“You think he could do that?” Zeno wondered.
“Rather than worry about that, we need to focus on catching up with him,” Kasim said. “We need to set an example! We became adventurers first, after all.”
“You said it. The next time we meet him, we need to be able to at least score a hit—”
“I’m sorry about all this,” said a fourth voice.
“Hey, no need to—” Kasim let out a yelp. “Vandal, how long have you been there?!”
Vandal hadn’t been stopped by the guard on the gate (they hadn’t noticed him). So he entered the village, spotted the adventurers training, and came over to them.
“Didn’t you go into the town to become an adventurer? Did something happen? The old man was worried about the merchant not showing up yet.” It seemed that the pioneer villages hadn’t heard yet about the monster rampage in Niakki.
“As it turns out, the guild has changed their guidelines,” Vandal said. “Dhampirs can’t register before the age of ten, so I gave up for now.”
“What?” Fester exclaimed. “They changed the guidelines?!”
“Hold on—you aren’t even ten?!”
They had overestimated Vandal’s age. Every race aged differently, so it wasn’t too unexpected.
“There are rumors that the adventurers’ academy might stop taking dhampirs completely later this year,” Vandal continued. “I’m going to wait for an opportunity to go register in another domain.”
Maybe a certain Grade A adventurer would make some waves, but Vandal wanted nothing to do with him and wasn’t expecting anything. He definitely didn’t want to feel like he had become an adventurer thanks in any part to that guy.
“Wait for an opportunity?” Kasim wondered. “Is it that simple? It takes more than a month to reach another domain. Although I guess you could fly there in a few days.”
“Yeah, I guess you can fly.”
“Flying over the demon barrens would be safer than going on the ground, too. And bandits can’t fly.”
Kasim then turned to Vandal with a glint in his eyes. “Anyway, until you get that opportunity, would you like to party-up with us?”
“I’m just a civilian,” Vandal replied.
“There’s no rules that civilians can’t be part of a party!”
“Because most of the time, there’s no real question of them being any use,” Zeno said. “But you’re actually much stronger than us! I know the offer sounded arrogant, but actually . . . it would be more like we’re in your party!”
“Exactly,” Fester said. “We’re weaker than you, but we can definitely get in your way!”
“Hey! No, that’s just a bad joke . . . Fester, if you meant it, I’m definitely not laughing!”
It seemed that these three had really taken a shine to Vandal. He hadn’t expected the offer, but he also had to admit that it might be fun to team up with them. It felt like getting together with some friends of the same age and gender and going on an adventure.
Vandal had never had friends on Earth or Origin. He certainly wasn’t lonely here on Ramda, but he had still never had male friends his own age. So Kasim’s offer felt so fresh and exciting for him.
However, Vandal had something he needed to do first.
“It’s a fun idea, but first I was thinking of going back home.” He needed to free the people of Talosheim, including Borkz’s daughter. However, he couldn’t tell these kids that he was going to go free all the slaves at the mine, so he used the backstory he had already established as a cover.
Eleonora and the others were already waiting for him in the village he had taken back from the goblins. Meanwhile, Borkz was leading a force over from Talosheim.
“You have some wonderful friends, Your Majesty,” said Princess Lebia.
“You said it,” Vandal responded, but so only they could hear. All the phantoms had concealed themselves but were still nearby. Vandal could still talk with them in his mind, while he chatted with Kasim and the others using his mouth.
“If that’s what you have to do . . .” Kasim sounded disappointed. “Can you at least train with us again, next time you can?”
“Of course.” Vandal gave a nod, feeling the stress of the city melting away at the simple trust displayed by Kasim and the others. The three of them were a healing presence to Vandal.
“Are you leaving right away?” Fester asked. “We’ll be putting up the shrine and having a harvest festival in the fall. Come back around then.”
When Vandal had done his rounds of the villages, he only asked that they create shrines to Vida for payment. It sounded like that payment would be completed by the fall here in the Seventh. However, he also didn’t remember asking them to do that here.
“In this village?” Vandal asked.
“That’s right. The owner of the General Store and the mayor made the decision. Said it’s a good opportunity and auspicious too.”
“Iwan is super invested too. He was a stonemason, back at home before we fled to the Heartner Domain.”
“He’s talking about making a statue of you, too!”
Things had certainly moved quickly while Vandal was away. He welcomed the increased faith in Vida but wasn’t sure about becoming another statue. The giantling lich Nuaza back in Talosheim had already started a series of such statues, one of Vandal at each age.
“That sounds wonderful, Your Majesty!”
“Doesn’t it just,” Vandal sighed internally, hoping that the statue wouldn’t look much like him. Then he spoke out loud to the humans. “Do you know what’s going on in the other villages?”
All he had done here was save Iwan, and they were carving a statue of him. He had no idea what might be going on in the other villages.
“The other villages? I mean, it isn’t rare for shrines to feature statues of saints and heroes as well as deities.”
“I’d think so. They aren’t going to be massive statues, either. About the size of you now.”