Iustus looked around, confused about his surroundings, he had already been in unknown territory when he woke up but as soon as he had woken up, some strange man dragged him off as simply as if the hero had been weightless.
He hadn't even been able to muster anything to resist and was now sitting at a table with this dark-haired man, everything felt like a very weird hallucination to Iustus.
The man was wearing faded blue overalls, a loose, red checked shirt and some dirtied gardening gloves, the collar of the shirt was loose, which was quite peculiar considering the weather outside.
But now that he calmed down a bit and focused on his surroundings more than past the other strange aspects of this place, he noticed that the atmosphere was quite warm.
Iustus hadn't seen much of what was happening as the man had zoomed around while carrying him but he had seen that he had been taken to a large looking house, perhaps even a mansion, everything seemed well kept.
Iustus was mostly used to a poor peasant's home and less than ideal living conditions, so he felt slightly out of place here.
Another thing that was peculiar around was just how many people just walked around, people had gone by a few times and it hadn't been the same person even once, another strange thing, they were all women.
The young hero had trouble understanding what was happening exactly but he couldn't help but stay right where he was, feeling like he would crumble if he were to move too much.
All the while Iustus was having a brain blast looking around, the man had been talking in length while swinging his arms around, he had been speaking of so many things too fast for Iustus to get a grasp on any of his words, switching topics without any pause.
The sheer speed of his arm movements made him feel sick and dizzy, it was like having a discussion with a throbbing headache, it was especially rough for him as the man kept throwing unknown words in his face or sometimes whole sentences.
"Anyways Iustus, you want to defeat the sins right?" suddenly, he spoke much more slowly, which was just a regular pace and Iustus felt his mind clear as his headache calmed down.
"Huh? Oh, yes, yes I do" he responded absentmindedly as someone else walked past in the corridor next to the room they were both in, looked like a maid to Iustus, not that he had ever actually seen one with his own two eyes.
Now that he thought about it, they all had looked somewhat peculiar to the country bumpkin that he was, it also played that he couldn't recognise what a clown or mime was and only seeing them as weird looking.
"Then you are in luck!" exclaimed the man as he clapped his hands before pointing at the hero with his two index fingers.
"I know exactly what wil help you not to miserably fail" he added, the man was, somehow, both inexpressive and highly expressive too, his mouth was smiling warmly while his eyes held no emotion at all, barely shifting from their position at all.
Iustus eyed the man curiously, somehow feeling like this man was to be trusted one hundred percent, even if he didn't even know his name at all or anything about him.
"One way to learn and get better is to observe, observe the environment, people in their craft, things like that" spoke the purple-eyed man as he took a breath though a smoking pipe, blowing out the smoke right in Iustus's face.
He tried to swat the smoke away as he coughed up.
"Breath in, it is medicinal!" advised Theli as he leaned back in his chair.
Seeing the hero choke on the smoke, he chuckled lightly.
"So obviously, the best way for you to get a clue so as to defeat a sin, you must witness a virtue at work" he stood up as he spoke, walking over to the wall and leaning against it.
Iustus hadn't noticed but the man was quite tall and despite the ample attire, he seemed to be quite muscular as well, though that feeling the hero got was gone in the next instant, the man didn't seem quite as muscular anymore, confusing the already confused one with more confusion.
"What do you mean by that? Only Kindness has appeared and he has been making no appearance ever since he was spotted" spoke Iustus, gathering himself as he felt like what the man was saying was impossible.
"You think so?" it sounded like the man was quite certain of himself.
"Do you... Do you know a virtue? Kindness? Another one?" asked Iustus, leaning forward, feeling tense as he awaited the answer from the laid back man.
"Of course I do, I know a lot of people" casually responded Theli, he put his hand up, silencing the hero before he could get all worked up about this revelation.
"Mais, you got it wrong, I am not speaking of the present" Iustus didn't even have time to frown at the strange sentence before he suddenly collapsed head first onto the table.
"Medicinal, it helps sleeping soundly" laughed Theli as two dark cloaked figures appeared behind the unconscious hero, taking him back to the small hut Theli had taken him to last time.
"Theli" he heard the sweet voice of Malina calling his name and he could guess what it was about by the tone but he acted none the wiser.
"Yes honey?" he asked back as he turned to her.
"Was it necessary to do your shady stuff in the dining room?" she said while raising an eyebrow.
"I mean, not necessary per se but you all said that you would prefer to have me be around more, so here you go, I do my morally questionable actions here now!" he exclaimed while spreading his arms and grabbing her in a hug.
While Theli was getting busy in a fun way, Iustus was drifting deeper and deeper into sleep, visions of some unfamiliar landscapes appearing before his eyes.