Chapter 52

Kids

"I'm not some child. I don't need candy."

The boy's words make the girl hesitate to bite into her own caramel apple, no doubt wanting to live up to whatever her brother's expectations might be.

Too bad for him I'm not falling for it.

"Well, I'm going to have to ask you to bear with it," I reply as if completely sincere. "It's not candy, it's a restorative. Ayre and I just like sweets."

He eyes the apple in his hand with a scowl. "I told you, I'm not some child. You can't convince me this is some kind of potion."

"I didn't say it's a potion," I reply, crossing my arms. "I said it's a restorative. My cooking skill is high enough I can make food with benefits."

That's a partial lie, of course. I do have the Cooking skill, and it does increase the nutritional quality of dishes, but the potent recovery of the treat is from the Essence crops used to make it. I'm not interested in waving that little bit around, though, and it would require way more explanation, anyway.

"Besides," I add, "think of the worry you'll cause your sister, running around as injured as you are." He is, in fact, pretty seriously hurt, according to Diagnose, though most of it must be internal, and he's putting on a brave face. His mana is low, too.

He looks to his sister at that, who has silently been eating at her own apple.

She pauses and gives a quiet, "... It's good."

"Does it work?" he asks. "Is your health recovering?"

She nods. "Yes. My mana, too."

That surprises him. "Your mana?" Then his eyes widen as he looks down at his own candy apple and back up to me. "The sugar!"

I grin, giving the boy a finger gun and a wink I trust the System to translate as something akin to, Got it!

He frowns back down at it like he's losing some sort of battle. "Well, if needs must ..." And finally bites in. He notably has trouble limiting himself to the same speed that seems to come natural to his sibling, but I'm not going to call him out for it.

He's halfway through it before he speaks up again. "Did our uncle send you?"

I shake my head, though. "Sorry, bub, don't even know who you are. I'm Remmi Lee, that's Ayre." I motion first to myself, then to the elf off to the side, who nods.

He takes the hint and motions to himself and his sister. "I'm Mataru Hagasu. This is my sister, Mei. Our uncle is the lord of this region."

I think back to my lessons from Yorin on the topic, and to my first day in Dabun. "Lord Ettia, right?"

He nods. "Is there another?"

All I can do is shrug. "I'm not from the Empire originally, sorry. I'm still learning who's who."

Mataru's eyes drift to the gun on my hip. "And that beastly thing you fight with, what is it?"

I give it an affectionate pat. "It's a weapon from my homeland, called a pistol. For us, it was an upgrade from the crossbow. Its ammunition is hard to come by here if you can't make it, yourself, though."

"So you're just adventurers, here to cull a low-level dungeon?"

I nod. "That's the gist of it, yeah. What about you two?"

Mataru goes silent, brooding and grim, but it's the quiet Mei who answers.

"We want power."

Even her neutral tone manages to carry some venom, and I come down on one knee to be more level with where they're sitting. "Is someone hurting you?" I ask with grave seriousness.

But Mataru violently shakes his head. "Someone killed our father!" he seethes. "And framed our mother! Two of the greatest, most wonderful people to ever serve the Empire!"

He seems near tears, but is fiercely determined not to permit them through. "We're out here instead of with her because they sent us away for our own protection! But if we had the strength to fight the people responsible, we wouldn't have to hide from them!"

I nod in understanding. Schemes among nobles, maybe? Sounds about right, but I didn't think the empress would be the sort to let them get so bloody.

Ayre is of a different mind. "What were you two thinking?! Throwing away the protection your parents arranged for you! Leave the fighting to fighters!"

"I'm surprised at you, Ayre," I tsk, shaking my head. "Leave it to someone else? Why? Toleste is literally a place where you can learn anything, do anything, reach any height just by putting in the effort! I'm not one for vengeance as a healthy motivation, but talking like they can't do it seems hypocritical."

"They're kids!"

Mataru starts to bristle at that, but I beat him to it.

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"They've got classes, Ayre," I point out, crossing my arms. "That means they're potentially capable of anything we are. And Mataru's barely younger than we are, if at all. How old were you when you started out?"

I heft the Golem Core that survived the destruction of the boss. It's a stone ball about the size of a grapefruit and covered in runes that remind me strongly of circuits. "That being said, you guys definitely bit off more than you could chew here. If we hadn't happened to come through, your quest would have ended right here."

The boy's feelings practically flare across his face, they're so easy to read. Now he's sulking. "It's not our fault. Rapier and flame just isn't much good against a golem!"

I can't fault that logic. "Yeah, that's not good against anything particularly well-armored," I agree instead. "I'd recommend picking up some penetration skills. Open up a tough enemy, then you can hit the inside." I look over to the pile of rubble. "Or just blow it apart."

He nods, and I shift and move to stand. "Well, we've just got one more thing to take care of, then we can get you two back to your uncle."

That gets both of their attention. I was starting to think Mei's whole world was the candy apple. It's still Mataru that speaks up.

"What else do you have to do? The dungeon lord is dead."

So that's what they call the boss. Come to think of it, boss and lord are synonyms.

It's only been a couple minutes since the dungeon boss died. When that happened, a portal opened up, revealing the way to the core room.

Ayre assured me ahead of time that this was perfectly normal. It is common practice to beseech the core for a reward upon overcoming its trials, and back when there was a hard separation between the worshipers of Essence and Magic, the cores were outright worshiped as guardian spirits.

