Zoe climbed out of the carriage first before we both helped Leon's wife out. Next was Ash and Bell who shakily climbed out followed by Kai and then Luca who both carried our bags with them. Zoe and I escorted Leon's wife over to Leon and two of the guys who were helping him walk before two other guys replaced us before we all walked towards the one castle-looking building in the center of the compound.

The building seemed to be made of stone and mortar like the walls surrounding it and the town itself, but some of the walls have been patched up with wood in the areas that were falling apart. It was in better shape than the rest of the houses on the street though given that some of the windows had glass in them, even though there were only around three that I could see currently. The building also had a tower in the center of it as well that was maybe two stories higher than the walls of the compound and was easily the most well-kept structure on the entire property making the building remind me of a keep from the late medieval times back on Earth.

Once we walked into the building, we entered a small corridor with a decent-sized metal gate that was open at the moment which I guess would be considered the compound's last line of defense. The corridor after this one though was pretty spacious and had a few paintings and portraits which woke Ash and Bell out of their stupors as they quickly walked closer to get a better look at the dimly lit pictures. As our group's collective walking speed was slow, to begin with, the girls didn't affect it at all if anything they help speed us up.

Our host didn't introduce any of the room to us along the way but I couldn't blame them as they were still pretty beat up from their encounter earlier. We reached the stairway at the end of this corridor and Leon waved off most of the guys helping them, while ordering them to tell the physician to come to his quarters. He then asked me if my group wanted anything to which I of course asked for a proper meal as I was completely fed up with smoked meat. He nodded before looking at my cousins, two of which just stared at him as if he asked them if they could find him a ride to the moon. I was about to speak for them but Zoe beat me to it once again by saying that they would have whatever I would be having leaving me having to swallow my words. They acknowledged his order as well as our requests before bowing to Leon and rushing down a small hallway around the left side of the enclosed staircase. The two guys who stayed behind to help Leon and his wife began helping them up the stairs and we followed after pulling Ash and Bell away from the pictures that had been the center of the attention this whole time.

The next floor had another corridor that was a mirror image of the one on the first floor but that was all I could see from the quick glimpse I got as the narrow staircase wouldn't allow me to stop and observe. We continue up to the third floor, which was technically the final floor of the building, but it seemed to be the most different out of the three. While it did have the same 'main' corridor as the rest, it did not have any hallways branching off from it like the other two making it the smallest floor in comparison to the other two and not including the tower levels above us which I did not consider to be a 'floor'.

Once on the third floor, I saw six doors along the walls of the corridor and one more door at the end of the corridor making seven rooms in total. The corridor itself had no artwork unlike the first one we walked through, but it did have a relatively clean burgundy carpet laid across a majority of the floor. My girl cousins were fascinated with the carpet while they had brown and tan fur rugs back in the village, but none of them had ever been dyed a different color. Red seemed to be a universal attractor to females no matter what world one finds themselves in. I chuckled aloud at my thoughts which brought about three 'do you want to get punched?' looks from the girls which cause me to cover my now grinning mouth before stepping behind Kai who just shook his head at our performance. The people in front of us watched along with differing expressions. The man helping Leon had a frown on his face and was about to say something to us but was stopped by a look from Leon who had a smile on his but spoke in a hushed yet authoritative tone.

"Do not speak. They are but a group of teens, yes but they saved not just mine but also my wife's life... You know our struggles... My failures as a man... They might be the last chance we get to fulfill our dreams of having a family. You will not-- *sigh*... Just allow them to make a decision for themselves..."

I saw the frown on the guy's face disappear but I only heard the last part about making a decision so I didn't think too much of their 'confrontation' and only asked my cousins to stop their 'inspections' once Leon asked us to follow them into his quarters which was through the door at the end of the corridor.

We did as asked and followed them through the door.

Once inside the room, I was faced with a distant image of myself in the doorway from one of the two decent-sized glass windows in the room which caused me to pause my steps ever so slightly but not enough for the others in or outside the room to take notice, except Zoe, who seemed to watch my every move like a sentry. She didn't react aloud though and looked away as soon as I look in her general direction. I decided to play along as if nothing happened and started observing the inside of the couple's quarters.

The room itself seemed more like a living room mixed with an office as there was no bed but instead a pretty simple-looking trestle table with two benches along the sides of the table and two other wooden throne-like chairs with worn pillows on the seats at the head of the table. Behind the chairs sat another table that was only short in length with a better-looking but also wooden throne-like chair pushed underneath it. I assumed that this was used as a desk as there were at least twenty actual pieces of paper on the surface of the desk as well as a small metal cup with what I guess was a quill placed on top of the cup's wood covering. There was also a set of armor on a stand in the corner of the room that was almost an exact match of the armor of the guards outside the compound's gate except that it seemed to have never been worn before. Or maybe it was just well-kept, I don't know.

The whole room was visible though because of a stone fireplace in the wall opposite the only other door in the room which I assumed led to their actual bedroom. The light from the fireplace also allowed me to get a clear viewing of the only painting in the room that covered the left side of the same wall that held the door I just entered through. The painting was a panorama view of the town we were currently in, although it was extremely romanticized as all the buildings that were outside the walls were portrayed as made of stone like the wall or the buildings lining the main road, which were barely visible as they faded into the background of the painting. Not to mention those three stone castles that dominated the end of that main road, in reality, they were portrayed as nothing but tiny blobs of grey in the image.

