Trennel's face flushed, and he took on a nervous look. His posture was stiff and he wrung his hands together like a child caught stealing. I stood in front of him, no one else dividing my attention.

“I…I don’t know what you mean,” he said lamely, shifting back and forth on the soles of his feet.

“Come on, don’t play dumb.” I prodded, gesturing for him to walk back toward the small road with me. “Not giving your name or mentioning who you were? Saying you can’t fight in melee? When I know for a fact that Nobles are required to learn at least three Forms before they turn of age.”

He still looked hesitant, so I continued. “I won’t tell the others, that’s why I went along with it. So I could ask you privately out of personal curiosity.”

He joined me in jumping over the last fence before we left the stretch of fields, but turned back to stare at the field we had just come from, remaining silent while he looked off into the distance.

I had a quick look back at the area once more, joining him in his silence until he was ready to speak.

For being a corrupted domain, the northern fields looked no different from a field that had recently been plowed for a new season. The only difference was the aura of Death it gave off, which made me feel an overwhelming sense of wrongness, as described in the books on Dungeons I had read, but if I couldn’t feel the Mana the land emitted like the Coreless couldn't, I wouldn’t know how dangerous this area actually was.

My entire team had never been in any danger here with creatures unable to grow past the Beginner tier outside of the dungeons. To the non-magical, however, these creatures were heralds of inevitable death, if those without Cores ever had the misfortune to cross paths with any of them.

The only one ever in danger out of our group was me, as the only one in the Beginner tier, making me less durable against their magical attacks.

Having taken the time to subdue the summons one by one with my team keeping the rest of the horde off of me, had brought my chances of success to as high as they could get, within the limitations I had put on us for the training. Not to say that we weren’t cautious.

The Plague of Death spread by all Death Affinity creatures was not to be taken lightly and could cause severe necrotic damage to someone of the same Tier or lower if not treated quickly. Especially since these creatures had all been higher level than I was, the only thing that would save me from a near-instant death would be my equivalent or higher Stats. It was the sole reason Cure Disease potions were at the top of my priority list when it came to advancing my Alchemy.

After a few minutes, Trennel finally broke the silence. “Do you know why I joined you?”

“I assumed it was because you would take any excuse to leave and explore beyond the city,” I answered, having given it some thought when Osiph had said he extended the invitation. Based on his look I suspected I didn’t have the full story. “Was that not it?”

“That’s a big part of it, yes. Just a chance to do something without being treated like a child. I was even excluded from the delves that Primrose offers its students, on the authority of my father and grandfather. They insist that I be kept from any risk to my health. Even my brothers are allowed to join Dungeon raids whenever they like. My father says it ‘Toughens them up’.” He said mockingly. “This was an opportunity that I will never get again. If it wasn’t your Uncle who had asked, I would have never been allowed to leave. They fear him because they do not know anything about him. Nobody does, as far as they can tell, and that alone terrifies them.”

“Why? He has not given them a reason to fear him.” I asked. This was a good sense of judgment on their part, but I was still curious about their reasoning. Osiph said that only the Kings knew who he truly was, and to them, he should appear as skilled but not overly talented, having made it to Journeyman but no further, as did most Royals and Nobles.

“Your Uncle was made an Honorary Duke by the King, and not even my grandfather knows why. That is probably the only thing that stopped your Uncle from being executed on the spot when he ordered both my grandfather and my father to allow me to decide for myself whether I wished to join you, the first decision I’ve ever been allowed to make on my own.”

That was something I was curious about. “You said your brothers can join raids but you can’t? Does that include your eldest brother? I would think they would prioritize his safety. No offense to you and your importance to your family, and all.”

“No, not even the heir is subject to so much scrutiny and coddling.” He turned to me, a dark look in his eyes as he began telling me of his life held prisoner for his own protection.

“When I was a boy I was born with a deformity inside my body that caused my system not to be able to fight off infections like everybody else's. My mother and father prevented me from leaving the palace or meeting anybody who wasn’t a Life Mage or some other type of healer. I had gotten really sick for the better part of a winter one year. I never left my bed and only had my window to look out over the city, longing more than anything to jump out of it and fly away. To see anything other than the walls of my room. When I received my Core, it strengthened my body, the Mana cleansing it of its imperfections. This didn’t change anything in the eyes of my family. They have still only ever seen me as weak, regardless of how strong I actually become. I told you how hard it was for me to convince them to even allow me to attend school, if I hadn’t been allowed to choose myself, I don’t know I would have ever left.” He slouched back in his seat, looking up to the cloudless sky. It was a warm and pleasant day for a roadside chat, and I didn’t mind taking the moment to soak it in with him.

