I headed home from school. Honestly, I was exhausted. My first real fight turned out to be so much more than I expected. I crossed the town and soon enough I could see my house. Oh, and I figured out what those squiggles on the ceiling and walls are. They're part of a warding enchantment set on the house. Apparently the guild set those on every house in town. Hopefully they can't be used to spy on us. I mean it'd be seriously creepy if they can, right?
Anywhoozle, when I opened the door I found Uncle sitting at the table reading a newspaper like usual. “There you are Allure, You're later than usual. Did something happen?” He asked kindly.
“You could say that. We had a practical excursion today. We were teamed up and sent into the woods to fight wolves.”
“Well shit. I bet it was rough without a front-liner. Do you intend to keep hunting wolves?” He asks with a concerned look.
“Honestly my team did alright. Only one of us was injured and we turned back after defeating two wolves. Mr. Thomson did imply that we would be doing that again in the future. I'm only a little worried, but a front-liner would be nice.” I respond simply, just kinda unloading. I feel like I might be a bit shell shocked to be honest. Going from a simple school life to a life and death struggle was jarring, to say the least.
“Hmm, let me do some calculations real quick.” He says as he gets up and heads to the kitchen. He pulls some papers and a pencil out of a drawer and seems to do some math. It takes him a few minutes and meanwhile I sit and lay my head on the table. Ahh, such a cool surface.
Uncle soon comes back to the table and looks at me. “It's pretty rough, huh? Combat, I mean.”
“Yeah, it's way more intense than I thought. Seeing someone get bitten, seeing the blood... It was a bit much.” I say in response. What else can I say? I mean it's all finally setting in and I don't know what to do with myself now that the adrenaline is wearing off.
“All I can say is that it gets easier with experience. And I don't mean the exp on your character sheet, I mean getting used to the atmosphere of battle. If you keep fighting you'll eventually be able to keep calm no matter what. That said, it never gets easier seeing your friends get hurt.” He gives me a small lecture and I can only hope he's right. I never expected to live a peaceful life in this world, I always wanted to go on adventures eventually. See the world and meet people both good and bad. I wanted to live the adventures I always experienced through Dungeons & Dragons, though hopefully without the world ending stakes.
“Anyways, I have an idea of how to make your hunts safer. I can hire a friend of mine to escort you. A bodyguard, in simple terms. He's specialized in defensive combat and has the Sentinel feat. Plus he's a tough old bastard, meaning he can take more than his fair share of punishment and keep going. I have enough to pay him monthly so no need to worry about that. Will you accept? I know it'd make me feel better knowing you'd be safer.”Uncle suddenly offered. And, seriously? That's a godsend. We need a front-liner so bad it's painful. I hesitate, but only for a moment. There's really no good reason to turn this down. We'd be safer on our hunts, Uncle and Auntie would feel better knowing I'm protected, and most of all it might make me feel better during future fights, thus getting me used to combat that much faster.
I look at Uncle, as serious as can be... well except for my drooping eyelids, gods I'm tired. “Sure Uncle, I'll impose on you for this. I can't think of any good reason to turn you down.”
“Thank you.” He sighs, “I'll go talk to him tonight and see if he can start tomorrow. It's a rush, but I don't know when you instructor will decide to send you out again.”
“Thanks again, Uncle. I'm going to bed. G'night.” I manage before getting up and heading for my room with shuffling feet.
“Good night, Allure. See you tomorrow.” I hear Uncle say as I close my door.
The next morning. I went through my usual routine like normal and got the day's uniform on. By the way, since I'm in the special classes now the robe I wear is now dark blue with silver trim. Not a lot different from gray, except it's a little bit shiny now.
I headed to the kitchen to get breakfast and saw Uncle and Auntie sitting at the table with a silver Dragonborn sitting across from them. Uncle noticed me and waved me over. “Allure come meet your new bodyguard, Argentian Frostbane. Argentian this is Allure Blackhorn, your charge.”
I wave at him a bit and say, “It's nice to meet you.”
“Is nice ta meet'cha too lassy.” He said in a deep voice, “I'll be watch'en yur back from here on, eh?”
I was a little taken aback by his accent, which was some odd as fuck spin on southern USA, but whatever. I can live with it and I've definitely heard worse in my time playing tabletops. And if he's gonna be this casual with me maybe I can loosen up with him too. I've been trying to watch my swearing out loud, but it's wearing on me. Sometimes I just wanna shout 'FUCK' at the top of my lungs to let out stress, you know? Hmm, maybe that's just me.
After greetings were made I quickly grabbed something to eat and headed for the door with a shouted farewell. Argentian hurried after me. He's actually pretty quick with all that armor on. He's wearing what I'm pretty sure is a set of full plate, carrying a helmet under his arm. He's got a rapier on his hip and a shield slung across his back. There's a coat of arms on his chest plate, one I've never seen before not that I've seen many. It looks like a yellow shield with a black rook chess piece inside it under a black crescent moon. I'd ask him about it but before we got far from the house he'd pulled a metal flask out and started drinking from it.
He caught me staring and sheepishly put the flask away before saying; “D'ya really mind me 'avin' a little drink here 'er there? It's the only way I 'ave to relax these days.”
I sigh and say, “It's fine, as long as you don't drink while we're out hunting. I need you sober enough to fight, okay?”
“You gots it boss lady!” He seemed really chipper all of a sudden. Guess he didn't expect me to agree to that. Honestly I probably shouldn't have, but I know what it's like to need to forget something. My past life wasn't all sunshine and games, after all. It only got better after I found the group that I played with till the end; they were a good bunch. We were there for each other, thick and thin. Now I kinda miss them.
Damn, I need to refocus. Classes start soon and I need to be at the top of my game if I want to get through them and learn something. Right, magic. My new passion in this life, just focus on that. Hmmhmm, and I'm good. Now I'm actually getting excited about class. Alright! Look I know I'm just pushing the issue down the road, but you do what you have to to get through life, alright?
Anyways we walked through downtown, past all the shops that I rarely visit 'cause I have no money, and to the other side of town where the school is. First up is general education, such as math and history as well as heraldry starting sometime soon. I think heraldry is basically learning about all the nobles around the country; their family history and what they do in broad strokes. I'm not sure when it starts but it'll probably be soon since most of my class is turning sixteen soon, myself included. After we turn eighteen we'll be enrolled as proper members of the guild and get our red cloaks from which the guild takes it's name.
Now I want to level up even more, being a level one scrub as an adult would be embarrassing. Well not really, a lot of adults are level one, but I'd like to be different. Maybe I should get my group together on days off and we can train together. Then again over doing it is just as bad as doing nothing; hmm, I don't know. Anywhoozle, off to class.
