After finishing off the goblin, I cut their left ears as proof of subjugation. Usually, the adventurers' guild, the institute in charge of managing the local monsters and the growth of the adventurers, rewarded adventurers who brought them with gold and rank in the guild, since goblins would rapidly grow too numerous for this forest and start bothering the surrounding farms if let alone. In our case though, we worked directly for the city and technically weren't adventurers, but we still needed to give the ears to Alua.

We took a little rest a bit far away from the battle location and then headed back with Oliver on the front to scout for trouble and me on the back to guard the rear. On the way here I didn't consider it but the safest position was in the middle of the formation not on the back. I didn't know how I couldn't have thought of it, maybe I was too relaxed thanks to our assurance but that didn't excuse me, I had been careless.

On the way back we encountered just a few horned rabbits and slimes. The horned rabbits were chased away with arrows by Oliver.............. that was what I would have liked to say but he actually tried to kill them and missed. I took care of the slimes with a dark bullet and took the little solid core they left behind as proof.

It didn't take us much to get out of the forest and to arrive at the main road leading to Hoss. We then broke our formation and started walking near each other. I and Oliver then started making small talk about today's work while Jane walked in silence behind us.

During the last two months, we were all very busy so there wasn't much time to know each other, fortunately. Still, when I had a good day I would talk a bit with Oliver, and now we had a little bit of familiarity with each other.

I wasn't interested in knowing him more than that but it wasn't too bad having someone with the same interests and he also had a mentality I liked. Even if he always gave off an insecure and frail bearing, he was quite resilient, he accepted the situation for what it was and was going to do everything he could to survive.

Jane on the other hand wasn't doing well at dealing with the situation. She was training half-heartedly and seemed like she was missing her lost life on earth. I guessed this was the normal reaction, but in this situation, a normal reaction was the wrong one. She was quite useful in the last fight but if she continued to train as she did, I and Oliver were going to leave her behind. Hoss wouldn't allow me to abandon her or let her die so I had to find a solution, I didn't want to be her friend though. Maybe I could just pretend to be her friend, but it seemed a real hassle as well.

'How irritating.'

We arrived in the outskirts of Hoss. I couldn't see it well when we arrived since it wasn't illuminated, but outside the outer gate, there was a big agglomerate of shacks. Only people who didn't have Hoss's citizenship lived here.

Here people didn't have protection from monsters' attacks and it was difficult to find an honest job so the only ones who lived here were refugees or criminals. Here Hoss's citizens could find many things that were forbidden inside the city like magical drugs, other forbidden goods, or prostitutes. So, since it acted as a relief for public discontent, the city allowed it to be.

Those who were born here had it quite hard and the only possibility to obtain Hoss's citizenship was to become a D rank adventurer; so this area was also a good way to create warriors, at the price of many lives obviously.

We went through the slum and queued at the gate, behind some merchants. We were disguising ourselves as young nobles from the holy empire of Esha, Hoss's close ally, and Alua gave us false identity cards to use until the city decided to reveal us. Of course, the magical seal that certified the card was authentic but only that.

I looked at the people lining before us, there were mostly merchants with carriages and adventurers' parties, there was also an adventurer on his own at the beginning of the line, They had a cheap mantle that hid them from head to toe and a simple staff on their hands. I decided to check if it was our assurance.

“Jane, can you use your blessing on the line ahead of us?”

I asked with a low voice.

“ Uh, why?”

She replied, also in a low voice.

“Just do it I'll explain later.”

“Uhm okay”

She concentrated for a few seconds and said.

“The strongest one is the lone adventurer with that tattered mantle.”

“As expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hoss would never risk losing their precious heroes, that guy is probably Alua, our angelic guardian.”

“Wait, why didn't she just come with us?”

“Well, I don't know actually if the reason for this subjugation was to get battle experience and absorb soul's fragments it would have been better to just accompany us. They probably had also a secondary goal, it might be to test our reaction to the stress of a battle, but I can't say for sure.”

“I- I see, so there was someone watching us.”

I expected Jane to be happy about the fact that someone was watching over us but she seemed scared.

