Inside a bland looking office-room, the sunlight seeped into the room. Saranda was sitting with her legs crossed, reading a book named: "Signature-Weapon Spell."
The spell was a useful one, if learned, one could store their weapon in their own soul. These kinds of books were rare, because normal sheets could not contain the weight of spells. Alas, only low ranked spells could often be found inside these books.
The book was given to her by the leader of the village. The leader was a ladder three ascender, he specialized in the body and the elemental innates. His element being water, which made him took Saranda into training. His name was Fulian.
He was supplying her with different kinds of techniques and ways to improve her control over water. Additionally they were also practicing her swordplay.
Saranda's attention diverted from the book as she noticed the leader come in. The man looked to be in his late twenties. He was sporting a thick beard, his hair was dark parted from the middle.
He looked at her with narrowed eyes, and spoke up with a rather annoyed tone.
"One of your friends has caused some trouble."
The moment she heard that, she closed the book and got up to her feet. Expecting the man to continue talking.
"Last night, that boy attacked a man with no remorse. The victim is heavily injured, his face has almost caved in."
"I don't think he would do it without a reason, has he given any explanation?" Saranda unconsciously clenched her fist, why has Levi gone causing trouble around the village that has been kind to them so far?
"His only explanation was that the man was abusing his daughter in front of him." Fulian rubbed his temple and sighed.
Saranda narrowed her eyes the moment she heard that. "So? isn't that a good thing? He got rid of an abuser."
Fulian looked taken aback for a second, his arms falling beside him. "I was not expecting your shocking indifference to these news. After all, meddling with family affairs is a big sin to commit."
"The moment I laid my eyes on that boy, I knew he was trouble." Fulian said after a pause.
"Do you even know what you are saying? You people let abusers walk free, because it is a family affair?" Saranda could feel her temper rising, she forced herself to calm down even if this situation was simply stupid.
"I would appreciate if you respected our rules, little miss. While I understand that you may come from a different region and have different values, I will not tolerate the fact that you are disrespecting the gods."
Saranda gritted her teeth. 'Fuck those gods!'
She would have broken the deal with this abomination of a man, but she needed to use him first. She needed to learn how to get better at swordplay, and how to manipulate her mana better. They could also use the hoard of wolves to get stronger and more experienced.
She needed to act rationally. So Saranda calmed herself down.
"I understand." She said, prompting the man to nod.
"We need the three of you to help, so I will not be placing any punishments on him for his sins." He studied Saranda as she sat back down, opening the spell book to read it.
"I wonder, why is that Levi a higher stage than you two? While he is an upper stage, you both are lower. Makes me wonder why you didn't spoil the shares equally."
Saranda shuddered. They had been sharing the mana absorbed from the infected, the only reason why Levi was higher stage than them, was because he had absorbed two ascender's mana.
Before she could answer, Fulian had already left.
Levi was sitting on one of the patient beds, sipping some tea. Fortunately this world had some black tea, which he really liked.
Unlike the girls, who rented themselves a cheap room, Levi was staying in the healing house. There was no privacy here, but he didn't mind it, Leana was kind enough to let him. He did not have any private matters anyways.
"So, you really didn't receive any punishments?"
Levi let out a sigh. It was probably the tenth time he had heard this question.
"For the thousandth time, no." His tone was stern as he spoke. Then he turned his gaze to the person that was bothering him, it was Red. "So, you are going to live with Leana from now on?"
Red nodded. "Normally, the leader would have never allowed me to get away from my father. But he needs to suck up to you guys, hence he made this decision."
He did not comment on her words, but in his mind, he was thinking of how vile their civilization was. How could you turn a blind eye to a suffering kid? Back in his world, this was a big problem too, but at the very least they did not call it a sin.
As he continued to sip his tea, someone barged into the healing house. That being no other than Mattie.
"Levi! Get up! We are going to train!"
About forty minutes later, Levi and Mattie were standing with a bunch of warriors who looked twice their own original ages. They had completed the drills, and were not getting to the second part of the training.
Everyone looked worn, as if they had stopped caring about their appearances long time ago. It was the cruel reality of this village, after all they needed to survive against hordes of creatures every few days.
Fortunately, no one smelled.
The instructor, was the leader of the village, Fulian. He was standing in front of the line of warriors, assessing everyone with a calculated gaze. Next to her, was Saranda. She had become an important member of their troops in a matter of days.
That was because Mattie and Saranda were helping these people fight against the hordes these two weeks. Levi had been injured, hence he needed to stay back. Now that he has recovered, he was planning to fight too.
"Everyone choose a partner to duel. No real weapons." Fulian's voice echoed through the open-field, then his gaze stopped on Levi. "Young man, you are dueling Saranda."
The instructors tone was somewhat cold, but Levi did not mind it. As everyone went to occupy their places, Levi and Saranda did the same. Mattie having to duel against two people at once due to her superiority.
Levi spun the wooden stick in his hands, then got in a formal fighting stance. "Please go easy on me." He said sarcastically, after all he had not been active for two weeks.
"However you wish." Saranda replied with a smile, carrying a wooden sword in her hands. She did not even wait, lunging at Levi with great speed, her sword coming at him in a wide arc.
The attack was barely blocked as Levi moved the shaft to absorb the attack. Unfortunately, the force behind the attack was too great, hence he was forced to take a few steps to the back.
When he did take a few steps back, he immediately spun the stick and tried to hit her side. But that attack was for naught, Saranda had a body innate that increased her agility. When she saw the attack coming, she immediately evaded it.
Lunging at each other, Levi and Saranda traded ferocious blows. Each blow sending sharp sounds of wood hitting against each other. It was not long before Saranda found an opening, thrusting her sword against Levi's shoulder.
The next thing that happened was all due to luck, Levi's foot happened to slip on the wet grass, hence he managed to avoid the thrust, barely. His eyes shone with unfamiliar intent, raising the wooden stick, he perceived the world in slow motion.
The fastest way to kill his opponent was to bash this stick onto their head!
That never happened though.
When he realized what he was thinking, Levi immediately evaded backwards, lowering the stick in his hands. A sigh left his lips. "I forfeit."
Saranda, was looking at him peculiarly. "Are you sure? You don't even look tired."
"Yeah, you win." Levi was already walking away, he threw the stick to its original place. But instead of landing in the exact spot, it fell.
"..." Levi approached it, and put it in its place. Then he walked away from the training grounds.
Fulian had watched the duel closely. Paying attention to every move Levi was making. To him, these two were very suspicious.
Saranda had the look of a burdened warrior. Her eyes suggested that she carried a weight past her years, but she was only fifteen. What could she have experienced in life that had left her so... peculiar?
As for Levi, that boy's demeanor was simply strange to him. They said they came from an isolated civilization, but around the globe, everyone knew that meddling with others family was a sin. For them to be completely unaware of this, they needed to come from the civilization of another race perhaps.
But that was not it either. From what he could tell, Saranda was definitely a human, and Levi did not have any characteristics of another race either.
'Anyways, there is no need for me to complicate matters this much.' Fulian turned his gaze towards the others.
'After all, we are only keeping them due to their high potential. After we get rid of the wolf king by using them, we will get rid of them too.'