His eyes were wide for a moment before he shook it off while making his way into the room. “Your name is now Crim?” He asks as he sits down across from me. I was confused about his choice of words so I just nod to him.

With his current action, I decided not to ask if he knew me just yet. “The guild told me that you wanted to meet the person who dealt with the bandits.” I say, trying to start the conversation.

“Ah yes, yes. They have been a pain for me to deal with so I wanted to meet with the party that defeated them. It was even more surprising to hear it was accomplished by one person! So I just had to set up a meeting with said person.” He tells me while he rests his cane against the small table in between us and proceeds to play with the ring on his pinky. When I looked at the ring on his pinky that he was playing with, I began feeling a sharp pain in my chest.

Serval saw me eyeing the ring and started speaking “This is a dear ring of mine, it’s a special ring that was given to me for my honorable deeds I’ve done.”.

I was confused why he began talking about his ring so I tried continuing the conversation “You said you wanted to meet the person who dealt with the bandits, why is that?”.

“Ah, that would be because a friend wanted me to deal with the outcome if needed.” He vaguely answers me with.

The more I talked with Serval Grue, the more I was confused. “What do you mean by outcome?” I ask, trying to clear up some of my confusion.

He lets out a frantic laugh “Ah, that. Sadly he’s higher up than me so I have to follow what he says, even if it’s his own fault.”. Serval then stops playing with the ring and grabs onto the cane “But since you came here, I’ll be higher up than him soon enough.”.

The answer he gave made me even more confused and since I couldn’t get anywhere with this conversation, I decided to just be blunt. “I don’t know what you mean but the reason I’m actually here is because I have something to ask you.” I finally come out and say.

Serval then raises his eyebrow while he begins plucking at his moustache with his free hand “Oh really? What may that be?”.

“I have no memories and when I first awoke, I had a piece of parchment that had your name on it. What I was wondering is, do you know me?” as I asked him, a weight felt like it was lifted off my shoulders.

He was visibly shaken for only a moment before he nodded “You don’t remember anything? Did you come straight here? Have you talked to anyone else that knows about you?” he asks me, bombarding me with questions.

“Nothing at all. I came straight here from the forest by Last Haven and no, I haven’t met anyone that knows me.” I say, answering each question.

“Ah, good good. It must be fate for you to come to me today, especially after having to clean up his mess.” He says while standing up. “I’m happy that I’m the first person you came to after waking up, this will be great news when they hear that you’re alive and with me!” While talking, he taps the ground with his cane loudly three times. “If you are how you are now, even I will stand a chance.” He says as a smirk forms on his lips.

Feeling uncertain with what he's been saying, my body started instinctively reaching for my sword. The instant Serval saw that, he started clicking his tongue while waving his pinky with the ring on it back and forth before tapping the floor with his cane one more time.

A sharp pain resounds in my chest when I look at the ring and a few seconds after his actions, the door to the room busts open and in rush two guards. “That guy made a mess with his own people and now I have to deal with it, luckily it’s you so I can make him owe me and move up above him.” He tells me as the guards go on either side of him. He then raises his cane and points it to me “Restrain him.”.

Both guards started approaching me from each side while I stood up and reached for my sword. As I take my sword off my back, I use the motion to make the first attack, swinging at the guard on my right. The guard wasn’t expecting the sudden attack and the arm holding his sword went flying off as my sword cut cleanly through before hitting the table, destroying it. When Serval saw that, he began tapping the ground hard with his cane again, this time four times.

The other guard was taken by surprise and hesitated to approach me, giving me ample time to switch focus on him. As the guard realized I was about to attack him, he just raised his sword, scared. When I saw this, I thought it would be a great time to try out the movements I’ve been practicing.

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I step towards him while making a sweeping strike and hit his sword, forcing him to step backwards. The guard took a few steps backwards and while doing so, I made another step forwards, making another sweeping strike from the opposite way. He barely manages to block it, getting forced back farther. I take another step forwards while swinging overhead this time. The guard had no room behind him when he backed up into the wall.

He didn’t expect the overhead, causing his guard to go off mark as my sword began carving into his shoulder, making him scream out. I then pull my sword out of his shoulder, letting his body slide down the wall as I turn to Serval.

He panicked as his eyes met with mine before he shook his head, fixing himself. “Even if you have some of your strength back, you still don’t have any of your magic.” a smirk formed on his face while talking, he then began playing with his ring once more as two more guards rushed into the room.

When the guards saw me standing in between two guards that were badly wounded, they didn’t think twice and charged at me. The first guard to reach me swings his sword. Clang! As I clash with him, the other behind him tries to take advantage of the clash. Before his attack could connect, with brute strength I force the guard I was clashing swords with to throw his body into his fellow guardsman, making them crash into each other.

