The group of us stumbled through the Portal late in the night. I had planned to take Lydia and the rest of the girls to the house for the night as well, but they insisted on returning to the woods. They called it training, and I decided not to ask for any more details about it. As for me, I preferred a nice comfortable bed to rest in to regain my spirit.

“They’re bastards.” Shao snorted. “We’ll definitely make them pay for this, okay Master?”

“I might be able to trace the direction of the mana source tomorrow morning. I’m just too tired to do it tonight.” Miki added.

Both girls had only recently been resurrected. Miki then went on to resurrect three others. In general, Resurrection took about a day to recover from. Resurrecting from the destruction of your body could take up to a week. Thankfully, these girls only needed a night. It was because of all of the status bonuses my Hero and Slave Master jobs gave them that they were able to keep going.

However, the idea of tracking down the Bandits who already had a heads up on us last night would be a fool’s errand at best, certain destruction at worst. It was better to take it easy immediately after. Shao may have been a bit upset about finding out about Raissa, but the main reason she kicked up such a stink was to get everyone’s attention off of death. Things like that could build trauma in a group. I couldn’t even begin to understand how the bandits were dying so casually on the other side.

I barely even stroked their hair for a moment before I felt both girls fall asleep. Their breathing turned regular and both of them held me tightly with their eyes closed. They muttered slightly, their eyes tight. Their souls had been damaged, and it’d need some time to recover. At least, they’d need a good night’s sleep, and we’d probably need to take it easy for a few days. I definitely couldn’t afford to lead them into another massacre.

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While thinking about my plans, my mind kept running around in circles. The basic reality was that I didn’t understand these Bandits. They weren’t like Salicia. I thought her expertise would have been enough, but she seemed to be blocking something out, and even Ruby, our mentor, was flummoxed. How did they resurrect so quickly? When did they get such a powerful spell? At first, I thought it was Meteor, but I suspect now it was just a giant fireball. It was still powerful enough to wipe out an entire band. The most alarming question, how were they so organized?

I realized that the more I thought about it, the less I was able to get to sleep. The girls were exhausted with death. My exhaustion was from my failure.

With a sigh, I decided to get up for a bit. Using Position Shifts, I quickly moved out of the way, leaving the two girls hugging each other. I stood up, stretched, and then headed out the door into the rest of the small house. From what I understood, this place costed an arm and a leg. Because of Lord Reigns ridiculous taxes, this place that was only a small two-story home was almost as pricy as my mansion in the capital would have been.

When I walked out the door, my eyes immediately landed on Raissa. Like me, she hadn’t been resurrected, so she was the least tired of the bunch. We were the only two up. As for Carmine’s managers, I had sent them to their own bedroom that they were forced to share while we lived here. They grumbled a bit, but they’d stay out of our way while we were here.

She glanced over at me. “Ah! Deek?”

I took a breath and nodded. “Raissa, we need to talk.”