Chapter 170: Responsibility
Zach waved his hand in thanks as a waitress in a red apron placed a few more items down on his and other various tables before moving along and eventually bowing to Fiona Darkmae, who was standing near glass sliding doors towards the front of the large, pleasant-smelling eatery. Afterwards, like the rest of the staff here in “Gall's Grille,” she left the premises completely. Apparently, the owner and staff were being well compensated by the Children of Order in exchange for renting out the diner for the rest of the day.
Now, with a degree of privacy, the adventurers began eating, getting rowdy, and displaying their usual drunken antics—only without actually being drunk, as Donovan and Zephyr had, for the moment, banned all alcoholic beverages pending a decision on whether or not a takedown would be attempted later this evening. But that, of course, was a discussion that probably wouldn’t take place until bellies became fuller and things settled down a bit.
It's getting a bit overcrowded in here, Zach thought as the diner quickly filled to maximum capacity.
Right now, the place was packed. More than eighty adventurers had shown up with more still arriving as well as a dozen members of Children of Order thrown into the mix. A sense of cheer filled the air as people dug into their food at tables large enough to seat eight apiece. Not everyone was seated, though, as a few of the late arrivals had to stand and lean against the wall while holding plates. Even the nine stools across from the bar were occupied despite liquor being prohibited for the moment.
“Mmm,” Kalana said appreciatively as she bit into a large cheeseburger with ketchup, lettuce, pickles, and a fried onion ring tucked away in the middle. She dabbed her chin with a napkin. “It’s good! Jimmy, quit being so gloomy and try yours.”
Located almost perfectly in the middle of the diner, Zach sat with Kalana to his immediate right and Rian and Seiley to his left. Lienne, Trelvor, Jimmy, and Tena were across from him. Everyone including Zach was chowing down—except Jimmy, who seemed to have become overtaken with a sudden gloominess during the past few minutes. He and Zach had actually both ordered the grilled chicken club sandwich, but he wasn’t even touching his.
“Food’s not what I need,” he said, rubbing his face. Though cramped, the place was well air conditioned, yet Jimmy was sweating. “What I really need is a drink.”
“You didn’t even finish the one you’ve got,” Zach said to him.
He made a back-and-forth waving motion with his left hand. “I’m not talking about soda, Zach.” Quickly, his eyes shifted to the bar, which Donovan and Zephyr were standing around as though guarding it from the wild adventurers.
At this, both Kalana and Tena frowned at him. “You’re not even legally allowed to drink yet,” Kalana said in a way that came across as scolding but was not exactly uncalled for. “And umm, even if you were, nobody else is allowed to drink right now, either.”
Rian laughed at Jimmy. “You of all people should totally understand why that is. Especially after what just happened.”
“You don’t understand,” Jimmy said, continuing to bury his face and eyes in his hands. “Once I get started, it’s real hard for me to stop.”
Again, Rian laughed. “Not gonna lie, dude, but what you just said makes you sound like you’re an alcoholic or something.”
Jimmy lifted his head, and his face flushed with what Zach assumed to be irritation. “No shit, man, that’s because I am an alcoholic.” At this, Zach could see Rian’s lips part as though shocked; the others gave off a similar look. Zach was surprised as well, though he wasn’t even sure if Jimmy was joking around or not—at least at first. But then Jimmy seemed to retreat a bit, sinking lower into his seat, and Zach realized he was being serious.
“I don’t even know how I made it weeks here without a drink,” he spoke at barely above a whisper. “I had a bit of a drinking problem before I came to Galterra. I guess the shock of all this shit was so big it took my mind off it. I swear I never would’ve gone that long without at least a few sips to get me by. But now that I’m starting to accept this as my new reality and the uh, the you know, the ‘novelty’ of it is starting to wear off, I’m starting to return to my ways from back home.”
“You mean Earth?” Rian asked him.
“Yeah.”
He shrugged. “Well, I guess I can’t blame you for that. It sounds like there was nothing to do over there but play simulations and get wasted.”
For just the slightest instant, Rian’s words confused Zach, but then he remembered what Jimmy had told him a very short while earlier. Taking him aside so that the two could briefly speak in private, Jimmy had informed Zach that Eilea had come up with a very clever “backstory” for him so that he could more openly be himself without giving away extremely sensitive information that it was too dangerous to discuss in front of anyone who didn’t already know it.
