The night sets on as Lady Agata places Connie to her bed for now. And we begin brainstorming our thoughts from what she learned from Connie.

“So what happened to her?” I asked to begin our conversation.

“Seems like she got captured by bandits while she and her parents traveled to a new town where they were heading to move. She saw horrible things happen to them before being executed to the spot.

And she was sold for auction as a slave. With nothing left on her she was taken up by an unknown mage where he convinced her that he will change her life for the better. But that turned out the other way around.

She ended up being affiliated with powerful magic and was used as one of the batteries that powered a certain spell where we found her. She doesn’t know what spell it was, she was just taught to supply magic for it forcibly of course.” Lady Agata introduced me, the story of Connie.

“Sounds terrible and yet I still don’t get it. What is that place used for?” I replied.

“That may have come out a bit weird from your mouth Alan but here’s what I’ve found out. The entire village we came through was part of this whole scheme.” Lady Agata felt dejected.

“So the entire village is part of this huh…” I looked grim as seeing that they are living the quietest life I’ve ever seen on a Village in spite the gratuitous amount of torture of innocent for their peace is something I wouldn’t let it slide.

Not gonna lie, this is the first time I was really pissed off. Genuinely I wanna beat the crap out of the people that did this.

“I think it’s not normal for you to stay up too late for now. You should sleep, we need the energy to set this matter straight by tomorrow.” Lady Agata advises me to sleep.

As I sat down, Lady Agata left for the night and told me to relax for tonight. I heard a loud crow from a distance cawing seemingly far from where I was.

Guess Nature has it rough too… So I went to sleep as well soon after.

The Next Morning…

I woke up before dawn started and began instinctively training myself. I picked up a downed tree log and used it as my sandbag. Covered my hands with fabric to protect it, and began hitting it with one punch at a time.

I felt like this was natural for some reason. I gave distance from the camp to avoid getting noise waking them up from their sleep. But I have a good area of seeing them from a distance to keep an eye out.

While training I felt something was watching me from afar. When I looked behind me I saw a crow by the branches staring at me then the crow tilted its head while giving me a long stare before flying off soon after I gave eye contact to it.

I knew crows are intelligent birds but it’s odd to find one out of nowhere. Probably someone owns that bird and just flew by here.

“Strange…” I murmured to myself as I returned to training.

It took two or three hours for me to finish training and headed back to camp to change out clothes. Seems like everyone is awake by then now. Connie looked calmer now than before.

She’s not as paranoid as before from the looks of it…

“How’s sleep?” I asked Connie.

“Good…” Connie replied.

“Sounds great, Lady Agata. What’s next for our move, got anything in mind?” I asked if she had anything planned so we could compare.

“I think we need Connie to be in a safe place first. I think the village back in the forest would keep her safe. I know Vert and the others would take good care of her for now there.” Lady Agata suggested returning to that village where I started out.

“Are you okay with that Connie? We need you to be in our village for now while we tackle this incident that you’ve been put through.” I kneeled down to Connie’s height to talk to her.

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Connie nodded, seemingly we’ve gotten her to trust us.

“Alright for now we have to reroute our task for now and get this girl to that village… By the way Lady Agata you never told me what the name of that village anyways?” I gave a run down of what we’ll be doing for today and asked a question.

“Oh, I never told you but that Village is called Agata’s Village. I know, creative name right?” Lady Agata seems proud of how simple the name of her Village is.

“Right, ok, I’ll summon Feros so stand back everyone.” I used the spell that summoned Feros to my location.

Appearing from the ground is Feros waiting for me to ride again.

“Connie, sit behind me and hold tight. This is gonna be a long trip for you and me. Lady Agata, guide us to your village once again.” I kick started the bike as it wakes up from its slumber and rides off towards our next destination.

As the motorcycle leaves the location a crow landed by their campgrounds to check as a man clad in black walking with a murder of crows behind them with a watch in his right hand.

“Tick, tock, Mr. Alan.” Said The mysterious man as the crows behind him started cawing.

Three Hours later…

“Seems like traveling via Feros made our trip really quick. We’re here Connie.” I turned off Feros to park on the side.

Lady Agata assisted Connie off the seat as I walked with her to knock on the gate.

*Knock knock*

“Speak, visitor!” Asked the guard on the other end of the gate.

“It’s me, the Woodsman’s Son. I came bearing a survivor and is looking for a haven for her to stay at.” I replied to the guard.

Immediately the gate opened as the guards were surprised I came back to the village. With some of the Oracles seeing this and I called out one of them.

“I want you to call out Lady Vert and Ria. I want to talk to them. Tell them I’ll be in my cabin.” I instructed the Oracle on site.

Me and Lady Agata went towards my cabin for privacy to the new kid here. The villagers did get the memo immediately and subsided for now. As we entered the cabin I told her a couple of words.

I held her by the shoulders.

“Connie, this place will protect you from whoever might attack you from the outside.” I kneeled down making sure Connie is comfortable as I say this to her.

Connie seems to be alright with her situation here right now. That she was saved from those monsters.

Soon after Lady Vert and Ria came to our cabin looking worried… And somehow glad that I came back in one piece.

“You looked different now, Alan. What happened?” Asked Ria.

“I’ve been adventuring nothing too new or surprising that much had happened since the first demon lord subjugation I did.” I replied.

“Who is this child Alan?” Lady Vert asked.

“I brought her here to be protected while we finish business.” I replied.

“For what kind of business?” Ria asked.

I looked down on the floor as my rage started to boil up again but I felt Lady Agata’s hand trying to calm me out. And soon as I felt that pressure calmed out, I breathed and replied to her question.

“Business I have to deal with the people that did harm to her. She’s associated with the Goddess Agata and she was harmed, tortured, and taken advantage of her magic abilities.

I was given a message by the Goddess to bring her here and be taught how to properly use magic. And Lady Agata knows that you two know magic the best and thinks that you will provide this child the best education on how to control it.

For now while she’s here it's more on protection for the meantime while I handle her unfinished business. I had a suspicion that a Demon Lord was running that operation.” I told them my plans.

“So you’re saying it?” Ria raises her eyebrow.

“This is gonna be her new home. Her name is Connie, she’s a good kid. And I know she will do good in spite of her trauma from using magic. I give you two full control on this one please. Guide her the best as you could and treat her like family.” As I say this Connie held close to me.

“I don’t want to stay here.” Connie holds tightly to my coat as she starts to slowly weep.

“Connie, kid. I want you to be safe for now. I’ll come back here once I finish off those who hurt you. I want your trust in me, and pray that I’ll be safe at all times while I defeat those evil beings that caused this to you.” I held Connie’s hand as she was shaking.

Ria looked glad, while Vert averted looking from the scene as if something was in her head. But I don’t have time for this for now. I need to start my investigation.

“Lady Vert, I owe you a lot for doing this to me. I need you to provide the best for Connie and help her get used to the people around here.” I grabbed Lady Vert’s hand to give my word.

“No, need for that Alan. Your Father’s actions alone are a big deal for us so taking care of your kid for now isn’t much of a problem. We’ll promise that by the time you return here she will be ready to face the world.” Lady Vert held my hand tightly while giving her resolve.

Once our agreement had been settled and Connie was ready for her to stay there and learn everything while I’m away finishing off the people behind everything here. Gave my goodbyes for now and rode off…

*Caw Caw*

Those loud crows again… What's with them recently?