Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Feast

Looking at Roy’s bloody appearance, Robb grinned, “You really need a shower.”

“Yeah, can’t be going back home looking like this,” Roy responded while looking at his body. His appearance would scare both children and men alike, and his smell would kill any appetite they might have had.

“We have a well next to our house,” Lorenz said. “You can shower there if you want.”

Roy nodded his head at the young boy’s suggestion. “Sure, let’s go there.”

The group of three walked through the streets and alleys of the marketplace, before reaching Lorenz’s house. On their way, they surprisingly did not encounter any goblins or monsters.

Unfortunately, when they reached the house, they found that the well had been completely destroyed.

“Shit, I didn’t think that they would break this well too,” Lorenz said with an angry expression. He led both Roy and Robb for them to shower in this well so confidently, but now he just felt embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Roy said with a smile. “We can just go to the forest and shower in the river stream. It’s not that far from here.”

“Are you sure, it’s not gonna be dangerous?” Lorenz asked with a worried expression.

“What are you afraid of? You’re an awakened now,” Robb said with a grin. “And do you not trust us? We’re pretty strong, you know.”

The trio made their way out of the village and into the forest. After ten minutes of running, they reached a fairly large stream. As Roy looked at the salmon jumping up the small waterfalls, he let out a sigh of relief.

“At least the fish stayed normal.”

“Yeah, if there were monsters in the river, that would be a big problem,” Robb responded with a fearful expression on his face.

While the two were talking, Lorenz took off his clothes and jumped into the water. 

“Ah, this feels refreshing. Come on in, you two.”

“Yeah, let me clean up my clothes first,” Roy replied while taking off his ragged shirt. It was filthy, bloody, and had many holes in it, but the young man still appreciated it as it was the only one he had.

Robb and Robb took off their clothes and soaked them in the flowing water. After scraping off most of the filth and blood, they let their shirt and pants dry off on a tree branch.

As the two walked into the stream naked, Roy looked at Robb’s body and was surprised by how much it changed. All of his muscles were now lean and defined, and he even rocked a six-pack.

“Damn, you got big.”

“Say that to yourself,” Robb replied while rolling his eyes. “Just yesterday you were a twig, now you’re stronger than an ox.”

“What about me? See how big I got?” Lorenz interjected.

Robb turned around and clicked his tongue, “You still have long ways to go, buddy. You have to eat and fight more to become big.”

“Shut up! What do you mean eat and fight more? You guys are big just because you killed a couple more goblins than me.” Lorenz pouted and looked away from Robb.

“Look at this little shit talking back to his big brothers. You need a little spanking, don’t you?” Robb responded while running towards the young boy.

Lorenz, seeing Robb chase after him, immediately took off and ran away. After running around in circles in the stream, Robb caught up with the young. He held him in his arms before lightly smacking his naked butt while Lorenz was flailing around, trying to escape.

As the group was joking around and talking with each other while showering, a lone wolf was watching them from behind the trees. It growled at the sight of fresh tender meat, before rushing toward them.

Roy turned around to see a wolf pouncing on him with its mouth wide open. The young man instinctively threw an uppercut to close its jaws.

The wolf whimpered in pain before looking at the young man with eyes full of anger and grief. The two reached a brief stalemate as the beast circled around Roy. The latter knew that he could not kill it without his sword, so he looked at Robb with the side of his eye and signaled him to create an opening.

Roy suddenly ran to the side of the stream, heading toward his weapon. Just as the wolf was about to follow him, Robb came rushing from the side and kicked it in the stomach with all his force. In the meantime, Roy took his sword and dashed toward the wolf. Before the beast could regain its balance, the young man cut its side open with a vertical slash, before shoving the blade through its neck.

“Ayy, that was some good teamwork.” Robb high-fived Roy.

After their little celebration, Roy looked down at his bloody body and sighed, “Damn, I just finished showering too.”

After cleaning himself once again, the group of three made their way back to the village. Their clothes were still wet and they had traces of blood left, but at least they were better than before. The smell, especially, was not as overpowering to anyone in a ten meters radius.

