No way in hell

Currently, Mereleona is eating a cooked boar leg, she is eating slowly and methodically completely different from her usual savage eating method where she just bites in and swallows whole chunks of meat, by her glazed over eyes and odd behavior something seems to be on her mind

Indeed something is on her mind, it is the fight which occurred a couple of hours beforehand and while she is in her own thought the cause of her problems is peacefully sleeping on a fur blanket all bandages up and recovering from the beating he had gotten

'That brat was strong, he pushed me to my limit.' She thought as she looked at Adam, although he didn't manage to make her all torn and bloody like other exciting fights she had this fight was special, although he was beaten and bruised, with bones broken and tendons snapped while she is completely fine with only a small cut on her hip, which already healed, he had 'won'

When she fights to any degree she is usually bloody and beaten but her opponent is either dead or even more beaten, such an outcome where she is fine and her opponent is completely beaten but she lost and he won is strange and unexpected by her, it gave her a strange feeling that she never experienced

'His magic is weird, his physical body is strong, his mentality is dangerous and he has many tricks up his sleeves. What's more, he will always be underestimated because of his lack of mana, he is definitely dangerous.' Mereoleona thought as she took another slow bite of her boar leg, it tasted oddly bitter to her, she won, many people would say that she won, she remained standing and is completely fine while Adam is injured and unconscious but it is a hollow victory to her, she can not say that she won, to her, she lost, even if everybody says that she won in her heart she will always consider this fight her loss

'He seems to be inexperienced. His physical body, tactical mind, and strange magic bring him to above vice-captain level for sure. Even some captains would lose to him, if he wasn't so inexperienced he would probably beat Fuegoleon with no problem. He has potential.' She thought as the fire crackled, from the fight with Adam she concluded that this was probably his first-ever fight

Although it wasn't that noticeable because of his speed, strength, and endurance she noticed that Adam wasn't that experienced with using his body for combat, he seems to be much more comfortable and powerful with the usage of his magic

Just from having Mana zone used against him for a few times he learned how to do it, he confused her, he managed to escape her on multiple occasions and he found the mistakes in her magic which he then used for his advantage, he also learned to not make the same mistakes twice as in the end he used her own attack against her, if he was to be judged purely on talent alone then she can confidently say that his talent is second to none

'I should not have looked down on him.' Mereoleona thought as she went to a boar corpse, impaled it on a stick and put it above the fire to cook, Adam will need the nutrients to recover once he wakes up

She had admittedly looked down on Adam when she first met him, sure his physical body was strong which was evident by him surviving the many smacks she gave him with her fire paws, and he was mentally strong since he managed to patiently wait to hunt down the final boar but without mana, she didn't really expect much from him

She thought that the scabbard and house repair were some tricks, gadgets or someone else magic at work since she didn't feel magic or mana from him when he was doing those things

In this world, it's impossible to go far or amount to anything special without magic and she thought Adam was the same, someone who wasn't strong, she only wanted to fight him to relieve some of her boredom, she should have known better than to look down at her opponents, it's completely her mistake

Speak of the devil and he shall come, as Mereoleona thought about Adam he woke up, he opened his eyes confused at why his body hurt all over and why his head felt like someone had split it open with an ax when that same pain brought on the memories of what happened a few hours earlier which brought another wave of pain over his body

'So I lost huh.' Adam thought as he brought his upper body up, making the boar hide slide off his body as his muscles come into view, Mereoleona had to undress him in order to apply the bandages so currently the only thing Adam was wearing was his pantsu

'Oh well.' Adam thought as he shrugged his shoulders, or at least he tried to shrug them, he, unfortunately, forgot that he was still recovering so it hurt like help to do that

This lack of reaction is nothing unforeseen, his personality from his past life and the 800 years of knowledge he gained make things like winning or losing seem idiotic, how can you judge if you have won or lost?

Sure Adam may have lost the fight, but the experience he gained will allow his mind and body to become stronger and to adapt better to fighting, so he may have lost the fight but as long as he is still alive he still won and that's how Adam judges if he won or lost if you die you lost and if you lived and gained experience from that fight then you have won, it's as simple as that

Still, Adam feels a bitter taste in his mouth, even if he 'won' and didn't actually lose, it still feels better to win, no matter what someone tells to himself and no matter someone's mentality, no matter someone philosophy and no matter the race someone belongs to, it will always feel better to win than to lose both mentally and physically it's an inescapable instinct to feel that way

As Adam thought about his 'victory' the wind blows on his body making him snap out of his daze and making it known to him that he is naked which didn't bother him at all, instead he looks at both himself and around himself, apparently, Mereoleona still hasn't realized he was awake

Seeing as he was naked Adam did absolutely nothing about it, he didn't feel any shame or embarrassment from being naked, it's his thick skin that he gained from the past life and the 800 years of philosophical knowledge that allows him to feel no shame

Since he didn't really have anything to do while lying down Adam got up and stretched his body, which hurt like hell but he just couldn't feel like himself if he didn't stretch his body, the cracking of his bones breaking Mereoleona out of her thoughts

"You're up? Good, I just put the boar on the fire, it should be done soon." Mereoleona said without even turning to Adam, her tone seems to have changed, even though it is still hyper-aggressive and hostile it seems to hold some respect and warmth in it now unlike her previously completely hostile tone

