“It will be my pleasure.” Richard replied with a smile. He had good feelings for Maya, so it wasn’t a fake expression.

He didn’t have the same crush anymore, but she was regulated to the friendship role in his heart.

Raising an eye brow, Maya thought that Richard was trying to sound similar to the young lord. It could be for his future, as he could be recruited, or he was trying to impress her.

“How many hours did you practice that line?” Maya chuckled at the thought of the young boy repeating the line for days in different manners.

Unlike the other woman, she wasn’t shy and wouldn’t back down in front of a man. Women in the village would either be responsible for cooking, washing, taking of care of kids and other activities.

It was mostly the same work as the male counterpart except the fact they didn’t take on a combative role.

Such a role wasn’t encouraged, but discouraged. Even in rich families, the females would have to put a lot of effort to get what they deserved.

There were many reasons for it.

The female child would join another family sooner or later, while the male child would continue the family legacy.

The female body was weaker than a male.

The woman was more prone to emotional outburst and illogical reasoning.

Females couldn’t train during their periods and they couldn’t fully commit to a task during those times.

As such it wasn’t rare for parents to kill a female child at birth and a woman that gave birth to too many female children could end up getting killed.

For Maya to become a successful hunter meant that she had trained on her own and succeeded without much assistance.

She was not from Harrison Village and came from the territory of a neighboring Baron, Baron Hastings.

Running away from home at the age of 12, Maya had escaped an arranged marriage and decided to follow her dream.

She was a woman that looked up to the legends and was enchanted by the path of a warrior. Getting some of her belongings, Maya lived the life a vagabond.

She moved from place to place trying to get stronger and survive on her own. Multiple times she had brushed shoulders with death, but survived through her intense determination.

Life hadn’t been kind on her and she had done things that she wished were just a nightmare. Nonetheless, her persistence rewarded her and she stood at the foundation realm.

She was living a better life than other woman and didn’t need to rely on others for safety. Maya was an encouragement to the little girls of the village and especially the guys to work harder.

All was good, except her love life. Guys preferred girls weaker than them, while Maya made them feel too much stress.

She also had too many scars.

Being close to Maya, Richard knew her story and looked up to her. Even adult Richard felt touched by her personality.

He liked people that tried to rise above their circumstances and didn’t just blame circumstances. The only thing limiting a person’s future was his own will.

It wasn’t the level of knowledge or wealth.

People considered uneducated could also rise beyond the reach of the educated, and it all depended on their will power and persistence to reach for a dream.

They had to think on their feet and always look for opportunities, no matter how small. Things didn’t change at once, they moved slowly. Patience was necessary or all could be lost.

Being in the industry, Richard had met many people with such stories. Of course, not all of them were clean.

“Not many, I seem to have a talent in this field.” Richard gave her a cheeky grin. Even though he couldn’t exactly act like a little boy, Richard did try to impress Maya so his act shouldn’t give it away.

“Hehe, I am impressed. But, how are you in a fight?” Maya patted her head and messed up his disheveled hair.

“Adequate, my lady.”

“That is not enough, little guy. You need to be outstanding if you plan on catching the eye of rich lassie.” Maya said as she pushed him towards the circle for a spar.

She was always encouraging him to find a rich girl to marry, like Charles daughter. But, Richard didn’t like those soft looking girls and especially disliked the way he was seen by them.

Charles daughter, Rosalina, had publicly humiliated him after hearing some villager talk about how romantic it would be if they got together.

There were always stories of a poor guy impressing a rich girl and she had told him to stop dreaming. Rosalina had dreams of getting together with one of the Duke’s son.

It was the same story, no matter the time period.

Regardless, it wasn’t hard to understand why Maya wanted him to do it. He would get the resources needed to rise even further, since a servant would always have a limit.

“Maybe once I am stronger.” Richard muttered but had no intentions of ever pursuing anyone since he was already married and never felt any desire for such pointless acts.

If Rachel hadn’t pursued him, he might have been single all his life.

“You can do it.” Maya encouraged as she moved towards him. She held back unlike Noah and let him experience the full fight for 15 minutes.

It was first for Richard to fight in such a magical way. He had done moves that were like a dream to him and also almost got his body crippled multiple times.

That was a scary experience, but Richard did like the feel of fighting. He didn’t know if that would last permanently, but it would do for the moment.

Once the training was done, Richard entered the medicinal hot bath with the others. It would usually be rare for people in these times to take a bath and such, but knowledge about cleanliness was spread.

It was especially known to the warrior circle as they could be injured and hot bath helped after a training session.

The herbs utilized were some simple stuff to relax the body and mind, but it still helped in the training as well.

Special herbs were rare as they were common in dangerous places with high quantity of energy in the atmosphere and land, also they would definitely not be shared by people.

Richard sat in the bath without caring about the rest. Usually he would never get naked in front of others but the fatigue made him care less about such modesty.

“When did you get that embroidery?” Leone joined him and saw the world tree mark on his chest. There wasn’t a word for tattoo, so they would be called skin embroidery or brands, or marks.

These were usually signifying slave status, loyalty, tribe, clan or religion.

The other would probably be an actual magical seal with real powers. These seals required special ink and were drawn utilizing Ki in a special pattern that caused different phenomenon.

The seal on Richard was related to space, one of the most difficult types.

Leone obviously didn’t think Richard would have a real seal, so he assumed it was just a mark.

“I got it in a dream.” Richard answered seriously.

“Haha, oh man.” Leone laughed at the serious tone and stopped when he saw that Richard didn’t break character.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am serious. I think I may have been chosen by an Immortal, do you believe me?” Richard continued while having his senses on full awareness. He would usually not pay attention to other people, but now he had to act paranoid. It was nerve-wracking and tiring.

He couldn’t come up with a name to give as Leone had also seen his body yesterday. Richard hadn’t left the village so no random name was possible.

The hunters always knew when an outsider arrived and left, so the lie would be found out when Leone asked the others.

“I believe you. Do you know which one?” Leone replied in a hushed tone. He really seemed to have taken it seriously.

It also helped that people did get chosen by an Immortal. Though, those might just be legends and a villager wasn’t going to really know about it.

“I don’t know, but it might be because I am too weak now.”

It was clear that Leone held a lot of trust in Richard and would easily believe magical things about him. Richard wasn’t the type to lie and trick others, so it also helped.

Richard could feel his image of Leone growing with that trust and now he just needed to see if the boy spread it.

Leone was a friend but it involved dangerous implications, so he needed to be really sure before trying to help him.

He had become part of a new life, so he needed to honor the bonds. Richard always took good care of people close to him and didn’t mind going the extra mile.

For people precious to him, Richard had planned and worked out businesses for them. It extended his work hours and he got no benefits, but it helped those people get a stable life line that could grow with time unlike a job.

He also helped some people get jobs when he felt that they were worth it.

“Do you feel any different now?” Leone asked as he remembered that the chosen got benefits. He was curious if his brother had some new powers.

“No, there is nothing new except the mark. Let’s forget about it for now, I will tell you once I feel something…”

With that short encounter of the way, Leone and Richard relaxed together while having a short talk about the summer festival right around the corner.