We were on the road for quite some time now, it was quiet for me as I resided in the back. Not everyone was in their usual groups as Lin was trotting by herself and Suta was beside Brell. After some time, Brell came to a halt. “This will be tonight's camping grounds, now let's split up in our usual pairs and survey the same areas.” He said. Everyone broke off into their pairs with Brell walking towards me as well. “That was some good sparring yesterday. I hope you didn’t mind that I made you use a stick.” He said as he kept his attention to me as his horse walked past me.

“It was fine, using something light feels like practice in itself.” I said as I thought about when using strength magic and how light my sword felt then.

“Hm, I get what you mean. There's always a possibility that you might be without your main weapon.” He said as I turned my horse around and started to catch up to him. That wasn’t quite what I meant but I just agreed with him. “Anyways, next monster or bandits we run into, I’ll show you my strength.” Brell said and when I caught up to him, I caught a glimpse of his stern expression.

After that exchange, we patrolled on the left side and scouted around mainly in silence. When it came time to turn around, we went to the opposite side and began scouting on the way back. While we did so, Brell questioned me “What’s your swordarts called?”.

I looked towards him, “What do you mean by swordarts?” I answered him with a question.

Brell raised an eyebrow “Like where did those couple of moves you showed off during the spar last night?”.

“Oh those?” I said while thinking back to the red haired bandit. “I learned them from this bandit I fought.” I came out with.

“A bandit? So do you not have a sword artstyle?.” He said with an eyebrow still raised.

I shook my head to him “No I don’t.”. After I spoke, I thought back to the memories of the guardsman who told me that he’d teach me his family's style.

Brell dropped his eyebrow as his face went to a relaxed expression “You’re an interesting person, Crim.” he said while stroking his beard. Afterwhich, he looked back forwards with his normal stern look.

We arrived back at the designated campsite area with the two of us being second to Suta and Lin. Brell then called out to the two “How was everything on your guys' end?”.

“Nothing to report over here, how about you two?”. Suta replied.

Before Brell could answer, Howari and Krello made their way in through the rustling of branches. After Brell acknowledged their presence, he spoke “Nothing on our side either.”. He then turned to the two who just came in again “How about you two, any disturbances?”. Krello gave a simple no as he shook his head while Howari shook her head as well. After we all reported our patrols, everyone began setting up camp.

After camp was set up, everyone ate some dried meat in silence before they all began crawling into their bedrolls. I sat, laying against a tree, watching the fire dance along the logs while everyone passed out for the night.

Once it seemed like everyone was asleep, I got up while grabbing my blade off the tree and moved away. I found a spot that had some vision of camp before I placed my sword against a nearby tree and sat down cross legged and began meditating. As I entered into my subconsciousness, I began practicing moving mana around my body.

I stopped while it was still dark and looked over to the campsite to see no changes. Afterwards, I got up and took my cloak off and put it against the tree that had my sword against it. Once my sword was in hand, I began practicing my swings for the rest of the night and after the twentieth swing, I got lost in the rhythm. As I saw light peeking through the surrounding branches behind me, I decided to keep swinging for a few hundred more times.

When I finished the third hundredth swing, I stopped and steadied my breathing while placing my sword against the tree near me. I then grabbed the cloak and wiped the sweat off my forehead before putting it back on. My hand went to reach for the blade before I began walking towards the campsite to wake everyone up. To my surprise, one of the girls was already awake and it was Howari. She was feeding the horses something that I couldn’t quite see so I approached her.

As she heard me come close, she turned to me with a startled expression “Oh, good morning Crim.” she said as her eyes went to the side of me, looking towards the ground.

“Morning.” I repaid the greetings. “What are you feeding the horses?” I asked her.

“Oh these?” Howari said as she pulled her hands away from the horse's mouth to show a few pieces of cut up fruit. “These are Hopples, their horses favorite fruit.” As she answered, the horse’s mouth found its way to her hands again and began eating the last few pieces. “I brought some for the horses for the way out and gave it to them part way through as a treat for them.” She said with a gentle smile as she gently watched the horse gobble up the last piece.

“You like horses a lot?” I asked her.

After the horse finished eating the last piece, Howari began petting the horse. “Well I love all animals in general.”. Her face then turned sad “So when we have to kill a demon animal, it hurts me.”. “I think it’s cruel that normal animals can get demon sickness.” She said with a pained expression.

I looked at her curiously “Demon sickness?” I asked.

She then turned to me with her expression turning to normal “You don’t know about the disease?” she asked. I just shook my head to her. “Well it’s a disease that no one knows how it’s contracted but it only affects animals and makes them go feral. It makes them stronger and can change their bodies.” She explained. Before I asked more about it, Howari changed the subject “Anyways, we should probably wake up the others and get on the road.”.

I didn’t think that was a bad idea and decided to do so. After the two of us woke everyone up, we began packing the camp up. Once the campsite was all cleared up, everyone ate some more dried meat before getting on our horses and heading back on the road. The ride was silent for me as everyone was at their respective parties again with me in the back.

