Unwieldy (Fantasy & Hammers)

[Sarius]

Chapter 10: A Day of Rest

I rubbed my forehead, internally insulting myself before sighing and giving it up.

"Ah! Whatever," I said, frustration coming through in my words. I looked at Mayer, a sort of dull surrender in my eyes, "Can I please have this day off. I want to rest and not do crazy Champion stuff today." He looked at me while taking a long sip from his tea and then slowly swishing the tea around his mouth, probably basking in the taste. After a long moment he swallowed gently and spoke.

"I think that's fair. You can have today to yourself; it would probably do you some good." He said, placing his still half full cup on the coffee table. He walked leisurely into the joining kitchen and started to methodically move—preparing something.

I wasn't entirely sure what it was that he was doing. Then he clicked his fingers and a small flame appeared. It sat in what looked like a large metal bowl, with a grate placed over top of it. It wasn't anything like a stove from Earth, but more technically rudimentary than that. The way that it was built around in Mayer's kitchen made it look strangely elegant. In reality, it was a lot like a fire pit really—something that was meant to be dug into the ground. But even with its ancient quality, it was a fine centrepiece in Mayer's kitchen—like a beautiful antique stove in an otherwise modern home.

The first thought that I had was that the woodsmoke would fill the small living room—but as the fire burned on, no smoke came. The air remained perfectly undisturbed by the smell of wood, or any other fuel. This gave me a moment of pause, the inextricably linked objects—fuel and fire—were separated, and when I looked into the fire; I found not a single log of wood, or a solitary coal. Not even a cinder.

"Magic?" I asked him, and he nodded.

"Shifting." He corrected, "Ether burns clean. A pure flame tends to cook the best, I find." The old man pulled a pan out of a cupboard to his right and gently placed it into one of the holes in the grate. He moved to another cupboard, pulling out an egg and presented it to me. They were large and speckled, almost two times the size of a chicken's from back home.

"How many?" He asked. I usually had four chicken eggs, and so I asked for two. He nodded and got to work.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't eat at all yesterday, or even the day before. For some reason it never occurred to me during all that time. I didn't feel even a little bit hungry, and even now that I was being presented with the opportunity, I still wasn't really hungry. Instead I felt 'peckish', like I could eat, but not really needing to. I sat on a stool that was tucked underneath a beautiful wooden benchtop that separated the large kitchen area from the living room.

"You didn't think about food at all, did you?" The old man said as he broke the eggs into the pan. The eggs were largely the same as a chicken's, though the yolk was a deep red, almost like blood.

"No, not really. I'm not sure why, I should have been craving food like mad." Mayer grunted at this as he cracked the second of my eggs and another two eggs for himself with clean, practiced motions.

"It's because you are a Champion; your bodies are different from ours. You still feel pain, and still suffer, but you are far hardier than the average person. In fact, as far as I understand it, Champions can effectively go without sleep for weeks—if not months on end." To be honest, I couldn't really muster the energy to be surprised, or even excited at the prospects of not having to sleep. "It is also why Ryan always hated the screen. So much physical training put to waste."

"So that's why you pushed me so hard yesterday, I guess." He nodded easily

"I needed to be sure that I was correct. If you had come to me asking for food then I would have given it to you, of course. I'm not looking to kill you." He said, a faint smile on his lips as the eggs fried in the pan—bubbling and popping with a distinct alluring aroma.

It didn't take long for the eggs to be perfectly cooked, and once he plated them and gave my share to me, I practically wolfed them down, despite not feeling all that hungry. The taste of the eggs was almost lost on me, only the silky sweet taste of the yolk was left in my mouth after having eaten them. I guess my body really wasn't going to stop me from eating, just being hungry.

Despite only looking to be about two times the size of a chicken egg, they were a great deal more filling. I looked up from my plate to see Mayer standing there on the other side of the table slowly eating his eggs, savouring the taste—like he had the tea earlier. For a moment I hesitated to ask what was on my mind, something that I knew to be true, but almost didn't want to believe.

"Mayer." I said softly. Mayer turned to me, eyes just as soft, "Is this as bad as it seems? Me being a Champion, this 'test' as the God put it?"

He answered without words. His eyes looking into mine, narrowing only slightly, and then looking back to his eggs. It was precisely the lack of an answer that that solidified what I already knew to be true.

I sighed deeply and decided to let the worries go out with the air from my lungs. If only for a moment.

"Alright," I said, with somewhat forced energy, "I want to go out today, go see the town a bit, get to know some people. Is there anything I need to know before going?" Mayer looked thoughtful for a moment, his eyebrows lowering in thought before he gently placed down his knife and fork. He walked across the barrier between the two areas and opened a drawer of a little table near the door to the hallway. Inside was few things, but what he pulled out was a small leather purse with a cord so that it could be easily pulled open and closed. Probably not the safest way to store money, but I'm not sure that Mayer was worried about keeping valuables safe. He had a damn wand lying about in his hallway.

After digging around in the leather purse for a moment, he pulled out two heptagonal shaped coins. He then walked over to me and placed them on the table next to my plate before returning to his own.

They both looked to be make of iron, both had very similar shapes and imprints on the coin. Both imprints were relatively bland, most likely to make it easy to make by hand or rudimentary machines.

The existence of this currency alluded to there being some sorts of machines, but how advanced they were was a different story altogether. Humanity back on Earth had been using coins, or close enough to coins for a very long time. They were able to make enough to run a society on them back then, so I couldn't tell you how hard or easy it was to make something like this.

"Take these. Around here iron is used. Anything larger than these and no one would be able to give you change," he said, cutting of a bit of his egg and eating it, "those are iron smah, they are worth 10 iron hum each. That will be more than enough to get you through whatever you want to do."

I looked down at the two coins in my hand. The names were odd to me, but I started to try my best to memorise the names. I only knew that smah was a really nice feeling word.

I tightened my fist around them and put them into my pocket.

"I'm going out. I'll see you later today." I said and Mayer nodded before I walked into the hall, and out the door.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 11: A Guide

Once again, I was in the outside world.

It was a lot different when you weren't rushing around from place to place, never picking up the details of where you were going. As I walked out of Mayer's home, small things started to catch my eye. The grass on the side of the road was a darker green than I was used to, the dirt darker still. The roads were well worn, obvious prints where horses—or whatever the equivalent was—had trodden through the damp dirt. It must have rained the night before as I was sleeping, as I could see small pockets of water trapped in the dirt—the bright sun reflecting off of them.

It was such a sensory difference from the city that I had lived in my entire life.

Extremely rustic, unclean, uncivilised to a point. All of these things should have me screwing up my nose like a spoilt noble, but something about it had a feeling that I couldn't quite describe in a word.

It was that feeling of life, of simplicity and effectiveness above all else. As I walked down the street, towards the small collection of storefronts, I took a better look at the houses that lined the streets. The people that owned these houses were most likely the same people that own the stores, being so close to the middle of town. The people who own farms live on them, so I couldn't be entirely sure if I was judging this place correctly. But I feel like my initial reaction to the homes had been rather ruthless.

They were ramshackle, sure—that much was obvious. But they were exceptionally clean and well maintained. Their houses spoke of their unfortunate financial status, but its cleanliness spoke of their pride, in a way.

I had never been in a tough spot financially, something I am eternally grateful for, but I have been in tough spots in other ways. I know that sometimes it is all too easy to just give in, allow it to take over everything and leave you bare.

I examined each house individually as I passed them. They were all built wildly different from each other, assumedly to the needs of the owner. It was obvious that many houses have had sections added, possibly to accommodate new editions to the family. Many of the editions to the houses were made using slightly different wood. A glaringly tell-tale, but they were usually more neatly built than the original home. It seems that progress was being made at a pretty rapid pace. These homes couldn't be anything more than five to ten years old—but in that time, they have progressed that far.

I thought back to Mayer's home, trying to place if it had been built using this new wood or technique. Looking at the editions to the homes, it was clear that even they had issues. Some of the boards were slightly misaligned, and no house had glass, not like Mayer's had.

Mayer's house was testament to how different he was from the rest of the people who lived here. His home was absolutely immaculate, well cleaned, well built. I could only assume that the house was fair bit more advanced on the inside as well. The house even seemed to have plumbing, complete with a sink, even. I don't know if it was magic—or shifting, rather—that powered it, but it sure seemed like it. I don't know how you would even get the infrastructure out here to have plumbing.

I walked down the road, speeding up a bit after a few minutes of slow walking. My body protested against me, pain running down my sides and legs, but I ignored it. Now that I knew that Champions possessed an inexhaustible body, I wasn't about to waste it by acting exactly like a normal person. I knew that it wasn't going to feel any good, but I knew myself. That means that I also know that if I didn't force myself to take advantage of my body now... then I would pay for it later, possibly gruesomely.

I stood up straight, a big difference between my normally slouching form. To be perfectly honest, I had always been somewhat conscious of my height. Where I lived, I was—for the most part—the tallest person in the room. A head taller most of the time. When I was younger, I was good at sport because of it. But slouching came naturally, in a way—helped me fit in a little bit more than I did with a world not exactly built for someone my height. Admittedly, I didn't fit in all that well socially either, but I managed to get by—finding some friends along the way. But standing too much taller than other people wasn't really of interest to me back then. Physicality wasn't something that I overly respected, past the initial, 'Wow that person is tall!' factor.

But here I was different—no, I had to be different. I was a Champion, after all.

So, I stood up bolt straight—a tiring position to walk in, something that was usually trained over a long period of time. But I had to start somewhere, and this was where I was starting. Although I was walking faster than before, I was still walking at a leisurely pace. I wasn't in any rush, but I didn't want to look like silly when walking down the road.

It took quite a while for standing straight to feel even the least bit natural. It was probably going to take tens of hours walking like that to really get into the groove of it. I had caught myself slouching four or five times now already, and it had only been thirty odd minutes since I had left Mayer's place.

The walk into town was deceptively long. On the first night that I had come here, this walk had only seemed to have lasted a few minutes at most. Probably because I was walking a whole lot faster than I was now, but also because I was scared out of my mind.

But I managed to get there all the same. I'd say it was about forty minutes of walking altogether. Mayer lived on the other side of town than where any of the stores were, or even where he had found me—running from whatever that massive creature was.

There were a lot of questions that I would like to ask the man, but I knew that if I started asking, I'd never stop. I don't think I would ever be able to get things done if I did that. Maybe a smarter person would be asking every question that he could possibly think of. But personally, I think it would be pure self-indulgence.

I didn't need to know everything, not yet anyways. Someday I could ask all the questions I want, and I might even get answers for them. But my relationship with Mayer was hardly good enough to start asking questions like, "Why is it that you just so happened to be out on the other side of town when you found me?" So, I decided to leave well enough alone. Mayer undoubtably had his secrets—big and small—and I had no interest in digging them up.

I realised in my moment of thoughtfulness that I was slouching and stood up straight again. My back was already disagreeing with my decision, but I held firm, and my muscles complied—however reluctant. As I was properly straightening myself, I realised that there were sounds of feet dragging through the dirt near me.

I looked up and saw a young boy, who looked twelve or so years old walk past me, looking up at me as if he were trying to remember if he knew my face. I looked at him for a long moment, examining his clothes. They were dirty, torn and overall unkempt. His skin was pretty clean, but he wasn't able to hide a littering of bruises and other cuts and grazes all over his body. I thought for a moment, contemplating my next actions—before waving the boy over with a grin on my face that I hoped didn't look evil.

The young boy frowned at me, but slowly walked towards me—exuding hesitance. This kid was short, somewhere around five-and-a-bit foot. Which made the height difference quite stark. I would have said he was younger at a cursory glance, but he didn't have the same childishness on his face that younger children might have.

"Hello. How are you?" I said, trying to speak clearly, abandoning the slurring accent I grew up with—making me sound more British than Australian. He eyed me somewhat suspiciously, but didn't make any moves to approach me, or run away. A good start.

"I'm new around here—I'm thinking of introducing myself a little bit, just to say hello. Any idea where I should start?" The kid seemed somewhat shocked by this. I don't know what he was shocked by specifically, but he was all the same.

"Are you asking me?" The boy responded. I raised my eyebrow, pointedly looking around the barren road with no lack of emphasis.

"Anyone else around here that I could be talking to?" I said with a grin. The boy looked around dumbly before perking up a little bit. I'm not quite so sure why the boy was so surprised by this, but I carried on.

"Anywhere specific that you would recommend that I go? I need to at least make myself known, introduce myself somehow." I said, ponderously. The situation was a bit awkward; I know that Mayer had a reputation of sorts, but I wasn't exactly sure what that reputation was. People seemed to leave Mayer alone, and maybe quietly respected him—but I was hanging onto his coattails, no reputation of my own. I'd rather I wasn't seen as Mayer's kid, or something of the like. If I had a reputation of my own, getting around would be far easier, with the ice broken and all.

The boy um-ed and ah-ed for a moment before looking up at me with his quizzical eyes, shining from within a worn visage.

"Well, I guess that depends on who it is you want to meet." The boy said tentatively. He spoke clearly, with a strangely educated tone to his words—despite his appearance. I smiled, wouldn't hurt to treat the kid as if he weren't stupid. Not that I would have anyways.

Turns out, that was an excellent idea.

The boy quickly surmised that any of the farm folk—as he called them—were going to be in the midst of working. The other types of workers would be doing very much the same. However, those of a service industry would be working at the moment, meaning that you had the chance to go in and talk to them.

Initially, I had thought that I would go to the pub—or whatever they call it here—but the boy made a good point. Right now, anyone that was eating at the pub would likely either be eating before going on a day's work, or on the road. The rest would be drunkards from the night before. Not exactly the best company to have in the morning. Old hungover men.

"I suggest that you go into a few stores and buy something, chat a bit, y'know. If ya give a good impression, they talk all between themselves and such." I nodded, taking the boy's words seriously. It made good sense to me, I would leave going to the pub for later today, or tonight. Mayer did sort of infer that what he had given me was quite a fair bit of money around these parts, and so I would use it to the best of my abilities.

"Then it looks like I will need to go buy some things." I said, a grin still on my face—then I stopped to ponder for a moment before speaking again, "Do you have the time to drag me around town? I'm not quite so confident in my mental map. I could figure it out, but it would be a little more hassle that I would rather avoid." To be honest, I wonder how I sounded to the boy in that moment—a different accent and all, was it strange?

The boy looked conflicted at my request. He fidgeted his hands through his relatively long sandy blonde hair. Back on earth, he would look like an abuse case, but in this world, it could easily be just as much rough work as it could be abuse. He was slight, malnourished, and clearly at least a little sleep deprived. I don't know what part of town he was from, but it was nowhere good—that was for sure. So, it was then that I pulled out my trump card.

