By the time light was peeking through the trees around me, I felt like I was finally starting to grasp the feeling of the body movements so I kept on imitating the movements he did that night. While I was continuously doing the same motions, my body felt comfortable with each step taken, each rotation of the waist and each movement with my arms and wrists.

Even though it was only a few moves, just a couple different ways to move the feet, it felt like I’d have to spend lots of time practicing it. Mainly since my sword felt like it will be my greatest drawback in having to do these movements in the heat of battle.

The sun was directly above me when I felt like I finally landed the proper footwork for the three spins that make your way around the opponent. “Wow Crim, it looks like you’re dancing with your sword.” A voice from the side comes in and breaks my concentration, forcing me to stop. I look to source and see Chelsey standing there. “I didn’t mean to disturb you but someone from the guild has a message for you.” Chelsey quickly follows up with.

After hearing what she had to say, I place my sword upon my back and begin walking towards the front of the inn. As I walk by Chelsey, she turns to follow along. I turn my head, looking over my shoulder “Where’s the guild person?” I ask her.

“If I remember correctly, it was the girl that helped you when we first were at the guild and they are waiting inside the inn, on the tavern side.” While I nod to her words, I turn my head back forwards and make my way around the corner and then through the door to the inn.

Once inside, it was easy to spot her since she was constantly looking around the place and when she looked my way and our eyes met, she smiled at us while we made our way to her table. “Good afternoon, Crim! Please have a seat, I have some good news for you!” Ilise happily chirps while gesturing to us to sit.

After we sit down Ilise then abruptly stands up “First and foremost, Crim. On behalf of the guild, I want to give my apologies for not once but for twice in not believing you about the two reports you’ve made!” Ilise claims out loud while bowing deeply. If the inn wasn’t busy for lunch with lots of other people talking out loud, she would have been the centre of attention. She stayed down for a couple of seconds after giving her apology before sitting back down.

“So does that mean you guys have confirmed the bandits have been dealt with?” I ask her, curious if they already finished checking.

“Yes, it’s as you say, we sent someone with one of our fast horses to quickly check out the location you gave us.”. A moment of silence fills the area before she adds “If you didn’t leave a marker on the side of the road, it would have taken a lot longer but they were able to find the log house no problem.”.

Happy with what I’m hearing, I then ask “What about the reward I requested? Is the guild able to provide it?”.

Ilise nods to my words “Yes, with the gold that you gave to the guild from the bandits and the reward that accompanied the urgent request, we were able to comply with your request. It’ll arrive here within a few hours from now.”.

Chelsey looked at me, her head tilted in confusion “What reward did you request?”.

“Just a parting gift.” I tell her.

Chelsey’s expression then turns upset “No no no, you should be requesting an audience with Lord Grue!”.

“I forgot during the moment when I asked to change the reward, it’s okay I’m pretty sure helping with the bandits will get me another step closer to seeing him.” I assure her.

Ilise then says something that both Chelsey and I cock an eye at “Actually funny you mention that, after Lord Grue heard word that the bandits were dealt with he instantly wanted a meeting with the party that dealt with it.”. Ilise lets the suspense build before going into detail “When he heard it was dealt by one person, he seemed very happy and said he wanted to meet the person in question right away!”.

Hearing her words made me feel at ease but it didn’t last long as a feeling of uncertainty started to rise. Chelsey turns to me, with a big smile “Did you hear that Crim? You’ll finally get answers to who you are!”.

When Ilise hears that, her face fills with confusion but shakes it off before continuing “If it’s alright with you Crim, the hearing is set up to be held at sunset. We were instructed to let you know that at that time, you are to be at the castle gates.”.

I didn’t expect to hear about something like this at this moment and it took me a second to take everything in. After a short silence of Ilise waiting for my reply, I finally nod while agreeing to the proposal.

When my reply was given, I was expecting her to leave after but to my surprise she stayed sitting “I actually have one more piece of news for you, Crim.”. “Since you cleared the rank B urgent request by yourself, the guild is going to give you a promotion quest to rank B so when you are all done with the Baron, please come see me at the guild tomorrow and I’ll go into detail.”. Once she finished talking, Ilise then got up and gave her goodbye before making her way out of the inn.

When it was just Chelsey and I, she then turned to me with a worried look “What’s coming in a few hours?”.

I looked to the roof, letting out a soft sigh “Like I said, just a parting gift.”.

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Chelsey then shakes her head “Fine, I guess I’ll see it later then.”. She then changes the subject “Anyways, Crim. Now that you got a hearing with the Baron, you should clean yourself up a bit!”. My eyes gaze towards her while I tilt my head, confused “Something at least my family did was wash our bodies right before an important deal or gathering.”. I still didn’t really understand what she was trying to tell me so she continued on “What I’m trying to say Crim is that all you do other than fighting is training, you really should wash yourself sometimes.”.

I tilt my head the other way “And how do I go about this?”.

Chelsey furrows her brows before answering “If I remember correctly, I saw a cleaning house along the way to the guild. At the cleaning house you can dump water over yourself and clean off your body and hair.".

I started to understand her but didn’t really know how to get there so I asked “I think I get what you mean but I don’t know what it looks like.”.

She places a finger upon her lower lip with a slight smile “I guess I have to show you so let's head there right away.”. After she tells me that, she gets up and begins walking towards the exit with me following suit.

Once we were outside and making the same path I would take to the guild, Chelsey asks me “Are you excited, Crim? You might get your memories back!”.

When I hear her words, I think about it before replying “I’d be happy if I get my memory back but I just have this feeling about Serval, I don’t know if it’s good or bad.”.

Chelsey looks at me with a smile “Don’t worry, Crim. You might just feel that way since you’re a step away from something that might be a big change, there's nothing to worry about.” she reassures me. I let out a sigh, trying to not let it bother me and after a short silence, Chelsey spoke up while pointing “Oh, there it is, Crim! You can wash up at this place.”.

