“I just realized something, why do you keep your eyes closed all the time?”

Owen face towards Rauf. He could imagine a look of confusion covering his face. He held his laughter inside and wore an offended expression.

“I’m blind you know.”

“....You’re pulling my leg right? Do you want me to just hand you my leg so it’s easier?”

“Haha….I’m serious.”

Owen, gave a light chuckle to Rauf’s response. As he spoke he even lifted up his small leg and pretended to hand it over to Owen. Naturally Owen didn’t reach out to grab the leg. He didn’t care much and only kept walking creating a larger distance between the two. Rauf on the other hand thought Owen was joking with him at first and thought to play along, but seeing how serious Owen looked, he could tell that Owen was serious.

‘Damn, of course he hasn’t seen a Feral. He can’t see one. No wonder he didn’t attack until I called out to him. Welp not that I care.’

Rauf shrugged it off. It didn’t effect him and he had his own problems to deal with as well. Not everyone was born equal that was just the truth of the matter. Rauf then caught up before saying.

“That’s the wrong way this way.”

Owen embarrassed, stopped walking and moved to follow after Rauf. He didn’t face in Rauf’s direction, but Rauf only gave a ‘What does it matter you can’t see my expression anyways’ look. He then only continued to walk down a set path.

After some time of walking Owen felt his curiosity get the better of him and asked a question.

“Rauf, how old are you? Why is someone so young already a Pathwalker.”

“WAaaaaaaaaaaah!”

‘What?’

Owen stood there dumbfounded. He only asked what his age was, why was he all of a sudden crying? Was he that sensitive to his age because he was more mature for his age? But little did Owen know that he was incredibly far off from the point. Rauf’s tears soon turned into rage and he started to kick the shrubs, the trunks of trees and few rocks around. It even made Owen somewhat feel that this guy in front of his was bipolar. But before Owen could ask him Rauf spat out words.

“Damnit. That old hag! If only she didn’t come find me! All I wanted was to keep sleeping. Was that so much to ask for? But no, not for you Rauf, you just get a god to yell in your head until you nearly become insane. Because of that I had to become the disciple of that god, if I didn’t agree she would keep yelling in my mind! Ah!”

Rauf’s words became louder and louder as he spoke. Owen on the other hand stood unmoving. Patiently waiting for the important bits and pieces of the story to figure out what he was talking about. At that moment Rauf finally turned towards Owen and asked him.

“Do you really want to know my age?”

Owen nodded.

“I’m 32! 32! I’m 32 stuck in this childish body!”

“....How is that possible?”

Owen asked in confusion. He was impressed somehow the guy managed to become immortal before the gods even descended, which he jokingly thought to himself but he didn’t dare to say it to Rauf’s face.

“It is, and you know what the worst part about it is?”

“I couldn’t say.”

Owen answered bluntly and then went into a pose saying ‘tell me’.

“I did it to myself! That damn snake tricked me! She said I could take the easy way out! Even if I get hurt I just have to use the technique she taught me. Sure why not you think right? BUT THERE’S A CATCH! I shoulda known. There’s always a catch. When I healed myself from fighting Ferals, which I used the technique multiple times cause I thought hey the more the better right?! OOOOHHH was I ever wrong! The next day I woke up…. I… I… Urgh dammit!”

Owen could guess what the last bit was meant to say. Clearly Rauf had the unfortunate ability to heal himself at the expense of becoming younger?

‘Such a strange ability.’

As Owen held his chin thinking about the interesting side effect of Rauf’s ability. While Rauf was once again kicking a few trunks. Owen almost felt sorry for him, he was pretty pitiful after all. He himself was 17 years old but now this guy have gone from nearly twice his age to have of it. Naturally this was only physical appearance but none the less who say at first glance ‘You’re 32’.

Owen kept on thinking how miraculous the ability was while Rauf was continuously getting pissed thinking about it. They continued to walk on after sometime but every once in awhile Rauf would find a trunk that caught his eye and would start kicking it. Owen would then follow up and slightly pat the trunk. Naturally he only did it to make Rauf feel bad so he would stop going around indiscriminately kicking objects. Rauf failed to notice the first few times, but after awhile he saw what Owen was doing and finally decided to hold in his rage and calm down.

Although it was a sin to be angry, among others, these were within the extremes. Rauf wasn’t going to turn into a Feral just because he lost his temper. It was only when someone was the brink of breaking emotionally would they truly commit the sin.