Aiden stood with folded arms as they saddled up their jepats in preparation for their departure. The sun was low in the sky and evening crawled its way forward to become night. Ted was left in his room since, according to him, he needed time to himself. Elami had opted to remain with him, but Ted had turned the offer down. In the end, thinking was not the only thing that he was doing. He was also protecting the [Heart of Nosrath] and [Crystal of Existence].
They were standing in front of the inn, jepats taken from the stables. Estabel strapped her saddle in place with surprising dexterity for a [Mage] of high repute. There was a part of Aiden that had expected Yerit to do it for her.
As for Yerit, who had been an almost nonexistent member of the group, resigned to her room for the duration of their stay in the inn, the girl looked… traumatized. She still had haunted eyes, staring at nothing as she fixed her saddle in place. Aiden almost felt bad for her.
“So,” Estabel said, turning away from her jepat and walking up to Aiden. “Are you sure your plan will work?”
“No idea,” he answered. “What I do know is that if things are going to be this bad, I might as well take advantage of it. Personally, I’m still surprised to find that you are willing to help.”
Estabel blinked. “Why?”
“Well, the first few times I saw you, you were quite… aggressive. You tried to take what you want, regardless of what I wanted. At the Naranoff manor, at the border town.” He resisted the urge to look at his arm. “Aren’t you still interested in my arm?”
The question made Rometo look down at his still blackened arm.
As for Estabel, she let out a soft chuckle. “Oh, Lord Lacheart. I guess it will still take some time for you to get accustomed to the way of our world. The first few times I met you, you were nothing but a child. And when dealing with children, you do what you think is best, because I child does not know their ass from a hole in the wall.” She smiled innocently. “When a child does not know better, it is up to the adult to do what is in the general best interest.”
All Aiden heard were good reasons to call Child Protective Services on a parent. “And what about when we met in the forest?” he asked.
Estabel glanced momentarily at Rometo. She was probably trying to gauge how much attention he was paying to the conversation. Aiden could tell her that he was paying complete attention to the conversation. Also, he knew it was only a matter of time before he had to talk to Rometo—have a personal discussion devoid of the presence of the others.
“Lord Lacheart,” Estabel said. “Do you remember what happened when we met at the border town?”
“You pinned me to a wall with an ice spell.”
She laughed heartily. The laugh lasted a short while before she stopped, hands wiping imaginary tears from her cheeks. “How nice of you to focus on that,” she said. “But no. Let’s look at it from my perspective. The child who I knew I could handle at the Naranoff mansion saw me and ran. And you ran well. Then, when I managed to corner you, you destroyed my staff that I thought indestructible, and them blinked out of existence.”
Aiden’s brows furrowed. Was that how she’d seen it? All he’d done was blink to the side. But he wasn’t going to correct her on that.
“That alone was a sign that the child was no longer just a child,” Estabel continued. “Then, do you remember what happened when we met at the forest?”
Aiden nodded slowly. It had taken a lot of enchantments woven into himself to survive that fall. Although, there was a part of him arrogant enough to believe that he should’ve survived it even without the enchantments.
“The first thing you successfully did was subdue a monster that I was having difficulties dealing with,” she pointed out. “Then you undid a complex enchantment script cast by a [Saint] and displayed knowledge of a monster I did not know.” She gave him a knowing look, “Coupled with Bandiv’s announcement of who you are, it was a sign that you were not a child anymore, at least not one that I am willing to offend. Then you killed said [Saint].” She shrugged. “You are no longer I child I can do whatever I want with. You are a child—if you can still be called a child—that I would rather call a friend, and if not a friend, then an ally.”
Aiden cocked his head at that. It made sense as to why she was a different person with him now. It still boiled down to self-interest.
Curious, he asked, “Are you scared of me, Estabel?”
“Terrified,” she said with a laugh. “What boy kills a [Saint] and goes about his day like it’s a normal Tuesday. No offense, but you are definitely terrifying. But terrifying doesn’t make you a monster. Aiden Lacheart.” She put a hand on his chest. “Your heart’s in the right place. But you might need to change a little. Every day you seem less human to me. Also, treat your team better.” She put her hand down and turned back to her jepat. A leader is only as good as their team’s faith in them.”
