Sabatsday, 28th of Janus, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era
It was for the better part of an hour that Alfred held me up to explain to him what I’d just said about meeting a friend from Earth. He asked me what the two of us talked about, whether or not Ivan showed the same monstrous growth I had, and most importantly (to him) if Ivan was willing to have a chat with the old man. I managed to get Al off my back by telling him that Hunt was also informed of the situation by Ivan. He gave a worrying smile before nodding and allowing me my rest that night. I made a silent prayer for Hunt who would most likely be on the receiving end of Alfred’s inquisitive interrogations some time in the near future. I felt slightly bad but it wouldn’t be the first time I would sleep peacefully on the backs of another’s suffering.
I awoke in the morning before the sun was even fully awake. It had seemed that Al’s training was finally starting to be etched into my brain as my routine of waking up at 6 AM which I developed at the academy had been pushed back by an hour as I had now regularly been waking up at around 5 AM. This was of course a rough estimate as Orbis to my knowledge didn’t yet have a standardised method of time-keeping besides generally following the heavenly bodies and the use of clocks modeled on sundials which were still quite effective despite perhaps not being up to the level of modern digital clocks.
Regardless, I stretched myself and began doing my morning routines. I was thinking of laying back down a bit since I wanted to enjoy the short amount of extra rest I could afford with Alfred’s training being put on hold during the duration of the expedition, but just as I put my head back on my pillow, I could hear sounds of grunts coming from the courtyard which sounded like someone doing heavy labour. At the same time - due to Alfred’s training - I had begun to develop the ability to hear minor shifts in the wind and in the air if I put enough focus into it and now I was sensing those slight shifts coming from the courtyard.
Unable to hold in my curiosity for much longer, I finally opted to head outside into the courtyard to see what exactly was going on. When I got to the door, I took a peak from outside the window next to it to see what it was and I raised my eyebrows with a slight smirk as I saw a silhouette-like figure covered in darkness of someone swinging their weapon around and training. At first I didn’t quite see the person clearly as the sun was just barely out, but after a while and squinting a bit, I could faintly make out who it was, especially since I saw that the weapon the person was using was an axe and of a distinct design as well. I believe the type of axe he was wielding was a ‘Bardiche’ if I recall correctly.
Noticing my presence as I had opened the door to head out to the courtyard, the figure who I knew was Ivan stopped his moves as he stood at the ready though with heavy breaths. I gazed at him with a smirk which he returned as I scratched my chin.
“Impressive moves, Ivan, though it would probably actually help if you were facing things that could hit back.” I said as I teased my friend
“Hah! If I used the training dummies this steading could provide, you’d all be out of practice for weeks.” Ivan said “... and I don’t think anyone besides the veterans could actually measure up to my blows.”
“Oh really now?” I smiled as I raised my eyebrows “Alright, since I’m feeling nice, I’ll let you choose, Ivan. You want to use training gear or do you want us to bash each other seriously with our actual weapons?”
“Oh, acting very confident here are we, Carl?” Ivan smirked at me as bent over to inspect me jokingly. He had always been a little bit taller than I was but not by any meaningful margin. “You may be a couple levels higher than me, but I remind you, I’m still a tank…”
“All I hear is chit-chat to avoid a good spar..”
“Who says I’m avoiding the spar? This axe may look a bit rusty, but it’s enough to bash in a little bit of humility into that pretty-boy face of yours.”
“Ah, but on second thought, it’s best to use the training arms instead… Give me a second..” I said as I headed inside the office building to get a blunted training sword and polearm.
“Well that sounds like someone who’s scared of using real weapons to fight, hahahah!”
“My friend, unlike your ‘rusty axe’ my blades are actually valuable and I’d hate wasting their durability on a simple spar that won’t require much effort anyways.”
“Oho… fighting words! You know, I’ll just let you run your mouth and waggle your tongue like that! Lord knows you can’t use it to waggle at anything else anyways!” Ivan always loved teasing me. I only gave him my middle finger in response.
When I went to the office armoury to get the training gear, I was surprised to see Alfred already up at his desk, writing up what looked like a few notes on his journal. He asked me what I was doing with the training gear and when I told him I was going to have a friendly sparring session, he immediately dropped his pen and closed his journal and asked if he could watch us spar. As if I even had any choice when the old man was that determined, I nodded and told him to come by and watch us.