"What about..." I reached my hand into the pocket of my rough pants and pulled out one of the iron smah that Mayer had given me, "I'll give you some of this if you take me around town, and you can use it to buy whatever you want." I looked at him seriously, back straight as a nail. I always believed that if you wanted the best results from a child—or even teen—or to have them do something for you, you treat them seriously. As if they were an adult, even. Offer them a good incentive, and I think you will have your request done in no time.

The boy's eyes lit up at the coin that I pulled out of my pocket. I knew now that it was worth something, that was for sure—and this was definitely worth quite an amount to this kid. I had intentionally kept the exact amount that I would give vague. Especially because I was going to go around town buying stuff with the same money that I was theoretically going to give to the kid. If I oversold the amount that I would give, it would just backfire on me. No-one wanted to be extolled through a small town as a cheapskate who rips of children—certainly not me at least

"Do we have a deal…" I said, fishing for a name. I remained serious and solemn whilst I held my hand out for the boy to shake. He looked conflicted for a moment, looking back towards a part of town I haven't been yet. Before long he turned back around to me, his face filled with decisiveness.

"Rethi, my name is Rethi Orsen." He said as he took my hand firmly and shook it with an endearing clumsiness.

"Maximilian Avenforth." I replied happily.

Today was going to be interesting.


A/N: Two posts today, mostly because I am feeling nice! Also, some more good news—the medicine that I have been taking for a chronic condition is helping! This medicine I am taking mostly helps with mental acuity and 'energy'—though I have found that it brings me up to a normal level and just helps remove the mire of lethargy I've been living my life in for more than half a decade.

Obviously, I'm still sceptical of exactly how efficacious it actually is—over me just having a good writing week—but this week had been a really difficult week physically. On top of the physical components to my chronic conditions; I had a minor COVID-19 scare with an infection and some side effects to the medicine—that I've since solved by slightly lessening the dose. It was kind of like driving a hunk-of-junk car off-road and the engine somehow holding up despite the rough terrain.

Anyway, just thought I'd share the minor excitement. Hopefully it leads to many more good days than bad ones.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 12: Small Town Hero

Rethi was quick on his feet, probably used to roaming about for long distances each day. I have no idea where we were going, just that we were going in the vague direction of the stores I had seen on my way into town

The little malnourished boy put me to shame in comparison. I was huffing and puffing after ten minutes, trying to keep up with his expert navigation. After we walked between two houses for the third time, constantly evading the roads that the houses faced onto—most of which lead toward a main one that parted the town in half. I finally managed to pipe up, still struggling to catch my breath.

"Rethi…" I huffed, stopping behind him. When he realised that I wasn't following right on his heels anymore, he turned around, somewhat confused.

"What are you doing? We need to go see Master Gram." He hurried me along, but I didn't move.

"Why are we walking between houses like this? Couldn't we just follow the main roads?" I said. I'll admit, I was a little bit frustrated. Walking between the houses was hard work, usually it involved jumping fences or avoiding other obstacles. Luckily, there wasn't anyone inside the houses, but it was unlikely that every single house was going to be entirely empty. At some point there was going be someone who sees us technically trespassing on their property, and I didn't want that on my name.

Rethi looked at me, he started to say something, but stopped himself—instead just resorting to looking down at the ground beneath his feet. I couldn't quite tell if he was embarrassed, or some other emotion. I can't say I understood at all, to be perfectly honest.

"Rethi, is it okay if we go by the main roads instead?" I asked him tentatively, trying desperately to sound as calming as I could. He looked up at me, eyes like a kicked dog, then nodded and quietly moved out to the main road and started to walk—albeit slower.

We walked for a long time until we got to anywhere of importance. The houses started to get a little nicer as we moved into the heart of the town, closer to where the storefronts were. Rethi was now very quiet, and just as careful. I couldn't tell what it was that made him change so quickly—from the sprightly young boy to this strange, hollow thing that used to be Rethi. His dirty hair—which I thought was sandy blonde but couldn't quite tell—was covering most of his face now. It was long and unwashed, framing his slightly tanned skin which was surprisingly quite clean.

There were bruises down his arms, poorly hidden. And some even worse ones when he moved a certain way—his dirty clothes shifting to uncover welts on his back. I didn't know what reason you'd have to do this to a kid, but it sure as hell wasn't something that I was okay with.

The roads became more worn as we progressed down the main road, and then suddenly we were at the door of a nicely built establishment named 'Gram's Apothecary'. It was probably the nicest building I had seen yet—aside from Mayer's home. It was made out of a dark, rich wood that seemed relatively new in comparison to what some of the buildings around here were made out of. It was a wonder that something this nice was built at all in this little town.

It was a two-story building, most likely a store doubling as a house. But it was made solidly and soundly, unlike some of the houses that I saw further out. I looked at Rethi, some of his earlier energy returning as he stood outside the apothecary. He looked to me, eyes excited and seeming to urge me inside the building. I sighed, then caught myself slouching once again.

I walked up the well-worn steps to the small veranda and took a peek through a crude window that was beside the door. It wasn't anything like what Mayer had, but most houses didn't even have glass at all.

Inside was a room filled with tables that showed off some wares, and a counter. The counter ran along the back wall of the store. Behind that counter was a large array of drawers, most of them had small labels on them—undoubtedly medicines or herbs of some description. A door was also behind that counter. There was no one currently manning it, so I assumed that Master Gram—as Rethi had called him earlier—was behind that door.

I straightened up and looked to Rethi, who was looking at me curiously and I gave him a nod. I placed my hand on the bronzed metal doorknob, opened the door, and walked into the store with purpose. I heard a shuffling of feet as Rethi followed in after me and the ringing of a bell that was pulled by the door opening.

Immediately as I opened the door, I was hit by a thousand smells that I couldn't quite place. Distinctly herbal or flowery, but also a note of some harsh cleaning product. The powerful smells almost made me cough, but I managed to reign it in. We stood there in the middle of the store for a moment, eying the door behind the counter, waiting for movement. I looked to Rethi, eyebrow raised, but he looked back at me with a resolute face.

I was beginning to wonder if we should leave, but just as I went to speak the door behind the counter opened and a bedraggled man of about forty bustled through the door.

"Oh dear, I'm quite sorry, I didn't expect customers so early!" He said, quickly moving behind the counter, grabbing bits and pieces—a pen, some ink, paper. In just a moment, the middle-aged man turned to look at me, a small weary smile on his face.

"I'm sorry to have woken you, Master Gram. I didn't mean to disturb your sleep." I said. Starting the conversation off with this seemed to be a safe bet. He didn't seem like he would take offence to being woken up, but it never hurt to be a little extra polite—especially to a doctor of any sort. The middle-aged man looked at me curiously, his thin wisp of a face growing into a more honest smile.

"Very kind of you to say so, but I was oversleeping, an issue of my own making I assure you." He gave a dry chuckle. His face was unshaven and had been that way for a few days. Gram looked me up and down. I wasn't sure what he saw exactly, but when he met my eye again, he looked at me questioningly.

"Ah, I'm sorry," I said flustered, "I didn't introduce myself. My name is Maximilian, I am new in town." I walked up to the counter and held out my hand.

"Ah yes—Michael Gram." He said, introducing himself, "I'm the doctor around these parts. Come to me if you need any help." He shook my hand with a weary smile and glanced to Rethi, who was standing behind me. His eyes lit up at the familiar face.

"Ah! Rethi, it has been quite a while since I last saw you, yes?" Gram said enthusiastically. Rethi smiled ruefully.

"Yes, Master Gram. I've been quite… busy." The young boy said. His words trailing off as he rubbed his fingers together nervously at his side. The middle-aged man gave the young boy a quick look, his face falling into neutrality, before perking up again and walking over to a part of the counter that could be lifted to let someone through. He lifted the wood and opened the door that was behind the counter, beckoning us through. Having obviously come to the understanding that we were here for a social visit, rather than a business one. Rethi quickly followed, his eyes bright with excitement—almost skipping through the door. I followed with a confused smile, looking at Gram before walking behind the counter and through the door.

The door lead into a small hallway that had stairs at its end that likely winded up to the second story of the building, and then two doors. One that was firmly shut and another that was open just enough to see inside.

It was a room with a clean wooden table in the middle, and a few small tables and backless chairs in it as well. You would have said it was a dining room of sorts if you didn't take notice of the copious amounts of tools that were hanging from the walls and on the tables. Bottles of liquids and other assorted things were strewn about the room, along with some half-washed tools in a basin. It was a surgery room. It wasn't much like an operating room in a hospital back on Earth, though. This was more like a room that surgery just so happened to take place in.

It was somewhat disconcerting, but it was probably some of the best medical attention that you could get way out here on another planet—in the middle of nowhere on said planet. I hear the door to the storefront close behind us, and Gram's soft, shuffling steps as he came up behind me. He looked at me, scratched his nose and then realised where I was looking.

"Oh! No need to look in there. Little bit too morbid for this fine morning!" He chuckled and hurried me along, forcing me to pry my eyes away from the little room. He closed the door to the surgery room and hurried us up the stairs to another door.

"Oh dear, I'll have to ask you boys to squish up to the wall for a moment." We did as he asked, and he squeezed past us and up little stairway—unlocking the door at its end. It took him a moment to unlock the door—cursing at it under his breath while he tried to get the key at the right angle.

It seemed that he hadn't come from upstairs to greet us. I doubt that he would have locked this door just after he had woken up, more likely that he fell asleep in the surgery room. I shuddered at the thought. To each their own, I guess.

With a click, the door had finally been opened. If it took that much work to get the door open with the key, I don't think that a robber of any sort will be getting it open all that easily either. He rushed us into a room that was about the size of the store front that we had been in earlier. It was a homely looking place—well lived in, and the smell of something that reminded me of coffee had long since been absorbed into the walls.

"Please, sit!" The man said, pointing us towards a nice wooden table. It only had two seats pulled up to it, but Rethi happily sat on the floor, legs crossed—letting me sit on the chair.

Gram quickly poured us a few wooden mugs of water from a wooden jug, clear and clean. I hadn't drunk anything much since coming here either, but I felt similarly towards the water as I did the food. I sipped on the water offered to me leisurely.

"Uh, Master Gram? Is Alena about?" Rethi asked shyly. Gram's hand hitched, almost spilling his coffee before laughing to cover it up.

"I'm afraid my daughter is out doing chores for the time being Rethi. She'll be back later today." He smiled genuinely, but with a small-conflicted quirk at the edge of his lips. I unconsciously raised an eyebrow. A protective father, then.

"So, what brings you to this little nameless town, Maximilian." Gram said as he sat, my name playing off of his accent oddly.

"Just call me Max," I said, helpfully, "I am meeting with an old friend of my family. Mayer is his name." I had come up with this scenario as I was walking here. I just decided that this was just vague enough to keep people away, whilst also mollifying their curiosity a little. Gram looked surprised, as did Rethi. They observed me in silence for a moment, before Rethi let out a low whistle. I granted them an odd look, their surprised silence was growing on my nerves. Thankfully, Gram spoke first.

"Mayer, eh? Seems like the Jamerson boys weren't lying about Mayer letting a young man plow their fields for them. You've been the talk of the town for a solid night down at the pub!" Gram chuckled.

"Really? Already?" I said more dubiously than I meant to. Gram didn't seem to take offense.

"Oh yes, Mayer's movements are quite well gossiped about in this town of ours. There isn't much else that is any more exciting than Mayer himself." Gram said, nodding to himself. That gave me an idea.

"Huh, my family didn't talk much about him, just a tid-bit every now and then. So, I really don't know much about Mayer, just that he is a good man." I said curiously.

"Well, you've been missing out! Hasn't he, Rethi?" As if to confirm Gram's statement, Rethi nodded excitedly from the floor.

"Yeah, Master Mayer has been around for years now. We've been trying to find out who he is and all. Hard nut to crack." Rethi said looking up at me hopefully.

"Now, now Rethi. No need to invade a man's privacy." Gram said, catching the glint in Rethi's eye. "Master Mayer has been quite helpful many times in the past, he deserves all the privacy that he so pleases." Rethi looked down at the floor again, a dejected look on his face. He was like a Labrador in a way, happy and excitable and dejected and mopey when told off. I chuckled then turned to Gram.

"What sort of things has Mayer helped you with?" I asked. If I was going to have to live around the man, I may as well find out what he is like.

"Oh, not myself—I've never needed it, see. Though other's in the have. Its never menial things either—always big things," Gram said, tapping his lip in thought before making a small excited noise, "For example; Last year Grayham was having some real issues with monsters invading his farm and taking some of the livestock. We don't have many, and Grayham is one of the only livestock farmers we have. The forest wolves had probably become desperate, they usually don't like to get too close to humans—but when they do it is usually a surge, or because a few became desperate enough to do so." He took a large swallow of water and then scratched his stubbly chin.

"Anyway," he continued, "after few nights of it happening, and Grayham starting to get more and more concerned that he would soon be left without any animals to tend to—a few people started to try and get together to stake them out. The plan was that they'd scare them off or kill a few for a couple nights in a row. But that didn't stop them." Gram looked down sadly into his wooden mug.

"That night a few men were dragged into my shop, half dead and chewed to bits. They were attacked by twelve forest wolves. I tried to patch them up, but one of the boys died. He was the only son of a widow and I believe she died later that year." He shook his head, seeming to clear away the melancholy form his mind, letting a wide grin come over his face.

"The men gave up, Grayham was injured as well, and he was staying at another farm for a few days while he recovered. However!" The man exclaimed dramatically, "Just when Grayham had returned to his farm—all patched up thanks to yours truly—he noticed that his livestock had actually grown a head!" Gram laughed deeply, obviously remembering a delightful memory. I looked at him with a smile, infected by his joviality. Rethi was also listening with rapt attention, like a child listening to a storybook tale that they had heard a thousand times—yet were still wholly enamoured by. As his laugh died down, Gram's grin grew even further—lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"Now, no-one truly knows how it was that the forest wolves stopped attacking Grayham's livestock, but if you just so happened to be up late that night—cleaning your shop—you might have glimpsed the figure of a man that looked just like Mayer covered in blood and with a glowing sword in hand." He then sat back in his seat, drinking from his mug.

"Really? You actually saw him?" Rethi just about exploded with excitement. I looked at Rethi's excited jumping about, then at Gram's wide grin—I reviewed the story in my brain and chuckled to myself.

