I awoke hours later, gently nudged into consciousness by Rebecca. “Hey.”, she whispered. “Your turn.” She handed me the flickchain and my field of vision brightened up until I could see a couple dozen feet into the darkness with no issues. I turned to Rebecca as she scooted back a few feet to lean against the carriage. She looked questioningly at me for a few moments, waiting, before folding her legs over each other and covering herself in a blanket. After a few more moments she said: “If you feel like you can't do it at all anymore, wake me, ok?” Without waiting for an answer, she closed her eyes and her posture relaxed almost immediately.

  The first thing I did was open the book Henry′s brother had given him and laid out the remaining two Moonstones to charge. I wasn't sure if this would be enough, but the book also didn't give an explanation on how to do it., so I was going to assume this would be enough.

  I had done all nighters in the past, with help from the godly ichor named caffeine. Otherwise I tried to sleep at least six hours to barely function. But who knew, I might be able to perform better in this body. I had never held guard before in my life but it couldn't be too difficult.

  I began walking around the fire to keep awake, taking care to not step onto anything loud. The nearby river′s playful sound of flowing water took most of my attention but the gentle croaking of the frogs in it gave me another idea.

  “Open Grace.”

  My Grace opened, this time without any threats.

  “Activate [Emperor′s Gaze].”

  Designate target for [Emperor′s Gaze].

  “Target Rebecca.”

  The world around me lost all color, gaining an almost translucent property despite still being opaque. The only color that remained was on Rebecca′s crouched form, while also giving her a slight, almost ethereal glow.

  “So this is the basic feature.”, I thought to myself.

  This is the most basic ability of the [Emperor′s Gaze], usually awakened six weeks after the church blesses the child.

  “The ability is granted by the church?”

  The official stance of the aristocratic families is that most of their members have used the ability before receiving any blessing.

  “Change Target.”

  Color returned to the world and Rebecca lost the ethereal glow.

  Designate target for [Emperor′s Gaze]

  I stepped closer to the river.

  “Target: Frog.”

  At the edge of my vision the small creature began glowing ethereal. Even with the night vision, I wouldn't have been able to see it due to its camouflage hiding it in the mud.

  I had finally managed to get my [Emperor′s Gaze] to activate. So far so good. What next?

  I closed my Grace, thinking for a few seconds before picking up a few small white river pebbles.

  I sat on a stump and clenched my fingers around one of the rocks. I could feel energy charge into it like the merchant had shown me. I flicked my wrist and the rock flew out of my hands like a thunderclap before going in the completely wrong direction, whizzing past my ear by less than half an inch.

  I continued practicing with pebbles as the moon wandered across the sky. It wasn't until the sun rose that I managed to purposely hit three targets in a row. I hit it barely and it was a big target only a few feet away but it felt like an improvement.

  Rebecca woke up as I collected the Moonstones. They once more had that slight glow the charged ones had had so I was somewhat confident it had worked.

  “Morning.”, she yawned. “Any problems during the night?” She stood up and stretched her back, loudly cracking as she grunted.

  “No, all good." I kept working on my [Emperor′s Gaze] last night. And I played around with the flickchain.

  “Did I imagine it or did you target me with the ability?”, she asked.

  “I did. Thought I'd want you as my control group to see how it works.”

  “What is it like?”, she asked. I was about to answer as her ears twitched. “Clients are waking up. Let's talk about that later.”

  After a breakfast of porridge we continued our travels along the street.

  I slowed down my steps until I almost had the wagon overtake me.

  “Simon.”, I said. “I got two more Moonstones charged up last night. I'd be down to offer to use more [Simple Transportation Magic] for two more bags of wares.”

  Simon's eyes lit up. “Id be grateful for that.”, he said. “But if I may ask, why would you go through the trouble to help me with that? It's not something a guard would do usually. So why?”

  Luckily I had thought of an excuse last night.

  “Multiple reasons.“, I said. “Most of all, this way we might get a positive reference for past jobs. Might make it easier to get good jobs to go on going forward, you know?”

  Simon thought for a couple moments. “Well you two most definitively deserve at least that much. That said, would you be willing to part with some of those Moonstones? I like the idea of dragging two cargo hauls in one wagon.”

  “Sorry.”, I said. “They were a gift from He- my brother, so I'd rather keep them.”

  Our travels continued without any major events for a few more days. On the ninth day since we started, another city came into view.

  “We′ll stay in Ceteric for a few days.”, Simon said. I get to buy two more wagon loads worth of monster parts.”

  “I thought we were just gonna pass through,” Emily said. “Do we have the funds for that?”

  “Henry can make us two more bags, can't say no to five wagon loads at once, can we? And yes, we do have the funds but it's gonna be a gamble. But unless something goes wrong, we are gonna make enough profit to make the gamble worth it.”

  Emily neighed nervously. "Let's hope you′re right.”

  As we stepped into Ceteric, Emily presented the guards some official looking papers that let us enter the city. The guards snickered as they noticed Simon looking out the back of the wagon.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Which cut came first, bunny boy?”, one of them asked, causing even more laughter to erupt between them. I looked at them for a few moments, unsure what to say, but Simon′s ears drooped before he closed the curtains on the backside of the wagon. Emily sighed “Dad.”

  She led us towards a small tavern close to the town′s walls. On the front door I could see the same symbol as the tavern back in Noam that allowed demihumans. I must admit to my shame, that I found myself watching Emily reverse park a covered wagon for a couple of minutes while Rebecca stood next to me, not quite sure what to say to that.

  Rebecca leaned against the railing. "She's pretty, no?”, she asked, after a little while of deliberation.

  “To each their own.”, I answered, watching. “But not my type.”

