Seth was stammering “it’s not what it looks like”, while Sarah played invisible under the blanket. 

“So, you two did not sleep together all night, and did come home as you were supposed to?” Harald said with a dark voice but with a small smile on his face. ‘Was he playing with them?’ Seth thought to himself. 

“Ehm, ehm, Sorry. It's kind of just happened like that, first Sarah fell asleep and I was going to wake her but I enjoyed the view a little and my eyes just closed”, Seth said with eyes unable to meet Harald’s. Even if he did not mean to, he really did miss having someone hugging him so close. 

“Sarah do you have something to say?” Harald asks. 

“I’m naked” She simply answer. ‘Was she trying to kill him?!’, Seth thought to himself as he immediately shouted “No you're not!”, Things was spiraling out of control and doing so fast. Seth jumped out into the cold air fully dressed and pulled with him the blankets with him. “See she's not naked!” 

Sarah did a spin as the cover was dragged out under her. Harold was now laughing, unable to control his emotion's anymore. 

“what’s so funny!” Seth now starting to get a little angry and relieved at the same time. 

“Your face and...” Harold could not keep answering at he tried breathing instead. 

Seth simply starting packing, and making them ready to leave. As he started walking, he turns around to see Sarah holding her hand out too him waiting to be guided down the mountain. 

Back at the house they entered with their heads lowered, Seth wanting just to disappear when he saw it. A lot of stuff was broken and trashed around the floor. “careful”, Helga said as she was cleaning up the mess. Sarah on the other hand starting running too the bed room, stumbling on her way. She must have understood something Seth did not. 

Sarah tried looking for something, feeling her way, getting cuts on her hand. Seth just looked in astonishment as Harold hugged his daughter tight, “it’s gone” he simply said. Sarah starting crying. Her bookstand that help her read books was gone, she had saved for it by selling mittens and scarfs in town, begged her father to buy books that cost a little too much for him. And now her ability to read was yet again taken away. 

“What happened” Seth asked, 

"Bandits collecting their protection fee” Helga answered almost spitting the words. 

“they come every now and then, almost like clockwork, they can smell money and will remind us every time we are done harvesting” Harold continued, still holding Sarah. Seth when'd outside to let the family have their own time, it was nothing he could do right now. 

A realization come through Seth’s mind; this place was not the same as his home, there the police was just a phone call away, here you truly were alone when something happened, and how lucky he was being found by Harold. He was unprepared for what this world had to offer, and if he wanted to protect and help them, he needed to make himself more powerful. 

Anxiety starting to build up in Seth's chest just thinking about how powerless he was and what it meant being in this world. After a while just sitting outside the house, Harold comes out. 

“Can I do anything to help?” Seth asked sullenly. 

“If you really want to help; we have an abandon mine close to the waterfall, we need a little iron and copper, if you could find some ore, that would be great” Harold said. 

“how would I do that? I know nothing about getting ore or anything like that” 

“just use the system for help, I have seen you work and you should use the system more. And we have a pickax in the shed, but be careful in there, lots of rats and small critters that have a nasty bite but nothing to dangerous that I know of” 

“I see, I will try, and about what happened this morning, ehm nothing happened" 

“don’t worry Seth, Sarah might act tough, but one time we were in the city selling our goods; a warlock took a fancy to her while I was a way finishing a deal, something happened and before we know anything, he cursed her. he must have been a very high-ranking warlock because the curse can’t be lifted and Sarah is blind because of it, this happened right after her fifteenth birthday. She has been rather angry after that at anyone, seeing her even joke about being intimate with someone is a big step for her, I hope you understand, and we are a little sorry we tricked you both adding a sleeping powder into the cider. We did not want you two coming back before the bandits had made their visit” 

“I see, but how long ago was this about the curse?” Seth asked, not really mad about Harold drugging him and Sarah for some strange reason he did not fully understand. 

“a little over four years ago, I think she is waiting for the second profession that may come when she turns twenty” 

“can I tell you something? I have three professions, but I'm sure I can’t be a lot older than twenty” 

“maybe you have a skill that give you the extra profession?” 

“Yes, I do” 

“It’s rare, but far from unheard of, just try to keep anything like that too yourself, and try asking the system for explanation's, it’s not great at it but it will give you some idea and maybe some memories will come back” 

They talked a little more about everything, Seth felt relieved talking so openly with Harold even if he did drug him at times, and he found out why Helga was coming into their room every night touching their heads; it was a sleep spell, so that Sarah did nothing stupid like stabbing Seth in his sleep, and Seth did not something stupid like robbing them or getting stabbed entering Sarah’s bed. It was a somewhat fair deal if you asked him and made him understand why they let him sleep in the same room as Sarah, ‘He who sleep, don’t sin’ Seth thought for himself. 

A little later Seth was going down to the Pond or lake depending on what you think seeing a body of water at least a hundred meters across. He needed some skill points for his offensive professions and Harold had told him that slimes in the pond was harmless and easy to kill with his bare hands and the only way to get any experiences points while not having any skills. It was a simple distribution of points, the profession closest to the top was getting 3 kills before the next gets 2 kills, and the last gets 1 kill before it resets. So, 1/2 of the exp goes to native, 1/3 goes to Apprentice Mage, and 1/6 goes to the Apprentice warrior and that only is when he doesn’t use as skill from a profession. 

Finding and killing those buggers by hand was making him furious and without any help from the system, it was like trying to crushing Jell-O with your hands. But eventually after being covered in the mud and while being ice-cold, he manages getting enough to level both Mage and warrior above level zero. 

With this he bought the skills and for Mage, both sounding like great rat killers, for warrior he bought stab and the rest of the point to Constitution, wanting more Health points. 

Now he was cold and even lost some Health for some reason, but while he was here, he went over to the stream to clean himself. Getting back to the farm, Seth had forgotten about everything that had happen before entering the house, but the mood made it all come back. Sarah did not even join them as they were eating. Seth entered the bedroom seeing Sarah just lying there with tears running down from her eyes. 

Seth carefully when over to his own bed, even if it was still early evening, he was freezing from the cold water and only wanted to warm himself under the covers. As he was lay there, he heard Sarah whispering “Seth? are you there, Seth? Are you awake?”, “yes” Seth whispered back. 

“can you continue reading the book? I haven't heard the rest of it” Sarah said with sadness in her voice. 

“Sure, do you know where it is? Shall I ask Helga where she put it?” Seth continued whispering. 

But instead Sarah started moving, in the dark it was hard to see anything and she was almost like a noisy shadow moving around. But then he felt her sitting down on his bed, her hands feeling her way over his covers, giving him the book in his hands. “last I remembered, is that Vivien was entering the castle” Sarah said. Seth tried to look for a lantern or something before remembering his new spell, “light orb” he said and a small orb appeared above his head, as a perfect reading light. Sarah continued sitting there listening to Seth reading, but Seth was shaking a little from the cold. Sarah moved back to her bed as Seth continued reading, and she comes back with her own cover. She puts it over Seth and snuck underneath, snuggling up close to Seth, with her head on his shoulder. He could feel her warm body, smell her hair, feel her hand over his chest, her breath on his neck. She was everything he wanted in this moment of time. So, he continued reading, but after a while Helga entered the room looking over at him and Sarah in bed together. She only smiled at him and walked over to touch both their foreheads, making them both sleep in each other's arms.