However, he did have things to do first. He wasn't going to make the same mistakes as every corpse he had ever found out in the Jungle. He was going to make sure that he had everything settled before he did something stupid.
Finding the mayor was the first step. He needed to report everything that had happened at Gilroy Crossing, both the fall of the town and the presence of the elf. He'd even report the dragon, and give them a few bloodstones. God, a town this important might actually be able to make the City listen to them.
Probably not. But maybe.
He didn't want to die. He really didn't. If he did, he probably wouldn't be searching for the town hall. He would have just told Abraham everything. Or at least the bare minimum to keep his conscience clear for the five minutes between leaving and finding a bar. But... there was an emptiness inside him. A deep, yawning hole in his heart, twisting his guts around it.
He was willing to try anything to get rid of that emptiness.
It wasn't the first time he had felt something like this. When Mary had first found him, when she had explained what had happened, he had felt like this. As though there was nothing left inside him, just a hollow space waiting to collapse under the slightest pressure.
Mary wasn't here to talk him out of something stupid this time. Actually, she had suggested alcohol the first time, she had just been there to help him through it. Also, he hadn't been getting drunk next to a giant pit.
Really, the pit was the problem. Maybe if he asked nicely they'd let him get drunk in the prison. Skip the bit where the cops throw him into the drunk tank and just start there.
He pushed that aside to search for the town hall. He had to talk to some people for directions. Abraham had already told him that it was on the first ring, which was helpful, but he needed something more specific.
The town hall turned out to be on the northern corner of the town, not that far from where they had entered the walls. Josh supposed it made sense that they'd put it somewhere with easy access to the road.
The town hall had clearly begun life as a lone fortress in the Jungle. Its walls were made of seamless stone three stories tall. That was the kind of feature you got when you stacked up stone blocks, then had an Earth Mage merge the blocks together. The walls were four feet thick and covered an area the size of three or four houses. It looked like someone had dropped a giant gray brick from the sky.
A wooden structure had been built on top of the stone fortress, a last-minute addition to create some luxury and beauty in a place that had clearly been intended for nothing but pure efficiency. The wooden building, which Josh had to think of as the real town hall, was built using wooden planks instead of rough logs, and had been painted a gentle blue-green. There were no doors—the entrances would be in the fortress below—but there were plenty of windows with real glass, letting in light and air. With its sloped roof, it looked more like a large home than an office building.
Next to the fortress-hall, there was a shorter, broader building. It was only a single story, but it was almost as big as an entire city block on its own. It was constructed of stone bricks that were laid normally, instead of fused together by an Earth Mage. Unlike the town hall, it didn't look like it was designed to withstand a siege. In fact, with its open design and the way it had been painted gentle earth colors, it looked like nothing so much as a school. As he stepped around to the front, he saw a large sign proclaiming it “San Juan Bautista General Education.”
He was surprised to see a school, especially one so large and well-kept. This clearly wasn't an Old World school that had been repurposed or refurbished, this was a new building. That spoke of dedication and purpose that he hadn't expected to find here.
Of course, that was his old instincts talking. There were kids everywhere, and they needed education. Sending them into the City every day would have been a terrible idea even if the City was willing to take them. Which they were supposed to, free education was one of the Mandates the Eight had passed down, but the City found ways around the responsibility.
It was a bit after noon, and he heard the sounds of playing children inside. The kids were probably out for lunch or something. Not quite knowing why, he walked inside. The school's design meant that the outer classrooms formed a wall around an open courtyard. It was a giant sandbox, probably because if it was a grass field it would cost too much to cut it back constantly.
The kids, of course, didn't mind a giant sandbox. There had to be at least a hundred of them. There were kids of all ages, from little toddlers barely able to walk to surly teenagers sitting in the corner and glaring, clearly too cool for this. The younger kids played around, making sandcastles, throwing sand at each other, and squealing with delight. The older kids just glared at everyone, but Josh could tell that they wanted to play too.
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There was a gaggle of about twenty kids close to the entrance, clustered around some adults. The youngest was eight; Josh could tell because he was able to Identify him as being a [Level 13 Attacker]. That... was a disturbingly high level for such a young child. A quick glance told him that most of the others were about the same level, with the older kids being higher. The oldest appeared to be a sixteen year old girl, also the highest level as a [Level 24 Healer].
