24 - The Womens Future

When the group arrived back at the camp, they were met by Mark, Becky, and Mr. Gregory. The women were a little frightened of Mark and Mr. Gregory so they collectively took a step back.

As Mr. Gregory walked towards the group he noticed the behavior and expression of the women and stopped 2 meters away. He looked at Jamal and was about to ask him how it went, but then noticed Val. More specifically, he noticed the baby dragon on his shoulder.

Mr. Gregory's mouth hung open, and he was barely able to stutter,

"I-Is tha-that a-a dra-dragon?"

Val watched him and found it quite amusing, and replied nonchalantly,

"Yes, this is Larz, my new partner and family. He is a baby Storm Dragon."

Mark and Becky were also completely frozen in shock, they wanted to say something but words would not come out. Mr. Gregory turned to Jamal and was finally able to ask how everything went,

"We can talk about the dragon later, how did it go? Did you exterminate the remaining bandits, and secure their loot?"

Jamal nodded and responded,

"Everything went well, for now, let's head into the camp and then talk about how it went, the ladies need a good meal and to rest."

The women who heard this were scared but were also all very hungry, they had only eaten some scraps for the last few days. They also felt a bit more secure thanks to Becky's presence. Having a strong female around helped soothe their fear and anxiety.

As the group headed to the campsite, Mr. Gregory, Mark, and Becky introduced themselves. Margret was still unconscious and the other merchants had fallen asleep from exhaustion. Mark and Becky were keeping watch and Mr. Gregory was waiting for Val and Jamal's return with the female captives.

Mr. Gregory was very curious about how Val found and tamed a dragon, however, he decided to wait till after they discussed the important things. He also noticed a young black-haired girl walking alongside him. He found this strange because Val always kept a certain distance from everyone, both emotionally and physically, and yet currently there was a girl around his age, walking next time, happily chatting with him.

The group arrived at the camp and took a seat around the fire, Mark went off to prepare the leftover food from dinner, to serve to the women and Mr. Gregory began the discussion.

"So, Jamal tell me what happened? Then show me everything we've gained. We will need to split it."

After that Jamal explained everything that happened. He did not leave anything out, including how Val tamed Larz, the Storm Dragon.

Once he was done with his walkthrough of the events, Mr. Gregory asked the women about what happened to their village.

Anna and Tina were the ones to explain. They described how their small village had been invaded by the entire bandit force. Everyone had been killed and the women that the bandits liked had been taken and imprisoned.

The village had some hunters but no real security. The village was also too small to even have an adventurers guild. The women had lost their families and it was hard for them to recount and explain their experiences.

Mr. Gregory listened to what had happened to the women, he felt sorry for them and decided to offer some support.

"I have an offer for you, if you want, you guys can travel with us. As you have heard our company is owned by Duke James Dolan. If you choose to join us, we can help you settle down and create a new home, and help you find a stable job in our Blue Trident trading company, or a smaller subsidiary company. If you are lucky, the Duke might even decide to allow you to work directly for him. I'll also let you know that Dukedom is very safe, and there are a lot of opportunities. The Duke himself is a great man, who does not look down on his people like other nobles."

The women looked around at each other and discussed what they wanted to do. The offer was very generous, they did not owe these women anything and did not have to help them if they did not want to.

Val noticed the only one not discussing was Sav. He decided to ask Sav why she was not sharing what she wanted to do,

"Why are you not contributing and sharing what you think?"

Sav looked at Val when he asked her this, there was clearly something she wanted to say but something was holding her back.

The other women and Mr. Gregory noticed her expression when Val asked this, Mr. Gregory proceeded to urge her,

"Young girl, you can share with us what you want to do, you don't need to worry."

Sav took a deep breath after hearing this and began to talk about what she wanted to do,

"I want to become an adventurer like Val."

No one was surprised by her answer. The women had already figured out that Sav may have a crush on her hero, who saved her, and Mr. Gregory was very good at reading people, so it did not take him long to figure it out.

Mr. Gregory nodded and then asked,

"How long is it until your tenth birthday and you awaken? Also, have you ever done any combat training? Val was an orphan so he had been planning to become an adventurer since he was very young, and therefore trained a lot before he turned 10 and finally became an adventurer."

Sav looked down, but still decided to share,

"I have never done any combat training... I will turn 10 in 7 months."

