“Where are we going?”

“The kitchen. The Hero’s food should be ready.” Melly answered.

“Oh! We should have asked earlier! He probably didn’t prepare enough food!” I sigh. “I guess I’m missing out.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll share some of mine with you.” Melly offers.

“Thank you,” I say while giving her a hug.

“You plan on eating the Hero’s cooking instead of the chef’s?”

“Of course! It’s amazing.” Melly responds.

“Yeah, he’s a true chef. But! His food is only amazing, not divine. He doesn’t cook true food often.” I make sure to add.

“I see. I’ll look forward to it.”

We soon arrived at the kitchen, or, well, cafeteria. As usual, everyone was already there. As soon as we arrived though, the Hero came out with food.

“Who’s this? A friend of yours?” He asks.

“He’s my new teacher,” I answer.

“I see. Good thing I made an extra serving. Welcome.” Okay Hero, not even trying for subtlety, are you.

“Hello, Hero and companions. My name is Samuel, I am currently teaching the Saintess some spells.”

“Greetings, I am Gregory, our mage.”

“I’m Rapunzel, the scout.”

“Hansen, summoner.”

“I’m the Hero.”

“Hello. I have heard great things about your cooking, would I be allowed to join you for this meal?” Samuel asks.

“Of course. As I said, I’ve made an extra serving, so please eat it.” The Hero repeats.

“Thank you.” He thanked as he sat down. We then all just waited for him to try the food. Well, except for the Hero, who just went straight to eating like this was normal.

“What!?” He exclaimed in shock, before forcibly calming himself down. “Ehem, this, you were right. This is amazing.”

“I told you.” Melly bragged.

Not nearly long enough later, we had finished eating. “Haa, I’ve not had this much of an appetite in years,” Samuel exclaimed.

“The Hero’s food is amazing. So, shall we head to the training ground?” I ask.

“Of course!” Melly responded in excitement. She seemed a bit bored when I was learning the new spell.

“Why? Don’t you need to practice your spell?” Samuel questions, confused.

“I do, but I was told to heal at the training hall,” I answer.

“What? Who told you that?” He asks in even more confusion.

“Cardinal Caitlyn. It’s my punishment for causing Melly to go berserk.”

“What? No, you don’t have to do that.”

“What do you mean?” It’s now my turn to be confused.

“That punishment was aimed at you better fusing with the dragon. But since doing so is detrimental, you obviously shouldn’t continue.”

I just stared at him in confusion, before realizing that he was probably right. “Huh. Well, that makes everything easier.”

“Were you just planning on continuing such dangerous behavior while, what? Practicing during your spare time?”

“Yeah….” I nervously agree.

“You are insane.” He sighed. “Why are you so reckless?”

“That’s just how I was raised.”

“Who raised you?”

“The church.”

“What? How!?”

“By giving us access to all the healing we’d ever need. Caution is surprisingly difficult to cultivate when you can just bribe one of the healer students for some healing. Or were said student.” I shrug.

“Haa, I take it she is always like this then?”

“Pretty much,” Melly answered.

“Yeah yeah. I’m working on it.” I grumbled.

“Well, at least I know to look out for that now. In any case, how long did you think it would take to learn your spell?”

“I’d probably finish sometime tomorrow.” I guess.

“With your plan? That’s impressive.”

“Well, I originally thought I would need a few days, but your assistance has been very helpful. Thank you for that.” I bowed.

“That’s what I’m here for. Still though, I advise that you prioritize your vein spells and density training, as you call it. Losing your ability to cast magic would be quite difficult to deal with.” He persuaded.

“Um.” I look over at Melly.

“Just continue your mana practice. It’s not like you really need any more practice healing.”

“Okay. Shall we continue then, Samuel?”

“Gladly. If your estimates are right, you should be able to cast one of the peak spells by the end of next week.”

“That would be nice. It’s quite annoying having to heal my veins so often.”

“At least you are getting stronger.” The Hero points out.

