Chapter 63: Life in the Advanced Town (First part)

The eastern part of the Dorell Kingdom, where the capital and the small town of Tegralle were located, was experiencing another harsh day under the ruthless rays of the sun.

However, a few days before Seledia found Sillath’s letter and several hundred miles west from there, the sky wasn’t dominated by the hot sun but by dense dark clouds.

It had been several hours since a dense rain started to fall on the Advanced town of the wilderness where I was currently living but it showed no sign of stopping.

The dense rain and violent wind mercilessly fell on the fields, but I remained motionless with my eyes closed to observe an almost infinite number of raindrops falling all around me. In this familiar world of mana, I ignored the coldness of the water drenching me or the cold breeze of the wind enhancing this sensation.

I continued to experience this mysterious feeling until a barely audible but familiar voice brought me back and forced me to open my eyes.

“Sillath!!!”

The feminine and slightly childish voice left no room for interpretation about its owner.

These moments of contemplation under the rain were very precious to enhance my comprehension of the water element and train my magic, but I wasn’t particularly displeased as it had already been several hours since I started my training.

It was the third time I was doing this kind of training, so Aliannelle wasn’t surprised anymore but it was obvious that she didn’t like my idea of staying under the cold rain for so long.

After entering the house, she immediately gave me a clean towel with a stiff smile on her young but beautiful face.

Just as the day before, I knew what she wanted me to do. Therefore, without any useless words, I walked toward a small room near the entrance and closed the door behind me.

As I was alone in this small room dimly lit, I immediately took off my drenched clothes and put one hand inside a large tub of water in the corner of the room that I prepared beforehand. A single thought and a dozen seconds were enough to turn the cold water into a welcoming hot bath releasing a dense steam.

This kind of magic was child’s play but it proved incredibly convenient for me and for the pair of father and daughter generously hosting me.

Enjoying a hot bath was apparently a luxury they rarely experienced considering that Paul couldn’t use any magic while Alianelle was only slightly skilled in wind magic.

I entered the hot water and finally allowed my mind to relax. Even if I stayed motionless under the rain, this kind of mental training was incredibly exhausting but it was worth it.

I was forced to stop my training when I started to cross the wilderness on my own. Ironically, I made incredible progress after I stopped my training with Amanda thanks to the life and death struggles I had experienced along my journey.

My encounter with Hirillë, the Queen of the Great Forest of the West, and the painful time I spent blind also allowed me to strengthen my understanding of magic and to develop my ability to sense the mana in an incredible way. However, I still needed calm and time to digest these enhancements.

It had only been a little over a week since I sent the letter to my family and started to live in this small farm with Aliannelle and her father, but even if it was short, this peaceful time still allowed me to greatly improve my magic.

According to the devious man who sent this letter, it takes around a week for a letter to arrive in the Relay town of Shaisal from this Advanced town. Therefore, the letter probably just arrived or will soon arrive.

Either way, I was sure that it would reach Shaisal before the six-week agreement that my grandfather was talking about. However, in the end, I couldn’t send the letter directly to the house of my parents.

It would have been incredibly convenient if it was possible for trained birds to reach every village and small towns scattered in the Dorell Kingdom but this kind of thing wasn’t realistic. The best alternative was to send my letter to the Relay town linked to Tegralle but it was a gamble whether my parents would read it in time or not.

However, I knew that I couldn’t do anything more than this.

I was painfully aware that I wasn’t strong enough to cross the wilderness on my own especially since I only had a single vial of potion left after sending one to my parents. Hoping for Jazor to escort me while he was stationed in this town was unrealistic and unreasonable.

As I already explained my situation and gave my position inside the letter, I had no other choice but to patiently wait for them inside this Advanced town.

Even if I was worried about my family, I was also aware that things could be much worse. I sent my letter in time and, for the first time since I started my journey, I was in a safe place. Moreover, my life in this small farm with Aliannelle and her father Paul was surprisingly nice and the work wasn’t overwhelming even with my young body.

Paul promised me a difficult work to repay my debt after he paid a part of my letter, but the fact that I could use every kind of magic was way beyond his expectation.

The harsh work was for the most part quite easily handled by my earth and water magic which allowed me to spend more time than I initially expected training. It also made their lives easier, which was incredibly rewarding.

A single week by their sides was already enough to appreciate their honesty and the kindness they had toward me, a complete stranger not too long ago. Even without the matter of my debt, I wanted to continue working in the farm until my parents arrived, to be worthy of the generosity they had shown me despite their modest lifestyle.

