“What is your name.”

“It is Bugger. Why would I lie about my name?”

“Why were you sent here.”

“Like I said. My village is close to the north west continent. They threatened to destroy my village unless we killed the dragon here.”

“You most certainly didn't say that. At least exactly what you just said. Next question, do you want to kill me?”

“...I don't think I can kill you… I just came here to try and kill you to save my village.”

“Even with everything I have already said. Hearing the same things happening to all the other races involved in this war besides humans.”

“I… I know that even if I do kill you. They'll just betray me, I had planned to hide your corpse a ways off so when they went to look for it, we would have time to flee.”

“That won't work… I think I know something that will though. You take a teleport scroll with you and before you get close to the village, you come back through and bring my army with you. I'll play dead, they think you've killed me and my army will attack them at the same time I spring into action. You separate the village from the fighting and once we kill the troops threatening your people you join my army...”

“...Why do you care so much? I've tried to kill you once already and I was going to break out tonight and make another attempt at your life. Why do you want to save my people that badly?”

“… I don't want to see another race get slaughtered in this war. You care so much for your village that you would attempt to fight a dragon by yourself. I respect people like you, the ones who are willing to risk their lives for the sake of their people… I also see the potential of having the bugbear race as an ally… The biggest concern of mine right now is my lack of troops. Killing a few hundred troops that have invaded your village that we will eventually be fighting anyways isn't a bad deal either.”

He sits there waiting for a half minute. Thinking everything I just said over. He gives me an answer.

“… You would make an awful spy. There is no way you should ever give this much information to an enemy like this… I believe you though. I feel… Maybe you are the only way my village has any chance at surviving.”

“I guess this is goodbye for now then. I'll see you again once you get close to your village.”

“It will take a few months to get back to my village.”

“I can wait… I'm in the middle of a war with some pirates right now and I want to have that cleaned up before the next war starts… I hate this world… You finish one battle then get thrust immediately into another.”

“What an easy life you have.”

He winces in pain like a jolt of electricity goes through him. He recovers then says.

“Damn! Can't these collars sense sarcasm!?”

I guide him back through the portal, giving him a portal scroll for when he makes it to his village… His receiving scroll is placed in another cage… Perhaps I'll dig holes to place the receiving portals from to make them extra secure. So the only way they can get out is with the help of a rope ladder thrown down to them from above. I don't quite trust the vikings and the bugbears yet.

It is starting to get dark. Night is setting on the first day I've had outside the tree… I still need to teach Trice today… If I don't, tomorrow will be harder so I have to do it tonight. Tomorrow is going to be another long and drawn out day. Some of what I had planned to do today will roll into it. I go to visit Trice in her room at the castle. With a knock on the door, I'm allowed entrance. I'm barely two steps into the room before she questions me.

“Glad to see you today. I half expected you to forget I asked for your help.”

“I wouldn't forget about your request, I was actually heading to you first but figured you would want me to learn every class possible before I taught you.”

“… I accept that apology.”

We go over the classes I have. Trice had only one spot to fill… Once I go over my new class… The yellow mage class I just gained today... I see her attitude shift. It was like the piece of a puzzle just came into play that solves it. She speaks.

“Can you explain the yellow mage more?”

“I just learned it today. I only have the beginning passive and the level 1 skill.”

“… Who did you learn it off of?”

“Zergnar's pet… She never used a bow though, so most of her attacks would have went underutilized. She was kind of a ditz.”

She turns away and I hear her whispering to herself. Most likely trying to plan out her class.

“That complicates things… Hmm… The magic I learn now will determine my main weapon… The practice I've been doing with martial arts suits close range… But the new class would give me a boost to long range… Hmm… It is between red mage and yellow mage then. Red mage is a known class, reaching 100 with it would give me a very huge boost to my fighting capabilities… While yellow mage would give me boosts over time but is an undefined class...”

I haven't told her about the new bows either.

“If you're undecided, perhaps you want to test out the new bows I've made while inside the time tree.”

I pull out my bow from my void pouch and show it too her. She looks closely too it, inches away from the bow. She finally speaks.

“What amazing craftsmanship… Are you sure you didn't steal this from a professional?”

“You should see the bow I made for Troll.”

“...I'm guessing your the one who named the troll, Troll… Heh, bad at naming like always. You couldn't think of something more clever like Reegen or Broll so we could have called him Broll the troll. Reegen because of his regenerating properties.”

“Hey it was spur of the moment! I would rather keep it simple as people will call out to him. If he was called troll before changing his name to Troll will not confuse him when people call out to him.”

“...I guess that works for now. What happens when we get more trolls though? Will you also name them Troll? That will get very confusing for them.”

