The hero was still squeezing Mia’s shoulders, causing discomfort to the girl. She shifted in his grip in a futile attempt to break from his grip. While he wasn’t causing her any harm, the lingering pain from her healed injury still caused her discomfort.

“Oh, sorry.” The hero, who finally noticed her discomfort let go. He then further investigated her to find the source of her discomfort and noticed the dried blood on her shoulder “Your shoulder! Are you hurt? What happened?”

Mia didn’t answer, in fact she couldn’t answer due to a past order. Instead, she glanced towards Rowan looking for help.

Rowan sighed, stepping up “Just a bout of training, hero.” He then walked over and lightly kicked the goblin’s corpse aside “We decided it was best to raise her level, noting too dangerous. We had a potion prepared and everyting.”

The hero glared at Rowan “Who are you?” He asked “You look, familiar…”

Rowan’s brow twitched “sorry, my hero… let me introduce myself for you, again...” He then lowered his head in a bow “My name is Rowan, a tief. We met at your introduction party where you… turned down my services… along wit a few oters te princess picked out for you.”

John crooked his head to the side, then his eyes opened wide as he remembered “Oh! You are the dude with the speech problems! Sorry I met so many people that night, but I remember you now.”

“Do not worry, hero. No ill feelings here.’ Rowan said, Mia noticing the strain on his face. He was obviously holding a grudge.

“Cool, now about Mia. You said you were trying to increase her level? You had her fight alone?”

Another twitch “Yes, tat IS the most effective way to level up. The more danger the better. If I remember correctly, you have appraisal? You can check for yourself.” Rowan then lowered his head “Actually tis is a bit embarrassing … since she cannot read it herself, we do not know how many points she gets on level up, so if you would…”

John nodded and brought his focus onto Mia, seemingly staring off into blank space for a moment his eyes darted around back and forth. “Oh! Her level increased by 2! She is now level 3.”

“See? Fighting alone is for the best. you cannot argue with the results!” Rowan said proudly.

John frowned “But, I don’t want her to get too injuried… surely if we…hm?” John suddenly stopped, his eyes falling on something.

“If you take her out before she is ready, she might die to even a goblin! If she is here, we can at least control the danger, if only slightly.”

I almost died to that goblin in here, Mia thought to herself before noticing the hero had been quite, no longer replying to Rowans words, even as Rowan continued to trail off about the supposed benefits of keeping her inside to train under supervision. “Hero?” Mia asked.

The hero, who had previously been stuck with a blank expression looked towards the ground “Rowan, can you and the maid leave us alone for a while.”

Rowan paused in his explanation “What? Alone? I don’t think-“

“Leave!” The hero yelled.

Mia shrunk back, she felt something heavy fill the area. She found it hard to breath and felt like if she made one wrong move, she’d be dead. She tried looking towards the hero, only to see him glaring at Rowan, the pressure filling the room felt concentrated around him, no, it felt like it was coming from him. It was a stark difference from how he usually felt.

Rowan took a step back, his hand instinctively falling to ontop his dagger before he forced himself to relax “…right away, hero.” He then passed the two, the hero’s watching him as he left, stopping momentarily to usher out the maid as well before finally leaving.

It was just John and Mia in the room, the pressure remained for a minute, until the hero was sure they were alone, then it dropped. He sat down on the ground, letting out a deep sigh while staring at Mia “…who are you? Really.”

Mia blinked, out of all the things he could have said, that was unexpected. “What mean?” she asked, as far as she was aware, she was herself.

John shook his head “As I asked, who are you? Are you really just some random beastman from a random village? You are not anyone special? Not some secret saint, daughter of the hero, or have some kind of special blood, do you?”

Mia was confused, she lived a normal life with her mom, dad, and older sister. Something she missed dearly but knew it was gone. As far as her parents being special, she had no idea. Her mother did spend a lot of time with the chief but she didn’t find that odd. “No clue, lived with parents and sister, was nice…”

The hero paused “was nice? Weren’t you under the control of the demon lord?”

