As we expected in the morning, Granid finally woke up. He slept for a long time due to exhaustion, but now he seemed to be much better. Incartia helped him, using some kind of magic to keep him alive. At the moment of his awakening, I was next to him while the sun illuminated the area behind me.

"Good morning. Are you feeling better?"

"Yes."

The old wizard groaned as he rose to his feet.

"I feel like I'm back from the dead. How long have I been asleep?"

"This time for two whole days."

I answered.

When we were still in Itsqueen, he woke up only to eat and drink, and then he continued to regain his strength. Incartia immediately offered her teacher food, which Granid, of course, did not refuse, picking up a wooden plate.

"Oooh~... it's Dlihnyu from my favorite tavern."

Granid smiled as he began to eat the fried meat and cabbage.

While Granid was eating, he suddenly realized that he was in an unfamiliar environment, looking around.

"Why aren't we in Itsqueen?"

I, in turn, did not know how to choose the right words. I didn’t know how he would react if he found out what we had done in these two days. Having swallowed my saliva, I began to tell the story, the result of which could cost us our lives.

"Something unexpected happened."

I started small, pronouncing these words in a very serious tone.

"We killed a lot of people yesterday."

Granid suddenly stopped chewing his food, his languid old eyes widened and his hands shaking.

"What are you doing?"

“The guards grabbed Sigrun and they were going to execute her... and... we couldn’t wait. We had to get her out, and to do this we fought our way into the dungeon, pulled her out, and then got out of the city. We managed to hide this under the attack of the Antigones, but I’m afraid this won’t bring back the lives of those people... in general... that’s how things are.”

I behave like a delinquent schoolboy in front of my parents. CRAP!

Granid lowered his gaze, darting his eyes here and there. For him, my words were clearly not what he wanted to hear after his long sleep.

"How many have you killed?"

"You can't say for sure."

I answered briefly, simultaneously admitting that we did not even count the number of those killed.

“And it also seems that we killed the daughter of Count Laroy. We had a meal with her, if you remember.”

"Yes... I remember her."

Granid said gloomily.

“Listen, Boris, are all your people here?”

I nodded, already anticipating the possible outcome of this conversation, and Granid, meanwhile, continued:

"And you realize what you've done, right?"

"Right."

I nodded.

“I will definitely be punished for what happened, but now is not the time for that.”

Granid, however, upon hearing my words, only growled, clenching his teeth.

“I shouldn’t have trusted you, strangers from the sea of emptiness. I hoped to help you, but you... and you killed the people I swore to protect. But I helped you, I didn’t leave you in trouble, I helped establish communication, I created the rings of Babylon for you , and you... you have done evil."

A necessary evil.

I added to myself, but did not voice it out loud, fearing that the old wizard would not have the best reaction.

He could have simply killed us at any moment, but he was in no hurry to do so and was waiting for something. Perhaps he is still accumulating his magical powers in order to commit murder. In this case, we need to take the chance and kill him at the first opportunity.

"Teacher."

Incartia suddenly turned to him, sitting down next to him.

“Sorry, I didn’t know what to do. I tried to persuade him not to do this, I asked him to wait for you to wake up, but he didn’t do it.”

"Of course he wouldn't do that."

The elder wizard shook his head, picking up his staff.

“It’s unlikely that Laroy would have let the girl go just like that. He would have demanded something in return, but instead you did everything your way.”

"He offered nothing but torture."

I confessed, remembering the words of Count Laroy.

"He didn't say he'd let her go, only that he'd think about it."

"Vile aristocrat."

Granid suddenly said, making me surprised.

“They are always trying to use someone and do not shy away from methods for this. I know you, Boris, if you had the opportunity, you would have agreed to fulfill his favor, but he wanted to play with you, which ultimately forced you to take such bloody steps. "

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He understands me perfectly, but it’s unlikely that he’s ready to forgive me for what happened.

"I won't forgive the lives you took, but promise me you won't let something like this happen again."

I was silent for several seconds, trying to realize that a pitiful ten percent probability of the current outcome had now happened. I really didn't expect him to forgive me, but why does he crave our power so much that he's even willing to forgive such an atrocity? I didn’t know the answer to this question, but Granid wouldn’t answer it for us yet. He wants our strength and is ready to forgive us for what we did the night before last.

"I promise this won't happen again."

I said and turned to the sapper.

"Mshkhan."

"I'm here."

The sapper ran up to Granid and, crouching opposite him, took out remote explosives from under Granid’s robe, and then, looking at the old wizard, said.

"These are... safety precautions."

The old wizard's eyes widened as he realized that his life now depended on his actions. Meanwhile, the sapper, having hidden the explosives in his backpack, went to the carts, and in the meantime I decided to explain the further situation to Granid. I told him that we left the city on these carts, loaded them with food and headed to Ran, after which he immediately spoke out.

“You have assembled such a caravan that it seems that from now on you cannot avoid meeting with robbers. You look like a rich prize.”

“I think if you continue to help us a little with ammo, we will be ready to fight off any attacks.”

I, in turn, laughed it off.

“By the way, tell Granid, how did it happen that you didn’t calculate your strength after duplicating our ammunition?”

“I’m already too old to be a wizard. Moreover, I’m a free wizard and I don’t know a way to prolong my life. Witches may know this, but not me. My knowledge of magic is scanty and what I know is only a drop of everything that I’m going to pass on to Incartia. "

"So it's all about your age?"

Fred, who approached us, became interested.

“The reason lies not only in age, but also in the strength that I have been saving for many years. I have never used such a large reserve of mana in my life as I did that day. Creating something out of nothing requires truly enormous strength and not everyone can do that same as me."

"It's clear."

I nodded and turned to Granid with some more information.

"There's something else you should know. While we pulled Sigrun out, we saved the princess of the Lakuus kingdom."

