"Okay, dude. Look. I don't want to look like shit again in front of the guild master so, please. At least help me train on my sword fighting."
"I told you, I don't have the authority to train you. My father and the Campbells and the king of all people won't allow me to help you. Trust me, I would be more than willing to take you to the knights training ground, but because the king gave you to the Campbell house rather than mine, it's obvious that the king has no intention of helping you actually fit your role as hero."
"..." oh so this guy knows I'm not strong enough to even protect myself. The fuck is the point in summoning me here if I'm just gonna be dead weight!?
"Look. I understand that you're frustrated about all of this, but I can't just go to the Campbell mansion and ask them to lend you to me for a few days a week."
"But I'm supposed to be protecting someone here! I don't know who yet, but I can't even protect myself with the skills I have now. Even the weaker monster travelers have more experience in survival than I do. That makes no sense! Does that make any sense to you??"
"Of course not! I would have made you go camping with me by now instead of sending you to the guild. The fastest way to gain the experience you're looking for is going at it first hand. But again I can't do anything for you so you will need to get the Campbell family to help you."
Campbell. Campbell. Campbell! Why is it that damn family!? It's always that damn family of contradictions!! Why does it have to be that family! The only one I can rely on at the moment is Ramisus and he's stuck in bed now! The second son is completely useless. I don't even think he's the head's real son. The bitch looks nothing like the father of the house and he barely looks like his mother! And mommy and daddy dearest are fucking hoes to their social life and work! They don't even check on Ramisus like the guy is contagious or something!
Ramisus is only sick in bed because the medicine he got from the Fae continent wore off and he's due for a new one. I was able to go to the family library late one night to read one of the books and found out what it was that made him bed ridden. Apparently it's not a disease but a reaction with the body when the blessing you receive from the gods don't properly match up with your spirit element level. When you have more power in your blessings but not enough power in your spirit element, you're body will react in a way that will let you know that your out of balance and will make you have a special "shield" that will keep you from getting harmed since your body is considered vulnerable to danger. Basically saying you're weaker than the blessings given, which means you're weaker than the dangers that will try to get to you. And sometimes your blessings aren't as strong as your element which leads to the reverse and you have to keep your element under control until the god that blessed you increases your blessings strength to match it again, which doesn't usually take long so it's not on record as a problem. You just get a random sharp pain in your body after the cap on your element breaks and subsides after your blessing reaches the same level. This happens a lot to adventurers and travellers. While the reverse usually happens to humans since they don't go out much to increase their level unless they specifically choose to do so.
Sometimes it takes days for the element and blessing to reach a balance so the Fae made a way for the body to handle the adverse effect so the body doesn't break down from elemental overload. A pill they call False Hope. Despite the name, it's actually a good thing to have on you if your element and blessing are out of sync for too long. There are two types, the first one makes the body relieved by giving the element more to absorb so it can match the blessing faster before the body changes too much for the spirit to handle. The second, which Ramisus uses, absorbs the excess element that the body has and disperses it out of the body without harming the hosting spirit, so they can go back to their normal life without too much pain.
But Ramisus' situation is backwards. He has an immeasurable amount of spirit element but… no blessings. Like none. No blessings means no protection from the gods that are supposed to protect him. He has nothing to keep his element at bay and in turn it's hurting him from the inside. Now I see why he tends to be so weak when we rarely meet, why he leaves so soon during events or parties or doesn't even go out that much in general. No one knows when he'll have another attack, and his element can be strong enough to effect his surroundings when it's not supposed to. Other thing is… his dad and I are the only ones that know this. Not a single maid is allowed to enter his room to care for him. No servants, no guard. Especially no guard. Don't ask me why, I can already guess the family drama in this house and I hate getting caught up in between it. He can't have a single person by him when this happens… I'll have to ask him why later. I don't think daddy dearest will ever have the time to tell me anything.
But with that information in mind. I now know who Palitoh was referring to when he asked me to protect the "forgotten one". Ramisus isn't necessarily forgotten if the gods still watch over him like hawks like this. It'd be more accurate to call him the misfortunate one for being born on the day of the calamity that happened exactly twenty-seven years ago in this world. They want me to be his guardian until he can fully recover from this imbalance they call the distortion. It's not uncommon to have your elements grow stronger than your blessing, but he doesn't have any blessings, which means he's been dealing with this distortion since he was an infant. This should have killed him but he has a dormant gift that keeps him alive somehow. I haven't gotten a chance to see it yet since I got back from the Mairs. He's apparently been bed ridden since I left, and he might be out of it for a good while.