“I guess we'll have to think about that when the time comes. Trolls are very uncommon, the fact that I gained one as an ally is a feat of amazement in itself.”

“I suppose you're right… From one point of view… Let's go practice this bow.”

We head to a training room inside the fortress for practice. Trice practices with my compound bow, while I use my longbow until she feels whether or not she can use it. She can use it at full draw weight of what it should be at. A beginner using a 50 pound draw weight bow is slightly impressive. I've personally upgraded my bow to be able to use 70 pound draw weight. The longbow I use is now set to 140 pounds.

After practicing for about 20 minutes she is already breathing hard and looking rough. Her fingers are worn down, she's released incorrectly a few times and the arrow skimmed her fingers. It seems like she is hesitating to let go of the arrow all the way… Perhaps a crossbow would be better suited for Trice. Or a lower draw weight, more practice would also correct the problem.

The old giant crossbows I made were about 40 pounds of draw weight. You could pull the string back into place with both your hands if you had the butt of the bow in your stomach. If I used my new superior bow making now I could potentially get the draw weight close to 100… That would make it far harder to lock the string into place. Only the strongest of my generals would be able to do that.

“Alright… Give me one of these bows and teach me yellow mage. I'll figure out if this was the best choice or not eventually… I feel that I can support better further back, giving me a better vantage point to see everything.”

I spend 10 minutes teaching yellow mage. She learns it that quickly. (of course she does) I feel… Worn out… Even though I'm glad I'm outside… I'm already worn down from my duties as leader… I still have to talk to Leaf today… I start moving to do that, entering the castle mimic I had forgotten that it has a perpetual false sun.

Entering the castle… Heading towards Leaf's room and knocking… I start to get a little nervous… I hope she didn't already go to sleep. I hear her inside.

“Come in.”

She must have already been in bed. She is dressed in her sleeping cloths I had made for her when I made their gear. It has started to get too small. Her petite belly shows through her small shirt… I completely forget why I'm here as I look at the thin line of skin peeking through. Snapping myself out of my self made trance by mentally slapping myself.

“Leaf… I've come to talk about… Where we stand...”

She just remains standing next to her bed. I hadn't noticed but she has decorated her room with many things from her adventuring. Several different pieces of bosses she had taken as tokens of her victories. They had numbered in the dozens and were all neatly arranged on a dresser behind her bed. She has a steel sheet above the dresser polished to a mirror shine she probably uses… As a mirror…

“I want to be with you. I don't care about our age difference now. If you don't mind that is… I realize I had kissed you without asking before and that was rude of me… You're feelings for me might have changed while training so that could have been rude.”

“I still love you too. It just feels… Too early for us to be together. Like if we do become a couple. I'll feel like if I pinned you down now you'll regret it in 30 years when you could have any women you want.”

“Is that it? Is that the only reason you don't want to be together? I've already lived three lives… It feels unfair that I'm bringing all this baggage into the relationship… All I know is… I don't care about anything besides you right now. You say take it slow but… You take things slow when you're not sure… I'm taking this war slow, I don't want to take it slow with you because I know it's right. I can feel it in my heart that we are supposed to be together.”

She drops her head slightly and looks away. I walk over to her and pull her face back to look at me. This time she doesn't pull away. I lean in to a kiss but she leans away from me… I stop trying to force her to kiss me then. Going into a hug instead. I whisper into her ear.

“We'll go as slow as you want. Just know I'm all in for this. I can't think about being with anyone else besides you. I spent an entire year with my thoughts, I know what I want to do. That is be with you. Plain and simple, I want to be with you Leaf.”

I let her go, I start walking towards the door and she grabs my hand. Facing away from me. I can hear a quake in her voice like she's terrified.

“L-listen… I w-want to be with you… We just have to t-take it slow. I don't know if my heart could handle going fast.”

I make a shadow clone of myself. Letting Aegis know to go tell my pets I won't be returning tonight. I grab Leaf as she has a shocked look on her face and climb into the bed. She starts to struggle flustered by the situation but I start to talk before she gets the wrong idea of what I'm doing.

“Fine, we can take it slow then. We don't have to do anything besides sleep in the same bed tonight. I just want to be by you tonight…"

Maybe this was rash decision, I'm still in my gear… Should I ruin this moment?

"...Can you give me a moment to go change into more comfortable clothing?”

She laughs a little by the odd situation I put us in. I had this whole cool thing planned in my head but I want to get a good nights sleep for tomorrow. I quickly rush back to my room to change and I get weird looks from my pets. I head back to Leaf's room and she is already sleeping… Or pretending to sleep most likely. I crawl in the other side of the bed and cuddle up against her… Trying to keep... certain body parts from poking her awake…