She says “Ava, you’re back!” with an excited wide grin on her face, then quickly jumps onto Ava and wraps her arms around her with what looks like a bear grip. Ava just awkwardly says “It’s ok, Sarah. I made it back… somehow.”

Sarah then turns to me and asks Ava, “Who’s this?“

She says, “Oh, um, this is Eric. H-he saved me… He’s my savior!“ while trying to pry her sister off her. Sara just let go after hearing I saved Ava and then she just circles me a couple of times.

Sarah mutters, “So you saved her, huh? You don’t look like much.” 

Instantly I retort, “I’m no savior! I was more like dead weight. Heck, Ava carried me most of the way out of that place.” 

Ava then comes to my side and then says “ I couldn’t make it out of that place without you.” while looking into my eyes.

I respond, “It doesn’t seem like I did much at all…”

Ava just shakes her head and says, “I couldn’t have made it out of the cage without you and that outweighs what I did. Those bars were made of mana infused iron. I couldn’t break them if I wanted to.”

Sarah then gets a shocked expression on her face and barely asks, “H-he broke that?”

Ava shakes her head and informs Sara, “No, he cut it.”

Sarah keeps looking at me while asking, “With what?” 

Before Ava tells her, I pull the card out of my waistband and say, “With this.” 

And as soon as she sees it and registers what I said Sarah mutters “An artificial and its power is off the charts… I thought that the influx of mana in the area was because of someone powerful coming to town or a group of people coming in.” 

Ava shakes her head and tells Sarah “No, that type of artifact is usually kept under lock and key in the empress’s palace. He just so happened to have one.”

Sarah stops circling me while and asks “And where did he happen to find such a thing?” while looking between Ava and myself.

Ava turns from looking at her sister to me and asks, “So, where did you get it?”

The tension in the air is barely breathable. They both just stare at me, waiting for an answer, and my thoughts run a million miles a second, trying to figure out if I should just tell them the truth or not.

Finally, while scratching my head, I ask “Can we at least go sit somewhere private? We just ran from a literal slave camp.” which breaks the silence.

Another completely unique expression appears on her face, which is somewhat like embarrassment. She says, quietly, “Oh, yeah, you probably don’t want to do anything but bathe and eat. We can talk at the table after we get cleaned.”

I just nod my head and follow them in and the first thing I see is their kitchen and dining room, that is split by a counter. Their dining room table is a small circular wooden table with four chairs surrounding it. Sarah then says “Ava, He’s probably never used this type of bath before. Can you show him how to use it?“

Ava responds, “Yeah, I thought the same thing.“

So I end up following Ava down a small hallway with only three doors and we end up going to the one on the end and opens to a surprisingly normal looking bathroom. Ava stands next to the tub and waves her hand over a spot on the wall and a circular progress bar appears.

She then instructs me by saying, “Waving your hand here will turn it on. Then once you see this appear, you want to get around fifty percent.” She drags her fingers till the middle appears to say fifty percent like she said and says, “Now it’s currently a bath, but for us we probably want a shower…“

As soon as I heard that, my mind trailed off thinking about how crazy this world also has showers. From what I saw, there is a huge lack of technology. Heck, even the main gate of this town seemed to be related to magic. Ava noticed I wasn’t paying attention, so she snaps her fingers and says “Where did you stop listening?“ with a slight sigh at the end.

While scratching the back of my head, I tell her, “Around the part you were telling me how to turn on the shower?“

She says “Oh, just press here.” while pressing where it says a percent, then suddenly a magic circle appears above the tub and water rains down from the ceiling.

While looking at it in amazement, I say “Alright I think I should be good now. What about a change of clothes and something to dry myself off with?“

Ava opens a closet and hands me a towel, then says, “For clothes, I’ll just have to find something that doesn’t look too feminine.“

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