Adam didn't say anything and instead went into the carriage where he pulled out some spices and a pan with which he walked out and came next to the boar

"Oi, what are you doing?" Asked Mereoleona as she saw Adam take the boar off the stick and the fire and instead he threw the boar corpse in the air and sliced it to pieces with his cutlass

The boar split in the air and the chunks/slabs fell down into Adam's pan which he then put above the fire, at the same time he took some spices and spiced up the meat

"Cooking a meal," Adam said, sure boar meat might be an interesting flavor for the first two or three times but without seasoning or anything like that it has a rather bland flavor and seeing as he was hurting all over Adam didn't feel like eating bland, chewy meat with no bread or anything, he is going to cook himself a five-star boar meat dish and no one can do a damn thing about it

Mereoleona didn't say anything to that and instead, she just leaned back, it isn't really that surprising that Adam can cook, many peasants can cook and Adam hasn't shown any indication that he is from nobility so she even kinda expected him to be able to cook

Seeing as it was all quiet without even the crickets to amuse him Adam decided to sing, he always liked to sing songs when he was in any mood, now he decided to sing a very memorable song which he learned by reading a fan-fic, ah those were the good old times

"There lived a certain man in Russia long ago

He was big and strong, in his eyes a flaming glow

Most people looked at him with terror and with fear..." Adan decided to sing Rasputin the funk version, of course, he had no instruments to play so instead he just sang the song, it was still pretty enjoyable for him to sing the song, it brought back memories

At this song, Mereoleona perked up, it was an interesting and funny song which seemed to talk about a certain important person, although she couldn't really figure out what or who Russia, Rasputin, czar, etc. where it was a very interesting song, with a very unique but fun rhythm

At Adam's singing, the whole forest came alive, the crickets creaked, the birds woke up and sung, the wolves howled all in the effort to make Adam shut up, sure the song might be nice but having your ears pierced by needles is better since you wouldn't have to listen to Adam's god awful singing

With that being said Adam paid no attention to what those animals were doing and instead he just sang his lungs out, luckily for the animals, the torture was soon over, and the moment it stopped the animals created a stampede by escaping as far away from Adam as possible

"Interesting song, although I couldn't figure out what it was about, nor could I really enjoy it." Said Mereoleona as she thought about the song, she heard a lot of songs from her travels and from being a noblewoman but this was the first time she heard about this song or this format, she was also shouting while saying that since she had pierced her ears during Adam's singing in order to make the noise stop, instead she read Adam's lips and body movements to figure out the tempo and the words, she will heal back soon, she just hopes that Adam won't be singing again at that time

"It's about Rasputin. A man who enchanted a queen with his charm and became a tyrannical leader of a country, eventually the nobles of the country killed him." Said Adam as he focused on cooking and thinking about which song to sing next, he wanted to sing Spooky skeletons but he didn't have any instruments and that song wouldn't really go well without instruments

"It's certainly is an interesting song, too bad you ruined it with your voice, not even a deaf person would be able to stand your singing." Said Mereoleona, even though the song was interesting Adam's god awful voice ruined it, no it not only ruined the song it absolutely butchered it, even if a person had none of their 5 senses they would still run away from Adam when he is singing, it's just that awful to hear him sing

If Mereoleona had to compare Adam's singing voice to anything it would be torture, during her travels she has seems quite some torture methods and instruments, many of which sickened her, and Adam's singing voice belongs in that category of torture devices, no person would remain sane after hearing him sing for more than 12 hours, even she would succumb to madness, and that's saying something since she has seen and experienced quite some shit

"Well, I didn't sing for you, if you don't like it then cover your ears," Adam said as he continued to cook the meat, people have often told him that he has a bad voice and that he is an anti talent for singing but he sure as hell doesn't give a damn about other people, never has he given a damn and he never will give a damn about them, quite the selfish person now isn't he? Well not that he cares about your opinion

'I still sing badly? Some things never change.' Adam thought as he continued cooking, even after getting this new body his singing remains god awful, how mysterious and nostalgic

"I tried doing that, unfortunately, your singing is so bad it breaks the laws of physics after I plugged my ears your voice only became louder, even right now I can hear your singing in my head." Said Mereoleona with an uncomfortable expression, she has the feeling of having a song stuck in her head, a song that is making her mentally regress and become less sane in order to deal with that voice

Adam paid no attention to her instead he was thinking about what song to sing next, maybe Centuries or Radioactive? Fat and Brittle bones Nicky are also good songs

"You really should not sing anymore. I don't want to go insane while traveling with you." Said Mereoleona as she tilted her head to get the blood out of her ear, it's like having water in there, only stickler and messier so she wanted that blood gone as soon as possible

"Excuse me?" Adam said for the first time moving his eyes away from the pans to look at Mereoleona with a look of sheer confusion on his face, his brain can not comprehend what he has just been told

"You heard me right. While you were asleep I decided that I am going to be traveling with you from now on." Said Mereoleona as she tilted her head to the other side, one ear was clean now came the other

'Aw hell no.' Adam thought as he watched her, training is fine, teaching is fine, sparring is fine, everything like that is fine, they all help him in becoming stronger, but there is no way in hell that he is going to take her with him