Path of the Pioneers

I carried her along for the next five hours or so, just as the sun was beginning to rise. Leveling up has a lot of latent benefits, regardless of the stats you invest in. Your stamina increasing was one such benefit, fortunately for me.

From the trip, [Telekinesis] had gained 1% of its growth to the next rank. Frankly, I was surprised it had budged at all. With my increased intellect, my mana held on much better, too.

With that time, I managed to get us a fair bit past the woods, to the side of the river a few miles outside of the village.

I laid back in the tall grass, meaning to rest for only a few moments. Instead of taking a brief rest, however, I fell asleep.

I woke up. The sun was right above me, warming my face. It looked like it was nearly noon. I groaned as I stood up, all the muscles in my body sore from the sudden change of pace it had been taking since last night.

I rubbed my eyes, looking out to the river, and then turning back to check on the woman I had saved.

My eyes widened with surprise. She was no longer laying in the grass. Instead, she was stood up, eyes closed and sword in hand. She was making slow, deliberate movements, almost as if in a meditative state.

She sliced the sword diagonally up and to the left, slowly cutting through the air. She turned her wrist, and the blade, angling it for the next as she lowered it near to her hip. It moved upwards again, diagonally to the right. Once more, it was lowered, before she sliced straight upwards. Her left hand moved up to grip the bottom half of the hilt as she raised it above her head.

She swung one final time downwards. The blade moved faster than my eyes could see, moving from above her head to below her waist as a blur of steel. The grass around her stirred, shaken by the gust of wind that came from her attack.

She took a deep breath, doing some arm stretches before opening her eyes and glancing over to me.

That finally got me to speak.

“Um, are you certain you’re alright to be doing things like that so soon? Miss.. Erm..”

The woman cocked her head to the side, as if surprised by my question. While sheathing her sword, she spoke, “Adeline. Adeline Cirix. My family name’s not something you should bother remembering, though.”

Cirix. A family of great warriors, and loyal allies of the King. It made sense for this woman to be from them. Her reason for being pursued, however…

She began her stretches anew, rolling her shoulders and bending to the side, presumably to crack her back. “And I should be fine, shouldn’t I? Seems like you’ve patched me up well enough.”

“Right..” I blinked a few times, caught off guard. “Still, I didn’t exactly heal you. I’ve just… Well… Put your body in a better position to heal itself?”

“And I’m grateful for it, too. That’s all I needed. At that…” Adeline turned to face me, eyeing me up and down briefly. “You stuck your neck out against those men, didn’t you? I liked the trick with the rocks, real clever of you.”

“..Thanks. But.” I scratched my head, still rather confused by her state of wellbeing. Particularly, how she was moving around so well after getting maimed, for lack of a better word. “Are you certain you don’t feel any lingering effects? Any lightheadedness, shortness of breath?”

“I’m fine, believe me, doctor.” She grinned, patting me on the shoulder.

“Do you have any plans on what you’re going to do? Unless you made sure every soldier there was dead and gone, you’ll soon get some wanted posters tacked up in towns, as well.”

I put my hand to my mouth, my brow scrunched down just the slightest bit as I thought about it.

“Apologies.” Adeline scratched the side of her head, a hint of embarrassment on her face. “I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful, I’m just a little concerned. You’ve helped out a wanted woman, and that comes with consequences.”

“I suppose… We should partner up, shouldn’t we?”

She looked at me, as if I just said something strange.

“Um..” Warmth spread to my cheeks, I was undoubtedly blushing from embarrassment. “That is to say.. Maybe we should work together until we’ve made it away from the people pursuing us?”

“A noble heart, hm? Right. If you’re intent on helping, I should at least explain what you’re getting yourself into. Then you can decide if you’re still interested in forming a party.”

Adeline drew her sword once more, stabbing it into the dirt and resting her hands on the pommel as she began to speak.

“I’m from the Cirix family, if you remember. Don’t misunderstand, though. I’m of the direct family line: my father is Duke Leon Cirix.”

I stared at her, slightly dumbfounded. A proper noble. Mayhap one excommunicated from her family, but a noble nonetheless. It explained her battle prowess even more, being the daughter of the head of the Cirix family.

“I was to be married off to a boy high up in the Grivash family, I believe it was the Duke’s fourth son? Suffice to say, I had no interest in the arrangement. I told him that he would need to best me in a duel to win my hand.”

I started to connect the dots in my mind, but it didn’t ease me into the next portion of her story whatsoever.

“He stood no chance. And as he looked up at me, defeated, he made a few unsavory comments. As a punishment, I took his arm.”

My jaw well and truly dropped.

“His..”

“It was the price he had to pay.” She drew her sword from the dirt. “He made a poor choice of words, and I decided that he would have to be sent to a healer for a month in return.”

Of course. If they still had the limb, it was a rather trivial task for awakened healers to re-attach them. Regardless, the cost would be enormous for such a service.

“I think… I understand why you were being pursued now. But, how many people have you had to fight through to get this far?”

“Enough to level up twice.”

An entirely unhelpful metric, given that I didn’t know her level. Though, even if she were at a low level, which I doubted, it would have been a rather large amount. A few times more than what she seemed to have cleared out in Gallwold. Not to mention that the ones she faced before were probably incomparable to the ones I aided her with. I helped her with the scraps, after all.

“R-right..”

She put her longsword back into its scabbard, resting her hand on it. “Shall we get a move on, then? If you’re interested, that is. Lots of walking to do if we’re to properly take advantage of this opportunity we’ve made.”

It took me a moment, but I found my words soon enough. “Lead the way, then.”