Pattern

A Cloudy Market Day.

Roy's left hand, veins bulging, tightly gripped the goose's long neck. In his other hand, he held a short knife with a sharp, pointed tip, aimed at the artery in the goose's neck. With lightning speed, he made a cut.

Blood gushed like a spring into the wooden bucket on the ground, which was already more than half full of viscous blood clots.

He let out a sigh of relief and glanced at the information in his template:

Roy

Age: 13 years and 10 months

Status: Commoner

Health: 50

Strength: 5

Agility: 5.1

Constitution: 5

Perception: 7

Willpower: 4.8

Charisma: 5 points

Spirit: 6 points

Skills:

Slaughter LV3: Hostile creatures that attack you and enter your immediate vicinity (0.3 meters) have a 10% chance of being intimidated by your aura. If their Willpower attribute is lower than yours, they will lose control of their body for up to one second.

Your damage to the 10 types of creatures you have personally killed permanently increases by 10%.

Crossbow Mastery LV1...

Meditation LV1...

Observation LV2...

Personal Level LV2 (700/1000).

Other: Unknown.

Personal Space: 1 cubic meter.

Roy had been working at the market for half a month. Since he only worked in the mornings, he killed an average of 20 poultry each day. The cumulative number had reached a critical point, and his Slaughter skill had finally leveled up from LV2 to LV3. It was worth enduring the smell of poultry waste for half a month.

In these past two weeks, he had also earned 20 krona and about 300 experience points.

The Barbarian Stem Fruit and Dandelion Sunflower he had been consuming had completely lost their effect. His two weakest attributes, Strength and Constitution, had been strengthened to the level of a normal person's 5. Physically, he had grown 2 inches (5cm) taller since leaving Caye Village, reaching a height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters). The outline of muscles was faintly visible beneath his clothes, and his physique had changed from thin to well-proportioned.

He now possessed strength and constitution comparable to an adult. His facial features had become more defined, giving him a touch of youthful heroism.

After draining the blood, he soaked the goose in boiling hot water, plucked it, gutted it, and finished the processing. By then, it was noon. Roy put down his knife, untied his apron, cleaned himself up, greeted Old Rohl, who was dozing on a nearby chair, and left the market for Cadell House.

Roy found Fiven, her pretty face glistening with sweat, in the courtyard and handed her a prepared bag of herbs.

"Roy, what is this?" Fiven took the bag, her pretty face full of confusion.

"Honeysuckle, an herb. Drink a little steeped in water every day. It's very good for a lady's body. You know I work at the apothecary in Tross, so it's convenient for me to get this."

"Why are you suddenly giving me a gift?"

"It's a token of my gratitude. Thank you for looking after me during this time. You've really helped me out of a lot of trouble. If you don't accept it, I won't be able to rest easy." Roy said earnestly.

Fiven fell silent upon hearing this. "Roy, listen, I didn't help you for a gift."

"I can feel that. But then what is the reason?" Roy pressed. "Sister Fiven, I've always been curious, why do you take special care of me, helping me with my studies, like... like a real older sister."

Fiven suddenly took a deep breath, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with her wine-red hair. A trace of melancholy flickered in her beautiful eyes as she said softly, "You're right. I... I have a younger brother, and you give me a feeling of closeness, very much like him. So, I occasionally get confused and mistake you for him."

Roy was surprised to hear this. He had never seen Fiven's brother at school, nor had he ever heard anyone mention him.

Could he be gone already?

And her tone was strange, somewhat uncertain?

"How old is your brother? Did he ever study at Cadell House?" Roy asked again.

This time, Fiven didn't answer. She glanced at the wall clock outside the door and changed the subject, "Time's up, we should head to the classroom."

"Alright then." Since she didn't want to bring it up, Roy didn't pry further. But a seed of curiosity had been planted in his heart, and he felt a desire to investigate the matter.

In the evening, Fiven, uncharacteristically, didn't ask him to stay for after-school review. Perhaps their conversation at noon had touched a sensitive nerve.

Under the night sky, in a small warehouse next to the mill, a man and a woman on a pile of dry hay whispered under the candlelight.

"Toya... do you remember the ten words I taught you yesterday?"

"Mhm, I remember." In the firelight, the hunchbacked girl wrinkled her nose, her small round face pulled taut. Her bright, dark eyes held anticipation and nervousness.

"So, as usual, I'll test you first. Write out these four words: bread, fish, potato, morning."

Hearing this, the girl lowered her head, lifted the dry grass from the ground, and gripped the crudely made charcoal pencil with her small hands, which were covered in chilblains and calluses. Her trembling fingertip then traced across the uneven ground, quickly sketching a row of crooked characters.

"Hmm, not bad..." the black-haired boy said, not sparing any praise as he checked. "Toya, you really are smart. No, you're smarter than most people! Especially those brats who like to bully you, those idiots aren't even qualified to laugh at you."

The hunchbacked girl's pale cheeks flushed at his compliment. "I... No, it's not me. It's because you taught me well, Roy. This is all thanks to you."

"Lift your head, Toya. You should be more confident."

Hearing his encouragement, the girl couldn't help but puff out her chest and suck in her stomach. Although her huge hunchback made her posture strange, the corners of her mouth curved upwards, and she wore a rare smile. However, because she hadn't smiled in so long, it looked a little stiff.

Roy's voice paused. "Have those brats bothered you again recently?"

"No."

"Remember what I said. If they dare to come again, hit them hard with a broom. You can't always be so submissive; it only fuels their arrogance."

"If you can't beat them alone, wait for me to come back, and we'll go find them together and beat them up."

Roy spoke fiercely and moved closer to her, their shoulders touching.

After more than ten days of getting along, the girl had become accustomed to normal contact and no longer reacted as intensely as she had at first.

"We'll put aside daily conversation for today. Let's learn something new." Roy lifted the pile of dry grass and wrote the words "Temeria," "Gousi Willen," "Senned Island," and "Aretusa" on the ground in sequence with his charcoal pencil.

"Roy, who drew a pentagram on your sleeve, and only half of it?" Toya's attention, however, was caught by a pattern on his left sleeve, her eyes full of curiosity.

Roy glanced over. More accurately, it was a half-blackened pentagram drawn with charcoal. He fell into thought.

"I don't remember..." Roy pondered for a while, then shook his head. "It was probably a mischievous kid from the House of Carder. They must have secretly drawn it on me when I wasn't paying attention."

"Today, let's talk about Temeria, a country in the north of Aedir. Temeria and Adensburg are separated by Mahakam... Toya, have you ever thought about visiting another country, traveling?"

"Ah... Can I?" The girl's body trembled. Her dark, lustrous eyes held both fear and anticipation. She shook her head desperately. "No, I haven't left the mill in many years. Temeria is too far away. I still have to feed the chickens, water the flowers, and sweep the floor every day. There's endless work, and Henke and Una won't let me leave."

"You're just imagining it," Roy said, twirling his index finger near his temple. "They can't read your thoughts."

Toya's eyes gradually brightened.