Alice’s wails echoed across the forest. Blanche instantly let go of her wrist, the anger fading away to confusion. His body tightened, ready to push her off but for whatever reason, he hesitated. Alice didn’t care what that reason was, she was just so relieved she had a pillar.

“W-what the—?! Kid, what’s going on!?” Blanche demanded to know.

Alice couldn’t stop crying. The tears kept on streaming down her face, running streaks against her dirt-matted face to reveal her pale flesh. All the crushing tension, the heart-pounding adrenaline, the indecision, and fear of the unknown. . .it was hitting her at once.

Strong hands gripped her shoulder. “Look, I can’t help unless you tell me what’s going on.”

That left another problem. How was she supposed to tell a dwarf that she had essentially attacked his village and left as a criminal? In her vulnerable state, all that seemed irrelevant in the face of telling somebody she knew everything that happened.

As Alice told Blanche the story, he didn’t say a single word. When Alice’s tears and breakdown finally began winding down, and her story was only interrupted by the occasional wet hiccup, she took a look at Blanche’s face.

It was hard to tell, with all the wetness blurring her vision, but Blanche didn’t seem upset. Not that it meant much, considering he was a master at hiding expressions, but Alice let a small hope bloom in her chest. The small chance that she hadn’t ruined her relationship with Blanche let her get through the rest of the story.

“—and that’s how I ran into you,” Alice finished somewhat lamely, wiping her eyes harshly. When she looked up, Blanche was in her face, studying her intently.

“Uh, I-I,” Alice stammered. Blanche paid it no heed—if anything, he leaned in even closer. Alice winced, backpedaling until Blanche gripped her by her arms.

Alice let out a yelp, trying to avoid locking eyes with Blanche’s tumultuous ones. Was he mad? Of course he was mad! Was Blanche going to kill her? Or hand her over to his brethren and let them have their way with her? Had she let her guard down too early!? Alice cringed, closing her eyes and shrinking in, preparing for the brutal assault.

“Come on, we have to get out of here,” Blanche said instead.

“H-huh?” Alice stuttered, opening her eyes.

“Follow me,” Blanche simply said and he turned on his heels, picking his way through the forest. Alice stood still for a couple of seconds, wringing her hands, before going after him.

As they walked, further away from the dwarf village, Alice found herself observing Blanche. He was carrying two backpacks, each one stuffed to the absolute brim, to the point that several items were poking out. Alice gave all of them a cursive glance over, examining their properties. There were herbs, metal pots, the edge of books, etc.

Right. The whole reason they’d come to this god-forsaken village was to get supplies. In all the hassle, it had slipped Alice’s mind.

Once they had passed the hour mark and had taken so many twists and turns that Alice couldn’t find her way back to the village even if she wanted to, Blanche finally stopped. It took Alice a moment to realize he’d ceased moving, and graciously, she slumped against a tree. Her legs were killing her, pinpricks jabbing her muscles every couple of seconds.

“We’re going to rest here before moving,” Blanche said. He shifted his shoulder and both bags dropped to the ground with an audible thud. Alice winced at the sound of metal clanging within the fabric, and a surge of guilt washed over her as Blanche was rubbing his back. That was supposed to be partially her duty.

“Looks like you made quite a mess of the forest. I can see it from all the way here,” Blanche commented, looking in a random direction.

“W-what!?” Alice craned her neck to follow Blanche’s gaze and detected a nearly transparent plume of smoke against the baby blue sky, drifting from the forest. She cringed, recalling the sheer amounts of fireballs she’d lobbed in her desperation. If Alice was back on Earth, she’d have been labeled as an eco-terrorist by now.

“Don’t worry, the forest will repair itself,” Blanche said. Alice glanced at his face. Even now, his expression was stone cold, his tone completely contrasting his encouraging words. Alice tightened her lips. She wasn’t going to let this question eat away at her any longer.

“Don’t you hate me?” Alice asked. A bird chirped in the ensuing quiet, and Alice fought back tears. This was so awkward!

“Why? Because you devastated my village and launched fireballs at them?” Blanche clarified bluntly, not bothering to beat around the bushes. Alice winced with every word but nodded sullenly.

“Yeah. . .” She lowered her head, unable to meet Blanche’s gaze.

To her surprise, he chuckled and slapped her on her back. When she looked up, she found him sniggering to himself, showing his fangs. “Kid, I don’t give a shit about that village!”

“W-what-?!” Alice stammered. That was such a big difference from what she’d been imagining. . .she’d been expecting Blanche to completely lose it! Not to be slapping his knees and aching like a kindergartner who’d heard a hilariously bad joke.

“Couldn’t you tell from my interactions with Angelica? Nobody other than Jorgen enjoys my presence, and even then, he can’t handle it for more than a few hours. I don’t care what you do to that village. It has no more sentimental value to me than any other old town would.” Blanche said, putting Alice’s worries to ease.

Alice sighed, the tightness seeping out of her muscles, leaving her arms limp noodles. “I thought for sure you’d be super mad! The Skill-”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“‘Skill?’” Blanche repeated, quirking an eyebrow at her. Alice instantly clammed up, hand shooting to her mouth. She exchanged looks with Blanche before blatantly looking away, hoping Blanche would catch the drift. He hadn’t cared about her previous slips, after all.

Alice could feel his eyes centered on the back of her head before he faced a random direction again. “Get up, we’re going.”

“Already!?” Alice asked, grabbing onto the tree bark to pull herself up. Blanche was already making his way over to the pair of backpacks, slinging them onto his back. Alice held out a hand, wondering if she should offer to carry one.

“Don’t bother, you’re half dead on your feet and your measly stick arms couldn’t handle it anyway,” Blanche said, marching away.

