Rhax opened his eyes expecting to see the wooden ceiling in Peter’s and Julia’s house. But instead, he saw a marvelous white marble ceiling. The ceiling was decorated with some impressive looking chandeliers. They looked like they were made out of pure crystal.

Rhax was confused, where was he? The last thing he remembers inside the game was a couple of people conversing, but he can’t remember the conversion. His body was not hurting him, it was kinda of a surprise, he expected the pain to attack him the moment he woke up. But he didn’t feel any pain coming from his body, it was like he was magically healed.

He wiggled his toes and fingers first to actually be sure if there was any pain, it might hurt him to move. But nothing came, so he went onto the next step and started to move his feet and hands. Still nothing….

After a couple of tests, he concluded that his body in fact was healed. How? He has no idea, but it seems through magic. As most of his wounds were none existent. Only one notable wound or in better term scar was visible. It was the slash he took from Ziran, it started from his left shoulder and ended around his right pelvis area. It was a ghastly thing, the skin around it was burnt and scarred. The wound and the skin were pink in color and gave off a very weird aura. It was like the scars were immortal and will not be erased from their place or disappear in time.

‘Guess I have new scars….’ He has already lost an eye, and now he has a scar on his chest. The only place remaining empty now is his legs, and he has a feeling that they will not stay empty for long.

After he finished examining his body, he looked around and was shocked to see where he was. The room was lavish. His king-sized bed was in the middle of the room and there was like 7 meters between his bed and either wall.

The room was decorated with two sofas and a table in the middle, and a table with 4 chairs on the right side. There was also a clothing closet beside his bed. He immediately opened it, he was completely naked and needed something to cover himself. After finishing putting on clean and well-made black breeches with a hint of gold in them. He started looking for a shirt when the door to the room opened.

Rhax’s body involuntarily tensed, he ran to the beside and grabbed the empty tray there. He then turned in a swift motion holding the tray like a shield. But what welcomed his eyes was the sight of a woman, she was wearing a black and white maid outfit. She seemed startled, but then got her composure together and smiled in a friendly way.

“I’m sorry to startle you, I didn’t know you woke up. I was….” Her eyes went wide like plates and she started stuttering. “You…. woke…up…. I need to tell Lady Octavia!” The tray with water and some kind of soup she was holding clattered as she power walked out of the room.

“Lady Octavia? Where did I hear this name?” Rhax murmured, he sat on the bed to think a little. But his thought process was cut short as the door to the room was opened again, the maid was nowhere in sight, but instead the woman he saved, Octavia, appeared.

She was panting like she had run all the way here; her blonde hair was styled in a ponytail. She was wearing a black dress that was impeded with gold at the neck, hands and end of the dress. Her beautiful face broke into a smile as she saw him. She immediately ran and jumped on him.

Rhax catched her in his arms and he was thankful that he was on the bed because if he wasn’t, then he would have tasted how hard the floor is. “Ser, you’re awake! I was so worried; you have been sleeping for 2 days.”

Rhax didn’t know what to do with this woman that was hugging him to death. So, he coughed and swiftly untangled himself. “The name is Rhax, My Lady. And there is no need for the ‘Ser’. I'm not a knight.”

Octavia collected herself, she smiled and looked him over. But Rhax saw something in her green eyes glow, it was like she realized something. Her face started to go red as she stuttered. “Ser Rhax….aren’t you…going to put anything on?”

It was then that Rhax remembered he forgot to put on a shirt and was naked from the waist up.

He blushed a little and smiled, then immediately went to the closet and rampaged for a shirt to wear. Thankfully he found one, it was also black, but this one had a lot more gold in it. It was in the shape of a creature that has an eagle’s head, lion’s body, four eagle talons and a couple of feathery wings. ‘A Griffon, huh?’

He wore it and went back to bed. Octavia made herself comfortable on the bed and smiled at him when he sat down. “It suits you, Ser.”

