"Sigh, you no I can't let this be" Victoria shook her head feeling a bit bad, this wasn't a matter of skill of competence. Thane here was one of the most competent people he knew.
No it was something else.
"Do you know why i chose Jemie?" She asked looking a the young man behind them with a sudden and quick glance.
His charisma is often fooled those around him leading them to believe that he was some Noble from an affluencial family in the shelter. And perhaps this might have been the case at some point.
But she had picked him off the streets, afte his father died, his family was thrown into the arms of poverty, though they maintained the airs of their past glory, they were dirty poor.
For Jemie, the breaking point was losing his only family left, after his mother died, he walked off into the streets and never came back.
He became untethered.
" I do not" Thane shook his head, not even her father knew why she picked who she picked. It was a mystery to everyone.
"It's simple, the reason I chose him is because he has no one to account to" she paused, then continued.
"If he were to die today, no one would care, no one would weep, except me of course. But that's the point, the people in my cohort are my responsibility and mine alone. I will not take in someone whose death would destroy anyone other than me"
This was the case for Jemie, Hamdel and to the largest extent Guilliman. Barthold was a more unquie case though, but his wasn't so different.
"I…" Thane smiled bitterly, it was true that he had a lot of responsibility with many people looking up to him. However, he did not want it. What he craved was strength…the power to do what he could.
This was what he truly wanted, not this farce of responsibility and Victoria knew that very well.
"Sigh, let's have a round of soothing tea, maybe we can go from there" Victoria changed the topic, not wishing to go into detail at the moment.
There were more pressing matters at hand, like the gate that just opened few days ago.
…
Meanwhile,
Hamdel slowly made his way through a narrow tunnel leading into a wide colliseum looking room.
He had escaped the moment that damn beast started acting erratically. It was a massive build and he did not want to drawn into its games.
However, after a few minutes of screams from within the Collieum room, Hamdel was assaulted by a breif and unnerving silence that put him at high alert.
Did the beast kill accidentally kill Guilliman while playing around with his body? That would be extremely unfortunate seeing as Victoria had taken a liking to the kid.
It meant trouble for him.
"Hm?"
Fortunately, as he looked through the colliseum he didn't see any corpses laying around. So where was they kid?
Scanning around, he tried to notice Guilliman from the shadows eventually his gaze landed just beside him next to the narrow passage.
It was the kid
He was in bad shape.
"As expected" Hamdel shook his head, this asshole of a tamed beast liked to bully humans, making it seem playful was the worse part of course.
"You need help cleaning the beast? I can lend a hand" Hamdel said from the side a shameless smile appeared on his face.
The reason he didn't jump in earlier was because he knew the situation more than him. Weimans bullying was limited by section as far as he knew.
It would only mess with you for a time then it would lay on its back and rest, mocking his opponent.
"Ehn? No there's no need" Guilliman replied calmly looking at beast infront, he couldn't exactly bath in in water but those feathers just need a bit of ruffling and Guillimans occasional touches, he want able to largely tend to the beast.
He was no stranger to Minial chores, back in his old world, before he reached the age….he had stayed with his stepmother. A lady far more hateful than the one he had in this likes.
To be honest, this guy had it easy, his stepmother from his last word didn't try to sell him off, rather she opted to use him a 10 year old at time as cheap labor.
He had worked on farms, cleaned ditches…something like cleaning a beast wasn't too out of place. The gods know that the beasts on the outside world were easier to tame so they were much more.
Guilliman had a lot of practice essentially.
"I see" nodding with a look of surprise on his face, handle quickly looked over Guillimans handy work. Truly the beast had been cleaned!!
And he did it while it was still 'playing'? That was strange and amazing at the same time.
Not paying him much attention Guilliman stood up, his face ruffled and a tear appearing on his shoulder, then with large strides walked over to tap Weiman on its head.
The beast feeling Guillimans hand could only skwirm in discomfort, but didn't actively make a move to remove his hand.
Apart from its owner which was Victorias father, the beast never allowed anyone to go near his head without losing an arm.
"Did I pass the test?" Guilliman seeing the surprise on hamdels face asked with a bitter smile on his face. He had come to the conclusion that this was but a test from the old man.
Cleaning a high level beast? There were definitely specialists that could do so in the shelter, him having to do it was clearly a test. Clearly!
"Ehn? Test?" Hamdel titled his head to the side confused for a brief moment, after which he smiled and nodded.
"Sure, you pass"
He could understand what was going through the kids mind right now. But the truth was just that…the old man really did think he had hired a stable boy, guilliman was just a product of an poorly communicated agreement between daughter and father.
Before joining the cohort, he really was a stable boy.