Feeling a foreign heat enveloping her body, Sylvia slowly opened her drowsy eyes. Being half asleep, she didn’t notice that she was on the back of someone. Seeing the wooden maze around her, she remembered what she saw before fainting and her body started to tremble to the thought of the beast opening his jaw to eat her alive. But, the shiver came to a stop when she recalled her life being saved by someone.

After getting a hold of herself, she started to analyse her own situation. It was at this moment, that she finally noticed that she was moving while being carried on someone’s back. Her first reaction was to scream and try to free herself from this stranger grasp. She thought that she would have to use force to free herself, but the moment she put her hand on the stranger’s back to put some distance between him and her, he gently let go of his grip on her butt and let her fall on the ground.

“Ouch! You brute! Is that a way to treat a lady?”, falling on the ground unprepared didn’t her hurt that much but she just couldn’t stand the fact of being treated like a vulgar backpack.

“It seems that you’re fine now. Take this. There’s enough food for few days the road is just a little bit further left from here. I don’t know where you wished to go, but as long as you reach the road you should find your way again. With this, it’s farewell.” Grey said that to her without any bit of emotion in his voice and just tossed a bag with few rations and some water for the girl to survive. He just helped her because he needed to kill the beast, and saving wasn’t a problem. At first, he wished to befriend her somehow, but who knew that she was that arrogant with the one who saved her life.

Seeing the boy’s indifferent attitude, Sylvia became quite annoyed, but after taking a closer look to his face, she finally knew that he was the one who saved her life. Only then did she knew why he was acting that way. He saved her and instead of thanking him she scowled him.

“I’m… I’m sorry… You saved my life and… It just surprised me… Sorry…” Avoiding his gaze, Sylvia said this to him with a clear sense of guilt in her voice.

“Doesn’t matter. You can go. This where we part, I can’t lose time here.”

And I needed to slow down my pace because of you.

Feeling a bit of anger in his voice, she already knew that her pride must have offended him. But she couldn’t let him go. She didn’t have any idea of how close to Archon this place was and there was way too much risk for a lone girl like her to travel alone. She was not weak, but she wasn’t strong either. If a group of well-trained bandits saw her and recognized her, she was doomed. Worst case scenario she would be sold to a slave trader, and the best would be a demand for a ransom. Thus, she couldn’t afford to take this risk. She didn’t know who he was but he was strong. Way stronger than her.

“Please! No… I mean… Maybe we have the same destination… So, it would be better to travel together…” Her voice was a little weak since she was afraid of offending him again when she was the one in need. Furthermore, he saved her once already, and he had no obligation to help her again.

“… Where?” Seeing her pitiful look, Grey knew that she was in a pinch and that she need him. Though he didn’t like her, he didn’t hate her too. And maybe she could be of help in the future in a way or another.

Hearing his words, hope-filled Sylvia’s eyes.

“Archon! I’m going to Archon!”

“… You really have some luck… I am heading there too. Stand up. We’ve already lost too much time. I hope you can cope with my speed.”

Speaking with the same indifference, Grey quickly glanced at her to follow him before jumping on a tree branch and started to jump through the forest. Seeing this, Sylvia was dumbfounded. It was the first time that she saw someone do this. But she quickly regained her wits when she saw that his figure was getting further and further away and started to run after him in the forest.

When the sun was getting down, Grey signalled her that they would stop here and find a place to camp, which they found without much effort. There was a small cave nearby which didn’t have any clues of being recently occupied by beasts or monsters. After settling down, Grey prepared a small campfire to cook something for them.

Hearing him say that they would stop here for today, Sylvia fell on the ground, exhausted. She didn’t know for how long she had run, and even at her full speed she couldn’t keep up with him, and he didn’t even break out a sweat. The worst thing was that she knew that she still slowing him down.

Sitting in a corner at the entrance of the cave, Sylvia remembered that despite being with him for this whole time she didn’t know his name.

“Hum… Sorry but… We didn’t introduce each other and I still don’t know your name… Mine is Sylvia Bethel.”

“Grey Cromwell.”

“Grey Cromwell…”

Sylvia muttered the name to herself, trying to remember if she ever heard his name somewhere, but she couldn’t’ find anything in her memory, which was strange. He was so strong at such a young age and nobody knew about him?

