With the wind rushing through my body and Nazir shouting "My Lord!" My eyes widened and I began to breathe rapidly as my heartbeat quickened.

My hand went to my dagger and I drew it from its scabbard and stabbed it with all my strength into the chest of the creature that had its claws on my back and shoulder and was trying to bite me. As the creature began to fall, motionless, I realized that something like ivy was wrapping around my body.

I hit my arm and shoulder against the cliff wall, looked up and saw the vines coming out of Wyll's hand.

"Hang in there, captain!" Wyll shouted and I shook my head. I looked up again and saw them still running. My shoulder was hurting from hitting the wall constantly. I put my hand against the wall, pushed myself slightly away and started running. As I kept running, sometimes I made little stone steps under my feet to keep my balance, but I didn't know how long my mana could last.

Why didn't we build the steps and cover ourselves? I was thinking that we would have escaped easily that way, when Nazir said, "My lord, watch out!" and I noticed 3 creatures chasing me on all fours on the wall behind me.

‘Oh, that’s why…’

In a sudden feeling I turned my head, looked back and realized that one of the creatures was jumping towards me. I jumped with all my strength, supported by a pillar I had created next to the wall, and after the creature swung its claw at me while falling, I hit the wall and the pillar disappeared. I cried out in pain.

When the other creature jumped at me, I managed to stab it in the arm with my dagger, but when it kept moving, my eyes widened in fear. With my head thrown back and my hands shaking, I managed to get the flask out of my belt and put it in his mouth as he tried to bite me. When he bit my hand and the bottle, he started to fall to the ground motionless, I exhaled a huge breath of pain and clenched my teeth and a new hand was formed with turquoise particles.

As I continued wall running, I looked back and saw that the last creature was just running and watching me instead of attacking. The feeling of unease that filled me was heightened when I heard a very loud howl and the creature stopped following me and went up. Then I felt that I was being pulled upwards.

"They're retreating," Alicia said, and as I took a deep breath, Wyll grabbed me, lifted me up and helped me balance. I realized that all of them were looking at me in amazement. Nazir knelt down, put his hand on my shoulder and checked my body, my clothes were dirty and there were some cuts, but there were no wounds because the creatures' claws were mostly caught in armor. Although, I could heal even if I was hurt.

"Are you all right, my lord?" Nazir looked at me with worried eyes, but my eyes had shifted to the mountain of creature corpses behind them. To the mountain of corpses and the red smoke slowly drifting in the air... I nodded to him and Nazir stood up and looked at the others and then the stone steps began to form at the edge of the cliff.

I bit my lip. I didn't want to leave all this xp- I mean mana in here, but I was also aware that the creatures were not running away, they were retreating... I quickly approached the corpses and as soon as I raised my hand I felt the red flow fill my body.

"My lord, don't get me wrong, but we don't have time for this."

I absorbed the flow of 20 or 30 creatures in front of us, but there were tons more corpses behind us... I looked at the bodies and then at Nazir and I took a deep breath and ran to him.

Nazir at the front, followed by Ivo, Lisa, me, Alicia, Euric and Wyll, we started to descend the stairs leading downwards, adjacent to the wall. Nazir was creating at least 10 steps ahead of us and after a while the steps behind us would turn to dust. After some time I couldn't follow, we were halfway down the cliff and Nazir said "I'm done" and he and Ivo swapped places.

After some time with Ivo, we finally made it to the bottom and I took another deep breath and let myself fall to the ground.

As the earth and plants soiled my hair and clothes, I noticed others sitting on the ground and catching their breath. We all sat in silence and waited for about half an hour.

Finally Euric got up and said, "We've got half a day's travel ahead of us, we'd better go now," and we huffed and puffed and got up and started walking to find the main road. I didn't want to walk at all, but I was aware that Nazir was too tired to carry me. I decided to walk at least as far as I could.

We walked for I don't know how many hours without any problems, Alicia somehow always managed to find the right path. Luckily we joined a passing trade caravan and made the journey faster.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

When we explained what had happened, I realized from the reaction of the people in the caravan that it was not a planned attack, it was just my bad luck. At least I could sleep peacefully in my bed. That was good.

When we got to the stairs of the manor, I saw Lady Mira looking at us in confusion from upstairs, she was asking, "What happened-?" and I interrupted her and said, "I'll tell you later, can you prepare a bath for everyone?" She was silent for a moment, but then she raised her right hand and snapped her fingers twice quickly and said "Bathroom, fast."

As Erotir came up to her. He bowed his head and rushed into the house and Mira said, "You, come with me."

