Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Ben turned around and locked eyes with the young man who walked into the shop as he charged at Ben before he could say anything, knocking him to the ground.

Before either of them could move though Falk had ripped the man off of him and had a knife that had been hanging on the wall only moments before pressed against his tackler's throat.

“Now I ain’t sure what issue you have with my apprentice,” His teacher growled. “But you better think long and hard before you try anything in my shop.”

“Wait Falk!” Ben yelled. “He’s a friend, it’s all good.”

At that his teacher let go of someone he hadn’t expected to see so soon, his old friend and former classmate Will, who for his part seemed to be doing his best to hide just how frightened he’d been about almost being killed.

Before he could speak though someone else called out to him, and he saw his other friend Steph who ran up and hugged him, thankfully in a far gentler manner than Will had.

“It’s so good to see you!”

“It’s good to see you both too,” He said as he hugged her back. “But what’s going on? I wasn’t expecting to see you guys here?” Surprised would be putting it mildly. He wished he could have gotten some sort of heads up about their arrival, he would have tried to actually plan something for them.The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

“How could we not see you after what we heard, right Will?” She asked, turning to him for the first time since she walked in and having missed his encounter with Falk. “Wait, is everything alright?”

“Oh yeah,” He told her, trying to laugh it off. “Just regretting running ahead I think.”

“I’d rather you both stay in the range of my senses,” A third voice said, and when Ben looked to see who it was found another of the world's stranger inhabitants. Trailing behind the other two at a far more leisurely pace, a giant floating worm entered the shop.

It was about two meters in length and as thick as a fist, but Ben kept the presence of mind not to stare after his first meeting with Glob, instead just giving a friendly hello.

The worm-like person didn’t say anything in response but gave what Ben interpreted as a polite nod before fixing its full attention on Falk.

He explained what had happened while he was in Anailia, only leaving out a few details such as his creation of the resistance braces and the exact details of the trial, which he couldn’t explain if he wanted to, and mostly focused on how Pelenia tricked his into publicly proposing in a way that Thera felt compelled to accept.

“-and I know I didn’t outright ever say the species of the friend I made but I definitely mentioned my resistance to charm, really feel like you should have put two and two together.”

“We weren't sure if we could believe that or not after we heard who specifically you were marrying,” Steph said awkwardly before she turned to Thera. “I’m so so sorry about this, we should have tried talking to Ben without making any assumptions.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Thera told her awkwardly, still seeming like she wanted to leave but trying to be polite for Ben's sake, as well as having more than a little curiosity about them herself.

“So how did you find out I was engaged if you didn’t get my mail yet anyway?”

“Ben, even with a ridiculous amount of races and nations in the world that sort of news is still going to travel,” Will told him. “It wasn’t outright confirmed you were a human, but the rumor was going around and your name was attached to it. I’d bet most of our old classmates are aware.”

“Ha, do you think I should expect any more guests any time soon?”

“Not unless you told anyone but us where to find you. If anyone else was curious enough to check they’d probably head to Anailia.”

He breathed a small sigh of relief. He wouldn’t particularly mind seeing his old classmates if they came to visit, but he sure didn’t want to have to repeat this awkward exchange again if he had to.

“Alright, well with that cleared up, how long are you guys going to be here? It’s not a huge town but let me show you some sights or something.”

“Unfortunately we just stopped in for the night to check on you, though we did want to ask you if you’d be interested in joining us for a small trip. It would only take about a week if you’d be able to miss that much of your training here?” Steph asked, directing the question at Falk who seemed to give his consent for her to continue.

“I mean, I only just got back a few weeks ago, I’m not sure I should just be running out again so quickly. What were you going to be doing for a week anyway?”

This time Will answered, a large grin plastered on his face. “We’re going demon hunting.”