Aiden wanted to object, but he knew that she wasn’t talking about Ted or Valdan as she mounted her jepat and checked on Yerit. The Mage Radiant [Enchanter] was already on hers, staring at the back of the creature’s head.
“We will meet again, Lord Lacheart,” she declared. “Until then, this is goodbye.”
Aiden was not the only one who watched her ride off with Yerit. As they rode off, Rometo made a comment. “The [Enchanter] has seen too much.”
It took a moment for Aiden to deduce if he meant too much as in too many secrets or too much as in more than she could handle.
“She should probably stay away from combat for a while,” Rometo finished, clarifying what he meant.
Aiden nodded as he turned to an approaching Tanor. The man approached, pulling his jepat behind him.
Tanor came to a stop in front of him. Today the man was not wearing his armor. He was clad in a simple grey shirt and brown pants. Still, he had a sword at his waist.
Aiden gave the weapon a pointed look. “Know how to use that?”
Tanor looked down at the weapon. “Everybody who grew under my father has the [Weaponsmaster] skill. There is scarcely a weapon I cannot use or will not know how to figure out.”
Aiden was still curious about Tanor’s father. He hadn’t been important enough for the Order to deem tying the man to Tanor’s existence necessary to Aiden. The question was if he was even important enough at all beyond whatever kingdom he operated in. It was, nonetheless, interesting that Tanor had thought that Aiden worked for the man.
“Are you still sure you want to do this?” Tanor asked. “You would be making an enemy of a lot of people with the [Paladin] class. We do not look lightly on matters of the church.”
Aiden shrugged.
The chances of getting a title that granted debuffs only were significantly slim on Nastild, so Aiden was fairly certain he was safe.
“Just spread the word,” he answered. “It will spread regardless, all I can do is manage and control it as best I can.”
Tanor stood there in contemplation for a while before letting out a resigned sigh. “Alright,” he said. “I’ll do my best.”
With that, he turned and mounted his steed, hesitating only for a moment while on top of it. After a moment, he seemed to make his decision.
“Lord Lacheart,” he said. “I hope you do not take this the wrong way. But I have seen the man that you are, and I do not like it. I will do you this favor, but I do hope that we do not meet again.”
Aiden nodded once in understanding before Tanor rode off.
He would be lying if he said that the man’s words did not affect him in some way. He and Tanor had not been the best of friends in his past life, but they had worked together and they had been amiable. They had been friends.
It is not who you are that is suddenly the problem, Aiden reminded himself. It’s who he currently is.
If he was being honest, he was also having certain troubles with Zen on this specific matter. Judging it as a thought for another day, he shook it from his mind as Oncot came to a stop in front of him with his own jepat.
I will ride to do the biddings of the Blood Man, Oncot signed.
Aiden nodded once. And may blood go with you, he signed back.
Oncot nodded, spared a single glance at Rometo, ignoring the others behind them, and mounted his steed.
Once he was gone, Aiden breathed a sigh of relief. That’s all of them.
A hand settled on his shoulder, and he turned to look back. It belonged to Feira. There was something consoling in the touch.
He gave her a look, making sure that she could see the question in it.
“For what it’s worth,” she said. “I don’t think you are a bad person. You have your flaws, but they don’t make you bad. Tanor was wrong to say what he said.”
Zen nodded behind her. Fjord, too.
“And for what it’s worth,” Fjord said. “Your team has faith in you. You treat us well enough.”
Aiden watched Fjord for what felt like a long time to him. For all his past, the boy was, to an extent, innocent. When his eyes moved over to Valdan, he saw that the knight knew that Fjord was not completely right, just as he did.
Still, he appreciated their words with a nod. “Thank you,” he said. “You have no idea how much your words matter to me.”
Elami rolled his eyes and turned away. “If anyone needs me, I will be in my room.”
