"Are you my new master?" a young girl's voice echoed in my mind.I blinked. "But you're a girl. I don't—" My eyebrow twitched. "I don't have interest in girls.""I like huge men," she said without missing a beat. "You know, the kind with muscles, abs, and that extra something... really something big."I paused. "Wait, what are we talking about? Big what?""You know!" she replied with a playful tone. "Big, tall, strong men with—well, let's just say their sword skills are unmatched."I couldn't help myself. "Oh great. Now I have a magic staff with a dirty mind. Fantastic.""Well, what did you expect?" she teased. "I'm an enchanted staff. Of course, I've seen all kinds of things... and I'm just bored out of my mind! A girl's gotta have standards, right?"My eyebrow twitched again. "I didn't sign up for this."I stared at the floating staff in front of me. This was insane. If it weren't for the thing literally wiggling in the air like a toddler's new toy, I'd think I was losing my mind."They also have to be—hey! Where are you going?! Are you leaving me?!"I turned away, trying to make a quick escape, but of course, the staff floated right in front of me like a little drama queen having a meltdown."Are you seriously just gonna leave me after waking me up?! How rude! I'm starting to really dislike you now!"The staff even started puffing up in the air, clearly throwing an imaginary tantrum. "I'M A MAGIC STAFF WITH FEELINGS, OKAY?!" the staff zapped back, looking like it was preparing to send a lightning bolt straight to my face."Oh, please," I muttered. "You're wooden. You're gonna zap me with what, splinters?""Oh, I'll show you—"I sighed. "I'm leaving." ignoring its increasingly loud complaints."Hey! Don't abandon me!" The staff whined. "I don't really dislike you! You're still okay! Come on, please don't leave—"I just kept walking toward the mini-market to grab some food, not even looking back."Holy—did you kill all these people?!" The staff gasped. "What a monster!"I rolled my eyes, grabbing some bread and cheese. "I don't wanna hear that from a talking staff.""Hey! Watch it!" the staff huffed. I grabbed what I needed and moved on, ignoring its continuous rants.I blinked and muttered to myself, "You could be more useful if you actually had a cleaning spell, you know."The staff didn't take the hint. "Oh, I can do way more than just cleaning, you know! I'm full of potential!"I shook my head and kept walking, trying to ignore the floating nuisance. "Yeah, well, right now, I'd settle for not having to scrub myself down like some commoner.""Oh, I can totally help you with that!" the staff chirped. "I'm a woman, too, so it won't be weird!"I rolled my eyes. "I'm starting to think you'd be better at cleaning if you actually had a spell for it instead of just running your mouth."The staff puffed up as if offended, then, with a dramatic flourish, it glowed a bright green. "Oh, I have a spell for that!" it proclaimed, a little too proud of itself.Before I could protest, a gust of magic whipped around me, and suddenly I was enveloped in a whirlwind of soap bubbles. I blinked as the dirt and grime disappeared like a bad dream, leaving me surprisingly clean."Well, that was unexpected," I said, brushing a stray bubble off my shoulder. "Maybe I was wrong about you... you actually know how to do something useful."The staff gave an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction. "Told you, I'm full of surprises."-After changing my clothes and putting over the cloak, I headed out of the house and found the slaves from the store room walk around the village, some of them saw me and nodded my way, some were frightened and avoided me. As I scan the crowd I found the children huddled in one corner of the street and was surrounded by skinny men.I was planning to just go without a word but for some reason, instead of walking away, my feet dragged me towards their direction"I will take my revenge on you!" One of the skinny men said while raising a rockI just got there in time, but instead of a barrier my bare body received the blow"Do not even think of touching these children" I said as I glare at the man, He flinched and ran away together with his 3 other companions.You are surprisingly soft hearted, Do you know these children personally?"I don't"Hmm, is that so?The floating staff circled the huddled children, The children looked at the staff frighteningly.Slave contract, don't you know how to cancel it?I did not answer, it seems like the chatty staff is useful for onceTsch, I can't read your mind but I can tell what you're thinking you know! And yes, the great Me did know how to cancel itI just rolled my eyes at herBut I need you, my mana is lacking, I need you to generate more mana, or absorb more mana, since you know, you are an imbiberThe staff floated towards me, so I grabbed it[Staff synchronization: 1%]A short and vivid memory crossed my mind, it was not mine, it was in the point of view of somebody. The important thing about the memory wasn't the people involved but the chant the