As they walked into the inn everyone turned to look at them and cheered loudly upon seeing Kyle, when the constructs containing the guards and Ben had returned they had expected the worst. But, to most of the villagers’ happiness Ben was unharmed, while some considered him to be an accomplice to what had occurred the rest saw him as a kid who had been manipulated for a long time. He would still be punished for what he had done to Sonia and Ryan but due to the circumstances it would be unfair to punish him too severely. There were still those who were saddened by the passing of one of the guards, but they couldn’t deny that his death had been an accident and considering the circumstances it was very nearly a miracle that he was the only one who had died.

Anna stood up and walked over to Kyle on unsteady feet, when she had asked him to bring her son back she had been hopeful but the constructs had brought him back largely unharmed, which was partially due to the healing magic that Ai had cast upon all of them on their way back to town but Ai only had some minor healing spells so some of the more badly injured guards had still had broken bones making Anna even more thankful towards Kyle for showing restraint.

“Thank you so much,” Ben’s mother sobbed as she wrapped her arms around the bemused Kyle, as far as he was concerned he had promised to bring Ben back, so he felt her reaction to him keeping this promise to be a bit over the top.

Patting the woman awkwardly on her back Kyle looked around the room at the smiling faces of his friends and other villagers.

“Hey everyone, I’m back,” he said simply causing his friends to shake their heads at how calm he was being about what had happened over the past two days. Looking around Kyle noticed that someone was missing.

“Where’s Ryan,” he asked not seeing his energetic friend anywhere.

Jess looked away with a troubled expression on her face, “Mum and dad have taken him to Greenhearth to get his arm treated.”

“I see,” Kyle replied with a worried look on his face. No one in the village had powerful enough magic or to repair the damaged muscles in Ryan’s arm so going to a larger town was the only real option if Ryan was ever going to be able to regain full use of his arm in the future, but such a thing was expensive due to the amount of work that went into fixing an injury like that and he was worried that Ryan’s parents wouldn’t be able to afford to pay but this worry was quickly taken care of by Yuliah.

“The Greenhearth Adventurers School will be footing the bill for Ryan’s treatment, it was my fault that he got so badly injured after all,” Yuliah stated firmly. She knew that Kyle blamed himself for what had happened to his friend but as far as she was concerned it was because the protective item she had given Ryan was flawed that he had received such a bad injury and she knew that the principle of the Adventurers School would be very unhappy when he found out what had occurred here on her return.

“Considering that he had injured one of your friends I would also like to thank you for bringing back Ben unharmed,” added Damian who watched Kyle’s reaction to this with a nervous expression on his face.

While Kyle had been gone he had gone to the family of the girl he had burned with his magic and apologised on his knees for his actions as well as to everyone else he felt that either he or one of Denzel’s other students had wronged. He had been concerned with how he and his fellow students had treated many of the other villagers even before the events of the previous day and when Denzel had stabbed Warren before fleeing town he had finally decided that he didn’t want to live the way he had been and had even given testimony against his former teacher with Yuliah and Thomas recording everything he said. Naturally both Thomas and Yuliah had been surprised to hear that it had been Denzel who had stabbed Warren and had immediately asked the rotund man if it was true.

Warren had sighed sadly and admitted that the whole incident was a blur to him and asking the guards who had remained did nothing to clear this up, it was only when the constructs with the guards who had followed Denzel had returned that they had discovered that this was indeed the case as the raving Denzel had shouted out about his crimes in front of the whole village when Warren had confronted him.

Now Damian had very few friends left in the village and had decided to take Yuliah’s offer to become a student at the Adventurers School in Greenhearth, provided Kyle was willing to forgive him for the part he had played in Ben’s antics over the years.

Kyle nodded his acknowledgement of the other boy’s thanks, “That’s alright Damian, I know that you two go back a long way.”

“He wasn’t always like that you know,” replied Damian shaking his head sadly. “You didn’t spend much time in the village back then, but he used to be a good friend.”

Unsure of what to say to this Kyle glanced at Hal and Jess who shrugged in unison.

“Like I said Damian; it’s fine, you don’t have to explain yourself.”

