As we’re heading out of the Hedge Maze, I look around trying to lean on my [Search] skills more than last time I was in here. Then, I was in a hurry to get out to find my family. This time through, I can be more careful and catch something I missed the first time around.

A large tree stands to the side of the exit path, wide enough to be a wall but with a squat canopy only the height of a regular building. One of the knots looks very interesting, and when I touch it, a door I could barely see the outline of swings inward.

“You found a secret door!” Burdock notes the obvious.

I hop through, followed by the others, and emerge into a hollow in the center of the huge, squat tree. Its core is a glowing yellow sphere the size of a golf ball, greatly resembling the core of Corwen Hearth.

Congratulations! You have discovered the core room of the Hedge Maze. Your Search (Secret Doors) skill has increased to level 2.

“Hello nice core!” Burdock says. “Thank you for letting us run your dungeon! We had fun. When we weren’t being kidnapped. Well, the kidnapping part turned out okay too, but it was pretty scary for a bit there.”

Another chest appears, this one containing more coins, a lockpick, and a loaf of crusty bread.

Milo picks up a coin and holds it between two fingers, examining it thoughtfully. He wonders aloud, “Where do you get these from? And the other items we found within the maze?”

Hedge Maze I created them myself! Do you like them?

“They’re lovely,” Milo says. “You mean you make objects out of thin air? All these treasures we’ve gotten?”

Hedge Maze Not air. Psychic energy. Thank you for coming! I hope you enjoy your treasures!

Milo frowns thoughtfully and puts his share of the loot into his new purse. “I have much to learn about the function of the local economy.”

We leave the Hedge Maze and return to camp.

“Look what we got!” I say, putting down my backpack and pulling out the fish.

“That looks to be a fine dinner there, Drake,” Uncle Hawk says.

We clean and prepare the big fish and cook it over the campfire, and let Mipsy have the little ones. Burdock and I (and me translating a bit for Milo) tell the others about our experiences and rewards in the Hedge Maze while the fish cooks.

“Let’s spend the night here and head back to Corwen in the morning,” Uncle Hawk says. “This tour was originally meant to hit up multiple kid-friendly dungeons along the way, but, well, things happened and I believe we should get back now.”

“And Daisy already hit Elite so I doubt she wants to go getting dirty if she doesn’t have to,” Meadow adds with a teasing grin.

“The parts that weren’t mortal peril were okay, at least,” Daisy admits. “I’m going to need to start grinding Wizardry now that I can unlock it so that I’ll actually be offered the class. So once I get the handle on it, I wouldn’t mind coming along again and seeing magic in action.”

Come morning, we head back to the Hearth. I continue to teach Common to Milo along the way, but he hasn’t unlocked the skill yet. It will probably take more than two days.

Milo takes in all the sights as we walk. I’ve gotten used to the weird sky, but it’s still new and wondrous to him. And he enjoys seeing trees again, even though the Underside was exotically beautiful with its giant colorful mushrooms. If you ignore the sky, the forest looks kind of like Canada, he claims.

The familiar village walls are a welcome sight when they come into view. An uncle whose name I don’t remember is keeping watch at the gates.

“You’re back early,” says Uncle What’s-his-name, turning a curious eye to Milo. “And with an unusual guest.”

“We have quite the tale to tell,” Uncle Hawk replies.

We head in through the gates and into the square. Milo gets a number of looks, but people are more confused and curious than hostile or scared. The fact that he’s standing next to a Heroic Ranger who isn’t squishing him probably helps.

Daisy, Meadow, and Burdock break off from the group and make for the main Hearth, while Uncle Hawk, Anise and I turn right and escort Milo into the guest house. Although we call it an inn sometimes, it’s homier than that. It’s set up more like a smaller Hearth, albeit with more of a focus on entertaining guests than cozying up to family.

The Innkeeper is a bony blonde woman who swoops in when she sees us stumble in dirty. “Welcome, friends. Name’s Goldie Tempest. What can I help you with? Food, drinks, baths, beds?”

“Tempest?” I wonder.

“I was born of no Hearth,” Goldie explains. “Your family was kind enough to give me a job and a place to shelter during the monster swarms. Lost both of my parents because they were stubborn idiots who refused to get behind stone walls when the swarms come.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Odd. I haven’t heard anyone speak of “both of their parents” like this before.

“Well, you’re welcome here, too,” Uncle Hawk says. “Our new green friend here is going to need a place to stay and some real clothes, if you can arrange it. Also some study materials. He needs to learn Common.”

“Of course,” Goldie says.

Uncle Hawk turns to me and Anise. “We need to talk to Aunt Laurel and you two are coming with me.”

We nod and follow him to the Hearth. An awkward conversation and a number of piercing questions follow. After a bit, Grandma Laurel dismisses Uncle Hawk and my mother and focuses just on me.

“Let me ask you one thing, reincarnator,” Laurel says. “Are you loyal to Corwen?”

“Absolutely,” I say.

“And if Corwen demanded that you kill this goblin, would you?”

“Yes,” I say. “I haven’t gotten any quests, though.”

“That is very odd,” Grandma Laurel says. “You should definitely have gotten one when you realized your party had been kidnapped. I need Heather here.”

So I undergo another round of awkward questioning, now with the presence of a Legendary Oracle who can probably tell whether I’m lying or not. The two of them exchange so many knowing looks that I’m not sure whether they’re communicating in facial expressions or telepathically.

