“You’re being an idiot“

“It will be fine, I’ll be careful”

“I’m telling, this is a really really bad idea, that spiteful hag will experiment on you and-“

“Look I just won’t drink anything weird”

“You realise that’s literally the only reason she wants an assistant, so she can pour faulty potions down your throat”

“Ok but you have to admit, alchemy and potion making is really cool, besides its the only job in the village that involves something sort of magical”

As we left the guild I opened my mouth to retort but closed it again, if he wanted to fart for 3 days non-stop, I had done my civic duty to warn him. Also I couldn’t deny that I would enjoy his suffering a tiny bit, I was still sour about the hole in my wing.

A bell tolled once and as the sound rung through the whole village and my heart started racing. Immediately activating [Battle sense], I looked around frantically, but there was no sign of any red from hidden Orcs.

I slowly calmed down when I noticed that no one else seemed to be panicking or worried, most people looked a bit annoyed or excited. Everyone on the street started to walk in the same direction and people even started coming out of their houses to join them.

I looked at Daniel and shrugged before he could ask me what was going on. Pocketing my job notice I hesitantly stepped in to follow the crowd, the beekeeper wasn’t expecting me until tomorrow morning anyway. Even the receptionists from the guild locked up and grumbling as they pushed past us “Excuse me, but what’s going on?” I politely asked an older lady leaving the guild. She looked down at me with a forced smile “Probably some announcement by Lady Trostin’s emissary, nothing for you to worry yourself about dear” she said before looking forward griping “I hope they’re not increasing taxes, all these stupid wars, all the nobles need a good whack on the head”

I bobbed my head in agreement and fell back to walk beside Daniel, it looked like they were headed to the village square for some mandatory village announcement. I was getting increasingly nervous the closer we got, it was fairly unlikely that they’d mention people from another world coming here, but it was still possible and I wasn’t sure how people would react to that.

Turning into the square I could see a good deal of people spread about looking towards the far side of the square where a rickety wooden stage had been set up. People in uniform were standing around on the stage in loose formation waiting for everyone to arrive. More people poured out of the side streets and I scowled, standing on my tiptoes trying to keep an eye on the stage but I was too short to see past the adults.

“Want to try to get closer?” Daniel whispered, I hesitated, this didn’t seem dangerous but what if it had something to do with Daniel and I and we’d have to escape or something? Someone knocked into me from behind, throwing me against a man in front of me. I uttered an apology and turned to glare at the kid who’d pushed past me, but he was already slipping between two adults in front. Right behind him were 4 other kids I vaguely recognised from school, who boldly darted forwards following the first kid.

Daniel grinned at me and shrugged before slipping through the opening they had created. I deliberated for a second before I followed, I didn’t want to be left alone and I was pretty curious about what was happening.

Besides one benefit of being a child was that you could get away with more. We pushed and squirmed our way through bodies to get to the front, eliciting angry huffs and irritated glares but otherwise people seemed resigned to kids shoving ahead of them. Squeezing past a rather rotund man, I finally burst out of the crowd where several other children had already taken up front row spots to look up at the stage.

From here I could see that the village chief and a good deal of village guards accompanied the uniformed people around the stage, though only the chief, one guard and 5 in uniforms were on stage. One of them held the blue and white flag up while a guard held up a red and gold flag next to it. A middle-aged man in a slightly more elaborate white and blue uniform came up on stage to stand next to the chief.

His sharp eyes roved over the crowd who was quieting down. He paused for a moment before settling on the middle of the crowd “People of Dalhurst village, as you know I’m here for the midsummer allegiance ceremony which will be held here in 2 days time” low cheering and quiet clapping followed “But before we get into that, I have the fortunate of bringing you good news, Duke Rostrik has defeated the cowardly Duke Waylin in battle, his armies marched forward and took the city of Renyn causing the traitorous Duke to flee. No doubt he will be captured and executed soon allowing the kingdom to return to order” clapping exploded and people cheered; I started clapping as I watched kids around me hooting and jumping.