When Ivan saw Alfred coming out of the building with me, he immediately cleared his throat and fixed his posture. Alfred laughed and waved his arm in the air telling him that I’d already explained the entire situation to him and that he just wanted to see what a friend of mine was capable of. Ivan immediately let out a snort and relaxed his posture. It wasn’t long until I threw him the training polearm and I readied myself with two training swords to signal that the match was about to start. Alfred agreed to be the referee of the match and with that Ivan and I both took our positions.
Ivan’s smirk was gone as I saw him fully focused on handling his training weapon. I in turn took a deep breath as I poised my two training swords towards my friend.
“En-garde…! Prêt… Allez!!” As Alfred said the words to start the match, I wasted no time lounging straight at Ivan in what would seem like a flash with gusts of wind blowing around me. I could see Ivan being startled for a split second but his stance stood strong as he took on my initial blow even with being pushed back as his feet dragged on the ground with pieces of ice stalagmites appearing around his feet.
We quickly exchanged blows back and forth as if we were taking turns striking and deflecting at each other. I had tried using the fact that I was dual wielding to my advantage. As I struck him with my right sword, my left was aiming for a spot that was undefended but despite me at times catching him off guard, Ivan would be able to tank my attack and dish out a heavy bash in response which I would only be able to narrowly dodge.
As our back and forth continued, I finally managed to land a couple of good blows to Ivan’s right leg and left shoulder. Wanting to capitalise on this, I had quickly tried to connect my next two strikes to hit him in a spot where his polearm was no longer covering but before my attack managed to hit, Ivan finally started getting more serious as in what seemed like a split second, his figure vanished into the dark only to reappear from the shadows to my right as a cold icy wind attacked at me. I saw Ivan was already close for another hit on me as he managed to land a solid strike on my right arm.
Not wanting to let him take advantage of this, quickly gave a sideward slash with my left sword which managed to get a good strike at Ivan before he once again vanished into the shadows, managing to reappear a few steps behind where he originally was. In response, I jumped back with a strong wind gust to put some distance between us. We spent a few seconds just staring at each other before we laughed.
“Are you actually going to try and get serious?” Ivan asked “If not, I’d rather just stop the spar now cause I don’t think we can afford to waste anymore time to get ready…”
“Really now? I thought you still had a lot more to show me…” I said as I relaxed my stance a little bit and gave a smile
“Yeah, I think so…” Ivan said as he too started to relax “I don’t think you have enough strength to do major damage to me while you’re too fast to-...”
Before he even got the chance to finish what he was saying, I had struck out again in fool force as I unleashed a torrent of slashes and a flurry of winds to strike at Ivan. Ivan was clearly caught off-guard as he was struggling to stay on his feet. It took him a few minutes being put on the backfoot before he managed to summon a wall of ice separating us.
“What the hell?! We were talking!” Ivan said
“Who told you to start talking in the middle of a spar?” I said while I laughed
“That is against duel etiquette, I say- AND THERE YOU GO AGAIN!!” As soon as Ivan started talking again, I jumped up with the help of my winds over the ice wall while in mid air I unleashed several more windcuts towards Ivan. This time, however, he didn’t let his guard down too much as he met my downward impact with his polearm. Ivan was bent back greatly as he even froze his own two feet to prevent him from losing ground. Finally before I could land another major blow, I had heard Alfred giving a loud clap which was amplified by his control of the wind. I had stopped just an inch away from landing the strike and at Alfred’s instruction, the struggling Ivan finally gave in and dropped to the ground as well on his arse.
“Alright, lads, I think that’s enough for a friendly spar!” Alfred said “Anymore than that and you two might actually destroy half my village… well that is before I’d slap some sense in you, hahahaha!!”
“Ah well it was a good fight…” I said as I put aside my training weapons and helped Ivan up “So who do you think would win the fight if we continued, Al?”
“I might be biased because you’re my student, but I would say you had the advantage. I was just surprised you didn’t go all out from the beginning…” Alfred said “But that’s not to put you down in any way, Sir Ivan. You fought splendidly and in different circumstances you might have come out as the undoubted winner.”
“Aye, that’s fine. I had enough chances to beat Carl back in our world so I won’t be mad that he had some advantage here…” Ivan said as he slapped my back. Regardless, he was being quite the graceful loser which I thought was very uncharacteristic of him. “As you can see, I’ve almost depleted my energy and mana and would take a little bit to recover my strength, but you don’t even seem to be bothered much.”