The collar on Mia’s neck tightened “W-wasn’t nice, the church saved us.” She hastily said and the collar loosened.

The hero stared at her for a moment, then shook his head “So, you were just a villager, as far as you know.”

Mia was starting to get annoyed, she wished he’d just get to point “Yes, no idea.”

John stood up, taking a quick glance towards the entrance he then brought it back to her “Fine, I’ll believe you. I will just chop it up to my luck finding the right companion…” He placed both hands on his hip and took a deep breath “Before I say what I want to say, how did you assign your points? I thought you couldn’t read.”

Mia shrugged “Rowan taught how, memorized where stats are, and some numbers.”

John smiled “So you memorized what your stats were from last time? So you know what your stats are?”

She shook her head “one, strength 5. Dexterity changed to number I don’t know.”

“Oh, that is impressive figuring that out… maybe it wouldn’t be too hard just teaching you…” he entertained the thought of him teaching her for a second, then sat that idea aside “So you have no clue what your dexterity is at right now?”

“No, unfamiliar.”

John looked back at the door again, then leaned in close to Mia and whispered in her ear “Do you want me to tell you?” he then motioned towards the door with his head, nodding towards it slightly.

Mia raised an eyebrow, she was confused. Why did he ask that? Of course, she wanted to know and saw no reason why she shouldn’t know, unless… the number was a problem? How would it be a problem to her? She remembered him motioning to the door and it donned on her, it was a problem if Mia knew but how did… “No, don’t tell me.”

The hero’s eyes widened, then a sad expression fell on his face “So, It’s like that huh.” He stood up and stretched.

This left Mia confused, she had no clue what was going through his head right now. Does he suspect the princess? Or was he just disappointed in her somehow. All she knew was he was acting weird ever since he saw her stats.

“I will say this regarding your stats.” He said “A major leap in stat changes can cause things to feel weird for a while, but you get used to it. Happened a few times to me.”

“Okay?” She didn’t understand what he meant but, wait no, she did experience that briefly… just how many points did she put into it? What was her dexterity at? She shook her head, this was too confusing. Perhaps it would have been better to just get him to tell her… well not like it mattered now. She decided not to dwell on it for now, she’d find out eventually. The silver lining being that now the princess wouldn’t know either, for now.

Mia watched as the hero approached the entrance and swung it open, revealing Rowan who was on the other side, the maid was nowhere to be seen “I am finished talking to her” he announced, his gaze falling on Rowan.

“…” Rowan straightened himself up “Well, did you decide what would be done, hero?”

John nodded “I have, she will remain under your care, under the condition that I will supervise.”

“What?!” Rowan was taken aback “Don’t you have your own training to attend?”

“Yes, I will move it to here. I have realized I have been entrusting Mia to other people too much, as her master it is my responsibility to over see her, I am her master, am I not?”

“O-of course! But… wouldn’t your own studies fall behind? I will assure you I hold nothing but the best interests for Mia and will train her well.”

John stared at him for a moment, as if sizing him up “Hrm, no… I think it’s for the best. I am going to go run it by the princess…maybe also have her bed moved into my room…” He said, pushing past Rowan and making his way down the hall.

“W-wait just a moment! Hero wait!” Rowan ran after him, leaving Mia all alone in the training grounds, the door left open.

Mia stood there in disbelief, staring at the open door. They had actually left her alone in the chaos of John. She continued to stare at the door, did she have any orders to stay here? She took a step towards the door, there was no reaction from her collar. “Huh…” She then thought if she should try it.

Firstly, being an escaped slave was hard, very hard. She had no where to go and no idea what she would even do. Secondly, it had now occurred to her she didn’t have the slightest idea of the layout of the castle. She had been passed out for the majority of her stay, besides the few hallways she had seen. She sat down, deciding against it. The fact she knew there seemed to be no order keeping her here was good enough knowledge for her.

She’d have to pay more attention to the layout more often now and avoid passing out.