Archibald kept talking as he dragged two unconscious thugs out of the alley. He was heading towards a guard post he remembered seeing a while ago.

On their way a number of people shot them with strange looks. Most of them seemed to recognize the pair of knocked out thugs. Several young men even smirked while making comments about the bandits getting injured in the line of duty.

“Son, this is not a nice place to live in. Look at those people with their snide comments. If you ever notice anyone giving you such a look you should get away from them as soon as possible. Either that or be ready for a stab in the back.” Archibald whispered while barely moving his lips.

“I was born a commoner. When I was young I climbed high enough to be the official Court Mage. My status was technically the same as the Duke I served.”

“However, climbing the social ladder isn’t easy. Especially when you start off as a peasant. I’ve seen plenty of people concealing those looks, thinking I wasn’t aware of it. Due to my power and station they didn’t dare do anything to me.”

“At least that’s what I thought. Then, when I was injured and powerless, a number of those vermin wanted a piece of me. Eventually, after my good friend’s eldest son was killed, I was forced into exile.”

While Archibald was talking, he noticed four uniformed men on patrol. Saving himself a bit of walking, he handed the captured thugs over to them.

“Let’s go to the marketplace. Even though it’s in the boonies, this is still a town. There should be some decent ingredients for cooking and maybe even some nice spices.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve had food with purchased seasonings, well, other than salt.” While they were in the wilderness Archibald was forced to forage for herbs. Mostly onions, which he was sick of by now.

As expected, the marketplace was full of garbage. But there were some decent stores selling what Archibald deemed passable.

While shopping the big man noticed that there was an unusually high number of beggars and bums in the side alleys. Another oddity was that the prices for all sorts of goods were somewhat higher than he had expected, roughly by a third. He guessed that an elven incursion must have happened during the four years that they were away. As far as the big man knew, that was the only thing that could cause refugees to seek shelter in the nearby towns for a while.

Done with their shopping, father and son went to the inn the tailor had recommended. It was ridiculously expensive, but it did have a number of advantages.

“You don’t have to worry about security. In these troubled times, that’s really important. We offer first class meals free of charge and…” The innkeeper glanced at Wolf, pausing for a moment.

“... we are on very good terms with the local brothel. If you’re seeking the company of a beauty just let me know.” Obviously he thought the boy was big enough to hear such talk.

The innkeeper finished his spiel with a wink and a grin, but he was barking up the wrong tree. The way Archibald lived his life was hardly any different from a eunuch.

Apart from his efforts to sire Wolf, he only had sex a couple of times during his youth and found the whole experience rather disappointing. Sure, it was nice, but with the way everyone was singing praises the man expected to be lifted to the heavens…

Disappointingly, it wasn’t nearly as good as advertised. Something that can only pass as a couple of minutes of fine wasn’t worth all the clamor. In fact, such high expectations were a large part of making the whole experience disappointing. So, after giving it a try a couple of times, he gave up on the damn thing and devoted his life to magic.

“Thanks, I’m good. Could you give us our key?”

After taking the key Wolf and Archibald went towards the stairs.

“Dad, they are really nice here! They will give us free food even though we only paid to sleep here.” Wolf spoke loudly enough for the innkeeper to hear him.

Archibald looked at his naive child and chuckled.

“Son, this place is so expensive that we’ve already paid for quite a few meals, more than they plan on feeding us. Saying that they are giving you something for free is just to make you feel better. When someone gives you something for free while doing business there are several possible reasons as to why. They could genuinely like you, or appreciate your patronage, or…” Archibald went into the full lecturer mode.

He realized that apart from magic and swordsmanship his son knew way too little about the world. So, he decided that it was high time to teach Wolf some things normal fathers taught their children.

When he woke up the next morning Archibald stirred in bed and looked at the wooden ceiling.

This place was worth every copper that that bloodsucker asked for…

It had been years since Archibald had slept on a feathered mattress. Not to mention having someone else prepare breakfast for him. Even when he lived with Sky, Archibald was the one that prepared food. After all, the woman used to be an empress and had never prepared a meal with her own two hands. You could even say she had never done an honest day’s worth of work…

Over the next couple of days Archibald and Wolf wandered around town. The father took the opportunity to instill some common sense into his boy. Wolf was a quick learner, it’s just that he didn’t have the opportunity to learn about society and concepts related to living in a community.

At first the boy spoke loudly and said everything that came to his mind. However this quickly changed, much to the little guy’s displeasure. He had an honest nature and approach to life. The only secret he had was the fact that he remembered his past life. Why shouldn’t he say that the lady over there had a big ass?

The boy didn’t understand, while his father couldn’t really give a good answer to this question. Just saying The tongue is the father of all troubles wasn’t a good explanation. At least it wasn’t as far as Wolf was concerned.