“Yes well, everyday being beaten a quarter inch to death by a paraplegic old man would help get some things hammered into your brain while fighting. Like my favourite of Alfred’s lessons…”
“Oh and what would that be, Charlie?” Alfred asked as he scratched his chin.
I put my arm over Ivan's shoulder before saying cheekily, "Never expect a fair fight! Hahahahah!"
"Now that's my Charlie! As I always said, honour won't be of much help to you when you're dead. Better to be sly but alive than honest but dead… But Ivan, you are no less intriguing yourself. It isn't everyday that I'm able to see a warrior like yourself who's able to utilise two elements though with that combination, you would make a stellar stealth fighter!"
"That is high praise, sir." Ivan smiled, feeling a little proud of himself "While my main role is to bear the heaviest fire for my party, I do intend to be flexible with the other implementations of my skill set as directed by Sir Hunt."
"Good man. Trust Hunt. He's one of the first disciples I'd ever trained and don't let him fool you with his humble man act. He's far more fierce than anyone gives him credit for."
"Aye, sir."
And it just so happened that while we were talking, the man in question - James Hunt - had arrived at the courtyard with a difficult expression as he looked around the vicinity and saw the debris, slight cracks on the ground, as well as the pieces of broken ice stalagmites that have still yet to melt and disappear. He was in turn followed behind by Blakebow and his adjutant who in contrast had quite the giddy look on his face. Hunt had only turned to look at Ivan with a slight frown before he faced Alfred and bowed frantically.
“Accept my deepest apologies for this, Your Grace! I should’ve instructed my party member with more discipline!” Hunt said not noticing Alfred’s grin “Ivan! Why are you starting fights with Charles? It’s bad enough that-..”
“Honestly, Jim, you’re worrying too much! Can’t you see Alfred is laughing over there? HAHAHAH!!” Blakebow said as he slapped Hunt’s back boisterously.
“He’s right, Jimmy.” Alfred said “The boys were merely having a friendly spar which I had personally requested. You were praising Ivan so much so I just had to gander upon his abilities myself, and I have to say, he gave Charlie here quite the run for his money.”
“Oh, I see…” Hunt scratched the back of his head sheepishly
“Oh, why didn’t anyone call me over to witness the match as well! This is quite annoying!” Blakebow said as he put his hands on his hips and gave a big huff
“You’ll get your chances after the expedition, I assure you, speaking of which, I believe it’s time to make the final preparations.” Alfred said “And Jim, it appears I have a couple of things to discuss with you and Lord Blakebow too. In private. The rest of you lot can go ahead and prepare as was previously planned.”
Blakebow gave a smirk with a raised eyebrow while Hunt was left only ever more confused at the development of the situation. I chuckled imagining the sort of inquisitive line of questioning Hunt will be subjected to by the old geezers. Definitely something I was glad that I didn’t need to be a part of.
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And so I went off to get ready for my own preparations. As I had access to my own ‘storage space’ I could afford bringing more supplies than what would otherwise be available to me but I cautioned myself to still appear to bring more mundane utilities to avoid heavier suspicion from the other members of the expedition. I hadn’t managed to ask Ivan yet by that point if he had access to a similar type of spatial storage system but the expedition would take some time and I’d have other opportunities to ask him later on.
I didn’t forget to take a bucket full of water from the village’s well to bring with me to the house for washing up from the spar. I never smelt particularly bad, but the sliminess and stickiness of sweat just never felt comfortable for me. I quickly went to the office building’s washroom and cleaned myself off of the grime.
I saw that Rosie was already busy in the kitchen as I was getting out of the washroom. She looked at me for a second before she told me to come over. It wasn’t long before she handed over a small pack to me and I saw it was filled with some wonderful smelling toast.
“This won’t last you for too long, Sir Charles, but it would be most wonderful if you could at least enjoy it for today!” Rosie said with a smile “Just be sure to share it with the others.”
“That is a difficult request especially with bread this delicious… But with a heavy heart, I will try to share.” I said half-jokingly “Thank you very much, Rosie. All I ask now are prayers for the success of our little outing.”
“Of course, Sir Charles.” Rosie answered with a slight bow of her head and with that, I headed out towards the village gates where the expeditionary party had already started to gather in earnest.
