As they left Paul's workshop, Zachery turned to Daniel.

"Back to the church then, Anne."

"For more practice?"

"Yes?"

"I might stay here then. I think I am a little practiced out. I thought looking around the town a bit might give me a better idea of where to focus," Daniel said. He thought he was justifying himself too much, explaining things to Zachery, but couldn't seem to help it.

"Have you told your mother this?"

"Yes."

"Then that is your choice. I shall see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye."

Daniel's relief soared as he watched Zachery leave. Freedom. He wandered around the town, not quite sure what he was expecting to find. The area with Paul's workshop had several similar buildings and felt to him as though it was all one large industrial yard, like a big building site or dockyard. Not that Daniel had much real-life experience with such places. There were small sheds and outbuildings between the larger workshops, as well as places with materials or boxes stacked out in the open. There were even people just working outdoors, as well as a constant movement back and forth between different buildings. It made it hard to define where the street was, or the dividing lines between the grounds of different workshops. Daniel was getting the uncomfortable feeling that he was in the wrong place, and was getting in the way of people's work.

But he didn't care, he lied to himself, since he was looking for trouble. It was Earth-style resistance training, frighten a kid enough times and they would probably toughen up. Assuming they could keep a positive attitude and not get traumatised. Magic shouldn't stop this working, it was just easier to wait for stats and skills to fix things for you. But being a scared kid really undercut his sense of self-worth in a way that being a dumb kid never had. This plan felt like a move in a positive direction. He just needed to act in a way that generated appropriately scary situations. He might even pick up some bravery or fear resistance skill along the way, but he would rather get to the point where he didn't need them.

So when he almost tripped over while dodging out of the way of a workman struggling with a heavy-looking sack, he was happy to hear laughter coming his way from across the street. Whirling, he marched his way over towards three young men. There was a half-full wagon there, next to an open doorway, that from the looks of it the men were in the process of loading or emptying. Approaching them was intimidating, but in some ways, he was assured by his own lack of threat. There would probably be more risk of actual violence occurring trying this as an adult male.

"What?" he demanded loudly.

This didn't immediately stop the laughter, but one of the men shushed the others and walked closer to Daniel with a consoling look on his face.

"Are you lost, girlie?" he asked, crouching on his heels in front of Daniel to be closer to eye level.

"I am where I mean to be. Now stop laughing at people you don't know it's mean."

One of the men who had hung back started laughing again at that. Now that he was interacting with them, this didn't feel intimidating any longer. They wouldn't do anything, they would just laugh down at him, it was annoying more than anything else. He swung in the direction of the laughter, sticking out a finger to point at the man.

"Shut up!" he cried.

The man crouching next to him snorted at that and was trying to hold back laughter. Daniel turned back to him and used his outstretched finger to push against his forehead. The man tilted back and lost his balance, slipping back onto his behind with his legs splayed out to either side. Daniel's eyes widened. An opening! He pulled back his leg to take advantage of this opportunity, and then stopped himself, feeling his cheeks starting to redden.

"Sorry," he said.

He swung on the spot and started to move away down the street, trying to ignore the laughter behind him. Maybe he would get Embarrassment Resistance instead. He had been honestly surprised by his violent impulses. Not something he was used to having at all. A seven-year-old wouldn't be able to do much damage to a full-grown man, and he might have gotten a Target Weak Spot skill if he had followed through. But the idea of hurting people by taking advantage of them being unwilling to fight back disgusted him. He might need to recalibrate just a tiny little bit. Maybe violence was a way to stand up for yourself, but it wasn't really what he was looking for.

He decided to go back to the market square and check out the shops. But the first thing that caught his eye when he got there was the status stone. There was a couple there as he approached, the man looking at a piece of paper he held while the woman was tapping her foot waiting next to him. He walked up and put his hand on the stone, to no response. He guessed that made some sense, although he had half expected it to summon his tablet for him.

"It doesn't work for children little girl." the woman said.

He turned to look at her, trying to think of a reasonable way to start being rude. Being reasonable was probably a mistake, and he turned to focus on the man instead.

"Hey!" he called out. "Yeah you," he said when the man looked up. "Give me a look at that."

"What? No." the man replied, seeming surprised he would even ask.

"Come on," Daniel said, his assertiveness already starting to falter. "Just a little."

Stolen novel; please report.

"It's private and you are too young to see it anyway," the man said with confidence.

"Let's just go Jasper, we are going to be late," the woman said, grabbing at his arm.

The man's response was fair, and it would be rude to go pry further. His nerves and his nature agreed he should drop it. But the relief he felt when it looked like they were leaving felt like he was giving up.

"Are you scared of the priests? What are you trying to hide on your status?" he called out.

"What is your name girl? Do your parents know where you are?" Jasper said, shrugging off the woman and turning back.

The implied threat was cold water down his back. He had been hyped up and over-anxious, but now he was hit by fear.

"I'm sorry," he said. Please don't tell my mum. He folded miserably. Was he going to start crying? It would barely make him feel worse about himself.

"I'm leaving, I don't have time for you to have an argument with a six-year-old in the street," the woman said.

Jasper seemed frustrated, but he turned and chased after her.

It took time for Daniel to regain an even keel. He had to remind himself that getting used to stressful situations was the whole point.