“Yeah, I just wish I could choose how.” I sigh.

“Well, that’s just the cost of power. Also, as a reminder, I plan on leaving soon.”

“Already?” Rapunzel asks.

“But what about our food?” Melly cries.

“Indeed,” Hansen adds.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Haa, thanks for caring.” He jokingly sighs in disappointment.

“Don’t worry, we all trust you. Also, if you ever need help, we will gladly assist you.” I offer.

“Thank you, I will.”

“Oh no, I’m worried now.” I sigh jokingly. Mostly.

“Anyway, I’m not leaving quite yet, so you will have plenty of time to train and such before we continue our journey. This is just a heads up.”

“Understood,” Greg said.

“Make sure to not just disappear on us. That would be quite rude.” Rapunzel added.

“Oh! If he does, he’ll have to keep watch.” Melly smirked.

“Noooo anything but that!” He collapses to his knees in ‘anguish.’

“Don’t worry.” I smile as the Hero regains hope. “Hansen’s summons will keep you company.” And, he lost it.

“I concur, that would be quite fair,” Greg confirmed.

The Hero turns to Hansen as his last and only hope. “Indeed.”

The Hero, having been horrifically betrayed by all of his comrades, sulks while taking care of the dishes.

“Haha, I’ll see you all soon,” I called out as I left.

After we got a distance away, Samuel spoke up. “You are all quite close, aren’t you?”

“We are, isn’t that good?”

“It is, I was just curious as to how?”

“Well, it’s mainly because of how good his food is.”

“His food?”

“Yeah, I mean, you just had some, isn't it good enough to increase our bonds?”

“It is, though good food can only bring your bonds so close.” He denies.

“I mean, it’s more than just good. But yeah, it also helps us not decrease our bonds whenever we fight.” I add.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Haa, the real reason is a bit embarrassing though.”

“If you do not wish to say, I won’t force you to.” Samuel politely offers.

“Nah, it’s fine. So, my theory is that it’s mainly because of me.”

“Oh, so you are keeping the team together?”

“No, it’s not because of what I did, but because of what happened to me.”

“What, happened?”

“For example, I’m sure you’ve heard about what happened during my first mana poisoning.”

“Correct, you suffered from a mental torment and block, right?”

“Yeah.” I sighed. Well, time to talk, I guess. “Let me organize my thoughts first,” I ask.

“Of course, take your time.”

“Haa, okay. So, first, we are a group that is working together towards a common goal. Adding our delicious food and pleasant teamwork, everyone should have a mostly positive opinion of each other. Then, we overcame a troll, a near-death encounter that required us to trust each other to succeed. Our newfound trust then overcomes some of the barriers between how close we were to each other.”

“Near-death experiences are why so many parties end up quite close.”

I then took a deep breath. “Then, a member of our group starts to suffer. Since everyone is getting fairly close, they’d feel bad about what’s happening. They then start to truly care about my wellbeing, beyond the normal empathy and practicality.” I continued. “Everyone then starts to feel really close to me. That, in turn, increases how close everyone feels towards each other. So, I ended up becoming the primary catalyst for everyone to get closer.” I sighed. “Adding to that, I always seem to have something going on that causes everyone to worry about me, so the cycle repeats.”

“For example?” He asks.

“I mean, most orphans have a few problems, it’s just how things are.” I shrug.

“Why? I’ve seen the orphanages, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with them, right?” He questions. Haa, this is going to be a long one.

“Well, even when we ignore how one becomes an orphan, we just don’t live the same sort of life as other kids, so we act differently. In addition, no matter how well the priests care for us, that isn’t the same as parental care.”

“Is it really that different?”

“Of course. We don’t belong there. Or anywhere really. We don’t truly have a home or a family. We are, alone.” I say, oddly emotionlessly.

“But, why? Don’t-”

“They don’t want us.” I forcefully interrupt. “No, that’s wrong, they do care about us, they just… we can’t stay there. It’s not our home, we have to leave eventually, and when we do, we can’t just come back like, like how normal people visit their families. Anyway, the caretakers are only allowed to become so close to us.” Not that I noticed that initially…

“...Why?” He mutters, not understanding.