According to my calculation, it would take several months to completely pay off my debt of nine silver if my parents didn’t come before this. I already decided that if they didn’t reach this town when I finish to repay my debt, then this would probably mean that they didn’t receive my letter or that something terrible had happened.

I put this worrying thought in the back of my mind but this didn’t mean that I wasn’t preparing for this worst-case scenario.

That’s why I continued to train as hard as I could despite being safe behind the strong walls of the city.

If I had to cross the rest of the wilderness on my own to reach Tegralle, then I had to become stronger. I also developed a trump card for this eventuality.

I didn’t let these worrying thoughts perturb my rest as I allowed my mind to wander while I enjoyed the warmth of the water. It’s only when the water started to turn cold that I reluctantly came out.

After getting dressed with clean clothes Paul gave me, I left the small room to rejoin Paul and Alianelle who were comfortably sitting on a large couch in the corner of the biggest room in their small house. Paul was talking while Alianelle absentmindedly answered while she looked at the rain falling through the window near the couch.

As usual at this time of the day, she was slowly sipping at a dense blue liquid inside a small cup. This strange kind of tea that she was the only one to drink didn’t seem particularly tasty as it forced her to make a small grimace with each sip. Paul explained that it was a tonic to nourish her weak body that she had to take everyday. After a week together, I wasn’t surprised anymore by this strange habit.

She only stopped her slow drinking and turned her face when she saw me enter from the corner of her beautiful blue eyes.

She didn’t immediately start to talk to me and simply pouted her lips together while turning her focus back toward the monotonous vision of the falling rain.

Paul turned his head to look at me and, as if coming to a silent understanding, we both helplessly smiled in front of her reaction.

It didn’t take me much time to understand that Alianelle’s main quality was her honesty. She didn’t like to lie, or it would be more accurate to say that the thought of lying rarely crossed her innocent mind.

It was a wonderful quality but it also meant that she didn’t bother to hide her feelings.

She was displeased by my training under the cold rain and wanted me to know that.

I slowly made my way toward them, and sat to her left side in silence while Paul on her right side also stayed silent.

We stayed together on the large and comfortable couch with only the noise of the rain falling on the wooden roof disturbing this silence.

However, after only a couple of minutes, Alianelle turned her gaze away from the window and started to talk to me as if nothing happened.

I watched Paul shrugging his shoulder in surrender while I was answering her with a smile at the corner of my mouth.

This girl couldn’t stay angry for more than a few minutes.

With this pleasant thought in the corner of my mind, we continued to talk together with Paul intervening from time to time until a loud noise, completely different from the rain, was heard.

It was the end of the day so, even without the dense clouds darkening the sky, the light of the sun was already almost completely gone. It was surprising and even worrying for someone to visit this lonely farm so late but none of us showed any sign of wanting to stand up and open the door to this visitor.

It would indeed have been a worrying thing to have a late visitor but we knew precisely who was knocking so rudely on their fragile wooden door.

Sure enough, despite the fact that no one answered, the door was immediately opened letting a cold breeze enter the house along with a short but massive man.

“How heartless! You could have come to welcome me.”

“Hi, Jazor. Welcome.” I immediately answered while yawning.

“Your lack of interest really hurts me, sissy…”

I felt a vein pop on my forehead after his words.

“For the hundredth time, stop calling me that, I’m a boy!”

With a wide smile on his rough face covered with a dense beard, Jazor only whistled while ignoring my remark which gave me the impulse to kick this rude dwarf.

“Hi, Jazor.” Said Paul and Aliannelle at the same time while standing up from the couch to finally welcome their guest.

I was the one to introduce Jazor to them when he returned from his mission. It was only the fourth time he came to eat inside Paul’s house but they were already quite familiar with one another.

Paul and Jazor both lived quite a long time inside this Advanced town but there was no chance for this modest farmer unable to use magic and for this powerful mercenary to come into contact before.

However, Jazor with his easy-going personality and Paul with his friendly nature were both quite sociable. Moreover, the fact that Paul gave me enough money to send my letter, so that I would not have to resume my dangerous hunt, gave Jazor a favorable first impression.

Although their experiences and interests didn’t really seem to coincide, with the exception of their shared passion for strong alcohol, they still talked quite easily to each other and quickly became friends.

I suspected Jazor came the first time to check on me and to make sure that nothing strange was done to me. Of course, with his personality it was impossible to confirm my thoughts but that didn’t matter.