Kyle was more interested in the strange metal gloves that were sitting on the table in front of Hal who grinned broadly as Kyle extricated himself from Anna and walked over. Hal picked up the strange items and slipped them on his hand showing how they reached all the way up to his elbows and were reinforced from the back of the hand all the way up.

“These are something that I made to show Yuliah so that I could be considered for becoming a Crafting student at the Adventurers School,” he explained. “As you know while my attacking power is pretty good, my defence lets me down a lot, so I’ve actually been thinking about making something like these for a while. I can still fight like normal with my hammer when I’m wearing them, and I can also use them like a small shield to block attacks.”

Kyle smirked at his friend’s words when they had sparred in the past Kyle had always taken advantage of Hal’s lack of both ranged fighting techniques and his comparatively weak defence, with these Hal would be able to increase his defensive capabilities while still being able to use his trusty two-handed hammer.

“Oh, shut it you!” Hal snapped upon seeing the expression on his friend’s face before they both burst into laughter.

It seemed that Kyle would have to use some new tricks of his own to beat his friend the next time they sparred. Luckily had had a few tricks that Hal hadn’t seen yet, and his Class made him faster than he had been previously, especially since he was now Level 2.

Fi and Jess sighed at the antics of the two boys who always had to try to outdo each other, something that they had gotten rather tired of over the years much to the amusement of Ryan.

Sonia smiled as Kyle made eye contact with her, she could tell that he regretted leaving her and Ryan here while he went chasing off after Denzel and Ben when they were injured and was trying to judge how she felt about Ben coming back uninjured after what he had done.

“I’m alright Kyle, really,” she said consolingly, she was in fact proud of Kyle for not choosing to take out his anger on Ben for what he had done to her and Ryan, especially because he had been angry enough when it happened that he had forcibly unlocked a Skill he shouldn’t have been able to. Yes, Ben had been cruel to her in the past but she cared more about Kyle staying the person who had saved her than something as petty as revenge.

Suddenly a small black cat that had been snoozing on Jess’ lap woke up and after blinking sleepily for a few moments spoke.

“Oh? Look who’s back,” the cat yawned.

“Hey Leanne.”

Kyle greeted the cat who was in fact Jess’ companion who had gone home to keep Jess’ mother company after Jess had unlocked her Class and had been horrified to discover what had happened to Ryan and Sonia when Ryan’s companion Jin who took the shape of a newt had returned in a panic.

“Oi slowpoke wake up,” Leanne said padding over to what seemed to be a small rock sitting on the table in front of Hal and smacking it with a paw causing it to quiver slightly before a head slowly slid out of one of the small holes revealing the rock to be the shell of a small turtle.

“Morning Herman” Fi chirped as the turtle slowly yawned. “Well evening really.”

“Hmm?” the Herman groaned as he looked around blearily. Herman was Hal’s companion and was, like Fi a type of Divine Beast. Herman took the form of the Divine Beast of Jerrus the god of flame known as a Magma Tortoise which ate rocks to build its shell and could refine ores within its body making him the perfect companion for a smith like Hal. As a being of fire Hermann was most at home in warm environments and spent most of his time in the forge where he was most active, if he got too cold he very quickly got tired and fell asleep.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Oh, you’re back,” Herman yawned. “Hmm? Looks like Kyle Levelled up.”

“That’s right!” Fi said puffing her body up proudly as the others turned to look at Kyle. “He’s 83% of the way to Level 3 now.”

“Does that have something to do with why you guys took so long to get back?” asked Leanne as she made her way back to Jess’ lap.

“Yeah,” Kyle nodded. “We chased them into the forest not far from here which was on the verge of becoming a Zone and when dad accidentally killed one of the guards it was enough to finish forming the Zone, so we decided to stay behind and train while dad took out the Boss.”

“So that’s why Emma’s been acting so strange,” Jess said in surprise.

“You guys didn’t know?”

“We’ve been busy with everything else,” Hal reminded Kyle waving his hands which were still covered by the oversized gauntlets he had made.

“Oh, right,” Kyle realised that he hadn’t asked his friend an important question. “So, did you manage to get a recommendation to get into the school?”

“I’m not going,” Jess sighed. “I want to continue training to become the villages apothecary like mum.”