I passed through the village’s palisade gates towards where the main adventurer’s party had gathered, just a little bit outside to the periphery of the trail-road leading to the village. Harry, Percy, and Jenny were having a chat while I saw Ivan was sitting down a few steps away from the rest of his party while I assumed their healer was still with the rest of the old veterans. I didn't quite have the best impression of Harry, especially after his grandstanding upon our first meeting, but I felt that it was still far more beneficial to maintain a friendly relationship with the other hunters.
“It appears we’ll be heading out soon, gentlemen.” I said as I approached the group. Harry was the first one to direct his gaze at me as he showed a more reserved smile while for a split second, I noticed his eyes moving towards Ivan “Once again, I am looking forward to working with you all. As someone who has yet to officially join the adventurer’s association, I humbly ask for guidance from my seniors.”
“Likewise, Sir Charles.” This time it was Jenny who answered my greetings, slightly curtsying with her cloak. Well, I would guess that even nobles that are adventurers are still nobility at the end of the day. She had put on a most elegant smile as she continued “But regardless of all that, we are also looking forward to see what you are truly capable of.”
“Aye, just remember to keep up with us, eh?” Harry finally spoke up as he gave my back a slight slap “We’ll make sure to show you a thing or two. Who knows, maybe you’ll even make it to the steel rank in a year if you’re talented, hahahaha!”
I laughed along with the man as I made a slight bow with my hand on my chest. He was after all my senior in terms of ranking and I had no idea what he was capable of, but picking unnecessary fights would be pointless at that stage. I only made a slight turn of my head towards Ivan to see if he had any reaction. Besides making a mocking frown and rolling his eyes, he decided to stay quiet and I nodded to him. “I look forward to getting to know all of you, and to work together as a cohesive team. That includes Sir Ivan as well who I’ve had the joy of sparring against and can say has quite the battle prowess.”
I noticed Ivan smirking and giving out a snort as I attempted to massage his ego a little in front of his teammates. Harry in turn only scoffed as he continued talking to me, “This world is a large place, Charlie. If you think you’re gonna make it just because you tussled a little bit with that brute, you’d be in for a surprise. So just keep your head up and your wits about you, else you’ll be in for a rude awakening-.. Arck!”
Jenny had kept her smile as she struck Harry’s side with her elbow. “Now, now, we shouldn’t be showing such a fierce rivalry especially when we’re being joined by such esteemed guests…”
I held in a chuckle as I saw Ivan already starting to glare at the large tank of a man. But as if a sign by God himself, the veterans had finally reached the gates of the village and I saw Hunt and Mother Margaret standing in front of the gates alongside Alfred and Blakebow. It was right after that that Alfred once again spoke up towards the expeditionary forces.
"I believe all that is required to be said has been said and all plans and strategies have been thought out." Alfred began as he had used his wind abilities to strengthen his voice "Now all there is left is to put your trust in our Lord and to put your hearts to your duties. For in this undertaking, starting from this very moment until you return you are all no longer merely levied soldiers or adventurers or mercenaries for hire but you are all warriors of Feldonia, children of Archior, and it is for the safety of our lands that you carry out this mission. Long live the King! Glory to Archior and its Empire!"
"""Glory to Archior and its Empire!!!"'' Everyone shouted in response.
It was still a surreal thing for me to see directly, witnessing people give out pledges of loyalty to the concept of the nation itself that it would even transcend the institutions it was originally bound to. By this point in time, there was no longer such a thing as an Empire of Archior - not for almost half a century. The concept of nationalism only vaguely subsisted during my first lifetime but everything was still tied to the person of the monarch and in a feudal hierarchy regardless of how rapidly the world was modernising even at the time of my death where the institutions of Modern France and Spain were beginning to develop in earnest.
After Alfred's oration, Mother Margaret stepped forward and made the sign of the cross before stretching her hands out towards our expeditionary force and said a prayer of blessing,
“Ángele Dei, qui custos es mei, me tibi commissum pietáte supérna, hodie illúmina, custódi, rege et gubérna. Amen.” She recited a prayer which to my surprise I knew from Earth, but it was also surreal hearing Latin being spoken. But none of that came close to the surprise that I would experience next.
As her hands remained outstretched, I could see a visible flaming aura starting to surround the abbes as her eyes too started to glow a bright splendour. Soon after, a large flaming image of an angel manifested from the flames around Mother Margaret with outstretched wings while it was holding a flaming sword. I froze at that moment as I was just in awe at this kind of ‘magic’ as I had never seen anything so spectacular directly before. The theoretical knowledge I possessed on the divine or arcane of this world thanks to all of Alfred’s lessons amounts to nothing when compared to actual living experience.
