*Knock. Knock. Knock.

Come in.

Tyler opened the door and walked in with a bowl of the leftover meat from last night, he had heated them up a little and found a bowl to place them on in the kitchen. After leaving the room earlier, in the mindset of giving her some time to bath and change, he had done a little more exploring towards the south and found the kitchen area.

Just like the rest of the place the kitchen was also empty, he knew the castle had to have been abandoned after the war but still, he felt like the previous residents had moved out instead, all he found in the kitchen was a few bowls and some dusty utensils. It was a little strange but it wasn’t something to worry about, he still needed to get some information from the blonde girl.

He had only taken a few steps inside the room when he was stunned by the bewitching sight before him. She was only wearing a brown shirt and grey pants yet the aura around her had changed drastically from before, the simple dressing had given her a completely different vibe and he could smell her alluring scent from the door.

Her snow white skin and beautiful face combined with her amazing figure that even such plain clothes failed to hide made him feel like he was looking at a goddess. He was beginning to get a reaction from his body, the worst part of the matter was the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra, then again it might’ve not been invented yet, in the past most women would only wrap them up with a white cloth underneath their outfit, you’ll think when the first female hero was summoned, she would’ve insisted on one being made. Afraid of losing composure he hurriedly place the bowl on the desk as he said “You can eat this, when you’re done meet me outside.”

He had already left the room as soon as the last words left his mouth, he noticed in his peripheral vision how sparkling clean the room was and could only think she had used magic. Liz was a little confused as she finished tying her hair up in a ponytail. ‘Did I do something wrong’ she finished getting dressed as she walked to the side of the bed where Rain was still unconscious. She had cleaned her wounds as well as her body, her emotions were slowly returning back to normal and she felt a little overwhelmed by her current situation.

Tyler waited outside the large double doors at the front of the castle, he was going through his plan as he waited, things hadn’t gone anything like he thought it would but still, he wasn’t yet in a bad situation. As long as he got the information he needed he felt like he couldn’t give up hope yet, whether it was staying in the Demon continent or finding a way out, it all depended on the surrounding situation and how the relationship between the four continent had developed over the last thousand years.

Liz came out of the castle at this moment, she seem a little out of breath, almost as if she had gotten lost and had to Sprint around looking for the exit. ‘Well she was unconscious when I brought her here. She must think I’m an asshole right now.’

Tyler tried his best to avoid eye contact, he noticed she was also doing the same. ‘Did she noticed my reaction earlier.’ he felt a little embarrassed and scratched his his head awkwardly.

“Why don’t you lead the way since you’re the one with directions”

“Okay” she seem a little shy which made him think she might have noticed something after all. She was a little too nervous, her hands were fidgeting a lot and it seemed like she wanted to say something.

Noticing this Tyler decided to speak again “Is something wrong?”

“Ah.. Um… No… I mean… I’m… hmm… I haven’t fully recovered my mana yet so I can’t use flight magic.” Hearing this, Tyler was speechless, he had totally forgotten about flight magic to begin with. It was a Tier 3 spell so he hadn’t learnt it, for some reason he just assumed they’d be running, but why though, it seemed he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.

Luckily for him she was unable to use the spell right now as well otherwise he would have no explanation to give her in why he couldn’t use it. Telling her he was only a Tier 1 mage right now was the fastest way to get himself killed. He immediately composed himself “I see, well that’s fine we can just run, it would only take a few more hours”

“Okay… Thank you.” she was visibly relieved, he didn’t know why but he felt she was quite a naive little girl. “Oh right. what’s your name?” he finally remembered he hadn’t asked for her name and was just referring to her as the blonde girl in his head. “Liz” she replied quite simply, she hadn’t even waited for him to respond as she moved forward prepared to leave. Tyler felt a little dishearten, he had planned to come up with a random name that wouldn’t stand out in the demon continent to tell her but it seemed like she wasn’t interested in him.

They both started running, as soon as she had taken a step she had instantly disappeared from his view, seeing this his heart sank.

How was he supposed to keep up with that, he instantly started to come up with various lies and excuses he would tell her on why he couldn’t go with her but as soon as he took his first step he had arrive behind her and was in no way lagging behind. Infact he felt like if he wanted he could move even faster, he couldn’t help but smile as excitement bubbled up inside him. ‘What happened to me’. He felt incredibly comfortable in his body, his balance was outstanding and he had complete control over his body. ‘Finally something I can actually control.’