Seeing how hard this one fought to keep from going critical, I kind of wish I had something to leave with it now.

I point toward the portal as I answer the boy. "The dungeon has an infection, that's why it's so weird. We're here to cull it, yes, but also to treat it."

His eyes widen further. "You're a priestess?!"

I give an embarrassed grin. "No, not quite, but I have enough training that they can send me out on purification jobs like this."

Mataru gives a thoughtful frown at that. "Yes, that makes sense. Less danger to acolytes if they can send a seasoned adventurer, instead."

"That's the gist of the idea, anyway," I agree with a nod. "You two finish those apples so you're ready to go. I shouldn't be long."

* * *

*Yorin*

"The dungeon core was completely overgrown with jagged, razor-sharp crystals. Just going through the portal nearly ended with me impaled from three different directions! I had to fire my Purification Cannon in half a dozen short bursts just to get to the actual core!"

"I see," I say after taking a sip of my tea. "And then what did you do?"

"I purified the core, of course!" Remmi plants her fists on her hips and grins in a decidedly foreign gesture, yet thanks to the blessings of Essence, I understand it to display pride in her accomplishment.

"After that, I gave it the biggest chunk of holy arcanite we had and assured it that I'd purified the stuff, so it should put the energy to good use getting itself back in shape! Then I gave it a candy apple, patted it and reassured it that it was all better now and to behave itself!"

At that, the Gunslinger Hero looks a lot less certain of herself. "I, uh ... honestly, I don't know if it's even capable of hearing stuff like that. But it absorbed the apple and the crystal after I did, so I'm sure the sentiment got through."

Trying to console a dungeon core. Such an alien thing is absolutely something Remmi would try. But there's something even more pressing I'm trying to move toward.

"And that was when you received the message?"

She replies with an energetic nod.

The message ... It was one of what Remmi calls pop-ups, spontaneous notifications from the Essence System that appear in your field of view, but are invisible to others unless deliberately shared.

They do have them back in her Earth, apparently. They call it Augmented Reality. They use artifice to enable them, however, as Remmi's homeland is apparently very sparse in both Essence and Magic.

Every time what I hear makes them sound backwards and primitive, even positively medieval, something else comes up that reminds me how parallel to Furinshao they really are. Completely, utterly alien, yet parallel.

Such messages, themselves, of course, are nothing new, but the specific one she received promises to revolutionize how we combat the darkness from beyond the Western Demesne.

"You have purified all of the dungeons in this region," it read, according to her recitation. "This region is now warded against contamination."

Could it be so straight-forward? And what twist of fortune was this, that Remmi was sent to perhaps the only region so thin as to have only a single dungeon, so that this is discovered immediately?

As a Sacred Priestess, I should, of course, accept this as providence from the System, but isn't this far too heavily handed?

... No, I only want to tell myself this because my own duty should have brought this knowledge about long before now. If chance alone can be blamed, then I may hold myself guiltless.

Oh, there were other things in the message, of course. First-time clearing bonuses, that sort of thing. None of it relevant to the fight against the darkness. To that cause, the intelligence on a dungeon's response to corruption is far more valuable.

... It will have to be jealously guarded from the nobles, of course. Nearly guaranteeing constant treasure from a dungeon would lead too many of them to doing something terribly foolhardy. As it is, it is fortunate that Remmi intends to keep most of what she received for her hated hobby. It would be difficult to find buyers for so much without drawing unwanted attention in that regard.

I go to take another sip from my tea - my fourth since the girl's return. I find the cup dry. Without letting it change my expression, I set the clay vessel to the side for now. We're nearly done, after all.

"And when you returned to the village, the Hagasu siblings rented a carriage to return home?"

Again, Remmi nods. "I offered to take them in mine, but apparently that's offensive."

"It implies they cannot afford it," I confirm. "It is obvious why that would offend a noble, even as a child."

But she frowns. "It wasn't about the price. Mine's way more comfortable!" She shakes her head to clear it and reset the topic. "They're good kids. Traumatized, but good. I know I shouldn't think of them as kids, but they strike me like that, anyway."

"Maturity is often a greater determinant than age between a child and an adult."

I have my own concerns about those "kids," but I don't want to trouble Remmi with it right now. Especially if they are staying in Serazin Province, I can keep an eye on things better than she will be able.

After all ...

"You two should leave the village in the care of Kyuuga and myself for the time being, I think. Instead, I believe you need to prioritize more dungeons."

Ayre's eyes widen. "But ... we just got back!"

I raise a hand to still her. "I do not intend for you to leave immediately. I need time to confer with the Imperial House on the matter, after all. In the meantime, you should tend to your preparations. And you have a test to study for."

Both children gasp at the reminder of the ranking test Guildmaster Kobi is demanding of them.

"Oh no," the archer bemoans predictably. "Since we had to escort Mataru and Mei back, I didn't get to train down my dungeon points!"

Again, I raise my hand. "I will speak with the guildmaster about your exigent circumstances. He is a rough man, but not an unreasonable one. Consider such training a part of your preparations."

Remmi surprises me by smiling, the expression a little sad, as she takes my hand that's still on the table in her own.

"Thanks, Yorin. You've been a huge help for so much. It's not going to be the same without you along."

I give her my warmest smile back and pat her hands in return. "As I do for Xuhi, Remmi, I remain only a missive away."