Seems like Mayer is somewhat of a small-town hero.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 13: Signing Bonus

Turns out, Mayer was basically the talk of the town all the time. He was the mysterious figure that was obviously hiding something. Not that I think Mayer was hiding anything intentionally, just living way below his means. It was just so apparent that he was different than those that surrounded him that it was like white on black. His house was better—better built, made out of better things. He constantly seemed to show a disinterest in glamour and decadence but seemed to strategically use large amounts of money when he felt like it.

Gram told stories of Mayer that made him out to be some rich noble that got sick of high society and came out here—to live in peace away from all the squabbling. I couldn't disagree more. The way that he talked and his presence felt was obviously more like a warrior. I think that my favourite story that Gram told me was when 'something' had blown a massive hole out of the side of Mayer's home—then summarily contracting the family of carpenters that had happened to fall on bad times not a few weeks before.

Apparently, Mayer would have nothing but the absolute best, and so he paid for the best possible wood and the best craftsmanship that they had to offer. Gram says that the carpenters worked around the clock for almost two months to get it up to Mayer's standards, before he hit them with a large sack of iron ruhk—which I think is fifty iron hum in one coin. Still trying to wrap my head around that. Regardless, it was a huge sum of money and Mayer forced them to accept it gratefully—so they did and their issues were washed away, well and truly able to coast through the year without lifting a finger.

"Master Mayer seems like a really nice guy!" Rethi said, his eyes just about radiating his mix of excitement and wonder. Gram nodded at Rethi and opened his mouth so say his piece.

"I think so. However, there is a reason that many respect Mayer so much around here, Rethi." Gram looked at Rethi, a small quirk of the lips followed when he saw a suitably confused reaction.

"People around these parts—maybe over the entirety of this god forsaken planet—are prideful. Prideful and stubborn to a fault. People around here won't just accept your money for nothing, they would be incredibly insulted. They would take it as being treated like a beggar, something that so many despise." Gram looked pointedly at Rethi, "He makes anyone who needs money work to the bone to earn their part. He gives them a task that might even seem impossible, but those who push through—no matter how hard it is—are the ones who succeed in the end. In this way, Mayer makes them earn the rights to his charity. Not that it could be called that by the time Mayer is done." Gram smiled softly at Rethi, who had gone quiet. Rethi's face had gone dark—his jaw clenched tightly and hands curled into fists. I could see a quiet pain on his face.

Something Gram had said rang true, far too true for polite company. I don't know exactly what it was that Gram had said exactly, and I honestly couldn't tell if it was malicious or not. I had assumed that Rethi—if not his entire family—was in a bad way. Maybe that was why Mayer was such a big deal to Rethi, but I couldn't really know for sure at the moment. So instead I decided to change tact completely.

"Alright Rethi," I said, getting up from my chair with a little more exaggeratedly than I would have liked, "Time to get going, we have other people to go see!" Gram looked a little surprised, but hid it well, and Rethi broke from his state and quietly got up after a moment of hesitation.

As we were leaving the store, I watched Rethi closely as he walked out of the door behind me and I started to walk in a random direction, buying me time to observe him.

Rethi followed me quietly, head down and looking at his feet. His entire demeanour had gone from 'happy, excitable child' to somewhere in between prideful indignation and depressed.

Strange. I looked forward towards the random direction in which we were walking. I'm sure that we were going towards the pub, if my memory served me right.

"What was that?" I asked, keeping my voice as straight as possible.

"Nothing." He didn't even bother to look up. I raised my eyebrow at that, and I think Rethi must have felt me do so.

"My mother isn't doing so well. We don't have any money. I..." he paused painfully, "I am a beggar." Rethi went silent after that, so I just gave him a nod. It gave my brain just that little bit of leverage to put the pieces together.

If Rethi was a beggar, and Gram said that people despise beggars around these parts, then Rethi was in pretty dire need of money. If this society is just as prideful as I think it is, then being a beggar is one of the deepest depravities—effectively the same as being a whore, but probably worse. At least then you could claim that you were earning your money.

Imagine, as small child who has to lower himself to being a beggar to ensure the survival of him and his family—they heard word of a man who would give money to those that were down on their luck. A man of honour and virtue. Would you not be enamoured by that prospect? That maybe one day that man would pick you to do a job for him, and once you have completed the hardest task in your life, you were given a ridiculous sum of money as a reward.

It was a real opportunity for a kid like him. An opportunity to find a new lease on life.

"Hey," I said softly, "Do you mind if your home, instead of the pub or another store?"

I knew how it sounded and it sounded absolutely horrible. I intended to go around all day and meet new people and see new faces, but when you have something like that shoved into your face… I can't help but feel like I have a responsibility to see the reality of the world I've been plopped into.

Rethi looked at me, his face more noticeably sullen now. His eyes asked me 'Why?', but I just continued to look at him, unswervingly. He sighed and as the breath of air left him, it felt like someone had collapsed something inside of him, making him look even smaller than he already was.

He nodded, his small, hunched form walking forward quickly, without caring for any complain I would have previously had. I followed diligently, even as he skipped between houses like it was nothing, avoiding main streets like the plague. We moved out now—out towards where it became more wilderness than a residential district. The houses became more decrepit, to the point where most of the houses were obviously abandoned, and not a soul lived in them. Most were partly, if not mostly, destroyed or deteriorating. Some were burned, some were smashed. That this wasn't something that was done by pure neglect.

The only real explanation would be monsters, or maybe pillaging from bandits.

We walked on and on until it became obvious that it was going to get worse from here. The houses were all basically gone, bits and pieces of old charcoal left buried in the dirt. When we came upon a house that was only slightly destroyed, it was obvious that this was Rethi's home. It was a house that would never exist further into the town, but out here it was probably the best house in the area for a five-minute walk.

It was far away from any of the other houses, or the rubble of—possibly the reason that it wasn't just charcoal buried in the dirt like the rest of them. We walked up to the door, which had obviously been broken at some point and had been hastily put together again with extra bits of wood and some nails. Rethi got to the door and opened it slowly, the door creaking dangerously, threatening to fall apart if provoked.

I looked into the home—or tried to, as it was almost entirely pitch black. Were candles expensive? I honestly couldn't tell you. Rethi walked in quietly and I stood outside, not sure if I was allowed to go inside or not. A moment later a small light sparked in the darkness through the doorway. Rethi appeared at the doorway, the light playing tricks on his face, making him look something like a grim reaper. He gestured me in, letting me through the doorway into a small, barren room that looked to be the living room. There was a table and a hole in the ground that an old pot sat over, propped up by a metal stand.

It looked and smelled like poverty. There was no way that this house had been properly cleaned in years, and if it had then it was probably so grimy that it couldn't be fixed.

I coughed lightly, trying desperately to make it not look like I was choking on the air. Rethi gave me a small, sad smile before turning to open a door on the right side of the room just a crack, and then peer through it. He then opened the door just enough to put his head through.

"Mum, are you okay?" Rethi said, his voice soft and without edges. There was a mumble from the behind the door that was vaguely female. There was some rustling and from the other side of the door and another mumble, this time from Rethi. His voice too low for me to hear properly.

Then there was silence for a few moments before there was the sound of a foot hitting the wood flooring. Then a few steps before Rethi moved out of the way of the door and the pale, malnourished face of who I assumed to be Rethi's mother appeared. At first looked like her head was floating, because of the lack of light, but as she moved out of the doorway and into the living room it became obvious that she was just wrapped in blankets and robes from head to toe.

She looked sickly, horrifically so. She was sweating heavily but was shivering noticeably. Fever of some sort maybe. If her surroundings were anything to go by, it was obvious why she was sick—or at least wasn't helping her in getting better. The house was in a horrific state, the germs alone would probably make any kid from Earth so sick they would die. She likely didn't bathe enough and most likely had no medicines to take to help her. It was unlikely that she would get better in her current state and I could only really see a long road of pain and then eventual death.

"Hello." She said, her voice papery thin and weak to the point that I could barely hear it across the room. I nodded deeply at her, a bow of sorts. I wasn't sure that they recognised this gesture, but I did it without thinking.

"Nice to meet you Ma'am. My name Is Maximilian Avenforth." I tried to keep my voice soft, but in the silent room it was difficult. I'd swear my voice bounced around the room seven times before she smiled weakly and moved over to the table. Each step was supported using the wall to prop up herself up. Rethi slowly moved alongside her, not touching her but obviously ready to catch her if she were to fall. If the stereotype Gram had espoused held any truth, then she was too prideful to use her son's arm for support—even in the state she was in. Admirable in a sad, depressing way.

I walked over slowly to the table—being as courteous as I knew how—and a took a seat at their table. The seats and chairs were ramshackle at best, and almost scary to sit on at worst, but I sat anyway—making sure that not a hint of reproach or other such emotions touched my face. They didn't need to see that. It would just be cruel. She sat down gently and sat as straight as a ruler. It was obviously uncomfortable for her, but I didn't make a comment.

"So why have you come, Mister Maximilian." She asked plainly. She didn't play around or mince words, she was not in the right place to have a long drawn out conversation. Rethi simply stood, as there were no seats other than the two at the table—though not because they didn't need more like Master Gram. I, however, was at a loss for words. I didn't know why I had come here exactly. She eyed me coolly, despite her profuse sweating. I had to say something and fast, otherwise I was just going to make a fool of myself by default.

"To learn, Ma'am." I said quietly. Her eyes narrowed slightly, unsure of how to take my remark. I stayed silent while she contemplated what I had said. I flushed a little—being under the microscope wasn't exactly my first pick of enjoyable activities, but still, I remained silent. After a moment she looked back to me, her grey eyes so different to that of her son's bright green.

"What do you mean 'learn'?" She said, her voice still cool but with a noticeable undertone of reproach. She hadn't liked that answer, but a bad answer that was truthful could potentially be better than a good answer that was a lie, I guessed. I thought on her question for a moment, not for long, but enough to show her that the answer wasn't easy to put into words.

"Well…" I started, my voice full of thoughtful contemplation, "where I come from is much different to this small road town. The culture is much different here, the way of life is much different here." I said I didn't reveal my opinion on their honour, it just wasn't worth it.

"Where do you come from?" Rethi's mother asked. The question caught me off guard of just a second until I got my face under control. I thought about the places I knew on this planet, which was none. I didn't even know the name of a country close by, let alone any others further away. I knew the names of the planets, Orisis and Virsdis, but that didn't help me much. So, I decided to go with the super safe route and looked to her…

And smiled a wide smile. Not smug, but a sort of smile that said, 'I can't tell you'. I shrugged my shoulders slightly before looking at her in the eyes and seeing a little bit of surprise there. I sat there staring at her with what I hoped was a smile of sincere honesty on my face. The surprised look in her eyes faded quickly before slowly, then words began to seem to flow through her head, but never leave her mouth, leaving it hanging slightly ajar. I let it continue for a little while before I offered her a lifeline.

"I have met your son, Rethi. He is quite a diligent young man." I said, keeping our interaction intentionally vague whilst giving Rethi a little bit of a status boost while I was at it. From what I knew, Rethi was a beggar, and meeting his mother made it obvious that she was a proud person. I looked to Rethi quickly, seeing a somewhat worried look in his eyes. I think he was nervous that I might spill something of my impression of him, leading to her finding out that her son was begging to keep her alive. One of the greatest debasements that a person can face in this culture.

"Oh?" Rethi's mother said—broken from her cycle of not finding the right words, I could almost see the relief in her eyes. I wasn't actually sure if it was just relief at me moving the conversation away from where it had been, but when a smile spread out on her face, it was obvious that it was because of her son.

"Yes, he has helped me out a little bit so far, and I was hoping for your blessing to let me employ him in a sense." I said, a smile on my face. I tried not to sound too salesman-like, but the concerned look that hit her face made it obvious that I didn't do such a good job.

"And what is it that he will be doing for you, Mister Maximillian?" She said, cautiousness readily obvious in her voice, using the title as a sharp implement. She was obviously becoming weaker thought our conversation, so I tried to keep it short and sweet, ignoring the wild looks and subtle gestures from Rethi over his mother's shoulder.

"I am intending to train with Master Mayer, and I hope to have your son help me both during training and during interactions within the town." I said, sounding surer than I actually was. I actually had no damn idea what I was going to do with Rethi, but I couldn't stand around and let him beg and scrape for his sick mother without doing anything—or let him do something so tortuous as whatever had given him the welts on his back that he had tactically hidden from his mother.

"Employment?" She asked wistfully, a hesitant smile spreading on her face when she slowly looked over her shoulder at Rethi, who looked stunned, but tried to put on a smile for his mother.

"Yes, employment. I do not have the details of payment just yet, but he will be fed as much as he needs plus some, given proper facilities to do his job, and space to sleep if required. I cannot promise that anything other than that will be given, aside from a payrate that will be decided upon at a later date." I said punctually, as if I had done so a million times. Of course I hadn't, I hadn't even thought of hiring someone for anything—ever.

"R-really?" Rethi spoke now, his voice louder than he had meant to be—he looked worryingly towards his mother, before turning back with restrained enthusiasm. I nodded to him, as well as to his mother.

"I promise to you, upon my name that I will do whatever I can to pay you well. For the sake of you and your family." I said to Rethi, before turning to his mother. I looked at her with absolute honesty.

"I cannot guarantee that this job will be easy or risk free, but I hope to make a good impression on you and your son. I hope that would accept this—if you intend to allow me to employ your son." I smoothly reached into my pocket and pulled out the two iron smah Mayer had given me, and placed them gently onto the table—sliding them over to within the easy reach of Rethi's mother. Rethi and his Mother looked at the coins with wide, disbelieving eyes. I don't know how much money that was, but it was obviously enough to be important to them.

"We cannot accept this money. Rethi has not earned this money." I had expected this response, to be honest. All I had to do was give her good cause. I made a good effort to look somewhat offended, in a way that didn't reflect badly on her all too much but was supposed to be a culture difference situation. All I had to do was make it my honour that a worker be payed a 'signing deal' as such. If that doesn't convince her, then there isn't much that I could do.

Rethi looked about to argue with his mother, but I quickly interjected with a tone that showed a little bit of hurt, but stubbornness.

"Ma'am. I understand that in your culture, taking money from others without sufficient work being done is frowned upon, but in my culture we having something that we call a 'signing bonus'," I looked at her, allowing her to process my words and become curious, then continued, "A signing bonus is something that an employer gives an employee to guarantee that they will come to work for them, an upfront investment. Many years ago, this was just used to capture the interest of high value prospective employees, but it slowly evolved into a show of respect and a burden of responsibility. To be given a signing bonus by an employer is a sign of respect, and if accepted by the employee, it means that they bear the responsibility of what that money means." I stopped, letting the weight of my words sink in. I was obviously playing this up, this wasn't something that was so culturally significant back on Earth, but I feel like this was the best way to sell them on this idea.

