As the rusty but bright voice of the archer resounded, asking a question that Cades himself had wanted to ask while he was still scrubbing the dirt off of him, even trying to peel it off in small pieces, Cades was quite elated over having something to talk about one thing.
And that question was very simple, something that almost anyone in their situations, in this accursed plane, or even just travellers from different countries meeting in a neutral place that neither of them knew would ask.
"How was your world, what were you before this ?"
To the archer this was actually quite the sensitive topic, as such he hadn't asked this before, but nevertheless he got curious after watching Cades body react with clear disgust after he mentioned the things that he would like to eat, the things that this species had to eat to survive.
So he asked, hoping that unlike the previous people he met, three in total, this man wouldn't be against answering that simple question.
"I grew up on ehetria, a planet that was pretty pacifist and weak, we mostly resided around the fifth sequence, stronger than average, but in our dimension still on the weaker side, but, after all, we were talented artificers in return for that. My world was peaceful though it did have a horrid past, actually a past that was hidden from most, I had to research a lot it's not like it's really hidden, but it's just nor really taught or anything of the likes, there were countless horrid wars that once tore my home apart, but overall it was peaceful. My home was overly saturated with mana, and we live off of energy, whether natural or magical, so we didn't even have to eat of farm that meat-stuff. Everyone could fly so we weren't really up to date when it came to transportation technology and many other regions of modern technology as well, but who cares now."
The archer looked ahead, into the forest opposite of Cades with a sorrowful look, he didn't really know, but still he thought that he could almost see a sorrowful look on Cades, the first that he had ever seen on him regarding his own past, of those he knew of at least, he was interested, even tempted to turn around, but he knew that Cades would want neither for him to turn around nor for him to ask closer on what happened.
Cades would one day, in the future, have to disclose what happened on Ehetria, to someone that was alive, someone that could help him deal with it, someone that could try and help whatever little piece remained from the original Cades in his mind at that point in time, but right now he couldn't, he couldn't bring himself to speak about it, not yet.
He just wasn't ready.
Ant the archer understood that, in truth he had a past that he was ashamed of, a past that he simply didn't want to disclose with other adventurers, and that past was that he graduated with summa cum laude from a university and ha that which we would call a degree in therapeutical psychology.
So, instead of prying further and instead only noting that the swordsman's species didn't really eat meat, and had been able to fly, he instead disclosed that which he himself came from, Handrura, the planet of the ogres.
So, despite never having been asked he decided to answer that unasked question and grab Cades, pulling him out of those painful memories that could now possibly plague his mind as they had probably done for so long before he arrived, and even during the entire time that he had already been here.
The boy just didn't open up to him.
Hell, the boy probably didn't even refer to him by name in his thoughts, he was probably being called as 'the archer' or something loke that, but on the other hand, Manug knew that, and Manug decided to help, after all he hadn't studied psychology for nothing. He would just have to heal him before anything else could happen.
"I was bron in the city of Antria, on the planet Handrura, I spent my whole live with my parents before they were attacked and killed by a wyvern, together with he whole city, it was entirely covered in poison goo by the two-winged two-legged bastard, I'll always remember its twisted smile.
And I will always remember seeing that very same unmoving smile on its face after I ripped its hear out using my bow, how exactly I achieved that, you don't want to know, but it did involve a shield and two bandaids. My species mostly lived off of meat and was in a constant state of war, we were all huge after all, and our egos had to follow, so, whenever a new dungeon, a magical structure that brings chaos unless pre-emptively analysed and destroyed, appeared people would stream to it in an attempt to gain greater fame, and eventually there was one where there was only a single person capable of entering, me, specifically bad since there was a broad rule in dungeons, the more could enter the weaker the dungeon was, the more could enter, the less restraining and damaging the mana of the dungeon was.
After finding out about that they did however show their gratitude to me, their strongest adventurer, at least in the country that the thing appeared in, and gave me as many actives as they could carry, not only to help me, but rather than that, they did it so I would owe them something if they were ever stuck.
I once even got an eight grade active from a small country in return for helping them with one of these dungeons, the eight grade active correlating to fire.
But, after entering that horrible one-person dungeon I ended up here, carried away, dragged into this domain by that silvery monster I previously mentioned, and the rest is really rather.. bland."
After talking they just continued on, not trying to reciprocate anything, not doing anything, not offering words of care, thy both knew that words of care were useless to each other, they both knew that all they could've done was listen, and so they had done that, and so, after doing it, they both just continued washing themselves, with Cades even starting to use magic in an attempt to get all of the filth away from his body.