His medicine, the False Hope, usually is given a special measurement that allows time for the body to balance out again. But since he has nothing to balance, he needs to have a regular visit to the Fae continent, Vinctur. They're the only ones that can make him stable enough for at least a year before he needs a new one. The problem right now is that they need to keep making stronger doses for him with every passing year since his element keeps growing with him. If not for whatever gift he has, he'd most likely lose his sanity before he lost his life to his own element. I can't imagine the pain the guy must be going through just to walk around his own room, let alone the mansion.
Now I'm too worried about him. What do I do to get stronger?
As I'm thinking to myself about the current predicament that is now weighed on my shoulders, I get a call out from the little brother of the house, Amiel. Obnoxious bitch just doesn't let up does he?
"Hello, Hero Vaticus." he says with a graceful bow then smiles at me with a face that makes it obvious what he's thinking right now. "Since my brother is currently out of commission, I have chosen to take the role as your guide for the next few days."
"Thanks." I hate it. "I'll be in your care then."
"You... don't seem pleased by this. Is my brother actually a good guide?"
"He's very well informed despite being so sheltered. I actually got a lot of useful information from his insight about the lower sectors." Try to top that with all your damn gossip of the high grounds, useless.
"Ah. and did you get what you wanted from those sectors?"
"I did, actually. I'm currently going through some serious training with one of the scariest guys in the adventurers guild. I need to go back next week for the trial training before we set out to the maze in the wilder forest."
"You're going to the wilder forest?? Are they trying to kill you?" his ignorance is a pain. "I feel like it's better to stay here where it's safe so you don't need to do anything crazy."
"Do you even know what a hero is meant to be?" asked out of annoyance. I'm not sorry.
"Uh… r-right. You have that title. Guess you'll die sooner or later anyway."
"Not if I train my body well and gain experience."
"I thought you were strong enough?"
"Even if I am, I still need to work to make sure to do my job right from the start. I'm pretty much sick of staying in this house wandering around with nothing to do but read and listen to you and your mother gossip about useless crap."
I'm leaving. I need to walk for a while and get out of this house. If I can't get out of here soon I'm gonna lose it.
"Would you like to join the knights training?"
"... what?"
"Father may not hear you if you go to him now, but I can get you through with some connections. What do you think?"
"... *sigh* what do you want?" I call this kid a bitch for a multitude of reasons. This is one of them. Not only is he sneaky, he actually knows enough to make you uncomfortable. He knows I'm just putting up a front to save face, but he figured out how to get under my skin one day and has been using this against me for a while to keep me from interacting with his father. If they are actually related. He probably already figured out that he's not the man's son and is just taking advantage of his mothers position.
"... Come to the next Gala this full moon as my personal guard."
"Haah?"
"The gala is a ball held every full moon to celebrate the coming of age of all the newer High noble children. This would be my second one, but I was the only one that didn't have a guard then and everyone laughed at me."
"Cut the crap. You probably got back at them for laughing anyway."
"It still upset me though."
"And? What the hell does having me there do for you?"
"I can train you so you can be as strong as the guild master in Mairs. By the time you are strong enough, I can simply show you off to those brats as my guard that I trained personally."
"..." so he wants to tell them in a sly way that he doesn't need a guard since he can protect himself? If that's the case then he's just trying to get me on his side.
"You want to get stronger, don't you? Or… is there something else you want? Say a little monster that recently got accepted into the guild." What?? "I'm more informed than you think I am about the lands. You simply don't find them that interesting right?"
"Actually I'd much rather not ask you because I don't like you. But I'm sure you already figured that out."
"Heehee. Alright alright. You got me there. I am curious about that little monster that joined the guild myself, so don't think I won't find out more about them. If you want more information from me, you need to be more adept at accepting my invitations from now on, you know."
"I'd rather take my chances in the goblin alley."
"Quite the vulgar statement for someone of your status."
"I'm leaving. I do not want to deal with wasting my life on dealing with you."
"... you will come back to me eventually. My network is far greater than even the underground."
"Yeah, sure. Have fun with that."
I am not letting that brat make a fool out of-
"The goblin, named Tessa Greenwood-Halliway, lives on 415 west main in Caletone with the halliway family. Just inside the Selest market area. Her current position in the Maires venturers guild soon to take the milestone earlier than most adventurers. The guild master seems to have something special planned for her there that has something to do with the location. I'm sure you know that something might be wrong with this since the whole of that guild doesn't like the goblin."
"...." ooh I fucking hate you. "When is the party and the trial?"
"Hee hee! The party is next month on the new moon. The day after her trial. Usually, it would take a season for the guild to start a trial for the new recruits. But I can get you in as soon as it's time to start."
"Fine. So who is actually training me?"