Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1) by V.A. Lewis (autobiographies to read .TXT) 📕

nonetheless. It was light gray in color, with a bronze hilt and crossguard. The blade was over a foot long, curving slightly back from the center onwards. It was finely crafted— and, according to Karna, it had some sort of sharpness enchantment on it. I wanted to test it out, so I picked up the remaining bone from my meal, and gently pushed into it.

I watched in awe as the dagger sunk into the bone with little effort. That was sharp. It was not like cutting through butter with a hot knife, but it certainly was comparable. I… did not feel safe using it, so I cautiously placed it back inside its sheathe. Don’t want to lose a thumb or something.

Plus, it was not mine. Karna lent it to me, however I doubted he meant to give it to me permanently. So I grabbed the dagger in its case, hefted my bag around my shoulders, and searched for the Goblin.

I already had a reason to see him in the first place. I had to thank him for sticking up for me— for what he told Gerritt. That was nice of him. I might as well have accomplished two things at once.

I was directed to his tent after a couple of minutes; it did not take long to get there, since the camp was pretty small. I was about to enter it, when the flaps opened up, and someone exited it.

He was a Goblin, of course. I recognized him. He was the other one with us last night— the one who waited for me when we first left the camp.

"Hey, uh… Ibsum?" I guessed

"Close. But, no." The Goblin grinned at me. "Want to give it another try?"

"Oh, um… I don’t know? Sorry, I never got your name." I waved my hand apologetically.

The Goblin looked at me, offended. "What? Even after all we went through last night? I’m hurt. Hurt!" He placed a hand on his chest exaggeratedly, and turned his head away from me; but I caught him giving him peeking over at me a few times. I just stared at him.

"Aw, no reaction?" he said, dejected. "Come on, not even a little smirk?"

"That was a joke?" I asked, straightfaced. This time, he actually looked hurt by that quip. I felt myself smiling a bit as I quickly reassured him. "I’m kidding! It was amusing. And I totally did not expect that from... anyone here."

The Goblin’s face did a 180 as he brightened up. "Did not expect what? A sense of humor? Of course not— most everyone here are stuckups." He put a hand out and smiled. "The name’s Ihsan."

I took his hand. "Melas."

"Did I do that right?" he asked, letting go of my hand. "It’s a Human’s greeting— one which I’m not used to. Us Goblins are much more formal than that. Which makes a lot of these assholes like Karna so uptight."

"Uh…"

"I’m kidding, obviously," Ihsan said with a wink. "So did you need something?"

"Yes. Is Karna inside?" I gestured at the tent. "I was hoping to return this to him. He gave it to me last night." I lifted up the dagger slightly.

"Last night, huh? Holy Hell, that was a mess. I still can’t believe we got out of there. Sure, he’s inside. But not in a good mood— which means he’s his usual irate self."

"Can I come in?" I asked politely.

"Go ahead. But I’m not going in with you. He’s probably heard me badmouthing him for the last five minutes." Ihsan shook his head. "If he sees me, he’ll probably take that dagger and stab me with it."

I smiled slightly at the joke. He backed up, and started walking away from the tent.

"Well then, it was a pleasure to finally meet you, Melas."

"Likewise."

"See ya around. And try not to get stabbed." He waved goodbye, and headed off.

I entered the tent, and found who I was looking for. I stood at the entrance, as Karna barely glanced up at me. "May I come in?"

He responded with a grunt, which I assumed meant ‘yes’; he was sitting on his bedroll, and I walked into the room and stopped a few feet in front of him.

"...what do you want?" he asked briskly.

"I just wanted to check up on you. See how you’re doing. Are you… feeling ok?" I awkwardly motioned at his chest. "Any problems or anything?"

He nodded stiffly. "No problems. The healing potion closed all my wounds, and healed everything both internally, and on the outside."

"That’s good," I stated the obvious.

He nodded again in response, and we stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before we both spoke up at the same time.

"Hey, this is—"

"I don’t have to—"

We both paused, and he shifted in his seat. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, uncertain whether he should speak first.

"Go ahead. You first," I quickly said.

Karna paused for a second, then muttered under his breath. "I’m completely fine. I don’t actually have to rest. The Commander is making me do this, because he’s afraid overexerting myself would reopen the injuries. But as I said, the potion was incredibly potent. So that won’t happen."

I could not tell if he was trying to act tough or if he actually believed that; I barely knew him, but he seemed quite proud of himself from what I had seen so far. I tried not to furrow my brows. "How do you know that?"

The Goblin raised a hand to his chest, and pulled down his shirt slightly. He touched just to the right of where I assumed his heart was.

"The first bolt barely missed my heart. Right in the center of my chest. The second, punctured my lungs. I couldn’t breathe, and I was bleeding out. I wasn’t just dying, I was on the cusp