Recovery

I woke up in my bed. The sound of humming and talking filled the air as I sat up. I was back at my apartment. Pain shot up every time I moved, but it wasn't unbearable. I looked in the mirror and saw that I was bandaged up. I was only wearing pants. 

I tried to stretch, but it was useless, so I gave up. I grabbed a shirt and opened my room door. To my surprise, not only were Aurora and Myra still here, but Anne was here too! I must have audibly gasped because they turned around to look at me.

"Young Master!" Anne's face lit up.

"Lord Smarus!" The sisters gasped.

"Anne, why are you he…Oh!"

I was basically tackled by Anne as she grabbed my sides. What the heck! Why did she have beast-like strength? I was about to die!

"Anne! Let go dammit!" I repeatedly tapped her shoulders.

"Oh, sorry! I was just excited to see you, Young Master," she sheepishly let go.

I was too busy catching my breath for me to respond. After a moment, I stood back up.

"Lady Aurora, why did you two bring Anne here?" I pointed at Anne.

"That's too cruel," She pouted, but her body language told me that she enjoyed it… weirdo.

Aurora and Myra also pouted. Was this a girl thing? It was starting to piss me off.

"What?" I sighed.

"You could have died and the first thing you say is 'Why was Anne here?'" Myra shouted. "Not even a thank you or anything," Myra crossed her arms. Before I could say anything, Aurora began talking.

"Indeed, Lord Smarus. At the very least, you could grant us some sort of reward for nursing you back to health," Aurora gave an alarming smile.

I turned to look at her, giving her a blank stare. The last thing I wanted to do was to say yes to some outrageous request, but she had a point. Who knew what would have happened if both she and Myra weren't there?

"I'll grant you two a reward, within reason," I crossed my arms. "But as you can see, I don't have much to offer."

"That's fine, Lord Smarus. Our only request is that you call Myra and me by our first names, without honorifics" Aurora played with her fingers while blushing.

"Nope, can't do that. You two are nobles in the Drag…"

"That's not fair! You call Anne by her first name!" Myra interrupted.

"She's a maid."

"You did call us just by our first names yesterday," Aurora chimed in."

Was I really out for a day? I had hoped that they would not have brought that up.

"That was different."

"How!?" Both sisters said in unison.

I wasn't able to give a straight answer. I looked at Anne for help but she only looked away as if she wasn't aware of the situation. I sighed.

"Fine, but why do you want to be called by your first names without honorifics so badly?" 

Aurora immediately turned red. Myra began to say something but turned red in the process as well. I decided not to press any further, mainly for my sake.

"Whatever. Anne, are you staying here from now on?" I shifted my attention.

"Sadly, I cannot Young Master. I only came here to aid Lady Aurora and Lady Myra. Even then, I am using paid leave," She bowed apologetically.

"Good. I need an inside man at my father's territory. I need you to go back as soon as possible."

She had mixed emotions flash across her face, but ultimately she understood my reasoning. She grabbed her things and walked towards the door. 

"And Anne. Thank you. I will remember your service."

"Of course, Young Master. I live to serve you," She bowed one more time. Her face was bright red, but she managed to keep her composure.

Ding! Anne's character log updated!

After she left, I turned back to the sisters. I knew I had just woken up, but I was already behind schedule. It had been a month and I barely trained, and there were only a few more months left before I enrolled at the academy. I didn't want to just kick them out yet.

"Lady… I mean… Aurora and Myra, first I want to thank you. You guys are valuable members of my clan."

Both of them blushed, but it wasn't as bad as it was a second ago. Weird.

"We are honored, Lord Smarus," They both bowed. Aurora continued."How can we serve you next?"

"For now, go back home and continue to serve under my father. As it stands, I can only do so much for you two with my current standing. I also need to prepare to enroll at the academy." I gave my orders.

It was clear they disagreed, so I continued.

"I will become stronger than my father one day. However, your safety comes first, and I'm not strong enough yet. I apologize. Until I enroll at the academy, I will leave you to your own devices," I took this moment to bow my head.

"L-lord Smarus!" Myra gasped.

"W-we understand! Please don't bow!" Aurora lifted my head.

"I promise, I will become strong enough to protect everyone I care about, so please, wait for me."

Aurora nodded her head. Her eyes narrowed, but she held her tongue. Myra began to play with her fingers while looking down. Usually, she was the one to speak her mind, but I guessed she didn't want to say anything this time. Aurora spoke up before either of them moved.

"Lord Smarus, by the time you enroll at the academy, Myra and I will be finishing up our final year. As you might know, the academy is a two-year crash course for people to learn how to use and grow in their respective classes."

"Yeah, I know that. Why bring it up?" I raised an eyebrow.

The academy was basically an EXP farm in this world. It was perfect for leveling up certain stats that were hard to level up otherwise, like magic. However, I was quite concerned as to why she would bring this up.

"This year, the school hired a… questionable teacher. There's no solid evidence, but multiple students have accused him of multiple things. He wouldn't dare touch me or Myra, but he would target commoners or low nobles supposedly. Please, be careful," She looked worried.

I see. Since I was technically a commoner now, I was a prime target. A fallen noble.

"Thank you for the warning Aurora," I smiled. "But a simple pig won't be able to lay a finger on me."

This was pure ego talking. I only interpreted the info as a low-level boss was at the academy which only meant more EXP. Especially since I just beat the hero, who can stop me? My inner nerd wanted to show up to the academy and bring down hellfire.

Ding! Aurora's and Myra's character logs updated!

Aurora and Myra took a step back, visibly in awe. They nodded their heads. After Aurora's warning, I walked them back to their carriage. A lot of people were staring as they left. I was a commoner in their eyes… well at least before the Mystia sisters came to my apartment. They even paid for my rent for the next few months. I hated hands out, so I made a mental note to pay them back later.

Once I stepped back inside, I remembered that I leveled up as well as updated multiple logs. I prepared myself for a lot of planning, reading, and headaches. First, I pulled up my own stats.

Smaren Dragonborne

Title: Hero Slayer

Age: 15

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 5

Agility: 3

Charisma:3

Magic: 2.5

Class: Hermit Wiseman

Mana: 400/400

Skills: Odin's eye, character log, Spatial Inventory, Guardian's Gift, Lesser Hero

Hmmm… My stats went up a decent amount, but to get a title and skill, I must have been lucky! Titles are… well… titles that were earned when certain conditions were met, and they had different perks and boosts. Mine only put my strength up by a point along with the amount I earned by leveling up. I wondered what was Lesser Hero. I asked the system.

"Lesser Hero allows the user to use Hero equipment."

Simple, but useless. There was only one of each hero's equipment, and Ace had to use them. I doubted I would ever need to use this skill. I closed my stats and looked at my logs. I sighed when I saw the amount of reading I had to do. Part of me wanted to simply ignore it and call it a day, but I knew better. With the future constantly changing from what I knew, I had to keep tabs on the people I knew. The future I knew, after Ace and the villain graduated from the academy, they were basically at each other's necks. Also, some key plots happened at the academy as well. I supposed I had no choice but to read the logs.