Chapter 190 - Possibility

The following day, Zaos woke up early to do some training, but then he realized that he had to wait for Drannor and Ameria. However, entering the mansion now would be difficult without authorization, so he decided to wait for them near the entrance. Fortunately, the guards decided to let him wait in the garden for some odd reason, even with his sword.

Around eight, Drannor, Ameria, and Noemi showed up. It seems that they had an early breakfast, and now they were ready to kill some time together, and by that, Ameria wanted to show off her skills.

"We are going to hunt some boars in the area," Ameria declared. "Where is everyone?"

"The captain said that they would stay behind to rest," Zaos said. "He believes that the next few days will be busy, so he is preparing himself for it."

Truth to be told, Erean wanted to stay behind and check the whole mansion and see with his own eyes which individual would come to the party. Naturally, no guards were allowed inside, so they could only do that to avoid trouble.

"What about you, Zaos?" Ameria asked, and she didn't seem angry anymore. "Noemi said that they have some mages here, but apparently, they only know simple magic, so why not show her some interesting spells."

Zaos sighed… Ameria almost sounded like she was trying to say that his spells were some sort of party tricks. She wasn't as naive as Drannor, but she still had some room for improvement.

"Sure, why not?" Zaos said.

Zaos doubted that Ameria could miss a boar, but everything might happen since she didn't have much experience hitting moving targets. Besides, Drannor still was unarmed, and apparently, he didn't feel the need to carry one just to kill time with those three.

"Can I call you Zaos?" Noemi suddenly asked.

"Sure, why not?" Zaos frowned.

"Did we do something rude to you yesterday?" Noemi asked.

"I don't think so," Zaos replied. "I just left because I can't relax outside my home without my sword being within range."

"Oh, is that so?" Noemi said and then showed a relieved smile. "Still, I can imagine how safe you feel carrying such a big sword."

"By the way, you seem pretty relaxed without your spear, Drannor," Ameria said. "I assumed that the training in the North was what made Zaos feel that way, but it seems you don't feel the same way."

"I actually like to have my spear around, but I figured I wouldn't need it for the time being," Drannor said.

"Why do you think that?" Ameria asked. "The island is safe, but accidents might happen. We are going hunting, after all."

"It is just, I guess, my instincts are telling me that things will be fine," Drannor said.

Drannor seemed a bit too relaxed, but Zaos knew that he actually could trust his instincts. Meanwhile, Zaos liked to be prepared for every single possible outcome. Regardless, the whole island, despite the fact that it was destroyed many times by volcanic eruptions over two thousand years, still looked like a massive untouched forest covered it. With the exception of the port, the road, and the mansions, they could find trees and grass in all directions. Probably thanks to that, they found a boar much sooner than Zaos had imagined.

Even before Ameria could grab an arrow, the wild creature noticed their presence and began to dash toward them. Despite not having the advantage of the surprise attack, Ameria still nocked an arrow, enhanced it with wind magic, and then fired it. The arrow pierced the creature's forehead easily, and then the boar rolled on the ground dead.

Ameria sighed in relief because it would be pretty embarrassing if she had missed. Regardless, Noemi was left speechless. She looked pretty excited before, but now she was just stunned. Now and then, those boars would cause problems to the people that lived in the area, but the people there could hunt all of them because they had a role to play in the environment. That being said, only heavily armed soldiers could take down those creatures, and few of them could finish them so fast.

"I thought… that magic needs some time to be cast," Noemi hesitated. "But you did it, and I didn't even notice it."

"Well, I practiced a lot to be able to cast this fast," Ameria scratched the back of her head. "Still, I guess this is all thanks to Zaos. He nagged at me for four months that I should focus on training the basics in order to cast magic faster."

Noemi looked to the side, but Zaos wasn't there. While they were talking, he and Drannor approached the boar and then began to touch the creature's fang. They had never seen one since they couldn't be found in any part of Sairus kingdom, so they were quite curious.

Although they didn't say that, Noemi and her family didn't believe that Zaos was the person Ameria said he was. He didn't look particularly smart. He looked like an ordinary soldier through and through. Not to mention, that sword on his back looked like something and the stupid soldier would carry to scare their enemies, but it was probably impossible to be used.

"Shall we continue?" Ameria asked.

"Wow, you want to kill the poor animals for sport like that?" Zaos asked. "At least let's give them to someone nearby to eat it."

"Yeah, it would be a waste to leave the corpse here," Drannor said.

"Well, since we won't be able to join the party, we might as well share it with Erean and have some barbecue tonight," Zaos said.

"What is barbecue?" Ameria asked.

"Well, it is when you… what is a barbecue again?" Zaos frowned.

"... You are so weird sometimes," Ameria said after a long sigh. "Anyway, Noemi decided to invite you two as well, so we can all see you dancing, Zaos." 

Zaos couldn't help but sigh when he heard that. Why does everyone like to decide things for him? Perhaps it was time to become even ruder and tell everyone to fuck off.