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After a short while he picked up the conversation once more. “They don’t trust me though, so I had to ask my grandfather not to send bodyguards with me. I specified that in front of your Uncle so that they will honor it, just from the fear of the unknown risk of antagonizing a new Duke and the fact that he may interpret sending people to tail us could be viewed as an act against him. Everywhere else they have me followed and protected at all times, which makes it impossible to approach anybody or form any meaningful friendships, and the ones that can ignore it, are only out to kiss my ass, as if doing so will make me want to do them favors.”

“So you have bodyguards normally? So what? All Nobles have bodyguards, it wouldn’t look too out of place. That probably would even help in the dungeon. And you’re hiding your identity to do… what? Try and fit in? I don’t think any of the team will care if they find out anything about who you are. Ok, Kira might, just because of your family and the poor decisions made by them that affected her home, but the other two probably won’t think twice.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said, shaking his head. “After learning about what my grandfather arranged with the Guilds, I knew as soon as I revealed who I was, nobody there would see me the same again. Then it will either be anger or trying to gain favor with me anytime I step foot there. Seeing as it has the teleportation array set up for you to travel to, it will probably be a frequently traveled area for us in the near future. I don’t know if you can infer the fact that I am not very sociable, and do not do well with a lot of attention on me”

“Not everyone’s agenda is out to get you if you hang out with people other than Nobles. Just ignore all the ones who have something to say about it and maybe take this opportunity to actually make some real friends. Hell, if you surpass your grandfather in levels, you should be able to convince him you don’t need constant supervision, which should help with the social bubble at the academy. You will likely be the first of us to hit Journeyman as long as you take it seriously, so think about it before the school year starts.”

“You think I’ll make it to Journeyman in less than three months?” He asked, doubtfully. “I wasn’t being untruthful when I said I prefer long-range combat. You were right, of course, I can fight, but I never had any real skill in it. I was always better at building things. I know going into the dungeon will net a lot of Experience, but it still accounts for contribution, and I’ve never been allowed to take actual combat courses at school, so I’m still more of a support.”

“I don’t think that will be an issue if you just remember that we are a team. If you are fighting with the rest of us, and we all watch each other's backs, there will be more than enough to go around. Every team needs support, otherwise, it would be a team full of berserkers, and we’d all be dead as soon as we were to fight something with the slightest amount of intelligence.”

He smiled at that, thinking to himself. “Thank you for not saying anything.”

“Hey, if you want to remain anonymous, I won’t burst your bubble. I would advise either locking it up tightly so that no one finds out or coming clean immediately. If not it will make it increasingly worse if they find out later on that you were hiding something that big.”

His smile faltered a bit as he thought about that. “You don’t care if I continue lying to them?”

“Not really, no. If you want to hide something because you think it will be more detrimental than helpful, then keep it to yourself.” Relaxing my tone, I said. “Any relationship you make under false pretenses is doomed to fail, in one way or the other. Do whatever you think is best, but keep that in mind.”

Trennel stared back off into the distance once again, deep in thought.

“That’s kinda sad,” Mel said, popping up next to me in her very own chair, one from the Library, I recognized. “Kept in a basement, shunned by his peers, never able to see the outside world or make friends. Tragic!”

He wasn’t kept in a basement, he lives in a palace. His room was probably the size of a small farm. It probably wasn’t even that bad.

“You will eventually learn that you can’t hide things from me.” She giggled. “I know you’ve got a soft spot for him, and his longing for adventure resonates with your own. I know because I can feel what you’re feeling right now.”

I grumbled internally. I do think that was unfair to keep him locked up like that. But again, not my drama. Help where and when I can remember. This just so happens to be an instance where I can help, but I’m not gonna get hemmed up in any of that.

Mel laughed at me while shaking her head before she and her chair popped out of my vision.

Standing up Trennel nodded to himself. “I’ll tell her- them tomorrow before we enter the dungeon. I’m not confident it won’t come out on its own eventually anyway.”

I grinned broadly at his slip-up, making him avert his gaze and his cheeks flush.

“You ready?” I asked, waving the chairs back into storage.

“For what?” He answered cautiously, looking around to see if there was something approaching.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said we were going to work on your Forms.”

Trennel groaned loudly, looking back at me with pleading eyes.

“Oh yeah. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” I said, grabbing the other boy by his arm and carting him off down the road, deeper into the domain of the summons.

It was time for me to grind out these early levels as quickly as possible, and hopefully, I could come up with a breakthrough in my Enchanting before we regrouped in the morning.