PS: This is the second update. The third will probably be rather late, but I'll try to finish it before midnight.
PS2: I've been working really hard. Everyone else is enjoying the May Day holiday while I'm working on updates. Please send some monthly votes my way~
In the dense, dark, stifling forest, towering trees reaching into the sky blocked every line of sight. An indescribably strange air hung over the woods, and a stream flowed along a desolate forest path. Late autumn had settled in, and the water no longer rushed so fiercely. This should have been a beautiful, tranquil stretch of primeval forest, yet an eerie atmosphere pervaded it.
Along the way, Aaron had encountered only two owlbears and a band of centaurs. Aside from those, he and Lady Sandra had seen no animals at all, and the deeper they ventured into the forest, the fewer animals there were.
"I don't think he's a pasha's son at all." Lady Sandra pushed aside the thick undergrowth, then suddenly addressed Aaron behind her. "An early-stage elite who only went on his first adventure in his twenties? A pasha's son?"
"I see what you mean, but 'a pasha's son' is a very broad term," Aaron replied neutrally. "My guess is that he really is a pasha's son, but his mother wasn't particularly favored. After all, a wife's child is a pasha's son, a concubine's child is a pasha's son, and even a kitchen maid's child is still a pasha's son."
Marriage customs differed across the Realms. In Calimshan, not only nobles but commoners could take four wives and even more concubines. The north of the Realms was relatively conservative, with most people practicing monogamy, though no explicit law required it. If someone could persuade the priests of several deities to bless