That was really nice of her, he thought.
Eilea had informed the adventurers that Jimmy was born on Earth—but the Earth of today and not whatever it was when he’d actually been living on it. She’d told them that he was part of a colony of Earth survivors that had existed there since ancient times and that he had been trained in various simulations which was why he held so much knowledge about the world of adventuring. She’d also told everyone that Jimmy’s colony was destroyed by a boss spawn and that he was the only survivor, and that she’d shown up too late to rescue the others or something like that. It really was clever on her part, and it seemed to be doing the trick.
Lienne sat up straighter and looked across the table at Jimmy. “No matter what caused it,” she said, “you need to try to quit. And I don’t mean to sound like I’m lecturing you—and yeah, I get it, that’s exactly how I sound—but you’re only two years older than me and Rian and Zach. That’s way too young to be addicted to alcohol.”
Jimmy chuckled. “Not where I come from. And that’s not all I’m into. Fuck it, I might as well just be straight up with you guys. I love drugs, too.”
Zach flinched, and so did Kalana. “D-don’t say it so proudly,” Kalana hissed at him, even going so far as to look around nervously in case other people might be overhearing their conversation. Zach did the same. What kind of maniac would admit to using drugs in public—or at all? Yet from Jimmy’s baffled look of cluelessness, it was almost as though he had no idea how seriously illegal it was to use drugs in Galterra. Even adventurers didn’t touch that stuff.
Did they just let people do drugs thousands of years ago or something?
“Jimmy,” Tena whispered, grabbing his shoulders. “I had no idea you struggled so much. There are so many things I wish you would have confided in me.”
Jimmy laughed, clearly not taking the situation as seriously as it was. “What’s with all these crazy looks? It was just weed.”
“Weed?” Zach asked.
“Yeah, you know.”
“No, we don’t know,” Rian said. “I’ve never heard of ‘weed’ unless you’re talking about the things you need to rip out in your garden.”
Jimmy seemed to find this humorous, because he coughed out several more laughs one after the next. “Look, I am what I am. I love playing games, partying, getting drunk, and smoking weed. That’s not even, like, bad where I come from. That’s normal for someone my age. What’s weird is how ya’ll sit around drinking soda and talking about the news on a Friday night. That’s what’s weird. What I did was pretty normal,” he insisted.
“Well, it’s not normal here,” Kalana said, narrowing her eyes. She leaned over the table and poked him in the shoulder, and from the way he winced, it must’ve hurt him a bit. “No more drugs and alcohol for you if you’re gonna adventure and risk people’s lives.”
“I’m an adult,” Jimmy replied to her, sounding somewhat annoyed. “If anything, until you turn 18, I should be the one telling you what you can—ouch!”
She poked him a second time. “No more drugs and alcohol!”
“I concur,” Trelvor said. “And not simply because Her Highness demands it, but because you’ve been blessed by the Great Goddess, and I cannot have you falter on your purpose because you’re poisoning your mind with alcohol and illicit substances. Seiley and I will help teach you how to be strong the Elvish way if you prefer, but we will not let you fail the Great Goddess.”
Rian nodded. “Yeah, stop failing the Goddess, Jimmy,” he said, overtly pretending to be outraged. “Can you guys believe he’s failing the Goddess?” He waggled his finger at Jimmy. “Drinking is bad for you.”
“So is cholesterol,” Jimmy retorted. Then he grumbled a few words Zach couldn’t hear as though agitated before becoming just a bit more volatile. “You need to shut your bitch-ass up, Rian. Always talking shit. I guarantee your heart gives out way before my liver.”
Though Jimmy spoke the words from a position of anger, and though he was clearly annoyed, Zach was relieved to see Rian did not take his words personally whatsoever—which was good because he’d clearly provoked Jimmy. Thankfully, Rian was basically immune to insults due to his very rough upbringing. He was almost like Vim Alazar in a sense, except unlike Vim, he didn’t often seem to feel the need to escalate, and in this case, he simply laughed off the diss. Jimmy also seemed unwilling to take things any further, and Zach noted the way he now avoided making eye contact with Rian.
Are those two becoming enemies or something?
It was hard to believe that most of them had only known Jimmy for around three days, but as a testament to how much had happened in such a short time, it felt way, way, way longer, and the ice had been broken very quickly, particularly during the time they spent barbequing and swimming together on that first day. Rian, being the chops buster that he was, had quickly gotten to work taunting Jimmy, but Jimmy was starting to snap back at him. Zach hoped it didn’t evolve and become a problem.