“Simple, you can’t become really close to everyone, so the neglected kids would get jealous. Why do they have someone that cares for them? What about us? Etc. It’s… it just causes more conflict and grief for people that are already suffering. Similarly, priests are highly discouraged from adopting, at least, from their local orphanage.”

“Because that causes jealousy.” He realizes.

“Partially. The main reason for that is that it gives kids hope.”

“Why would you want to reduce their hope!” He shouts.

“Because it isn’t a lack of hope that crushes people, it’s when you regain hope, just for it to be extinguished again! You, you just aren’t the same afterwards.” I sigh. “Also, it causes the kids to do various… ‘interesting,’ things to try and get adopted, which, among other things, further distances the priests from the kids. It’s already hard enough to get people to take care of orphans, scaring away the few that actually can only make things worse.” I couldn’t help but remember some of the things kids did.. “And it’s not like we don’t get enough chaos whenever some random adult shows up as it is” I added with a mumble.

“So, the priests have to try to keep everything fair and distant?”

“Yeah, in the end, it’s better to help everyone decently than it is to help a few greatly, at the cost of neglecting the rest.” I sighed. “Even the church can only do so much.”

“That’s a lot to take in.”

“Yeah, and that’s only part of it. How not having parents affects children is a fairly large field of study, one that I’ve only barely breached. There is far more to being an orphan than just not having parents.”

“I see. Shouldn’t you be talking about this with your comrades though?” He asks.

“Why, so I can increase our bond?” I snidely say.

“Uh, well, even without that reason, wouldn’t it be best to talk to them about this.”

“That would just get them to worry about me, even more than they already are.” I sighed. “Look, I, am, fine. Everyone has problems. Besides, I don’t want them babying me or trying to fill in for my lacking love or something.”

“Wouldn’t their care and understanding help you though?”

“Honestly? No, not at all. It would just make me feel worse. Besides, my situation is far better than most other orphans.” I took a deep breath in preparation. “I, I never knew my parents. I was abandoned before I was even a year old. Being an orphan is all I know, so, I never had some of the issues everyone else had. Yeah, I did have my fair share of issues (and oddities, I mumble), but, overall, I’m fine. Besides, there’s one main thing most orphans want that’s hard to get when you talk about your issues.”

“What is that?”

“To be treated normally.”

“Isn’t that, obvious?” He questions.

“You’d think so. But, even when people try to treat you normally, there will be those moments where they just, don’t… And they usually don’t even notice when they do!” Deep breath. “But we do. Oh, we do… And as humans are petty creatures, those moments stick with us far more than all the times when we were treated fine. We don’t want to be treated differently, and the best way we’ve found to get that is to just hide things. Even if that occasionally worsens some of our other problems...”

“Why wouldn’t you even tell them when you are having problems?”

“Because, all we want is to be treated normally, and if a bit of suffering alone is all it takes to acquire that, I would gladly pay that price. It’s not like I’m not used to being alone anyway.” I shrugged.

“Then why did you even tell them that you were an orphan in the first place?”

“Because I’m a contradiction! So while I do want to be treated normally, there's just no point if it means hiding who I am. I just, I want people to treat me as me, not some stereotype or title. Besides, I’m not embarrassed about being an orphan, like some people sadly are.” I sighed.

“Haa, That was heavier than I expected,” Samuel comments.

“What were you expecting?” I question.

“I just wanted to hear about your journey.”

“Didn’t you hear all about that from Cardinal Caitlyn?”

“Yes, but I wanted to hear it from you while getting to know you better and giving you some advice and the like.”

“Oh. Um, you should have just said that.” I say out of embarrassment.

“I thought I did.”

“Ah, why don’t we just get back to practicing,” I suggest in embarrassment.

“That sounds like a plan.” He politely agreed.