The man held up a hand and the crowd quietened “Our most gracious queen thanks our Duke Rostrik for uprooting the traitor and asks him to hold the city of Renyn in her name until the time until that the traitorous Duke Waylin can be found and executed and his successor instated as the new Duke of the northern province”

Cheering was a bit quieter this time, I assumed that meant soldiers weren’t coming home yet. I frowned thoughtfully, even though this Duke Rostrik was being lauded as a hero for defeating a traitor, he was no doubt profiting from holding another city captive, even if it was in the Queen’s name. Besides, they hadn’t even mentioned how this Duke Waylin was a traitor, though maybe since this was the end of the war everyone here already knew.

“Pss hey gecko” I turned to see Carston waving at me from down the line of kids, I started waving back with my bandaged hand before shoving it down, turning my snout up and looking at the stage as I remembered what he did to Aron. We’d formed a sort of truce after the Orc attack, but I wasn’t going to foster any type of friendship with a bully like him.

The man started talking again, looking grim this time, steely eyes boring into the crowd “Unfortunately I do have troubling news. A week ago our mages detected an enormous mana wave crossing the continent originating from deep within the Republic of Sefir, As of now our mages are hard at work determining the exact source and purpose of this event, but we fear they were testing a new weapon or performing a dangerous ritual with the intent of war on Valensir” Groans and shouts of anger filled the square as the man once again silenced them, his voice rolling over the square. I tried to keep my breathing even but I was starting to feel sick, a massive mana wave one week ago? That couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Our righteous queen wishes to avoid bloodshed between our nations and has send numerous requests imploring the Sefirans for an explanation, but alas they refuse to reply. We can only take their silence and lack of honour as confirmation that they are indeed planning on waging war”

This time he didn’t try to silence the crowd as the shouted in anger, stamping their feet and his voice seemed to boom louder than should be possible “But we are not weak, we are not cowards, if it is war they want, then it is war we will give them. Valensir will not fall prey to some green newborn welp of a republic, our illustrious history goes back hundreds of year, filled with valiant victories borne on the back of brave Valenians just like yourselves” he pointed out at the crowd and they cheered, chanting ‘Valensir’ as I paled.

I put my hand to my mouth as bile threatened to rise up, if I remembered correctly, the Republic of Sefir was east of Valensir and this village was on the very eastern outskirts of Valensir. Looking around there were some people who were not caught up in his speech, who seemed to have realised the same thing and were looking a bit uneasy.

“We will fight for our homes, our family and the glory Valensir. If it is blood they want, we will make them bleed” he finished ruthlessly looking across the square stonily. People were riled up; even the children were into it, jumping up and down grinning as they too joined the deafening chant of ‘Valensir’ which rumbled across the square, drowning everything else out.

I briefly looked over to the chief whose expressionless face was betrayed by the grim look in her eyes. She hadn’t said a word, but had stood next to him in unwilling support and now followed him off the stage. She understood what war meant for this village. The speech hadn't been long, but there was a lot to think over.

The roaring of the crowd eventually calmed down and people slowly drifted away back to where they came from. I looked to Daniel who looked at me nervously trying to causally indicate that we had to talk in private. I nodded, irritated that his poorly concealed attempts at communication would draw attention, but no one was looking at us kids.

“Hey” Aron said neutrally tapping my arm appearing at my side and I spun to look at him “Hey where did you come from?” I asked surprised.

“I was on the right side,” he pointed near the right corner of the stage “I saw you but figured I’d come over after the speech” the dark look in his eyes worried me a bit.

“Yeah what did you think?” I asked watching him carefully.

“I hope we kill every single one of them,” he said vengefully, clenching his fists, narrowing his watery eyes in angry loathing. He blinked quickly and the tears receded leaving a deadened angry look in his eyes. A pang of sorrow filled me as I watched him; Aron wasn’t an angry hateful person so for him to react like this, there had to be some deep-rooted suffering.

“Hey” Daniel said shuffling closer now that the crowd had mostly dispersed “Some speech right”

“Yeah” I replied not taking my eyes off Aron “We should go to the Inn, everyone is going to be talking about this so I have a feeling the dinner rush will start early” I tried to sound more jovial, but it fell a bit flat.