However, there were many other things that did make a lot of sense. Such as Don’t go around, pointing your finger at people.

Wolf knew that he didn’t feel good when the village children pointed their fingers towards him; so he got that one without asking any questions. And then there was a whole bunch of other pointless things wrapped up in the general category labeled manners.

While they were out and walking about, talking about common sense things Wolf should learn, Archibald felt people staring at them. He could hear their murmurs. Mages, Mages, Mages…

That one word was repeated over and over again. Most of these people were simply awed, but Archibald felt another kind of gaze mixed in. It was greed and malevolence. Even though his soul was crumbling, the emotions directed towards him were too obvious. If he was in his prime, he would’ve been able to tell who was the one doing the staring. Since he wasn’t, Archibald did the only thing he could.

Wolf was oblivious of this. He didn’t understand what these people were feeling yet. Instead he puffed his chest whenever he heard someone call him a Mage.

“Son, tomorrow, after we pick up our temporary robes, we’ll be heading towards the duchy capital, the Northshield city.” Archibald spoke much louder than usual, making sure whoever was spying on them could hear where they were headed, as well as that the new expensive robes were only a temporary thing.

“Dad, why are you acting so strange?” Wolf asked a vague question quietly, the way his father taught him to talk when there were people around them.

“I’ll explain when we get back to our room. For now just enjoy yourself. Anything you want to know, feel free to ask.” After walking for a couple of hours father and son returned to the inn. Wolf had discovered that he needed to walk quite a bit every day. He had grown used to it and just sitting in the inn didn’t feel right.

As the pair entered their room, Archibald locked the door.

“Son, someone seems to be targeting us. For tomorrow you should prepare several offensive spells as well as a couple of movement impeding ones. Lethargy modified with that Subtle spell you have come up with would be perfect. Prepare two just in case, but one should be more than enough. Arcane Storm and Fireball should be useful as well. Both of them should be Subtle.”

“Do you think we’ll have trouble tomorrow?” Wolf bobbed his head a couple of times before he spoke.

“I can't tell for certain, but it’s highly likely. Better safe than sorry I guess. Also, if we do get attacked tomorrow… Just treat people like they are very weak Monster Beasts. You got it? Since they are attacking us with the intent to kill, you shouldn’t show any mercy. Just think what would happen if you were defeated.” Archibald spoke solemnly. Wolf had seen dead bodies and gore before, but never personally killed anyone. Could the boy handle it?

“All right. What if they don’t have the intent to kill?” Wolf nodded once more. The boy appeared as relaxed as if someone was explaining the rules of a game to him.

Archibald paused for a moment. Wolf raised a perfectly valid question.

“If they come after us, it probably won’t be to talk things through. But it’s not completely impossible that they just want to scare us…” The man seemed deep in thought. What were the odds of someone chasing after them without the intent to kill?

“Prepare two Discrete Deep Slumbers as well. That should put them all to sleep without alerting them. Do you know what you should do in this case?”

Wolf nodded.

“First target the ones behind. If we’re lucky and the enemy has bad perception they might not even notice that a part of their group is sleeping behind their backs. Don’t you think preparing two is an overkill dad?”

“Deep Slumber puts up to ten people to sleep, I believe they will come with full force. This town is already full of rumors about us being Mages, so I don’t think they will underestimate us by sending just a couple of thugs.”

“All right. Enough about that, let's go and have ourselves some lunch.” Archibald was a bit torn about what was about to happen.

This would be the first time Wolf killed a person in the real world. Even though it was something that had to happen at some point, he really didn’t want his boy to turn into a killer before growing up.

Wolf had other problems. When he heard his father’s suggestion the boy made a disgusted face.

“What’s wrong son?” Archibald thought that Wolf minded the killing and was about to say something on the subject

“The food here’s disgusting.” Instead, this was troubling Wolf. Maybe killing was still a game to him?

“Well, I don’t know. It’s certainly not top notch, but the cook here is decent.”

“He’s much worse than you dad.” Wolf said seriously, making his father smile.

“Why thanks, but you should learn to eat other people’s cooking. Once you enter the Mage Academy you will eat in a mess hall or a tavern. Either that or you fix your own meals. As you know I won’t be around for much longer...” Archibald fumbled when he said this.

He might have come to terms with his death years ago, but Wolf was his child. Whenever Archibald mentioned his impending death in the fake carefree manner of his, Wolf would turn glum. He still hadn’t come to terms with his father’s condition and unavoidable future.

“... How about I teach you to cook? That way you can eat your father’s cooking for a lifetime.” Archibald forced a laugh, trying to cheer up the boy.

Archibald's lessons:

This is even more unfair towards females. Even without getting pregnant, just losing their purity slows down the growth of their soul. For this reason female Archmages and True-Namers are much less common than their male counterparts.