I was walking towards the heroes' apartments after I had my first lesson in adventuring tactics as an official party leader. It was less interesting than I thought. When yesterday Alua announced it to me, I was pretty excited but what she taught me today was pretty obvious, but I guess there was still time for it to get better.

The last lesson I had was swordsmanship, so I was very tired and all I wanted was to have some rest. When I arrived Oliver was reading and Jane wasn't anywhere to be seen. I grabbed something to eat and read a bit too, taking some rest before my secret training.

After half an hour I got up and went to my room. I sighed in relief, thinking about being on my own until tomorrow, opened the door and heard:

“W-welcome back m-master, I was hired to keep you company tonight, master, I'll be at your service. I-it's an honor to be of use to a hero such as you.”

It seemed I still wasn't though.

A girl wearing a revealing dress was sitting in my bed, looking down embarrassedly. She was quite attractive, she had a delicate and beautiful appearance, was quite slender, and had blue eyes and light green hairs. All of her was quite attractive but there was one trait that caught my eye more than any other. her ears, her ears were long and pointy, and that could only mean one thing.

'AN ELF GIRL IS IN MY BED. It happened, the dream finally came true.'

Millions of people dreamed of this moment and I got to live it.

There was still something that bugged me in her fairy-like appearance though.

“What's your name?”

“ My name is Lae, master.”

“Lae, How old are you?”

“I'm 16, master.”

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO'

I leaned against the wall, hiding my face in grief.

'How cruel can you be, oh fate, by toying with me like this, by denying me the delight standing in front of my eyes.'

'Wait, three years of difference aren't that much, right? Nononono, forget about that, David, you can't do that, otherwise, the F.B.I. is gonna get you. Right, the F.B.I., you know it can reach you everywhere, keep your cool David.'

I decided to refuse her services. Jokes aside, it was too dangerous to have sex with a girl I knew nothing about. She was surely sent by Alua or someone else from Hoss, it was impossible to know what her goal was. It could simply be Hoss trying to show its good faith, but it could also be some sort of trap to rope me in. For example, she could be an agent disguised as a prostitute to search for an emotional weak spot or to try to make me fall in love with her.

“So you were hired by Hoss, right?”

“Yes master, I was hired by Miss Alua as a gift from the city of Hoss to your excellency the hero.”

'If she knows that I'm a hero she must have Hoss's trust.'

“So you work for the city and they sent you to keep me company for tonight, right?”

“No master, I-I'm just a prostitute from the slums. I may be just an elf but I-I promise I'll do my best.”

I started to think.

'What? If she hasn't Hoss's trust why tell her that I'm a hero. I mean, if she is an agent acting like a girl from the slums she wouldn't reveal so easily that she knows my identity.'

“D-does master not find me attractive?”

She stuttered worriedly.

I couldn't understand what was going on so I decided to keep asking questions.

“So you are telling me that Alua, a girl you never saw before, showed up and picked you up out of the blue?”

“Yes master, she showed up in the house where I lived, talked to the mistress that is taking care of me, gave her tons of money, and then brought me here. I understand that you're hesitant because I'm an elf, master, b-but please give me a chance.”

She now seemed pretty desperate, she was trembling a little and seemed about to cry. She might be worried to be sent back untouched, maybe she would be punished for that. Her expression was very realistic, if she was acting, she was very good at it. I decided to probe her one last time and keep as much attention as I could to her expression, to see if she was acting.

“Tell me what will happen if I send you back right now.”

I concentrated to see every possible clue her expression could give me and felt a strange pull towards her, it was like something was physically pulling me, it wasn't a metaphoric pull.

“The mistress will get angry at me, and then she will starve me for a while.”

Everything of her seemed to be screaming in fear, her body, her face, her body. I felt like it wasn't possible that she was lying and felt a string in my heart being moved. Suddenly the pull got more intense and I felt myself getting transported somewhere else.

Suddenly I saw a scene in front of me. I couldn't think of everything except what was in front of me and couldn't avert or close my eyes either.

In front of me, I could see a little dog running desperately on a barren land towards something. The dog was little and cute but seemed quite dirty and battered. I looked in the direction the dog was running to and noticed what seemed like a house made of mist.

There was also something in the direction the dog was coming from. I looked with attention and my eyes seemed to act like a camera, zooming on the objective. What I saw was a burning house, very similar to the one made of smoke, and I could see the heads of two other dogs peeking from one of the windows, looking at the running dogs. The house didn't seem to be consumed by the flames though, it just burned endlessly.

The running dog also seemed stuck in a loop, running without either getting closer to the house of mist or further away from the burning house.

I came back to my body. It felt like my soul just strayed away from my body for a second and now that scene was embedded in my mind. I didn't know what happen but a suspect rapidly came to my mind.

'Did my blessing just emerge?'

It was difficult to tell what the thing that I just saw represented. The only thing that I could guess was that, since the blessing was triggered when I focused my complete attention on Lae, it had something to do with her.

I decided to do a test. I asked Lae to count to ten and then tried to concentrate my attention on her again.

“One, two, three, fo-”

The same scene as before played in front of me and then I returned to consciousness.

