“Hey, Orrin?”

Orrin grunted, not taking his eyes off the strange plow he was making. It always felt to Seris that Cal wanted some weird stuff made.

She had no idea what he intended to do with a seven-bladed plow.

“Do you think Cal and Tavia are together?”

Orrin missed the anvil completely and yelped in shock as he barely kept the hammer from hitting his knee. He stared at his hammer as if it betrayed him before turning to glower at Seris. “What kind of question is that?”

“What?” Seris shrugged innocently. “I think they are. But I can never tell with how Cal acts.”

Orrin’s glare became harsher. “That is none of your business. Don’t forget that the person you call Cal is an Apprentice. Remember what we learned when we asked around. He’s practically above the law.”

Seris scrunched her nose at Orrin’s cautiousness. “Cal likes us. You act like he will do something bad if I talk too much.”

Orrin rolled his eyes, not wanting to get into another argument that they had far too many times in the past.

“That I guess you don’t want his approval for the blacksmith test,” Seris spat angrily.

He sighed, knowing it was his own fault for assuming she would let it go.

“Apprentice Cal has been more than generous to us, but with one word, he can take everything away and even make us disappear if he wants to. I think he is a nice man, but he deserves to be shown the respect he commands because of his position.”

Seris made a familiar face that indicated she was confused before raising her nose and sniffing in disgust. “Well, I think you’re stupid. And I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

She became angrier when Orrin looked amused instead of sorry after her words. She liked him, but it was in moments like these that she felt he needed a kick in the leg.

Seris considered doing precisely that before huffing and leaving the smithy. The last time she kicked him in the leg, she had gotten hurt more than he did.

She considered visiting the farm but remembered Cal’s expression when he made a short visit to give Orrin the new order.

Cal hadn’t explicitly told her to stay away from the farm, but she had never seen him look so tense. He might be angry that she didn’t make her daily visit, but she felt it would be better to be safe.

Seris had learned that Cal leaned toward safety over any rules he might have given her.

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Still, she was beyond bored.

Seris had become accustomed to going to the farm and spending her day there. It was especially fun after Tavia started to spend her time at the farm.

She had no shame in admitting that the spell booklets had a large part in her favoring Tavia. There were times that she regretted—for the briefest of seconds—taking the job Cal offered.

Seris had been an avid hunter to sustain herself. It didn’t pay well, but she enjoyed hunting with her bow and arrow. After working for Cal, she had no time even to pick up her bow and practice.

She winced at the lie she tried to tell herself.

The true reason was that her head was filled with fantasies of joining the guild, with Cal smiling at her proudly.

When she could practice with her bow, she instead daydreamed about her fantasized future.

That was beside the fact. After Tavia appeared, the spell booklets easily replaced the bow and arrow as her favorite activity.

Seris pouted when she remembered that she had gone through all the spell booklets Tavia had given her. She was tempted to go to the farm again to show Tavia how much she knew. And to get quizzed.

She found that it helped her understand the spell booklets better.

Cal was definitely the stronger of the two, but Tavia was smarter… in Seris’s opinion.

An opinion that would never be uttered out loud because Cal might find out.

Seris entered her tiny house and stared at the unused bow haphazardly thrown on the rarely used dining table.

Orrin’s annoying. I have no new spell booklets. I can’t go to the farm.

She made up her mind and picked up the bow before sliding on the quiver’s strap over her shoulder. Only nine arrows were left since she had never replenished them, but that should be more than enough for a light practice.

The game that was close to the town was small anyway.

***

Seris made her steps light as she eyed the rabbit in the distance.

She was only a few minutes away from the town wall. She kept Cal’s tense expression in mind whenever she thought of venturing too far.

Seris only hunted rabbits when there was nothing else to do. It was no challenge, and more importantly, rabbits were far too cute for her to kill when other things were available to hunt.

She apologized to the rabbit in her mind before quietly drawing back the string.

There was a spell booklet that involved a bow and arrow. It was called ‘Illusory Arrow.’

Seris actually thought it was stupid. It created illusions of multiple arrows in the eyes of the target, but there was another spell that actually created multiple arrows.

The only positive was that ‘Illusory Arrow’ barely took any mana to cast. Plus, the caster couldn’t actually see the illusions themselves. That meant she could trick herself.

Seris intended to go through the steps and pretend to be casting the spell. She might not be a guild member, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t pretend like she was.

I should’ve done this instead of just daydreaming.

Seris kept the bowstring taut, imagined she connected the arrow to her mana pathways and released her fingers.

The arrow sprang forward, cutting through the air and rocketing towards the rabbit. She thought briefly that it would miss, but surprisingly, the rabbit jumped right into the arrow.

Seris blinked in shock before she suddenly collapsed to the ground.

She was on all fours, breathing heavily, as she tried to figure out what was happening to her. She had heard of hunters dying mysteriously without a mark on their bodies, and she feared the same thing was happening to her.

Tears welled in her eyes as she promised herself she would never leave town again without Cal’s permission if she somehow lived through this.

When she still breathed several minutes later, she realized that she wasn't going to die.

Seris finally stopped panicking and realized that she was regaining her strength. She slowly stood on shaky legs and stared at herself in suspicion.

I must’ve really liked the rabbit. I knew it was too cute to kill.

She took a step toward the town before she knew no more.