As they got up, my sword was already flying towards their necks, so neither of them couldn’t block my blade in time. The crimson blade carved its way through the first neck, causing his head to go flying before it made its way to the next neck. “I guess I have to do everything myself!” I heard while my blade started carving through the next neck. I caught a glimpse of Serval who surprisingly was flying towards me at an unexpected speed, holding his cane like a sword.

The second guard's head goes flying into the air as I bring my sword up to block the sudden attack. I barely got my guard up in time before his cane could connect with my body. As our sword and cane clash, a tremendous force vibrates through the hilt of my blade and I get sent flying back, crashing into the wall.

I looked at Serval in astonishment while I got off the ground. A huge smirk lingered on his face while he began fiddling with his ring. “Your magic really is powerful, I must thank you for the gift.” he says right before dashing towards me again.

I expected him to rush towards me but still was surprised at the speed he was moving at. I got my guard up in time to block again but as we clashed, I struggled to hold against the force he was hitting me with.

He lets up with his cane before he crashes down with another swing. I got caught up in his pace and was forced to block the incoming attacks. Each strike he made felt heavier than the last.

After the third strike, before he could hit the next, I threw a fist into his gut. He stumbled backwards, creating some space as I began my counter attack.

As I ran towards him, he panicked and raised his cane to block. Shiiiing! Sparks flew as my sword grinded against his cane while I spun around, swinging for my next attack. Shiiiing! Sparks flew about again as I spun around once more, making my way to his back.

Serval was able to keep up with my speed so instead of a free hit on his back, my sword once again connected with his cane. Upset that I couldn’t properly execute the movements fully, I put as much force as I could for the last swing. Sparks flew as a piece of metal began skittering across the ground.

Serval stared at me wide-eyed as he fell to the ground, dropping his now broken cane. “B-but I even have your magic! There’s no way I should lose to you who’s just an empty vessel!”.

He then turns toward the door, frantically trying to crawl his way over there “Guards! Guards! Kill th-”.

While he tried to escape, I did the one thing my body was telling me to do, I walked up behind him and impaled him from behind causing him to start hacking up blood.

“N-no this shouldn’t be hap-” he gets cut off by coughing up more blood.

I was surprised he was still alive so I pulled out my sword, causing him to cough up more blood all over the floor. Even with all the blood he’s lost he was still struggling to make his way to the door while shouting inaudible things.

Not wanting to hear it anymore, I impale my sword into his neck, causing his head to roll towards the door.

Once there was peace in the room, I placed my sword upon my back while looking at Serval’s body, not fully understanding everything that just happened. While I was looking at his lifeless back, my eyes were drawn towards his hand that was reaching towards the door but more specifically, the ring.

For some reason the ring felt like it was calling out to me so I crouched down beside his body and pulled the ring off. While I inspected the plain looking ring, my chest felt like it was burning and at the same time, the ring was urging me to put it on. Following what my body was yearning for, I slipped on the ring.

Once it was on my finger, nothing happened. A few seconds after me just staring at it, it all of a sudden started melting into my finger. I felt a sharp pain on my heart as it felt like something was melting on it at the same time the ring on my finger was. After the ring disappeared from my finger, it felt like an invisible force started pouring into my body.

Goosebumps spread across my body as I felt a burning sensation throughout my whole body. It felt like all my senses were being overloaded. I grab at my head as a splitting headache starts to attack my mind. I began stumbling around as my whole body began writhing in pain.

The last thing I remembered was the sudden appearance of the roof in my eyes, followed by darkness.

I slowly opened up my eyes to find myself standing in the rain, staring at a puddle and watching a reflection of a dirty little boy with black hair that was wearing ragged clothing. Confused on what was happening, I frantically started looking around. What I saw was buildings all around me that looked rundown compared to the ones I saw in Trennet.

While I was looking around at my surroundings, I spotted a hooded figure walking towards me. “Where am I?” I was surprised at my high pitched voice that I had when calling out to the figure walking towards me.

“Don’t worry child, come with me. We can help you if you have nowhere to go.” a gentle voice said, coming from the hooded figure.

I was confused about what was happening but my body instinctively nodded to them and then they turned around and began walking towards a run down building that looked like it was in better condition than the rest. I was very confused on what was happening as my body naturally began following behind the hooded figure towards a building. Right as we got to the door, the hooded figure spoke once more “Welcome to your new home little one, our orphanage will keep you safe.”. After hearing those words I felt a warm sensation in my chest as the whole word began changing around me.