The maid led me back through the round corridor and back down the small staircase which was embedded in the wall back down to the first corridor. We then walked back in the direction we had originally come from, past the stairs that had originally led us to the first ring-shaped corridor and towards the back of it, where a grand stairwell led down, next to the stairwell where two statues of knights in full armour standing tall in two caved out areas of the wall and to both sides of that were large archways, both leading into the same massive hall.

"This stairwell leads down to the entrance hall, and these two archways lead to the dining hall," the maid explained as she led me inside the hall.

It was massive, just like the archways themselves. And I quickly saw why. The first thing, or rather people, that caught my attention were two human-looking women sitting in the far left of the hall, both of them at least ten metres tall while sitting, and their table was appropriately sized as well. Both had blue hair leaning into a slightly brighter shade and tanned looking skin with only a few scars. They were both muscular and wore similar clothing to me, baggy grey pants, a pale green shirt and black shoes. Now I also knew why most major halls here were so massive, the stairwell was large enough for those two ladies as well.

Really hope I can spare against them...

'You wanna make even more friends?' Ira asked jokingly.

'I wanna see how well I can fare against a giant,' I responded, licking my lips and making a scheming face internally since that would draw too much attention if I did it for real.

Once I managed to take my eyes off of the giants I looked around the rest of the room. On the far right of the room was another table that was giant-sized, although that one was empty and in between were many, many wooden tables of the same size but more normal in size, although some were larger than others. Two large red rugs with a golden throne and seven golden stars around it had been laid out on the floor and there was a long table in the back of the hall, standing on a raised stone platform, nearly going from one end of the hall to the other. I could see Rudolpho and Lestul sitting at that table along with a lot of others who I assumed were teachers and high ranking scholars and soldiers and such.

Most tables were filled with people of all sizes and all kinds of different races.

"You can get your food over there," the maid said, pointing towards a large circular stone counter with an open space in it, in the middle of the room and in between the two rugs. Embedded into the stone were containers containing food and drink and a few other maids, these ones wearing aprons as well as a black blouse with a grey skirt and black hair caps, were walking around in the free space that the circular counter surrounded. I could also see a staircase going down from the inside of the open space into what I assumed was the kitchen, with a railing around it so no one could fall inside. The whole open space was at least ten by ten metres judging by the size of the entire hall. There was also a wooden construct build over the entire thing like a roof only made up of the support beams or something with something hanging from them.

"If there is anything else you need simply call one of us by pressing this," she said as she handed me a silver bracelet with a blue crystal embedded into the top.

I nodded in response and watched as the maid left. After I let out a sigh I approached the counter where a maid was already smiling at me. When I reached the counter I was a little overwhelmed. Hanging above it fastened to a wooden construct was a sign that had all the food available written on it with what looked like chalk... good to know they used that stuff even in this world of magic.

I quickly read over the thing, only checking for food I knew I liked.

"Egg, potatoes, beef, pork, chicken, peas, cooked carrots, mushrooms and some fitting sauce," I said after reading over the far too long list. "Just some ale as a drink," I added.

The maid nodded, grabbed a try from beneath the stone counter and quickly walked around, collecting the food I had requested from the steaming containers. She put the meat along with the peas, cooked carrots, potatoes and mushrooms as well as the sauces that would fit on a single deep plate, then grabbed a small bowl and put in three hard-boiled eggs, then grabbed a metal jug and filled it up with ale, put all that on the tray and brought it back to me, to finish it off she took some cutlery from beneath the counter and put it on the tray. The whole process took maybe a minute or two.

"Enjoy it," the maid said with a wide smile.

I nodded and took the tray from the stone counter, then turned around and looked for a table that was as empty as possible. There was one small table close that was completely empty so I went there, put down the tray, sat down and began eating. My left eye started twitching a little and I could feel my nearly constant urge to chuckle grow.

Why?

'It's called going crazy, Happy Face can sing a lot of songs about that,' Ira said with a slightly melodic voice.

'Oh I know that I'm going crazy, it's just that I don't get why I constantly feel the need to laugh or something like that?' I asked Ira as I stretched my neck to distract myself a little.

'Well Happy Face said that when he just couldn't stop laughing one day, and that's how he became who he was... before the whole mask thing...' Ira said, trailing off towards the end.