Everyone had slight frowns, Sav could obviously become an adventurer if she wanted, but without the correct preparation and Talent, she would just quickly die.

Whilst everyone was unsure of how to advise Sav against this choice, Jamal finally spoke,

"I think I heard that you want to awaken Shadow or Darkness Talent, is that correct?"

Sav who had been looking down in shame and embarrassment looked up and nodded to Jamal. Jamal then informed her,

"In that case, I might have an option for you. My wife has a Shadow Talent and is very impressive and strong. She is also one of the Duke's knights, the Duke also gets her to train new recruits that have Shadow Talents. I can ask her to teach and train you until you are ready to become an adventurer. If you agree to this choice, there is a condition. You will have to become an adventurer under the Duke. You won't be a knight who explicitly serves the Duke, an adventurer under a noble's job is to complete requests of the noble."

When she heard Jamal's recommendation, she was beaming with joy. This was perfect, however, Val was confused, thus he asked Jamal,

"Wouldn't that only work if she does awaken a Shadow Talent? Shadow and Darkness Talents aren't exactly common..."

Jamal gave a slight smirk to Val, and sarcastically said,

"You're not the only one with interesting skills. My intuition is never wrong, and I strongly believe she will awaken Shadow or Darkness Talent."

Val frowned at the clear shot fired at his talent and skills, and the fact that he chooses to hide them. Val wanted to retort Jamal's comments, but they weren't exactly false.

In the end, Val just shrugged and let it go.

Sav was even more overjoyed at hearing this and then quickly turned to Val, and asked him,

"When I awaken and become strong enough, can I join you and adventure together as a party with you?"

Val was taken aback slightly, he got along well with Sav and enjoyed her company and attitude, which contrasted his own. But he had only known her for a few hours and did not expect her to want to team up with her in the future.

Val did not understand, but decided to just agree for now, he thought she would probably forget about him by the time she awakens in 7 months.

"Sure, if that's what you want."

Sav was now over the moon, this was one of the happiest she had ever been in her entire life. However Jamal quickly poured cold water over her joy,

"You may awaken in 7 months, but you will still have to train for a few years, we won't send you out alone without the strength to look after yourself."

Sav looked like she had just had her hopes and dreams crushed, she could not take this laying down and argued,

"But Val is only 10 and he is adventuring alone. So why can't I."

Jamal sighed, he knew that comparing any normal 10-year-old to Val was just dumb. But it was hard to explain that. He had to give it a try though, to save himself some future problems,

"Val is different from a normal 10-year-old, he has very high and varied Talent. His talent and skills are also complementary and his [Tame] skill allows him to gain comrades to have his back. Also as an orphan, he has no one to stop him and he doesn't have allegiance to anyone. Your situation will be different. You may be an orphan now but as part of our agreement, you will have allegiance to the Duke and will have to follow the rules, which means you can't go out without the necessary power to protect yourself. Once you have that power, you will be able to go and join Val, in fact, I was going to invite Val to the Dukedom in a couple of years, to meet the Duke and try and get him to join us."

Val was listening to Jamal, but when he heard the last part of what was said, he became very intrigued. He questioned,

"Why do you want me to meet the Duke, and why in a few years and not now?"

Jamal just smiled and responded,

"As I said, I want you to join the Duke's side, a lot of things are happening in the Kingdom behind the scenes, which normal folk, like yourself are not aware of. As for why in the future, and not now, it's simply because I know you would reject the offer currently."

Val just nodded, Jamal was correct, if Jamal offered to take him to meet the Duke now, he would reject the offer, he was not even close to strong enough to protect himself in that situation.

Val was going to continue the chat when Sav interrupted and spoke to Val.

"Okay I understand, in that case, I will become strong, very strong so that I can stand beside you, and not be a hindrance, I will master my Talents, and then in a few years when Val comes to meet the Duke, I will join him!"

Val could not really reject her declaration, as she had exclaimed it with such resolve, thus he just sighed and agreed to go to the Dukedom in a few years.

"Alright I will come in a few years, I can't make any promises about joining the Duke's side though."

Jamal just smiled and nodded, happy with the outcome of this conversation.

However, at this time, Val did not know that by agreeing to let Sav join, she would one day become one of the most powerful assassins the world had ever seen, she would stand beside Val, as his lover, friend, and subordinate. However, that is still many, many years away.