Harrison was gasping for air when he finished practicing with the spear. He gave it his all doing the seamless movements with the spear that were mentioned in the manual. Some parts of movements he didn’t understand since they required a specific angle to hit from. He could do it just fine but didn’t understand the logic behind it.

He sat a bit on the grass before he went back to the shack and stored the practice spear.

Harrison thought about how easy it was for him to learn new skills with the system. All he needed was access to books and energy to convert those books to a skill. What took some people their whole lifetime he could do in a day if he had enough energy.

‘I need to put upgrading my energy at the top of my priorities list.’

Harrison thought as he started walking towards the kitchen.

He came to the cart just as Fergun was washing it off with a bucket of water. The horse was standing there lazily munching on something and didn’t pay any attention to the humans.

“Already done?” Harrison asked.

“Yeah. The rough part at least. We wanted to free the cart as soon as possible, so we just cut it up, so we could move it inside. The fur is being dried with the marakash fur from last time. It should be ready for you in three days.” Fergun joyfully replied as he still remembered Harrison’s generosity from last time.

“All right then. I will go and wash up and go get breakfast. You and Gordo can take some meat for your families. I will be sure to get more in the future so don’t worry.” Harrison said and buttered up Fergun some more. By now if there was an election Gordo and Fergun would vote for him for sure.

“There is no need,” Fergun replied a bit embarrassed but his eyes told a different story.

“Don’t worry about it.” Harrison waved his hand and started leaving.

“Thank you.” Fergun yelled after him just as Gordo came out.

Looking at Fergun he said, “What are you thanking him for?”

“He said we can take some meat for our families again.” Fergun replied with joy in his voice.

Gordo smacked his hands and did a little jump into the air which made him look like a hippo doing a ballet move.

“He did. Ahhhh. He is such a nice kid. I knew it the first time I laid my eyes on him he was nice.”

Gordo left back for the kitchen as Fergun nodded at him.

Leaving his room after cleaning himself up Harrison thought about if he should shamelessly join the breakfast in the dining room or if he should leave the mansion and eat somewhere in town.

In the end he decided to face the music.

As he came into the dining room he saw Shalmoonm Sheina and Rogun already seated.

He greeted Shalmoon and Sheina with a bow but left out Rogun as he was unsure if he should.

Then an unexpected thing to Harrison happened as Rogun stood up and bowed after greeting him.

“I would like to apologize for my behavior yesterday. In my line of work I see a lot of youngsters whose only ability is to wag their tongues, and I am sorry to misjudge you to be one of them. I have seen you practice with the spear and what I thought was your cockiness speaking was proven to be your real ability. I hope you can forgive this old man for getting too heated in the spur of the moment. If you don’t want me to teach you about using weapons anymore I will understand but please don’t your resentment towards me flow towards Shalmoon and Sheina. They both have only the best intentions towards you.”

As Rogun let out his prepared speech he waited until Harrison smiled and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

Harrison looked at the expecting Rogun as he finally said, “It’s partly my fault too as I haven’t considered the things I can do from your perspective. What you deemed as boastful was normal to me and your questioning attitude made me angry, so we both came to a misunderstanding. How about we give it a fresh start?”

The last sentence brought a smile on Rogun’s face and his beard jumped from joy as he said, “Yes. Let’s drink to a fresh start. Shalmoon, get us something to drink.”

Shalmoon looked at him with a sharp gaze and shook his head.

The gaze meant, ‘am I your servant’ and the shaking was at how quickly his teacher changed his humble tune.

“Englin get them some drinks.” Shalmoon commanded.

Englin quickly brought a big bottle which must have contained several liters onto the table and two small cups.

“Shalmoon won’t you join us?” Rogun said with joy.

“You will have to excuse me. I have things to do after breakfast.” Shalmoon said as he emphasized breakfast.

“Sheina?” Rogun asked.

“I will just watch you two. It’s too early for me.” Sheina said.

Englin poured two cups of the liquor and put them on the table in front of the two standing men. Well, a man and a boy.

Harrison looked at the cup wearily and next thing he did was check up on his energy storage. He had 11 units left after he got some through meditating when idle.

A wicked plan went through his head as he looked at Rogun.

‘This is for spanking me.’ He thought as he smiled.

He picked up the cup.

“To a fresh start.” Harrison said as he reached for the cup.

It was made out of a silver metal so you could not see inside and by the time the cup was at his mouth it was already almost completely empty. He just left some liquid inside, so he could taste it.

It tasted like swallowing fire which went down his esophagus and exploded in his stomach.

Rogun as if reminded of his former drinking glory days raised his cup too and emptied it.

Harrison gestured to Englin and said, “Pour us another one.”

Rogun joyfully accepted the idea.

This time Harrison no longer wanted to taste the strong alcohol and just let it all disappear into the inventory.

Just as Harrison wanted to gesture to Englin, Rogun took the initiative. Englin complied and they downed the third cup. Then the fourth and fifth.

By the time they downed the fifth Shalmoon was already asking Harrison if he was feeling well.

After the seventh cup there was a moment of silence before Rogun stumbled and fell on his behind giggling like a little girl.

‘Now we are even. You old bastard. I hope your hangover hurts as much as my behind did.’

The porridge the cooks brought in almost right at the start of the drinking games was on the table getting cold so Harrison gestured that they should start eating.

“Are you sure you are all right?” Sheina asked the seemingly normal Harrison and then looked at Rogun who was already snoring beside the table.

Shalmoon could only facepalm hearing the snores that sounded like a bear hibernating.

“I am perfectly all right.” Harrison said and took the ladle.

He ate the porridge and talked to Shalmoon who by the breath Harrison intermittently emitted was now sure he actually drank the alcohol.

‘Ai. Old man you finally met your match even in this.’ Shalmoon thought as he smiled at Harrison. ‘And to imagine it was a 12-year-old kid who did you in. I can’t wait for you to wake up, so I can make fun of you.’

He didn’t have to look at Rogun as he was snoring so loud even the cooks could hear him in the kitchen through a closed door.

“I am sorry Sheina for not being more respectful towards Rogun.” Harrison said after a while.

“No. Don’t be. He admitted that he had wronged you. And I … I wronged you too.” Sheina said while looking at her plate of porridge.

“When did you wrong me? I know nothing about it.” Harrison pretended like he had no clue what she was talking about.

Sheina wanted to respond but looking at his smiling expression she knew he was teasing her, so she chose to remain quiet.

Looking at the two behaving like two love birds Shalmoon was conflicted. His fatherly instincts on one side told him to chase away Harrison with everything he has and the other instinct told him Harrison could become the best ally Sheina could ever wish for.

‘It’s too soon. Too soon. Aroana what should I do?’ Shalmoon lamented in his head as he observed their antics.

‘At least Sheina needs to leave next week.’ At last, he managed to console himself with his fact…

A loud snore woke him up from his thinking, and he shook before saying, “Get up you old bastard.”