Our group got much bigger when Sir Derek and Gesel also came over to eat with us. Luckily Annie had expected as much, so she had brought more food than one would have expected. So in the end, it was Annie, myself, Rina, Brooke, Sophie, Thurul, Sei, Gesel, Fred, Runa, and Sir Derek sitting here eating around a small campfire.

While we ate, my mind was preoccupied with tomorrow’s battle with Fanmari. I just hoped she was a normal contestant. If she were to go all out against me, to kill me, then I might have to take her down. To be honest, I really did not wish to kill anyone unless I am forced to, but if she pushes me too far, then I might have no choice but to.

“Little Lass, what is on your mind?” Sir Derek asked as he moved to sit down next to me, he had a cup of ale in his hand. My guess is that Thurul had brought some of his special brews.

“I was just thinking that tomorrow’s opponent might be one of the people who was sent by the nobles. I highly doubt they would send anyone weak. Not with all the information about me circulating about.” I explained honestly. For some reason, Sir Derek, although muscular and had a strong pressure about him, when he talked to me like this, seemed like a grandpa.-.“Hmmm… That may be true. Nobles may act rashly at times, but they know to make sure to do things right. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to get away with half the stuff they get away with. Just keep your guard up. If anything happens, I will be there to back you up. Normally I would not tell this to a young girl, but if you have to shed blood, then shed blood. Protect your life over everything else. The King has already tossed his support behind you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a black knight at your side. Only the royal family has black knights at their side. Whether they are hiding in the shadows or standing directly next to them, they are always there protecting the royal family and the kingdom’s interests.” Sir Derek really had a way with words. It was able to make me relax a bit.

If I were to kill someone during an event like this, it would be blown out of proportion. The nobles could use it as a means to try to condemn me and put me in prison while they petition for control back over the east side slums. I know that with me taking over control of the area and more knight patrols has made it hard for them to continue their business, especially with the black knights giving the orders to those in charge of the knight’s barracks close to the area.

And if you count me slowly reclaiming the slums back to make it a safer place for people to live and work, then it is basically stamping out any chance for them to do any dirty dealings in the city. They would need to try to transform another section of the city into a slum. But now that the King is paying much more attention to the city, there will probably be no chance for them to do that. The only thing they could do was set up some kind of outfit outside the capital but close enough to still be able to run back and forth.

I know I will never be able to stamp out corruption by doing what I am doing. But I never set out to do that in the first place. My only goal in this matter was to better the lives of the people living in the slums so that they could have a chance, a better chance at life.

I let out a long sigh as I sipped my tea. “I will try not to allow it to come down to bloodshed.”“That’s the best course of action since it will save a lot of trouble. But just know the option is there and that you will not be held accountable. The King has long since learned of the plans these snake bastards have, so don’t worry about the clean up. To be honest, with how young you are, I would never wish for you to be dealing with such things. But I still admire you.” Sir Derek’s words surprised me. I do not see what I have done that would make him admire me.

“Admire me?” I asked. I felt flattered but still. If anyone should be admired, it should be Sir Derek himself.

“Yes. You are so young yet more noble than half the nobles in this kingdom. You care for the people of this kingdom more than let on. No one goes out of their way to help the poor. No one goes out of their way to fight in a war to defend their homeland at your age. Especially not a little girl.”

“But I only really went off to fight to protect my village. As for the other battles, that was….”

“Doesn’t matter!” Sir Derek interrupted me. “What matters was that you jumped into the fire. Whether it was to gain a little bit of benefits or not, you still jumped in, and not only that, but you turned a losing situation around and gained the trust of the soldiers you commanded. It is not why you did something but what results you give. If you just jumped in and let your men die to win the battle, I would not be talking to you now. You did not do that. You stood firm in your stance of trying to keep as many of your men alive as possible. You were on the front lines and not hiding in some tent. You took a ragtag group of soldiers seen as misfits by our kingdom and made them heroes. Did you claim full glory? No, you did not. In my eyes, if that does not deserve admiration, then I do not know what does.

“Faith, take the meaning of your name and have more faith in what you do. You are going to go someplace in this world. Even though you are a demi human you are already standing higher than half the humans in this kingdom. I heard not only have you befriended the princess to the point that she is willing to steal the royal stamp, but you have even put the silly prince in a place where he is willing to work hard now. Do you know after his scolding the other day that he has begun hitting the books again? The King did not ask him to, but he said he needed to learn more and become someone who is able to truly run this country. He said he did not wish to let you see him as the idiot prince any longer.

“To be honest Little Lass, I think you stole the lad’s heart. Haha!” Sir Derek let out a loud laugh as he took another swig of his ale.

But I couldn’t help but furrow my brow. The prince was handsome, but he had so many faults. If he did fix them, then maybe he would be someone worthy of being the next King. And even a man worthy of someone to marry. But I, for one, do not think that it would ever be me. He would need to do a full one eighty in his personality before that would ever happen. But if he can become a good king, I will support him one hundred percent.

Plus, I can see the sibling rivalry if what the others said was true about Adel. But I would rather just be friends with them all and leave it at that for the time being. Now, why did Sir Derek have to go and remind me about such depressing things?

Once again, I was letting out a sigh. I have been doing that a lot as of late. If I keep sighing like this, I might end up growing so old that I will look like a granny by the time I reach eighteen. But I just can’t help it. With everything that is happening, I can’t help but feel slightly stressed out. I just want to settle into my new place and go to the academy and try to forget everything that is going on. Of course, I will need to make trips back and forth between the slums to check on things, to also see the progress of the factory and my new house, but at least I get to ride the airship more, which will be fun. I could always try to create a teleporter since I memorized the way it works, but I kinda feel nervous about using one I made myself. Maybe I could work out a teleportation magic instead that allows me to visit places I have already been.

At the same time, I wanted to build another place that would be a good spot for me to test out some of these runic inscriptions. I wonder if I can take a few classes on that when I get to the academy. There are other things besides barrier magic I would like to try using for inscription. And instead of wasting a lot of materials testing things out, it would be more wise to learn what I can and then try to put it to practical use. I have an understanding of the concept and can actually make my own barrier inscriptions, but this is different. Actually, now that I think about it, I wonder if I can make a barrier that could be carried around. It would safeguard those that I care about…. This is something I should look into after I move….