Rian and Lienne have no idea what Jimmy’s actually been through. Maybe they’d go easier on him if they did…
It wasn’t that Zach wanted to keep secrets from the siblings. If anything, the opposite was true. From the very outset, it had always been Zach’s intention to take the two of them into the “privacy room” in Angelica’s and reveal to them everything that he’d recently learned. And not even just about Jimmy, but also about the world, the system, and the truth about the Great Ones. Unfortunately, Zach’s deal with Adamus had been struck before he’d gotten the chance, and since part of that deal was to abstain from further spreading his so-called “illicitly gained knowledge” with any additional people, he could no longer tell them what he’d discovered. The same was true for Seiley and Trelvor. Tena was also in the dark about much of it, though she did happen to know slightly more than Rian and his sister such as the real nature of Jimmy’s origin, but she did not know much beyond that.
With a sigh, Zach set his sandwich back down on his plate and then studied Jimmy’s plainly tortured expression. “Do you still feel like you’re up to leading the raid?” he asked.
The question itself seemed to have an outsized, mood-altering effect, because Jimmy’s gloom gave way to a strong look of determination. “Hell yeah I do,” he said. “How could you even ask me that, Zach?”
“It’s just because you seem like you’re…”
“Like I’m what?”
“Struggling a bit.”
“Pfft. Maybe I am, but there’s no way I’m throwing away this second chance. Not when I got the blessing of a guild leader.”
Jimmy had told them all about how Duchess Fiona Darkmae had claimed that she would ensure he got to lead the raid. Zach thought that was nice of her, though he was also a bit skeptical of Fiona—as he was when it came to all of the guild leaders. He just couldn’t be sure if her intentions were actually good, though Kal seemed to like her a lot. The two had somehow become friends after the dragon raid, which in some ways was reassuring considering Kal’s earlier plans to kill every guild leader and rule Galterra.
I’m glad she changed her mind about all that, Zach thought, suppressing a shudder.
Not long after she’d begun gaining levels, Kal had sent him some really crazy texts about “bringing everything back” and “taking down the guild leaders.” She’d seemed nothing like her usual self. But then everything seemed to have changed a second time after her mother returned. Zach’s best guess? Seeing how twisted her mother had become through her ambitions had repulsed Kalana to the point she’d swiftly changed direction and was back to her original stance on being devoutly opposed to killing.
I doubt she would’ve ever gone through with her plans anyway, Zach thought. I just can’t see her doing that.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
As Zach continued to make idle chatter and eat his lunch, his thoughts began to turn towards the T9 raid boss that they’d possibly be going after as soon as a few hours from now. Much like Jimmy and Donovan had anticipated, the moment they’d pulled off the gigantic, equine monster and gained some distance—thanks to Jimmy’s slows—it had abruptly halted, turned back to its original color, and calmly walked back to its spawn point, which in this case was the rubble and ruins of a specialty shop that only sold area rugs about two miles east of here.
At the moment, Zach, the adventurers, and a select number of guild members from Children of Order were coordinating inside of a diner located in a small strip mall containing just the diner, a hardware store, and a place that tutored children who were struggling with math and reading. The strip mall itself was just off one of the main roads, and due east of here was the market-square district that had been badly, if not completely, destroyed by the T9 world boss, which was now standing in its spawn unmoving, frozen, and waiting for someone to challenge it.
Incredibly, news of this had not leaked out. For the first time, Zach was able to see guild censorship working in real time. As terrible as it was, he couldn’t help but be impressed just on the basis that the guilds actually managed to contain this sort of information so successfully, as there were hundreds of level-1 witnesses out there that were aware of its existence, which was many more than there might have been if Jimmy had not come along. Though Jimmy had failed to protect—and likely was the cause of—the destruction of much of their property, he was also responsible for saving a great number of their lives.
Now, even as Zach removed his phone and carefully scanned all the news both regional, local, and North-Bastian-wide, he could find no references anywhere to what was happening. Almost everything was devoted to talking about the war, with news of the “glorious, Gods-inspired victory” serving as the dominant headline. With the sole exception of Tomb of Fire, which was now the last remaining region controlled by the Guild of Gentlemen, the rest of North Bastia was likely erupting into celebrations as they were rapidly beginning to learn that their collective terror had ended and that the biggest current threat to their lives—and world stability—was safely behind them.
