Chapter 33: Head of the guards.

Kalon sat with Roah for what seemed like hours and talked about anything that came to mind. But each time, she would try to direct the conversation back towards him to probe for more information. Although he felt a little bit uncomfortable by the fact, she was acting overly familiar with him. He didn't mind it too much. It seemed just like she was the kind and caring type of person, and he didn't want to get in the way of that and tell her what she can and can't do.

He felt like if he did, then she would rip his head from his shoulders and leave him to bleed out in the room all alone.

The conversations soon died down, and they sat in silence for a few moments before Kalon glanced around the room once again to see that his bag was lying in the corner of the room next to his sword that was still wrapped in the table cloth.

"You looking for your belongings?" Roah asked with a smile as she saw his eyes darting around the room. Kalon smiled and nodded his head.

"Don't worry, the man who found you said that he brought everything that you had on you with him. If anything is missing them, I'm afraid it's gone for good. There is no getting it back if it is hiding within the blizzard out there." Roah said with pity in her eyes. She wasn't sure if he had brought anything else with him, but she felt terrible about being the person giving him all the bad news.

"I think that's everything. Do you mind bringing it to me, please?" Kalon asked politely. He wanted to double-check that everything was exactly how he left it, but he couldn't get out of bed due to his legs being frostbitten.

"Sure, Hold on just a moment." Roah smiled once again before she ran over to the corner of the room and brought Kalon's belongings over to him, and lay them on his bed, making sure to avoid putting it on his body. The last thing she wanted to do was cause him more pain, so she made sure to be extra careful as she put it down.

"Thank you." Kalon smiled before pulling the backpack over to himself to see that everything was exactly how he had left it. His clothes were in a messy pile, but now they were a little bit damp due to the snow melting and drenching them.

He sighed before putting the bag down and then began to unwrap his sword.

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"Wait, is that a sword?" Roah asked as he began to unwrap it, and she saw the hilt.

"Yeah, what about it?" Kalon asked, confused as to why she was asking. From what he knew, it was customary for humans to carry swords, so he found it a little bit strange as to why she was acting as though she had never seen one.

"Wait, hold it. You can't take that out here." Roah quickly put a stop to what he was doing by grabbing his wrist. Despite her soft and delicate hands, her grip wrapped firmly around Kalon's wrist, and he could no longer move his arm.

"Why what happened?" Kalon asked. He was now even more confused since she was holding his arm with so much force.

"Civilians aren't allowed to brandish weapons in a public place. If you take it out of the wrapping, then I will have to arrest you for direct violation of the king's orders." Roah said with a sigh. It sounded as though she didn't want to do it, but she would be forced to if he took the sword out of the table cloth.

Although he wanted to check the word out to see if there were any damages and try to wash off the dirt while he was at it, there was nothing he could do if there were such a rule like that in place, but as soon as he thought about what to do, Roah suddenly took it from his hands and unwrapped it.

"That doesn't mean that I can't." She smiled as the table cloth dropped down to the floor, and the light from the candle in the room was now directed toward the blade of the sword. It was almost as if the blade was absorbing all the light around them both, but that wasn't the strangest thing.

The mud that was on the blade when he first picked it up from the soil back at his house was all gone. It looked like someone had polished it for him even though no one had been allowed to touch his belongings. He looked at it for a few moments and tried to figure out what had happened when suddenly his thoughts were taken from him as he heard Roah gasp slightly.

"Wow, the workmanship on this sword is incredible. The blade is perfectly straight, and it remains a spring when flexed. There's also this natural glow to it. Almost as if it contained a sword spirit. I feel like this would be an excellent vessel to store a spirit within.

Are you willing to sell it to me?" Roah asked quickly as she looked at the sword that she was now holding in her hands. But then the thought occurred to her.

"So you have been practising swordsmanship? That's quite rare for someone your age. Usually, kids are more interested in becoming Casters. I don't think I have met someone so young who aspires to become a guardian." She asked while giving the blade another once over with her eyes while periodically glancing up at Kalon to see what he was doing, but he was just at a loss when thinking about what to say to her.

"Yeah, I have been practising for the last five years. My father told me that it would be good for me if I ever have to go to war, so he hired his best man to train me." Kalon replied, but he realised that the truth had accidentally slipped out of his mouth as he did. He was meant to be playing the role of a boy from Rover town.

But he had let his guard down around Roah to the point where he told the truth by mistake. He then suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

"So your father must have been the head of the town guards, right? That's an honourable job to have. You should be proud of him. There's no need to hold yourself back." Roah said with a smile as she casually misunderstood him for feeling embarrassed about who his father was.

But the reality of the situation was just that he didn't want to get caught lying to her and be executed for being a member of the Sylton empire.