Under the misty veil of the greenhouse Lucia talked, and Leif listened. She told him of her life before the fall of Pherin, what it was like watching her little brother slowly grow up alongside her. Lucia had to stop at several points in her story, and Leif only interrupted to ask guiding questions when she stalled.

Leif could sense the emotions bubbling up within her, but he also sensed the burden that she carried slowly lift off her shoulders. And while there was progress, it all came crashing down again once she started recalling the year she and Roy had spent alone in the streets of Kartinth. Sharp, agonising pain leaked from her every word as she told him of their first night sleeping in a dark alley. Of the injustices and indignities they had suffered. How a sympathetic lesser noble had agreed to take them in, only for them to be back out on the streets in only a handful of days.

Tears built in Lucia’s eyes as she told Leif how she had slowly pieced together what had happened to her family, using what little coin and resources that she had access to gather information from a city, and a sea away. She recounted how Roy had gradually gotten more and more sick, and how they had needed to run from those hunting them on multiple occasions. Eventually she and her brother were no different, and no better from every other street rat, and as they blended into the filth of the city the pursuit had ceased.

As Roy’s condition worsened Lucia dedicated herself to keeping her brother alive. She worked and scavenged and desperately grabbed every opportunity that came her way. Leif was more than impressed, though from the way Lucia was telling the story she seemed to believe she had failed somehow. If anything it was the opposite. She had sidestepped traps and avoided lures, at no point had she fallen down the path others in her situation had stumbled down.

She admitted to stealing, to lying and deceiving, and she even admitted to taking the lives of three people, each on separate occasions, and each under different circumstances. Lucia lowered her head as if waiting to be judged, condemned for doing whatever she could to survive. She was confessing to the wrong tree. Finally Lucia told him how she and Roy had snuck onto the boat in which he had eventually found them. They had used an old, partially boarded up smugglers route from the slums to the docks, and had then swam under the piers, clinging to the barnacle and algae covered support pillars until they had found the opportunity to sneak aboard.

Silence hung between them for several moments, until Leif reached out and placed a golden hand onto her head. Lucia flinched slightly at the contact, but she didn’t pull away.

“You did good.” Leif said, ruffling her dark hair. “Better than anyone could have expected.”

“I did terrible things.” She whispered.

He nodded. “True, but you did them in order to survive, and in order to protect. As long as you recognise that, as long as you dedicate yourself to doing better going forward, you should be proud, not ashamed.”

Lucia wet her lips, her lower jaw trembling. Tears built up in her orange eyes, but she hurriedly wiped them away. She nodded stiffly, holding eye contact for several seconds before looking away.

“Do you have a class?” Leif asked, letting his conjured arm dissipate into golden motes of light.

She paused, then nodded again.

“Do you mind if you tell me which one?”

“[Rogue].” Lucia swallowed. “But I’m only level one.”

“I see. I suppose it makes sense. You must have gained enough experience for a level in the class. If you had been a little older, you probably would have earned several levels. It’s interesting how the system restricts experience gain for children, though not overly relevant to our current conversation.”

“Am I a bad person?” She asked quietly. “Do I have a class only bad people have?”

Leif huffed in amusement. “I know several [Rogue]s, and they’re all fine people. One of them lives on this very island, I can introduce you to him if you want.”

“I… I thought I would only be able to get levels by doing crime.” She admitted sheepishly.

“It’s a martial class. You’ll get levels by fighting, training and pushing yourself just like everyone else. It’s just that the fighting style you’ll benefit the most from will be elusive and quick. I’m fairly certain most scholars agree that classes and skills are just tools. It’s up to the individual how to use them.” Leif said. “At least that’s what the authors of the books I’ve been reading all seemed to think. I tend to agree.”

“Oh, okay.”

“Your class isn’t something like ‘thief’ or ‘murderer’. Firstly, those don’t exist. And secondly, there’s nothing criminal about using light weapons and being stealthy.”

Lucia looked deep in thought, then she sighed. “I wanted to be a swordsman like my father.”

“You’d be a swordswoman in that case.” Leif pointed out, then he continued before she could interject. “And who says you can’t use a sword as a [Rogue]? You don’t need to use a two handed greatsword, there are plenty of options.”