Zen looked at Rometo, worried yet expectant. The man had been with them for two days now, yet he had made no mention of the training he was supposed to begin with Zen. Regardless, Zen and Fjord still continued their training in the way of the sword with Melvet and Valdan playing supervisory roles. Feira had, at some point, joined them.
“Not tonight,” Aiden said, answering Zen’s unasked question as the sun dipped beneath the skyline. “I have things to talk about with Rometo, personally.”
Rometo’s eyes moved slowly over to him before returning to the others. Valdan and Melvet were the first to turn away, walking side by side as they chatted about things that Aiden was not listening to.
The others followed a moment after.
“You should take the [Mage]’s advice,” Rometo said now that they were alone. “You do not treat your teammates equally. I have been watching.”
Aiden pinched the bridge of his nose with thumb and forefinger and let out a sigh. “I know.”
He walked over to one side of the compound, where the inn’s environment was separated from the other businesses around by a low picket fence and sat on it. Rometo moved with him but did not sit.
Aiden looked up at him. “I need a favor.”
“Does it matter?” Rometo asked. “The master of the Order has instructed that I obey all commands as long as it does not degrade the Order or bring it harm. I will be pleased if you give no order to humiliate me, but that is me not the Order.”
Aiden nodded. “I know, but I still call it a favor. I am hoping that if you look at it as a favor, you will give it your best.”
“I give everything my best, Lord Lacheart.”
Aiden waved the title aside. “Lord Lacheart is unnecessary. To you, I’m Aiden.”
“I see,” Rometo mused. “To everyone you are Aiden. Everyone except Feira. Why is that?”
Aiden stared at the inn, in the direction the others had gone. “Feira is a… fiery girl in her own way. The last thing I need is her getting overly familiar with me. She is a bond I am not trying to make, perhaps a bond I do not want to make.”
“Why?”
Because she’s my friend’s younger sister and a child, Aiden thought but did not say. It was the duty of adults to define their relationships with children not the other way around. Whatever relationship an adult had with a child, proper or improper, the fault would always lie with the adult. Good or bad, the adult either made it happen or let it happen.
In the end, he settled for a simple answer. “Because I simply do not.”
There was a moment of silence before Rometo spoke again.
“You lie well for a child,” he said. “If I did not know what I know, I would’ve believed you.”
Aiden looked up at that and smiled. “If you can’t tell that I’m lying, how do you know that I am?”
“Because a man as calculative as you are never does something just because.” Rometo met his gaze. “Everything a person does has a reason. And a man like you, unlike most, always knows the reason. Regardless, what is this favor you want?”
Happy to push the conversation along, Aiden answered. “It’s about Fjord.”
“What about the child?”
“You say you’ve been watching, so you already know. The boy is loyal to a fault.”
“I’ve seen that. I believe his last team was a group of poachers,” Rometo said. “How did he move from them to you.”
“Chance encounter in the woods,” Aiden said noncommittal. “His team made the wrong decision, and he made the right one.”
“I see,” Rometo muttered. “You killed them.”
“I did.” Aiden nodded. “But you already know that. I offered the boy a chance at a normal life but....”
Rometo nodded as if he understood. “The child does not want a normal life.”
“He does not,” Aiden confirmed. “The problem is that while I know I can help him reach for the life that he wants, I just don’t…” he pressed his lips into a thin line, displeased with himself. “I can’t make the time for the boy.” He looked at Rometo. “Sometimes I look at him, and I know that I have done wrong by him. He stays with the group and does everything he can for the group. If the group needs a porter he becomes a porter. If the group needs bait, he becomes bait. If the group needs a cook, he becomes a cook.” Aiden shook his head. “He deserves more.”
“Why?”
Aiden paused, looking up at Rometo. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Why does he deserve more?” Rometo asked. “It sounds like you’ve done the best for him. You could’ve killed him along with his poacher friends but you did not. You gave him a chance at a normal life, I assume one that would pay him well, but he chose to stay with you instead. Did you promise to make him great?”
Aiden had not.