"If you are to accept this signing bonus, then you are putting my pride as an employer and your name on the line. This money is to show my interest in you, and to show you that I am betting on my instincts." I stopped.

I hope I hadn't oversold it. I had totally been bullshitting for the entirety of that, so I wasn't sure how convincing I had been. I had tried to keep a smile on my face, but I also wanted to make them aware of the gravity of my fake cultural meaning of that money. In reality it was just money that I wanted to give them because I wanted them to eat properly for what had to be the first time in weeks, if not months.

I looked the mother dead in the eye, clearly stating that I was expecting someone to accept that money. I waited while the mother thought about it. After a moment she nodded, almost to herself, before looking towards Rethi, silently giving him the go ahead to make his choice, leaving it totally to him.

Silence followed. I looked at Rethi intently, smile gone from my face, left with pure gravitas. I realised that while I was conjuring up that story about the signing bonus, I had legitimately become serious about this. This actually meant something to me now. So, I looked at him with all the weight that I could muster behind my eyes, making it know just how important this could be to him and to his Mother, and also to me.

Rethi reached out his hand, slowly moving to pick up the two iron smah off of the table, but hesitated just before he touched them, and glanced towards his mother, seeking for her affirmation. But none came. Rethi's Mother remained entirely impassive, giving him nothing to work with but his own instincts and pride.

He swallowed deeply, looked to me, and with a bowed head he picked up the two iron smah off of the rickety old table.

I couldn't help but let my face break into a grin so wide I would have sworn I looked like a lunatic. I looked to the mother again and put out my hand, letting it hang in the air for just a moment before I spoke.

"Maximilian Avenforth." I said softly to her. She looked at me a long moment before giving a small grin and placing a weak, sweaty hand into mine and shaking it.

"Shae Orsen." She said, happiness evident in her voice as she spoke. When she smiled, I realised that she wasn't really all that old. Maybe early thirties. Regardless, I looked towards Rethi and held out my hand and he grabbed it quickly, and shook my hand vigorously. He was just about crying, I don't know if it was the money, or being given a job, but it didn't really matter.

"Rethi Orsen," He said, his voice cracking right in the middle of saying his last name, "I hope to work well for you Master Maximilian."

I couldn't help but laugh a deep, hearty laugh before standing up from my seat. I had never been called 'Master' before. I would have to try and convince him to call me Max at some point.

I sighed happily and bowed deeply towards Shae.

"I feel as if your son will be a good worker of mine. I have to leave to tend to other things, but I believe that I will be seeing you on occasion from now on." She nodded happily at this. Although I she looked just about ready to jump out of her chair and dance about, I could see all this excitement wearing her thin and, to save her the pride of having to dismiss me before she collapsed, I decided to make a tactical exit.

Before I walked through the front door, I turned to Rethi.

"I expect you to be in front of Mayer's home by 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Do you have any other engagements that I need to be aware of to make adjustments?" Rethi shook his head vigorously and I nodded.

"See you tomorrow then!" I said then I left. Then suddenly, as I was walking up the street of ruined houses, I realised something incredibly important that I had forgotten entirely.

"…How do I get home from here."



[Skilled Salesman: You masterfully sold someone on an idea (that they might've have killed you for) in a really inventive way! Or you just got lucky—regardless, a reward for a feat. +4 Mind]

[Might: 15]

[Mind: 15 (+4)]

[Agility: 6]

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 14: Wages

These little power-ups were interesting to me. When I received them, I didn't feel at all different and I was convinced that there was not effect—at least with any immediacy. This is mostly supported with me still being entirely lost in this god damn maze of a town. You'd think that adding an extra fourth to your intelligence would be a pretty big deal, but I can't really find any observable difference. I certainly didn't feel any smarter, that was for sure.

Regardless, I sort of just continued to walk in the vague direction that we had come from, roughly where Gram's Apothecary was. But, as my feet dragged in the dirt, I started to realise what I had just agreed to.

I had just promised money that I didn't have, to a down-on-their-luck family for feel good points. Now that I was actually thinking about it, like someone that wasn't a numbskull, I realised that I was going to have to get money from somewhere—and the only reasonable place that I could get money, was from Mayer.

He might be a rich man, and probably just as powerful, but he was a man of responsibility and accountability—at least that is what the stories say about him. I was inclined to believe them. So, the only real way that I could obtain the money from Mayer—without lessening myself in his eyes, or offending him—was to offer myself, as genuinely as I could, to do some work for him.

Despite all this, I feel like I learned something valuable about myself today.

I always felt that words came easy to me. I was good at English—or anything else essay — but I was even better at talking. I don't why, but way back when I was just a little kid, I felt like I could just about talk my way out of anything. Obviously, this didn't last very long. Just because I was a good liar when I was eight years old, doesn't mean I was any good at fourteen.

Lying becomes far different when you get older. When you're a kid, you can almost get away with manufacturing things from thin air—but as an adult, or a young adult, a lie that manufactures too much gets pulled apart and gets exposed in ten seconds flat. I was good at making stuff up from thin air, on the spot, but not at meshing it with enough truth that I didn't sound like an absolute idiot.

But after today, I don't know if I was really correct about myself— about not being good at lying. Or bullshitting, if you were of the less elegant disposition. I think that I might have just been using the wrong tools on the wrong car.

You see, in this world, you have a little more creative liberty. Back on earth, you couldn't simply say "Well, in my society we…", because the next minute people would ask where you were from, and here lies the issue. You couldn't just say a place that everyone knew, because people would be able to pick up on it—and you couldn't make a country up altogether, because the internet exists, and you'd be found out in an instant.

But here, you could just be illusive. This world was so underdeveloped and uneducated, that you could probably just make a something up and have it fly as truth. Now, of course limitations apply. You couldn't exactly just name yourself as the King of an entirely fictional country—because people aren't idiots, you needed a way to sell it.

So, you do what I did, and give myself a tangible link to Mayer, and say I am going to be trained by him. This gives me leverage without having to sell it too hard. Then I hook into something that they care about—honour and pride—and leverage that to work in my favour while repurposing something into a 'custom' that my people follow as an act of pride and honour.

There were still tonnes of limitations to this whole thing, and I may not be a genius, but I wasn't stupid. I would try my best to keep myself from getting in to deep—and possibly getting into lies that I couldn't deliver on.

Ethical lying, some might call it.

But just the realisation that I could actually do something of my own accord, even if it was something as morally dubious as lying? It was honestly sort of amazing.

---​

It took me what felt like hours of walking to get home, but thoughts of sneaky lies and interesting ruses kept my mind active. It was like finding out you had a superpower and thinking of all the fantastical ways that you could use it. At least this 'superpower' was marginally more useful than a massive Soul Hammer.

Before I knew it, I found myself on Mayer's front porch, a place that I had already started to call home. But as I walked up to the door, I started to become a little nervous. At first it was only a little niggling feeling inside my chest, but it had quickly become more serious than that.

I may be able to lie well to random villagers that know no better—but could I lie to Mayer?

I had already started to consider this place home, and there was no way that I could afford to lose this right now. I don't know the first thing about surviving in this world, and without the wealth of information that Mayer seemed to have about the Champions—I had very little to gain and everything to lose. I couldn't afford to lie to him, so I decided that I would take another route.

I quickly opened the door and walked though, as causally as I could be when feeling pretty damn nervous. I walked into the main living area, and there was Mayer, reading a book as he always seemed to be. I looked at him dead on and spoke.

"Mayer. I need to be able to make some money. Can I earn some from you?" I looked at him nervously as his eyes rose from his book. He cocked his eyebrow and closed his book over his finger, keeping the page he was reading on preserved for when he would go back to reading right after I finished talking to him.

"You're back early, things not go as planned?" He said, dodging the question I had asked him with expert grace.

"No, actually I think it went pretty well." I said, honestly. I definitely didn't achieve what I had wanted to, but I at least made an impression on Gram. I wasn't exactly sure what to make of the man, though I think I was successful in my own way. But the success of whole day relied on this quick talk with Mayer. Mayer looked thoughtfully into my face and nodded to himself—before returning his attention to me.

"There is indeed a way for you to make money." He said, not elaborating. I waited a moment before I was sure that he wasn't going to say anything more, and then decided this was probably where I needed to talk about what it was that I wanted. I decided that it was better to be ballsy then be demure in this situation. I doubt Mayer cares too much for snivelling.

"I don't really mind what kind of work that I end up doing, but it would be good to earn a fair amount of money for it. I would like to be able to earn a little bit more that what a provider of a household would bring in for honest labour work. I wouldn't mind doing book work either, for whatever the fair pay for that would be." I said plainly as I could. My hands were sweaty now, and my brain continued to tell me that they were in the wrong place and needed to be moved. I didn't give in, and stalwartly rested them at my sides. Mayer shot me an amused glance, shifting in his chair a little, angling himself towards me ever so slightly. If anything was a good sign, then it was that.

"What makes you think you are worth anything near that much?" But to this, I had an answer.

"Well, I don't tire, at least not in the same way that everyone else does. I can do long hours without rest, food or drink. I am educated from another world, and although I may not be as smart as my peers, I would consider myself at least smarter or more educated than average, at least here." I said smoothly. He tapped the arm of his chair with his fingers, thinking with a grin of his face. It was like he was playing chess, and he was having a particularly interesting game.

"True, but even still, you are inexperienced. You could be a great liability, even if you were ready to work as hard as you can. You aren't worth nearly that much money as a worker, all things considered." He smiled at me goadingly. He had just checked my king and he knew it. But what he didn't know was that my queen was sitting in the back, ready to trap him in his own game of social chess.

"But that isn't my true value to you," I said, a smile growing on my face as I spoke, my nerves calming and my head becoming clear.

"Oh?" Mayer said, genuine interest passing over his solid features.

"My true worth to you, is that I give you a reason to help others—no questions asked." Mayer's eyebrows shot up. His eyes narrowed, not in suspicion, but it made me feel a shot of panic for a moment, before collecting myself.

"I can do any job, for anyone—put in hours of hard work doing whatever needed to be done, and all you have to do is pay me a large sum of money that is effectively nothing at all to you. But what you gain is the ability to lend help to anyone in this town under the guise of them doing you a favour. You've already done as much with the farmer that you told me to plough the fields for yesterday. If you allow me this, you can kill two birds with one stone. You can allow me to train my strength or whatever else needs to be trained—you can also help those that needs to be helped under the guise of being done a favour." It was a long speech, but I think it hit all the right spots for me to convince the man.

Mayer looked at me expressionlessly for a moment and then shrugged and re-opened his book. I stood there, waiting for acknowledgement of this deal. He definitely wasn't actually reading; his eyes weren't moving at all. He was thinking.

Mayer was an interesting man. He gave the overall impression of being a hardboiled soldier, stubborn and stalwart, but I felt that he had a certain youth to him—a mischievousness that was entirely undetectable until the moment that he showed it. His wide grins were testament to that. He seemed to be a genuinely good man, but he seemed so isolated from everyone else in this town. He was a mystery.

Mayer chuckled briefly before stopping and looking back up at me.

"Alright kid, you have me. I'll pay you well and good for whatever work you do. I'll decide what the work you did was worth, and make sure to add on a little extra on the top. Most likely you will be doing gruelling work that you will hate to your bones—but I will cater the work to what you need to grow." Mayer nodded to himself and started to read his book again.

"Thanks Mayer." I said, genuinely grateful.

"I don't know if you will be saying that in a few days, but no worries kid."

It was only early evening, not even passed five o'clock, and I definitely didn't feel tired. Not even a little bit. But I decided that I'd had enough for the day and just went to sleep to pass the time.

---​

3rd​ day since Maximilian's arrival.

Today Maximilian decided to go out and about. I don't know what he wanted to go see, but I assume that he would be naturally curious—being in a new world and all. But it was only a few hours when he came back to my home. He was all nervous, but he managed to hold himself together well enough.

He asked me about doing work for me, for money of course. I thought that maybe he had lost the money that I had given him on gambling, or something equally as ridiculous—but no. I humoured him and he told me that he wanted a wage of a bread winner, plus some. Nothing that was too outlandish, especially for me—but I rebuked, saying that he wasn't worth that much. Of course he wasn't.

But the boy convinced me, and I mean truly convinced me. I swear he could read my mind at that moment. Maybe he had heard stories that the townsfolk tell of me, but nonetheless he wormed his way into my mind, convincing me that I should hire him at that price, that it would be worth it.

I swear on my soul that there was no shifting involved, and he wasn't lying or being deceitful. I don't know what it was about his words, but he spoke directly to me, to my thoughts. There is something else to him that I haven't grasped yet… and I need to, soon.

For a moment I was seriously entertaining the thought that Maximilian may be pretending that he is not as smart as he truly is. That he is one of those Champions, so psychopathic that they actually seem human. But no, he just isn't.

But maybe he is smart, just in ways that even the God that brought him here didn't realise.

For now, we will wait and see.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 15: Inhuman

I woke up super early, a consequence of also going to sleep early.

It was five or so in the morning, still entirely pitch-black outside. I laid there, just letting myself rest, letting my mind go through the initialisation processes that go along with waking up. I knew that I didn't need to sleep anymore, logically, but sleeping was a part of my life—of everyone's life—and removing it almost felt wrong, even if I knew I had to do it.

I let myself lay there for god knows how long. I watched out the large window as the colours of day slowly mixed with night, like milk being poured into coffee. As I watched, I felt my mind grow sharp, the fog receding from my mind and clear thoughts returning to me.

I decided, then and there, that this would be the last time that I sleep in a long time. I needed to get accustomed to my new body, and fast. The only way that I know how to do that, is to push myself to my absolute limits. Though I knew that I wouldn't like it.

I sat up and slowly stretched out my body, loosening my muscles for the day to come. I wasn't enough of an idiot to think that this was going to be easy—in any sense of the word. Mayer would push me hard because he knows that my body can take it, and because it's the only way that I'm going to be able to survive here.

When I finally pulled myself out of bed it was probably around nine-ish. The sun was nice and warm, the day inviting. I didn't even need to get dressed, I still had all my clothes on from the day before. Amazingly, I had managed to get my shoes off in my sleep, allowing me to curl up in my sheets without totally destroying the clean bedsheets with my muddy shoes.

I grabbed my shoes, not bothering to put them on just yet and walked out into the hallway and then the living room. Mayer was already awake, reading a book as he was wont to do. I always try to take a look at the language on the cover of the books, but its always a different language than the book he reads the day before. He's quite the multilinguistic person it seems. We gave each other cursory nods, then I sat myself down in the chair and began to put on my shoes. They weren't the best pair of shoes ever, but they were definitely sturdy—no sign of real wear on them despite the amount of walking I have been doing the past few days.

