And that’s how I came to stand in the middle of a dirt arena, brandishing a wooden sword and facing off against the catgirl. All to the cheering of guards and maids. Even the wolf peeked through a window to see what was happening.

“Rules are simple,”

Beatrice explained from the sideline.

“You fight until you score three hits. Attacking neck or head of your opponent is not allowed. The loser can kiss goodbye to her food for the next three days. Is that understood?”

That’s kind of barbaric. Not that I had any inclination to fight her. Rage did have some proficiency with using a katana, machete, or a saber but I had other idea.

“Ready? Fight!”

“I give up.”

I dropped my sword and raised my hands up… Beatrice eyes suddenly became filled with terror. Oh, she said nothing about giving up. Well, I am kinda glad the lizard can’t see this.

And time slowed down when mana surged into my eyes.

Inra stormed at me with her sword ready to slash me from above while it took my whole willpower to stop my body from stepping into her charge and crushing her throat with my elbow.

Then, what should I do?

If I accept the blow, her sword may shatter on impact and spray people with splinters. Getting hit by mana reinforced splinter, traveling at sound speed seemed kind of lethal so, nope. On the other hand, if I try to hit her, I may kill her by accident. My control over this body left a lot to desire whenever Rage took over my actions.

In the end, I moved aside just enough for her sword to miss me and slam into the ground while her momentum brought us face to face. I might have leaked some killing intent since her knees were trembling.

“I do not want to fight you. My skills are not refined enough for me to guarantee your safety.”

I whispered into her ear then with my hands still in the air I called again.

“I give up!”

Nobody tried to stop me as I walked away although, I could feel some eyes glued to my back. No wonder. The guild employed powerful warriors. Some may have seen that I stepped aside, others might have felt what the catgirl experienced.

“Karin, my office.”

The wolf leaned from a window and called.

Behind me, silent whispers and vicious stares walked me away.

“Monster…”