As everyone entered the house and was escorted by the servants, I followed Mira and saw that in her room, right next to the giant rectangular window, a large marble jacuzzi-shaped tub was being filled with warm water. I was in no mood to object, and even if I normally wanted to take a bath myself, I didn't have the strength to lift my arm, so I took off my clothes and got into the bathtub. The comfort I felt at that moment was priceless. As I was breathing slowly, I noticed that Mira had sat down next to me, and she lifted my arm and started rubbing a blue liquid she had poured into her hand on my arm, "I can't see a wound."

“I was lucky.”

She washed my shoulders and arms. Nothing was said, nothing happened, but it was a very weird moment. After that, I went to bed and I think for the first time in my two lives, I fell asleep as soon as I put my head on the pillow.

**

When I opened my eyes, I looked around before lifting my head from the pillow. I took a bath in the bathtub on the right side of the room, the king-sized bed was in the middle and the room was very big. There was a wooden door on the left, probably leading to the toilet. Next to the door was another door, Mira's dressing room. Apart from the doors, there was a large mirror on the same wall, and next to it a table full of makeup stuff.

After rolling on the bed for a while, with comfort surrounding my body, I reached for the nightstand and searched for my phone.

Searched for my what?

I took a deep breath, sat up and threw my hair back. There was a glass of water on the nightstand, I took a sip and got out of bed. Mira wasn't in the room, and when I put my hand on my butt to scratch it, I realized I was naked.

As I approached the huge window of the room, I realized that it was also a door leading to a small balcony. I looked outside and saw Mira talking to a man like a knight outside the house. I hadn't seen the guy before, he was wearing a full plate armor in a style reminiscent of medieval Templar armor, but with a red brush on the top of the helmet and a long red cloak. The armor was too cool.

After they had talked for a while, he left and I turned towards the door when I realized that it had opened.

Mira's daughter opened the door, holding a tray with bananas, cherries and eggs. As soon as she saw me, she froze and I hid the grin on my face and my little buddy and screamed like a little girl.

Suddenly she slammed the door shut, I giggled and went to bed. I was getting better at improvisation.

After I put on my white shirt and gray underwear and pants, I opened the door and saw her waiting for me at the door. I took the tray from her, thanked her and closed the door. I was glad she didn't drop the tray, I was hungry.

I think she spilled my lemonade a little bit, though…

I sighed.

After having breakfast, I got bored and left the room because I couldn't find anything to do.

"I have seen you well, my lord," Nazir said.

He was standing at the door with his hands behind his back. I said, "Good morning," and he bowed his head slightly and said, "Good morning."

"You're alright, right?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm fine.

I saw Lady Mira talking to someone outside."

Nazir looked down through the window in the hallway, "It must be the city guard, they're getting a team together to clean up the mine."

I sighed, "Were we so unlucky?"

"Unfortunately... But if you want, we can go hunting again in a different area."

I looked at Nazir for a while without saying anything, then I said, "No need."

I was exhausted, too tired for one day, but this little trip had brought something very important to my attention. But I could start that when I get home, for now I was going to treat this as a vacation.

As I started to walk in the hallway, Nazir came after me, "I saw Lady Rea coming here," he said and looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Yes," I replied.

“My lord, there's something I want to ask.”

“Yes?”

Nazir suddenly looked at me with a curious expression.

“Kids your age are usually... how should I say, starts to build friendships and...-”

“Feelings?” I finished what he said and he started looking at me in amazement.

“Yeah…

Do you have any feelings for anyone? For example, what do you think about Lady Rea?”

“Nothing.”

“That's all?”

“Yes.”

It had been a long time since I lost faith that a girl could fall in love with me; I was too aware that I was weird and boring. And, also, I wasn’t interested in little girls; that was a completely different subject.

And, I didn’t know why, but one-night stands were too weird and unattractive for me, so I would probably die alone and a virgin in this life too…

Oh, I couldn't die though, yohohoho.

Wait, I died before seeing what One Piece was…

“Are you alright, my lord?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Well, my lord, if you don't get me wrong… Is there a chance that you might like boys?”

I stopped and looked at him for a while with my head tilted.

“No, in fact, I'm so sure I don't like men that the idea of sleeping with a man doesn't bother me in the slightest.”

“I… I can't say I understand, my lord,” he was looking at me with puzzled eyes.

“You like women, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you've never slept with a man?”

“Yes?”

“So you don't know what it feels like to sleep with a man.”

After Nazir was silent, I added, “I think you understand.”

We walked in silence for a while, then Nazir asked what was on his mind, “But my lord... What if you like it?”

And I answered.

“Well, that’s the step 5, acceptance.”