Amid this news, the rescue of Vim was also close to the top of the headlines, and so too was Zach himself and the role he’d played in it. Numerous articles were referring to him as “Sir Calador,” the “newly promoted fourth-in-command of the Royal Roses.” He rolled his eyes at all that.
Curiously, he searched various social media sites for phrases such as “boss spawn” and “Faded Island boss” to see if anything came up. Sorting the posts in order from newest to oldest, he was surprised to see that a few did in fact pop up relating to the T9 boss, and even more surprisingly, there were several pictures and videos as well. Not many, of course, but a few. This meant that if a significant enough number of people all spammed at once, some posts would get through the censorship.
And yet…none of these posts were gaining any traction. Zach couldn’t be sure, but he guessed that, as a secondary measure, the social media algorithms were able to suppress their rise to the top by preventing them from appearing automatically on feeds or gaining more exposure. In other words, these posts might as well not have existed at all, as they had no means of spreading. There were also accounts that Zach took to be bots replying and calling them fake or manipulated. To the very few people who might somehow possibly stumble across these posts, the combination of the bot accounts calling them fake along with the fact that the news media wasn’t reporting any of the information—it would likely be enough to convince them it was indeed not real.
The guilds really know how to keep these things secret.
The Children of Order, for their part, had apparently evacuated everyone within two miles of the boss and, in conjunction with regional peacekeepers, were preventing anyone from getting close enough to see the boss or become aware of its existence. For this reason, Zach knew that they were eager to have the adventurers take care of this today and not put it off for later. The longer the boss remained alive, the greater the chance the information could break out into the general public. It also led to the possibility of a new term that Zach had only heard a few minutes ago for the first time from a member of the Children of Order.
Aggro terrorism.
Supposedly, every so often during a boss spawn, a level-1 lunatic would go and piss off the boss then intentionally run it through civilian areas just to cause chaos and mayhem. And this, apparently, was something that had happened all across North Bastia on multiple occasions. Zach found this hard to believe—at least until he thought about it. Sadly, he realized he actually could picture people doing something so stupid and horrible.
“…which is why we need to make sure nobody gets through. The last thing we need now is to deal with aggro terrorism,” a young, red-haired member of the Children of Order said to her colleague. The two were standing fairly near to Zach’s table, so he was able to discern their words amid the raucous noise coming from the adventurers in the diner.
“We’re calling up all the peacekeepers we can. But there are a whole lot of ways people can get in.”
“I know, but as long as we—”
Whatever the guild-member had been about to say became drowned out as the entire diner suddenly erupted into a loud, boisterous bout of cheering and hollering, which came across to Zach’s ears as both genuine and also filled with mockery. Confused, he looked around to see what was going on—and then he found the source of it all. Mr. Oren, now bedecked in his white lab coat, cat-eye glasses, and the rest of his adventuring gear, had emerged from the bathroom, having cleaned himself up. All of the blood was now gone from his face and other areas of exposed flesh.
“There he is!” Donovan shouted. “We knew you’d be back, you bastard! The real you!”
Mr. Oren ignored him and strolled his way through the diner. In his eyes, Zach could see that it was only his clothing that had changed. He also looked uncomfortable as though the adventurers were getting the wrong idea about him—which clearly, they were. His old adventuring outfit was likely the only thing he had in storage that he could wear that wasn’t coated in other people’s blood. That much was obvious. But to the adventurers, they were taking it as a sign that he was destined to return to them.
They should’ve known better.
As Mr. Oren ventured farther into the diner in the direction of the entrance, Kalana shouted out to him. “Sit with us, Alex!”
He paused in place, turned his head, and then even as the adventurers continued to shout, mock, and in many cases, genuinely cheer him on, he seemingly ignored all of it and moved over towards where Kalana was sitting next to Zach.
“Your table’s full,” he said.
“Every table’s full. Pull up a chair!”
“Are you sure, Kalana?”
“Mhm!”
He nodded as though grateful. “All right.”
He looked around as if to search for a chair. None were available, and there was no way an adventurer was going to give one up—not to him, at least. But then Zach noticed that, almost in unison, every member of Children of Order stood upright and made a motioning gesture towards their seat. At first, this struck Zach as odd, but then he realized that, as the third-ranking member of the Lords of Justice, he was a world leader and a man of incredible importance. Thus, while his status and stature had essentially cratered among the adventurers, they had risen proportionally among the political guilds, who respected his rank and status in a way the adventurers never could or would.
