Chapter 6

Sorry

*Remmi*

Ayre is adjusting a shiny, new Silver-rank badge to get it to sit just right while I apologize to Yorin for trying to shoot her. Admittedly, it's probably bringing down the mood, since we're supposed to be celebrating with a fancy lunch.

Of course, there's no restaurant that fancy in Dabun, so we're actually back at my place, where I did the cooking for us.

"I really am sorry, Yorin," I insist. "If I'd succeeded, you could have been really hurt."

But the priestess isn't nearly as bothered as I am. "It was the tactical decision," she replies easily. "I was artificially escalating the threat level beyond the scope of the exam. You accurately assessed the source of the modified threat and acted to remove it."

She turns to face me fully, her expression that not-quite-stern one that she adopts when lecturing me. "If I had one criticism of your performance today, it would not be that you attempted to shoot me. It would be that you had a rough understanding of how powerful I am relative to either of you, and yet you still restrained yourself to your nonlethal rounds."

I mentally lock up at that, at the idea that she's more upset that I didn't immediately try to swiss cheese her. I fluster for a moment as I try to find the words to express the sense of appall that fills me with. Finally, my tongue manages, "Well, I didn't want to kill you!"

"Which expresses either an overinflated faith in the power of your weapon, or you are permitting your emotional attachment to make you irrational," she immediately counters.

"Irrational?! I was trying to shoot you!"

"There were three other healers with me," Yorin replies. "They would not have permitted me to die. Worrying about killing me was an irrational concern with the situation as it was, so allowing it to influence your performance was a tactical mistake."

"How could you call worrying about a friend a mistake?!"

Yorin gives a deep sigh. "By speaking strictly of tactics."

When she meets my eyes again, her expression is much softer. "I am gladdened by your friendship, Remmi, and that it would make you worry for my safety. I would never desire that you become so callous as to act as an automaton, disregarding your bonds with others. My only intention was to assure you that you have nothing for which to apologize."

"I'm still sorry," I insist once more.

Yorin turns fully toward me with sympathy in her eyes. "Remmi ... Explain it to me. Why this is bothering you so deeply."

I take a deep breath as I try to gather the words to express myself. I look to the floor when I finally begin. "... It's the principle behind it. Firearms are powerful and dangerous, so much so that one of the first things drilled into our heads is to never point it at someone except in self-defense. To never point it at anything we don't intend to destroy."

I can tell Yorin is trying to follow the reasoning to the source of my trouble. "This was a combat scenario. The entire intent was to put you in a fight for your life. By your own reasoning, that is when you are to use your weapon."

"I get that," I insist, "and I'm not apologizing for using lethal force on my attackers." My gaze goes distant for a moment in thought. "Well, maybe I owe Dina an apology for paralyzing her three times."

Yorin nods to that. "It has been said before, but your status effects are impressive. I am able to glean some notion of the strength of such an effect when I go to remove it. Yours greatly exceed your level, even given your inflated statistics."

"Oh, Dina mentioned you might want to apologize to her," Ayre put in from off to the side. "She said she'd consider it for an offering of custard."

I smirk and shake my head at that. "I probably shouldn't make her wait until I get my own chickens and cow, then."

But I turn my attention back to Yorin. "Still, if they're so powerful, they sure didn't seem to give you any problems. Anyone I hit was hardly down before they were getting back up again."

Yorin closes her eyes and dips her head slightly as she smiles - her version of a smug expression as she simultaneously attempts to stay humble. "I also greatly exceed your level."

"I guess so," I muse as I cross my arms, leaning back in my chair. "But my point was, what bothered me so much was that I either disregarded the fundamental rules of firearm handling, or I 'intended to destroy' a friend. And I can't decide which is worse."

Yorin thinks over my words for a long moment of silence. She rubs her chin between her thumb and forefinger. "Well, I think we can safely discard the former. Either you were engaging in self-defense, or you possessed the required intention. Either way, you were in compliance with your people's rules."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She gets up, comes over to me, and puts a hand on my shoulder. "That leaves intent. But you are forgetting something crucial, Remmi. In that moment, I was your enemy, just as Dina was. The world is a complex place, and I cannot promise you will never face a former friend or ally on the battlefield for one reason or another. When that happens, I do not presume to tell you how best to handle it, but you had best steel yourself for whatever might be required."

That motherly smile appears on her too-young face. "Find the best option with a clear head, Remmi. Worrying about the worst outcome can also prevent you from seeing a better way."

* * *

*Yorin*

I part ways with the children when we reach the temple grounds once more. I congratulate them again and wave to them as they depart, only ceasing when they are out of sight.

It truly is a great accomplishment that they have reached Silver Rank already. Less so for Remmi, being a Hero and thus possessing a smooth road to power, admittedly. Still, she has taken to the System admirably for someone who had never known it just a couple months ago.