I looked towards the direction that she was pointing at and saw a medium sized building with water running down the sides of the doors, falling down its own path beside the stairs and into a small pool of water that stretches across either side of the walkway. I began walking towards the stairs while I heard Chelsey from behind me “Alrighty Crim, I’ll be heading back to the inn now. Make sure you wash up good!”.

Once I was inside the building, I found myself in a room that had two doorways on either side of the other end with one that had a sign over it saying Men and the other one saying Woman. Understanding what this is trying to say, I head towards the left door with the one saying Men and make my way inside.

When I closed the door behind me and turned around, I found myself in a small room that had about eight square cutouts in the wall with a couple of them having clothing in it and a narrow hallway ahead. After seeing clothes in there, I made the guess that's where I store my clothing. When I undressed and put my clothing in an empty spot, I grabbed my sword and went through the hallway.

In the next room I find myself, I see two other guys looking at me, very confused and worried. I didn’t understand why they were giving me such a look so I placed my sword on my shoulder, facing it backwards while I made my way to an empty area that had a bucket beside an area that had water coming out of the wall and splashing into a holding area below it.

Kind of understanding what I should do, I then placed my sword against the half wall that was dividing the held water from me. After making sure it didn’t slide around, I began filling the bucket and dumping it over myself. I then continued pouring a couple more bucketfuls before I started washing off the dried blood around the hole on the right side of my gut that I got during the bandit fight.

I ignored the other people that were in here too but every once in a while I caught a glimpse of them and each time they were staring at me, I still didn’t really know why. Once I finished cleaning off the dirt and dried blood I could see on my body, I washed off my hair with a couple more buckets of water before grabbing my sword and walking towards the hallway. When I was back inside the small room, I didn’t really know how to dry off my wet body so I just put on my pants and began making my leave so I could let my body dry while walking.

Once I was outside and walking back to the inn, I kept on getting weird looks from other people. About half way back to the inn, I felt like my body was dry enough and put on my tunic and cloak. When the inn was in view, I saw a small carriage that had a symbol of a dragon on the side of the cloth and two horses pulling up in front of the inn.

As I got closer to the inn, I saw a familiar figure jump out of the coach seat and began walking towards the entrance. Right before she got to the door, I startled her when asking “Hey Ilise, are you looking for me?”.

Ilise then turns to me, still surprised “Oh Crim, did you just come from the cleaning house?”. I nod to her and then look at the carriage “Yes, it’s as you think. The guild also wanted to add the guilds symbol so that if any more bandits try attacking it, they’ll think twice if they think they are directly attacking a guild’s carriage.” After Ilise gives me the rundown on the carriage, she then takes her leave back to the guild with a smile.

I went into the inn after she left and went to find Chelsey right away. Once I was in front of her room, I started knocking on the door. “Come in, Crim.” A voice says from the other side. Surprised that she knew it was me, I opened the door and let myself in.

I understood why she knew it was me when I found her just finishing up with replacing Vaero’s bandages. After giving her some time to finish the last bit, I then told her “The guild dropped off my reward earlier, I need you two to come out.” and then I took my leave out of the room and back to the front of the inn, waiting for the two.

It didn’t take too long before the two of them came out of the inn. When I saw their faces, they were both surprised “I had a feeling this is what it was but I really didn’t expect this.” Chelsey claimed while having a finger upon her lip.

“This is my parting gift to you guys, I enjoyed my time with you guys.” Right as I finish speaking, my whole body freezes up and I feel a sharp pain in my heart.

I was taken out of my trance when Chelsey ran up to me and hugged me “Thank you Crim, with this my comeback will be glorious!”. Startled by the sudden events, I instinctively reached for my blade. When Chelsey saw that, she made space between us “I’m happy you're still yourself though, Crim.” she says with a smile. “Anyways, don’t you have an important meeting? The sun is beginning to set so you should start heading over there!” Chelsey reminds me.

After that since it was obvious to her, Chelsey pointed me in the direction of the castle. Even though it’s hard to miss, she gave me directions to get there faster than I would have done. Once Vaero and Chelsey wished me luck with my meeting, I began walking off.

The sun was in a full orange sunset by the time I was walking towards the castle gates. When I arrived at the gates, one of the two guards standing in front asked me “Are you Crim?”. After nodding to him, he told the other guard a few words before heading into the castle.

I waited quietly until the guard came back out with an older gentleman that looked to be a butler. “Good Evening Mister Crim, my name is Sharleston and we have heard good word about your deed and the Lord would like to see you. If you can just follow me, I’ll bring you to the reception room where you may wait for him.” The butler tells me while turning around, beckoning me to follow him and so I did.

We walked inside the castle along long hallways decorated with several busts of unrecognisable people and large beautiful vases and tons of different paintings of what maybe the castles families' generations. Each piece painting or bust, Sharleston explained a bit of each one, from how the bust was of Serval Grue’s great grandfather or a painting of his father. As he went on about each piece, I was slowly starting to ignore him.

Soon after we finally arrived at a pair of doors that the butler began opening. When we walked inside, Sharleston guestered me to sit down in one of the couches laid out with a short table in between them and with a large chandelier above. Once I made my way over to sit down on the couch facing towards the door, I saw the butler take his leave.

While I sat there, I was wondering what was going to happen after I met him. Time felt like it was slowing down while I waited anxiously.

Finally the door swung open and in came a thicker and older looking man that was bald except for a grey curly moustache protruding from his upper lip. He wore vibrant purple and red clothing that was fit for a king and was walking with a cane with his pinky pointing straight up, showing off a ring. When I saw eye to eye with the man that walked in, he froze up.