“Alright, we believe you,” Grandma Laurel says. “We’ll need to go talk to the goblin now. Then you can get a bath, food, and rest.”

The three of us head to the guest house and learn from Goldie which room Milo is in. Grandma Laurel barges in without knocking to find him not present, to which Aunt Heather rolls her eyes and points to the adjacent bathroom.

I knock on the bathroom door. “Hey, Milo? How are you doing in there?”

“You have indoor plumbing!” Milo exclaims. “I can get hot water with just a turn of a faucet. This is fantastic! I’ve never had a proper bath in this life.”

“My grandma and aunt want to ask you a few questions,” I say.

“I am taking a bath,” Milo says. “You may ask me your questions if you so choose but I am not exiting this tub until I am a green prune.”

Once I translate, Grandma Laurel chuckles. “Well, I suppose it’s a good sign that the first thing he did was take a bath.”

I have a feeling that Aunt Heather does not need to be able to understand him in order to detect whether he’s being honest or not. In fact, she doesn’t even try to get into line of sight, just loiters in the hallway next to Grandma Laurel while I translate through the door. This is even more awkward than the first round of awkward questions.

Eventually satisfied, Grandma Laurel drags me away along with Aunt Heather back to the Hearth to discuss the matter further in private.

“He was not being deceptive at any point,” Aunt Heather says.

“He also expressed no guilt over kidnapping and trying to murder Hawk,” Grandma Laurel says. “I have no doubt this guy can be ruthless if need be. He’s dangerous, but that’s not saying much. I’m dangerous too. I’d be concerned about what sort of quests his core might give him, but it seems neither of you got any quests one way or another?”

“Is that really that odd?” I ask.

“Very,” Grandma Laurel says. “Something unusual is going on here, and Corwen hasn’t interjected anything to me either.” She sighs. “Corwen? Can… can we get an explanation? Please?”

Corwen That you feel that you need an explanation is a sign that this was necessary. You have become overly reliant upon my words. I wish to see what these two do without guidance from we aether cores.

Grandma Laurel puts her hands together and bows her head. “Thank you for your clarification, Corwen. I apologize for doubting you.”

I sigh inwardly. Ugh, I didn’t really want to be a freaking Chosen One. But apparently I’m a Chosen One. Well, if they just want to watch me do whatever I want, then I’m going to do whatever I want, and whatever I want is going to involve things other than slaying monsters and battling Dark Lords.

(I would like to not die violently as a teenager again.)

I frown, and notice something on my status screen.

Sanity: 7/10

That’s… probably not good.

“Grandma, do you have a way to recover from Sanity damage?” I ask. “Every time I think about my past lives too hard, I wind up getting hit with it.”

“Ah… ask Aunt Myrtle when we’re done here. She can whip you up something. I’m sure you’re looking forward to a good meal after being on the road. I just have a couple more questions I want to ask you. From what you know if the world you two are from and what you’ve learned about your new friend so far, what do you see as the biggest problems he could potentially cause?”

“Workers rights violations and poor wages coupled with a high cost of living, environmental damage by improper waste disposal and exploitation of limited resources, and introduction of potentially invasive foreign cultural elements.”

Grandma blinks at my answer and starts chuckling. “So he’s a merchant. And how would you deal with these potential problems?”

“Well, with the existence of aether cores, #2 there is probably a non-issue. Cores can make things appear and disappear. We didn’t have dungeons. And I don’t care too much about #3, although I’m biased. And #1 is just a matter of fair regulation. However, I should also add that the area he’s from on our world was one that was widely known as being relatively inoffensive. I give you worst-case scenerios with little expectation that they’d actually come about.”

She’s not asking what the worst thing I might do is. That’s probably just as well. I’m likely a lot more dangerous. I don’t even know what I might do.

“Hard to imagine how you got by without aether cores,” Grandma Laurel says. “That’s probably the most incredible thing I’ve heard today. Wouldn’t you eventually run out of resources and wind up with useless trash you couldn’t get rid of?”

“Exactly,” I say. “Being a merchant in this world will mean a very different thing than it meant in our original one. And I’m pretty sure that I’ve never actually been a merchant before and would like to try it out rather than something I have done a million times before.”

“That’s fair,” Grandma Laurel says. “I wonder if there are any other two and a half year old reincarnators around, if the two of you ran into one another by chance without any quests issued.”

“I will seek an answer to that riddle,” Aunt Heather says. “I will need to go traveling for this survey. My scrying ability is not precise enough to locate children of a specific age inside a Hearth.”

“Do you have any abilities that let you see someone’s attributes?” I ask.

“No,” Aunt Heather says. “I’m an Oracle, not a Psychic. You should be able to tell a reincarnator at a glance, right? You have [Clairvoyance]?”

I nod. “Should I go with you, then?”

“Best not. If I took you along, they’d notice you are a reincarnator at a glance. I can gather information without tipping our hand.”

“Ah,” I say. “I would not mind a chance to stay somewhere safe and train skills for a while. Like a decade. A decade would be great.”

“Aspirational,” Grandma Laurel says. “Get some food and sleep in you. We’re heading back to the caves first thing in the morning. I need to have a chat with this Elder Witch and I need both you and Milo to translate for me.”