'Mask thing?' I asked as I took a bite from my pork.

'That's a story far too long, boring and complicated,' Ira said.

'If you say so,' I said, this time actually rolling my eyes.

"Something wrong?" a slightly familiar voice asked.

I looked up, already not wanting to deal with whoever this was and then I saw the girl I had thrown into a wall this morning. With a raised eyebrow I asked what she wanted.

"Well, I wanted to ask if I could sit with you... since I don't really know anyone else," she said.

My eyebrow almost raised itself automatically.

"You want to sit with the person that made you go unconscious for hours because he's the only one you know?" I asked, a smile beginning to appear on my face before I broke out into laughter.

I got stares from every side at that moment, the girl even seemed to shrink from all the attention. But I didn't stop laughing, I mean how ridiculous is that?

"You don't have to make fun of me," the girl said.

"Sorry, sorry," I said, trying to actually sound sincere.

People were still staring at me so I decided to just glare around the room a little, making some people actually divert their looks.

"So, can I sit?" the girl asked.

"What if I say no?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm going to sit down here anyway," the girl said.

I sighed.

"Go ahead then..."

'Aww, she likes you,' Ira said.

'That would be a whole lot better if she was actually useful... but what am I going to do with her?' I asked.

'I mean wouldn't it be realistic if you had friends?' Ira said.

'Friends huh...' I said in my head.

At that moment I saw Ilmar's face before me again and my heart ached. I tried my best not to show any sign of it.

I watched as the girl sat down and put her tray right in front of her. She sat opposite of me, staring at me.

"So, what's your name?" she asked.

I sighed.

I will so regret this whole thing, I just want to kill that fuck!

At that moment I glared over to Lestul then looked to the girl.

"Altair," I answered.

"Oh, what a beautiful name, mine is Ivory," the girl said.

"Ho, how about that," I answered, rolling my eyes in a way where she wouldn't notice it and she didn't even seem to pick up on my sarcasm.

"Why did you decide to join the church?" she asked me in between bites and chewing.

"Circumstances," I said.

"Hmm... I joined because I wanted to help make the world better, and there is no better way to do that than to wipe out heretics," Ivory, said as if I had asked her for her reason.

When she said heretics my entire head twitched and I nearly broke the entire table.

"So, are you alrea-" Ivory began but then she grew silent.

At the same moment, I felt warm mana fill the entire room. I turned around only to see Elsa in her overly long robe and with the weird contraption on her back enter the room. Her hood was down, revealing her long, braided fiery red hair. Her skin was very pale and she had freckles just like her brother.

"She's so beautiful..." Ivory said, her voice trailing off. "Wait... why is she coming towards us?"

I asked myself the same question, everyone was staring at her and she was just casually approaching our table. She smiled at me as she came closer.

"I have heard about the new record you set," Elsa said with her calming voice.

New record?

I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you happen to have the highest amount of mana of any new volunteer in the past twenty years of this fort's history," Elsa said with a sparkle in her eyes.

"That so," I said, disinterested already.

And why exactly do I need to know that?

She raised one of her red eyebrows and her smile became a little less wide.

"I do hope you will make good use of that mana in my lessons," she said, her smile brightening again, although it looked artificially.

I have to take lessons with this woman? Although... maybe I can get close to her... and then kill her brother... alright, let's do this!

"Of course, I will try my best," I said with a smile on my face.

At that moment I felt hundreds of glares but I ignored them like the insignificant things they were.

"That makes me happy," Elsa said as she turned around, her cages swinging.

She just left, as if this entire conversation had never happened. I secretly rolled my eyes and turned around to continue eating. Ivory was staring at me.

"Why is she so friendly with you?" she asked me, her voice sounding like she was not believing what she had just seen.

I shrugged.

"Oh come on, tell me!" she urged, getting louder.

I sighed again and took a deep breath.

"I don't know, maybe because she is genuinely interested in what I can do or maybe because Rudolpho put in a good word for me, what do I know," I answered, annoyed by the fact that she was even beginning to pry.

Her mouth was open and she just stared at me for minutes while I ate and ignored everything around me. When I finished she was still staring at me, I ignored her, brought my stuff back to the counter where I had seen people put their food when they were finished on coincidence, put it into the tub after chugging all of the ale I had and then left the dining hall, leaving behind Ivory.

This fucking place...