The papers had been piled up, and the work kept coming in, such was the life of higher-ups. Losing that sense of freedom to do what you want, train however long you want, and go on adventures when you want. Now a strict schedule had to be planned for every day, and one could not go off that schedule.
Behind a stack of papers sat a large man, reaching an astounding height of 6'8 ft. Due to all the stress that came with being old, his hair had been dyed a light tint of white, and it fell down to his ears. His face was built through constant fighting and he always held a facial expression that would scare even some adults away. His eyes were a deep and empty black that would suck your soul in.
The weird thing about the man was that he wasn't the only one of him in that room, he had five other clones of himself also attending to work in the office.
General Miller's clones had been stuck in his office, due to the previous administrator leaving his position a few weeks back. Now they were stuck with all the paperwork and were put in charge of sending out orders, while the actual General Miller harnessed his technique with the sword at his place of residence.
A woman dressed in a thin linen tunic barged through the door and shouted, "Sir, a report has come in!"
"Read it to me," commanded the clone sitting by the desk.
Pushing her round spectacles up with her pointing finger, and after clearing her throat the woman began, "reporting back to base, Elena of troop 54. The quest to bring in or eliminate the Woodridge Killer also known as 'WK' has been completed. We are returning to base with a plus one, please ready a bed and a few healer-type soldiers.
"Do as the report says, and pay the squad what they need to be paid."
"Yes sir, what bout the plus one that is mentioned?"
"I trust Elena's judgment, and she won't bring in anybody that'll jeopardize our Kingdom."
The informant nodded and left the small office to fulfill her orders.
"Hmm, a plus one?" The general fell into deep thought as he recalled how Elena had been a plus one on one of his adventures years back.
***
The heavy trodding of war warthogs could be heard as they pulled two carriages through the gates guarding the barracks.
"WELCOME HOME ELENA!" Shouted the guards on top of the wall, as the two carriages went past.
Elena smiled hearing the greetings, "home..." she thought as she looked over to the boy laying on the opposite side of the carriage.
With eyes full of pity she stared at his face full of scars.
"We're home," she muttered.
With no response from the boy, she sighed, "I do hope you can survive this and live a new life."
Her memories of her past life which were barely spoken of anymore suddenly resurfaced, the pain and anguish she endured while living with those sick people. These were the memories she used as motivation to become stronger. Her internal duty had mission had become the duty to save those who were trapped in an endless loop of torture and pain.
This was the main reason she took quests like the one she had just completed, unfortunately, this was the first time she had the opportunity to save someone- even if he was barely alive, but the fact that he was saved made her content.
Feeling the carriage stop, she knew they had arrived. Summoning her grimoire, she used her string ability to craft a bed for the boy and put him on it. Her ability allowed her to create and control strings, and the more she trained it the tougher the strings would become.
Opening the carriage door, she used her strings once more to lift the boy and place him on the bed, with this she rushed out of the carriage with the boy in tow.
"I need medical attention, now!" She shouted as she ran.
Four healers ran forward and carried the boy to the room which was prepared, "we've got him from here miss Elena, the general wants a word with you."
Elena bowed and used her strings to quickly maneuver around the base.
Entering a small building with a banner of the kingdom hanging next to the door, she ran straight toward the general-the real one.
"UNCLE!!"
"MY LITTLE ELENA!!"
Although he had sensed her presence already, he still acted surprised. Putting his sword into its sheath he held his arms out and let Elena run into his arms.
"I've missed you dearly," he whispered as he kissed her head.
Not saying anything, she just enjoyed the moment of peace outside of all the fighting she had been through that month.
"I've come back safely as promised, so you need to make my favorite dish, as YOU promised," said Elena.
"Yes, yes, it shall be done. How was your adventure this time around? All the guys come back safely? Did any of them have a breakthrough in their abilities? Did you have a breakthrough in any of your abilities??"
Like an excited father, the general questioned Elena, and only after an hour of questioning did it end, "what is this I heard about a plus one?"
Elena sighed and explained, "the work of one of the notorious researchers, that experiment on awakened and unawakened beings, and by the looks of it... She had done a lot to this poor boy."
"Would've been better to leave him for dead honestly, he'd have no reason to live, no drive for anything, no social skills, and why would you bring him here to waste our limited finances? You were a different case because I saw your ability and potential, but what gains do we get in raising this boy?"
Although reasonable points, Elena still rebuked, "before barging into that room, I saw a ray of hope in that boy's eyes, a hope that I saw vanish in many children's eyes before. I didn't want a repeat of that experience, so I saved him."
"Such a mundane way of thinking of things, think of the bigger picture, is he worth the efforts, is he worth training? Is he even fit for training?"
Lowering her head she replied, "no..."
"Then what benefit does he provide to the Kingdom Elena?"
"Nothing, but what about compassion, the king encourages us to help those that can't help themselves, so why can't we save this boy? You've saved me once upon a time. Don't be a hypocrite and let me save this one person. Please, uncle."
