Aida woke up early the next day, staring groggily up at the unfamiliar ceiling before remembering she was still in Buddington Town, at the Gullbeaks’ Headquarters. Heaving herself out of the unpleasantly firm bed in one of the unused inn rooms, Aida stretched.
She didn’t get a chance to practice Kuri’s exercise that expanded her mana pool last night, because her talk with Yoon lasted longer than anticipated.
She’d felt gratified when Yoon insisted that she wasn’t giving herself enough credit; everyone liked to hear good things being said about them. But she also couldn’t help but feel suspicious - because why would someone as accomplished as Yoon compliment someone who was strictly in the middle of the class rankings? And besides, she hasn’t seen what I’m normally like. The only conclusion that made sense was that Yoon was just an extremely nice person.
Still, Yoon seemed so thoughtful and insightful that Aida really wanted to believe what Yoon said about her was true. In the conversation that followed her observations of Water types, Yoon started sharing more about the Gullbeaks’ history, their childhood adventures, and what lead them to pursuing the hard work of being an Adventuring party.
Arryn was in his forties and was a Border Stronghold veteran. During one of his rare visits back to his village, he found desolation: their tiny village had been decimated by a particularly vicious monster attack, and by luck, the children, led by the teenagers Lula and Kawa, had avoided their parents’ grisly fates.
“I never liked leaving the village to play so far away, but everyone convinced me that day,” Yoon confided in Aida. Her voice grew heavy. “Ironically, I thought being in the village meant safety…”
“I’m sorry,” Aida said softly. Yoon smiled sadly at Aida.
“I am, too. But that’s our origin story…and why we aim to take contracts that truly help the disadvantaged population, those who don’t have the resources to hire their own guards.”
Aida made her way downstairs, holding the mana battery in her hand. After knowing their history, she couldn’t help but look at everyone through new eyes: they were all much more serious for their ages, of course (she was shocked when Yoon confirmed Lula and Kawa were in their late twenties, while everyone else was in their early twenties), but she couldn’t see any signs of the trauma they must have felt from being orphaned at such young ages. They joked, they squabbled (mainly Kuri and Kawa), but ultimately they all directed their energy to their work.
Tyda was constantly glancing at the wall where they had pinned maps, notes, and small flags, highlighting monster hotspots. Arryn kept his eye on the mana of anyone entering headquarters, barking reminders at them to focus on one exercise or another. Lula rarely socialized, preferring to keep to her room; Aida could feel strong pulses of mana thrum through her door, so assumed she was training in her own way.
Kawa seemed to be the one in charge of the company’s books. He was behind the counter, thumbing through a ledger and paging through sheets of paper with illegible scrawls on them. Yoon was next to him, helping to sort the paper into several different stacks, before she retrieved a slimmer packet that she then brought to Tyda.
“It was quite lucky that Kuri found that nest of spiders and the doublehab,” Yoon was saying to Tyda, pointing to two empty spots on the map. Tyda pinned those areas carefully, attaching scraps of paper as labels. “There haven’t been any sightings or reports of any monster activity in that area, not since the Ying Eyes cleared that area last star cycle…”
“This isn’t good…” Tyda murmured. He glanced over at Aida, flashing her a brief smile. “Come have breakfast. Kuri’s picking up your clothes from sanitation, and you two will be taking a golem back to Maglica as soon as she’s back.”
Aida sat down, looking at the map. “…is Wyndia getting overwhelmed by monsters?”
Tyda and Yoon looked at each other, with Yoon shrugging one shoulder lightly. Tyda turned to her, crossing his arms in mock severity. “You know, you didn’t do well enough on Arryn’s exercise yesterday to justify asking these questions.”
Aida knocked her head with her knuckle, bowing her head submissively. “My mistake, I’ll trust in the adults to take care of this unprecedented surge of activity.”
Tyda sighed, sitting down in the seat across from her. “We joke, but it’s better for you to have the information anyway - although we do ask that you exercise caution in who you share the information with.”
He paused, biting his lip as he decided what to say. Yoon turned back towards the map, sifting through her reports as she started updating the flags on the map. “You’re right that this level of activity is unprecedented. This uptick in activity started being noticeable one moon cycle ago, but we haven’t been able to trace it to a specific event, which makes it hard to decide what we’re going to do about it. Right now, most of the companies - and a significant percentage of the Strongholders - are dedicating their personnel to just culling the herd, so to speak. But because of that, we have been unable to put together expeditions to seek out the source.”
“So…the reason the city council doesn’t want to broadcast the monster activity at large…”
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“Is because without a solution, spreading the information to people who aren’t able to do anything about it would just cause unnecessary stress.” Tyda nodded seriously. “That’s why we’re willing to maintain the status quo, despite believing in being open with information.”
Aida picked at her food: a hearty porridge with some shredded chicken and pickled vegetables. “Do you…have any suspicions on what caused this?”