"Food?" Mayer asked shortly. I nodded, letting Mayer cook whatever it was that he was going to cook. He cooked eggs again today. I assume that I don't really need food, but I may as well eat if given the chance. Nothing wrong with some extra energy to burn despite what seemed like an endless supply.

He used his magic—shifting, I corrected myself—to cook again this time, so it was obvious that I wouldn't be cooking any time soon. I could 'cook' back on earth, but only barely. I still needed someone to look over my shoulder while I did, just to make sure that I didn't fuck anything up. Regardless, I was pretty sure that I would be able to cook some eggs, if my life depended on it. When Mayer plated the eggs up, I ate them voraciously—not that I felt hungry, but I did so anyways.

Just about when I finished eating, Mayer quietly placed down a ceramic teacup in front of me. I hadn't been given tea by Mayer yet, so I delicately sipped on it. It was nice, though it was the kind of stuff that you have a sip of and you aren't quite sure if you like it—but a moment later, as the aftertaste hits you and the taste evolves into a warm, or even flowery experience that seemed to soothe the mouth and throat. I was never a massive fan of tea, more a hot chocolate man myself, but tea had to be the only drink that I always managed to find palatable. I could feel so nauseous that I would almost throw up just at the thought of food—but be able to take a sip of tea. Just the right mixture of water, milk and neutral pleasantness.

I stared thoughtfully down into the cup after taking my seventh sip—admiring the feeling of the warm tea slide down my throat—when there was a small, timid knock on the door that managed to echo throughout the house like a bomb had gone off.

Mayer's eyebrow furrowed. I'm not sure if anyone, ever, had dared to knock on Mayer's door—at least without Mayer knowing it was going to happen first.

I stood up from my seat, taking a quick glance at Mayer, before walking out into the hallway and towards the door. I walked up to the elegantly crafted door and placed my hand on the handle, gently opening it after a moment. Behind it—in front of the house, though standing quite a ways away—was a young boy who anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt, his clearly not sure if he was meant to be here or not.

As soon as the door opened to reveal me, the boy's eyes lit up with recognition and relief. I imagine that Rethi was worried that Mayer would open the door and the mess of trying to explain why he had done so. I smiled softly and gestured him inside without saying a word. Quick to catch on, Rethi nodded compliantly and moved into the home.

I closed the door softly, and then turned to walk back down the hallway and into the lounge area with confidence. There was a good chance right now that Mayer would be unhappy about this, but I had made a promise and I was going to abide by that promise. Plus, Mayer had never put limitations on what I could or couldn't do.

As I walked into the lounge and sat down in the chair I had been sitting in, and started to drink my tea again, Rethi moved in beside me and stood straight and silently next to the chair that I was in.

Mayer had a brief look of recognition in his expression, before his face fell back to neutrality. He looked at Rethi, then at me, then back to Rethi. Not in a confused way, but analytically and methodically. I sat and pretended to be totally unperturbed, which I was most definitely not. Though I was less worried than I thought I would be.

Rethi, however, was absolutely quaking in his boots. His surprisingly clean boots, by the way. It seems that Rethi had a new set of clothing, or maybe a slightly newer set of clothing. The clothes weren't frayed and worn, but freshly stitched and clean. Rethi himself was clean as well. You could have sworn that in this moment the boy was a shopkeeper's son. But to me, those clothes represented the weight of the promise that I had made them. Those clothes no doubt had been an extremely expensive investment for their family—probably worth a meal or two at least—and it was up to me to make the clothes worth that investment.

Mayer looked at me, not turning his gaze away until I met his eyes. In my eyes, I tried to push in as much resolute honesty as I possibly could. We held each other's gaze for a moment, only a tiny spark of tension between us before our gazes fell away, and Mayer's switched to the kid. I internally sighed in relief—it seems like he wasn't all that annoyed over it.

He looked the boy dead in the eye, Rethi's anxiousness just about doubled until Mayer said the magic words that any kid as poor as Rethi dreams to hear.

"Food?"

---​

Rethi ate a lot. Mayer stopped cooking food for him after five whole eggs. Three times what I ate. When Mayer did finally cut him off, he looked somewhat dismayed, but quickly adjusted his attitude when he saw me with my eyebrow raised. He looked down, almost ashamed and I just laughed a little and waved my hand.

"Let's get going." Mayer said, his voice quiet but commanding. I got up and Rethi followed me out the door, standing for a moment before Mayer came out and closed the door gently behind himself and started to walk. Halfway through our walk, Rethi seemed to realise where it was that we were going, but when he went to tell me I just brushed it off before he spoke. There was no real reason to talk before we got there—plus Mayer appreciates the quiet.

We walked pretty far out getting close to where I had first entered the town on my first night. Small farms replaced houses, most of the crop growing well, but as we moved out, we saw the farm that we were going to be working on today. It was a large farm, a few times bigger than the others in the area, but the crop on it was almost entirely destroyed. Torn and scattered about, most of the crop had been eaten or was just rotting. I don't know what did this, but I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was monsters.

Mayer began to ungracefully walk directly through the fields, and we followed suit. I guess the crop was already destroyed, but it still didn't feel good for whatever reason—like we were breaking a rule of sorts. As we moved closer to a small house on the far side of the property, you could hear the 'thunk'ing of a hammer hitting a fencepost into the ground. It was pretty obvious from then on what we were going to be doing today.

When we finally reached the source of the sound, we were met with the tired face of a man in his forties. He looked a great deal older, but that was more likely to do with the sun rather than his actual age. The man looked towards Mayer and an immediate look of respect spread on his face. There was maybe a hint of embarrassment in his expression too, but the man hid it as best as he could.

"Good morning, Herai." Mayer spoke, his voice quiet still. Herai nodded deeply in a bow almost, before speaking.

"Mornin' Master Mayer. It seems that you want me to take on a few lads for ye?" The man looked at me, and then to Rethi. His face grew a little stony when he caught Rethi's eye but made no word of it and definitely didn't let Mayer see.

"Yes. These boys are here to learn how to put up a fence for you. They will work hard, but they are beginners so I cannot guarantee that they will be the best." Herai gave a small, dry chuckle before looking at the sledgehammer in his hands that he had been using to drive a large pole of wood into the ground. There was a small shovel that laid by the side of the large pole, but it seems like you could only dig so far down without having to use the sledge hammer to push the pole deeper into the earth.

"Erm, I dunno if I have tools for the lads to use." Herai said, his hands grasping each other nervously, obviously not too happy to be turning Mayer down. Mayer, however, just shook his head and procured two shovels out what seemed like thin air. They were new and look as if they hadn't ever been used. Though it was probably shifting fuckery.

"No need to worry, we have all the tools to do what we need." Mayer said. I looked at the two shovels and saw a distinct lack of sledgehammers. Looks like I'll be using my god damn hammer today.

Herai looked at the tools, adequately confused, before I decided to summon my hammer from nowhere.

It was just as majestic as the first time I had summoned the thing. The liquid metal quickly formed into the shape of a hammer, and I quickly positioned the half-formed hammer head to be flat on the ground. The rest of the hammer head formed, and the weight of the thing made the soft dirt under the hammer head to compress a few centimetres.

Rethi and Herai looked on with shocked expressions as Mayer and I purposely looked as if there was absolutely nothing amiss. Both of them quickly caught on and pointedly looked away from the hammer to stop themselves from gawking.

Herai looked towards us and nodded slowly before saying, "That should be good," and nodded towards Mayer. Mayer promptly walked off, leaving us behind with two shovels, a massive hammer, and a whole lot of work to do.




Turns out, fencing an entire property with massive poles is really, really difficult. It has been three or four hours so far, Rethi and I were only just getting into a rhythm now. First of all, you have to dig out a few metres of dirt to get to the point where you can put the pole into the ground—which is hard not only because the pole is heavy but also because after you put the thing into the ground, it is just a little bit too tall for you to hit it with a hammer comfortably. Which make it doubly as hard, because you have to swing a massive god damn hammer really high to be able to hit the poles end. Thankfully, it only takes a few swings before it is at an acceptable height, and then it becomes a little bit easier. But it still continues to be difficult because repetitively swinging the damn thing makes your arms about ready to fall off, though by that point you are already digging yet another hole to then put another pole in—then hammer that down a good length, then do it all again.

There was very little rest, at least for me. As the hours ticked on, I let Rethi take a 5 minute break every hour, but none for me. No, I was going to be restlessly doing this work, no breaks, no moments of dazing off, not at all.

5 hours in, and my hands were bleeding, the wood and metal of the shovel slowly began to eat away at my skin. But every time that I would get around to using my hammer, and Rethi was taking a quick breather, the hammer's hilt on my wounds was like a cool stream of water on a sunburn—then when I moved back to the shovel, my hands would be ever so slightly healed. After hours and hours more of this, my hands started to produce blisters that would painfully pop themselves until I would then grab the hammer and my skin would heal over. Though soon I realised that I was always healing, and the regeneration was only getting faster and more comprehensive as I continued

Over time the pain in my hands and in my back went from being torturous, to becoming a deafening howl in the back of my mind—letting me think of absolutely nothing else. So, to compensate I worked harder, and harder—until my mind wasn't communicating with my body anymore. It didn't even bother to compute the creaking of my bones and the searing pain of my skin.

It was hell, my hands and the handle of the shovel were covered in my blood. It was horrifying, to a certain portion of my mind—but the rest of my mind told it to shut up, and it did. I continued to work until I realised that it was well and truly dark outside. Rethi was trying his absolute best to stay awake but his hands trembled, and his legs quaked underneath his own weight. His hands were also raw with blisters, but not like mine. His were going to be sore tomorrow for sure, but not anywhere near as bad as mine were at the moment. Though of course my own wounds would heal within minutes. Without taking even a moment to stop I glanced at the young boy, meeting his weary eyes.

"Go sleep."

The boy looked at me for a moment, too tired to even reply, before he slowly trudged towards the home that was now hundreds of meters away, rather than the tens at the start of the day. At this pace, to surround the entire property was going to take about a week of work. A massive investment of time and money when you weren't making any, due to the crops that were just destroyed by what was likely to be monsters.

But what if someone were to work without sleeping, without rest, without so much as stopping for lunch?

As Rethi slowly walked back to the house, I picked up my hammer, and swung it with all the might I had, again and again, driving the wooden pole into the earth with ferocity and unrelenting power that I never knew that I had.

That was one benefit of all of this, I learnt very quickly where my limits where, which is to say that I have effectively none. I couldn't lift the hammer very well, or swing it well either, but I could swing it over and over again. Over and over and over and over again.

Again and again my hammer pushed the pole into the earth, over and over my hands bled as I dug the earth with the shovel, over and over again I repeated it, healing faster and faster all the while.

I don't know how much time passed, but before long I heard the quiet footsteps that I immediately recognised as Rethi's. I didn't even look up and I continued to work. I didn't even think that something may be wrong, at the time anyways.

More and more time passed, and I gradually got better and better at this. Not stronger, but the kind of mastery that only comes with doing something a thousand, two thousand times. I could swing my hammer about as well and a child can swing a baseball bat now, which was far better than what I could manage before, which was pitiful to say the least. As the hours passed though, what I learnt wasn't how to swing the ludicrously large hammer, but how to use force correctly.

How to plant your feet, how to use your limbs, how to efficiently use the force that your muscles can create and using the force of other objects. These things came almost naturally in a way. Very little thinking went into how I was moving my body, but more went into how every swing, every movement felt.

As the hours went on, this feeling became more and more important to me. Every time I would fix something that felt bad, something else became apparent. In a way it felt like wack-a-mole. For a while, I was becoming more and more frustrated with the unrelenting stream of 'bad' feelings, more and more would come every time that I fixed one, another and another. It became frustrating, and the more frustrated that I got, the more bad feelings would unearth themselves, like an incorrect note being played in a symphony. The noises became louder and louder, until they completely overwhelmed all the good parts and ruined everything.

Only, then for the first time did I stop, and as soon as I did, a rush of freezing cold came over me. I realised how cold it was outside, freezing in the night. I closed my eyes, letting the cold surround me like a blanket of ice, cooling off my frustrations. Maybe five minutes, that is all that I allowed myself. Those five minutes I could have been working, maybe have dug a metre deeper into the soil, but I allowed myself this much time, just so that I could truly recognise my fault.

Frustration was not something I was particularly prone to, but I was human, and in being human I was able to be frustrated. But now, I was inhuman. I might feel emotion like a normal human, might act like a normal human, but I was very clearly no longer human. My body was inexhaustible, my mind unsleeping. This was only something that could come from training, from magic, but I had no training and I couldn't do this world's magic.

So, I was inhuman. And as someone who is inhuman, I must hold myself to more than falling into emotions. I did not have time for frustration, frustration is something that will only hinder me in my progress, in this task.

So, I got rid of it, for just this task.

Every time I felt even a hint of frustration, I would quell it with all of my might. Hours and hours of repetitive and downright boring work, but I didn't allow myself to feel a lick frustrated. I pushed myself harder, and no matter how many times my hammer slipped from the pole and I had to lift it all the way back up, or when I didn't quite dig in the right direction, and I had to re-dig part of my hole, I didn't allow myself to feel frustrated.

Hours passed and Rethi re-joined me, he began to help me by digging a hole ahead of mine. We didn't speak, which probably made the process even more boring than it already was for Rethi, but I was too focused to even notice.

He wasn't too fast at digging, to the point where I was constantly catching up to him, but it was obvious, even when I was totally concentrated, that he was trying his absolute hardest.

We continued on for what felt like minutes to me, but the day passed again, and Rethi had made himself scarce for a little while, before coming back somewhat shamefaced, but holding some food. I don't remember if he offered me some, but if he did, I didn't answer him.

---​

Rethi panted heavily. He had been going at this for almost two days now, and he was absolutely exhausted. One thing that he'd learned over the past few days was that Master Maximilian was not at all human. There was no way, no possible way, that a person could achieve what Master Maximilian was doing. Rethi had seen hardworking men in his life, but Master Maximilian was in another league entirely. If he had any doubts before, now he knew for sure that he was related to Master Mayer. There were rumours that Master Mayer was a significant general at some point, but anyone that could have actually confirmed that was either on Orisis or may as well be, so it was just rumour.

But now he was thinking it was a whole lot more truth than fiction. Who else but a part of Master Mayer's own family would be able to do this? Rethi watched Master Maximilian work for a while, before sighing and noticing the gnawing feeling his stomach. He was hungry.

Rethi broke out in a cold sweat. He'd have to go ask for food. Ask for food from them.