Thinking about how he killed the underworld grizzly in a single strike, she recalled that before he came, she had wet herself. Her face instantly blushed from embarrassment. But the next moment, she felt that when she came to herself, she didn’t feel any kind of discomfort in her nether region, which meant that it has dried or…

“Hum…. Grey… How long was I out?”

“Something like an hour or two… I think.”

It isn’t possible for it to become dry in an hour or two. He… He did something with my body!

“Did… did you do something to me…?”

Though she was blushing and stuttering in her speech, she kept her eyes locked on him to prevent him from running away or laughing at her. Grey became flagger basted for a moment she didn’t know what she was talking about, but after taking a closer look at her face he knew that he may have done something which had led to this. Then he remembered. He let out a dry cough before explaining to her that he only used basic cleanse magic on her body and clothes. Now it was her time to become surprised. She had never heard of something like cleansing magic for clothes. Mana was violent and hard to control. People who could use their mana to heal people were naturally gifted as it was basically impossible to use healing magic for most people. Thus, unless it was through an array or something of the kind, using something like ‘clean’ or ‘cleanse’ was near impossible.

“You used it… directly? Without an array?”

“Yes. Oh, since you sweated quite a lot on the way I can show you.”

In a flash, Grey was next to her, literally frightening her. She didn’t see him move at all. And before she could say something, she could feel a warm feeling enveloping her making relieving her muscles or their pain and clearing the stench coming from her body and clothes. When she noticed this, she blinked her eyes watery eyes many times in astonishment and checked pinched her cheek to verify that she wasn’t dreaming.

Her mouth wide open, she wanted to say something but no words would come out of her mouth.

“If you thought that I’d take advantage of a fainted girl you really are looking down me. If a girl doesn’t react there’s no fun.”

She wanted to retort but only blushed lightly while avoiding his gaze. She suspected him and nearly slandered him. In less than a day she had made the same mistake twice. And he even dared to tease her, but she could not get angry him somehow.

“Now then, come and eat. It’s ready.”

Grey extended to her a bowl containing a weird looking soup with herbs and pieces of meat mixed together. There was a greenish substance mixed something blue in it.

It didn’t look good. No. It looked very bad. If he hadn’t saved her life earlier she’d have thought that he was trying to poison her. She resigned to her fate and took a sip of the mixture.

It was good. Not top notch cuisine but it was soothing and she could feel her body recovering from her tiredness and her mana pool slowly replenishing. She didn’t hesitate anymore and wolfed down the whole thing and asked for another service. Grey let out a dry laugh before giving her another bowl.

Her body was feeling strange, she felt like a layer of heat was covering her and keeping her safe.

“This soup is a little bit special. It will help you recover both your mana and stamina and it will create a shield around your skin which doesn’t have any great defensive power but it will keep you warm for the night.”

“Hum… Thanks for the food…”

For the first time since they met, Grey smiled at her. Sensing her heartbeat accelerating, Sylvia quickly left this place for the cave. When she was finally alone, she laid down on the floor and arranged her thoughts.

He is… strong and… not that bad looking… but… I can’t. He doesn’t see me like this. For him, I am surely just another girl… And I can’t involve him with my family troubles…

When Sylvia left and disappeared in the cave, the smile on Grey’s face faded. There was something which was looking at them since they’ve been here. Though he didn’t who or what it was, since the beginning it didn’t move.

Grey slowly got up and glanced in their stalker direction. Without a word, a dozen of ice spears flew in the dark night and crashed against a wind wall. Having been discovered the stalker walked into Grey’s line of sight. The stalker was a man seemingly in his forties, his unshaved beard and thick eyebrows surely made him look older than he was. However, his sharp gaze and killing intent gave Grey an odd feeling. Like, there was something underneath which needed to stay hidden in those layers of killing intent.

“I didn’t think that I’d be discovered this easily.”

“I thought that you’d have acted the moment you saw us.”

“… So, I was discovered since then huh… Anyway. You guys don’t seem too bad, and I am a straightforward person. Leave the girl and your belongings and I can guaranty your safety, good deal?”

“…”

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

Before the man could make a move, his whole body was frozen. Not in an ice block, like frozen in time. Grey slowly walked toward him while preparing a spell. When he was near the man, he lightly touched his forehead with a finger covered in mana to look through his memories.