“From the look in your eyes,” Rometo noted, “I would say that you did not. The boy, if he is not foolish, did not follow you because he thought you would make him great, he follows you because he believes that being around you will make him great. As for the little things he does, they are important, but are they things that you cannot do?”
Aiden shook his head. “But everything he does is one less thing I have to worry about.”
“Did you ask him to stay?”
“No.”
“Can he leave whenever he wants to?”
“Yes.”
“Will you give him money to help him survive until he finds his way?”
Aiden nodded. “Yes.”
“Then you have given him all that he deserves. Anything more would simply be the gift of benevolence.”
Aiden looked at one of his old instructors who had eventually become a colleague in his past life. This was who Rometo was. The tragedy of his past as well as the very nature of his origin had left him a very non-sentimental man. But Aiden was the same.
His gripe with how he treated Fjord was in the fact that he knew Fjord deserved better. He did not treat the boy horribly, but he did not treat him well enough. Even his interest in finding a way to grow the boy’s class due to the unique nature of it was barely existent. With all the chaos happening around them and the things on his mind, he had barely thought about how else to make the [Gambler] class strong.
Then there was the fact that he had no emotional attachment to the boy. Not even an ounce. He could try to develop one but he doubted he could. Even Zen was not the Zen he remembered, because the boy was not the Zen he remembered. There were too many differences. For one, he was not as jovial or as talented. He was also not as friendly.
But it’s not his fault.
In the Order, Zen had met him as an equal. They had become friends because there was no power dynamic between the two of them. Now, however, Zen could not be his friend, not in the way that they had once been. Why? For one, he had saved the boy’s life. That alone had shifted the power dynamic. Then he was a Lord to Zen who was nothing more than a citizen. He was also currently his benefactor.
He also has Feira to focus on.
Whatever life had done to him before finding the Order in Aiden’s past life to mold the man that he had become, Aiden had not allowed it to happen to him in this life. So Zen was not the man that Aiden had met, and their relationship could not be the one that he had wanted it to be.
Tanor did not like the man that Aiden was, and Zen had no intentions of becoming friends with him.
So, train Zen until you are sure that he can assure his own safety.
It had always been the plan. But Aiden would be lying if he said that a small part of him did not mourn the acceptance that he could not have the relationships he had once had in his past life.
A hand on his shoulder pulled him from his revelry.
“Your favor is about Fjord,” Rometo said simply. “Is it not?”
Aiden nodded. “It is.”
“Then ask it.” Rometo took his hand back. “If I can, I might. But I cannot do what I cannot do.”
“The boy does not want to be normal,” Aiden said simply. “He wants the life of an adventurer. He wants to be strong in combat.”
“As you want Zen to be,” Rometo clarified. “The only difference is that Fjord wants to be strong but you and Zen want Zen to be strong. [Time Walker]s and [Gambler]s do not gain the kind of strength that those two are looking for, Aiden. I know that you were summoned into this world, taken from yours, but you should’ve looked more into this and known that it was an impossible task.”
Aiden cocked a brow at that. “An impossible task?” he snorted. “Rometo, you’re a walking proof of the impossible. And a lot of walking proofs of the impossible exist on the other side of Nastild.”
“The other side of Nastild has an atmosphere conducive for cultivating the impossible.”
“There are a lot of impossibles in the Order, too.”
A look crossed Rometo’s face. Aiden wasn’t bothered by it since he already knew what it was. It was the look the man showed anytime Aiden said something that he was not supposed to know.
Still, the man did not touch the subject. Instead, he said, “You are a man of many secrets.”
“Every man has his secrets,” Aiden returned. “His and that of others. But that is not why we are here.”
There was no point in hiding the fact that he knew a lot anymore. He was at level one hundred and forty-nine. While it did not make him the strongest, it did make him strong. As for the reason he had no need to hide anymore, it was because there was no one he needed to hide from. In Bandiv, the royal family had control over him, so he had to be careful. Now, there was no one with control over him, no one that could direct his life without his permission.