Eventually Brell came to a halt and gave out his usual orders except for one thing “Let’s mix up the groups a bit and for now, I’ll be switching with Suta.”. He then looked towards me “Crim and Suta will patrol north with Lin and I patrolling west of here.”.

I was surprised by the sudden change but didn’t mind it at all. After everyone except for Krello and Howari were in their new groups, we all split off in our respectful ways. With Suta riding beside me, I voiced out “I’m surprised Brell changed up the pairs.”.

“Well at first, Brell wanted to switch things up every once in a bit so his party members could get experience fighting with different types of people but he didn’t since he got caught up wanting to pair up with you and forgot.” Suta told me.

I looked at Suta a bit confused “So why did he suddenly change it up?”.

“Well that took some work.” Suta said. “I spent all of yesterday's ride convincing him to let me pair with you.” He elaborated. “It took a bit and I owe him now since he didn’t want to pair up with Lin himself.” He added.

“What about Lin, I wouldn’t think she would want to pair with him either then, no?” I asked.

“That’s true, that's why I spent some time convincing her as well.” Suta answered. “But it wasn’t nearly as hard to convince her since she was relatively okay with it. She just had two conditions.” He said.

I was surprised that he said it wasn’t too hard to convince her “What were the conditions?”.

Suta fixed his glasses “Oh those? The first one is simple, she just wanted to be treated to a lot of delicacies at Nishilon.”.

When he said that, I remembered hearing that Nishilon has a lot of great culinary artists that come from there and wonder how good the food would be. I then was curious about the other condition. “And the other?” I asked, curiously.

“Well that one.” Suta scratches the side of his head awkwardly. “Okay don’t tell Lin I said this but she wants me to find out any secrets about you to win your next sparring.” He came out with.

With the little amount of time I’ve known Lin, that does seem like something she would do. “Okay then why are you going through all the trouble for this anyways?” I asked him.

“To simply put it, you’ve piqued my interest.” He answered with. After that though, it went silent for a while as we followed the normal pathing that Brell and I were doing previously.

Before it came time to turn around, Suta finally spoke up, breaking the silence “I’m just gonna come out with it.”. I looked at him confused. “You can use magic, can’t you?” He asked. I was shocked that’s what he said and before I could respond, he continued “I mean it would make sense if you also used speed magic to explain why you're a B rank adventurer in the guild as a lone wolf.”.

I was surprised by the sudden question and was only partly relieved when he only mentioned speed magic. I didn’t know how to answer it and the longer I waited to answer the more suspicious it would be. “Yes, yes I can use speed magic.” I decided to be straight up with him. I then looked side to side before my eyes made their way back to him “Just please keep quiet about it, the guild actually doesn’t know.”. I only told him because I don’t want him going around with rumours about me using magic and for some reason I felt like I could trust him.

Suta fixed his glasses with a small smirk “I knew it, I sure have a keen eye for magic.”. He then relaxed his face as he looked back at me “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone but I do have a question.”. “How did you manage to not show your magic while registering?” He asked.

I thought back to the time when I had my mana checked with Rick and how the crystal ball pulls mana from your pool. “When they tested for magic, I stopped my mana from entering the crystal ball.” I told him.

“Hmm, I know crystal balls are objects that pull mana from your pool but never thought to try and prevent it from being pulled all together.” Said Suta. “Anyways, everyone has their own secrets and I’ll respect that so I won’t tell anyone about it.” Suta said as he relaxed his face. I relaxed as well as I heard this as all I could do was trust that he wouldn’t.

For a little while, we rode in silence as we turned around and began making our way back. We were on our way back to the site for a bit longer in silence when I got curious and asked Suta “How did you know I used magic anyways?”.

“That?” Suta said as he fixed his glasses.”It was more of a gamble if anything but it seemed peculiar when you were standing still before making your move.” He answered. “Normally, I wouldn’t think too much about it since you could have just been waiting for the perfect moment but afterwards I asked Lin, curious if she saw you with your eyes closed beforehand.” He explained. “She said she didn’t really remember and it only amounted to a maybe.” He added on. “And that's why it was mainly just a gamble.” Suta finished while he turned to me with a subtle smile.

For the majority of the remaining patrol back to the site was in silence after that short exchange. Before we got back, Suta spoke up one more time “You know, I don’t know how well you handle your magic but I will say, I study magic a lot and maybe will be able to give you a hand with a few things regarding it.”. Suta then turns to me “Of course, I’ll talk to you about it tomorrow as talking about it around the campsite might give people the thoughts that you use magic.”. When he told me that, I was actually a bit excited to talk with him tomorrow if we’re in the same pair again.

Shortly after he finished telling me that, we began breaking through the treeline by the road. With the campsite in view, we saw that we were the last party to arrive this time. Everyone was setting up camp except Lin who was actually already in her bedroll, going to sleep.

When Brell noticed us, he asked us about our patrol and we reported that nothing was seen and joined in setting up for the night.