Jazor was my benefactor in the same way as Hirillë and Paul. He saved my life and guided me toward the Advanced town. He even gave me a deviant’s core worth three golds to send my letter. However, contrary to the nine silvers I owned to Paul, I had no way to repay this sum without hunting deviants. Therefore, I could only promise him that my parents would repay him when they will come to fetch me even if he didn’t seem to really care.

Truly a respectable man.

If only he acted like one...

“What do we eat, miss? Hope there will be more meat than the last time.” Finally asked Jazor without hiding his hunger after exchanging a few pleasantries with Paul.

Alianelle, who stayed silent after her initial greeting, ignored his shameless comment and simply smiled after hearing his words. Then, she started to explain in detail the dish she had prepared for tonight.

I didn’t listen to her explanations.

While I was standing in this comfortable room sheltered from the rain with these people, I realized the chance I had to encounter them.

They helped me selflessly and allowed me to enjoy the peace and warmth of a home that I hadn’t known for more than four years.

They allowed my previous efforts and suffering not to be in vain and restored my faith in other people after all the bad experiences I had with strangers.

With these thoughts in mind, the four of us sat around the wooden table and started a simple but delicious meal punctuated by various discussions and numerous laughter.

While I was eating, I knew that it wasn’t just the heat of the soup or of the meat that was warming up my heart.

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Another week went the same as the previous one. I continued my work in the farm with Paul and used my free time to seriously train my magic.

Jazor regularly visited and even helped a little with my training even if I knew that he probably just wanted to show off. Apparently, he didn’t accept another long subjugation mission and simply patrolled around the city.

I didn’t comment on his obvious attempt to neglect his work as his advice and experience were incredibly valuable.

Everything continued in the same peaceful way. The only exception was that I realized a couple of days ago that I officially turned eleven years old. When she learned about that Alianelle insisted on having a small party and even gifted me a small pendant. It was a simple small white rock not larger than my thumb that she probably found around the farm but it was a beautiful gift and a sweet gesture nonetheless.

I wanted to find a present for her and Paul to thank them. Not because I owed them but because I wanted them to know how grateful I was. However, as I was completely broke, my idea became more complicated than what I initially thought.

After thinking a long time about that, I simply decided to teach them some games from my former world. As most of the games, I remembered required two or four players, our shared meals with Jazor quickly became an excuse to play together and animate our evenings.

Nearly three weeks had passed since I sent my letter to my family but I didn’t receive any news from them. Even if the wait was difficult to bear, I knew it was quite difficult to reach this town so deep into the wilderness.

Moreover, unless you used the official channel controlled by the government and by extension the royal family, it was apparently quite difficult to send letters to an Advanced town.

You could send as much letter as you wanted toward the Kingdom, but the contrary was controlled thanks to the communication towers intercepting all the birds coming to an Advanced town.

Even if this system wasn’t perfect, this method to restrict both way conversations was quite effective nonetheless.

It was a choice made by the kingdom to avoid external influences especially from the noble houses. Therefore, these cities created to support the various camps of soldiers conducting subjugation missions against the deviants of the wilderness were isolated and even their exact positions weren’t publicly known.

According to Jazor, all this was done by the royal family faction to avoid as much as possible interaction from the Great noble houses. The idea to have these nearly independent military camps outside the kingdom controlled or at least influenced by a noble house was obviously not something the royal family wanted.

Because of the perpetual secret confrontation for power between the King and the Great noble houses, I could only wait for my parents to come to this city.

I was eager for that day but also a little sad to have to leave Alianelle, Paul and Jazor because I knew that I would probably never see them again.

“What are you thinking about Sillath?”

The sweet voice of Alianelle brought me back from my silent contemplation. I got lost in my thoughts in the middle of our game without noticing.

“Nothing, sorry. It’s my turn, right?” I asked while dodging the question.

“Yeah.”

We continued our game while talking about various topics.

“By the way, where is your father?” I asked after winning my third game in a row.

Aliannelle was quickly putting back the pieces of our game of draughts to have her revenge despite her last crushing defeat.

“I think he went to visit a friend in town. Since you came to work in the farm, he has much more free time so he probably wants to enjoy this as much as possible before you…”

She stopped her sentence but the words she had swallowed weren’t hard to guess.

My worries about my future departure were apparently shared. It was a nice thought to feel appreciated but it was also quite heartbreaking to see her dejected face.

Without my magic to help Paul in his farm, their simple life will quickly go back to being as hard as before. Moreover, an Advanced town didn’t have many prospects for non-fighters especially for a young girl like her. She was still young but in a couple of years, if she wanted to find a job or simply move out of the farm then her only prospect would be to work as a receptionist in a shop or to be a waitress in a bar.

