"Then there was another time," the baron continued, his gaze distant, "when he took on five cave goblins alone to buy time for his classmates to escape during a field trip. Strangely, his classmates completely forgot he was even with them."
"And when their teachers realized he was missing, they searched everywhere, the entire forest, before finding him staggering out on his own, uniform in tatters, looking like he'd bathed in his own blood..."
The table fell into a heavy silence.
The candlelight seemed to dim as the weight of the baron's words settled over them.
Even the usual background sounds of the castle - the distant creak of wood, the faint whistle of wind against the obsidian reinforcements - seemed to fade away.