They lapsed into silence again, and Leif could tell that Lucia was working up the courage to ask him something. Inquisitive intent built up, then popped before she could gather it fully into action. “If you want to ask something, just ask. I already told you I would be honest.”

“What… What happened to my home? During the expedition, I mean.”

Leif drummed his fingers against a nearby flower pot’s rim. “Being completely honest, I didn’t join with the expedition until after I had left Pherin. I was an auxiliary member, hired on as a healer.”

Lucia frowned. “What were you doing in Pherin? Before you joined the expedition?”

“I was lost.” Leif said.

Lucia rolled her eyes. “I thought you said you were being honest?”

“I was honestly lost.”

“Fine, how did you get lost?”

“I can’t tell you that. It’s complicated.” He sighed. “I’m from Varan, the kingdom directly to the east of Pherin. I was exploring the northern foothills, and making my way from destroyed village to destroyed village. When I arrived in Pherin, the city, it was overrun by goblins and some other monsters. The battle that destroyed the city left a part of the ground unstable, and during an encounter with a powerful being I fell down into the Mythhold.”

Her eyes widened and she leaned forward. “You went into the Mythhold? What was it like?”

“You know about it?”

Lucia nodded. “Of course, it was the most famous part of the city. I always wanted to visit when I was older.”

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“I’m not sure if visiting is possible any more. Two monsters engaged in a battle while I was below the city, and their conflict made most of the upper layers collapse. The lower levels, the tombs, were imbued with undeath. There was a dungeon.” Leif explained.

Her expression shifted from fascination, to alarm, to horror as she realised the implications of what he had just said. “So… the expedition.”

“The undead breaking free from the dungeon was why the expedition failed. I’m not sure if it was my presence that caused them to escape, the damage done by the battle up on the surface, or if they would have slipped free on their own and nothing could have stopped them. Either way, the expedition was chased south, and made a defensive stand at an outpost the empire had set up. I think technically the battle was won, but undead were swarming the countryside so the decision was made to pull back and quarantine the region. Hera would know more about that than me though.”

Lucia jumped to her feet, pacing around as she processed the information. “So… Wait, the dungeon, how can the country be retaken if the dungeon is still there? We need to destroy it, somehow. If we don’t then-”

“Oh, I already destroyed it.” Leif interrupted. Lucia froze, her mouth hanging open in shock.

“W-what?”

“I was injured during the battle, but after I was healed I went back north and destroyed the dungeon core. I have a shard of the core right here, don’t touch it though.” He said, summoning the dark shard of crystal into his ivory palm. It tingled his hand, though the sensation was more spiritual than physical. Leif didn’t want to wilt the garden, so he returned it to his storage ring.

Lucia stared at him. Leif stared back, amused by her expression.

“So… Pherin is…”

“Your home will still be infested with monsters. They just won’t be undead, which is good because otherwise the place would be inhospitable to life.” Leif said.

She slumped, her brow furrowed in contemplation as she chewed her bottom lip.

“I can show you, if you want. When I return, I can take both you and Roy with me.” He offered.

Lucia blinked, her gaze shifting from a pot full of purple flowers and back to him. “What? What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’ll be going back. Probably not soon, the Academy has enough information that I could stay here for over a century and still be learning new things. I also have business in Varan I need to deal with, so I might head there first, but I wouldn’t be opposed to having you and your brother along.”

“Why are you going back?” She asked, dumbfounded.

“I left my family up there. Adopted family, mind you. Friends too. There’s a demikin settlement where the expedition outpost was located. I suppose it's my home too.”

“So…. So the expedition is… Is it still ongoing?” Lucia said, her voice barely a whisper.

“No. This has nothing to do with the empire or your family. There’s a… reason why the outpost, Far-Reach, is valuable. Though I don’t know if the people living there are interested in your homeland proper.”

“I see.” She mumbled. “Can you… Could you help? Help me, help Roy?”

“You want your country back.” Leif said. It wasn’t a question, but a statement.

“I want his country back.”

The scion crossed his arms, still seated on the ground. “I can take you back north. Actually, me and Hera discussed this already, it’s likely a good idea regardless of the reason. You should probably take new identities as well, though I’m uncertain of the necessity.”

“Could you rid Pherin of monsters?”

