Chapter 18 - Returning to the Village

After some happy and enjoyable moments with Freya and some discussions with Luna, Ronald went to sleep again as it was night, and it is very dangerous to find his way to the village at night, especially if he doesn't know where he was.

Early morning, Ronald woke up and decided to go back to the village today, surely.

So after eating some lunar berries, which he picked from the shrubs along the small pond, Ronald woke up Freya and let her eat some berries, and finally decided to search their way out of the forest.

But before finding where to go, he must determine where he was.

Ronald was taught by his uncle many things, and one of these things that his uncle imparted to him was the way on how to determine directions.

Ronald had watched the stars and their positions yesterday night and remembered where the key stars were seen, which would determine where he was, whether he was on the north-east with regards to the position of the village or on the north-west with regards to the position of the village.

Then for the final confirmation of where he was, Ronald went out of the cave with Freya on his arms and looked up, observing where the sun had risen and where it was heading to.

After confirming, Ronald and Freya finally went on their way.

Although this time, they traveled slowly and was very careful of where they were heading, as they may accidentally enter the territory of some terrible beasts.

Thankfully, although the journey back to the village was slow and was full of dangers everywhere, they didn't meet any accidents.

It was already evening when they got out of the forest.

After some time, Ronald finally left the Everlast forest while hugging Freya, who is now sleeping comfortably in his arms.

After leaving the forest, Ronald let out a sigh and relaxed his mind, then looked up to check the time, then continued walking his way to the village.

While he was on his way home, Ronald saw a line of carriages with adventurers accompanying it, making their way to the village. He was very familiar with this group of carriages, as it was the carriage of the merchant who came to the village once every month to buy and sell things to the village.

Ronald decided to come close to it and wanted to go along with them, as it would be much safer that way. Although he had already gone out of the forest, it still very dangerous when walking at night, as some beast may sometime go out of the forest to hunt.

After getting close to the group, he decided to greet them and say hello, but what replied him was a huge sword being pointed at his head. Ronald was shocked by this and nervously looked at the one who was holding the sword as fear came to his mind. He was flustered by this turn of events, he didn't do anything wrong, so why would someone point a huge sword at him. Holding the sword was a brawny looking man with killing intent and thick pressure bursting out of him. Though this killing intent was not as dense compared to Freya's mother, it was still a killing intent, that will put pressure on the user's target. As their eyes met, the pressure that the man's killing intent made grew greater.

The killing intent had put so much burden on Ronald's body, that keeps pushing his body to the ground, but he ground his teeth and gathered all the strength and willpower that he has, to withstand the pressure. He may withstand this pressure for some time, but he couldn't last very long as he has his own limits, luckily the killing intent immediately vanished when he couldn't bear it anymore.

However, Freya, who was sleeping, just woke up a little bit before sleeping again in Ronald's arms.

Noticing that the killing intent pressuring him had disappeared, Ronald looked at the brawny man again with an unyielding gaze. Although he felt fear at first, while he was resisting the pressure, he immediately became angry as he did nothing wrong, and the man was only bullying him.

However, although he was angry at the brawny man, he was more angry with himself. He was angry with himself because, in this situation, he felt his weakness. He didn't want to feel this weakness and be bullied again. That is why, after this situation, Ronald's conviction on getting stronger became firmer.

The brawny man was shocked at first at Ronald's unyielding gaze, as mostly, when he exerted his killing intent to those who are of a lower level than him, then that person would surely faint, if not die, due to his thick killing intent attacking their minds.

And from Ronald's aura, the brawny man can feel that Ronald was only a level 1 awakened person.

At the same time, on the shadow of a tree, quite far from where they were, a figure slowly emerged, gritting her teeth in anger as she watched the scene.

"Hmmph... How dare he do that to the prince... Just wait, I'll gonna teach you a lesson," the woman said as black gloomy tentacle-like shadows appeared beneath her feet and destroyed some branches from where she was.

While Ronald and the brawny man were gazing at each other, someone had softly tapped his shoulder, making him looked at the one who hit him.

Ronald saw a middle-aged man at his side with an apologizing expression.

"I apologize for what he did, kid," the middle-aged man said to Ronald as he made a small bow.

Ronald didn't answer him and went to look for the brawny looking man. He saw the brawny looking man making his way to the center of the group with an angry face.

"Don't take it to heart, kid. He is just kind of angry right now as his closest friend died on a bandit attack on the way here," the middle-aged man said as he saw Ronald looking at the brawny-looking man.

"By the way, you are from the village, right?" the middle-aged man asked Ronald to divert his attention from the brawny looking man as he continued to walk.

"Yes," Ronald quietly answered.

"No need to be careful kid, as adventurers, death is just the norms. Though the atmosphere may be a bit cold right now, they'll eventually move on when the time comes. Let's not talk about what happened to us, let me ask something about you, I am quite curious why are you still out in the forest at this time?" the middle-aged man asked Ronald as he looked at the direction where the entrance of the forest is situated as if he was remembering something.

Ronald also looked at the entrance of the forest and remembered all the trials and hardships he had gone, while he was in there, and also, the reward he got.

He looked at the Freya, who is in his arms, and petted its little head. The middle-aged man also followed Ronald's hand as it moved across Freya's little head and saw the little tiger, sleeping in Ronald's arms.

The middle-aged man was quite shocked when he saw Freya.

"Kid, is that a beast?", The middle-aged man asked as he saw that Freya is like a normal tiger cub, except for its purple markings.

"Yeah, she is my tamed beast, and he won't attack anyone unless I instruct her to," Ronald answered immediately, as he was afraid that the middle-aged man will attack Freya.

"Oh! A tamed beast... tamed beast... tamed beast..," murmured the middle-aged man when he heard Ronald's reply.

Upon seeing the man's action, Ronald looked around and found out that they are already at the entrance of the village.

Seeing this, he immediately bid goodbye to the middle-aged man who was still murmuring as he continued to walk.

The middle-aged man woke up from his state when he heard Ronald's bidding and waved his hand at the leaving young man.

Then suddenly, he remembered what he was trying to think a while ago.

"Tamed beast... oh right... a Beast Tamer, what a rare class... Based on my experience as an adventurer, most beast tamers had a very eccentric personality. I hope that that kid wouldn't become eccentric... I quite like that kid. Also, that kid has a strong mind, as he had withstood Carlo's pressure. What an interesting kid," The middle-aged man thought as he continued to walk with the group.

(A/N: Sorry guys for having so many irregularities this week... As many things just keep popping out... First, my mother went to Bohol then to Baguio. So, I am the only one left to take care of our store. And my father was also going to work every day, so I am only the one left to take care of the store. And tomorrow, early in the morning at about 3:00 A.M. Me and my friends decided to go to a mountain here in Cebu, Philippines. So, I need to wake up super early tomorrow. And as a heavy sleeper, it is really hard for me to wake up that early if I didn't have the right amount of sleep. Anyway, that is all, thank you for your understandings...)