It is a much bigger achievement for Ayre, whom I doubt would have reached it so soon but for meeting Remmi. The boy is still incredibly young by our race's standards. That he was already Bronze is a testament to his teachers, especially considering his obvious handicaps.

Without Remmi's presence, however, I doubt the archer would have made Silver sooner than in a couple more decades.

Still, it's good that they each have found someone close to their own age. The path of the Adventurer, let alone that of the Hero, can grow lonely and stagnant without friends. The mentor and apprentice relationship between disparate ages and skill levels simply cannot be the same. You end up feeling stuck in the elder's shadow, or you are the elder and feel like you must protect the student rather than rely on them.

Remmi and Ayre are not merely close in age, but similar in skill level, as well. Not in power, no, but that would be different if Remmi were not a Hero. The performance of her repeating crossbow design was truly exemplary, but was not wholly in a different tier relative to Ayre's bowmanship.

Like all repeating crossbows, it trades raw penetrating power for rate of discharge and ease of use. Normally, this trade-off would be so steep as to make it laughable as a battlefield weapon. Remmi's reciprocal tension design, however, corrects the two most crippling hindrances endemic to the Imperial version: Power and Accuracy.

Per shot, Ayre's bow is more powerful, and no doubt more accurate at longer distances, but within fifty spans, there is no meaningful difference in their ability to hit a target. The deeper penetration of Remmi's design relative to the Imperial standard meant she was able to maintain pace with the archer, as well.

Of course, once she pulled out her gun, all comparisons of performance evaporated instantly. It is truly a weapon of unfathomable power. My barrier may have been nearly as weak as I could make it, but for a Level 10 to nearly penetrate it would have been unthinkable with any other weapon.

I tried very hard to keep my scolding from turning into a lecture in the middle of a celebration when she revealed that the Heavenly Artifact had skill upgrades of its own available, but she had been neglecting them. It was probably for the best, in retrospect. Her rationale of tending to her own groundwork first was ... surprisingly reasonable for her.

Remmi had explained during the meal that the switch occurred because the crossbow had jammed, and she didn't have time to fix it in the field. Again, that had largely been my doing.

Still, wear and tear was to be expected of any weapon, and it was not a mark against her design. Even her gun, apparently, can experience feeding issues if used for too long without maintenance, and it was certainly not unfamiliar to Imperial repeating crossbows. If anything, for it to operate for so long without experiencing such a situation sooner is praiseworthy.

Its performance caught the guild's attention, too, and several of the people she'd just been shooting with it approached us intent on acquiring one. Most of the Silvers that participated in today's exam were melee specialists, but they had teammates that weren't. It would serve well as the main weapon of sneakier classes, and its relatively small form factor meant it could be a holdout weapon for mages and even some actual archers.

Of course, only the archers and the rogue-ish sorts would likely have any class compatibility with it, but it would still be better for a mage than trying to thump a front-liner with a stick.

Unfortunately for the inspired Silvers, Remmi insisted that the design isn't finalized, and that the Noodle Spitter is still a prototype weapon only. So, instead, she has a promise of a pile of bars if she sells the design to the guild when it is finished.

One more pile on top of the ones she is already building from the sale of her Essence Arabica coffee beans. Thank the System she's keeping most of the rest of her Essence crops to herself. Especially since most of them have never even been heard of within the Empire. Even those candy apples she makes could put healers nearly out of business.

Though the guild's offer is one pile of bars that I really don't expect her to ever collect on. Inventor types are notorious for never declaring anything out of the prototype phase, never happy with the performance, always tweaking this or that. Remmi seems to have the same disposition.

I am displeased at the lightness with which the two of them treat the bonuses granted to those that train and fight alongside a hero. It is as a novelty to them, taken for granted. They are young, however, and so early in their careers that it is essential. Without the bonus points granted to him, Ayre would quickly fall behind Remmi, and they would have to part ways or the archer would become a liability.

It is, of course, the entire purpose behind the enhanced growth speed, to allow a Hero to travel with others that share her cause. However, the bonus does not discriminate based on intent, beyond that of working with the Hero. Unscrupulous sorts, most likely power-hungry nobles, could make use of such bonuses to gain great leaps in power without the risks inherent in a dungeon.

A naive hero that could be manipulated into aiding them in such a pursuit, then abandoned when the time for battle arrives would be unfathomably valuable to such people. It is for that reason the High Temple does not make such Heroic boons public knowledge.

Hero Remmi Lee may be naive, but she is not a fool. She and Ayre only shared the discovery with me out of trust, and have no intention of spreading it around.

They intend to continue their training, and Remmi her elemental stone projects and experimentation with essence crops, until I receive permission to dispatch Remmi. I already have a dungeon picked out in the next province that I feel will be a perfect fit for their skills.

For now, with them out of sight, I turn back to the growing temple grounds, my inner thoughts kept far away from my carefully schooled facial expression of serenity.

Those two have work to do, and so do I.