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Chapter 8

Sitting in the leather-bound chair, I gripped the arms and silently begged to be anywhere other than this room. The tension when I had walked in could’ve been cut with a knife, assuming you had a high enough strength stat.

As soon as I had cleared the doorway, the looks the sergeant and lieutenant gave me were enough to make me want to walk right back out of the room. It was like they were looking at some sort of undead.

Resisting the urge to play-act like a zombie to see their reaction, I made a beeline for an open chair as soon as the man behind the desk gestured for me to sit. Planting my butt in the chair, hoping to lose their attention, my healer companion instead opted to continue standing and seemed to be waiting for something.

Now, a moment later, the awkward silence continued while everyone in the room except Seralee kept their eyes glued on me. One minute became two, became three, as it stretched on I decided to do the most natural thing that came to mind: I coughed slightly, smiled at the lieutenant, and waved.

Her reaction was priceless, a mixture between realization and disgust, the awkwardness was shattered at last. “How are you alive, kid? I was sure I thoroughly broke you.”

Resisting the urge to say something really dumb as the options flooding my mind, I opted to just look at Seralee and gesture vaguely for her to say something. I didn’t really want to get involved in this and say the wrong thing to the wrong person. Better to let her do it and only add anything if asked.

Nodding once, the healer faced the lieutenant. “Lieutenant Kurin. It turns out my healing was not ineffective because he was dying, but because of other reasons. From what we’ve gathered it turns out Roik here has his own healing ability that I was fighting by trying to heal him. The minute I stopped and left the room, he began to fix his injures himself.”

Giving Seralee a suspicious look, the lieutenant scratched the back of her head. “I knew he had a minor healing skill, but what do you mean a healing ability that conflicted with your own skill? That shouldn’t…” A small smile broke out on my face at those words. Shouldn’t what? be something some commoner could have as a skill? Yeah, I’m a bundle of contradictions. Prime contradiction real estate.

The healer nodded slowly. “I didn’t ask the details, but his healing seems to be a passive ability and not an active one. My healing was getting in the way of it activating properly.”

As the lieutenant went to say something again, the man behind the desk raised a hand and looked at me. When his eyes landed on me, I got my first solid look at him. He hadn’t seemed very noticeable at first, but staring directly at him now… I couldn’t imagine how I had thought that.

With solid white hair, a tight beard, and a thin frame he seemed like a typical clean-cut old man at first glance — but after a single moment of inspection that fell apart. He may have looked thin, but every inch of him was solid muscle and he radiated power. I also found that I struggled to keep my eyes on him, my brain didn’t want to acknowledge he existed, despite looking straight at him. There was something to this man. Fighting the urge to look away, my eyes were drawn to his black clothes, too well-tailored to be a normal-grade outfit. I had only ever seen clothes like these on higher ranking tradesmen who were heading into the inner city.

From these, I could tell this man had to be powerful and reasonably wealthy. If this was the captain’s study, did that mean the city had someone like this employed as a guard captain?

Turning my eyes back to his face, I saw a mysterious look in his eyes. After a moment, he slightly smiled while baring his teeth. “Is this true, child? Do you possess a healing factor?”

Being surprised by his warm deep voice, I forgot to respond for a moment before I caught myself. “I’m not sure what a healing factor is, but I do have a passive healing ability.” Hopefully that doesn’t out me as something strange… I need to learn more about skills as soon as possible.

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“Oho, I see. Healing factors are beyond rare and should be treasured. Don’t waste your life thinking you’re immortal because you can heal a few scrapes.”

Turning his eyes to the lieutenant, he continued. “Now. If the boy is alive we no longer have any business, Kurin. You’ll only receive a warning this time: do try to avoid fatal injuries to any trainees and personnel in the future.”

Looking back at me and Seralee, he smiled. “I apologize for my lieutenants behavior, it’s inexcusable that a guard should harm a civilian. I am Rhondale’s East Captain, Grimloose Strauf, but you can just call me Captain Strauf. You’ve done well in your training here over such a short time, I look forward to hearing about your valor and might on the battlefield in a decade or so.”

With that, he nodded once and then began to look at some paperwork on his desk. It was obvious the conversation had concluded, so we all headed towards the door. As the first to leave the room, I held the door open for everyone as they exited.

Catching all of their eyes as they passed, Seralee gave me a warm smile and both the sergeant and lieutenant immediately avoided meeting my eyes. Could I claim my free weapon now? Maybe for almost killing me I could get them to give me a good set of light armor too… It was time to milk this for everything it’s worth.

bloody divider [https://i.imgur.com/yTIGwtI.png]

After I robbed the lieutenant bli- er, got my rewards for the fights, I felt a bit lost as to what to do so I decided to wander the town after stopping by my house. I had a lot on my mind, so it seemed like the best way to kill some time.

Tomorrow I’d be leaving, and who knew when I’d come back? if ever, honestly. There was always the chance I’d die on the battlefield, get captured and sold into slavery, or have some other reason I couldn’t return. This might very well be the last time I ever see my home city. I knew I wouldn’t miss the city excessively, but it was still home and I had a lot of history here.

Setting the bag with my newly acquired loot on my desk, I looked around my room abd a smile slipped onto my face. Honestly, there were a few of things I’d miss about Rhondale, like my friends, but this room was the first thing I was glad to be rid of.

I did really doubt my room in Tinden would be much better, but I’d just have to find out when I got there. A boy could be hopeful and dream a little though, right? The realist in me knows it’s just a military training camp, so it’s even possible we’d end up sleeping in tents or under the stars, but I wanted to hope anyway!

From here… there was a lot to do to get my life in order. When I had talked with the high priest, he made it clear the leadership camp was just a first stepping stone if I played my cards right. Apparently my blessing and passive recovery skill were enough to secure me a future if I didn’t die.

My goal was to get a distinction or two in battle, rise up the ranks steadily, and force the noble’s hands to give me a knightship on merit. It was easier said than done, but this was the path the church wanted me to take. Having thought about it, I’d be a fool not. I had a prime chance to rapidly ascend social classes, I’d take this opportunity by the throat and bite deep.

A knight… imagine that? A much better life than a shop assistant for a tradesman company that had already replaced me. If I got that far, I’d likely serve some sort of lord or lordling as some sort of retainer. The thought alone got my head spinning with the options, dreaming of where I could end up and what my future work might look like.

Maybe I could even find a role for me that took advantage of my love for history and books… My occasional trips to the library over the past two years, and my daily trips for the past few days, still weighed on my mind. But, really, anything was better than shop upkeep and dealing with unruly customers.

Realizing I had gotten lost in my thoughts, I turned towards my dresser and began to dig through one of the drawers. Finally finding what I was looking, I slipped on a simple dark grey cloak and headed out of my house. Leaving my home behind, I headed towards the commercial district.

It was time to set out into the streets to burn the sights of the city into my eyes one last time. As I kept walking, I saw something that made me stop: a kid running past me, heading deeper into the slums. Oh, right…

I probably should stop by the orphanage first, I had managed to avoid doing that still. The looks on the kid’s faces when I told them I was leaving would probably break my heart but it had to be done. Thinking about it, those were the last set of goodbyes I needed to deliver. I had talked to everyone else already.

Forgetting about saying anything to them before I left would probably rank high on my biggest regrets while away. I wasn’t able to do much for the kids, but they would have one less person to spend time with them, as well as a bit less donations.

Taking a deep breath, I turned around and began racing through the streets towards the old stone building where the two dozen kids and their two caretakers lived. Between the fights, this visit, and tomorrow’s sendoff, these were shaping up to be two long days.