It’s been several hours since the start towards Trennent Village and several hours of silence. While I was staring out the back of the carriage, letting the scenery pass by, a question popped in my head and I turned to Chelsey who was writing in her book. “Hey, um what was with your fake surname at the shop?” I ask curiously.

She wrote a couple more things down before looking up to me “I can tell you that I’m not from a bad family, just when the Hishtof family used to be a well known upcoming family there was someone or a group of people who didn’t like that and started spreading false rumors…” her face had a hint of sadness as she told me. I turn to look out back again while apologizing. I didn’t know why I apologised since she didn’t seem to bother telling me. There was another moment of silence before she mentions “You just can never know someone until you know them.”. There was a pang in my heart, it felt like what she said resonated with me but I didn’t know why.

A lot more time passed by and I was still staring out the back, watching the day turn to night. Eventually the carriage stopped with Vaero lifting the cloth up front while telling Chelsey “This is a good area to set up camp.” and he proceeded to jump off the front and make his way to the back.

We get the camp set up consisting of two small tents and a fireplace. After the camp was all set up Chelsey passed around some dried meat. After we all had our fill she then claims “Alright, I’ll be staying on watch for the first several hours, you two get some rest.”.

Vaero quickly injects “No, I’ll be on watch. You need rest too Chelsey, you were doing a lot of running around before we left.”.

“If we are going by that then you were driving until night, you must be exhausted as well.” Chelsey says.

Before Vaero says anything I interrupt “If that’s the case then I’ll be first watch, I don’t like sleeping anyways.”.

Chelsey looks at me with a smile “I’m okay with that, I’ll be the second watch so wake me up later.” and she starts walking towards her tent.

Vaero looked at me and announced in a cold manner “I’m okay with this but I will say, I know how much of everything we have and if anything goes missing, I won’t hesitate.” he then turned around and walked towards the other tent.

After the two are inside their tents I decide to sit down by the fire and watch the flames dance around the wood. I begin to think about all of what has happened today, from meeting the two to becoming Chelsey’s guard to Trennent Village to visiting the monster shop. After thinking about the shop I become curious about the mana essence and make a mental note to ask Chelsey about it tomorrow.

I continue watching the flames for several more hours before I decide to get up and practice my sword swings again. Staying close to the camp I pull out my sword and start swinging. With no goal of how many swings to do I started my practice.

The sun starts rising as I come out of my trance to find Vaero leaning against a tree watching me. When he noticed I stopped he then claims “You handle the sword well but how well? Can it match up to another sword?” he paused for a moment and saw the confusion in my face and continued “Spar with me, sure you can fight a monster but what about another person? Beasts aren’t the only enemy of merchants but bandits as well.”.

I steady my breath as I look at him while thinking I haven’t fought anyone with a sword since waking up in the forest and thought this would be a good opportunity and I agree with him.

We move to a small clearing near the camp with both of us facing each other as we both draw our swords. There was complete silence as we both studied each other, wondering who would make the first move. After a short period Vaero was the first to move, with him charging right at me.

He closes in and goes for an overhead right away. I clash my sword with his, he glares at me as he breaks away. Vaero leaves no breathing room as he quickly swings three times. I struggle to block the strikes and get pushed back. Right after the third strike was blocked he came in with an overhead. I barely manage to block it but as it connects I slide my blade down his to the hilt and push him back.

As he recovers I clear the distance made and swing my blade. Vaero hastily blocks it. Right after I swing again but as it connects with his blade he guides it to the side. The sword then cuts deep into the ground. As I pull the blade out of the ground Vaero jumps back while saying “You’re strength is no joke, guess I can’t go too easy..”. He closes his eyes for a moment and as he opens them he readies himself to attack.

Vaero darts towards me and makes three slashes. I blocked each strike better but there was a lot more strength than before. As he backs off I start to feel rain start to drizzle from above. Before he can make his next attack I quickly swing. He blocks the hit and I feel a lot more resistance. I back off for a moment and come in swinging again with a lot more force. Boom! As my sword connects with his, a loud crackle of lightning strikes nearby and the drizzle picks up. Vaero gets pushed back by the strike. After he recovers he asks “You really don’t use magic do you?”

“No I don’t, I don’t know or remember a single thing about magic.” I answer him as I ready myself to attack again. Vaero says nothing as he does the same.

“What are you guys doing!?!” we hear a loud shout to the side and both of us look towards the source. There stood Chelsey with an upset face as she continued “It’s starting to rain hard! We need to pack stuff up and go!”.

Vaero quickly sheaths his blade and apologizes to her “I’m sorry Chelsey, I was sparring with Crim to understand him better and got lost in the moment.”. He then starts walking towards the camp site while saying “I’ll get to it right away.”.

Chelsey then turns to me still upset “Crim, why didn’t you wake me up for my shift?”.

I peer at her while claiming “I don’t like sleeping.”.

She glares at me for a second before saying “I don’t care, my guard needs to be well rested while traveling. When we leave, I don’t care if you want to but you are sleeping!”. She turns around and starts heading to the camp site as well.

I stood there for a moment while the rain was picking up before heading back as well.

After I got back they were almost done packing everything up and I helped pack up what was left. When we were ready to go, we all piled in the carriage with Vaero driving. As we started to leave Chelsey started prodding me to go to sleep “Now we're back on the road, you can sleep and you won’t miss out on much.”

Still reluctant about sleeping, I refused her. With an upset face she claims “If you don’t sleep and we get attacked, it’s best if you aren’t tired. I even set up a bed in here for you.”. To stop her from complaining to me anymore I unwillingly agree. After laying down it took a few minutes before I dozed off.