The slavers just, gave up. They fucking gave up. And that was a great thing because my mana was in tatters, just 5 MP remained. Well, with my display of skill and spell just now, I understood everyone’s shock at the scene. Breathe, breathe. I put a hand on my chest to calm down. Remember your objective. Breathe. Now, how do I take advantage of this situation? They look like adventurers, which means there’s civilization close by, or they at least know how to survive out here. I need to appear friendly.

I took a step forward, but they were pretty apprehensive. Hell, it looked like the slavers tried to hide behind the adventurers who came to hunt them. “I’m not an enemy. I just want to get out of here, find an inn, fill my belly and get a good night’s rest. That’s it.” I kept my hands up to be clear about my friendly standing.

“Who are you, old man?” I heard the girl asked me again. She poked her head out from behind one of the adventurers.

“Didn’t I tell you I’m not an old man?” I fumed.

“R-right. Andre, right? Um,” she scratched her head, “name’s Lila, B-rank adventurer, adept wizard, leader of this team.” She put her hands on her hips. “We’re going to release the captives and report back to ADAS. You should come with us, Andre.”

Hmm, an invitation? Those behind her looked like an eccentric bunch, a bunch I wouldn’t like to get involved with. But that was beyond my control now; I needed help if I wanted to find out what was the deal with Tina and Abdiel. The way he called her name kept replaying in my head over and over, almost to the point where I could’ve sworn that I heard whispers of his voice. It was haunting. “Yeah. Lead the way then, Lila.”

Finally, I felt the light of day on my shoulders for the first time in about two weeks. My beard and hair grew out to a nasty, unkempt state, and my smell wasn’t the best either because I’d just finished working out and didn’t have any mana to use Clean on myself. During our lunch stop, I noshed on some potatoes and dried meat, it was so heavenly, tears came to my eyes. I’d probably break down crying like a child if I tasted a good cheeseburger at that point.

“Take it easy there, old m—uh, Andre.” Lila patted me on the shoulder. “We have more, you know.” She sat next to me, hugged her legs, and stared awkwardly. “Kept walkin’ and hopin’ I could forget what I saw, you know? A person that could use skills and spells? Unheard of, I tell you. But er,” she sighed, “not impossible for a difficult monster.”

Her entire party was staring daggers at me. Lila made sure they heard her. I shrugged at her. Confirming or denying her was stupid, because in truth I was actually a monster, but I certainly couldn’t do things like Lich God Deidre could; I was just Andre now. “So? What’d you want me to tell you? You probably know more about me than I know about myself.”

Her head tilted. “What do you mean?”

“I mean amnesia. Woke up in a cave, got captured, then woke up in those cells you saw me in.” I stretched. “All I know is, I’m Andre, barely thirty,” I gave her a glare, “and I can use skills. The spell was, well, I don’t even know.”

After a while, we continued our journey to the nearest village. Their archer gave me the creeps. It felt like her eyeballs stretched out of their sockets and constantly kept watch of me, even if her face was somewhat guised with the cowl of her cloak. Her height made me feel like a 4K security camera followed me around. After a while though, she paid less and less attention, perhaps as we neared civilization.

A village called Pinetop was where we ended up. The area was pretty mountainous, so we crossed an encirclement of pine trees to get to a great big valley surrounded by mountains where Pinetop Village rested. It was a beautiful and surreal view, greens everywhere and meadows stretching as far as the eye can see, at least until the rocky walls of the mountain blocked it off. There were only two exits, one to the west, one to the east. The size of Pinetop was rather large, it could even give Perseverance some competition.

“Mikaela, why don’t you get a room at Relaxinn for Andre, hmm?” Lila gave her a few coins, then some extra. “And maybe some new threads.” Her face playfully grimaced. “And a bath too!”

“Oh, shut up!” I eyed her. She was quite the rude little girl. Rather, I didn’t think she was a little girl at all; I figured she was one of those cases that just looked like a small girl but had a surprisingly wise number of years under their belt. Something about a gland, right? I shrugged it off, unable to remember the term.

Lila grabbed my arm and brought me in a bit closer to Mikaela. “I don’t think I need to mention it, but do not tell anyone you can use any magic except lifestyle spells. If you’re not sure, ask Mikaela! You understand?”

I nodded afterwards. Mikaela led me around town, but never said a word. Sometimes people would make small talk with her, but she’d just use gestures to communicate. She’s a mute then? I wondered. She showed me various places that might be of interest to me, like places to eat, to buy gear and medic kits, general shops, and of course, Pinetop’s ADAS branch.

Her lack of words was a little weird at first and took a while for me to get used to, but I eventually learned that she might grunt, tap me on forearm, or point to where she wanted my attention to go.

We eventually made it to Relaxinn, and she bypassed the innkeeper and went into a room. This room had two beds, but it looked to be occupied, so I assumed she came to rest her equipment down then get me set up into a room of my own, but nope. She pointed at a messy bed, then at herself, then to the clean bed, then at me.

I squinted my eyes at her in confusion. I’m a stranger, a pretty strong-looking stranger too, and a guy. Isn’t she afraid I’ll do something to her? Maybe I don’t really appear manly? I pondered if all my years as a woman made me look harmless or something. Or maybe she’s just that confident in herself. If that’s the case then I can’t mess with her.

I sat on the wooden floor, next to my bed and meditated. After being cursed with a horrible mana span, I had to actually take the time to figure out how to regenerate mana. Thanks to my grimoire, and a bit of experience, I learned that meditation and sleep would help restore MP, especially the latter. Meditation was a great alternative if one couldn’t afford to fall asleep, but it still required a somewhat safe space. I found that the best method was to calm my breathing and focus on my mana flow. It restored about 2 MP per minute, so after twenty minutes, I was set for a few spells. Clean was priority number one; I finally smelled like a civilized person.

Suddenly, the door creaked open. The jarring noise stole my attention so I opened my eyes and noticed a cloaked individual pussyfooting inside. It wasn’t anyone from the party that rescued me, and it certainly wasn’t Mikaela, not with that lacking height. He carefully closed the door behind him.

My hand touched down on my sword next to me. “Can I help you?”

Without a word, he sprinted forth and a flying knife almost split my larynx in half had I not dodged. He kicked my sword arm away with deft, experienced movements, then another knife was on its way to my throat.