It was a harsh judgment but it was undoubtedly the truth that there were not many opportunities for her if she ever wanted to leave this farm.

“Why do you stay in this Advanced town?”

With these depressing thoughts occupying my mind, this rude question subconsciously escaped my lips. I immediately regretted asking as I already understood that only painful circumstances would force a father to settle down with his only daughter in an Advanced town.

However, before I could retract my question, Alianelle answered with the same sweet voice as usual.

“We ran away. It’s a really common story, not even worth mentioning as many others who came to this town had harsher experiences.” She explained lightly but her hands had already stopped putting the pieces of the game back in place.

Even with her attempt to underrate her own circumstances, her childish face had troubles to conceal the harshness of these memories.

I remained silent without knowing if it was better to change the subject.

Apparently she took my silence as my approval to continue her story because she quickly started her tale while nervously playing with a strand of her beautiful blond hair with her finger.

“We’re from a small village in the west part of the Kingdom. We also had a small farm and even if we were quite poor, everyone in the village was nice. Unlike now, I had many friends and I even went to school. My teacher even said that I had a good talent with wind magic and that it was possible for me to enter a magic university later.”

I stayed silent faced with her recollection. The small smile at the corner of her thin lips and her light tone were more than enough for me to understand that she cherished dearly these memories belonging to another life.

I didn’t want to see this joyous expression on her innocent face fade, but I couldn’t interrupt her even if I already more or less guessed the rest of her story.

“We didn’t have much money, the taxes were harsh but we were happy nonetheless. Until one day, the representative of the noble house overlooking our territory came to visit our small village. Everyone tried their best to make the village as beautiful as possible when they learned that such an important person would come. Everyone seriously prepared for his venue but everything went wrong that day.”

Her previous relaxed expression was already gone from her face, but her story wasn’t over yet.

“Long story short, he wasn’t satisfied with our work. He wanted more but everyone knew that it wasn’t possible. After a long persuasion, he accepted our words as the truth. However, in return, he asked for a compensation.”

“A compensation?” I carefully asked.

“Me and a few other young girls.” She simply answered with a sad and self-loathing smile on her usually cheerful face.

“I agreed but my father didn’t. So we left everything behind and found shelter in this Advanced town. We lived quite close to the wilderness to begin with and an expedition was scheduled to leave soon while looking for volunteers. If we were strong mages or if we had money, we could have crossed the kingdom to look for another place to live, but in our situation, my father didn’t have any other choice but to take this opportunity. It happened three years ago, it was difficult at first but my father was right. This kind of place outside the kingdom is the only place where people who angered nobles like us can live.” She finally concluded

Her long speech to tell her story was definitely not unique. Stories about nobles abusing their authority were more than common in this corrupted kingdom. The fact that they safely escaped, even if it meant leaving behind every person she ever knew and her own future, was also fortunate.

Maybe she couldn't realize what her fate would have been but her father definitely understood what would have happened to her.

In that sense, they were quite fortunate to have found a decent shelter and to be able to live from their work even in the wilderness.

However, something about her story still seemed off.

I didn’t know why I had this feeling, but I was sure she was hiding something from me.

It was weird for me to suspect this usually overly honest girl, but one part of her story didn’t fit. I didn’t know if I was overthinking it or if she really lied on a part of her story but I didn’t care either way.

This was her past that she never had any obligation to share. The fact that she trusted me with a large part of her story was already more than enough even if she chose to change or hide some facts.

This was more than what I could say to her.

The only thing she knew about me was that I was separated from my family and needed to urgently send them a letter. Neither she, Paul nor Jazor knew why I was on my own inside the wilderness.

It’s not that I didn’t want to trust them with the truth.

However, I didn’t know if someone was still looking for Arthur Waldemar’s murderer inside the wilderness. As I didn’t know that, it seemed safer to keep a low profile and stay quiet about my origins while waiting for my parents.

The fewer people who knew the truth, the less chance there was for a mistake to happen.

Moreover, I didn’t want Alianelle or Paul to know that I killed my captors. They welcomed me into their home without asking about my story because they thought I was an innocent child. Even if they understood that I was strong for my age, it was different to know that I could somewhat hunt deviant and know that I had already killed human beings.

Therefore, after her story, I didn’t try to pry into the part she was hiding from me. Likewise, she didn’t ask me any personal question.

“Thank you for sharing this with me.” I simply said without any other word.

We resumed our games while keeping a part of the truth about us to ourselves.

In my old world, I heard some people say that it was impossible to be totally honest with someone. This sentence never seemed as true as in this instant for me.

We finished our game in silence.

