Delicious! Delicious! Rich people's food is delicious! It’s like eating at a super expensive restaurant in my old life, except better. I thought that keeping all the utensils and stuff all angled correctly while you ate would be really annoying but it’s really fun! It makes me feel like I'm a nobility! I’ll have to try eating like this normally, not that I think it will make a difference though, since I’m eating in the main dining hall this time.

It’s getting quite late, and I should be eating with Aubrey right now, but this is far too good to pass up. Baron Wisefang insisted on having a feast to celebrate something. Don’t know what they’re celebrating but I’m certainly not complaining! I really have to thank Ruse later too, for telling Baron Wisefang all the servants should eat this delicious food too!

All of a sudden, Noelle walks up to me. “Oh, hey Noelle! Is this the sort of food you eat everyday? I’m really jealous!” 

“I’m happy you’re calling me by name, but can you focus for once in your life?” 

“Hey, don’t be rude. Rude little girls don’t grow taller, you know.” 

“Erk! Well alright then. I thought you were talking with Ruse to figure out why he was here, but if you don’t care all that much, I’ll just leave-” 

“I apologize! Please tell me what you know!”

Noelle gives off a smug grin. 

“Alright, come here.” Noelle grabs onto my head and places her mouth close to my ear so I can hear her whispering. 

“My dad owns a very high quality magic stone, which he’s giving to Pitiful. The emissaries were here to discuss the transaction. I think the negotiations are going well for both sides, but I’m not sure. I don’t think they’ve reached an agreement yet.”

“What does the stone do, why do they want it?” I whisper back. 

“Apparently it’s a stone from the Osorana Region. I don’t know what exactly it does, but if it’s from there, it could probably do all sorts of things.” Osorana Region, never heard of it. Apparently that’s a huge deal though. 

“What’s the Osorana Region?” 

“It’s what’s left of the Osorana Kingdom after Nilus first arrived. It’s a place known for its volcanoes and jungles. I don’t know exactly where in the Region the stone is from.” 

“OK, Noelle. Thanks, but that’s all I really need to know. You can go back to eating, I really appreciate it.”

Noelle smiles. “Anything for you, Kiaran.” 

Noelle then runs off. I’ll need to ask more about the Osorana Region later, but it doesn’t seem like I’ll be able to do anything, even if I figure out more about the situation. I doubt I’ll be of any help regarding negotiations, and I don’t even know which side I should be taking. It would be better if I just layed back this time.

Thinking back to the conversation with Ruse, I do think it’s about time for me to be making my own decisions, and not just blindly listening to what Aubrey, Azariah, and Baron Wisefang have to say, but if I think I can’t do anything, then not doing anything is a valid decision, right?

If something comes up in the future, I’ll try my best to be helpful to the people who need me the most, but right now just isn’t one of those times. That’s fine, right? Yeah, I think so. Alright, I’ve made my mind up. I need to be making my own decisions for now on, and sitting back and letting things run their course is my decision now. I’ll let information reach my ears, and unless something where I’ll be needed pops up, I’ll just sit by patiently. Yeah, sounds good.

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I’m covered in blood. I have a horrible leg wound, so a worrying amount of the blood I’m covered in is my own. I push my back up against a large tree as I hold my breath. I need any kind of rest I can get, but I can’t afford to lay or sit down. I have to keep standing, unless I want to die again. I hold my sword out in front of me, and wave it around trying to scare the creature that took a bite out of my leg off.

I’m in the middle of a huge forest just outside of Heafdes, being cornered by a monster known as a Wolgarm. It’s a huge, bipedal wolf-like thing, with a mane of light gray hair that comes up to nearly a head taller than me, even with it walking on four legs. It’s eyes glow in yellow as it glares at me, trying to figure out how best to kill me.

When I took the quest that was two ranks above mine, I thought nothing of it. I thought that I had trained enough to actually go out and gain some experience, but I was wrong. Well, maybe not wrong, but most definitely unlucky. These things travel in packs of three to five, and the quest I took was to eliminate a particularly troublesome pack of three a bit out into the wilderness but still near enough to the main roads to cause problems.

I had done well up until now. I took out two thirds of the pack, but the last one third wound up causing an injury I can’t exactly fight through. I had managed to sneak up on them by rolling around in the dirt for quite some time. Once I did, I decapitated the first one without any issue. The second one put up enough of a fight that it’s brother managed to bite me while I was finally stabbing it in the throat.

I’m backed up against the tree, and this thing is much larger to me. I can’t move and this thing doesn’t have so much as a scratch on it yet. I don’t want to believe that I’m meant to die here so I hold onto my sword like it’s the most precious thing in the world and watch the thing as close as I possibly can, waiting for even the slightest bit of movement.

It’s equally as wary. We both want to kill each other, but we know that one wrong move would kill us. The tension is immense. All of a sudden though, a staff comes flying through the air in a straight line, bashing the beast’s skull in and sending it flying into a nearby tree nearly cutting it in half.

Before I can even register what just happened a tall, muscular woman in a robe comes running in from the same direction the staff came from screaming at the top of her lungs. She picks the staff back up and starts repeatedly smashing the thing’s skull in as if it wasn’t already incredibly dead. Also while still screaming at the top of her lungs.

As soon as the events of just now catch up to me, she stops doing that and instead turns around to look at me. She’s drenched in even more blood than me and what appears to be brain matter. She walks up to me casually, as if she didn’t just clobber the thing’s skull and brain into an unrecognizable mush.

“Man, you were really lucky that I smelt the blood. I don’t know what would’ve happened here if I hadn’t shown up when I did.”

“Y- yes… thank you… for saving me…”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s the natural thing to do. Say, name’s Freware. What about you?”

“Aubrey… just Aubrey.”

“Well, looks like you have quite the wound there, Aubrey. That’s probably a fatal wound if you don’t do anything about it. Just sit down while I heal it.”

“You’re a healer?”

“Of course. Most of us in Diana’s Cult are.”

“I… I see… If there’s anything I can do to repay you…”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s the right thing to do. Live at this for as long as I have, and you’ll get what I mean.”

“I think… I think I understand.” I slump down into a sitting position. Thank God that’s over. After this I’m heading back to Heafdes and I’m not leaving for a while. I have some more training to do before I do anything like this again.