His cold look abated a bit as his eyes widened “Yeah that’s true, grandpa is probably going to be swamped” he made a face “People are going to drink to much and throw up everywhere, I hate cleaning up vomit” though he looked mostly like himself again, something lingered in the back of his eyes and his smile didn’t spread across his face as far as usual.

“So I’ll go back to the gatehouse then” Daniel said a bit awkwardly and I looked at him, a flicker of guilt ran through me, I’d almost forgotten he was here.

“Sure, Dante is probably waiting for you” I said trying to smooth over the sudden awkwardness “And good luck with aunt Summer tomorrow, let me know what happens and I'll see you at school on Monday”

“Oh no school or work on Monday” Aron piped up “Midsummer allegiance ceremony so we get the day off”

“Ah ok, great” I blinked, should have predicted that, I really needed to ask what happened at this ceremony “Well see you then” I waved goodbye at Daniel before I realised we were headed in the same direction. I flushed and dropped my hand, Aron grinned, nudging me knowingly and I looked at through the corner of my eye before ignoring him and walking back to the in.

Aron and Daniel both jogged to catch up “Hey so you know the way to the gate..?”

“Yeah, its not far from the Inn” I replied and Daniel looked relieved, the village wasn’t that big, but it was still confusing for a newcomer. I should look into getting a map, [Tacticians] had to use maps for war, maybe also when deciding on voting constituencies and building planning or was that last one more of an [Architect]/[Engineer] thing?

I looked down, honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what [Tactician] actually enclosed other than battle strategy. Some of the available Skills indicated that there was a less violent route I could take. I wasn’t really interested in politics though I strongly suspected that doing a politics course back home was what had helped provide me with the required knowledge me unlock it in the first place.

Come to think of it, I’d been in 2 fights now and I knew some background on fighting and weapons, I mean not too much but I’d done some jiu jitsu at school for a year. Not that I’d been particularly good or gotten very far, I doubted I could utilise any moves but its not like I remembered much from the politics course either so shouldn’t that be enough to unlock a combat Class?

“Hey Aron, how do you unlock a combat Class?” I asked curiously.

He looked at me surprised “Depends on the Class I guess, different Classes require different training and knowledge on the fighting style” he paused thoughtfully “And you have to kill something using that fighting style”

Well that was why I hadn’t unlocked anything then “For all combat Classes?” did that mean if I karate chopped a chicken I could unlock [Martial artist]?

“Think so, but it has to be against something that’s an actual threat, that could kill you and doesn’t work if you have someone that helps you or anything, uncle Rudy explained it to me a while ago”

“Ah” no wonder it was a bigger deal to unlock a combat Class than other Classes. Also the term 'threat' was relative, so I doubted someone could get strong first and then fight something that used to be a threat because then it wouldn’t work. Would it still work if you had someone supervise your fight ready to step in in case things went sideways? I shivered thinking about Carston and his group, they were still children and had unlocked combat Classes, so they must been in fights and killed.

“What’s the best combat Class?” Daniel asked and turned to look at him incredulously “That’s your question? Did you not hear that you have to be in a death match to unlock one?”

“Yeah I mean its dangerous, but its also cool. Though I am thinking of sticking with the bow for now, monster slaying still seems pretty awesome and its better to know what the best option is” he turned to Aron expectantly who looked a bit annoyed and flustered.

“Ask Dante, he probably knows more about that stuff” he said blurted out looking away.

“Ok sure, will do” Daniel deflated a bit pulling back as we reached the Inn. As predicted it was fuller than usual at this time of day and more people seemed to be heading this way.

“Gate is just up the road that way,” I pointed and he nodded, I felt bad just leaving him but Aron had already opened the door and Jak was yelling for us to get into the kitchen.

“Well see you Monday then” I hadn’t forgiven him completely for the hole in my wing, but like Farel had said, I’d also bitten off his fingers so we were even in that regard. Even if I was sore about it, he seemed ok-ish so I should probably try to work on forgiving him “Yeah see you around” I waved back as he trudged off down the road.

