Now once they sat on the table, they both got serious. Ned was curious as to why did the old man talk to him, and so he didn"t talk first. And let the old man start."My name is Alaster yulias" after which he once again glared at his granddaughter, and she stepped forth introducing herself as Lori yulias.
"My name"s Ned, nice to meet you sir" Ned replied politely, after all he was always respectful to his elders. And then nodded at Lori, as they already introduced themselves. Then he turned his attention to the old man.
"Well young Ned, no need to be tense, it is not something serious, I just wanted to ask you some questions, and in exchange I"ll answer some of yours too, how about it?" He told him with a kind smile on his face.
Ned before answering though, brought the map in his eye periphery, and clicked on the two blue dots, one was much bigger than the other and he guessed it was the old man, Alaster, and the small dot, Lori.
[Alaster: Friendly]
[Lori: Curious]
Once he read that, he relaxed a bit, but since he was wearing a mask no one noticed. Or so he thought but once he relaxed the old man sported a small smile. Ned wondered how did he notice.
And the old man answered like he was able to read his mind. "Well when you relaxed. Your tense muscles also did, and I am able to see even the minor changes in them"
"Hoh, what an interesting ability. Well then sir what do you want to ask?"
"Please, no need to talk to me formally" Alaster said.
Ned gave a nod before changing his way of talking, " well then old man, what do you want to ask?"
"Sigh, first of all, I would like to apologize for my granddaughter"s mistake, I am also at fault as If it wasn"t for me telling her to be helpful to you, then she wouldn"t be so curious." The old man said while sighing. And Lori seeing he apologized for her felt down because it was her mistake.
"No need to, I also apologize for overly reacting. It"s my first time out of the village, and I don"t know if I can trust anyone yet." Ned said.
The old man smiled at that "Haha, indeed you wouldn"t know. Well then, my first question is, would you be able to take off your mask?"
Ned didn"t reply yes immediately, although he knew that he can trust them, if they were to become enemies they would surly send people to hunt him.
"Young Ned, me and Lori can swear using our magic as a binding if you"d like to ? The old man told him, when he saw him hesitate.
Ned was suddenly confused, he didn"t know what is it that Alaster was talking about. And so he asked his trusted Emmy, internally of course. "Emmy what is he talking about?"
"[In this world, as a method to gain mutual trust, people swear a vow using either magic or battle force as a binding. If one breaks his part of the vow, they will be stripped of their magic or battle force]"
With things clear now, Ned brought his head up to meet the old man"s eyes and nodded.
"I swear on my magic, that I"ll keep what The young Ned will tell or show me, in between us those in here" he said and his body glowed for a bit before it settled. Lori did the same, and once she was done Ned took off his mask.
"I"m guessing you don"t know how to shave haha" the first thing the old man noticed was his unkempt beard.
While Lori"s eyes widened a bit while internally saying" He is quite good looking, coupled with his strong body he will surly be quite popular with the girls"
"Old man I spent a year in the forest with nothing but my katana, what do you think I should shave with? Ah?" Ned exclaimed, and now both the old man and Lori could see the annoyed look on his face.
"Haha I was just joking young Ned, don"t worry you will surely be able to trap a couple young maidens with your look" Alaster said not minding the glare he was getting from Lori.
Ned when he heard that was not even bothering about it but he just smiled on the outside. He wasn"t a fan of the love based on your looks, he wanted genuine love.
"Well young Ned, thank you for showing us your face, but I want to ask you, are you a twin path, I can feel mana in your heart and in your body." The old man said and seeing Ned nod his head continued "I am a rank 8 expert swordsman, and one of my old friends is also a twin path like you, would you like me to tell him to take you as his disciple and train you?" Ned could see the sadness in his eyes when he talked about him being the disciple of his friend.
And he was surprised that this old man was one of the two old men from the kingdom who reached rank 8.
"No, but thank you. I"m not searching for a master to train me. I can train by myself just like I always did."
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"What, stop saying nonsense how can you train by yourself, not to mention you said you came from a village, what resources could be there in the mountains for you to train with?" without even leaving time for Alaster to speak Lori told him.
"Resources, what resources would you need to train your body and mind? I just lifted weights using rocks and trees, as for my mind I have just meditated at night, and now here I am after that." Ned said. Since they already swore a vow he wasn"t going to hold information from a rank 8.
Now even the old man was a bit shocked looking at Ned as he said " My boy don"t you know, that to train everyday you would need, stuff like a stamina potion, muscles regeneration potion, enlightenment potion and so on, are you saying that you reached where you are right now not using any of that?"
Ned was perplexed and it showed up on his face, as the both of them felt even more shocked.