When they reached their destination, they found everyone outside Roger’s house. The kids were running around and the adults were talking with each other as they looked at the beast getting skinned. Godwin, who was a butcher by trade, was stripping the massive boar from its hide with the help of Jack and Marth. 

“Help me turn it around, would you.”

Marth and Jack took a long breath before flipping the giant beast on its stomach. Godwin followed the incision he had already made and cut away the hide from the boar’s back.

“This one would make for a lovely coat. Don’t you think so, old Jeff?” Godwin looked at an old man wearing a hat on his head and sporting a glorious silvery white beard.

Jeffery, or old Jeff as he was most commonly known, laughed and said, “If you don’t poke it full of holes, I’ll make you walk like a king.”

“Well, I better do a good job then.”

While the old men were talking and laughing amongst themselves, Roy looked around for the rest of his crew. Fred was alongside Alfonse and Alric, who had their bandages painted red with blood.

“Yo, you guys went and fought even when you’re still injured?”

“That’s what I told them,” Fred replied. “But they just won’t listen.”

Alfonse scratched his head and chuckled. “Well, figured it would be better than just staying here not doing anything.”

“Man, you guys are becoming little murder machines.”

Robb rolled his eyes at Roy’s comment. “You, definitely, ain’t one to talk. The blood in your clothes couldn’t be washed off even after ten passes!”

Alfonse let out a chuckle before saying, “Anyways, we went on a little hunt, me and Alric, and we have some good synergy.” He then looked with fond eyes at the knight next to him. “It’s nice to have someone who got your back.”

“I was just doing as I was trained,” Alric responded with a neutral expression.

Fred clicked his tongue at the knight’s answer and tapped his shoulder. “Man, you gotta drop that stiff act. Take a deep breath and relax, we’re all buddies here.”

Alric smiled at Fred’s words. “Okay, I will try.”

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The group continued talking about their day. Alfonse repeated the story of their fight with the ogre with more details this time and then talked about his hunt with Alric. Roy recounted his hunt of the boar and his fight with the fifty goblins.

Soon, Godwin had finished skinning the boar and butchered it along with Jack and Marth. After preserving a large chunk of the meat with salt and inside cold jars, the rest of it was roasted on a large fire.

Of course, the smell of cooked meat brought with it some undesirable guests. However, with so many awakened around, getting rid of the stray goblins was an easy task.

The smell of beautifully roasted meat did not attract only goblins and monsters. A young boy who was wrapped in bandages like a mummy made his way downstairs. 

Jacob who was sitting on his bench smoking tobacco along with Hassan and Hawk, turned around only to find Jaimie next to him. His face turned white as a sheet.

“Jaimie! What the hell are you doing here? Get back upstairs, you need rest to heal.”

“But I’m good!” Jaimie replied with clear disappointment. “Here, look at me!”

The young boy ran around the street before slipping on a small rock and falling to the ground face-first. “Ayayay, it hurts!”

Jacob covered his face and shook his head. He looked at Jaimie with a slacked jaw, not knowing what to say.

In the meantime, Roy made his way to the young boy and carried him back in his arms. As he looked at the young boy’s face, he could see the disappointment and sadness in it. Jaimie did not want to stay alone on the bed while everyone was celebrating outside.

Roy looked at Jacob with a helpless smile before saying, “Can’t he just stay sitting down on the bench? We can’t have him miss the feast after all.”

The doctor stared at Roy with eyes that spelled death before finally letting out a sigh. He then looked at Jaimie and said, “Okay, you can stay but don’t you move around. Your bandages will be ripped and all my work would be for nothing.”

Jaimie nodded his head happily. “Thank you! Don’t worry, I will not move an inch from the bench!”

Just as Roy was about to sit down and have some much-needed rest, a group of little kids spawned right in front of him. Claire was leading the charge while Mary, Gred, Daniel, and Jeanie stood behind her.

“Ehm, we want to ask you something,” Claire stammered as she spoke to Roy. She was fidgeting with her hands behind her back and her eyes darted to every which direction but Roy’s.

Looking at this display of shyness, Mary shook her head. “I told you guys are stupid. Why do you wanna go fight and have so much blood on you? That’s disgusting!”