He took some time off from belligerence to try to learn more about the various stores around the edge of the square. The shops didn't seem particularly busy, and he went into the deli-like shop his mother had taken him to before. It was being attended by a bored middle-aged woman with short brown hair and a kindly smile, whose mothering instincts he seemed to fully trigger. She answered his questions happily, complimenting him several times for his politeness and telling him to come back to visit her again. Little did she know that back out on the streets he was a violent rabble-rouser.

He flitted from one store to another. The deli lady was not the only shopkeeper who was bored and happy to answer questions as a distraction. Business did not appear to be booming, and it was hard to see how anyone was turning a profit. Sadly there didn't seem to be any guilds available for him to join. A shop keepers association domain would probably not be great, but he would take it if offered. The only store he avoided was Addison Doctor's since there was someone in there talking to him already. Barging into a consultation was going a bit too far.

He headed to the bookstore, wondering if the same gormless salesman he could remember would still be working there. It turned out he had been replaced by a thin man with short black hair and a stern expression on his face as Daniel entered.

"What do you want? Did someone send you on an errand?" he asked brusquely before Daniel could speak.

"No," Daniel said, "But I had some questions to ask you."

"We don't serve children and I have no time for your questions. Leave."

Daniel quietly obeyed, trying to shake things off once he got safely outside. Jackpot! This was just the sort of easily ticked off but probably reasonable adult he was looking for. He thought going back in might get him shouted at, but he hesitated, and not just due to apprehension. This just wasn't him. Starting an argument to discuss why someone didn't want to talk? Past-life Daniel wanted to throttle him for even thinking of it.

He just wasn't sure he was cut out for being an asshole. Sure people had called him one plenty of times in the past, but that had never counted because he hadn't agreed with them. In some ways, he thought there was something cool about being one. You could really get stuff done when you were willing to jump to a conclusion and trample over anyone who got in your way with their stupid objections. Daniel had always gotten held back by doing boring things like considering all the possibilities or giving people the benefit of the doubt. It was the same today, being antagonistic was a lot harder when he actually thought he should be apologising instead. If only someone close to him was nice enough to be an ass, then he could practice resisting them while having some sort of conviction to fall back on.

Ok, enough of that for now.

Being rude to random people could be added to his list of obviously bad plans in hindsight.

He went home shortly after, feeling somewhat dejected but not defeated. His stupid affinities practice had at least taught him that finding the right approach would take more than one day.

There was still time before lunch when he got back, and rather than sitting alone upstairs, he went into the playroom.

"Banana!" Beatrix happily cried when she saw him.

Conrad came over with clumsy steps to join them.

"Why are you here?" Beatrix asked.

"I'm here to play with you," he announced.

Daniel looked down at the two of them, smiling. Putting the birthday leveling silliness to one side, it was mystical to him that his family was growing these two tiny people.

"Baron Conrad, I have spotted the bee creature. Would you like me to capture it?"

Conrad seemed hesitant at first, but he was smiling and he eventually nodded, which was good enough for Daniel.

"Very good sir," he said, giving a salute. He turned towards Beatrix with a predatory grin. "Better start running, Bee."

"I'm not a bee," she said as she scampered away, but she was already laughing.

"She's a bee she admits it," Daniel cried to Conrad, "Get her!"

Daniel was getting several strange looks from the same old group of women in the playroom. He supposed he had spent most of his time in here quietly sitting by himself, unsure of how to deal with other kids. But he ignored them and enjoyed himself spending time with Beatrix and Conrad.

----------------------------------------

A few weeks later, Daniel sat with his siblings upstairs, with his grandparents as well as Henry also in the room. His mother was uncharacteristically late, so he had collected his brother and sister from the playroom himself.

"I've got a letter from Marcus," his mother said excitedly when she arrived.

This perked everyone up since it had been nearly a year since the last letter, and they usually contained messages for the whole family. Out of the ordinary, however, was the fact that this letter had two separate letters within it. One was specifically for Mum, and the other was addressed to the family and she handed it off to Grandfather who started to read it, with Henry and Grandmother crowding over his two shoulders.

Daniel watched his mother read with curiosity, knowing he was near the bottom of the letter reading totem pole. And with it addressed specifically to his mother, perhaps it was private. It could be a love letter, for all he knew it could be filled with smut instead of flowery poetry. He didn't think his parents were the type, but they were still young after all, and this was part of the culture he didn't have a good handle on. The thought of his parents as sexual creatures summoned what he thought of as a typically childish response. Why would people get so bothered about something so silly? Even his remembered perspective as an adult came across as ridiculous and ali--

He wrenched his thoughts away with force, shaking his head and trying to dispel them. There were things like puberty existing that he would generally rather not dwell on. And then there were things that he absolutely did not want to even think about thinking about.

"A paladin!" Henry announced, helpfully distracting Daniel. Mum stopped reading as well, to look his way. "He's become a paladin!" Henry continued.

"This changes everything," Grandfather said triumphantly.

"Divine enchantment?" Grandmother asked herself, her eyes trying to scan through the letter to catch the part Henry was talking about.

"It must be," Grandfather said.

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves Father," Henry cautioned. "It is Marcus after all."

But Grandfather did not seem dissuaded from his excitement.

"We'll need to let the others know. Start writing letters today Henry."

"I will," Henry nodded, but then turned awkwardly towards Mum, "Do you want me to..?"

"No thank you, Henry," Mum said, looking like she had bitten something rotten, "It's better if I write the letter to my mother myself."