“-ur, five, six, seven, eig-”

“That's enough, thank you Lae.”

“Yes, master.”

Lae seemed a little dumbfounded by my strange request, I guess she never met a client that only used her to count to ten. She still seemed scared of being sent away but I couldn't do anything about it, I didn't want to have sex with her so trying to reassure her would have been meaningless, other than a show of weakness on my part. But I couldn't even dismiss her right away, since I still had things to find out.

Right now I proved that time didn't pass while I was using the ability. Unfortunately, I couldn't use this to gain time to think during battles though, when I was using the blessing I couldn't think about anything except about the scene in front of me.

Now I wanted to understand if what I saw represented something to her.

“Tell me a thing Lae, do you like dogs?”

“Not really, master.”

“Do you know anything about a house made of mist?”

“No, master.”

“Do you know anything of a burning house with two dogs inside?”

She suddenly went pale and stopped breathing for a few seconds.

“N-no, master.”

“Did that image make you recall anything?”

“Yes, master.”

She replied anxiously.

“Tell me what.”

She took a long breath and then started to talk.

“A-a few months ago my house was burned down, with my parents inside.”

“Only your parents? Don't you have any brother or sister?”

“I did, but three of them died while trying to become adventurers, two managed to do it but they were just scraping by and still had put their life on the line just to get by some times, while my bigger brother managed to become a successful adventurer. All of them remained in Zaven when I and my parents decided to come here. We were trying to live somewhere where we could become successful without having to risk our lives, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.”

'So she lived in the slums as a refugee. But the house I saw was pretty similar to the ones in my world, the houses of the slums are just barracks. Maybe what I saw was a representation filtered through my experience. The question was: a representation of what?'

I could make theories on this but it was still too early, I needed more guinea pigs.

The only thing I still had to find out was why they told her my identity. It's not like they would give us false identities only to have a girl from the slums reveal to anyone that she met a hero. Maybe she wouldn't be believed but that's not a reason to reveal it to her when they could have just shut up about it. It's not like just telling her to keep her mouth closed would work.

'Wait a minute.'

She told that Alua gave a lot of money to her mistress, but I doubt she revealed it to her too.

A realization suddenly came to my mind.

'It's not like telling her will change anything if you are planning to just kill her after I'm over with her.'

The money Alua paid was probably for her life. Of course, they didn't trust her.

'How could I not think of it?'

Of course, it's like that, it's the most logical course of action.

The girl in front of me was going to die soon. She lost her brothers, her parents, had to live in misery, and then was going to die because a certain bitch thought that I would have been grateful if she sent her to me.

I looked at the girl and could almost feel compassion for her. It didn't happen often but I felt sad for someone else's fate.

I didn't like that though. Right now I could do nothing about it, there was no reason to accept this feeling. It was illogical. It was a weakness. And if I wanted to avenge her, someday, I needed to get rid of it.

“Sorry if my questions seemed strange, Lae. I can't have sex with you though, but don't worry I will tell Alua that you did great. You just wait for twenty minutes in one of the rooms on this floor and then go.”

“I see, master, then I will do as you say. So I can just report that we did it?”

“You have to report to someone?”

“Yes master, I have to report to a certain Ron, in his office, near the eastern entrance.”

“I see, you will be fine, now go.”

As I said those words, I heard my voice tremble a little.

“Then goodbye, master.”

She got out of the room. I let myself fall on the bed. My hands were trembling, my head was spinning and I felt cold sweat on my body.

There was nothing I could do about it, it wasn't me who was going to kill Lae but I felt terrible anyway. I covered myself with the blankets and tried not to think about it.

Five minutes passed. My head was filled with the image of a battered dog running on a wasteland. I could not get this image off my mind. I tried to think of something else but it didn't help.

Five minutes more passed. I felt about to puke, my heart was racing, I couldn't breathe well. All I could see was the image of a dog being killed, first with a kick and then with a sword. I felt the urge to do something, but I didn't know what.

Some more time passed. I got up and started walking in a circle. I thought it would help me, but it didn't. I tried to figure out what to do to calm myself, but nothing came to mind. What was upsetting me was clearly Lae's fate but there was nothing I could do about it.

'Yes, there is nothing I can do about it for now.'

There was clearly nothing I could do about it for now.

'Yes, I can't do it, for now.'

I could do nothing, for now.

I continued walking in a circle.

Then I heard the door of the room beside mine opening and then closing.

I stopped. The memories of that day re-emerged in my mind.

It seemed that just like that day I could do nothing.

The image of the dog being killed once more emerged in my mind and I felt a violent but wholesome feeling rushing up my body.

I couldn't stand it, suddenly the thought of not being able to do anything seemed unbearable. I tried repeatedly to calm down my mind but nothing worked, the image of that dog dying was too strong.

I started creating demonic ki, I gathered it in my arm, and then.....

“FUCK!”

I slammed my hand on the wall, almost breaking my bones.

I didn't know why but I wanted to save her, every part of me wanted Lae to survive.

I knew I was about to do something stupid, but I couldn't hold myself back anymore. A few minutes passed since she left the room beside mine but there was still a possibility I could save her somehow.

I took a deep breath and rushed out of the room.