But besides that, the painting itself was actually a brilliant piece of art. I was never an art guy on Earth, but I could definitely tell that if this piece was being sold at some auction, in the modern era at least, then I would probably never be able to afford it.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Ash and Bell were all over the painting, studying every little detail they could spot while sharing their thoughts with each other with whispers in between giggles. Luca and Kai were more interested in the armor on the stand in the corner. They were much louder than the girls as they talked about its looks as well as the materials they thought it was made of. Kai, hilariously, thought it was made of some type of special leather to which Luca who was more familiar with crafting in general laughed aloud while pointing out that it was probably made of cloth and metal.

The men two men who had helped the couple in their chairs were watching the exchanges with confused looks on their faces before one of them turned to me and spoke.

"I do not mean to be rude, but are they well? I have never heard of metal being referred to as 'special metal'. Are you all barba--"

He was cut off by Leon's wife whose name I have yet to figure out.

"They are not barbarians!! They are refugees from a small village a few days west of here. Some bastard took control over the village then killed their entire family and they only barely escaped with their lives!! They then saved our lives!! You--"

She was yelling at the point which caused everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and focus on her. Leon stepped in and calmed her down a bit before he addressed our group which had now gathered around the table before sitting on the benches.

"Calm down dear, I asked Sir Rallo here the same question on the ride into town and he did not react as angrily as you did. The men have not gotten the chance to hear what happened to us so please do not take any anger you have out on them."

Leon then looked at the man who spoke first before speaking again.

"Sam, you go and help Karl bring the dishes he should have prepared for our guests by now. Tell him to come as well as I have an important announcement to make. Paul, you go and help Sasha bring her supplies here. She should already be on her way here. Once done, Sam you can go rest for the day. Dismissed."

The two men who had helped the couple up to the room both bowed at their waists before walking toward the door that led out into the hallway. The younger guy, Sam, almost immediately jogged out of the room leaving the older guy, Paul, a few steps behind him. Before Paul could make it through the door though, Leon called out to him once more before speaking.

"Paul, I want you here alongside Sasha and Karl. My announcement will affect the future of the guild, do you understand?"

Paul paused his steps and turned to look at Leon.

If I had eyes in the back of my head I would have seen that Leon had pointed at my back while everyone was turned toward the door looking at Paul. Unfortunately, I was just as clueless about the gesture as the rest of my group.

Paul, of course, saw Leon's movement and nodded slowly before bowing once again to Leon and walking out the door. Closing it once he had exited the room. We all looked away from the now-closed door and sat in silence with the only sound being the occasional crackling of the burning logs inside the fireplace. This lasted for a few minutes before we heard movement coming from the hallway outside the room.

The door that separated the room and the hallway swung open and in came Paul along with a woman who both carried a wood bucket that was evidently filled with water and some type of herb. I assumed the woman was Sasha, the physician Leon had called for earlier as she immediately started instructing Paul on how to treat Leon before helping Joann, Leon's wife, out of the chair and through the door that led to the couple's bedroom.

About two minutes later, Sam and three other guys came into the room with metal plates with wooden covers on top of them and placed them down on the table in front of our group. They were followed by an older guy who I immediately recognized as the chef, Karl, because of the hat that seemed to be a universal staple of their profession.

Once he reached the end of the table, Sam and those three other guys lifted the wooden covers off the metal plates allowing us to see the food that had been prepared for us. Karl then began telling us what we were being served as I guess that was etiquette. Before he could even start though, my cousins immediately dug into their meals with little regard as to what they were eating. I didn't use my hands like my cousins were doing, but I ignored the man as well digging into the food using the wooden fork that had been provided to us. Karl was left with his mouth hanging open as he shook his head while walking towards Leon who was sitting at the head of the table. Leon laughed at the scene before waving off Sam and the three other dudes who all had the same look as Karl as they walked out of the room.

As soon as they closed the door leading to the hallway, the door leading to the couple's bedroom opened revealing Sasha, who had just finished her treatment on Joann. Sasha looked around the room as if she was searching for something before she then looked at my group of cousins who were still fully enjoying their meal. She then looked at Leon and was about to ask something but Leon seemed to guess what it was and answered before she could even get it out.

"It was them." He pointed at Ash, Bell, and Zoe who had all looked once they noticed his gesture.

Sasha study the girls intensely for a few seconds before nodding at Ash and Bell, she then looked at Zoe before speaking.

"Those two will do fine, but her... Let's just say she has already chosen a teacher."

I was confused by her words until I looked over at Zoe and saw her fumbling to use the wooden fork that the rest of our cousins had simply neglected. I quickly showed her how to hold the fork which she caught on quickly before I turned to Sasha to ask a question of my own.

"What do you mean by those two will do fine? Is there something we should know?" I asked with a calm tone to which Sasha nodded once again before answering while pointing her finger at my cousins.

"They might be teenage refugees who were forced out of their homes. They might have been forced to leave everything they know behind them... But you.."

She swung her finger towards me before continuing.

"Your eyes tell me that even now with all you have seen outside that village... You do not find it to be enough. Now allow me a question... Why would a teen from a small village in the middle of nowhere look at the world as if it was lacking?"

Once she finished her piece everyone and the room look at me and waited for a response in dead silence

I felt nervous for the first time in this world as I met the eyes of each of the individuals in the room. However, those feelings were quickly replaced by extreme confidence as I struggled to keep the grin that was growing on my face in check, only allowing a smirk to peak through.

After meeting the eyes of Karl, then Paul, followed by Sasha, and then finally Leon, I sighed before pinching myself one last time.

Once I felt the pain of the 'blow', I allowed my grin to spread across my face before standing up from the table and walking towards one of the two windows in the room. Once there, I looked into the window and stared at my face for a few seconds before turning around to face everyone in the room who had their eyes trained on me.

If one could see the winds of fate, then one would see a point of convergence centered inside that teen who grinned at the idea of the world lacking.