"Oh my gosh!" Glenn exclaimed. He looked down at the boy trying to make out what he heard. At first glance, he definitely wouldn't have thought he was Joren. And if he weren't, he would have just thought they looked similar. But now that he heard from the kid himself that he was Joren, his brain automatically saw the resemblance. The only difference was that he was older and taller, and his body was slightly muscular for his age.
"What's the matter, Glenn? Do you know this kid?" one of the men asked.
"Yeah, I do. He's my friend's son. The one that went missing." Glenn explained
"WHAT?! Do you mean the kid that went missing five years ago? I thought he was dead!" the man exclaimed
"Most people did after not finding any clue of his whereabouts after five years. He was never officially presumed dead since there wasn't a body. But now, as you can see, he's here, right in front of us." Glenn's expression went from grim to happy. He had been searching nonstop for the past five years just to at least find a clue about Joren's whereabouts. He had almost given up hope since his leads always went cold. But as if a God was watching over him, Joren was delivered to him safe and sound. Well, almost safe and sound.
"Lenny, get him into the caravan. Pantera, please keep an eye on his health until he wakes up." Glenn then turned to his other companions. "Arnold, check our surroundings to make sure no other creature is in the vicinity. And Derry, please make a protective barrier around this area. I'll go and find some firewood, we'll camp here for the night.
...
When Joren slowly opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was a wooden roof followed by a rocking motion. He slowly sat up, his sleepy eyes still trying to adjust to being awake.
"Well, look who decided to join us after 4 days of sleeping. Had a good nap?" a voice to the left of Joren spoke
When he saw who it was, he immediately dove for him, hugging the man.
*SNIFF* "Uncle Glenn!" Joren cried
Reciprocating the hug, Glenn embraced Joren and started patting his head.
"It's okay. You're safe now. I won't let anything happen to you again, I promise."
After three minutes of hugging, Joren let go and wiped his tears. Even though he was the Joren of his past life, he was also the Joren of this life. It's not like his soul took over this body, but it was that his soul happened to remember his past life. Because of that, the emotion he felt when seeing Glenn was genuine.
"Aww, he's so cute, can I hug him as well?" Pantera asked while softly pinching Joren's cheeks.
Joren turned around and looked at the unfamiliar woman. She had shoulder-length blonde hair, green eyes, and snow-white skin. She had medium-sized breasts and a small waist but had a nice figure to complement her slender frame. 'Who is she?' He thought. But he didn't dwell on that for now. All he knew was that if they were friends of Uncle Glenn, then they were good people in his book. So he hugged her without a second thought. And after the hug, she sat him down in her lap wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Joren, I've been searching for you for the past five years! Are you okay? Tell me what happened! Do you know who took you away?" Glenn bombarded Joren with a multitude of questions. He had a look of curiosity and anger on his face. Curious to know who did this to his friend's son, and angry that the ones who took Joren did this to his friend's son.
"Umm, I don't remember who took me. All I remember is waking up in a cell as a slave." Joren said gripping the hands of Pantera tightly.
"Those bastards! How dare they!" Glenn could barely contain his anger. His clenched fists turned red in an instant as if blood was going to burst from them. But he soon calmed down and asked him another question.
"How did you escape? And where is the slave collar? Escaping slavery is not an easy feat, especially for a ten-year-old. And even If someone does manage, they usually have their slave collar on."
"When I was there, I met an old man. I called him Gramps. He was helping me do the tasks I was ordered to do." Joren went on to explain everything that happened during the five years he's been missing. Including the fact that he learned how to use mana.
When they heard this, they were shocked and relieved. Shocked that Joren managed to learn mana at the age of ten and relieved that although he was a slave, he wasn't treated poorly But they still assumed that he would have some mental trauma from the experience.
"C-Can you show me your mana?" Glenn asked curiously
Joren closed his eyes and focused on feeling the mana in his body. Because of the slave collar, Joren was never able to practice projecting his mana from his body. Even so, he still tried his best to do so.
Focusing on his right hand, Joren concentrated the mana into it. After around five seconds, white energy started to emerge from his palm which eventually clad his entire hand.
"Amazing! He's only ten and he can already clad himself in aura." Pantera exclaimed
Huh? Clad himself in aura? What does she mean? Joren wondered. Joren simply projected his mana and wrapped it around his hand. Although he never tried this before, he thought that this was a basic thing to do. But now you're telling him that this is aura? Could he be a genius? He threw that thought out the window because even if he was good at aura that didn't mean he could be good at the other magic practices.
After Joren finished demonstrating his aura, he reached into his bag, which conveniently was still strapped to him, and took out his slave collar.
"This is the collar I wore during my time there." Joren handed the collar to Glenn
"This filthy piece of scrap metal. Don't worry Joren, I'll destroy this and get rid of any memory you had of that place!" Glenn's hand radiated a white hue and he attempted to crush the collar. But before he could-
"Wait, don't break it, I need it!" Joren shouted
Glenn looked at him confused. 'Why would Joren want to keep the thing that took away his freedom? Was it trauma? He did live half his current life with it, so he could have an attachment to the collar without noticing it.' Glenn thought
"I want to study it," Joren said. "When I get the chance, I want to learn magic and the other practices, but I also want to know how the slave collar functions so I can create a certain type of magic." Joren had been going over the functions of the slave collar for the past five years. He noticed that the collar had three basic functions, mana nullification, absolute obedience, and a function for inflicting harm upon the slave. If he could learn how to create a spell like that, well, he had a lot of things in his mind he wanted to do.
"Hmm. Fine, I'll let you keep it. But it's not a toy so don't EVER put it on your neck do you understand?" He handed it back to Joren
"Yes, Uncle."
"Good, we'll be at the village in a few hours. So rest up before then." Glenn was about to head to the front but Joren had stopped him before he could do so.
"Uncle, is my father okay?" Joren asked with a nervous, anxious look.