“We saw them out there! Two weeks ago! They were fighting Bandits and rescuing civilians!” Siti cried out, holding onto her staff like it’d protect her from the glaring eyes of others.

The bald man in charge looked at the grandmaster. “Is this true?”

The old man nodded. “It is true… we saw them overlooking a caravan that was under attack. But it was unclear if they were going to help!”

My opinion on the old bastard collapsed once again. Angry mutters rose back up again. What was he trying to do?

“H-he agreed to help lead a boy to the village!” Siti continued to try to defend me.

“Th-that’s right!” A girl spoke up. “That was my brother and fiancé!”

She was still here in the city. Her brother was still in the town, and she had asked if there was any way we could bring her home for their marriage. I was hoping that integrating the other towns into this one would wipe out the incestuous tendencies, but they seemed to be strangely spreading and becoming more prevalent across the village. It caused me real tears as I realized that my first town, Deeksville, might end up being known for incest!

“Yeah… and have we seen your brother since?” The Grand Master snorted. “Honestly, until I saw them standing there, I thought they were all dead. That would have been good riddance!”

“N-no!” The sister teared up at the thought her brother was dead.

“Whose side are you on?” I cried out.

At first, he seemed to be defending me, but now he was just inciting violence.

“I’m on the side of truth.” The Grand Master snorted. “You are a lord. I don’t like lords. Arrogant, lazy, cowards, the lot of you. I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you, and I can conjure up winds that can throw halfway across Aberis! However, you’re not the first lord to come to this place and flee. You are the first to come back… so, perhaps you should listen to what he says…”

“I don’t get it… is he saying good things about us or bad?” Celeste whispered to Miki.

Miki shrugged. “I have no clue.”

The man harumphed, straightening his robes. As he walked away, Siti bowed to us.

“I’m sorry about Master. That is about as high of a comment that he will ever leave you.” She explained, and then followed after him.

I watched as the pair slipped into a tent. I bet he could play with her in bed all he wanted and no one would be looking down on him! I coughed and looked back at the crowd, who seemed slightly confused. He hadn’t made it clear if I could be trusted or not. Between the two of us, he had more successfully won these people’s hearts by saving them battle after battle, so his opinion did matter, but he was such a crotchety old man, that it was impossible to tell.

“Look, I’m a Blue Mage like Siti. I’ve been to a village that is safe. There are people, resources, and the Bandits would take a few days to get to it. It’s not a perfect situation, but we’d be able to regroup.”

I explained to them my plan, and even created a Portal and had Shao lead one of them through the Portal in front of everyone to confirm. Eventually, we managed to convince the group to leave. Everything was going according to plan.