"Sam! Sam!" A voice pierced the darkness.
Blinding light seared my vision as a blurred shape, a woman's face swam into view.
"He's aliv~" My body surrendered again before the word could finish.
Argh. Huff. Huff. I was alive.
Sunlight streamed into the space. Every bone screamed in agony.
Even breathing was a sharp pain.
I was in a moving carriage.
"Oh dear. You're awake." A woman sat across from me, sipping tea.
"It's fascinating. It's rare for a lone man to kill a mature Gravelback."
"Thank you for saving my life," I managed to say in a calm manner while my body refused me to try.
"But is it appropriate if I take my leave?"
I tried to raise my right arm to grab my sword.
Nothing moved.
I looked down.
Where my arm should have been, there was only a bandaged stump at the shoulder.
"Your arm was ripped off by the Gravelback," the woman looked at me pitifully.
"We found it still lodged in the beast's mouth." She kicked a small burlap sack toward me with her foot.
Opening it was my severed arm. At least it hasn't started to rot.
I didn't feel anything looking at my arm, which was more terrifying than pain itself.
"Thank you for retrieving it." Attaching it is impossible in this era. "Might I ask... do you travel with a saint or a paladin?"
"Even a saint cannot regenerate a limb." Sipping her tea she glanced a few times at my arm.
"I don't need it regenerated. I wish to learn healing magic."
She opened her mouth, closed it, then finally spoke."I am a Saint."
Before I could respond, she gave a sharp whistle.
The carriage door swung open, and a mountain of a man shouldered his way inside, the vehicle barely swaying with his movement.
I was amazed. Entering a moving carriage was impressive.
"You called Saintess?" The guy was respectfully bowing down.
It wasn't a lie she is a Saintess.
Forcing my legs to go down I was bowing also.
"I humbly request a teaching of healing magic!"
The paladin looked at me if I had a second head.
"Even if I taught you, you cannot rege~" the paladins words were cut off by the large slurping.
"Don't waste your breath I already told him. The reason why I called you was that we can hire him as a mercenary?"
Paladin looked at me and back at the saintess.
"He doesn't have his dominant~" this time I cut him off.
"I can wield a sword in my left arm."
The saintess looked at her paladin again for an answer.
"If that is so we can hire him."
Hearing the answer the saintess grinned.
"Then we hire you as your payment, we will teach you healing magic."
And so that's how I ended up being a mercenary for this saintess.
She and the paladin didn't even give me their names.
Eavesdropping on the other mercenaries I learned we were heading to the Brian citadel.
A big city protected by a castle.
Well only a few days to reach there.
Since night was closing. We placed the camps early.
Autumn was soon to end. But we couldn't be free spirited since animals haven't gone into hibernation.
"Hey can you be on the watch?" A burly haired man asked me.
"Sure and don't even bother switching I'll handle it for tonight." Hearing my announcement the other soldiers sneered.
"Hey tomorrow we'll be crossing the mountains."
"There's bandits on the road. We don't want to carry a useless teammate!"
There was something I wanted to do tonight so switching made it harder anyways.
"Hey is there any spare bows?"
All of them started laughing. "What use do you need a bow?"
"How are you gonna pull it?"
Just then the paladin walked out his face was serious.
"Can you pull with one hand?" It was a genuinely direct question.
"I want to confirm it myself!" I answered honestly as this was the best.
From what I know paladins are not able to lie, at least John couldn't.
The paladin grabbed the bow from a soldier nearby and threw it towards me.
Grabbing the bow and placing the arrow. I pulled it with my teeth.
The soldier beside me laughed harder.
"Hey brat, if you can hit this apple I'll get down on my knees and call you big brother for the rest of my life!"
The hired mercenaries laughed at the bet some even started a bet betting me to miss.
Hearing this commotion the Saintess got out of the tent.
In which the paladin explained what was going on.
The Saintess looked at me pulling the bow by my teeth. "So what did you bet on? The apple or the hunter."
I couldn't hear the words of the paladin.
The paladin shouted with a might as the judge. "Get ready!"
I had the arrow pulled way before with my teeth, the tension making my jaw ache.
"Throw!" At the command the soldier threw it at high altitude while far away.
Tracking the movement of the apple and the trajectory.
I released my jaws. The arrow was slower than I hoped.
One of the soldiers ran towards the apple in the woods.
Grabbing the arrow with the apple stuck.
The soldiers were silent. Only for some to laugh at their bad luck, some even cursed at losing the bets.
I could see the paladin smirking. Did he bet on me?
The guy who threw the apple got on his knees. "Big brother, I'm sorry for calling you brat!"
I didn't expect him to fulfill his side of the bet.
"Don't worry, we all make mistakes."
I held out the bow to the owner.
"Keep it, you clearly have better use of it." The paladin pushed the bow back to me.
"Alright games over we will leave early tomorrow everyone get ready to sleep!"
With that the paladin left as for the Saintess she was already gone.
Soon everyone got into sleep.
As I sit in front of the fire for warmth.
Thinking about the information the Saintess told me.
'With the help of the necromancer and a saint reattaching limbs are possible.'