‘Honey for sale’ was written on painted sign with little bees and honeycomb drawn around the words. I lifted my hand to knock, unsure if I should wait of just go in since the door was slightly ajar.

I’d come here first thing in the morning and the sun was still low in the sky casting long shadows as I pushed open the door “Hello?” I called looking inside. In contrast to the evil hag’s place, it was cluttered and disorganised with old furniture, books, clothes and random items lying around.

I jumped as a door opened and a tall man walked out cleaning his large round glasses “Well hello there, are you here to buy some honey? The Orcs got into my stocks but the [Guards] chased them off so I’ve still got a good bit left”

“No sorry, I’m here for the assistants job” I held up the post to show him.

“Ah yes, I need another hand around here, the Orcs really got into everything, broke some hives while they were here, not to mention they wrecked my stables and stole most of the milk and eggs, made off with a good bunch of chickens too” he grumbled.

“So what do you want me to do?” I had no idea what beekeeping actually involved.

“I already started working on new hives, most of its done but its calving season for the cows and I don’t have time for this, but I can only stop the bees from swarming for so long. Come on, I’ll show you what needs to be done” he gestured for me to come in and the closed the door behind me before walking down the narrow corridor, past a small kitchen and opening a back door into a small garden.

A multitude of blooming flowers covered every inch of the garden and the buzzing of bees thrummed through the air. One side of the wooden fence around the garden was smashed and the hole was shoddily boarded up “Shouldn’t we have protective gear?” I asked nervously watching hundreds of bees flying around and crawling over flowers. The bees seemed to be drawn to him and landed on him crawling and moving their antennae before returning to the flowers.

“Nah, I’m a [Beekeeper], they know me and I have a Skill that dissuades them from stinging” he ambled down a step and onto the slabs of stone resembling a path “I’ll explain how to fit it all together and I’ll show you how to check the hives and clean them. Though let me be clear” he turned and looked at me intensely “You break anything or hurt my bees, you can forget about being paid”

I nodded “Sure” I said running my fingers over my bandaged hand. Though I was partly doing this for money to pay Jak back for my treatment, I was also curious if I could level [Tactician]; bees were new for me and were much better equipped to fight than ants, not to mention they could fly.

“Just so we understand each other and I’m not paying you for slacking off either” he nodded and turned to walk over to the hives. There were rows and rows of wooden hives lined up at the back of the garden, several hives on the right side had clearly been damaged and had been roughly fixed up but were in dire need of replacing. The one on the furthest edge looked ready to collapse at any moment.

A small paved clearing in front of the hives (possibly the only part of the yard not covered in flowers) was littered with evenly cut stacks of wooden slates, frames and other parts along with an open toolbox.

“For now you’ll just put new hives together, I’ll show you how to do it but then I have to go, the cows need milking and one of the calves is coming today. Also don’t go near the bees or the hives, we’ll see how you do today, I don’t have time to show you how to clean and check the hives, so if you manage alright today we can cover that tomorrow” he walked towards the piles of materials on the ground and started picking up pieces, barely sparing me a glance. How he was so sure that a cow was going to give birth today? Maybe it was a Skill or they were inducing birth.

One hive was already partly put together so he started showing me where all the parts went. He didn’t give me many opportunities to talk as he rambled on about how to attach everything, before hurrying off talking about the calf coming. The door slammed shut as he disappeared into the house and I stood there, surrounded by bees holding a book with instructions on how to build a hive.

I swallowed suddenly feeling very alone when the door clanged shut, did the buzzing get louder? I turned to look at the hives and the bees that had previously been avoiding me, fluttered closer. I stood stock still, breathing through my mouth, suddenly very aware of the sheer amount of bees in this area and how much I did not want to piss them off. He’d said we didn’t need protective gear due to his Skill, but did that also extend to me when he wasn’t there?

A bee buzzed closer and I watched it slowly zooming around in front of my face before settling on my shoulder.