Kaelum remembered how to leave his soul space, and was able to do so after just a few moments of effort. As he left the slums, he walked along the path back to the western wall with intent in his steps.

Feeling that he was strangely faster on his feet than normal, he asked Tiela in his mind. She replied that the mana that had dispersed from his failed attempts to use the cloaking spell worked to energize his muscles temporarily.

According to Tiela, some knights would have their apprentices energize themselves with mana before training so that they could train harder and longer with more benefits, like faster healing and muscle development.

As they conversed, Kaelum made his way back to the gate in the residential quarter in record time. He climbed his way up the wall much quicker than his previous attempt.

He then felt a line of ice creep from his right chest and then loop around through his right shoulder and then go to his right wrist and back, all while wiggling in different directions. Once it had reached his right wrist, he felt something click into place. Tiela had activated the spell for him before handing control over. It seemed she wanted to ensure that the activation proceeded smoothly.

He kept the spell active and heard Tiela say in his mind ‘Go. But stay focused on the spell. It will compel observers not to pay attention to you, and it will make them subconsciously view you as belonging. However, it only works if they aren’t actively scrutinizing you, or if they don’t suspect you. So don’t draw too much attention to yourself.’

Taking her words to heart, he put most of his attention to keeping the spell active and acting normal.

And just like that Kaelum confidently went on his merry way. On one occasion, a guard had walked right past him, even tipping his hat as he stepped on past!

He got down to manor street in record time and proceeded to climb the dragon tree to the tail, only to realize that he didn’t have his makeshift parachute.

Tiela senses his hesitation and asks ‘What are you doing? Hurry up!’

I don’t have my hiding sheet! He thought to her.

‘That cloth didn’t even do anything to break your fall. Besides, you already came all this way, you can’t give up now.’ Tiela urged him on.

Swallowing hard, Kaelum thought to Tiela But if I break my leg, I won’t be able to walk to the princess…

‘Just jump! If you break something I’ll figure out a way to heal you.’ Said Tiela, seemingly losing her patience.

Although he really didn’t want to jump, after her urging and reassurance, he takes a running leap. Landing hard on his ankles, he takes a sharp breath. His hiding sheet most definitely worked to slow his fall, at least a little. As he was about to tell Tiela off for dissing his sheet, he was interrupted by her yelling in his mind.

‘Behind you!’ Tiela shouted.

Spinning around on his sore ankle, he was greeted by a fist coming directly at his face. This situation seemed oddly familiar. Luckily, his injured ankle saved his face from obliteration. Just as the fist was about to impact his face, his foot slipped out from under him and he evaded his certain doom by a hairsbreadth.

Looking at his attacker that was looming over him, it took him a moment to recognize her. It was Aquila, the knight that had previously punched him in the face. She seemed to have a thing for punching him in the face when he least expected it.

He noticed that the fist that passed by his face hit the manor’s wall behind where he was previously standing. Kaelum winced at how painful that must have been, only to see that it was the wall that was broken, not her fist.

“It's you, the dragon knight guy! So this is how you snuck in.” Aquila’s angry voice found it’s way into his ears.

‘Duck’ came Tiela’s worried voice, it seemed like she was distracted with something.

Reflexively listening to Tiela’s command, Kaelum ducked just as Aquila’s heel cut through the air where his head was a moment ago.

“Wait, can we talk about this?” Kaelum half-shouted while backing away.

Aquila readied herself in a stance that screamed of murderous intent. It seemed she didn’t want to be diplomatic.

“There’s nothing to talk about. If you can’t even beat me there’s no way you can become Princess Tiela’s knight.” She said before charging at Kaelum.

Kaelum raised his arms in response to her readying another punch. Kaelum was surprised when rather than punching him, she grabbed on to his upturned arms and tossed him forward with an over the shoulder throw.

Landing hard on his back, Kaelum had the breath knocked out of himself. He could see her approaching again and while he got up he struggled to wheeze out “I… am not trying to become her knight”

That was all he could say before she was on him again.

