“… And that’s the whole story. To recap… We’re going back in two days. The marking Ferran found belongs to an old branch of the Valmars family, and we’ll be investigating it as soon as we return.” Carys nodded. “That said, try to get in as much rest as you can, you’ve earned it.”

“Well done Carys! An excellent debrief! It reminds me of the time I was in the army!” Varsylos grinned from ear to ear. As of late, the man had been on the top of his mood. Every morning he had prepared lavish meals, provided a variety of fun activities for them to freshen up on and even learn new skills.

“Okay! So, who’ll join me for a trip up to bathe?” Tilia stood up, waving her freshly made fingerbone necklace.

“It… Would be nice. I’ve got to admit… It certainly beats bathing in a tub…” Rein nodded approvingly.

“Will that be fine Varsylos?”

“Oh, don’t you worry yourself about my place my little berrymuffin. After your last show of force, they’d have to bring an army! At which point we’ll break like twigs anyway!” He grinned and leaned closer and whispered something to Carys, which made her nod knowingly.

“Okay, seems like nothing’s wrong then. We’ll go there in a short while. Just be ready, I’ll see to the things we need.” Carys dismissed the meeting.

She found herself wondering what the place had done to Carys. At first, she had been hard, quiet and always gave off the impression she was not welcome. Thanks to the salve she had received, her skin had begun to pick up a slight bit of a luster, and felt softer than she could remember.

“Hey Ferran, come on! We should pick some swimwear for you too! Carys has a whole closet in her room, let’s sneak in before she finishes up!” Tilia grabbed hold of her hand, and began pulling her along.

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A short while later they had all assembled outside the house. Rein was carrying a big backpack which seemed awful heavy, while Carys herself carried a basket with several types of food inside of it.

“Okay, we’ll be off then. Tili, why don’t you lead the way?”

“Sure thing! Come along now!”

They began ascending one of the nearby hills. The path up the side ran along a small stream of water and had visibly been trod a lot, leaving a light-brown stripe. To her surprise, the location was not too far off from the house, and offered a bit of a view of the whole valley.

“This’ll be great… You know, in many ways we’re lucky. Varsylos alone is enough to keep people away from this place. In many other countries, any spring is rapidly built up and turned into some resort for rich people.”

“They wouldn’t dare… If he didn’t blow them all up, I would!” Tilia puffed her chest. “This is the best spot, so I’ll make sure it’ll stay that way!” Just as she finished, a flash of fire erupted down in the valley, followed shortly after by the sound.

“It’s fine Ferran… That’s merely the security system at work. As you’ve seen, he’s a great man, and his inventions could probably change warfare forever. Every nation on this continent knows that, and try to gain access to his place. If someone tried to brazenly march up there, he would simply blow up his house…”

“… Which he has done like… Eight times now?” Rein interjected.

“Five actually, but yes. So instead they try to send people to sneak in, recover something, and leave.”

“And they all fail… Idiots.” Tilia grinned. “I mean, that firecracker just now was nice and all, but you should see some of his more brutal systems… They’re a real handful.”

“No, Ferran has seen enough of that.” Carys ended the conversation.

“Pff, since when did you begin to care?”

“What?”

Tilia spun around on her heels. “I’m asking when you began to care silly! I mean, you always hate the new people!”

“… Leave it at that.” Her voice and expression turned very ominous, which appeared enough to silence the annoying girl in front of her.

“Fiiine…”

“Why don’t you run ahead, and find the best ones?” Rein, seeing the situation develop decided to interrupt them both. “You should consider that Ferran has not been to one before, so don’t pick the hottest one.”

“Okay!” Tilia nodded and ran off ahead.