She was like an open book, you could always guess what she was thinking. Once I was like that too, a shiver went down my spine just thinking how disgusting the old me was. I still couldn't say I was completely cured but I could say with certainty that I was moving in the right direction.

We waited our turn and then passed the gate, went through the city, and arrived at the citadel in the middle of the city. Alua was waiting for us outside the doors. She hadn't that tattered mantle on anymore but her clothes felt different. I've never seen those on her, she always tried to dress up quite fashionably, wearing expensive-looking dresses and shoes. Now she was wearing pants, a shirt, and leather boots, they all still weren't clothes made for adventuring but someone as strong as her didn't need to wear armour for just some goblins. That confirmed my earlier assumption, she probably was wearing all that underneath her mantle.

I reported our hunt.

“We managed to subjugate a goblin hunting pack, I received a small wound during our first fight but with the healing ointment, it healed before the second fight. Then we pulled back.”

“Well, it's a very good result for your first time, you should be proud of yourselves. I think you should be ready for subjugating monsters regularly from now on. You will hunt monsters two days a week, I will accompany you to watch over you and teach you but I won't directly assist you. Now you should go rest yourselves, I'm sure you're pretty tired.”

She then turned heels and started walking.

“W-wait.”

Jane suddenly called her.

“How long do we have to fight monsters?”

She asked.

'Until we either grow affectionate enough to Hoss or they find a weakness to make us their puppets.'

“Until you are strong enough to not risk being killed easily by the Dark Lord's followers.”

“Yes but, can't we just try living inconspicuously, not revealing our powers, and live normal lives?”

Jane seemed pretty desperate, I hoped she would blow up now so that maybe Alua would take up taking care of her mental state.

“It's impossible, you shouldn't underestimate evil worshippers. Trust me, if you want to be safe in this world, you have to listen to my advice.”

“ I see.”

Jane said dejectedly.

'Damn.'

We then returned to our section of the citadel. There was some food arranged in the living room, we had a frugal launch in the forest and now it was dinner time so we were very hungry. We ate and then chilled out for a bit.

I and Oliver were both reading a historical novel about Claire, the hero of humanity. She was seemingly summoned by the goddess Esha millennia ago and took Vos, this planet, away from the Shovos, their original, and apparently evil, inhabitants. She then united the whole planet under one flag with her overwhelming personal strength and ruled over it.

At a certain point though, this evil god thing called the Dark Lord seemingly took over her body and made a mess. Resulting in the world being divided and new races, created with flesh magic, appearing. The new races were those that are now called demi-humans: elves, beastmen, dwarves, high orcs, vampires, dark elves, and werebeasts. It also created goblins and orcs but since those had not enough intelligence to live in a civilized society they weren't considered demi-humans but monsters. All those races were created by the Dark Lord to fight for him and resembled the fantasy races from our world. I was still at the part where the Dark Lord was running rampant in the central continent but thanks to Alua's lectures I knew the rest too.

A guy called Horus, who emerged earlier in the western continent and founded the Esha Church, took control of the whole continent. Then managed to coordinate the eastern, central, and western continents to resist the Dark Lord, chasing it back to the northern continent, where it had its headquarter. Horus then convinced the demi-humans to help him and so attacked the northern continent chasing the fiend back to its capital.

By the way, the allied forces disembarked in two places and those places would then become the free cities of Hoss and Zaven.

Horus arrived at the door of the capital but found no one inside, he went down into the city, and the deeper he got the more every kind of attribute would become difficult to use. At some point, He was attacked by the Dark Lord's servants that used a type of magic never seen before and was forced to retreat.

The Dark Lord never appeared again but the capital, now known as the Dark Fortress, was still in the hands of the servants, now called Hollows, and from here on after, every twenty years, heroes started to appear. The day the Dark Lord disappeared with its citizens was called the Triumph and that year marked the year zero in the current calendar.

