Leo and John discussed what had happened, explaining their individual thought processes throughout the fight. John was shocked that Leo had a weaponized juggling ability, and Leo couldn’t believe that John had an ability that was just an anime trope.
Still, there was some tension, both of them occasionally shifting away from each other, but the space between had become less frigid. While they weren’t friends by any means, they could at least try to be friendly.
“So, what are you actually here for?” asked John, after the idle chatter started to die down.
Leo answered, “We need your help.”
“I can talk to the king if you want, but Raegis can be impossible to deal with when it comes to this type of thing.”
Marem spoke up, “That would really help us out. Could you get him to call off the legends?”
“Oh, well he’d still want you two in prison. He’s especially pissy when it comes to someone rebelling against him, but I can get you a reduced sentence.”
Leo groaned, “Forget it, then. We can handle them, and the kingdom isn’t the top priority right now.”
Marem’s dad shifted in bed, propping himself up on his elbows. “Considering you two are currently hiding out in my house, I assumed they were a big deal. What outranks being hunted down by the most powerful government in the world?”
“We’ve got a world ending fungal hivemind trying to become a god.”
“Fair enough.”
“Do you have anything to help us out? If there was any way to tell who’s infected, we could track her down and hopefully remove any traces of her,” asked Marem.
Marem’s dad scratched his chin while in thought. “Nope. My enemies were always easy to find, they’d usually have a castle I could go to or they’d show up wherever I was.”
“Damn, you really don’t have anything? We really hoped that you’d have some stupidly convenient device to help us out,” complained Leo.
“I fought demons and dragons, I never bothered with evil mushrooms. That’s druid shit, and it’s beneath me,” replied her dad.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Well, what can you tell me and Leo about the living legends? He doesn’t know anything about them, and you probably have valuable insights on their abilities,” asked Marem.
“Oh, my old party? Well, uh, they’re not anything too special. You’ve met Venox, he’s a good mage despite his drawbacks. Samuel is a speedy sword guy, he’s like Zoro but with only two swords. You can just ignore Daffodil, she’s useless. Draedon makes magic stuff, but he mostly just ripped off the technology I gave him. Ophelia is also someone you can just ignore, she’s like Marem,” her dad prattled on.
Leo couldn’t help but feel that this information wasn’t very helpful. Even if it had been years since he met with his old party members, he had to have better information than that. The fact that he wrote two of them off as useless was also concerning. Was he hiding something about them?
Marem started to argue, “What do you mean like me?”
“Well, you know, she did support magic. It’s a good role to have filled in a team, but it’s not like she was a real adventurer,” her dad defended himself.
“Wait, what do you mean real adventurer?” interrupted Leo. While he didn’t want to be part of this argument, he could tell something was up. “The living legends are supposed to be the strongest adventurers around, yet you’re acting like half of them weren’t anything special.”
John’s face turned a slight shade of red. “I mean, compared to me they aren’t anything special. So what if I don’t remember the abilities of a couple random adventurers?”
“Then why would you have them as part of your party? Why would the greatest hero not be surrounded by the greatest adventurers? You know, considering the fact that you fought Nacibrill alongside them, why the hell aren’t you a living legend too?” asked Leo.
Her dad had gotten out of bed, the tension in the room rising. “Because I chose to retire, and that meant letting someone else take responsibility. If the people believed that I had died in that fight, then they would need new heroes to believe in. So when they were awarding my old party members, I made them add two more people.”
“Who were they?” asked Marem.
“Daffodil and Ophelia, obviously,” he answered.
“No, who were they before you made them heroes? Were they even adventurers?” she demanded.
“Daffodil was like our mascot. She made sure the horses were fed, polished our weapons, and did our taxes. Like a squire. Ophelia was going to be my latest wife, but she ended up not being interested. They were both there when we encountered Nacibrill, so it only made sense to have them awarded as heroes. Even if they weren’t actually responsible for killing her,” he explained.
Leo thought about what Marem’s dad had just admitted. This news was definitely unexpected, but it wasn’t necessarily negative. Even though things had gotten heated once more, this was a good turn of events. If two of the supposed legendary heroes weren’t skilled, then they would have less of a struggle with fighting against the kingdom.
“Do you have anything else you can tell us about the legends? Asked Marem. “Because I could’ve told Leo that much.”
Her dad was growing red with anger. “No, that’s all. You can go now.”
Marem had started to walk out of the room, but Leo waited to ask one more thing. “Can you train me?”
“What?” asked both Marem and her father.