They were talking to a few adults that were clearly teachers. One woman had long skirts and looked like a schoolmarm from two hundred years ago, while another was wearing an impressive business suit. Josh walked up, curious.
“Yes, everything has been arranged,” the woman in the suit said to the older kids. “You can all start tomorrow, I promise. We just need some basic information on your educational history. Your ages, current living situations, test scores—”
The Healer girl winced. “We... we don't have any of that. Certainly no paperwork. They, um, they said they'd work on our housing?”
“We can't just throw you into classes willy-nilly.” The woman in the suit raised an eyebrow as if she had just been insulted. “You do understand that we will not tolerate any willy-nilly, yes?”
“We can't exactly go back and root through the ruins of our town,” the Healer said. She almost flinched at her own words, as if she couldn't imagine that she was speaking back to an authority.
Josh decided now was a good time to step in. “Oi. What's goin' on here?”
The adults turned to look at him. The woman in the suit frowned, and Josh instantly felt her analyzing everything about him, from his mask to his sweat-stained shirt to his chipped wooden armor to his dusty pants to his worn shoes. He suddenly felt extremely inadequate, and wished he had figured out how to use his class to make clothes after all.
“This is private business, reclaimer,” she said stiffly. “Please be on your way.”
The other teacher smiled at him widely. She didn't seem to notice what he was wearing. “Oh, I'm sure he isn't hurting anything.” She leaned forward, hands behind her back, and Josh was left with the strong impression that she was used to leaning forward to meet kids at their own level. “Are any of these kids yours?”
“Well, no—”
“Mister Josh!” one of the kids said. It was the youngest one with a class, the Attacker. He tugged on Josh's shirt under his wooden armor. “Mister Josh, they said you were dead!”
Other kids swarmed him, echoing the sentiment. He heard multiple kids asking him why he wasn't dead, a few more said he was supposed to have “gone all splat,” and one loudly asked if he had bought anything back.
“Wait, wait!” Josh called over the mess. He pointed at the youngest. “I recognize you. You were at Manny's bar all the time.”
He wiped his nose proudly. “Yep! He tried to throw me out, but I didn't let him!”
Josh knew that Manny had a soft spot for lost causes, so he figured that he probably didn't try as hard as the kid thought. He looked around and saw more kids he recognized. Some he had just seen once or twice at the plays put on at Manny's, but others had been constant presences around the village.
One thing was certain: They were all kids from Gilroy Crossing.
He turned to the oldest, the Healer. “You're Samson's kid, right? Baara?”
She flushed pink, but nodded. “Yes, sir. Papa thought you might be alive.” She paused. “Mama thought he was being too optimistic.”
Josh couldn't help but snort. “Yeah, I think I would have bet on your mom's opinion too.” He looked her up and down. “Did you get these kids out here all by yourself? That's impressive.”
“Hey, we all helped!” one of the smaller kids piped up. The rest began shouting agreement. Some of them even started conjuring fire until the woman in the skirts rushed over and settled them down. She seemed to be a Mage herself.
“It wasn't that big a deal,” Baara said quietly to him. “Mama cleared out the underground tunnels. We avoided the horde that way. I mean, we ran into some... problems.” She took a deep breath, then continued on. “But we survived. We didn't lose anyone.”
Well, that explained how the kids were such high level, relatively speaking. That one kid might have jumped all the way to level 13 just by helping fight one monster. And it seemed that they hadn't quite realized what they had lost.
He had no interest in forcing them to realize all their friends and families were dead.
“I'm glad you made it,” Josh said, and he even sounded sincere. He was happy the kids had survived. It just hurt, considering all that had been lost. Why didn't your parents leave with you? He didn't ask. “Having trouble integrating with a new town?”
“Do you have their paperwork?” the woman in the suit asked.
Josh sighed. He was getting tired of not knowing her name. He put on a professional smile. “Apologies. Where are my manners? I am Joshua Hundredborn. I have some experience with these children.” Even as he said that, they were still clustered around him, babbling excitedly. They were in their own little world, and weren't paying attention to the adults. “I do not, however, have any paperwork you might need.”
Baara raised an eyebrow at him, no doubt surprised at his sudden change of tone. He gave her a shrug. He knew how to talk to people who wanted you to be professional.