Now was the year 940 a.t. ( after the Triumph), the Dark Fortress was still undefeated, Horus was still the head of the church of Esha and was also the holy emperor of the Holy Esha empire, ruling directly over the western continent, half the central continent and ruling indirectly on Hoss, that was formally an ally of the empire. Horus was a being so powerful that he could barely be considered a human. He was a holy attribute user that could cast spells on entire armies all on his own.

The only one that could oppose him was Myrine, the goddess of war. Myrine was an elemental martial art user that emerged 800 years ago on the eastern continent and managed to unite its kingdoms into one big confederation called the Eastern League.

The league was allied with Zaven and had been fighting with the Empire and Hoss for the Last 800 years. It was quite surprising that in so many centuries things didn't change too much. The only explanation I could give was the power balance of Horus and Myrine as individuals.

Horus could buff entire armies and Myrine could level mountains to the ground with kicks and punches. Until one of the two died, the balance would remain the same. And it was hard for one of them to die, being so strong and full of resources they surely had infallible escape techniques.

The other part that sounded fishy was the first part, it all seemed very convenient for Esha believers, I definitely wanted to hear more versions of this in the future.

I read for about half an hour and then decided to go to my room and do some of my secret training.

I looked around and saw Jane looking on the ground with a pale face. She was quite pitiful until now I never felt anything but diffidence towards her. But now, seeing her so defenseless, I felt something moving inside me, urging me to do something. I couldn't get what that something was though.

I sighed, stopped and said to her.

“Look, Jane, we have no choice other than comply. You're not stupid I'm sure you understand the situation we are in, you just have to accept it. All you can do now is try your best in what is asked of you. Now you should go take a walk in the internal court, take a breather, and then go to sleep.”

I finished talking and then hurried to my room, but as I was walking I heard Jane walking behind me. I guessed that she would go to her room on the first floor of our tower but she continued following me after we passed it. Not knowing what to do I did nothing until we arrived in front of my room. I looked at her and she was keeping her head down, with her fists tightened, and said:

“What now?”

She stayed silent for a few seconds and then replied.

“Can you protect me?”

“What?”

“I can't take it anymore, I can't trust anyone here and also have to fight monsters. I don't want any of that. I can't bear anymore to go on like this. You are the strongest among us, you are our leader and since you helped Oliver, that day, I think you are a good person. S-so please, no, I beg you, can you help me? Can I rely on you?”

She was looking at me with tears in her eyes, she was desperate. She wanted me to trust her and to let her trust me. That feeling in my chest was still there, it was a tenuous and warm sensation, but it was making me sick.

I thought about what she was asking me, to trust her, and my nausea increased. I looked at her, she used to scare me, she was a beautiful and popular girl and, in our world, she used to look down on and oppress others. And now she was begging me for safety.

Suddenly a new sensation made its way into my chest. A fierce and chilling cold drive took over me and suddenly made me aware of the possibilities in front of me. I looked down on her and said:

“I see now, I guess this situation is really too much for you. But you don't have to be hard on yourself, it's not your fault if you are too weak, it's just how it is. Anyway, I'm your leader so I will take care of you. I can protect you, I can lift your anxiety away from you and I can also guide us all out of this situation; but I need a thing from you.”

“W-what do you need?”

“I want you to be my subordinate.”

“Your subordinate?”

“Yes, entrust yourself to me and follow my orders blindly. If you can do that I will guide us away from Hoss's grasp.”

Jane seemed hesitant, I guess this wasn't exactly what she was expecting.

Wait, it also seemed quite ambiguous.

“Of course I won't order you to do any sexual favor.”

I added.

She blushed and then finally gathered her will and said.

“I accept.”

“Good, you have made the right decision.”

I then put my hand on her head and pet her hair, she didn't retract herself.

“Of course if you were to betray me I would have to abandon you and leave you on your own............but I'm sure you won't do that. Now go get some rest, you deserve it.”

“Yes, I'll go then, t-thank you.”

She then hurried away.

It was difficult to describe how I was feeling at that moment. I was elated but I was still feeling sick, even more than before. But now at least I could feel more comfortable around her.

I ignored the feeling of disgust in my stomach and entered my room. I really would have liked to rest but I still had work to do. Now was the time for my secret demonic attribute training after all.