“Thank you very kindly,” Mr. Oren said to a middle-aged guild member who had practically begged him to take it. The entire thing seemed performative, though, almost as if it was a mandatory back-and-forth in the world of guild politics. It began with Mr. Oren refusing to take the seat despite clearly wanting it, which then led to the guild member insisting otherwise, and it was only after repeating this act three or four more times that Mr. Oren finally accepted. And so, with that, he slid the chair up to the edge of the table so that Lienne was to his left and Rian was to his right, and then he began to greet each of them individually.
“Jimmy, it’s good to see you again,” he said.
“Hey, you too.”
This round of greeting continued on until he hesitated when getting to Rian and Lienne, who regarded him with open disdain. Lienne crossed her arms, and Rian just had a general look of nastiness to him. The siblings had never liked Mr. Oren, and they seemed to like him even less now than they had before. Thankfully, however, neither of them said anything that would make the situation between the three of them any more awkward than it already was.
“Do you wanna get something to eat?” Kalana asked. “I can ask Fi if she can get the chef back in here to make ya something.”
Mr. Oren held up his palm as if to politely decline. “That’s all right.”
“Are you sure? I only ask ‘cause I know it wouldn’t be a problem for them to—”
“Truly, I’m not hungry at all right now, Kalana. But I really appreciate the concern.”
“All right, if you say so.”
Mr. Oren looked around the table, his eyes moving from face to face before settling on Zach’s. When they did, they became demanding in an uncomfortable sort of way. Although he was typically a pretty serious guy, Mr. Oren took on a heightened look of seriousness that caused a prickly sensation to spread all over Zach’s shoulders and back. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what Mr. Oren was about to tell him.
“Congratulations on your promotion, Sir Calador,” he said. “I’ve only just heard the news, my man. You’ve just become the youngest member in the history of the Royal Roses to hold a rank that high. Well done. You’ve earned it.”
Zach’s feeling of discomfort became much greater as his brain registered the words Mr. Oren had spoken to him. It suddenly required effort on his part not to squirm or look away. “Thanks, but uh, you’re taking that whole thing a bit too seriously, don’t you think?”
“Am I?”
Zach released a laugh, though it was more to calm his uneasiness than for reasons of amusement. “Well, yeah. You were an adventurer until a recently, so you know that it’s not actually real, right? This is just something that happens to adventurers sometimes and that we have to play along with.”
Mr. Oren held his gaze, and if anything, it became even stronger and sharper as he continued to stare at Zach. “Obviously, I’m well aware that, on occasion, when adventurers unintentionally end up in the news, a guild might claim them as a member in order to explain their existence to the public and maintain public order. Though not exactly a common occurrence, it happens from time to time.”
Zach nodded. “Right, so then, why are you acting like this is—”
“Because this is different,” Mr. Oren replied immediately. “Zach, I don’t know where exactly the line is between pretend-member of a guild and genuine one, but you’ve most certainly crossed it by now. You can’t storm a battlefield to rescue your guild leader or hold an impromptu press conference in the capital of humanity and then dismiss it all as ‘playing along.’ Surely, you must realize this by now.”
Firmly shaking his head, Zach tried to keep himself from shouting in response. “Nothing’s changed. I’m still an adventurer. I’m not really a member of the Royal Roses. It’s just not…it’s not true.”
“That’s right,” Rian said, chiming in with agreement. So too did Lienne and Tena. Jimmy stayed silent, and Trelvor and Seiley looked as though this conversation was of no concern of their own, and neither of the two seemed to be paying any attention to it at all. Kalana, however, had her bottom lip curled and her eyes lowered as though in deep contemplation. She looked troubled, and Zach could not ascertain if she agreed or disagreed with what Mr. Oren was saying to him.
His eyes still focused solely on Zach, Mr. Oren pushed his chair just a little closer towards the table and then leaned slightly forward. “Whether you meant to do so or not, Zach, you’ve taken on a responsibility that you can’t simply throw away. But please understand this doesn’t mean you have to quit being an adventurer.”
“It doesn’t?” Zach asked, genuinely surprised to hear him say this.
