One on one with Kara

You return from another patrol, quickly polymorph to your human guise, and within minutes you're back at Camilla's shack. You open the door, finding the captain seemingly sleeping, with Kara sitting next to her bed in one of the two wooden chairs in the house.

"Good, you're back." Kara stands, taking the chair and moving it back to the small table she and Camilla ate at. "Come, sit."

You sit in the chair opposite her as she sits, too. "You obviously want to talk about something." You clasp your hands together and set them on the table. You both speak in hushed tones so as to not wake the captain.

"I do." She takes a deep breath. "You don't know how much Cammy-...Camilla means to me. We've been close ever since we we kids, and I couldn't stand the thought of losing her..." She sighs. "But I kind of already did, didn't I?"

You nod, following along with her words. "How do you mean?"

"I saw her chest, and I saw her armor... There's no way anyone could survive that, especially this far away from the city..." She begins to tear up, looking down. "She died, didn't she?" Her voice is already hoarse, as if she'd been thinking about this for a while.

You look down at the table. "Yeah... I don't know how, but I brought her back...even though the gods are apparently a bit upset with me for that..." You chuckle, failing to get a humorous response.

You both sit in silence for a bit, Kara fighting to hold back tears. "Please...keep her safe... I don't care what it takes... I can't...not again..." Despite her resistance, tears run down her face as she shakes her head.

You swiftly move to kneel at her side, gently moving her chin to have her look at you. "Look at me, Kara. She's safe. She's going to stay safe, and you can both have a hundred kids if you want. Not even the Demon King will be able to stop that from happening." I hope...

She chuckles. "A hundred may be a bit much..."

"Then have fifty." You both chuckle as you take her hands. "But I promise, things are gonna be okay."

"Wha's this abouda hundred kidz?" You turn, seeing a drowsy Camilla rearrange herself under the covers to be able to see you both.

"Nothing Cap, go back to sleep."

"Good, cause if you made my sweetie-pie cry...I'm gonna whoop your ass..." Her eyes close again, and she's asleep again a moment later.

You chuckle, turning back to Kara. "Sweetie-pie, huh?"

Despite her puffy cheeks, the blond blushes and smiles. "She's...never called me that before..."

"Well then I take it that means good things for your relationship." You squeeze her hands. "Now, it's not too late, but you should still probably get back home. I'll watch Cap overnight and you can swing by in the morning so we can talk to Gilford."

"Y-yeah... Let's do that..." She sniffs before getting up. You help her clean up what's left of what she brought, as well as Camilla's dishes, before escorting her the very short distance to the door. "You promise no funny business while I'm gone, okay?"

"I promise." You hold your hand in the air like you're swearing an oath before softly closing the door. Now, onto business. I need to get stronger, there's no question about that... But what order should I try to do things? I imagine the Hornet Empress should come first, if I could even find where they're at, so I can stop the mass production of hornets... Orchid is a threat too, but her level's low and she's still conquering her islands, so there's not too much to worry about there for now. I should prepare myself to face off against the Saintesses, too, especially since I'm bound to get discovered soon... Let's just hope the archbishop doesn't find me first...or the amazon...or Sakurai... You shake your head. Let's just hope I go undiscovered for a while...or if I do, hopefully Runa Runa finds me first, since she's weakest.

Then we've got my own personal training. Should I try to focus on one class at a time? Is that even - yeah, that's possible. I got experience for training yesterday in my martial fighting. It seems like my experience is distributed evenly for mob kills, but everything else is for a specific class or race...

Regardless, I guess I should start exploring the west side of the river tomorrow. The quickest way to get more powerful is to fight, and I'd prefer not to make myself widely known right now. A least, not among the Light....