“Possibly. But I won't.”

“You… won’t?”

“I won’t. You will. I’m willing to help, but I have other things that require my attention.” Leif said.

“How? How can I? How is it even possible for me to do that?” Lucia cried, she looked more confused than upset.

“You have a class. Now you need to get stronger.”

She clenched her fists, meeting his gaze, but not holding it. “How?”

“We’re at the Academy, aren't we? I’ve seen first year students who are only a year or two older than you are.” Leif said, then he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. “Half of Lutum is an evolved beast reserve. All the experience you could want for the first dozen or so levels are in there.”

Lucia shuffled from foot to foot, her uncertainty slowly shifting into determination. “Can I really do it? Can I really get that strong?”

“You’re living in the home of a woman who did just that. If it wasn’t for the arrival of an extremely powerful monster, Hera could have retaken Pherin by herself. It would have taken a long time though, she isn’t that powerful. Not yet, at least.” Leif said.

A fire lit behind Lucia’s eyes as she stood up straight. “What do I need to do?”

“Hmmm.” Leif said, standing. “Do you still have the sandals I made for you?”

“Uh, yes.” She said, glancing down briefly. “They’re upstairs though.”

“Go get them.”

“I have proper shoes now.”

“I know, Melissa told me.”

“Then why…?”

“Just go get them.” He chuckled. “You’ll level up quicker, trust me.”

Lucia nodded, then ran off back into the house. Leif watched her go, then shook his head. He hadn’t been in Far-Reach for several months now, but he suspected the settlement was growing. Back during his stay in Ahle-ho, he had heard several people discussing trying to resettle past the imperial cordon now that the undead dungeon was gone.

The empire had no interest in the venture, but they wouldn’t stop desperate people from trying their luck. If the war brewing between the empire and republic kicked off, then it was more than likely Ahle-ho would get dragged into the conflict, if not become a focal point in the war. If the worst came to pass, the refugees crowding the city would flee elsewhere. They would attempt to escape to the east, but also the north. They would inevitably discover Far-Reach, and the opportunities his domain tree provided would be hard to ignore.

Leif had discussed the possibility of refugees arriving with the clan elders before he had left, and the general consensus was to try and accept them, assuming violence wasn’t a more likely outcome. He wasn’t afraid for the demikin or his animals. Ram was there, and while the awakened beast was far from a competent conversationalist, his presence was about as good as protection came.

The door to the greenhouse swung open, and Lucia ran up to him, the makeshift wooden sandals he had crafted for her pinched between her fingers.

“I have them.” She said, presenting them awkwardly as if for inspection.

Leif held out a hand and used [Wood Manipulation] to pull them from her grasp. With a brief effort of will the wood of both objects warped and seemed to melt, then he reshaped them into two short, partially curved daggers. He adjusted their shape and balance, condensing and stretching the wood, then shaping the blade, sharpening it, then he reinforced the weapons structure with an infusion of vitality. Finally he smoothed out the grip and flared out the hand guard and the base of the pommel slightly to offer a little more ease of use. Then he flipped them, catching both weapons in his hands, then presenting them to Lucia hilt first.

Lucia stared at the weapons in shocked awe. She hesitated in taking them, only doing so when he motioned with a nod of his head. “T-thank you.” She said, holding the daggers with a look of what could be reverence in her bright orange eyes.

“Start with these, and if I find wood light and durable enough I’ll try to make a sword. Think of these as training weapons. Yes, they are sharp, but they’ll blunt quickly, so you’ll need to bring them to me when they do.”

Lucia nodded excitedly. “What's first?”

Leif placed a hand on his chin, though the painted mask covered his lower face completely. It was fairly late at night, and he likely wasn’t the most suited to teach her the intricacies of weapon use. Well, he wasn’t bad at swordsmanship, but that was mostly due to instincts from his past life. Leif would hardly consider himself any better than competent. “Hmm. I suppose the first step is obvious. You practise until you reach level two. You’re a [Rogue], so a mix of weapons training, stealth and general exercise should do it. The first levels should come pretty quickly.”

“Okay, I’m ready.” Lucia said, practically bouncing up and down.

Leif considered if this really was for the best, then he shrugged internally. It wasn’t like he needed to sleep anyway.