While still being in awe of the spectacle, I saw the flaming angel move forwards before enveloping its large wings around the expeditionary forces. I was startled for a second as I instinctively motioned for my weapons in a guarded stance, but the angel quickly dispersed into flames that covered the entire expeditionary force as we stood there with oohs and aahs. At that moment, I could feel a comforting warmth come over me… it felt, well, good.
When the blessings were over, Mother Margaret made the sign of the cross once more to which the majority of the people there followed suit. I took a quick glance at Ivan and chuckled a bit as I saw him do the eastern method of signing the cross. A few of the levy soldiers looked at Ivan with raised eyebrows as if what they saw Ivan doing was more peculiar than the literal fireworks show we all witnessed earlier. Regardless, once all the rituals had been concluded, we finally set off. I saw Alfred sending me off with a wave and I returned it. This would be the first adventure I’d been on in a long while.
***
It had been a few hours since the expeditionary forces had set off towards the area that was pinpointed by the scouts to be located a few days away from the Surlock castle. One would think that the enemy headquarters being placed so close to the baronal areas, the devastation they should’ve managed to inflict would be greater than the current scope of attacks. But regardless, I could only pray that the expedition would go smoothly at least until we made it to the designated area as the way had been peaceful up till now.
I was gracious enough to be provided a horse steed by the barony knights so I was able to ride along with Ivan and his party members. With my current speed, I’d wager that I could most probably outrun the horse even if it were traveling at full speed but it’s always better to conserve as much energy and stamina as I can.
“You ride that horse like you’ve ridden it for a long time, Sir Charles.” Sir Churchward, the baronial Knight’s Platoon commander, said to me “Old Swift that you’re riding there is one of the most stubborn of our warhorses yet it only took you half an hour to rein it in.”
“You give me too much credit, sir.” I said with a polite smile “I was fortunate enough to be brought up with the upbringing that I had and I learned a thing or two.”
“Upbringing? Well that just makes it all the more suspicious, Sir Charles. I had the privilege to squire for The Great Sir Blakebow since I was just a child because of my father’s - who was made a knight during the Southerland Rebellion - recommendation. It would take years of training to at least be proficient in horse riding, not to mention the familiarity with horses would require a large capital for their maintenance…”
I was starting to worry as I was thinking of ways to divert the explanations. I had mused with Alfred some plausible excuses but I never had anything concrete to cover up.
“Y’know, I’ve also been very curious since we first met about your upbringing, Sir…” This time Jenny, who was also riding next to me, had chimed into the conversation as she had a most inquisitive expression plastered to her face “You conduct yourself very well that one would think you were a member of the nobility…”
“Or maybe…” This time it was Harry chiming in “You do have noble blood flowing in you. Maybe some count or baron or what not had a bit of fun with their servant girls and perhaps…”
“Harry, that’s very uncouth and ill-mannered!” Jenny quickly rebuked the large man as she elbowed his side.
“Oof, I was only joking! Hahahaha!”
“Harry likes to make stupid jokes like that.” Percy who was behind us made a comment this time as well “But I assure you he isn’t that bad of a person… at least not most of the time.”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter.” I waived away such blatant insults, it really wasn’t worth any arguments. I mean what could I do? Proclaim that I was an Emperor from an alternate universe? I’d rather have people misunderstand me as a bastard of some noble than to look at me like I was insane. However, I did need to push back a little towards Harry’s blatant disregard towards etiquette. “But I would like to remind Sir Whitefield that I am indeed officially the adopted grandson of the Prince-Imperial - even if the Royal Family had yet to officially sign His Highness’s request - so it would be very fortunate of me if you’d spare me at least that modicum of reverence, sir.”
Harry raised his eyebrows and both his hands slightly in an exaggerated manner, “My apologies, Your Lordship…- OW!!” It was finally Mother Margaret who slapped Harry on the back of his head. One stern look from the abbess was enough to make the large bear of a man go quiet. Everyone laughed as they saw the exchange. It was then I decided to divert the attention away from myself as I in turn asked a question to Jenny.
“I too have something I have been very curious about, and I’ve been meaning to ask this to Lady Genevieve…” I said to which was reciprocated by a smile and a raised eyebrow from the ducal princess “If only you would allow it of course.”
