The Infestation

It was almost evening Aram enter the tavern, he glanced at the corner of the inn, he saw Meham just lazing around there, he felt a little furious and rushed toward him in three steps.

*Smack*

Mehan got surprised as Aram smacked him and in a quick response, he upper-cut him.

*Thrash*

What was that for?" Aram sneered while laying on his back.

"Every action has its reaction and since we on are not in the old world anymore a little violence is fine" Meham rolled his eyes away. Lily approached Aram lying on the floor and hold her hand toward him.

"Are you ok?".

Aram got surprised, he ascended on his own and landed on his feet

"I am alright miss"

"Would you like something to eat?".

"No, I am fine, thank you."

Lily leaves those two alone and Aram sit on the chair beside Mehan

"Man if only people were so nice back home too"

"..."

"So what did you find out?" Meham just minds business.

"Well whatever I did must be more productive than you lazing around here."Aram looked at Mehan with piercing eyes.

"Oh cmon, I stayed here to gather information, and also I did not want you to wait for me so I hold down the fort."

"Ok whatever you say . At first, I had a little trouble opening up natives here, I mean obviously, those are shopkeepers that are waiting for customers, not freeloaders."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"But then I had an idea, you see this whole town setting is very similar to those areas in RPG games.".

'I don't like where this is going.'

"so I revisit those memories where I had to interact with those lousy NPCs, it was an annoying part of a game but I have to respect them as they are the only valid coaches for me to keep up in life".Meham was speechless, he just let him continue.

"So I just used my years of expertise in bartering, there were a few errors there was no penalty for them so I tried and tried again, now your man has a potential network built."

"Ok that's great, did you figure out where can we get information on our group?"

"Yes according to Belfest the rat tamer we have to go to the imperial outpost south to here about five km away, there they have information on all the registered emergers."

"Registered? what we are not registered yet?"

"Ok then we have to register ourselves".Mehan sighed with disappointment.

"So what is Imperial?"

"According to BIG TIm, they are an empire specialized in maintaining military order, it was totally foreign concept to them, the imperial kingdom formed only fifty years ago and is expanding at the fastest rate "

"Let me guess one of the founding heroes started it?"

"Yeah that's what Tim said, so you were doing work too."

'It is the kingdom different from what Suchi mentioned, and since they are developing so fast it means they are absorbing residents of this world'

"They are CONQUERING them!"

"That sounds cool, you were pretty good at those games, remember you came runner-up in the Age Of Empire match, while you did not even know pro stats"

"Well if they had implemented the real logic in it my strategies were perfect, but that's not the point." Meham felt furious about losing the semifinals because of game limited logic that he did not bother then,

"And it was the second and last day you touched that game" Aram snickered remembering the time."

"Imperials are not good people" Lilly showed up who was listening on them

"What do you mean Lilly?"

"They are good to only rich people who can pay them, they don't respect anyone and think they can do whatever they want" Lilly sounded furious.

'I see, it totally makes sense '

"But Tim and Belfast said they are good to us, and maintained order here " Aram seemed confused.

"They are only saying that because they are scared, is that right Lilly?"

"Yes, Many soldiers are drafted from common families too with or without their consent, so it is very easy to dig up any blasphemy on Imperial, and… they punish hard for whoever goes against them_" Lilly's voice cracked, her eyes filled with tears.

Meham and Aram both became speechless.

'She knows a lot about dictatorship for a kid, is it that bad here?'

"Lilly, are there strong emergers in the ranks of imperials?"

"Yes, they are the main forces, they are not that bad people but they simply don't care what the soldier does to us, should they not be responsible for them? "

"..."

"Meham_, you won't join the Imperial right?" Lilly grabbed Meham's sleeve while looking down.

"..."

*Pat*

"No they sound awful, I would never want to join that kind of group" Meham gave a calm smile while patting her head, Aram's mouth was loud open.

"Lis_, It's time for sleep" Barbara who seemed to hear them called Lilly from the kitchen doorway.

"Okay Maa, Goodnight Meham!"Lilly wiped her tears.

After Lilly left, before following her Barbara nodded at Meham, with an expression of gratitude.

"Bro that is so out of character for you!" Aram smiled at Meham.

"What?"

"Did she remind you of your little sister?"

"No way we were never close, it's more like I can understand what she is going through."

"You do?"

"Did you find any way to make money?" Meham ignored his question

"Right we can take on different errands like hunting or gathering, there is also dungeon clearing but that sounds complicated"

"Yeah I heard about it, then hunting it is"

"I was thinking the same we can improve skills that way, alright I am heading out to inform them we are doing it, it will be unofficial for now since we did not register yet but, it's a win-win deal since we do not have to give the cut to imperial Quest Station_, I will explain that later."

Aram left to accept the jobs.

Meham just sit there for a few minutes then he stood up it's nighttime now, he started strolling around the place, and he saw the kitchen.

"The stove is using the firewood as fuel, while the oven has mana crystals, how she activates it?" Meham touched one of those runes inscribed on top of the oven and visualize a spark of mana.

"I can feel it_, the pathway it's leading my mana to crystals on opposite ends, I can feel the threshold, so it's just like filling up a glass of water." The oven started heating up

"Not quite,"

"Ahh!" Barbara spooked Meham due to which his connection was lost.

"Hehe, are you planning to cook something for us?"

"I am sorry, I was a bit curious about how it works_, what did you mean by not quite."

"Oh, I see, well you know when you fill the glass it starts overflowing right? but this thing explodes"

"That makes sense, it is just like any other fuel" Meham started thinking deeply.

"But its a waste on a emerger like you since you can literally generate ten times more energy than this oven in a spark"

"Is that normal!"

"Yup"

"Then why you did not stop me?"

"Well you seem a cautious person, so I trusted you on that, ohh and look the oven is heated how about you try my carrot Keesh"

"Thank you, I will definitely pay you tomorrow" Meham's stomach growls.

"Haha, don't worry about it, you were nice to my daughter after all"

Meham paused for a moment then asked hesitantly.

"Lisbeth's father_ , did the imperial execute them"

Meham looked at her, she nodded while preparing the dish.

"You really are a smart one, huh, well it's a relief that you will be fine" Barbara smiled at him, but Meham did not like that.

"Barbara do you think of me as a child"

"Yup, a friend of my daughter"

"What the hell we are about the same age, sure Llly and I cope well, but I think of her like a daughter." Barbra seemed confused.

"Wait then back then, when you said_ " All of a sudden Barbara's whole face turned red.

"?" While Meham was confused at Barbara's reaction arm swooped Meham from behind.

"Shit Aram, What the Fuck?"

"Sorry Miss we are heading out" Aram dragged Meham out of the place and Barbara just watched silently.

"Hahaha"