Falling into Elena's trap, the general sighed, "fine, let's go take a look at his condition."
...
The four healers, stood next to the bed sweating as they used their best spells on the boy.
Their efforts worked as the boy started breathing half an hour into the healing session, although he hadn't woken up yet, his breathing was enough to let the healers know he was actually alive.
The door to the room then opened as The general and Elena entered.
The general came to a standstill as the aura of the boy reeked of death, "disgusting," he thought.
Stepping closer, he observed the boy's body and his scars, being on a much different level from the rest of the people in the room. He observed an anomaly. The boy's wounds and limbs were slowly healing at a pace that could be said to be minuscule, but still enough to cause shock.
Knowing the level of the healers in the room, he knew they didn't have the capabilities to do this, so how?
At most they could probably preserve his life, as they waited for a higher-level healer, but what was going on?
Too many questions, with no answers.
Could this boy have awakened a self-healing ability? If so it was a damn good one, then again there was no mark on his body indicating the awakening of his ability.
Strange, this was all too strange.
"Hey Elena, what did you say happened to this boy again?" Asked the general.
"We don't know, we can only judge based on his scars."
The general looked a bit dejected, "okay, I'll allow for the boy to stay, only because something interesting is going on here. If he proves to be useless, his in your hands and the military won't bother spending our funds on him."
In saying this, the general pushed all the responsibility of the boy onto Elena if he was deemed useless when he woke up.
...
Two weeks later...
The air in the room had already become stale as the visitor count had slowed down since the boy's arrival, with the healers doing everything they could to speed up the boy's recovery to the daily checking in's from Elena, the boy didn't really get any other visitors.
AHHHH
Oslo gasped as he suddenly woke up from his dream. The first thing he realized as he opened his eyes was that he could actually see, the first thing he observed was his body. Strangely enough, all the scars that previously riddled his body, were gone.
It felt weird to the boy. After inspecting his whole body, he discovered something even better than his sight. He could feel the textures of the bed he laid on, he could feel the rough texture of the blanket used to keep him warm, and he could feel how sunken his face was due to malnutrition.
After exploring his sense of touch for a while, he looked up and saw a very unfamiliar scene.
He was in a small room, much different from his old place of residence, this room was clean and hadn't reeked of blood. There was an actual light source hanging from the walls, and they even emitted a sense of warmth.
The walls were painted a light green, that seemed to calm him down, while also slowing down his thoughts. Allowing him to process everything around him.
The table on the far end of the room held what looked like books, and a little lamp that helped illuminate the desk area.
Next to it stood a wooden bookcase, filled to the brim with books. Other than the bed he lay on, there wasn't anything else in the room, but the chair next to his bed.
"How did I even get here?" Thought the boy out loud.
Excitedly Oslo stuttered, "I-I can talk!"
Discovery after discovery, Oslo's heart was once again filled with a new feeling, excitement.
A feeling he had been deprived of for sixteen years, by instinct a little smile formed on his face.
Wiggling over to the side of the bed he tried to get up, but his muscles were still too weak to support his whole body. The most he could manage was a slight lift off of the bed, and then he would fall back down again.
He tried this for five minutes before fully running out of gas, as the sweat ran down his unkempt hair.
*KRRRR*
The door to the room slowly opened as Elena entered while playing with the living doll she made with her ability.
The doll disappeared as she stood under the doorframe, mouth agape.
Oslo stared back, also in shock, but a different kind.
This had been the first time he came into actual contact with another person besides her...
"H-hi," Elena managed to mutter.
"Hi."
"How are- uh, how are you feeling right now?"
"I'm not really sure, but may I ask who you are, and where I am, and what was that in your hand when you walked through that door?"
Oslo tried to sit up, but his lack of energy and physical strength kept him down.
Seeing this Elena ran over and lifted him up into a more comfortable position.
"My name is Elena."
Oslo remained silent, thinking about her name, "E-L-E-NA," he managed to mutter her name with no complications.
"There we go, and what is your name boy?"
"Oslo, that's what she called me."
Thinking nothing of who Oslo was referring to, Elena continued, "nice name you've got there, a strong name."
"As to the doll, it's my ability, every awakened being has their own unique ability."
"Woahh, what does yours do?"
"I can create string, like this," Elena waved her hands in the air as a ball of string took form, slowly turning into a bow, seemingly out of nowhere an arrow made of string also took form.
"I can then control it like this," and without touching the bow, the arrow was placed on the drawstring and pulled back.
TWANG
The arrow was let loose and shot against the wall, the arrow penetrating the thick stone wall.
Oslo sat in awe as he stared at the fist-sized hole in the wall.
"I can do many other things, but you already have the gist of it," said Elena as she got up, "I'm going to the kitchen to fetch some food, I'm assuming you're hungry?"
The mentioning of food set off the ticking time bomb in Oslo's stomach and a loud grumble could be heard in the small room. Oslo then experienced another new emotion, embarrassment.