"…and William passed?" Daron asked.
Silently, Rachel nodded and took some more time to calm herself to continue the story.
…
"We were not able to bring his body along at the time since a pack of wolves suddenly attacked us in the forest, forcing us to leave William there."
"Without William, our four-man formation was force to become a three-man formation, which was naturally much weaker, and after just a single day of facing normal beasts, we were already injured, even though we used traps and hid ourselves."
"All three of us were moderately injured, and Fey had a deep cut going from his right eye to his right shoulder, rendering the entire right shoulder and arm useless. Somehow, he was still holding onto life, and was still able to move with sheer willpower."
"Just a few hours after Fey received that wound, we found a road, as well as a city half a day's distance if we followed the road. Tom and I thought it would be the best option to go to the city, since we might be able to get someone to treat Fey's wounds as well as help for Bard, possibly even future employment in the worst case."
"However, Fey refused to go to the city, even with his severe wound. No matter what we said, Fey did not stop and continued walking in the opposite direction of the city. Tom and I did not want to injure him further by forcefully bringing him along with us, and after half an hour of fruitless pleading, we finally decided to let Fey go the way he wanted to, respecting his last wish, and we went to the city alone, never to see him again."
"So Fey died as well… but that does not explain how you ended up in such a miserable situation?"
…
"Reaching the city was not a happy ending as the story might suggest. Just like Bard city, this city also did not have any lack of knights in training, in fact, even having 4 official knights under the lord of the city, and had nearly a hundred knights in training! They naturally did not accept Tom and I who were from a foreign city, leaving us for dead in the streets."
"Tom and I, were both the children of nobles within Bard city, resulting in us being so useless at anything except showing off and fighting. We learned this after not being able to get any job for the first month, only surviving on the little bits of money we earned from begging. After all, how could children become guards of the city? Which was naturally the only thing we could do other than fighting."
"However, after the first month, Tom somehow managed to find a job as the local alchemy union, which gave him a considerably large income compared to begging."
"10 months passed like that, Tom earning barely enough to feed the two, and we spent the nights in the streets."
"Over the time, Tom and I had both increasingly lost more and more weight, and so had become thin like sticks. But Tom also seemed to have been increasingly losing more blood."
"Winter soon arrived, and just like that, Tom…"
"Tom died as well?" Daron asked in an apologetic tone as he too was feeling how depressing this escape story truly was. He was finally coming to understand how cruel this world could be. However, this was not too different from Earth. The only thing was that people hid behind money, politics, fame, relations & connections, and the law to commit such atrocities as leaving people to die in the dead of winter, or murdering people, or even forcing people into slavery while calling it repayment of debt. Daron had a clear understanding of how the world worked back on Earth, and that was why he was able to make friends with many powerful people after his career as a novelist took off.
It was just that his life in the orphanage had made him feel like this world was similar to a game, where people would grow over time, slowly finding away at monsters, getting materials from them, selling those materials, and getting better equipment.
Now, it felt like his perception of the world was wrong, and that it was a word, just like Earth, where brutalities were committed out in the open. However, unlike earth where people hid behind 'reason', the people in this world committed such acts out in the open, and no one could really do anything, since power was everything.
Unlike earth, where all people were equal, and someone would gain power as more people followed him, this world relied on literal power instead of political power and influence over public. A single Rank 6 knight's power could easily overpower an army of nearly 50 soldiers! While those Advanced knights at Rank 16 could easily eliminate an entire squad of over 30 Novice Rank 6 knights. Then there were Mages, whose power Daron could still not fully quantify, since although he had been with Traitorous for over a year, he had not seen him fully use all his power.
"Yes, a few days ago, Tom and I went to sleep in the snow, and he never woke up again" Rachel's voice was shaking once more. However, this time, she could not hold it in and she busted into tears once more after completing what she had to say.
Daron simply sat next to her, rubbing her back like he used to do to his writing friend Jack, who would often begin crying after writing or reading love stories, since he had been dumped almost 7 times by different girls over the course of time, never finding the one.
Just like that, a few days passed, and Daron waited in a nearby inn, while Rachel was recovering, slowly reading through the method of absorbing mana.
Today, he had finally completely learned all the information within the book, and was ready to begin the absorption process. However, he decided to wait for a few more days until Sirious came back before he would begin the process.