“Not at all. Peter IV had the buff. Right now, I have the buff. If you still feel like an adventurer at heart, you don’t actually have to rid yourself of it. The reason I’ve chosen to do so is simply because it no longer reflects who I am inside, and that’s a personal choice I decided to make—a symbol of my commitment to my guild and to humanity, if you will.”
He does have a point there, Zach realized. But then he became irritated, although it was for an entirely different reason.
“Varsh killed my dad,” he said. “You didn’t forget that, did you?”
“Of course not. How could I? We fought him together. But he’s dead now, and it’s only fitting you take his place and everything that once belonged to him.”
Zach slowed his breathing to keep his emotions in check. “What makes you think I want anything that piece of shit touched? Forget for a second the fact that I don’t even want to be a member of any political guild in the first place, no matter which one, and let’s also forget for a second that, well, that I don’t even like the political guilds…” He paused to breathe. “Even if in some alternate universe I decided to join one, what in the name of the Gods would make you think I’d go with the Royal Roses?”
“Because you already have, Zach. You just don’t fully realize it yet.”
Upon these words, Zach pressed his lips together and fought even harder to keep his temper from rising. He wasn’t sure why he felt such a great sense of restless agitation. Maybe it was because there was some truth to what Mr. Oren was saying—truth that he would much prefer to be false. But all of this only served to remind him of how complex a path he was now finding himself on. Lately, the idea had been growing on him that he could not simply ignore the problems of the world in the way that the other adventurers did, nor could he pretend he wasn’t part of it. Yet, at the same time, he still valued his own independence. But how could that even work? How could he eschew the governing bodies of society while also contributing to issues he deemed to be of importance?
“I appreciate the congratulations,” Zach said to him after a moment of self-contemplation. “But I’m not sure why you’re bringing this up now.”
Up until this point, Mr. Oren had worn a very serious expression that strongly suggested he had something to say that would upset or annoy Zach. And now, Zach finally discovered why. Mr. Oren slowly moved his upper lip back and forth across his lower one as if carefully choosing his words before deciding to speak them. When he did, Zach felt his stomach sink.
“After we’re done here, I think you really should head back to Dal’Zarrah again and sit for a few press briefings to ensure that the Royal Roses will continue to support the families of the dead and wounded, and I think you should state that you’re doing everything you can to ensure that public order is maintained for all people living in Giant’s Fall, even those born in Shadowfall Coast and Tomb of Fire. In every region, we’re seeing mob violence and, in some cases, outright murder of completely innocent individuals based on their region of birth.”
“That’s terrible,” Zach said, already well aware of this. “But how can I possibly do anything?”
Mr. Oren’s expression somehow became even firmer. “Because as the fourth in command of the Royal Roses, you’re in charge of the entire peacekeeper force in Giant’s Fall, Spider’s Eye Oasis, Dragon Squire, and quite possibly also Shadowfall Coast depending on how negotiations over that region’s new controlling guild proceed. You’re also the commanding officer of regional defense, the secretary of your guild’s Bureau of Justice, and the chief warden of all regional prisons.”
If not for the sudden, intensely painful burning pain in his lungs, Zach might not have remembered to breathe. The things Mr. Oren just said to him—they crashed into Zach as though they were a sack filled with bricks that’d been swung at his face. Not only did Zach not know these things, as they were the kinds of minutiae of government he normally didn’t care to learn about, but he still wasn’t even sure what some of them were or meant.
Unable to think of how to respond, Zach failed to reply the first few times he attempted. It was only after Kalana placed her hand on top of his own that he found the means to speak. “I’m only seventeen years old,” he said at last. “I won’t even be eighteen for another three months.”
Mr. Oren nodded. “It’s a very unusual circumstance, my man. I’m not denying that.”
“And I don’t even…I don’t even really know beyond a surface level what most of those things are.”
“That’s okay too,” Mr. Oren said. “A lot of it is handled by bureaucracy.”
Zach coughed out an unintentional, shocked laugh. “I don’t even really know what the word ‘bureaucracy’ means!”
“You’ll learn.”
Like before, Zach shook his head. “This isn’t for me. I don’t know why Vim…I don’t understand why he’d put this on me, but I’m already so close to being thrown out of the adventuring community. I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”
Mr. Oren sighed. “You say that now, but…I think you’ll realize before long what I came around to realizing.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”
Finally, the tightness in Mr. Oren’s expression went away, and now he smiled. “If not you, then who?”