Granid and Incartia looked at each other in surprise. They definitely didn't expect to hear something like that from me.

"Princess?"

Both asked in unison.

I nodded and rose to my feet, approaching the cart where the royal princess lay. Sigrun was next to her, as always, and was already talking to her about something. The black woman, noticing us, smiled and greeted us.

"Good morning. You're just in time."

I chuckled and came closer to see that the princess was looking at me with fear in her green eyes. She said something awkwardly, barely able to find the right words:

"Um~...Is your name Boris?"

"Boris Kipito, Princess Ilifreeta is at your service."

I introduced myself, to which the paralyzed girl awkwardly darted her eyes, then at Sigrun, then again at me.

"It's clear."

Said Ilifreeta.

"So what are you going to do with me?"

"Nothing will happen to you for now."

I answered honestly.

"We were curious to find out what was happening within the walls of the palace and to observe your ability of telekinesis."

"What?"

The princess did not understand the last word.

"What is «tele-ki-ne-sis»?"

She doesn't know the meaning of this word, however, I expected it.

I noticed to myself, but before asking her to demonstrate her strength, I introduced her to the old wizard and his student.

"These are magicians. Granid and Incartia."

"Granite?"

Ilifreeta looked into the eyes of the old man.

“Is it really you? I’m not imagining this?”

“Alas, I have never seen you before.”

The old wizard admitted, examining the princess.

“But if you just know my name, then most likely you should know from your father that I once served at his court, but that was a very, very long time ago. The time was different then, peaceful, so to speak.”

This is interesting.

I thought of new information for myself while Granid continued to talk.

“I see fate was merciless with you. You cannot walk or even crawl. Sod did not give you the gift of the most important thing for the normal life of any person. Because of this, most likely they despised you, because the Divinity turned away from you, left you to certain death and thus no less you are alive, you thirst to live. This is commendable."

The princess silently agreed with the words of the old wizard. She also had something to say to his words:

“Uh-huh. You are right, dear Granid. I was despised by my own family, but I just want to be free. I don’t want to burden myself with royal duty. I don’t want to be used in a obviously doomed marriage. I know that I was doomed with that very moment when I realized my situation. I don’t know why I’m still alive, why they didn’t kill me at the moment when they realized that I would be motionless for the rest of my life. I thought that this would be with me forever, but I thought. me that maybe there is some thin straw of hope. Maybe one day I will be able to get back on my feet and run around the garden. Maybe there is some kind of magic that will help me?

Hearing the question from the princess, Granid placed his palm on the princess’s body and stood there for a few seconds, tore his palm away from her body, and then chuckled.

“You were cursed by Sod himself. No one will ever heal you, Your Highness.”

The princess sank at his words and she was sad exactly until I inserted my word:

“Magic may be powerless here, but what about neurosurgery, bioengineering, bioimplants and cyberprosthetics?”

A set of unknown words clearly made the heads of the surrounding natives boil. They clearly did not understand what I just said.

"I mean, we can get the princess back on her feet."

I simplified everything that was said.

"Is it true?"

Ilifreeta exclaimed joyfully, and Fred confirmed my words.

“That’s right. Our army has equipment, medicines and drugs to treat all types of diseases and ailments. Even if only the head remains from the body, we will still raise it to its feet. Here, for example, he.”

Fred pointed at Stern.

"He also couldn't walk for a while and only did it thanks to the exoskeleton. Now you won't see it on him, because Granid healed him... and I'm really interested in finding out how he did it."

Fred finished his thought with his own interest.

"In general, we can help you."

Joy was reflected on Ilifreeta’s face, but after a few moments she immediately sank, realizing that we could not do this for nothing.

"What do you want from me?"

"First, show your ability."

I said, and the princess, in turn, was perplexed.

Sigrun decided to help her in this matter.

“Ilif, remember how you gave me bread in prison? Try to do the same now.”

"Um...okay."

Sigrun placed a folding knife on the edge of the cart, and then moved away from the princess. We all did this to observe the princess’s abilities, after which we witnessed the work of real telekinesis. The knife smoothly rose into the air and also smoothly went into Sigrun’s hands, and when it reached the girl’s palms, Sigrun immediately squeezed it in her palm.

"You see."

The black woman smiled.

"She has telekinesis."

However, the princess did not seem to sincerely understand what was so special about her ability to move objects with the power of her thoughts.

“I don’t understand what’s so amazing about this? I can just do it and that’s it.”

"Nobody can do that."

I said, coming closer to the princess.

“We call this telekinesis, that is, the ability in which, with the help of thoughts, you can move objects without having absolutely no contact with them.”

"Fun."

He scratched Granid's beard.

“Such things surprise you. This happens in our world. If people are born in the world who lack something, then the world gives them a natural gift. Her Highness has the gift of moving things with just the power of thought, but she is not capable of anything more. For this gift, nature took away her ability to walk."

At this moment, Fred had a question that he immediately voiced:

“What gift will a person receive if he is born blind, deaf, or insensitive?”

“It all depends on what a person lacks most. If his eyes do not see, he will instead feel the world around him, as he feels the taste of berries in his mouth. If he does not hear, he will see vibrations with his eyes. And if he does not feel, then he will understand what he sees and what he hears. But if there is none of this, not hearing, not seeing, not walking and not feeling, then I don’t know what kind of monster this world will give birth to.”

“As I understand it, in order to receive the so-called gift you need to be born this way, am I right?”

“The gift is not received for the right of birth, the gift is received only by a few in whom the Gods see the fateful one, the one who will change the fate of this world.”

Granid looked at the princess and added sadly:

“Your desire is to be free from the fate prepared for you, but in the end you cannot avoid it. Accept your fate or do what these strangers tell you.”