person I'm seeing the eyes through is saying.I immediately memorized the chant and chanted it in my mind, while pointing the staff to the children. It did not even take a minute when the children squirmed in pain."What the hell is happening?"That is the pre-requisite of breaking the slave contract by forceThe staff that is not in my hands anymore saidI watched as the kids twitched and squirmed, clearly struggling with the pain of the slave contract breaking. After a while, they passed out. I lifted them with a flick of my wind magic and told one of the women I'd freed to look after them. I made sure to warn the others not to hurt them in my absence, you know, the usual "I'll know if you do" speech.The ever-chatty staff chimed in, saying the slave contract would be gone once the kids woke up, and sure enough, I checked their necks—no tattoos. Good riddance.I was about to ride the wind out of the village (I don't really fly, more like, glide in style) when some old dude with the frailest body suddenly shouted, "Savior with the moon's blessing, Please grant this lowly commoner your name!"I almost cringed myself out of my shoes, but hey, I couldn't help it. So, I turned back dramatically and said, "My name's Anya." Then I spun around like I was in some kind of epic movie scene and strutted away.Honestly, I felt like a protagonist in one of those cheesy fantasy novels. -I really don't like being thanked or treated like some hero. I mean, I had the ability to help, and honestly, it wasn't even a hassle for me. I had nothing to do and nowhere to go anyway.So, I just flew up into the sky, shutting off my brain.I took a deep breath, letting the cold breeze cool me down, while the stars above twinkled like they were showing off and the morning sun started creeping up.I must've looked like some kind of white lady floating in the sky, all ethereal and dramatic. I flew slowly, not caring about anything, just letting the stars do their thing and the sun make its grand entrance.-I was flying above the vast forest, heading towards the Theodoreford Empire, when suddenly, this overwhelming fatigue hit me like a train—like the time when my mana just decided to bail on me for no reason.And I wasn't even flying for that long!Next thing I knew, I was plummeting straight toward the ground.Great. So, I just braced myself, figuring if I was going down, I might as well go down in style.I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to be a pancake on the ground, but to my surprise, I was literally an inch away from it."You left me, you ungrateful little lady! If I wasn't here, you would've been done for! Recklessly using fly magic with almost no mana left! Don't you know slave contract termination takes a lot of mana?!"And just like that, the annoyingly chatty staff saved my life. I could've sworn I heard it add a little dramatic "hmph" too.I straightened up, brushing the dirt off like I hadn't just almost become a crumpled mess."Thank you," I said, making it sound as courteous as possible, though inside, I was just relieved I didn't end up as a ground pancake.[Staff synchronization: 25%]I was puzzled by the new notification, it rose up faster than I thought? I looked at the staff and realized that the chatty staff was actually what weebs call a tsundere!"Hey, are you okay? I saw you plummet to the ground," a middle-aged man, who looked like he was halfway through a gym routine, suddenly appeared from behind a bush. Half-naked. With muscles on top of muscles.Oh my, look what we have here! The man of my dreams. Look at those biceps, triceps, and—holy abs!I glanced at the floating staff beside me, and to my horror, I saw water pouring out of its head. Was she... drooling?I turned back to the man, trying to keep my cool. "Oh? You're a mage?" He asked, eyeing me and the staff.I blinked. "Who are you?"He scratched his head. "Oh, my bad. I should've introduced myself earlier. Name's Denise. I'm a knight from the Theodoreford Empire. We're camped not far from here. I was training up on that mountain when I saw you drop like a rock. Tried to run here as fast as I could to catch you, but looks like you didn't need any help after all." He gave me a charming smile.I looked over in the direction he pointed. A mountain, probably about 5 kilometers away. Did he really run that far and get here this fast? Seriously?I gave him the once-over, from head to toe. If he really did that, then... this guy was ridiculously fast. Either that, or he had a cheat code for speed."Don't look at me like I'm a monster, I have acceleration item right here" He said while raising his right hand to show me a bracelet made of beads that is producing a faint glow."How about you? Would you mind telling me your name young mage?" The man saidI removed my hood.The moment I did so, The light from the rising sun reflected on my hair, making it look gold, rather than silver."My name is Anya. Do you mind escorting me back to the empire?"The knight, Denise, just stared at me with wide eyes and a completely dumbfounded expression.