“Thank you, but please, drop the Ser, I’m not a knight. Just call me Rhax.”

The woman smiled again; she then held his hands in her own while making eye contact. “Thank you, Rhax. You saved my life and I will always be in your debt.”

Rhax was a little flustered, this was the first time that a person thanked him this way. Peter did thank him for saving Olivia, but it was not like the one Octavia was doing. He felt it was more personal than Peter’s. “Don’t worry about it, I couldn’t leave a pretty Lady like you get murdered by a crazy bastard because of something that is not true.”

Octavia’s face fell, she closed her eyes for a couple of seconds then spoke again. “What he said was true, I do have Demon blood in me. But it is a few generations back, 5 exactly. My ancestor at the time, fell in love with a Demon and married him in secret, but he was murdered by the Ashien church before he could see his newborn son. Seeing the danger looming around her son, my ancestor never revealed who the father was and it became a secret only our family knew.”

Rhax’s mind was trying to process everything he heard, but something was bugging him. Where was he? He kinda forgot to ask.

“Octavia, thank you for telling me this, but why did you tell me? I understand that this is a secret that could bring doom to your family. Also, where am I, and who are you?”

Octavia’s smile got bigger and brighter. “I told you because you killed a Knight of Ash for me and went against a God to protect me, this is the least I could do for you. As for your second question, we are in Rlia, specifically in Griffon’s Nest. For your third question, let me introduce myself,” she did a half bow and spoke, “My name is Octavia Vermot, daughter of Lord Bram Vermot the ruler of Rlia.”

Rhax’s jaw was about to drop. ‘I saved the Lord’s daughter while out chopping trees? What kind of cliche is this?’ His thoughts then went to a subject he forgot about. Peter and his family should be worried as hell for him as he didn’t come back.

“Octavia, please, can you send someone immediately to Peter’s Smithy and explain the situation for Peter, it is located…” Octavia put her finger in front of his mouth, shushing him.

“It is okay, I know where it is located, Peter is the best Blacksmith in Rlia. I will send one immediately.” She then got out, after around five minutes she came back in. “All done.”

Rhax sighed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“May I ask what is your relationship to Peter?”

Rhax didn’t know how to answer this question, was he an employee? Disciple? Or a family friend? He decided to go with the most basic one. “I work there, I’m kind of his disciple, but not really. I just started.”

Octavia’s eyes glowed. “Wow, this is amazing, people would kill to be Peter’s disciple, did you know Father’s sword was made by Peter’s father?”

Rhax smiled and nodded. “Yes, I know, he gave me the basic run down.”

That made Octavia giggle, he got to admit, she was a beauty. But something was bugging him, he couldn’t tell how old she was. She looked to be in her twenties but at the same time she looked like a teenager. “Octavia, how old are you?”

Octavia didn’t hesitate. “I’m 24. You?”

“Almost 30.”

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, it was kind of awkward but not that much. Octavia cracked first and she started talking about how she got into the situation in the first place. Apparently, she was visiting her grandfather who was the ruler of another city, and on the way back the bandits ambushed them. Her guards were killed and she escaped. Only the three bandits Rhax faced remained from the original group, but she couldn't take them on.

“Now that I think about it, it was not a random bandit attack, but Matthew Ziran probably planned it beforehand and wanted to make it seem like a normal bandit attack.” Octavia said, her right index finger was pushing her right cheek in an adorable way, Rhax understood it was her thinking face. As she made it a couple of times when she was thinking about something.

“Yeah, definitely, that man is smart enough for that, if he succeeded it would’ve probably been investigated as a bandit attack.” Rhax agreed with her.

What was bugging Rhax was, how did Ziran know her location? It wasn’t a hard question to answer, there was a traitor in the Vermot family! It seems that Octavia also came to the conclusion as her eyes went sad for a moment but then got hard as steel.

Rhax sighed, he got himself in a situation larger than him……