“I cannot bring myself to give Fjord what I believe he deserves because my priorities do not allow me,” he said, not happy to admit it. “And because I can’t bring myself to care enough to bring him up on my priority list.” He got up from the fence so that he stood eye to eye with Rometo. “But you can train him, teach him to be strong, if not as a [Gambler] then simply as a fighter.”
Rometo sighed. “I have been brought here to be an instructor and a babysitter.”
“Does it matter?” Aiden asked. “At over level two hundred, I doubt there is a problem we will face that you cannot handle without breaking a sweat. Besides, it won’t be your first time babysitting.”
“Yes, it will not,” Rometo confirmed. “So what levels are both of them?”
Aiden opened his mouth then closed it. It was not that he did not know that he had been messing up, it was that being hit in the face with the fact was brutal.
Rometo gave him a disappointed look. “You do not know, do you?”
“I do not,” Aiden admitted with enough decency to be ashamed. “Up until now, I have left their instructions in the hands of Valdan.”
“Your knight.”
“What’s up with the ‘your knight’ thing?”
Rometo paused. “You do not know?”
Aiden shook his head.
“Everyone who knows that Valdan was once a knight before leaving his king for you, calls him your knight,” Rometo said. “They view it as a change of allegiance. Valdan is still a knight by profession and honor, only a knight that has changed the man he serves. To him, you are his king. If he was the kingdom of Bandiv, you would be the system-sanctioned king.”
“Oh.” Aiden had not known that. “Well, he’s my friend.”
“What does that matter?” Rometo asked. “Who said that a friend cannot also serve you? Who said that someone who serves you cannot also be your friend?”
The man was right.
“I will gain their current information from your knight,” Rometo continued. “However, since this is a favor, not an instruction, what is in it for me?”
Here came the interesting part. Why was it interesting? Because Aiden was about to give Rometo two options to pick from, and both options were offers he had no problem giving Rometo freely.
“You get to pick,” Aiden said, slipping his hands into his pocket. “I have two offers. You can only have one.”
Rometo folded his arms and smiled a little. It was not a friendly smile. “Really? Then regale me with these offers.”
“I can tell you why the master is so interested in me,” Aiden said. “Or at least why I think he is so interested in me.”
“Or?”
“Or I can lead you to a small town at the edge of a small kingdom where a man stays, a man tied to the massacre of a royal family that once lived on the other side of Nastild some years ago.”
Rometo was no longer smiling. In this moment, there was nothing but hate in his eyes. Aiden had expected a reaction, but nothing so bad that his interface had to pop up.
[Rometo has used aura]
Aiden watched the air around Rometo warp and twist as if under the effects of a heatwave. The man, in his anger, was losing himself, allowing his aura to flow out of him. It washed over Aiden momentarily and he felt the weight of it as it tried to shift his sense of time.
[You are under the effect of Rometo’s aura]
…
[Skill Willpower is in effect]
[You have insufficient Willpower]
It said a lot that he had insufficient [Willpower] to withstand it. Still, Aiden was not bothered. [Willpower] was not all that he had.
[Title Dauntless is in effect]
[Dauntless]
[Effect: Immunity to Aura effects from all opponents up to 351 levels above you.]
…
[You have withstood Rometo’s aura effect]
“Rometo,” Aiden said carefully, using a tone of voice that will show him as farthest thing away from a threat. “Calm yourself before someone loses their life.”
Rometo blinked once at his words, and the aura was gone. The hate was not. There was a tense moment when they just stood face to face, a moment where Aiden wondered if the man was going to hit him.
Rometo did not.
Instead, he turned around and walked away.
“Your teammates will be trained accordingly,” he said over his shoulder. His voice was bland, but his shoulders remained tense.
The man had not picked which offer he wanted, but Aiden had no plans of pointing that out. Not now, at least. It didn’t matter, though. Regardless of what the man chose, he was going to give the man the information he wanted.
For now, Rometo had to contest with what matter more to him.
Curiosity or vengeance.
Aiden paused at the thought, at the understanding of the options he’d offered.
Maybe he really was a monster.