Tyda hesitated. “We do, but…”
“We were hoping we could meet with some Masters to discuss their observations,” Yoon said quietly, turning towards them. She leaned against the wall, playing with a handful of pins. “But getting out to their villages has been difficult, and the city itself isn’t willing to spare their supplies on helping nonresidents…even though it can be beneficial.”
“There are more Masters than you'd think,” Tyda smiled, misinterpreting Aida’s wrinkled brow for skepticism. “The cities tend to act like they don’t exist, because they never really come socialize. But that’s by design: they would rather cultivate their mana far from society, than risk being distracted by materialistic concerns.”
“Yes, and that’s why it’s so difficult to convince anyone to fund such an expedition,” Yoon sighed. “It would be a risky venture, with no guarantee that the Master won't just run them out for peace.”
Aida looked down at her empty bowl, feeling her stomach twist.
She could clearly see where the “action” genre of More to Love came in now - it wasn’t only limited to the school’s tournaments. There was a very real reason why Sue and the love interests were strong: the world was heading towards chaos and destruction, and it seemed like the surge in monster activity was synchronizing with when the leads graduated.
Are they going to have to fight the monsters? Figure out what’s going on with the world? Restore things to the way they were?
“Anyway, I see Kuri gave you that mana battery she used to practice on,” Yoon said quickly, trying to lighten the mood. “Have you done her exercise yet?”
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“Sorry, I should have warned you about how terrible this exercise feels,” Kuri tittered as Aida fought back a wave of nausea. They were riding in a three-seater golem, built for speed; the golem was whizzing along the path, guided by the driver.
“That’s okay,” Aida muttered, pressing her knuckles into her temples. Yoon had talked Aida through the mana pool expansion exercise, and Aida had done it - but it felt awful. While her mana pool was full, she had to draw the excess mana she had stored in the battery within herself - and then hold it for as long as she could. The best way for her to describe the horrible sensation was as if she’d gorged herself on Thanksgiving dinner, drank her body weight in soda, and was hung over, all at the same time. She needed to burst in more ways than one, but even after releasing the excess mana she still felt no relief. “I can see why you don’t want to do this exercise…”
“Yeah…I’m super jealous of people who don’t have to do it,” Kuri said comfortingly, helping to massage Aida’s head. “But hey, once you get enough mana, you don’t have to do it anymore!”
“I’d rather train my pool naturally,” Aida grumbled, closing her eyes in relief.
“You can if you want,” Kuri said agreeably. “But even if you just do the filtering exercise, that will still help improve your mana control a lot. So keep the battery, and just charge it every night before you go to bed.”
Murmuring her agreement, Aida turned to rest her head against her arm, closing her eyes as they continued on their way back to the school.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
“Aida! Are you okay?”
Aida smiled wanly at Sue, who was at the head of the welcoming party. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You look terrible,” she said anxiously. She turned to Kuri. “What happened?”
“Ah, it’s my fault,” Kuri said apologetically. “Aida did a mana exercise I suggested, and it took a bit of a toll on her.”
Sue relaxed, smiling with relief. “I’m so glad. I thought she was injured when - when you two—“ Sue stuttered to a halt, looking nervously between Aida and Kuri.
“Ah, yeah, we went on a bit of a detour,” Kuri said hastily. She glanced at Aida nervously, then guided her through the school’s front doors. “Anyway, Aida had a long couple days - maybe you should go get some much-needed rest.”
Nodding numbly at Kuri’s idea, Aida kept her head lowered as she trudged towards the girls’ staircase.
“Wait, Aida—”
“I think you should let her rest…”
At the commotion behind her, Aida paused, glancing warily behind her. Ezra had his arm outstretched, gazing beseechingly at her, with Levi firmly gripping his arm. Sue had positioned herself between him and Aida, her own hands raised in a placating gesture. Caleb hovered anxiously among them, his own hand raised, uncertain who to assist.
Kuri watched the commotion with interest, before glancing at Aida and taking in her expression. "Um...Well, I guess I'll head back to my quarters. Good work, Aida!" With a cheery wave, Kuri strolled away, whistling innocently.
Aida sighed as she heard Sue continue trying to talk Ezra down. Sue knew the whole story, of course; Aida had told the girls about Ezra’s confession and retraction during her moment of weakness, and made them promise to leave Ezra alone. She assumed Levi would have heard the gossip, of course, and it wouldn’t be too far out of the realm to expect Caleb knew as well. Might as well get this over with.
“It’s fine,” she said, tired. “Let’s talk.”
Glancing uncertainly over her shoulder, Sue probed Aida with her gaze. “Are you sure? You do look exhausted…maybe you can talk later.”
Aida shook her head as she moved closer to Sue. “No, I don’t think I can rest well until we resolve it anyway,” she said softly. Sue bit her lip, her lavender eyes watering as she watched Aida earnestly.
“Okay,” she whispered back. She grabbed Aida in a tight hug, her warm breath enveloping Aida’s ear. “Don’t…don’t hold yourself back, okay? Don’t think. Just…let yourself do whatever comes to your mind first.”
Aida patted Sue’s back gently, feeling her own emotions bubble up at Sue’s words. I wish I could afford to do that. “I will.”