He procrastinated for a short moment, but the pain coming from his stomach had slowly become unbearable over the past few hours. It was well and truly night now, but he had been putting off going to the little farmhouse, delaying the inevitable.

Rethi placed down his shovel and quickly said that he was going to get food to Master Maximilian but received no reply. He started to walk towards that dreaded farmhouse. He was absolutely starving, the hard work burning away anything that Rethi had put inside his body. But even so, he'd only had one meal, and a rather unfulfilling one at that.

They had given him bread, knowing full well that it wasn't nearly enough to feed him, but that was what they offered, so he took it. But even with lack of food, Rethi carried on. He had to, it was the only way that he could ever make enough money to support his Mother and himself. Even if Master Maximilian only gave him a pittance, only a small portion of what he'd promised, then it would be better than he was getting before.

Rethi needed to carry on, but he also needed food.

As he approached the house, Rethi heard the laughing of two boys as they roughhoused around the corner of the house. He stopped and stood absolutely still for a moment, fear shooting through his spine, but he closed his eyes and pushed on, deciding that he needed food more that his pride.

Rethi yelled out to the door of the little farmhouse, "Hello Mr Herai. If you could spare some food, it would be much appreciated." He called, but there was no answer.

No answer but theirs.

"It's the beggar." said one of the boys. They came around the corner with smiles like wolves painted on their faces. They were full of malice, their well-built bodies from year of good nutrition and hard work, and in contrast, Rethi. The scrawny starveling.

"You come 'ere to beg 'ave ya?" The shorter of the two asked, distaste seeping into his voice. The taller one snorted and moved closer to Rethi, way to close.

"No, I'm not here to beg, I'm…" the taller boy grabbed my arm and pulled Rethi forward, putting him off balance and throwing him to the floor. Rethi's chin hit the dirt, ripping the skin and making his head jerk wildly. Rethi felt a sharp crack in his neck, not a bone breaking, but his neck moving in a way it wasn't happy with. As his chest hit the dirt, all the air left it in an odd sounding grunt, then he felt a large weight pressing on his back.

The shorter of the two was now sitting on Rethi's back, grabbing his sandy blonde hair and pushing his face even further into the dirt.

The two boys were laughing and taunting him, but he didn't hear anything.

Nothing at all.

Shame overwhelmed Rethi, he could do nothing. Nothing but lay here, being humiliated, being taunted. And Rethi was the supposed scum. Him.

What a fucking joke. He thought as he opened his mouth to yell—but was cut off by the sound of the door slamming open. Out of the top of his eye, Rethi saw a woman appear in the doorway. She was a horrible looking woman, not in beauty but in the way that her face was adorned with a disgusting scowl. Aimed right at Rethi.

"Get off of him." She commanded. The boys did as she said, and Rethi got up to his feet unsteadily. He looked at her with as much rage as I could possibly muster before walking off without saying anything. Empty handed.

---​

I hit the post hard and fast. I could see where we had started a few days before, not twenty posts distance between where I was and the end point. Another day had passed, and it was the middle of the night. I didn't even feel tired anymore, if anything I felt sharp as a blade, as if I had just woken up and hour ago. It was an interesting feeling. I don't think I have been sweating for at least the past day either, which was interesting. My muscles don't feel tired or sore anymore. I'm not sure what caused the change, but it seems that my body has effectively got unlimited stamina, which is all sorts of crazy when you think about it. It sure as hell makes swinging around this hammer easier, before it only took three or four swings to make my arms feel like spaghetti, but now, I could swing the thing around all day and not feel even a little tired. It didn't make the actual swinging part any easier, I still wasn't all that strong.

But when you can supplement with boundless stamina, strength almost didn't matter. I would be excellent at running away from things, even horses wouldn't be able to catch me—eventually succumbing to their stamina. They would all burn out after a day, and I would be able to continue for tens of hours without a single bit of rest, running at full pelt.

Before I knew it, I was hammering in the last pole. Each hammer blow spelt finality, and when the final blow hit, a feeling of absolute euphoria flowed over me.

[Inhuman: You are no measly human. What you are, is more. Your body is inexhaustible, overflowing with energy. Now you need power to match. +10 Might.]

Ten whole points in Might was three times more than what I had received previously. I had certainly done something far out of the ordinary. I now had a whole twenty-five strength. Now I could feel the strength of my body change, it made everything just that much easier, lifting my hammer was still difficult, but just a smidgen easier. My muscles felt more solid, able to bear more weight. I could sustain forever already, or at least for so long that it almost didn't matter, what I now had was some more raw strength. Even if the screen was stupid, at least it gave a decent payout.

I looked around all, a smile on my face and found Rethi lying on the ground near me. I happily went over and placed a hand on his shoulder and shaking him ever so slightly. The young boy screamed, pushing against me wildly.

Grabbed onto the boy's shoulders, my newfound strength really helping. The boy was weak, weaker than he should be.

"Rethi." I said, my voice as calm as could be. The boy's face snapped towards mine, his eyes going wide, before looking away shame written on his face. I grabbed his chin and got a good look at his face his chin was covered in dry blood, the rest of his face was a little bruised as well.

I felt my expression darken. But I hid it from the boy.

"Let's get you home." The boy nodded weakly at my words, and I put him on my back, unsummoned my hammer and started to walk towards Rethi's home.

Don't get me wrong, I was going to be back in one way or another.

Certainly.


A/N: Hey there my guys. So, this chapter is a chonker and really marks the start of showing just how ridiculous Champions are by default, even without use of the 'screens'.

Hope that you all enjoy the chapter! Would love to see some more interaction too, I've been running dry on attention over here ; )

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 16: Notes

When I had finally made my way back to Mayer's home, I walked in solemnly. Rethi was still on my back, sleeping now. He deserved the rest. I had been incredibly inconsiderate of him these past few days and he deserved all the pampering I could give him for that. To be honest, I can't say that I thought someone would dare attack anyone even marginally related to Mayer himself, but I guess two degrees of separation and being a beggar was reason enough.

I wasn't furious or anything, I was actually pretty calm, which was surprising in a way. I don't know if I should be really angry or what, but I wasn't. I was, however, going to get a certain justice.

When I walked into the home, I passed the living room in which Mayer was resting in and went straight to my bedroom. I gave my bed to Rethi, plopping him down as gently as I could, which was made easy seeing as I had the new strength from all that work. It was a good feeling. Most likely that increase in Might will be the largest I will ever receive. A full sixty six percent increase in strength all in one go is a massive increase. Hopefully, it will serve me well. Though it still isn't enough to truly handle my hammer. Thank god that my muscles don't tire out, or I wouldn't be able to use it at all.

After I put Rethi down and took off his shoes, I left and went to the living room and sat down in the chair that I sat down in a few days ago. I could swear that it only felt like twelve hours in retrospect. Mayer fixed me with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't come home." He said, his tone inquisitive.

"No, I didn't." I said, as if that answered anything. Mayer's face grew slightly humorous for a moment and then back to inquisitive.

"Did you sleep?" He said, looking down to read a line of his book.

"No, I made an effort not to. I haven't felt the least bit tired in two days at least. Even under extreme physical stress my body has maintained itself." I said this quite blandly. Informatively, some might say. Mayer nodded again and stopped, fingering the edge of a page and bending it over. I cringed internally—that book looked like it was a thousand years old. I couldn't imagine doing something like that to a book half its age.

He looked up at me and saw me eyeing the book and gave a chuckle, then opened the book and ripped out a page before I could say or do anything. In that moment, I felt more emotion than I had in days, I was scandalised. But before I could say a word, the ripped-out page in Mayer's hand melted into smoke and wafted over to where he had pulled out the page.

It was hypnotizing, watching the page rebuild itself from nothing. It was as if the smoke slowly got into order and began to print the page back into existence. By the time it was done, my outrage was well and truly quelled.

"An indestructible book?" I asked, half curious, half mystified.

"Indestructible?" Mayer shook his head, "No, not truly. Really, really difficult to destroy is more accurate." The older man chuckled wryly.

"You've tried I assume?" I said, eyebrow raised poignantly. He looked at me incredulously.

"Of course. I have. If someone says it is indestructible, then its limits have to be tested." He said as he flipped to the very last page of the book and showed me a tiny little hole in the corner of the page. It wasn't a normal hole, it was too clean, too seamless. Its edge was too perfect. But even so, I didn't quite understand what he was showing me.

"This is all the damage that I could manage to do to the thing. I threw my all at this book, and this is the fruits of my labours." I looked at Mayer, then back to the hole. Now, I don't know how strong Mayer is. But he is most likely the strongest being I have ever met—besides the God that brought me here. If he couldn't destroy the thing, then I don't know who possibly could.

"Seems like someone really didn't want that book destroyed." Mayer looked down at the book, seeming to gaze into the soul of it, the true being of it. Before sighing and putting it down on the small table beside him.

"Alright, how did your job go?" He rested his face on his palm and looked at me, obviously asking what I gained.

"Good, increased my Might by a large portion, and managed to get myself acclimatised to not sleeping and being able to work endlessly." Mayer nodded and looked about to move on, but I cut in.

"Mayer, I believe that we may have given a gift to someone that wasn't entirely worthy." I was calm and assertive. I do not believe that Mayer would be offended by something as simple as that, but I wanted to make my point clear. It seems to work better that way with Mayer.

"Oh?" He replied simply.

"While I was working on their fence, it seems the family that own the farm were neglectful of my… helper." I said hesitantly, not knowing the boy's exact job title yet, "He was given very little to no food over the past few day, likely the only good meal he has had was the breakfast he ate beforehand." I paused for a moment to read Mayer's face, but he seemed to be thinking, so I continued on.

"Then, on the final day, it seems he was assaulted by their family in some fashion. I am unaware of the exact circumstances, but Rethi will be able to clear up any confusion. I personally believe that they have gone out of their way to starve my companion, and then at least one member of their family has attacked him." I stopped talking and let Mayer think. He was a smart man, but you had to also realise that he was born in a very different place that I was. On Earth we are so hellbent on justice and fairness that this sort of situation would clearly be abuse and would earn the ire of many, but here? Who knows. But as well as this, it isn't my reputation that I am using, it's Mayer's. I'm beholden to his whim, and if he doesn't believe that it's worth punishment, then I can't really say otherwise.

Mayer thought for a good minute. I had no idea what it was that he was thinking about, and I was intensely curious, but I stayed still and let him be.

"What do you think of this. Personally." Mayer spoke suddenly, breaking himself from his thoughts. I hesitated. I had initially kept my opinion out of it as much as possible, but when he asked, I answered.

"My companion is a young boy, whose mother is incredibly sick, likely without enough money to get treatment, even if there was any for her specific condition. The boy resorted to becoming a beggar to be able to make ends meet," Mayer grimaced at that, but I continued on, "I employed the boy under dubious pretences—as in reality, I don't truly need a companion, but I believe that they need money enough that I should help them. I used employment as a façade for my charity, but I'll hold myself to this. I intend wholeheartedly to deliver on what I said I would." Mayer nodded. I don't know if it was an approving nod, or an affirmatory nod, but I took it all the same.

"Under this context, I believe that you have the social power over this village to potentially change the opinion of the many townsfolk on this matter. If you enforce your word by protecting a person that is loosely related to you—who so happens to be a beggar—it will at least stop people from acting on their misguided thoughts. It will become important to this village that, if they want you to continue to be part of their community, then they must abide by your rules in part. This would be a worthwhile rule to have to your name." I bowed my head slightly. I finished my argument. It was a bit all over the place really, but I think it got the point across loud and clear. Mayer took a deep breath in, held it for a few seconds and deflated.

"And how do you propose that this will be done? Do we make an example of them by beating them and hanging them up in the street? Killing them? Destroying their farm?" All of Mayer's options seemed quite violent, but I have a feeling that they weren't all too uncommon, even in smaller towns like this one.

"No, no need for something as drastic as that. You aren't a King, ruling from up on high. But your word, is just as powerful to these townsfolk." Mayer looked at me, head slightly tilted.

"How do you propose that this works?" Mayer said, interested. He didn't exactly seem all that keen about any of his other options.

"Well, it will take Rethi telling us the entire story first. But…"

---​

When Rethi awoke, questions were asked and answered. Turns out it was the young boys of the family. Thinking back on it now, I don't remember being helped by anyone during doing the job. I don't even remember where the Father went in the end. I have a feeling, however, that those boys should have been helping me. Mayer definitely didn't look all too happy about it.

Me and Mayer talked about this, and we decided on how this would go down. It was a non-violent way of sorting things out, but it worked all the same. Well, at least I hoped that it would.

After Rethi had been thoroughly questioned, he requested to go home. He seemed somewhat apologetic, and we implored him to stay for at least a meal, but he left saying that his mother may need him. We gave him a loaf of bread to take home. Hopefully that should last them a day.

Soon enough, night fell over the town, and my plan was pit into action.

I walked into the well and truly abandoned streets of the town, lugging a massive pole of wood over my shoulder, not too dissimilar to the ones I had been pounding into the dirt these past few days. I walked with a large piece of paper in my hand, holding it gently.

I walked silently in the night, drawing as little attention to myself as possible, but I wasn't particularly afraid of being found either, it would ruin the magic of it though. At my pace I quickly got to the centre of town and found a small patch of loose soil, and placed down the wooden pole, lining it up with the desired spot. I then lifted the pole as high as reasonable, then slammed it down into the dirt with as much force as I could muster. The end of the pole went into the dirt by just enough that it stayed standing once I pulled away. After that, I gently placed the paper on the ground, and summoned my hammer into existence. I then used it to drive the pole further into the earth, which worked spectacularly.

After unsummoning the hammer, I grabbed a small symbolic dagger, placed the paper on the pole facing the middle of the clearing, and stabbed the dagger into the wood. I heard a splitting sound as the dagger was driven into the wood a little further than what I intended, but it worked all the same.

Now it was time to wait till morning, and to see what will come.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 17: The Response

I let a few hours pass by. It was painful almost—the wait that is.

I was sure of my plan, certain that it was going to properly work as I intended it to, but even so, there was uncertainty burrowing deep into my gut. I didn't think I was all that nervous about this, but seems I was wrong.

I think it has something to do with this being my plan. Not Mayer's plan, mine and mine alone. Mayer had placed his trust in me, in form of his reputation itself. It was a pretty big deal, if you asked me. Mayer was clearly a powerful guy, at the very least physically. That commanded a certain respect all of its own. This was a first for me, utilising this sort of power and it was something that I desperately hoped went according to plan.

I stood up from the dark, wild grass that was growing just outside the window of my bedroom swaying gently in the breeze. Something that I would find calming in a lot of other situations, but right now, not much could calm me down. Mayer, on the other hand was reading a book in his chair. I don't think much could break that man from his calm, especially not something as minor as this.