  Rebecca′s ears perked up. “I see. So you′re just watching her park?”

  “Yeah.”

  Rebecca snorted. “You′re weird.”

  I looked back. “You′re the one who married me.”

  In response, she gave me an amused nudge.

  At the inn, Rebecca and I were given a room across the hall from Simon and Emily, both of them feeling somewhat secure in town. Simon handed us 170 Retrae. “Last week′s payment.”, he says, but he was barely looking at us.

  Rebecca and I now had nothing to do and were left to our own devices for the rest of the day. We had just put what little we had with us into a storage trunk when I sat on one of the beds and my curiosity overwhelmed me.

  “What did that comment about which cut coming first mean?” Rebecca looked up from the trunk. “When you saw him the first time you reacted like there was some problem with it, too”

  Rebecca walked over to the other bed,resting her forearms on her thighs as she thought how to best put it. “They were basically asking if he was a merchant first or a slave first.”

  “And that's funny?”, I asked.

  “No, it's really not. But they think it is because he's a demihuman.”

  I didn't know what to say, if there was anything to say. Instead I got up and hugged Rebecca. She flinched, holding her breath, before exhaling as she responded to the hug. I could feel her forehead leaning onto my shoulder as she sighed.

  After a few minutes my stomach growled. Rebecca put her hands onto my shoulders. “Should we get some food? I′ve been craving something other than Crosetias Blood Stew for dinner.”

  “Thats what that was called?”, I ask. “Where does the name come from?”

  “If I told you, you'd lose your appetite”, Rebecca said in an amused tone.

  We sat down in a very nice tavern with a “Demihumans accepted” sign. As we opened the door and the warmth from inside hit me, I noticed that Rebecca wasn't the only demihuman inside. I spotted a few other wolf people sitting among each other, drinking.

  Rebecca′s stomach growled as the scent of roasted meat wafted through the room.

  “I could eat your bodyweight in meat.”, she said, half dreaming.

  “Then I'll see if they got any marinade for me to rub on my skin.”

  Rebecca rolled her eyes with a grin.

  I walked over to the counter. “Could I get two plates with meat skewers?”, I asked. The barkeeper simply nodded at me before yelling an order into the kitchen. "Drinks?” he asked.

  “Two light beers please.”, I said.

  As I was carrying the drinks back, Rebecca was talking to one of the wolfmen I had seen before. When she noticed me she left and caught up with me again.

  “Friends?”, I asked.

  “No.”, she said, grabbing one of the beers and taking a sip. “Asked if I wanted to hang out, do some Canid stuff.”

  I took a sip of the beer. There was something sweet-ish mixed into the beer that I couldn't put a finger on. “Are you gonna go with them?”, I asked. The barkeeper waved to me and I got up again to get the food.

  I placed down the meat skewers and Rebecca didn't hesitate, immediately ripping into one of them.

  “No.”, she said through a mouthful of meat before swallowing. “If I can finish dinner with you and go to bed like usual, I'm perfectly happy.”

  “Like usual?”, I asked. We had slept in a shared bed so far but this time we had separate beds.

  “Like usual.”, she reiterated. For a few moments we looked at each other, neither of us saying a word. As I looked into her eyes the tavern seemed to vanish into the backgr-

  Required disposition for increasing the level of [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] was reached.

  At [Behind every great person, there's their spouse]′s current level a second Power was granted:

  [Let us share both burdens and joy′s]

  The User and the Spouse can exchange both buffs and debuffs freely between the parties with both sides consent.

  Debuffs and Buffs can either be:

  Half shared, in which case both sides either experience half the strength of the effect or the effects duration is halved

  or

  Given, in which case only one side experiences the Buff or Debuff

  The Spouse receives an additional 5% Experience Bonus in all skills.

  The Level of [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] is determined by both parties' disposition towards each other.

  This ability does not affect the disposition of either party affected by the ability.

  Have a wonderful day.

  My Grace closed.

  Rebecca′s Grace opened. ““Henry?”, she asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you also just gain a new skill ?”, as she stared at the screen, her skewer was forgotten for a few moments.

  “We just leveled up [Behind every great person, there's their spouse]”, I said.

  We both knew what that meant but for some reason, neither of us said anything.

  Instead we sat back down and continued our meal, this time in a slightly more loaded silence than before.

  After dinner we paid and got up, ignoring the looks as we made our way back to the inn. The night air was cool, yet still pleasantly so with the amount of people still around and the torches ignited for visibility.

  “Any idea′s what we will do after this?”, I asked.

  Rebecca shrugged. “If he hires us for the return trip I say we take the offer, we gotta travel back anyway.”, she kicked a pebble along. I wondered if this world had soccer or if something like kicking rocks was just genuinely human in itself.

  “We could try getting registered at the capital and see if they have better quests.”, I suggest.

  Rebecca was still working on her answer as Emily ran up to us, literally skidding to a stop.

  She grabbed onto Rebecca′s arm, gasping for air for a couple breaths. “Have you two seen my father?”, she panic-screamed. “The room's a mess, there′s blood everywhere and I can't find him..”

  _________________________________________________________________________

  Current Status:

  Stats:

  Power 2

  Agility: 1

  Toughness 3

  Mental: 2

  Perception: 3

  Mana: N/A

  Effects:

  Night Vision  Lvl. 1

  Overlapping Protection  Lvl. 1

  Poisonous Blood  Lvl. 1

  Protection against Natural Poison and Venom Lvl. 1

  Skills:

  [Behind every great person, there's their spouse] Lvl. 1

  [Emperors Gaze]  Lvl. 1

  [New World Mental Block]

  Known Ritual Spells:

  [Determine Value]

  [Simple Transportation Magic]