Chapter 47

Priestess

Kobi storms toward the elven priestess standing in the doorway.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, MAKING A RACKET IN MY—"

But Yorin just holds one hand toward him, touching his forehead the moment her first two fingers could do so.

"Purge."

The old man slumps as the spell strips all status effects from his mind and body, and the white-haired priestess steps past him as if any business with him is concluded.

After all, she's already set her eyes on her prey. "Remmi," Yorin repeats my name as she steps toward us. "What did you do?"

I have to admit, I'm offended that she just assumes I've done something wrong.

"Huh, so it's true, you really are paired with that girl's elf, Yellow."

I turn to Zeiya, delighted to have an excuse not to answer Yorin, and open my mouth to reply ...

"Remmi Lee." Yorin doesn't bother repeating her question. She only reminds me of her impatience for an answer.

So I wheel back on her with an expression I'm sure is full of my fury and frustration and absolutely isn't petulant and pouty. "I didn't do anything, Yorin! I roasted coffee! I had one cup! Just like I promised!"

Her eyes flick to the container on the counter, and she steps past me now, too, to pick it up. "And shared it, I see." She turns it about under her gaze, gives the open container a sniff. Finally, she turns back to me and gestures with it. "Is there more?"

Now she's just confusing me. Is she really upset about magic beans in a fantasy world?! "Of course," I answer. Usually, Yorin doesn't ask such silly questions.

"Did you buy general skills for it?"

"I planted seeds in the ground," I argue back. "I watered them, I weeded them, I harvested them! It's not rocket science!"

"You are supposed to be training for the dungeon."

"I have been," I insist. "How long do you think I'm spending on a little garden?! It's just supplemental stuff to save on time and money so we're not wasting all of it running everywhere just to get something to eat!"

She holds the jar like it's murder evidence. "Remmi, do you know how long it takes coffee plants to grow from seeds to producing berries of their own?"

I cross my arms. I can see where this is going, but I'm not backing down. I'm not doing anything wrong! "Three to five years," I answer readily.

"You have been here a month and a half, Remmi. Where did you get this coffee?"

"From my garden!"

"When did you plant it?"

"Last week!"

Yorin sets the jar down with what I feel is admirable self-control. The beans barely jostle. "You say you planted these last week, yet you know they take years to produce fruit. Did you use magic to accelerate their growth?"

I frown and twist my nose a little. "Not my magic, and not arcana. The essence did it!"

Yorin looks down at the jar and runs a finger around its rim. Her expression is still so controlled. "If this is a creation of Essence, this may be classifiable as a heavenly artifact."

"It's a can of beans," I finally shout in frustration. "Why is everyone so determined to take my food?!"

Yorin's eyes snap to me at that, and I finally see that control slip a bit. She's shocked at my outburst. Is she not aware of how she was coming across?

Then she lowers her head and gives a sigh I recognize as apologetic. "It is not my intention to take from you your foodstuffs. A supplemental garden is a good idea, though I hope you planned the rest with a shorter growth pattern."

"Then why are you laying siege to the guild hall to get to me?!"

Now, its her eyes that are apologetic, but she turns to Zeiya. "Excuse us, I think we should take this to a private table. Could I get a green tea with mint, please. And a warm milk for Remmi."

The redhead just sighs with a shrug. "Sure, crazy lady." She puts her hand on the jar and slides it away from the customer side of the counter. "Beans stay with me as a neutral party for now, though. Just in case."

Considering how Zeiya confided before that Yorin scared her, I can only appreciate her sticking her neck out for me like this. Before anything can come of the act, however, the other customers start getting excited at the implication.

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An implication she quickly cuts short. "Tamp it down, you boars," she shouts over them immediately. "It'll be for sale when, and if, something gets decided, and not a moment sooner! And anyone who's already had anything that gives Caffeine Overdose isn't getting any either way!"

I use the opportunity to point out a small, open table to Yorin in the hopes she'll drop the matter, and she does so.

"It is good that you already have loyal friends within the guild, Remmi," she says as we sit down. "You seem to have a natural talent for making them."

"Yeah, Zeiya's cool," I agree. "Dina, too. A lot of them are, actually. I feel like I can go up and ask any of them for advice."

I pause as I remember I wanted to do exactly that. "Actually, maybe I should take time to do that before I leave today. I've been wanting to pick Zeiya's brain about skills now that it's known I'm a Hero and can buy them."

"You sound like you have something specific in mind."

I nod. "Because my Intellect is so high, I have a lot of mana that just ends up sitting there, so I've been trying to think of ways to use it. I picked up a healing spell, but it's too slow to be much use in combat, and seems like it uses way too much energy besides."

Yorin nods in agreement. "You do not possess the class for it. A Priest's passive skills increase the power of healing magic, and most mages get cost and chant reduction, as well. Such skills make combat use much more practical."

She crosses her arms with a sigh. "Of course, as a Hero, you could simply purchase such skills, yourself, but I would advise against it."

"... Because imperial culture hates generalists?" I venture.