He ran closely behind as Liz navigated her way towards the freemen settlement, they didn’t have to go through the darknar forest, they headed southwest, in between the forest and the Darkin mountain range, it seemed the settlement was beyond the river, he was a little worried when he saw the river as he didn’t know how they would cross it, but as soon as they arrived there she had used a lower Tier spell and frozen a narrow platform for them to cross.

They ran at an insanely fast speed, even thought he wasn’t sure how far the settlement was he knew it wouldn’t take too long before they arrived, he needed to ask her his questions as soon as possible, reducing the distance between them he asked. “So, Um… what kind of settlement is this freemen settlement and do you think they would be willing to help?” Liz was quiet for quite a while and Tyler was getting anxious.

She thought of a way to answer the question as simply as possible to avoid talking too much. “Freemen are nobodies, they reject the rule of the nobles and form their own settlement in regions that are not under any of the demon nobles provinces.”

Tyler felt the explanation was too simple he was hoping she would say something that would help him understand more of this time period but she seem like the type that would try her best to shorten a conversation.

Liz thought again and spoke “After the death of the king the five families decided to expand their regions in an attempt to increase their influence on the continent, they had taken over most of the neutral and most dangerous regions the freemen settlement usually was, forcing them to either submit or migrate. Since none of the families made a move on the king’s region the freemen settlement that refused to submit, migrated here along with a few demon nobles that had their region conquered and lost their tittles”.

She didn’t want him to ask a follow up question so she tried her best to explain in details what a Freeman was and why they were in this region. “Normally Freemen are off lesser race like orcs, beastmen and ogres etc. but with the death of the king many demons that was only loyal to the king became freemen, as long as we find a demon in the settlement they would be willing to help us.”

The last words she spoke seemed to have been over emphasize, it made him feel like she was talking about just him when she said the words ‘help us’ but that couldn’t be right, why would demons go out of their way to help him when he was only human, he must’ve been thinking too deeply about it.

They carried on in silence for about an hour more, he notice she wasn’t interested in talking so he didn’t want to get on her nerves. Still he was quite satisfied with the information he had gotten, at least now he knew there weren’t many demons in this region, the other settlement she mentioned might even be of use to him in the future, he would get more information when they get to the freemen settlement.

They ran for more than three hours at top speed and Tyler was starting to get bored, it turned out the place was more than just a few miles away, at such speed they should’ve covered at least 400 miles in the last three hours, he noticed how easily Liz was able to navigate around each terrain without even taking a pause or slowing down once, he knew she was worried about the elf but still her speed and stamina impressed him, he was only able to follow her this easily because he was tracing her path as he follow her example in avoiding obstacles.

They were running through a rocky terrain and he could now see black smoke rising up in the distance. “Camp Fire?”, “No” Liz said as she increased her speed towards the smoke.

This impressed Tyler even more as he had assumed she had been running at full speed ever since, he increased his place as well maintaining the same distance as he did before.

They got closer and closer to the smoke, they could now see what looked to be a town or village in the distance, it had high walls around it made of wood, some of the houses were in flames and he could see movement in the town but was unable to make a clear observation from so far away.

Liz could only see the settlement in the distance and could only see the movement after they had gotten a little closer, she frowned a little as she said “They’re under attack.” Tyler could see the villagers or freemen running around as they tried to fend of some type of giant lizards, they were doing quite poorly and he could only see one person being able to hold his own, he had a hard time trying the protect the fighters around him, he looked sluggish yet he was still stronger that everyone there, this lead Tyler to believe that the fight might’ve be going on for a while now.

He was unable to locate anymore of the attackers, not even the towns folks. He didn’t know the full story so it would be too soon to come up with conclusions, none of the people in the town used magic so he assumed all the magic users in the place were fighting to defend the settlement, they where approaching from the rear of the town so he guessed the main fight must be at the front entrance.

Tyler couldn’t help but sigh, it seemed like the universe did not want him to have an easy time today, turning his head to look at Liz he could tell she was feeling anxious, it was likely there was only one healer in this place if they were to die today then, what would happen to Rain.