“Oh there’s no need to be so formal, Sir Charles, especially not on an adventure like this. You can just call me Jenny or Jen like everyone else does!” The highly spirited girl said “Anyways, ask away! Though I might have an idea of what you’re going to ask me…”
“I’m interested in what you think I was going to ask you…”
“Probably something along the lines of, ‘What is a highborn lady like you doing carousing with adventurers?’...”
“I didn’t know you also possessed the abilities of a mindreader, your lady- I mean Jenny.”
“Pffft… Oh please! A five year-old could take a guess at what you wanted to ask, hahaha! It’s a question I get far too much.”
“Well it would work wonders towards my curiosity if you could provide me an answer directly, haha. Meeting both you and the Prince-Imperial, I almost got the impression that perhaps adventuring is a common pastime amongst the nobility. The Prince-Imperial has educated me on the basics of the guild structure, but the specifics elude me still.”
“Like you’ve said, it isn’t really all that rare for Nobles to take part within the Adventurer’s Association. Becoming an adventurer is often quite the lucrative endeavour as one would stand to gain many exotic riches and the like, as well as a name for themselves as great warriors…”
“A very generalised answer, Jenny.” I nodded as I rubbed my chin feeling the slightly rough stubble that was growing on my face in lieu of a few days without shaving “But I find it hard to believe that a mere promise of wealth or vainglory would be a motivating factor to someone as esteemed as a ducal princess.”
Jenny giggled again before finally expanding her answer, “Well what can I say, Charlie… I have always been quite the adventurous spirit. The trappings of court life have no bearings upon the great unknowns of this world, and as numerous as the tomes of the Library at the Imperial Academy be, truly being here out on the field and experiencing mana directly does me wonders than a hundred nights bent over dust-ridden books… Besides, being out here also means I get to stay away and properly ignore any of the insolent oafs my father would push upon me for marriage…”
“Ahh, now I see… you should’ve just led with the last part.” I said with a slight laugh. The woe to any a noble father would of course be such a free-spirited daughter, though I kept these thoughts to myself.
As if she knew what I was thinking, Jenny laughed again before continuing, “I’m still only eighteen and I have much of my life ahead of me to have to worry about anything like marriage regardless of what court society would think. And, when we’re talking of fun, there’s still much of it to be had out here…” Jen had placed one of her dainty hands on the side of Harry’s face before she gave him a peck on his right cheek after the comment.
I merely raised my eyebrow at such a display of affection but relented from making a comment as I didn’t want to make any presumptions regardless of what I thought the relationship between the two was. It was only then that Harry gained a confident grin on his face. “To have the honor of the innocent princess’s kiss on my cheek would be a charm against any foe!” Harry said to which I could hear Percy scoffing behind me before muttering the word ‘innocent..pfft’ under his breath. Again, it appeared to me to be a wise choice to remain silent.
As if to gloat, Harry once more started speaking to me. “Don’t fret, Charlie. Perhaps if you show some valour on this expedition, I would help spread your name in the taverns where you could earn the affections of some young maidens for yourself!-”
I merely rolled my eyes to the side before at the next moment I could hear the scouts at the vanguard of our formation exclaiming, “Wolfbeasts spotted!!”, before I could see a group of several wolf beasts and a couple of smaller wolves approach.
As the knights were gathering themselves in formation and the other adventurers too were preparing for an engagement, I immediately jumped off my horse, unsheathed Windwyrm and launched myself off of the ground towards the beasts. In a torrential flurry, I had slain each and every one of the beasts in less than a minute before the rest of the expeditionary forces could even think to aid me.
*You have gained 150XP!*
*You have gained 150XP!*
...
*You have gained 150XP!*
With the last of the wolfbeasts slain, I used some of my wind powers to get the blood off my weapons as I slashed in the air to throw the bloodstains off to the ground before I sheathed my blades. As I looked back towards the party, I could see most of them had slightly surprised expressions on their face including Harry who furrowed his brows at me and had his mouth slightly ajar.
I chuckled before saying to Harry, “I’ll take you up on your offer of spreading my name, Sir Whitefield. It seems this little adventure would prove more interesting than you’d previously expect.”
I could hear the man scoff as I had made my way back to my horse. The expedition was only just beginning, but I could tell I still stood much to gain from the experience. The days ahead were going to be long.