“Oh? Now you’re backpedalling? You’re unworthy to become a knight in her service!” She said as she lunged at him, trying to get him in another hold.

Kaelum was able to duck under her arms by a centimetre once again and started sprinting away at full speed. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to diplomatically resolve this, and he certainly couldn’t beat her in a fight. That just left running away. Only, he didn’t know that a real knight could run much faster than himself, even with his freshly energized muscles. Just as he thought he had gotten a bit of distance between them, he felt her knee crashing into his back.

She had sprinted close to him and hit him with a flying knee strike. As he fell to the ground, he felt something crack, probably a rib or three. A sharp pain cut into Kaelum’s brain from his chest and he let out a very unflattering screech in response.

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"OWWWWWW" He screamed, having trouble breathing.

This seemed to give Aquila pause, as she worriedly asked "You… you didn’t reinforce your body with mana?"

After inspecting him, she yelped in surprise “You don’t have mana?! You’re a mortal?!”

She hurriedly searched her pockets for a while before she pulled a glass tube from her pocket and knelt next to Kaelum.

Kaelum didn't hear her talking as he clenched his jaw in pain, letting out another groan. Although it wasn’t painful as his mana veins opening, it still hurt like hell. He was surprised when she suddenly cradled his head between her arm and chest.

Before he could protest or think too much about how nice it felt, she pried open his mouth and forced a red liquid down his throat. It had come from the tube-like bottle she had procured a moment ago.

He was about to ask her what she was doing when the pain started to recede, what the hell was that liquid he thought.

'That was a minor healing potion' said Tiela in his mind. Rather than respond to her, he focused on the weird feeling permeating his chest.

At this point Aquila had put her hands on his chest and he could feel hot energy coming from her hands into his ribs, it felt like it was wiggling his bones, it tickled but it didn't hurt, just felt weird. Like his bones were moving on their own. That was Kaelum’s last thought before he blacked out.

Kaelum jolted awake, his mind moving a bit slower than usual. He noted was laying on a sofa under a brown cloth which he recognized as his hiding cloth. Only it was different, instead of the dirty brown cloth that he remembered, this cloth was freshly cleaned and smelled like roses. It seemed someone washed it and delivered it for him.

After a moment his head cleared and he remembered what happened. He really needed to stop passing out after meeting beautiful women, it was becoming an unhealthy habit.

Thinking back to his ‘fight’ with Aquila, he remembered his ribs breaking. After folding his cleaned brown cloth, Kaelum inspected his body. He found it to be in tip-top shape, which was confusing. His ribs were all fine, but he could distinctly remember hearing a crack and feeling a lot of pain. It was at this moment that Tiela chimed in.

‘Aquila healed you’ said Tiela in response to his thoughts.

And where were you during that fight? Kaelum asked in his mind. I could've used some help back there!

'I wouldn’t exactly call that a fight, more you getting your ass kicked while running away.’ Tiela said. She could feel his irritated response coming and quickly said ‘And I was helping you. You didn't really think you could actually dodge a peak second-tier knight on your own like that, did you?'

Kaelum’s irritation turned to confusion. Wondering what she meant he asked What are you talking about? In his mind.

Tiela answered 'I was using the cloak spell to alter her perception of where you were standing, that's how she kept missing her hits by a hair.'

What? He thought to her I didn’t feel any mana moving inside of my veins.

Tiela answered him ‘I didn’t use the spell that I taught you, I used the spell that I used when we first snuck into the manor. The spell I taught you only works on the caster but the effects are very similar. One of the main differences is that the spell I taught you can’t be cast on others, only knights capable of projecting their power can cast spells that affect others.’

She continued her explanation, saying ‘The spell I used can slightly alter a person’s perception of something in different ways. While the spell I taught you is a utility spell and is basically just a dumbed-down version of this spell that can only be used in a single way.’

‘But none of that is important right now, you got caught again and you’re in a different room than last time.’ Tiela said.