I'm not entirely sure what time it is, but I would give it a guess and say about midday—maybe a touch earlier. I waded through the thick grass all the way up to the large window of my bedroom. I hadn't noticed this the first few days I was here, but the massive window actually was able to open on a large hinge. It totally didn't look right, not by the conventional rules of modern architecture from Earth, and I wasn't sure that it totally followed physics either, but it was just probably some crazy material used for the hinges, but the massive pane of glass was able to stay totally suspended at a ninety-degree angle without so much as a quiver under the frankly enormous weight of itself. Or maybe it was something possible on Earth and I'm just uneducated.

I walked into my room, swinging the massive pane of glass shut behind me. Not needing to do anything in my room, I walked out through the hallway to the living area.

"Morning, once again." said Mayer proactively. He was reading the same book as last night, markedly farther along this time though.

"Yeah, morning." I said somewhat distractedly. I was thinking about what to do next. Do I just walk into the centre of town? Do I bother to try and sneak around and see what the reactions are before I make any big movements for the day?

Mayer looked up at me, a grin on his face punctuated by a small chuckle. He nodded ever so slightly and returned to his book. I sighed and decided to not aimlessly stand around in the living room and go do something.

So, I moved out of the living room without saying goodbye and was out of the door, walking towards the centre of town in a heartbeat. I walked with a confidence that I didn't feel and a surety that I couldn't possibly have earned. But I tricked myself into portraying these attributes anyways. It was integral that I project that image. It was important that people believed that I was important, someone worthy enough to be related to the Master Mayer. I was most certainly not worthy of that, but I had to at least try to pretend I was.

My pace was fast, fast enough that I couldn't back away and hide, something that I wasn't truly considering, but what I wished I could do, nonetheless. But, step by step, as I drew closer to the source of my worries, I calmed down.

There was pressure that felt like a weight in my gut still, and I was sure that it would not go away, but all me extraneous nerves slowly floated away, leaving me with a clearer mind than I thought was really possible for me in this sort of situation.

It wasn't long before I started to see people on the streets. I looked at them, trying to ascertain what they thought about the note, or if they had seen it at all in the first place. Their reactions to me walking down the street, towards the middle of the town no less, made it readily obvious that the news had spread like wildfire. At least their initial reaction wasn't to be scared of me or anything, Mothers weren't pulling their children close to them as I walked by, but everyone I passed was definitely wary. It was an interesting experience actually. It was something that I hadn't ever even remotely experienced before, and initially the town had been quite welcoming of my existence—apparently, my position in their eyes have changed since the note.

I continued to walk, my strides unhindered, towards the centre of town.

There wasn't so much a crowd of people nearing the centre of town, but there were definitely more people than there would be normally. As soon as I was noticed, everyone's eyes snapped to me. It was actually quite intimidating, but I let their gazes flow over me like water. I wasn't concerned by their gazes, not really. They were mostly trying to size me up after reading the note.

I walked slower now, more deliberately. I walked over the dirt road, drawing closer to the patch of grass that had become the centrepiece of the town. As I drew closer, the density of people went up quite significantly. These people were most likely reading over the note, or gossiping amongst themselves, at least until I came along, and their attentions were drawn elsewhere. I looked at the people, who had clearly been arguing about the note since it was found. There were a few men in the centre of the group who seemed like they were the chief arguers.

I walked through the small group of people, walking directly towards the note itself. It was still immaculate, just like when I had pinned it to that log. I had almost assumed that someone would rip it or remove it, but it remained entirely untouched. I stared at it a moment, recalling how stupefied I had been when Mayer had written this and given it to me. I had been worried it wasn't going to be enough at the time, but in retrospect, I think he might've been right to write it like this.

I read it over again and then, without turning, spoke to those that stood behind me.

"Has everyone read this?" I said, making sure my tone was neutral and blunt. I felt the slight surprise in the air after I spoke. Were they not expecting to be addressed at all? I disregarded the surprise and waited quietly for a response.

"Yes sir. Though some of us aren't the best readers…" The voice of the man was gruff, but still timid. He was one of the chief arguers I'd singled out. I nodded without turning my head away from the note.

"Then I will read the note, for clarity." I said bluntly. I left a moment of silence before I spoke, raising anticipation. I turned and began to recite the note verbatim from heart.

"Recently a nephew of mine, Maximilian Avenforth, has been sent to train with me. In the process of that training, it has been brought to my attention that the partner of my nephew, Rethi Orsen, has been mistreated by the Jothian family whilst working on their fence. This is disappointing behaviour, and I will not be complicit in supporting this attitude towards him or others with silence. Signed—Mayer Renue." I spoke clearly and concisely, as closely to how I think Mayer himself would have spoken it.

The note itself was short and sweet. There was no punishment stated, there were no threats given, implied or otherwise. It was quite simple really, getting all the information across easily and succinctly. However, this note only poses the question, and the townsfolk are left to answer it themselves. Mayer, the de-facto 'head' of the town has expressed his distaste of an action that was taken against a 'partner' of his 'nephew' by a person of the town. It was their decision on how they rectify the situation.

As far as I understood, this was the first time that Mayer had made an announcement in this way. He had always simply acted silently, telling no-one of his motives or plans. Not that he specifically had any plans that involved the town itself. However, now they were posed with a question that they had thought would never come, and now they were at risk of losing favour of someone they looked towards in crises.

This was something quite defining to this town, and I was almost entirely certain that this would be carefully considered by the townsfolk. There were so many different ways that they had to look at this. They weren't entirely sure what Mayer wanted, so they had to carefully consider how to handle the Jothians. My hope is that they will quickly realise that the answer isn't to kill them, or anything as extreme as that. If that is what Mayer wanted, I'm pretty sure it would take him negative effort to do so. Even I could probably pull it off.

So, then the next best step is a punishment of other avenues. Hopefully this will be realised, and action will be taken along that vein. It is a gamble though, there could be a more extreme reaction than I thought, and people could end up very dead. Not really something I want to think about at night to be honest.

The people surrounding me had long started whispering, discussing the note, and I decided to leave them to it. I walked smoothly out the way that I came in and started walking back home. I walked home fairly fast, I had something else I wanted to accomplish today as well. The dirt road started to fly under my feet as I let my muscle memory I had built up over the past few days carry me back home to Mayer's house, and soon enough I was at the door.

I walked in, and all in one moment I was standing before Mayer.

"Hey, can I get paid for the work at the Jothians farm?" His eyes raised from his old book, looking at me quizzically.

"Asking for that money pretty quickly." He said nonchalantly. He quickly folded the page he was on and placed the book in his lap.

"I know, but hey I don't have any money at all, and I need to pay out some Workers Comp." I chucked at myself, but Mayer looked at me eyebrow raised. I sensed genuine inquisitiveness.

"Uh… Workers compensation, like when an employee gets hurt at work and stuff…" I trailed off, looking at Mayer's face. He was totally dumbfounded.

"Really? You guys don't have Workers Compensation? Like you don't pay out soldiers if they get injured or anything?"

"If they die, we pay the family an amount." He said. I shook my head, feeling myself get derailed.

"Anyways, on Earth we have Worker's Compensation, and I work by Earth rules. So, I pay people Worker's Compensation." I said, more indignantly than I really intended. Honestly I started to feel a little bit of a flush on my face, but Mayer looked at me dead in the eyes very seriously. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his purse it drooped heavily, packed with coin. He started to dig around in the purse while looking me dead in the eye.

"I see. It seems there are things that you hold dear to you from your homeland. It is important to take some things with you as you journey through the lands like you will one day. Honest values are some of the most important things in this world. Keep them safe." He was so incredibly serious the sound of his voice was almost deafening. The words beat against my mind like a hammer on a gong. It resounded against what felt like my very soul. It was a glorious and terrifying experience. Like I have seen something I shouldn't have. Not yet.

Mayer looked deep into my eyes and grinned, his smile hiding something that I couldn't quite grasp. He pulled four coins out of his wallet.

"Two for you, two for the boy. You will both get paid for the Jothian job at the end of the week, in a few days. These two are for the note that you helped with, and these are for the boy's 'Worker's Compensation' as you put it." I looked at the four coins in Mayer's hands. They were all iron smah. From as far as I've gathered, two of these coins are a decent wage per week for an adult man doing a hard labour job.

For Mayer this was obviously chump change. I would imagine he could throw around a few thousand of these coins with absolutely no qualms. There was no way that this was a large investment from his end at all.

But the reality was, that the sentiment was exactly the same. He didn't have to give me this money, he didn't even have to humour my Worker's Compensation. He could just as easily have laughed in my face and told me to get real, to adapt to the cutthroat world that I am sure that this place is.

I looked at him, and I couldn't help it. I grabbed the man in the biggest hug I could give. Emotions raced through my veins, I felt them burn through my throat as I sobbed into the older man. The hurt came to the surface all at once, something that I would have sworn I wasn't harbouring. I mourned the death of my old world, the world that I knew, and I loved. I mourned the death of the family and friends that I have been trying so hard to repress into oblivion. I cried for the kindness of an old man who had no reason to help me but did anyways. I cried for the crimes that I know this world will harbour, and that I will have to eventually face with no choice, no alternative.

Then I just cried. I cried for me.


A/N: And lo we are halfway through my prewritten stock! Hope you're all having a good one!

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 18: Four Coins

My feet trudged through the dirt roads that got rougher and less used the further you walked out of town. It was a fitful sort of walk, there was too much on my mind for it not to be. My mind was in absolute shambles.

Memories that I'd rather forget played through my mind like a video recording. They were pleasant memories, parts of my past that made me feel warm and happy. But now, those emotions were twisted and deformed by grief. The thought of my mother and my father sent my emotions into a flurry. Of that, birthed some of the most intensely sad moments I've ever experienced.

Logically, I understood that they weren't dead, that my world wasn't gone. I could even potentially rationalize all this as simply just an extended trip away from my world, my family.

But no, my emotions wouldn't be quelled. No matter what I said or how I rationalized it, there was a small part of my brain that slowly, goadingly repeated what I already knew.

You think you are going home? You are the cannon fodder of a God's death game for the elite. You are going to be the first to die.

And how was I going to argue with that? If all these people were so smart, so strong, how was I going to compete? Stopping my fevered walking, I looked down at my feet—peering at the end of my shoe, subtly hoping that I would find an answer to my problems there. Find a way back home.

My parents were good people, people that came from hard places in life and lived to give their children what they didn't have. I always respected that. I knew, as a beneficiary of their hard work that I had to take advantage of that as much as I could. Not out of guilt, or expectation, but because it only felt right to follow my own path.

But here I was, on a path I didn't even know existed, in a whole other universe for all I knew. Dreams that I had for my future are nothing but fantasies, dead at the hands of this reality.

"Ah, fuck it," I grumbled under my breath, "moaning and groaning about it isn't going to solve shit." I felt a heat in my chest, an undirected anger. Frustration was not an emotion that I liked, it was something that I rarely felt and something that I intentionally avoided—one that even quelled completely for a time.

But at this moment, where I had so many emotions assaulting my mind, the anger was like a numbing agent applied to a wound. I began to walk again, this time my stride was more powerful, more meaningful. I had lost my purpose, but it didn't mean that I couldn't walk forward meaningfully in hopes that I find one.

My legs took me down the road towards Rethi's home. I had no choice now, I had to be doubly as sure about myself, doubly as confident, otherwise I would crumble under the weight of my own grief.

I walked past many of the townsfolk, and they quickly averted their eyes from me as I walked by. I was now given a sort of pseudo respect as a 'nephew' of Mayer's. I took it in my stride and walked down to the forgotten parts of town, where houses became progressively more destroyed as you walked. I homed in on the front door to Rethi's house and prepared myself. I knocked quickly, not letting myself think further.

Then I waited. Time ticked by slowly, like molasses spreading where it had been dropped. At first, I thought that it might have just been me—but as the time ticked by, no one answered the door. It was a minute at first. Then two. Then three. I knocked again, but there was still no answer even after five long minutes.

The knocks were loud and sharp, there was effectively no way that someone didn't hear them. I suddenly grew worried. What if Rethi was more hurt than we thought? I knocked again and waited. Again, and again, there was nothing.

I stood at the door, at a loss for what to do. I could only feebly weigh up the options. There was a possibility that Rethi was more hurt than we had noticed. However, there was no way that his mother could possibly get help in her condition. I agonised over it a moment, but the answer was clear as day. I had to go into the house.

I took one deep breath in, preparing myself for what I could find inside. I slowly opened the door, holding my breath for just long enough to see Rethi's mother sitting at their table. I was almost relieved, until I saw her glare and tensed up.

"Good evening Master Maximilian." She stated with not a small amount of scorn attached to her words.

Uh oh.

"Good evening Ms. Orsen." I said, giving her a slight nod and letting absolutely no emotion show on my face.

She, however, was quite blunt about how she felt about me.

"Would you like to explain why my son is in the state he is in?" The scorn was palpable in her words. She was well and truly disgusted with me. I walked towards the table that she was sitting at and stayed standing, not daring to go so far as to take a seat myself. I looked her dead in the eyes and began to speak

"For the past few days, we have been working at the Jothian's farm on their fence. Whilst we did so, Rethi was 't properly fed and on the final day, was physically assaulted by at least one of the Jothian boys. This has occurred, at least in part, due to me being neglectful of my surroundings. As such, I have come to properly apologise for the incident and my lack of a response until today." I then bowed as deeply as I could without making myself look like an idiot.

I stayed that way for a good ten seconds before I raised myself eyes and looked into Shae Orsen's own. Emotions were flickering across her face. Anger, confusion, worry.

"The Jothians? Why?" She looked at me, her anger dimming to be replaced by mostly confusion.

"I cannot say." I said. I know exactly why they attacked Rethi, but there was no way that I was going to tell her this. It wasn't my place to do so. Her eyes narrowed at my answer, anger reappearing on her face with a vengeance.

"The Jothian boys are friends with Rethi! There was no way that they would do this to him." Her eyes flashed dangerously. I swear her gaze was hot enough to burn my skin. I took a deep breath in and looked to her with the most sincere, honest expression that I could muster.

"Ms. I cannot tell you why the Jothian boys attacked your son. Only that they did. I will not tell you why, no matter how you ask. It is not my place to tell you." I said this honestly, sincerely, and also sternly. She looked slightly taken aback by the sternness and looked about ready to fire back with an angrier remark before she caught herself. She glanced to the room on her right, the one that she had been sleeping in on the day that I had met her. I assumed that Rethi was in there, sleeping the pain and exhaustion away.

"Alright, why are you here at all then?" She said, a quiet venom in her voice. I nodded solemnly and I began to speak my part.

