126 Chapter 124 Answering To Mom (1/2)

”You are late,” said his mother, pausing to take in their soaked clothing. ”Were you in a storm?”

”Yes! It was awesome!” he exclaimed in excitement. ”There was this ma.s.sive magical storm with all these different colored lightning bolts! It was so neat; we just couldn't stop watching it!”

Uncrossing her arms, she said, with a frown, ”Before you leave in the morning, I want you to eat breakfast with your father and I.”

”Alright,” he said, starting to s.h.i.+ver.

”Get out of those wet things, before the two of you come down sick!” she said, turning to leave.

After they were warm and dry, Joseph spent a few hours practicing magic before he went to bed. The next morning, when he visited the world of the runes, he noticed that he could kind of see Stella as a ghostly image, moving around him. Maybe it was because she had the mana battery, but before he could ask, it was time for breakfast.

Stepping into the dining room, he saw that both of his parents were waiting, and they had very serious looks. Searching his mind on why they would be so upset, he really couldn't think of anything. Maybe the kings were sending their armies down from the north? Frowning at that thought, he took his seat. He didn't want to move again. This place was really set up. He would just have to fight them off. Maybe if he killed enough of them first… Could he capture the mages? No, it would be too risky.

”Joseph, we need to talk,” said his mother, once Stella had sat down next to him.

”It's okay. How much time do we have?” he asked.

She blinked a couple of times before saying, ”What?”

”Um, isn't the kingdom armies on the way?”

”No, Joseph. Why would you think that?”

”Oh.” He sat back in his chair as relief washed over him. Then he was confused. ”You looked so serious, I was trying to figure out if we were under attack, or something. Did you hear something about the elves? No, that doesn't make sense. What about the demon wors.h.i.+ppers?”

”Demon wors.h.i.+ppers?” asked his mother faintly. ”No, Joseph we need to talk about you.”

”Me? What?” Even his second mind, Joe, was confused by that. Glancing at Stella, she merely shrugged and picked up her fork to start eating.

”Joseph, we think you may be becoming overconfident because of your successes,” said his mother, rubbing her forehead between her eyes.

Stella looked up, clearly confused.

”What?” he asked, not having a clue what she was talking about.

His mom continued, ”Joseph, I think that all of the success you've had, has gone to your head, and you are taking risks you don't need to because you think you can't lose.”

”I'm…overconfident? What?” He looked over at Stella, who was thinking hard about the accusation.

”You do take a lot of risks,” she said.

”But, it's not like I had a choice! Most of the time, someone was dying!”

”Your father said you learned a spell to detect poison, just before you almost died from tainted food,” said his mother.

”I would have survived. Dad would have had the healers cure poison on me first. A bunch of others would have died though, yeah.”

”And you learned some air, or breathing technique, which saved you from the a.s.sa.s.sins,” added Stella.

”When they burnt the Oranche? The only reason that saved my life was because I was allergic to the stuff in the first place. There were like a thousand slaves with us that day and I was the only one who was allergic. Yeah, I was lucky to survive but I was really unlucky to be allergic.”

”What about the arrow when we were leaving?” asked Stella.

”I would be running around with only one arm until I learned regenerate. If it hit my head, I would have died, or my chest,” he said turning back to his mother, who was looking surprised and horrified. She hadn't known anything about him being hit by a.s.sa.s.sin arrows, but Joseph kept going, not caring.

”Stella would have had to cut a chunk out of me, but Stephan was right beside me. I would have survived anything but a head or a heart shot. And I've been thinking about how to purge the curse from me, ever since the same spell won't work again. I plan to get a spell that protects from arrows soon anyway.”