Kaelum looked around and noticed that he was in an unfamiliar room, he was lying on a sofa in an office-like room. The room had a stained wood desk with a leather chair aside from the couch he was currently on. Aside from the furniture, there were a few bookshelves that were filled with what looked to be dusty old books.

The only exits seemed to be a fine wooden door and a real glass window. Kaelum didn’t know how much glass cost, but he knew it was extremely expensive and came from a foreign land to the south. He remembered a merchant calling it Tar glass… or maybe it was Yar glass, Kaelum didn’t remember.

‘It’s Yar Glass’ Said Tiela with a sharp tone and an angry undercurrent. Apparently, she wasn’t a fan of glass.

Kaelum was just glad he wasn’t in a musty cell packed full of mana rich young knights-in-training like last time, there was even a bowl of fruit on the desk! Getting up to help himself to some free food, Kaelum pocketed two apples and took the other into his hands to eat, just as he heard Tiela’s voice.

‘Someone’s at the door!’ Kaelum had already scooted back to the sofa, munching down half of the apple in case someone tried to take it away.

Sure enough, the door handle wiggled a moment later. He’d have to learn how she was sensing these things one day.

A moment later, a familiar figure stepped through the door and started talking with a laugh “Help yourself to the fruit, I thought you’d be hungry after your adventures last night.”

Recognizing the voice and face as Karrow, Kaelum asked him “How did I get here? Where am I?”

Tiela rolled her eyes in his mind, saying ‘Aquila obviously took you here.’

Karrow’s words confirmed that “You’re in my office, in the administrative district. The princess’s friend dropped you off after she explained what you had been up to.” He said with a hint of admiration in his voice. It seemed that Kaelum failing to meet the princess and getting beat up twice in a row had won his respect, he was a strange man.

Ignoring the weird look on Kaelum’s face, Karrow said “It actually saves me time, I wouldn’t have known where to look for you.”

Kaelum asked, “You were looking for me?”

“Of course, did you forget your new job?” Asked Karrow with raised eyebrows.

It was then that Kaelum suddenly remembered that he was now employed. This was news to Tiela, she had been thinking inside of Kaelum’s soul space when Karrow offered him the job. She didn’t say anything but Kaelum felt something weird through their bond. He couldn’t describe the feeling and Tiela was trying her best to mask it, but it felt unpleasant. He’d have to ask her about it later.

“Well, I was actually gonna look for you, but since you’re here we can head right there.” Said Karrow as he led Kaelum outside of the office. It turns out, Karrow’s office is actually on manor street, directly across from the city lord’s manor. As they left Captain Karrow’s office, Kaelum saw a few new runes etched into the manor’s wall.

It seems like Aquila had snitched about Kaelum’s way in, it looked like Kaelum wouldn’t be seeing any more free feasts in the near future. That damned knightess!

They soon arrived at the western gate that had Kaelum descended the wall at, right near the dragon tree. They stopped at a pair of wagons with an older, kindly looking man waiting for them.

Karrow introduced the man as Old Miller, apparently, his parents had owned a mill, but he worked felling trees. They boarded one of the wagons and left the city, heading northwest until they got to Miller’s foresting camp, it was a large yard with several different stacks of lumber in various states. One stack was fresh, untrimmed logs. While another was aged and chopped firewood.

Karrow said, “We’ll be hauling that lumber from the pile into the wagons” while pointing at a stack of strangely coloured logs cut into flat and even shapes. Probably useful for building stuff. Kaelum guessed the colouration was due to some treatment or whatnot, it’s what kept the nicer buildings from rotting like the buildings in the slums.

Karrow explained that they’d fill one wagon and then while Miller took the full wagon back to the city, they would fill the empty one. Once Miller returned, he would take the newly filled one and they would repeat the cycle until the sun went down. Apparently, the city ordered a large amount of lumber and they expected to be hauling wood for the better part of the year.

As if suddenly remembering something, Karrow told Kaelum the worst news he could imagine. “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. The princess and her friend left after her friend dropped you off this morning, in case you were planning on seeing her again tonight.”

It looked like Kaelum wouldn’t be able to get rid of the roommate in his head quite yet.