It’s only when it was time for dinner that the slight awkwardness between us completely disappeared. I trained for a bit and helped her with dinner.

“He sure is late.”

“Yeah.”

Dinner had been ready for a long time while the night had fallen long ago but Paul wasn’t back yet.

“He probably drank too much.” I said to comfort her.

“Yeah.” She simply replied once again, unable to hide her concern.

We waited a little longer but finally ate our meal without Paul and went to bed while he still wasn’t back yet.

While I was resting on my comfortable bed, a little too large for my small body, I had troubles falling asleep. It wasn’t that I was particularly worried about Paul as I was sure that this simple farmer wasn’t dumb enough to wander at night inside the dangerous areas of the town.

Considering his joyful face this morning, the possibility of him drinking too much was indeed quite high.

I wasn’t worried about Paul but I couldn’t fall asleep without making sure that my surroundings were completely secure.

It wasn’t surprising considering the time I spent on my own inside the wilderness without anyone to guard me when I slept. The attack during my sleep on my first night and the time I spent completely blind were more than enough for me to justify this small ritual to calm my mind.

I stared at the wooden ceiling above my head while listening to every sound around me. Without any foreign noise to disturb my mind, I closed my eyes and focused my senses.

I entered the now familiar world of mana.

The movement of each particle of mana around me was once again chaotic, but after deepening my understanding of each element and after spending so much time in this invisible world, their movements and nature seemed a little less mysterious.

I didn’t let my mind wander and simply focused my senses on the surrounding life forms.

A single light representing the only intelligent life form, close enough for me to sense, immediately appeared in my mind.

However, contrary to my expectations, the light wasn’t motionless.

It was coming closer.

Soon, the soft noise of delicate steps reached my ears and confirmed my previous observation.

I didn’t need to open my eyes to confirm the identity of the person standing just before my door late at night. A few seconds later, the door was pushed open and let Alianelle enter into my room.

I opened my eyes and looked at her with my head still resting on the comfortable pillow.

The light of the corridor was more than enough to illuminate her figure. Her long blond hair was tied into a long braid that she nervously played with. She was dressed in a white nightgown just long enough to cover her knees while her free hand was tightly clutching her large pillow against her chest.

Seeing me awake, she seemed to hesitate about what to say.

“You can’t sleep?” I finally asked after long seconds of silence.

“Yeah.” She shyly answered while lowering her head.

She seemed to hesitate about her next words, but I didn’t interrupt her.

“Do you mind if I sleep with you tonight?” She finally asked with a tint of red on her cheeks difficult to hide even with the surrounding darkness.

I didn’t answer and simply moved toward one side of the bed to give her enough space.

Aliannelle didn’t hesitate long. She quickly reached the bed with light steps and slide under the cover just next to me.

Her delicate scent immediately reached my nose while her somewhat rapid breathing started to slow down.

This was the first time she was doing something like that. It was understandable as it had been a little less than a month since I started to live with her.

However, even if we were now familiar with one another, it was still the first time I saw her so anxious and vulnerable. She seemed completely different from her usual cheerful self.

We stayed silent next to each other until she started to move once again. Her soft arms wrapped around my chest giving me a foreign but pleasant warmth.

“Sillath…” She softly muttered.

“It’s alright. I don’t mind.” I simply answered.

She rested her head just next to me while tightening her hug. I could feel her heartbeat against my own chest slowing down while we continued to share our heat against one another for long minutes.

There was nothing ambiguous about our situation. Even if I had the body of a child, I was still an adult while Aliannelle was still too innocent to have any indecent thought especially toward a boy younger than her.

Although I was surprised by her unusual behavior, it wasn’t hard to understand that this was a simple hug desired by a scared young girl.

Maybe it was because we spoke about her past, maybe it was because she was afraid without her father by her side or it may have been a mix of both that guided her steps toward my room. Either way, if sleeping next to me was all it took to reassure and comfort her then I didn’t mind.

Our breathing was the only thing we could hear.

I thought it would remain that way until I fell asleep.

“I lied to you earlier Sillath.” She suddenly muttered.

I was a little taken aback by her sudden declaration. However, I quickly disperse the slight drowsiness that had started to assault me and simply answered what naturally came to my mind.

“I know.”

“You do?” She asked baffled.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to tell me everything.”

“I…”

The words she was ready to tell didn’t leave her mouth and left us with another long silence that she didn’t break this time.

She tightened her hug while I simply listened to her breathing becoming slower as sleep started to overcome her worries.

With her by my side, I also accepted the embrace of sleep for tonight.