Year 2, Summer, Third Month, Third Week.

“I don’t understand how he knows so much… We have been observing him for a year and he didn’t have a single contact outside the village. Either he already knew all of this or he’s learning about it somehow. I’m starting to believe in those tales going around…”

Marlen continued to waive the straw fibers while occasionally glancing at the distressed Omero, but Bill let out an unrestrained laugh.

“What? Do you really believe he's a messenger of the Origin? Haha… For me, it doesn’t matter where his knowledge comes from, I just want to see more of it… For Origin sakes, he’s crafting a tool that can locate beasts, I think only Spellcasters would be able to do the same… I want to see more of his abilities, can you imagine how far the village could go once we are out of the Kingdom’s reach? Even destroying it isn’t impossible…”

Omero’s eyes shined with the idea and Grandma Marlen decided to add:

“You should reevaluate your goals… Omero, they died but Diana is still alive, she could be free, as could all villagers here…”

“How about the other villages, Marlen? How many Dianas and Katlyns live there, how many villagers die only to serve them some extra food? How about those who died trying to change the system? Have you forgotten them?”

“I didn’t but the world belongs to the living… I’m not asking you to give up on your revenge, I didn’t give up on mine, just try to remember who would suffer more in a rebellion.”

“Freedom never comes without a price…”

“Just remember to not push her too far or you might lose the last of your family…”

***

The swords collided and Diana was pushed back once more. She painted heavily but Lew didn’t even sweat. He had come to enjoy training the villagers more than he expected, it had been very different from training spoiled nobles. The drive and persistence to get it right were refreshing. The last year had been so chaotic and he could finally breathe again, plus the air in the village was much purer.

“Now I’m sure… You were trained to fight against people, not against beasts. Your posture, your speed between attacks, all of it points to a fight against an armed foe…”

Diana’s silence made it clear that she wouldn’t comment on it. Lew let out a displeased grunt before giving his assessment.

“Your technique is good, way better than a lot of nobles… You only need more experience fighting against strong opponents… People often disregard the importance of time and experience... There’s something else you could try to improve yourself, though… But I’m not sure that would work with whatever you have going here…”

“What?”

The ability of the villagers to keep important information from reaching his ears surprised Lew. Almost three weeks later and he still didn’t know much about their plans and activities outside.

“Do you know how Fighters manipulate magic energy?”

The look of surprise on Diana’s face brushed away his bad mood, he finally found something to bargain with. It was his time to be silent.

“I only know magic energy makes them stronger, I thought it happened naturally by exposure…”

“Sometimes it does… But I guarantee you that a trained Fighter knows how to use the magic energy to do all sort of things, increase his speed, strength, improve recovery, enhance senses…”

“How?”

Lew only smiled.

***

“…Then he said that he would teach me how to do it if we could explain Alchemy effects better.”

The Council members started to discuss the risks and ponder if it was worth it to tell him something. Before doing business with Keller, they decided to keep a secret as much information about Alchemy as possible, but now someone wanted to exchange it for something that could help them. However, the first step would be verifying the usefulness of his techniques, which landed in Karl’s area.

“Hmm… We would have to comprehend his abilities better, but if he can manipulate magic energy to reinforce and improve his body, we could benefit a lot from it. Until now, we used magic energies to improve weapons and tools, it would be another breakthrough to use them directly in our bodies… I didn’t try before because it’s dangerous, but maybe he could even the scales…”

Most of the villagers were on the fence, they didn’t want to jeopardize their chances by talking to an outsider. It wasn’t different for the three elders, they trusted Keller on the basis that they knew his goals and origins, but they wouldn’t go with blind trust. In the end, they decided to give Lew a chance, if he could present a good reason for them to trust him, they would give it a try. He was called in and Omero explained:

“Our craft is the only advantage we have against the Kingdom, we can’t reveal it carelessly… However, we decided to give you a chance to convince us that you would keep it a secret and wouldn’t sell us to them.”

Lew looked around checking their expressions, which looked genuine, some more curious while others were more hesitant.

“Before coming here, I only had two goals, to get an incredible weapon and to learn about your craft… Not because I wanted to sell it, but because I’m truly curious about it. Since I learned how to use magic energy, I earned to understand more about it… But after seeing what you’re doing here, I want to help… So, I decided to tell you what I know even if you don’t tell me anything…”

The Council pavilion became agitated, everyone started to guess what Lew’s goal was.

“I… I’m a little surprised too. I wasn’t sure until I said it… I guess when helping with the training I saw something of myself on the villagers… I would like to share my story… Though I would ask you to listen to everything before judging me. I could omit some parts that would make me look bad, but that wouldn’t be fair with you…”

Omero’s nodded and he continued.

“I have to start before I was born, with my parents… My father was the son of a Royal attendant, you might not know but it’s very rare for attendants to be allowed to have families. Even so, my father grew serving a Royal, he was being trained to serve a young Master a few years younger than him. Unfortunately, the young Master didn’t have any elemental affinity and had to leave the Capital of elements, as his personal servant, my father also left his family when he was 12.”

“The young Master was in name a scion of the house of Tempest, so he returned to the wind region, but as non-Mage, he could only become a Fighter in the House’s private forces. Either way, my father continued to serve him dutifully. He would follow his Master to training and secretly learn fighting techniques, he became a Guard, then a Fighter only by observing and training alone… However, his Master didn’t, and when he learned that his servant was better than him, he ordered that my father be punished an inch from death before sending him to the Army as a slave. The fate of an Army slave is to die in the front lines, but my father survived it, he would resist the slaughter until the second line arrived and he would score even more deaths than anyone in the Fighter’s regiment. A Captain saw his potential and pitied him, he was transferred to Fighter’s regiment and continued to advance. I was born almost ten years later when he was already a Captain of his own regiment, but my mother was an Army slave that just like him was strong enough to survive… Unfortunately, after I was born and his feelings for her became known, she was forced into a dire situation by a jealous Captain and died in the front lines… I was raised by another slave near the battlefields and trained by my father to be strong and survive… ”

“My father hated slavery and the Kingdom’s system but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he fought, he learned all the secret techniques he could and continued to advance in the Army until he became a Royal Fighter. However, he still couldn’t change anything, so he gave up on doing it himself. He started too low, but I didn’t... Even with my poor upbringing, I was the son of Royal Fighter. I advanced to Fighter with 14 and with 20, I was already the Captain of the first section of the wind region…”

The information landed like a hammer, smashing the hearts of the Council members. Even the three elders didn’t expect this. Diana reached for her weapon, as did all the armed present while the others hastily stood up from their chairs.