Kyle nodded at her answer as he had expected this, Jess was a skilled mage, but she wasn’t really suited to become an Adventurer, even fighting Raina was testing the limits of what she was comfortable with doing despite her dislike of the other girl. She would probably keep training her magic but it would only be for the sake of protecting herself if she had to harvest ingredients for potions and salves outside the village.

“I got in,” Hal nodded as Kyle turned towards him. “I’m going to focus on my Blacksmithing Skill but Yuliah wants me to take part in the training for Adventurers as well.”

Kyle felt relieved upon hearing this, it was going to be hard enough leaving home for the first time so having his best friend along with him, even if Hal would be taking a different course was reassuring.

Finally, he looked at Sonia who shifted uncomfortably, “I’m going to go to Greenhearth with you but I won’t be joining the Adventurers School. Yuliah said she’d introduce me to one of her friends at the Musicians Guild.”

As she spoke her slightly worried expression changed to an excited one as she thought about what was waiting for her in Greenhearth, Sonia loved music more than anything so the chance to become a member of the Musicians Guild was something that she had leapt at.

“That’s great Sonia!” Kyle laughed upon seeing the look on his friend’s face, much like Jess, Sonia wasn’t really someone who enjoyed fighting, in fact she liked it even less than Jess.

“You better come and visit though!” he continued as Sonia’s cheeks darkened in embarrassment. Sonia nodded unable to look Kyle in the eye.

“What about Ryan,” Kyle asked turning back towards Jess who sighed sadly.

“Who knows,” she replied. “Even if he does still want to become an Adventurer, which I doubt. His arm might be too badly damaged to fix quickly or possibly even at all.”

“Sorry,” seeing the distress he was causing her Kyle quickly apologised.

“It’s fine,” Jess replied giving Kyle a tight smile. “I know you’re worried about him too.”

The companions watched the conversation unfolding in front of them with worried expressions on their faces, this group had been friends for almost as long as they had been bound to their respective partners and they all knew how important their friendship was to each one of them. Not only were some of them leaving Farholt, probably for good but they were all going their separate ways and following the paths they had decided for themselves which meant that they may simply drift apart, and they all nodded as one as they came to a silent agreement to not allow that to happen. Before glancing at Sonia, who as the only member of the group without a companion of her won was going to be the most difficult to keep in contact with and a series of glances went around the group before settling on Fi who rolled her eyes as she wondered why she was always the one saddled with the difficult jobs before making her way over to Sonia and sliding into her lap.

“Hmm what is it Fi?” Sonia asked looking down at the small serpent in surprise.

“I really want you to stay in touch Sonia,” Fi replied making her eyes as big as possible as she looked up at Sonia, this wasn’t just because she had been given the job of making sure that Sonia kept in touch with the others but also because Fi was genuinely fond of Sonia herself.

“Of course, I will FI,” Sonia replied quietly as the others continued their conversations around them. “You guys are the closest thing to a family that I have.”

Meanwhile Emma noticed that Kyle had finished figuring things out with his friends and made her way over.

“Kyle can I have your coat back for a bit?” she asked. “It needs repaired.”

“Sure mum,” Kyle replied taking the coat off noting that it was indeed a bit damaged and swapped it for Kelly who cooed at him happily as he cast Mage Light creating a small softly glowing orb that immediately caught his baby sister’s attention and she watched it silently as it slowly bobbed up and down with wide eyes.

Emma smiled as she watched her two children for a while, it was going to be hard when Kyle left for Greenhearth, but she hoped that he would come back and visit as often as possible.

Kyle grinned down at his sister as she slowly reached out for the floating magical light he had created, her chubby hand simply passing through the object of her desires causing her to grumble slightly in irritation as Fi who had left Sonia’s lap having finished their conversation started tickling Kelly with the tip of her tail causing her to giggle at the unexpected sensation. They would both miss Kelly when they left so they were quite happy to spend time with her now.

Damian, who had also been watching the friends talk decided that now was probably a good time for him to make his way over.

“Hey Kyle,” he started sitting down next to the young man.

“Is something wrong Damian?” Kyle asked in reply as Kelly twisted around trying to see who it was that had distracted her brother.

“Uh no nothing wrong exactly,” Damian replied scratching his cheek nervously. “It’s just I’ve apologised to everyone else who my friends and I have caused problems for- well ex-friends really.”