"I have tried my best to rectify the situation within town itself, and hopefully action will be taken in the next few days against the Jothians for their mistreatment of Rethi." I took a look at Shae's face, and she seemed to be following along so far, "However, it is unacceptable that this has happened under my direct supervision. It is a total failing of my ability as an employer. Rethi has been significantly, unduly injured due to my negligence. This means that he is eligible for Workers Compensation." I paused significantly after my spiel. I calmly observed her face, not letting anxiousness seep into my psyche, not letting it taint my understanding of the situation.

"What?" She said, dumbfoundedly, "Worker's Compensation? Money?" Her face was a strange mixture of emotions, but confusion mostly prevailed. She didn't seem to understand whether to be offended or not.

"Yes. Because of my negligence, Rethi is entitled to money to alleviate the situation—typically to aid him while he recovers." I summarised. There was a war on her face, but I could see anger boiling beneath it all, elevating her emotions to a peak.

"Mister Avenforth. I will not have you come into my house and insult us in this way. You dare come in here and offer money to me like you would a beggar? You dare violate me and my son's pride, as if it is worth nothing to you!" Her voice started to strain with anger, but breathiness began to intermingle with her words—her illness restricting her breathing. So, I paused a moment while she collected herself before continuing to speak.

"I understand that the giving of money is seen as an act of degradation in your culture?" I asked, mostly rhetorically. I decided to play the difference in culture angle. Her eyes still glowered with anger, but she nodded, albeit almost unwillingly. I took a deep breath in and decided to take a gamble. I looked deep into her eyes, looking for something that I couldn't quite put into words. After a moment I nodded to myself and began to speak.

"In my culture, those that were honest—were kind, compassionate and prideful—tended to be taken advantage of." I looked at her stonily, her eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly, but she didn't comment. "The weak and honest were the most taken advantage of. They worked for nothing, only desperately hoping to feed their family, and dreaming of a day where their children could experience everything else that life offered, that was stripped of their own lives. I was not born in such a situation, and I am quite thankful for that. But it is not hard to identify injustice. You can turn a blind eye to it, you can pretend as if it is not there, or kid yourself into believing that it is better than what it is. But there is a brutal reality to the situation." Her face screwed up, but she still didn't comment. I wasn't sure if she intended to just not respond, or if she was just incredibly gracious. I nodded and brought out the four coins that Mayer had given me not two hours earlier.

"These four coins are my acknowledgement of that reality." I placed those coins on the table, the soft light that leaked from the windows dancing across the intricate surface of the coins.

"I do not wish to perpetuate the wrongs of my own culture wherever I walk. I am, in a way, an Ambassador for my people. I will hold myself to that regard with all my might." I said, my voice climaxing towards a stern peak. I was no longer speaking uncertainly, or even trying to convince her. This was truly my own pride, a value that I clung to and hoped so dearly that I would never, ever, have to abandon. I looked at her, finally letting my face relax and feeling a sad smile grow with the sorrow and grief inside.

"Because it's all I have left of my home."

And then there was silence. I had spoken with incredible selfishness, but honestly, that's all I knew how to do. How was I going to appeal to an entirely different culture without bringing in elements of my own? It was a risk, something that could truly damage my reputation. I was playing with fire, as such. But I didn't have enough time to learn customs and eccentricities of their culture. I had to brute force it. I had to enforce my own stance, my own identity within their own—rather than play it by the book and timidly wait until I was told I was kosher.

I looked to Shae Orsen. She stared down at the four coins, her brows furrowed deeply and her eyes glaring perplexedly. I waited a moment, then two. I watched her form shift gently in her chair, her face struggling to regain a calmness. But in the end, she just hid her face in her chest.

She then gave me a slight bob of the head. I waited a moment, hoping to glean something else from her demeanour—besides a hidden shame—but nothing came.

And so, I left. Leaving four coins behind.

 

[Sarius]

Chapter 19: Tea

The walk back was slow. Maybe you could call it leisurely, but to me it was torturous.

It gave me time to think about things I didn't want to think about. Things that killed me inside. I had been doing so well up until now, you might have even believed me if I said that I had no past back on Earth. But now, all that was crumbling, and I was left with emotions that I had never had to handle in the past.

As I walked, the sky slowly shifted into darkness as Orisis eclipsed the sun—filling me with a distinct sense of being entirely, horrifically alone. Not something I had ever experienced so potently before. I felt cold, not from the pleasantly cool night air, but on the inside. The motivational self-talk from earlier had been a band-aid—covering the wound for just a moment of relief—but now it was starting to wear off, and it was becoming clear that this was going to be a bit of a process.

My legs were walking automatically towards Mayer's home while I looked up towards the sky, trying to keep my mind blank of thoughts. It obviously wasn't all that effective, but it helped ever so slightly, and that was enough of an incentive for me.

Before I knew it, my feet were trudging up the wooden steps to Mayer's home. Down the hallway and into the living room. And there he was, in his seat. Like a boulder in a river. Never shifting, never conforming to the flow of the water.

I stood in the doorway, lost.

Mayer looked up at me from his book, he smiled at me and closed it entirely—not folding a page or holding it open—he then stood and turned to face the bookcase behind him, where he slotted the book into its position.

He sat in his chair once again and looked up at me, quiet contemplation on his face. I stared at him aimlessly for a moment and he simply smiled and nodded towards the chair opposite him. I wandered over to the seat and sat down gently, as if I were made of porcelain or glass. I felt brittle, only an errant tap from breaking.

There was silence for a good, long moment. I stared down at my hands, looking at my fingers and how they held each other. It was almost surreal, to look at my body and seeing that it didn't outwardly exhibit how I felt on the inside. I let the moment pass and looked up.

Mayer was looking at me with an easy smile on his face, a strange ray of sun in the dark I was living in. It wasn't at all patronising, not even slightly. It was warm, allowing a tiny reprieve for the cold that seems to have found its way into my body. Like the warmth of the evening sun, even as the air grew colder.

"You've been dealt a poor hand, kid." I pursed my lips at that and bowed my head slightly.

"I know."

"And you have to do a lot with that hand as well." Mayer mused, then chuckled. I can't say that I found any humour in it.

"But you know, I've seen people pull off some truly amazing stuff." He looked at me pointedly. I looked at him, my eyes full of scepticism. Mayer laughed again, a surprisingly soft sound for such a normally gruff man.

"Maybe not anyone in such an extreme situation as yours." He crossed his legs and looked thoughtful for a moment. "What is it that you want to achieve here?" He asked finally, breaking me from dipping back into the dark pool of my own mind. I looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"I have no idea. Should I?" Mayer looked at me appraisingly.

"Maybe. Maybe not. But if I were to be honest, its something that has always helped me. To have a goal—however unattainable." I snorted slightly, before I truly considered his words. But silence followed, leaving me nothing but time to think.

"Hey… what happened the last time that the Champions were around?" The mood instantly grew dark. Mayer's smile was gone—the sunny, easy-going attitude had turned almost murderous in an instant. Then, just as quickly as it had come, it was gone as if it had never happened.

"Bad things happened. A war of a size we'd never seen before." Mayer smiled, but it seemed hollow even to me.

"Then how about I try to stop that from happening again?" His eyes glowed, staring into my being.

"What makes you think that you can stop it?"

"I don't." I replied honestly. Mayer looked at me, surprise drifted across his face and was quickly replaced by a smile.

"Well, I did say that it could be unattainable, so it qualifies." He chuckled to himself and then tapped his leg in thought.

"I guess that means that you will need proper training, other than just banging some wood into the ground." I nodded along. I had wanted to ask about real combat training for a while but decided that I would let Mayer do whatever he thought was right. Seems that now was the time.

"What do you have in mind?" I inquired.

"Well we have to make you're not useless with that massive hammer of yours. It isn't going to be an easy feat though." I furrowed my brow.

"Really? Wouldn't I just need to stack up my Might stat and I'll be good to go?" Mayer shook his head while scratching his chin.

"Soul Weapons are different. They grow with the user."

"Grow with the user?" Mayer nodded.

"In your case, 'stacking' Might will just increase the weight of the hammer proportional to your strength." I groaned. That was my whole idea of getting more Might, so that it would alleviate my issues with the unwieldiness of my hammer.

"Really? How am I going to handle the damn thing if it is always going to be the same weight for me?" Mayer stopped, placing his hands over his eyes for a minute, trying to think presumably. After a moment he lowered his hands.

"There aren't many options. I have only met a handful of people that have used oversized weapons that are even remotely as large as yours—but they only used them because they were obscenely strong, so they can't really be compared. There was one guy about your build that used a huge spear, not quite as big as yours but pretty heavy. I asked him about how he uses it, being so heavy and all."

"And?" I asked, expectantly.

"He told me that it was all about using its weight to your advantage and practicing all the time." Mayer shrugged "Unhelpful, but its something."

I scratched my head, feeling a little bit frustrated. The hammer was a massive bane to my existence, but I was stuck with it, so I had to learn how to use it properly.

"I can at least swing it, but only really under ideal conditions, in a consistent manner. I can hammer wood into the ground, but I can't really be any more dynamic than that, my body would just crumple under the weight of the thing." Mayer nodded at me.

"That was what I was trying to achieve by sending you out to do menial work like on the Jothian's farm. It at least taught you where your limits were. You might not be able to swing the thing around with reckless abandon, but at least you can swing it at all. It's a start."

"Well, there is one other thing that I could potentially use." Mayer hummed questioningly. "When I was first transported here, I came into contact with a wolf with leaves for its fur."

"Ah, forest wolves. Nasty buggers they are. Usually travel around in large packs." Mayer said.

"Yeah, so, one was spawned near me, most likely an initial culling. I ran from it at first before I remembered that I could summon a weapon, and I just took a swing while imagining that I had a sword in my hand." Mayer looked at me expectantly and I continued.

"When I swung, the hammer was able to form in my hand in the time that it took to get to the forest wolf. I basically ripped its head off with the force of the swig." I shuddered, remembering the sight of the poor wolf's head buried into the ground with its neck brutally ripped off.

"Interesting. I imagine that manoeuvre saved your life there." I nodded.

"I was wondering how useful that would be in combat. If I could effectively instantaneously summon and unsummon my hammer and swing it with a tonne of force while it summoned, I would be able to do some real damage." Mayer nodded and stood up, walking to his kitchen, and filled up a kettle at his tap.

"Good. This is exactly the kind of thinking you need to be able to succeed in these circumstances. Always look for the next option, and the next possibility when it comes to combat." Mayer seemed pleased with my thinking, which made me feel better about myself than it really should have.

"But all that can wait till tomorrow. I have a feeling that we won't have any visitors tomorrow, so we will have time to test out many things. Along with, of course, being taught the basics of combat. Footwork and the like." The sound of the water inside of the kettle boiling could soon be heard after Mayer had set the kettle on the stove. He pulled the kettle off the stove and then, after a second of letting the water rest, brought out two cups and filled them with water, then taking some tea leaves and placed them in the cups. He slowly stirred each one, the water slowly becoming a deep purple colour. He took each of the cups and walked back over to me, handing me one and then sitting in his seat as well.

I sipped the tea, somewhat curious of the taste. A strong fruity flavour but still managing to remain really smooth, so it wasn't overpowering. Not something that I would usually like all that much, but it was definitely an exception to the rule.

"You have a long road ahead of you, boy. A lot will happen to you in short succession, and it will always feel like you aren't equipped to handle it. But just know that in those sorts of situations, you are far more capable of handling it than you feel." He looked at me poignantly while taking a sip of his tea. I nodded, not really feeling that his words were true. Maybe that only proved his point.

"I'll try to remember that." Mayer laughed, and took another sip.

"Ryan was very different from you, you know." He said. "I had wondered if all of the people on Earth were the same. Seemingly endlessly driven, unable to be dissuaded by setbacks and confident in their own abilities and preparations." Mayer shook his head with a smile on his face. I laughed sardonically.

"I can tell you; those kinds of people are rare. They appear more in fairy tales than they do in real life." Mayer laughed as well.

"That's what I had thought as well. Though it was quite amusing to think of an entire race of people with all the same drive. It would be both mesmerising and horrifying at the same time."

"There are people like that, but they don't tend to be the best people. Morally I mean." I said. Mayer tapped the side of his teacup in thought.

"Yes, I guess Kings and Dictators would fall under that sort of category, wouldn't they?" Mayer hummed in thought, before abruptly stopping. "But the Champions were by far the worst." I stayed silent, not daring to ask a question, worried that it might change the conversation. After a long, drawn out pause, he begun again.

"The Champions were wonderous people at first. They advanced magical technology by decades within years. Brought technologies that some kingdoms still rely upon to sustain themselves. They commanded armies and brought peace to some areas of the world. But that didn't last forever." Mayer took a long sip of his tea.

"It was when the Champions started to meet each other. By that point, each of the Champions had aligned themselves in some fashion with a country or kingdom, or even other Champions. When they started to clash, it became a worldwide event. Before long, the entire world seemed to be at war. There were a few that abstained for their own reasons. Ryan was one of them at first, but after a while he decided that he had a duty to protect the world from the Champions. It wasn't long before we were just as drawn into the fight as anyone else." Mayer looked into the cup of tea he held in his hands. A quiet sorrow was written on his face.

"It was too late by the time we were trying to intervene. Everyone was seeking either power, or the end of the game. There were many who simply wanted to go home, and they were the most terrifying of opponents." Mayer closed his eyes and shuddered slightly. "They fought with total disregard for how it would affect the world after they didn't exist anymore. They used shifting techniques that destabilised the ecosystems of entire kingdoms, large portions of continents even. They made bustling metropolises into deserts." Mayer didn't speak for a while after that. Only lightly sipping his tea. The silence drew on for an age before I couldn't help it and asked a question.

"What happened? To the Champions I mean." Mayer remained silent but sighed deeply after a while.

"They disappeared. Gone without a trace. Ryan never told me where he went—or what his plan was—but left me a few things of his. But years passed and they never returned. Life continued, and the Champions were slowly forgotten. Orisis reforged into one true country—the reason why they united a distant memory." Mayer took a long deep swallow of the tea, before getting up and placing the cup on the kitchen table. He walked to the door and spoke without even looking at me.

"Tomorrow will be an early day. We are going outside the town."

Then he walked to his bedroom, leaving me alone to sip my tea.


A/N: Wow, so I've been trying to get some cover art done for my upcoming stories and Unwieldy—so my cover art looks nice and such—and I didn't think it's be so stressful. And expensive too, my god. I haven't got any replies on ideas I put forwards to a few artists, but we will see. Wish I was more experienced with this kinda thing.