Chapter 263: Pay Attention To Your Words (Han)

Professor Howard Carnus' class ended up soon, and before Timothy could make a move towards Han—Penelope was already shoving a healing potion in his hand and calling for Elliot to come and apologize to him. The Lady eventually succeeded in dragging him to their next class with Professor Lavelda.

Han on the other hand soon found another person waving a hand at him, "Hey, Han, you did great!" Russel ran up to him and threw him a grin, "How about we stick together next time, heck in our Combat Class now? I'm getting sick of sitting in between Teresa and Calum."

"I didn't know that we're this close." he said, somewhat feeling a little less enthusiastic than usual.

Russel slapped his back, "You were cool during breakfast, that's enough of a reason to have you with me... besides, don't mind what the Battle Mage said, I thought that earth fissure trick was pretty cool. It threw me off my feet—both in actuality and also since I was shaken. Guess there's a good reason for you coming here, can't say about your other friend."

"Er... thanks, I guess." Han glanced back over his shoulder, Timothy and the rest of the Mage curriculum students leaving. The last of them being Ellynn who threw him a look, but she then disappeared along with the others in their class. She was gone like the wind. But Han looked back at Russel, "Although, Timothy's actually not that bad once you get close to him."

"I guess he's like your Calum." Russel said and plopped down the grass. "We adopted him, even though he's a little weird. I think he grew up alone with wolves."

"Not exactly alone if he was with wolves, right?" While Han could make himself chatty on command and even more outspoken, something brought on with his own personal life mostly caught in silence... Russel was naturally gregarious enough. It didn't exactly lift his mood, but it was enough to focus on his classes first.

"Then out of civilization, I think?" Russel sighed and leaned back, "He really doesn't speak much, but he's a good guy. While you claim that your friend despite practically being mean to you is an angel, eh?"

"Not an angel, but... just a lot happened in our village." Han sighed and scratched the back of his class. He had peeked too much into Timothy's current history, and though it saved his life—he still didn't understand why he had to hide about learning a Spell if he actually learned one. Either way, compared to Han's own meager and divided levels into four distinctive Classes: Rogue, Psion, Peasant and Student... Timothy still had a higher level.

Who cared if it was a Cook class?

"Huh, what do you mean? Not that I want to pry or anything..."

Han Jing was pretty sure that Mou Gu would have liked some of those Skills. Unless the cultivator actually had similar skills to it already, which made him remember. Did the guy ever serve some kind of gourmet cultivation dish?

"Han?"

He blinked and then turned back to Russel, "Our... well, our village got attacked and a lot of people were lost at that time." Han Jing didn't know all of them by name, nor did he interact with them a lot, but a pang still formed in Han's chest.

"What?" Russel stared at him and then frowned, a somewhat uncomfortable look on his face. "Did you mean during the Colossal Wyvern and its weyr's migration? I did hear that a lot of villages got attacked and many were injured... I'm sorry to hear about that."

Han shook his head, "No. We were attacked by Gargoyles."

"Eh... you mean you weren't lying about the beer bottle and the Gargoyle thing?" Russel stared at him. He then cleared his throat, "I mean, are you sure it was a Gargoyle? And that you weren't drunk...?"

"No. I didn't drink at that time." he sighed and folded his hands together, "Maybe I was confused for a moment and thrown off when I saw it for the first time, but I know what a Gargoyle is—made of stone and it ate up cows."

"There's not really supposed to be Gargoyles around our area, you know?"

It was there that Han finally noticed the hint of worry in Russel's face. And he realized that he may have said far too much.

The usually laid-back young man at the whim of Teresa and his group looked disturbed, even, and the young man also took out a book? He had a bag with him that probably carried his books and also the orb he used earlier. Russel began to flip through pages, "Acid-spraying Bees, Draugrs, Electro Wisps, and G... Gasmeth Frogs, Gargantuan Snakes... Gargoyles, there we go."

"A bestiary."