Looking at the situation unfolding in front of his eyes, Roy was less than impressed. He scanned the group of five kids with his eyes before asking, “You guys want to fight monsters? Why?”

“Because we want to be strong like you!” Daniel jumped from the back and started mimicking sword slashes and stabs in the air. “You were so cool, I wanna do what you did last time!”

Roy raised an eyebrow at Daniel’s antics but did not answer him. He instead looked at his sister, Jeanie. 

“What about you? You wanna fight too?”

Jeanie sheepishly nodded her head while hiding behind her brother. Roy waited for her answer, but she did not say anything. His eyes then darted to the supposed leader of the group.

“What about you, Claire? Do you wanna fight? Why?”

The young girl clenched her hands and nodded resolutely at Roy. “I wanna fight too. Dad told me to protect Dustin, and I need to be strong to protect Dustin!”

Roy let out a sigh at Claire’s answer before finally looking at Greg with hopeless eyes. “What about you, Greg? You wanna fight too?”

The little boy shook his head, “No, too dangerous.”

Roy grinned at the unexpected answer, “Smart kid.”

He then took a deep breath and stared at those that wanted to fight with furrowed eyebrows, “Sure, you can come and fight with us, but my team is not a day-care for kids. If you wanna join us you need to do three things.” Roy squatted down to be on the same level as the kids and raised three of his fingers. “One, you need to be used to blood. I don’t want anyone screaming, crying, or panicking when they need to kill a goblin, okay?”

Daniel, Jeanie, and Claire nodded at Roy’s words. Seeing their confident faces, the latter had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“Two, you need to learn how to use knives. Goblins are dangerous, if you can’t kill them fast they will bite and claw back at you with everything they have.”

The group of kids was listening intently and nodding at Roy. The latter paused for a second and took a deep breath before continuing, “Three, I need each of you to do a hundred push-ups every day.”

“A hundred?! That’s a lot!” Daniel protested with wide betrayed eyes. Greg who was listening from the side couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

Roy did not answer Daniel but instead looked at Claire who still had a resolute look on her face. “What do you think? Are a hundred push-ups too much?”

Claire shook her head, “We just need to finish a hundred by the end of the day, right?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly right,” Roy smiled at the brave young girl. He then looked at Daniel and smirked, “So, do you think you can do it? Or you’re too weak to fight with us?”

Daniel stammered for a bit before letting out a ‘humph’. “One hundred push-ups is easy. I can do it no problem!”

Roy looked at Jeanie, but seeing that she isn’t going to say anything, he just let out a deep breath. “You can start tomorrow. If you can do this for three days, I will help you become strong. If you fail or miss a day, then don’t even talk to me about this, okay?”

“We will not fail, we will do it,” Claire clenched her hand and responded. She then turned around and walked away and the rest of the group followed after her.

Alfonse who was listening to the conversation walked toward Roy after the young boys and girls had left. “A hundred push-ups? You should have just told them that you’re not taking them hunt and leave it at that, why ask for the impossible?” 

“You think they would leave me be if I just told them that? They will annoy me until midnight.” Roy shrugged his shoulders.

Alfonse chuckled a nodded in affirmation, “I guess that’s true.” He then looked back in the direction of the kids. “But, what if they do it?”

Roy stared down blankly for a few seconds before smiling, “If they do it, then who am I to tell them no? A promise is a promise, I will help them awaken.” He then looked at Alfonse and gestured with his head toward his friends sitting on the bench. “Let’s go and sit down and relax for once. We won’t be having such an occasion every day.”

The rest of the feast went by smoothly. The few goblins that appeared did not pose any threat to Roy and the others, while the villages sat down and shared the massive barbecue. It had been a day since they ate anything, and for some of them two days.

As such, hours passed by and the sun soon set. The feast was done by the time it was night, and most of the villagers went back inside the house. 

Robb came and sat down next to Roy on the bench. 

“So, what’s your plan for the night?”

“I don’t know. Go and hunt some more?” Roy responded.

Robb stayed silent for a couple of seconds before he looked at his friend. “Hey, what do you say we go ogre hunting?”