Alice stared at his back, dumbfounded. It boggled her mind how somebody had the skill to be both condescending and helpful in one sentence. “Are you coming?” he called.

“Ah, right!” Alice ran to catch up to him, before settling into a more comfortable pace.

The duo traveled in silence, albeit this time, there wasn’t quite as much tension lingering in the air. Instead, Alice found her thoughts drifting towards the children and Tamara. What did they think of her now? Surely not in a positive light, that was certain.

“Blanche?” Alice began, continuing when Blanche grunted. “. . .do you think Tamara will forgive me? Maybe not now, but is there any chance of that happening?” Alice asked, desperately wishing with all her heart that the answer was yes. It didn’t matter if it took years, as long as there was a chance that they could mend their relationship.

“Who the hell is Tamara? A friend of Angelica’s?” Blanche asked.

Every last ounce of bravo vanished and Alice slumped. “W-wha? You don’t know her?” Alice wracked her brain, thinking through her time with the elder. “I’m sure she mentioned you before!” She deigned to add that Tamara had been calling him a fool.

“I’m pretty infamous in the village. Angelica and I fought a lot, and more often than not, our fights resulted in portions of the village being destroyed.” Blanche admitted to the destruction of property without a care in the world.

Alice sweat-dropped. The further she was hearing, the more she wondered why she’d been so worried in the first place. From the sounds of it, Blanche and Angelica had been a greater threat to the village over the years than she had been. And how preposterously huge did a fight between the siblings have to become to damage entire sections of the village?!

“So, you don’t know whether she’ll forgive me?” Alice had to make sure.

Blanche groaned. “You’d know better than I would. And besides, why do you care anyway? What was this woman to you? You knew her for all of 2 days, and not even 2 full days.”

Alice gripped her shirt, scrunching the fabric. Blanche was right. In the grand scheme of things, Alice barely knew Tamara. So why did her heart ache? Why did leaving Tamara and the children behind hurt just as much as leaving her family and August did?

“Hmmmmm.” Blanche hummed. Alice could feel his gaze on her but decided to ignore him in favor of focusing on her emotions. If she was this emotionally attached to every person she met, Alice would never make it to the capital. She needed to set her mind on a singular goal: reuniting with Charlotte and fulfilling her dream!

“You can see Manergy now?” Blanche commented off-handedly.

“Huh?” Alice asked, taken off balance by this abrupt question. She leveled an annoyed look at the dwarf. Wasn’t past experiences enough of an indicator for him? What would two days in the dwarf village do to change her incapability to see Manergy? “Of course, I can’t, you already know that.”

“I knew that two days ago, but you’ve changed since then. I heard you’ve been casting black fire,” Blanche stated.

Alice shrugged. “So?” she said without really considering the consequences of her answer.

Blanche’s choked gasps made her rethink what she’d said. He glared at her once his choking fit was over. “‘So?’ She says ‘so!’ This idiot can’t even see Manergy and she says ‘so’ when talking about black fire!” He looked seconds away from disciplining her.

Alice backpedaled her thoughts. It was abundantly clear that she’d made a mistake, probably offending a bunch of mages in the process. “I’m sorry!” she bowed, clasping her hands together. When she felt the danger had passed and Blanche wasn’t going to hit her over the head, she cracked open one eye, and asked, “Uh, so what’s the problem?”

Blanche huffed. “What you did entails a spell. There’s no way you have a Skill or Technique, so that’s the only explanation. It still doesn’t explain the black shade of the fire…the way you continually fired such huge balls of fire is uncommon for commoners, but not anything special amongst nobles...it’s the spell part that’s all messed up.” He ran his fingers through his beard, talking to himself as he stared up at the sky. Alice marveled at his ability to traverse the dangerous terrain without looking.

A part of Alice rebuked Blanche for talking about her magic powers so soon after she’d poured her heart out to him. But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Thinking about her growing magic was a far more pleasant alternative than musing on how horrifically she damaged her relationship with Tamara and the children.

I’m not pushing my feelings down, I’m not! Magic is important too. Alice tried fruitlessly to convince herself that she wasn’t running away from her problems. Of course, talking about magic workshop with Blanche led to its own problems.

Alice bit her lips and glanced awkwardly to the side. Should I tell him? Alice definitely had Skills now. Multiple, actually. Making sure he wasn’t looking at her, Alice summoned her stat screen again.

Alice

Race: [Human] (Wanderer)

Class: [Destroyer] Low-Tier

Level: 7

Manergy Core Quality: C Tier

Manergy Conversion Rate: C Tier

Manergy Capacity: C Tier

Skills:

* [Perseverance] Rank E, Level 5

* [Independence] Rank E, Level 7

* [Reveal] Rank E, Level 1

* [Anarchy Flare] Rank E, Level 5

* [Four Skill Slots open]

Techniques:

N/A

Alice’s eyes shot wide open as she read her updated information. Thinking back, she remembered the voice saying something about getting new Skills but she’d been too distraught to really process it.

Should Alice tell Blanche? He’d probably be able to tell her what to do, but apparently, having Skills at this point was something out of the norm. She felt like she’d gotten closer to the dwarf but how much of that was her being emotionally vulnerable and how much of it was her actually connecting with Blanche?

Alice wrung her hands until her finger ached, shooting Blanche wary glances. He was still in the process of thinking, stroking his beard and looking up at the sky. Taking a deep breath, Alice opened her mouth.

“Blanche, I-!”

Blanche spun around a frenzied glint in his eyes. Immediately, Alice gasped and tried to get away, the dwarf’s attacks springing to the forefront of her mind. She didn’t get far before Blanche lunged forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and locking her in place.

“You have a Skill, don't cha?!” Blanche asked.