“I’m not exactly popular with anyone right now,” Damian sighed. Not only were a lot of the villagers wary of him because of his relationship with Denzel and Ben but none of the people he thought were his friends would talk with him anymore.

“I see…”

“I’m thinking I might go with you and Hal to the Adventurers School,” Damian continued trying to judge what Kyle’s reaction to this might be.

Kyle glanced at Fi who hesitated slightly then slowly nodded agreeing with her partners unspoken question. Fi was pretty good at guessing the motivations of other people and she couldn’t sense anything but sincerity from Damian.

“If that’s what you want to do I won’t stop you,” Kyle shrugged. As far as he was concerned if Damian couldn’t make this decision by himself he had no place becoming an Adventurer. Personally, he thought that despite some poor choices Damian was someone he could work with and if he chose to come to the school with him and Hal he expected that Damian would perform rather well.

“Alright,” Damian nodded, it wasn’t quite the answer he was looking for, but he knew it was the best he was going to get and decided to let Yuliah know his decision.

Kyle smiled as he watched the other boy make his decision, he didn’t know what would be waiting for them at Greenhearth, but life was looking like it was going to get very interesting in the future.

Kyle and Fi stayed talking with their friends until late in the evening, it wouldn’t be long until they had to go their separate ways and even though Hal and Sonia would be nearby they would all be far busier than they had been up until now.

“Right well, we’d better be off to bed,” Kyle said quietly. Kelly had long since been put to bed by Emma, so he stood up and said goodnight to both of his parents who were deep in a conversation with Thomas, Al and Yuliah. Jerald had returned to the inn earlier in the evening and they had been talking amongst themselves ever since.

“Night Kyle,” his father replied distractedly.

Kyle frowned seeing the worried looks on their faces, “Something wrong?”

“There might be a little trouble,” Al replied ignoring the annoyed looks of the others. “But don’t you worry about that, Sammy’s got your usual room ready for you.”

Kyle shrugged, if they didn’t want to tell him they must have their reasons and so he turned around and walked up the stairs to the room he was staying in waving goodbye to his friends as they left.

“You’re not going to tell him?” Yuliah asked looking at Jerald and Emma who shook their heads.

“If we told him, he probably wouldn’t go with you to Greenhearth,” Emma replied. “He shouldn’t have to worry about something like this at his age anyway.”

“So, have you heard about anything similar happening anywhere else Yuliah?” Jerald asked as the others nodded their agreement of Emma’s previous statement.

“Do you mean Zones appearing suddenly or sightings of Imperial troops?”

“Either.”

“Hmm,” Yuliah considered her answer briefly. “Not really, but I can check with the Guild when I get back to Greenhearth.”

They fell silent as they considered what the damaged breastplate Jerald had found could mean. It had been almost 20 years since the Empire had made any aggressive moves against the Kingdom of Coronia, though some of the neighbouring countries had reported a few raids but as most of the citizens of Coronia were human they didn’t have to worry about that as much. It was especially odd that they had found traces of Imperial activity near Farholt, which while technically close to the border between the two countries had a large mountain range known as the Tremmel Mountains which provided a certain amount of protection due to their notoriously treacherous nature and dangerous wildlife.

“There’s a chance that it’s a coincidence of course,” Thomas noted but this idea was met with a chorus of sighs. “What?”

“Even if it is a coincidence it doesn’t change the fact that the Royal Army are going to want to investigate which in a small town like this will cause its own problems,” Emma replied.

“Well, no point worrying about it until Yuliah can report it to the Guild,” Al pointed out pouring himself another glass of whiskey from the open bottle in front of him.

“True enough, well we’d better head off to bed as well, Warren wants to see me in the morning,” Jerald said as he and Emma got up and started making their way to their own room upstairs.

“Well little lady,” Al said turning towards Yuliah who wrinkled her nose at the smell of alcohol on his breath. “What do you think of all this.

“I think you’re right,” she sighed waving her hand in front of her face. “Worrying can wait until I report this to the Guild in Greenhearth. Now if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll also head to bed.”

Al watched Yuliah leave with a bewildered look on his face before turning to Thomas, “Was it something I said?”