To Emberlock

Damian looked one last time at the cold corpse of the kind butler and stood up. He had no time to spare. Just as he turned around he saw a figure in white and black maid uniform walking towards him.

It was Rosie.

He was surprised to see her still alive. He had seen the Maid's carriage getting blown up by one of the bandit mage's spell.

"My lady, are you alright ? Is that... T..Thoma..s ?"

There was pain in her eyes and pity for her young lady. She immediately hugged Lucian and tried to calm down the crying girl.

Damian ignored them and surveyed the area to see if someone was still alive. But no one was, except few horses that were still attached to carriages. The last knight defending Lucian had also died with various cuts and bruises all over his body, even Lucian herself had many injuries.

He returned to his battered carriage and looked for his things. Rune scrolls, some important books such as his basic runes book, a basic spell book that had various spells that he practised, and all the empty parchments he could find. Damian gathered everything together, he still had to figure out how to carry all of it.

Now, what should he do? Leave on his own, away from all this nonsense? They would definitely die if he left. He was not confident about fighting monsters that resided in this forest, even with 25 knights they still had to stop sometimes and change paths to avoid some monsters. Alone he could just run away, real fast if he encountered such monstrosity but with those two it would be impossible to do so.

Damian was now going around the battlefield, looking for valuable things. He got hundreds of silver coins and even some gold ones, of course he grabbed them for future endeavours. Weapons were useless and so was the armour, still he took one good shield and two daggers. He was still searching when the last two survivors beside him walked towards him. He continued his scavenging while ignoring them.

"What do you think you are doing?"

A commanding voice came from behind Damian.

"Gathering things that might be useful.."

Damian replied without looking back.

"You are stealing from them."

"Yes, I am."

"Stop it. We need to bury them with honour. They are Goldilocks knights that died in line of duty. They deserve respect." Lucian said while putting a hand on Damian's shoulder.

"Respect them all you want, but I am leaving before a monster comes smelling all this blood."

"But.. Master Damian, they are brave men who fought for us. We can't just leave them like this." Rosie also joined in with Lucian.

"Yes, they were great but now they are dead. And if we do not wish to join them i suggest we hurry up."

"I said we will bury them." Lucian tightened her grip.

"Bury them yourself then."

Damian flicked her hand off his shoulder and continued his search. After standing around for a while both of them also started searching for their belongings. Seeing they were out of sight Damian went towards Thomas and the three enlightened. The three dead bandits had a pretty good amount of coins, Damian also took the bow and arrows of the archer. The sword was already missing from the spellsword, assuming Lucian took it.

"Well, isn't that pot calling the cattle black?"

Damian moved towards Thomas with reluctance. Of course he would never admit it to Lucian but he found no joy in stealing things from dead men, it was simply a matter of survival. One must use all his advantages in order to succeed, no matter how others perceive it. That was the simple logic.

Still Damian took nothing from Thomas's corpse except one thing. A metallic bracer. It was a runic item. With his eyes of truth Damian could see his mana going through the metal's veins connected to runes that were similar to the rune book, glowing in blue ethereal light. A second later a black magic circle appeared few inches above the bracer filled with variables and numbers that made his head hurt just by looking. This item was of the top quality. Only by looking at the complicated magic circle he could conclude that it was made by a Runesmith way over his level.

In the next second he felt a strange sensation in his head and realized that it was somehow connected to a 400 square meter long dimly lit white room. There was nothing in it. He stopped pouring his mana into the bracer and the room disappeared.

He grabbed the bow he retrieved from the archer and used the bracer again. These time a single bow was inside the empty room. He could also turn his focus back to the world in front of his eyes, while still being connected to the space just hidden somewhere in the corner of his mind. He tried to retrieve the bow and it was a success. He felt a warmth in his body being sipped at a fast rate so Damian stopped poring mana into the bracer.

He took out his status tool and checked, a fifth of his mana was gone. After the fight, he was already at half his reserves. This tool was a serious mana hungry thing. Damian had to grab things in his hand before he stored it inside, however he clearly remembered that Thomas could do it without touching. So there were still usage of this tool that he did not know yet. Damian stored everything inside it that he found useful, including a large portion of rations from one of the carriage that survived.

After a satisfied haul Damian walked near one of the surviving horse that was still tied to the carriage and let it loose. With a saddle from some other dead horse, he was ready to leave this place behind him. Horse riding was one of the lessons he had to learn with Lucian while studying so he was adequate at it. The problem mostly was his small height, which now he made up for by having enough strength to just jump high enough in to the air that he could reach his ride.

He rode towards his two unwanted companions and waited. One by one both finished their preparations and hopped onto the horses of their choosing, the rest were let loose in wilderness. After riding for some ten minutes in silence together, Lucian spoke up.

"Who are you? Were you hiding your true self all this time? But that can't be.. Why would Sunblade family sell such an asset away?"

Damian knew it was coming, the moment he revealed his powers he knew he had to answer this question.

"I just received my first job, that's all i will say on this matter."

"You went through ascension!? But we never bought you an ascension stone... and you are just 7.."

"Enough. Keep your doubts to yourself, i do not care for them."

She gritted her teeth and looked away. She was a smart kid and she understood that the only reason she was alive was Damian, whoever he might be. Plus her status was useless now, since all her power accumulated to just her wits and her blade, she had no knights or overpowered butler any more to obey her command.

"Where are we going? Isn't this different direction that before?" This time it was Rosie who had questions.

"We are not going to Drakmor." Damian replied calmly.

"Where are we going then?" Lucian said a bit haughtily as if asking a servant.

"The closest town is Emberlock, your uncle is the lord there right?" She nodded. "That's where we will be heading. We can't cross this forest on our own to reach Drakmor, just surviving for a week to reach Emberlock is going to test all our skills."

Since no one objected, they continued their journey.