Chapter 7

Knocking on the door, Olivia entered the room unabashedly. There, she sees Kaiser who still has not woken up. Confused, Olivia checked his mana’s stabilisation. She could sense that it had flowed normally. Kaiser isn’t waking up and Olivia begins to doubt the book she read before about the case of mana outburst.

As if disapproving of Olivia's thoughts, grunts escaped from Kaiser’s mouth suddenly, his silver eyes slowly revealed itself. He groggily asked, “Where..?”

“It’s good that you woke up.”

“I-...How long have I fainted?”

“It’s only a day. Can you get up? Here, eat this.”

“Thanks. What is this?” Kaiser looked at the yellowish soup in his hand, the smell wafting from it made him drool.

“It’s pumpkin soup.”

Kaiser took a sip, his eyes went bright instantly. “It’s so good! Wow, the sweetness is perfectly balanced with a tint of saltiness.” Kaiser eats the soup without stopping, finishing it just after a few minutes. He burped, showing how satisfied he was. That’s when Kaiser realised he forgot about a certain someone.

That certain someone said, lips upturned amusedly. “Finished?”

“Cough, cough…Yes, I’m finished. That soup really is good. Who cooked it?”

“I’ll let you meet her later. I need to check your condition first.”

“Oh right, what happened to me actually? I don’t think I have any injuries.”

Olivia went to sit beside Kaiser, pale hand touching his forehead. Kaiser could feel a very cold energy swirling inside him, playing with his mana as if probing it. He let that cold feeling take over his mana while listening to the monotone voices of Olivia. “You experienced mana over burst because you used a spell that crossed your limit. Usually, people will die if they use spells that’s beyond their ability but if you just experience mana over burst instead of dying, that means you have a large capacity of mana that’s capable of using high level spells. You just need to train more so that you can control your large mana capacity.”

Kaiser felt a headache coming, processing the amount of information. “So, mana over burst happened because I used mana that I can’t control yet?”

“Yes.”

Olivia pulled back her hand and instructed Kaiser to lay on the bed again as she went to sit on a chair, reading a book. Kaiser looked at her for a moment before he opened his mouth, “You’ve become more talkative, Olivia. Well, not like it's a bad thing.”

Olivia did not say anything and Kaiser chuckled. “Though I couldn’t say the same with your expression. It’s still…” The mellow voices went quieter and Olivia finally looked up from her book. Kaiser had already slept.

.

.

.

“And what are you doing here, sir?” Sitting at a table in the dining area of the inn, Olivia and Kaiser found themselves an annoying person to deal with early in the morning.

The said person grins shamelessly, “Come on, can’t I join you guys?”

Olivia looks at Dromeus, unimpressed while Kaiser’s eyes were darting everywhere but the situation in front of him. Soon though, he can’t act like he heard nothing anymore as Dromeus’s attention falls on him. “Nonetheless, are there rules on being in your group of friends? Not only do you have natural blue hair, even your friend here has an unusual hair colour.” Dromeus smiled mischievously as he whispered. “Since I got the one of a kind maroon hair, I am considered qualified, aren’t I?”

“Is it considered really unusual for our kind of hair colour?” Kaiser couldn’t help but ask. Since the first time he’s here in this kingdom, people did not look at him blatantly for his hair colour but seeing how Dromeus mentioned it over and over again, Kaiser felt uncomfortable and paranoid.

Dromeus stared at Kaiser, “Nah, I’m just a hair fanatic.”

“What?”

“Particularly, I like those with glistening hair colours like you and Olivia.”

“I see..” Olivia cut in. “You’re just a pervert then. Let’s go, Kaiser. It’s not good to associate ourselves with a pervert.” She dragged Kaiser out quickly, leaving behind the laughing Dromeus when he saw Kaiser who looked at him apologetically.

Days after that, Olivia had an infuriating tag along while Kaiser was nothing but happy on gaining another friend around the same age as them. That additional tag along was, of course, Dromeus.

“I see that the nobles of this kingdom are more free than I thought.” Olivia started as she was looking around the forest to the man who’s chatting merrily with her friend behind her. Her voice was laced with blatant annoyance. Dromeus though, smiled and looked straight at Olivia, saying nothing for seconds and continued to chat with Dromeus.

Snap!

The tree branch in Olivia’s hand snapped as she fumed silently. This action of course steals another laugh from Dromeus.

“Okay, that’s it. You need to stop that, Dromeus.” Kaiser sounded sternly as he gazed at Dromeus. “While I do not know why such high-ranked nobles would like to follow us, please stop playing around…My friend, Olivia, did not like such banters nor does she mean to be rude to you.”

Olivia finds herself trying to hold in the smugness creeping inside her heart, as if she just won over something while Dromeus could only keep silent as he weirdly felt unsatisfied that Olivia won. He replied hushedly, “Okay…”

Kaiser grinned in relief at them and shook his head helplessly before laughing brightly. “Let’s continue walking then. We have missions to accomplish!”

The missions Kaiser mentioned were about exterminating a goblin camp in the forest that was situated near a village. Another mission was about collecting rare herbs that coincidentally grew out near the goblin camp. Usually, taking a task that issued an extermination of monsters would not be allowed for one adventurer only as the guild does not want to take any risks. Even with two people, unless both of you are a high-ranked adventurer, the guild still would not allow it.

This time though, taking Dromeus into count, who suspiciously has a guild pass stating that he is an adventurer, Olivia and Kaiser could take the rewarding mission.

“We’re near the camp.” Tasked with the map, Kaiser whispered with all seriousness, the previous playfulness gone. Following the warning, they walked silently and crouched in the bushes as they looked at the situation before them.

Around 20 goblins are around with each of them scattered everywhere. One particular scene of goblins surrounding a woman's body has the three of them creased their eyebrows in disgust. “The woman is still alive!” Kaiser yelled softly.

Olivia and Dromeus nodded at each other as they moved as planned beforehand. Olivia’s ice has wide area coverage to hold the goblins down while Kaiser creates a wind shield around the unconscious woman as Dromeus will cast fireball on each goblin.

Keeek!

The screeching sounds of the goblins reverberated as they burned into crisp. The stench smell of rotting flesh invaded their nose instantly, causing one to gag involuntarily. “Ugh, let's take the woman and the goblins’ ears quickly.” Olivia and Dromeus couldn’t agree with Kaiser more.

Olivia carried the women to a nearby stream as she wiped the woman’s face and bandaged her wounds as well as giving her a healing potion. Taking out her extra clothes from the bag she always brought, Olivia changed the women’s previous tattered clothes to a new wound. “Olivia, are you done yet? If you’re done then let’s go. We need to find the herbs now.” Kaiser yelled from afar, knowing that he shouldn’t go near.

“I’m done.” Olivia yelled back.

“Do you need help to carry her?” Dromeus asked Olivia as soon as he saw the woman on her back. Instead of answering, Olivia silently gives her bag to Kaiser and walks away. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for a woman to be carried by a man when she’s unconscious, considering what she has been through before. Plus, she’s light.”

“Up to you then.” Dromeus said lightly. “Wait, I remember the herbs being in a steep area around here right?”

Kaiser nodded, “Yeah, so we need someone to sacrifice themselves to be tied to a rope and…”

All three of them went still abruptly.

“...We have a rope, right?” Dromeus asked hopingly.