Russel gave a nod, "Gargoyles aren't really in our area, they're beyond the Endless Passes. And something like those wouldn't be able to fly off very far in the first place..."

In a Player's perspective, Han Jing distinctively knew why the Demon Lord sent them in a bout of player rage and a desire to kill off a new Player. But in Han's perspective, perhaps for someone who had lived their entire life in a relative amount of peace, thanks in effect to the Heroes of old.

The implications were different for the people in this world.

"Has this incident been reported already to the proper authorities?" Russel asked. The man was taking everything seriously. "Did your Village Chief or Town Head reach out to the Gloria's City Councilmen, or even just another bigger village when it happened?"

"I think so…"

"Then there must be some official report given already about this incident."

Now that was something that made sense, but at the same time it probably didn't happen when Old Man Joe never mentioned it, nor did anyone else in the village.

"I'm not really sure, I mean I'm not really in touch with those in charge of keeping our village safe, but I'm more certain that I can I guess that it has been reported already." Han coughed. Something like this never crossed his mind at all, but Rockfall Village was still part of the Yegarian Kingdom, so having the incident known was still important. He needed to think of a diversion quick—

"What are the two of you whispering about?" Diov asked. The gauntleted Nobleman sat behind them and was joined by Lu Rei, Calum and Teresa.

Teresa cocked a brow at Russel, "You're really pale—did you see a ghost or something like that?"

"Huh… where's the others?" He asked. "Did they get held back in class?" Others didn't mean a lot, really. It was just Donovan, Sir Leon de Harrington and Lady Angelika who were nowhere to be found. Anyhow, it was the perfect distraction to change the subject in his opinion, and he hoped that Russel would keep his mouth shut.

Diov scratched the back of his head, "Er, you're actually right about that. It's nothing troublesome, I think they'll be back soon."

A few meaningful looks were exchanged between the Primary Combat Students.

Until one spilled the beans. Teresa was the one who ended up plopping down on the grass and looking over her shoulder. "Lady Angelika's actually tending to the two—remember the guy that Calum defeated? He threw Sir Harrington through the air, Donovan tried to intervene, but it just heated things up."

"Sir Harrington had a minor slip up." Diov said. He gave the girl a narrowed eye look, "That's nothing really to be gossip or spurned about."

Teresa scratched her cheek, "Of course—but yes, that's the reason why they're running a little late. I mean, usually Sir Harrington should have had a Healing Potion on his person, because he's always prepared, but it was like he was stripped out of all of those."

"Now you're just making up stories." Russel rolled his eyes, "Do you keep an eye on the Noble that much that you can even see his stash?"

Teresa huffed.

"Well, that's that—yikes, tell me this Lu Rei, is the reason why you two are sticking around with Lady Angelika is to get close to Sir Leon?" Russel raised a brow.

"Wait, hold on a second—you can't just ask put her into a difficult spot like that." Teresa protested.

Han could only inwardly sigh in relief and rested against the back of the grass. With the Professor still not around and the others too, he just wanted to unwind. But that was until something, or someone blocked out the sun.

And it was Calum staring down at him.

"Uh… hey?" He wasn't one to judge people based on how they acted—because who knows what things they went through to be the people they were today, but this still kind of freaked him out a bit.

"Oi, Calum, stop harassing the poor guy." Teresa called out to him.

And yet the man only furrowed his brows and then sighed. "Sorry, you reminded me of someone for a moment." Calum eventually pulled away from him and looked away. The young man crossed his arms over his chest and focused on staring up at the sky?

Han had no idea who the guy was referring to… and he could only hope that this was just the guy's weird way of being friendly. However, if he was really serious about it, then who else would remind him of Han except for some kind of doppelganger?!

What if he had one here too… or a long-lost twin of some sort?

There were too many things that happened around him, and not even enough time to tackle them all—there was only so much that he could do. Han Jing had to prioritize, as always.

But life tended to throw a wrench at your plans.