"Because you are the Gunslinger Hero," she immediately corrects me. "Some flexibility serves your style very well, I have come to accept that. You should remember, however, that there is already a Priest-type Hero in the theurgist girl, Miss Bibe. If the System wanted a second, it wouldn't have chosen you."

Yorin leans forward and puts a hand over mine on the table. "Remmi, the reason why I panic so when you go ..."

She spends a moment fishing for the word. "... How did you put it? Lumberjack? It is not because I do not wish for you to find your own way in this world. It is because you were Essence-blessed specifically because that very same world needs you.

"If you lose sight of what brought you here, you risk your very life. And, Essence forgive me, it is not merely the fate of the world that worries me at such a possibility. When you went sprinting right by the temple grounds without stopping, I feared you were up to something dangerous. Again."

She's scared for me, I realize. Was that it? All the scolding, is it just how she reacts to freaking out? Trying to fix the problem that's disturbing her?

I dip my head to hide the flushing of my cheeks. "I ... understand, Yorin. I promise I do. And I know I get excited and go off on tangents easily, but I promise I'm keeping my end goal in mind. And I think you'll be pleased with what I've got in mind."

She arches a fine eyebrow at that. "Oh?"

But I grin, looking to the side this time, and for a different reason. "Oh, and I think we should let the guild sell the beans. They're supposed to make sure it doesn't get into bad hands, right? Those plants are going to produce way more than I can keep up with, anyway. They might as well fund us, right?"

The way her face goes blank before shifting to her motherly smile tells me I scored an annoying blow. "Very well, I will work with Guildmaster Kobi to come to an arrangement, and I look forward to seeing what skills you have in mind in action. Is there other produce I should be discussing with Kobi?"

I wrinkle my nose and shake my head. "There's a variety I grew, but I still have a lot of testing to do to figure out how they interact. The raw, off-the-stalk effects are pretty milquetoast, so until I know what they can do, it'd be dangerous to send them off willy-nilly."

"How milquetoast?"

"A coffee berry eaten off the stalk just restores a quarter of your maximum stamina, up to your maximum."

This time, both of her eyebrows go up. "Remmi, you are telling me that stamina potions now literally grow on trees."

"But when you roast the beans and brew the grounds into a coffee," I argue, "it becomes an infinite stamina potion with a massive Agility spike!"

"Followed by a deadly withdrawal." She shakes her head once with an exhalation. "That is your biggest flaw, Remmi. You possess no sense of scale. Such could be said of any Hero, to be true, but it is uniquely so of you, for you lack even a worldly frame of reference."

I frown back at her. "Fine, relatively milquetoast. I'm keeping it in mind, though!"

Yorin smiles back. "You are," she agrees. "And it soothes my heart to know it." She glances aside to notice Zeiya coming with our drinks and leans back. "I just wanted to make certain of it."

I take the opportunity of the break in conversation to take note of the room. Most of the regulars seem to be keeping their distance from us, or perhaps, more accurately, from Yorin.

Kobi is among them, but he's watching us closely, his massive arms draped across his oak tree chest. Maybe he's not normally supposed to mess with the sacred priestess, and with his temper no longer riled by caffeine, he's remembered that.

It seems like Zeiya has put Ayre to work while she runs orders out to the tables. The flustered elf is behind the counter in a half-panic writing down orders, as apparently every free customer with something to order decided to do it just then. Probably specifically to cause said panic.

Zeiya exchanges the usual customer pleasantries with Yorin before heading to the next table, and I'm reminded again that the priestess had ordered me a warm milk.

I eye her over our mugs. "So, uh, what's with the warm milk, Yorin? You ... trying to send me a message, or something?"

The priestess takes a sip from her tea before answering, her eyes closed as she's probably enjoying the aroma. "You seem to know so much of milk, Remmi. Why don't you tell me?"

Is she teasing me? It's possible, but I decide to answer it directly, anyway.

I tilt my head to one side as I call up the information from my memory. "Well, besides already having melatonin and tryptophan, heating milk breaks down the proteins into peptides that also calm you down. It's good for if you're having trouble going to sleep."

But then I motion to the tea. "Green tea helps lower blood pressure, and mint, stress." My eyes widen in realization. "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, Yorin. Did I really drive you that crazy just by running through?!"

But she waves it away. "The matter is resolved, and had a benign enough, if disturbing, cause. Just remember that I am here to be your advisor, Remmi. Let me do my job before you go running off half-strung."

After another pull on her tea that seems almost as if she is fortifying herself, she gives me that motherly smile and her undivided attention.

"Now, tell me, Remmi, what else have you been growing up there that you still have to test?"

I only question telling her for half a heartbeat, and then go full in on detailing all of the different effects I've found so far and the combinations I'm eager to try.

I'm not sure if Yorin always drinks her tea so fast. Maybe she just really likes the mint. In any case, she gets through it so quickly that she ends up ordering two more before we leave, but she listens to my entire diatribe, smiling and nodding along.