Rhaelis and May looked at Zain with suspicion look while Maribel just remained composed when she said that.
Zain looked at them and said "It's not what you think."
Zain thought to himself, 'It's not like bought her. Wait in a way it is an exchange so that technically means I bought her. God damnit Olivia.'
"Then what is it like." May said as she looked at Zain with a serious look and Rhaelis did the same.
"Well, Aleric gave her to me. Well that doesn't sound right." Zain said with realisation of what he said.
"And who's Aleric?" Rhaelis said as she became curious. May looked at Zain with the suspicion eyes.
"The king. The king is the one who gave her to me." Zain said while fidgeting and shaking.
"The king? Why would a king give someone to you?" May said with a confused look.
"I want to know too." Rhaelis said.
"Because she's a maid." Zain said as he looked away.
*A maid? Why would you want a maid when you live in this inn?" Rhaelis said with a confused look.
"Because..."
"I'm supposed to look after him. Well, he wants me to look after him." Zain was about to answer when Maribel cut him off. Zain thought to himself, 'Well, she's not wrong or lying either.'
May look suspicious at Zain before she said "If you say so." And left.
Zain sighed in relief as he ate his food. He passed a bowl of soup for Maribel to eat and she ate it with the look of sadness and relief.
Rhaelis saw the look of Maribel but didn't try it question it, she just ate her soup with peace.
"Is your task finished or are you here for something?" Zain asked Rhaelis as he looked at her.
Rhaelis was surprised by the sudden question but she expected it and said, "I'm done. I'm just going to stay few days while looking around."
"Oh yeah,can I follow?" Zain asked.
"Sure you can."
"Hey Maribel, are you going to come with us?" Zain looked at Maribel and asked her.
"No I don't want to intrude. Besides, I want to clear my head." Maribel said as she looked down at the end.
"Okay."
They finished eating, Zain gave 1 gold coin to Maribel to spend it for the next few days and left with Rhaelis.
Rhaelis walked around the kingdom with Zain. It looks like Rhaelis is walking without direction and just looking around. They past few stalls and Zain bought few skewers for them to eat.
They kept eating them. Rhaelis got bored of looking around the kingdom without anything happening and so she suggested that they go outside the Kingdom.
Zain just shrugged his shoulders and agreed.
They went to the outskirts, they saw a bunch of young adventurers picking up some herbs and Zain noticed them.
They were the kids he rescued at the bandits hideout.
Zain walked towards them, Rhaelis saw Zain walking up to the kids and followed him without asking him.
"Oi Oi" Zain said to them as he raised his hand.
They all turned around when they heard a voice from behind.
"It's mister." They all said as they went toward Zain.
"How are you all doing." Zain said as he found out that they were only 8. Zain thought, 'It looks like the older ones didn't join the group.'
"We're okay. We're doing a quest to pick up herbs?" One of the girl who was infront said to Zain with a smile on her face.
"I can see that. It looks like no one taught you how to pick herbs." Zain said as he looked at the herbs they picked up. They all bowed they're head in embarassment.
"It's okay. No need to be embarassed. Let me show you." Zain picked one of the dagger from one girl.
He showed them how to pick a herb with a dagger. The dagger looked like a kunai since the kunai is a gardening tool, it's perfect.
Zain showed the process slowly to the kids, Rhaelis watched Zain picking herbs and was curious about how Zain learnt how to pick herbs.
"Where did you learn it?" Rhaelis asked Zain as she looked at Zain's hand. Zain began to reply to her without turning around while he still continue with the process.
"I lived in the forest where there's no beast or animals. It was plants and trees. I taught myself how to pick herbs, plants, fruits and vegetables while living there."
"A forest without animals or beasts? Never heard of it." Rhaelis said to Zain without calling him out by remembering that commotion he did.
"It's not in this continent." Zain said as he turned around to look at her and went back to work.
Rhaelis just nodded and became quiet.
Zain finished showing the kids, they did the process the way they learnt mimicking the exact movement of Zain and Zain left after knowing that they know.
Rhaelis walked side by side with Zain.
"Hey Lucas." Rhaelis said as she kept walking forward without turning to the side.
"Yeah."
"Have you ever been to the empire?"
"I haven't."
"It's big and there's a lot of stuff."
"Really."
"Yeah. Every race is gathered there except the demons but they do exist everywhere."
"Why are you telling me this?" Zain said that as he looked at the side.
"Because that's were I grew up." Rhaelis said as she stopped moving.
"Wait... Are you telling me this because I told you about where I grew?" Zain said curiously.
"It's not all because of that. But it's because that's where I learnt to not trust anyone." Rhaelis said as she quickly drew her sword to attack Zain.
Zain instinctively dodged the attack.
He looked around and found out there were no people nearby. Zain thought 'She led me away from the people without making it look like it was intentional. She made me look like I was following while she was leading me. I gotta say... That's smart.'
*FLASH STEP*
Rhaelis appeared behind Zain as she attacked Zain on the neck. Zain dodged on a split millisecond which it was impossible to dodge.
*FLASH STEP*
Rhaelis kept appearing on the blind spot of Zain to attack him. A barrage of attacks kept coming to Zain and he dodged each one.
"Ray wait." Zain said as he kept dodging but Rhaelis didn't listen and kept attacking.
Rhaelis covered her body with aura.
*FLASH STEP*
The second Rhaelis used flash step while covererd in aura, a crater was made on where she was standing. She was faster than before and Zain couldn't dodge in time. Rhaelis managed to cut him at his hand but the sword got stopped at the bone and Rhaelis withdrew her sword quickly.
Zain thought, 'She's serious. She almost amputated my hand.'
Zain started to attack Rhaelis.
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
Zain used flash step to get close Rhaelis and first light when he was attacking her on the head. Rhaelis saw it coming and blocked the attack with her sword. She was pushed back but nothing happened.
Zain thought it's weird that the attack did nothing to her and thought he should try again.
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
Zain did the same thing again but tried to punch Rhaelis in her gut. Rhaelis blocked the attack with her sword again.
'now that's weird' Zain thought to himself.
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
Zain used a barrage of attacks but each time, Rhaelis blocked each attack with her sword. Zain looked at the Zain and saw that it's not absorbing Rhaelis's aura.
Zain thought, 'That's weird. Why isn't the sword absorbing her aura?'
*FLASH STEP*
*FIRST ART - FIRST LIGHT*
Zain used the attack in order to see what's going on. Rhaelis blocked the attack with her sword and Zain saw it.
Zain thought, 'The sword absorbs my aura in the moment of an attack. She's been doing that all this time. Then why didn't she do this before.'
*FLASH STEP*
*AURA BLADE*
Rhaelis used an aura to attract Zain with a vertical slash as she got close, Zain was able to dodge but the slash destroyed the landscape on where Zain was at before he dodged.
*AURA EDGE*
Rhaelis immediately use horizontal slash towards Zain when he dodged but Zain couldn't dodge this and has to block it.
*SECOND ART - FAINT GLOW*
Zain blocked the attack.
______
Dawnbreaker Technique: Second Art — Faint Glow
The user condenses aura throughout the body, forming a reinforced inner core wrapped in a denser outer layer. When struck, the outer layer disperses to soften incoming force, while the remaining aura is absorbed inward, reinforcing the body and stabilizing it against severe or fatal damage.