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

"And that lets you go out and buy stuff that you want, right?"

"Yep. And enjoy ourselves too." He stared off into the distance, as if he were reminiscing. "As long as we’re smart with it. If I go into a city full of Humans, and they know about Dark Crusaders in the area, obviously I’ll be taken in for questioning. So I usually go out in a disguise or something. Unless we were being covert like when we were at the cave, there’s really no problem with going out and about."

He gestured vaguely in the direction that we came from.

"Anyways, that’s enough about that. Too much serious talk bores me. Let’s talk about how you duped Karna. That last part where you feinted an attack into a run— you should’ve seen the look on his face!"

"That’s the only way I can catch him off guard. I can’t land a hit on him, he’s too fast!"

"Maybe try hitting him when he’s standing still?"

I rolled my eyes. "Good idea! Next time I’ll only swing at someone who can’t move. That’ll surely work!" I said, feigning excitement at his suggestion.

He laughed, and I snorted. We continued talking for a bit— ust chatting and quipping— but the thought stayed in my mind.

Ihsan gave me his reasoning. He told me why he wanted to be a Dark Crusader.

And I thought about myself.

What do I want to do?

After three more days of travelling, we finally arrived. We were not exactly at Fort Conon just yet; we were a few miles away from it, setting up camp.

Karna left two days earlier with a small party to scout out the area, and returned yesterday. There was some discussion on what to do: the strategies and tactics on how we would be taking the fort.

Apparently we were outnumbered by over two-to-one. There were more soldiers than was expected, which was an issue— not because Gerritt thought we could not win since he thought we would win pretty easily— but because we were trying to win as quickly as possible while incurring as few casualties as possible. It was not the biggest dilemma, but it was a dilemma nonetheless.

Because of this, no one could train me. I had to practice my magic mostly by myself. Ihsan sometimes tried to help, but he was not that good when it came to magic. Most of the time, I ended up having to teach him!

He was trying to learn how to enchant his arrows with the explosion spell. The same one Karna demonstrated two weeks ago when we were still at the cave.

Unfortunately, I owned no books on Enchantment magic, so I did not really know how that type of magic worked. All I could give him was vague advice, which probably did not help him that much.

Anyways, I learned another new spell during that time. It was a basic fire spell: Fire Arrow. It was as effective as a Firebolt in terms of firepower (no pun intended) from what I tested out, with the only only difference being that it flew much slower through the air. However, unlike Firebolt— which I could only cast one at a time— I could summon a hail of Fire Arrows at once.

I wanted to show it to Karna or Gerritt, so I waited outside the command tent for them as I flipped through the pages of the book on Pyromancy I was currently reading. They were having a meeting, planning what to do once tomorrow came. After a while, the flaps flew open—

And I saw Victor step out of the tent.

The young man paused when he saw me. I did too. But after a moment’s hesitation, I spoke up.

"Victor, i-it’s been a while. Is everything going ok in there?"

"Yes," he replied briskly. "Do you want something? I’m busy."

"No—"

"Good," he interrupted me. He began to walk past me. "I assumed you wanted to trouble me with something. But since you’re not, I have things to do. Now if you’ll excuse me."

"Wait, trouble you? Why would I want to do that?" I asked, incredulous.

"Because that’s all you’ve done since you’ve come here, no?" He tilted his head to the side as his gaze bore into me. He began listing things out. "From saving your life; to giving you my books and teaching you; to cleaning up after the problems you caused. You’ve been nothing but trouble. Which, I will tolerate of course. You are the Fiend’s daughter, and a child. Those factors, and my kindness, does implore me to accommodate you."

"W-what does that mean?" I sputtered out.

"Fickle. Females and children tend to be as such— I would know. Thus, it was to be expected. Only on the rare occasion does it not hold true, like with your mother. I expected you to be the same, but… perhaps when you’re older."

"That—" I bit my tongue. I did not want to argue with Victor over that comment; this was my chance to reconcile with him after having not spoken to him in over a week. And… maybe he’s right? About me, at least.

He saved my life, and did all those things for me. I should be more grateful, right? A relationship should be give-and-take, not take-and-take.

"I’m sorry," I spoke softly. "Please, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

The young man parroted me. "Make it up to me?" His mouth twitched.

"Yes. I am truly sorry. And I want to prove it." I took a deep breath, and repeated myself. "Let me prove it."

"If you want to… make it up... to me." He paused. Victor turned around slowly, facing his back towards me. Then he continued. "Well, there is nothing for you to do. Everything I’ve done for you, I did it out of my own goodwill. However, if you