I looked to Rethi, eyebrow raised but he could only shrug—disappointment practically etched upon his features. It seems like he knew what was going to happen, or at the least had a good idea that it wound. I waited a moment, thinking the course of action I should take.

She made it obvious that she wasn’t too pleased with having visitors, no matter what their purpose was. But we also needed this carer, really badly. There was no time for me to spend on playing games like this, not only would I be jeopardising the mental health of someone I was directly responsible for, but also putting his mother in physical danger. So, I sucked in a deep breath and knocked on the door loudly once again.

This time it took Arren Smithe about half the time to get to the door. The ruddy wooden panel swung open violently, revealing a scathing gaze directly pointed at me. I was given a death glare, rivalled only by Shae herself. We locked gazes for a moment, her eyes boring into my soul—trying desperately to wound me with her eyes alone. But, despite the raw anger in her eyes, I felt nothing.

This was one of those times that I definitely knew that something was different about me. Now that I had been transported here, anyway. This was beyond the simple, ‘I can stay awake for an indefinite time period’. That was far more tangible. But this… I was staring an infuriated person right in the face—usually you would feel the heat climb up your neck, your body automatically preparing itself for aggression or incoming physical harm.

But here I was, cool as a cucumber, as tacky as it sounded. It was strange, I was acutely aware of this, yet those emotions and the physical response I expected never came.

“Good afternoon, Mrs Smithe.” I said calmly. Her death glare increased in intensity, somehow. She looked about ready to spit on me but she seemed to think better of it. She then tried to slam the door.

But as the door closed, I stuck out my foot, catching the door. The door wasn’t heavy, and my shoe and relative bodily resilience stopped it from hurting. But as my foot abruptly stopped the door, Arren’s body was harshly flung in my direction.

I would have easily been able to catch her in a hug, but that sounded like a poor idea. I can’t imagine she would take too kindly to that. So instead of a hug, I stuck out one hand that quickly collided with her shoulder. I firmly grabbed a hold of the woman’s extremely bony frame and easily stopped her from falling any farther towards me, or towards the ground.

She was very unsteady, the only anchoring point that she had keeping her upright was my onw grip on her shoulder. Turns out that I was really damn strong, and I could basically hold most of her bodyweight with one hand at an awkward angle. One of the most surprising and also most stark displays of my newfound physical prowess.

Problem; she didn’t like being held. Not that I blamed her, but the moment that I let go I could tell that she was going to fall over. So, I did the only thing I could think of and I held her there awkwardly like you would hold a cat by the scruff of their neck—hoping desperately that they’d get the clue and calm down and not go mad and scratch up my hands.

The moment that she had found adequate footing, I let go immediately. She looked up at me, scowl on her face. She didn’t need to say anything, the look told me everything I needed to know. I powered on anyways.

“Mrs Smithe. We have a situation that is quite important, and it seems that you are the only person that is qualified to help us.” I said, playing it general. She retreated back into her doorway but didn’t immediately slam her door on us. That was a good sign, I think.

“Find someone else.” She said, scorn dripping from her voice like poison on a razor-sharp blade.

“There isn’t anyone else that can help us. The only other person that could possibly help has the rest of the town to attend to.” She looked at me quizzically, scorn still present but curiosity winning out in the end.

“We have a lady that needs to be cared for quite heavily. At the moment, the person who normally takes care of her is unable to do so due to his work requiring his presence. This means that she is going largely unattended at the moment, which also means that she’s dangerously alone and without support.” I looked at her deep in the eyes, trying to examine what she was feeling. I could sense more inquiry within her but let her manifest it before I pushed further.

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“Taking care of someone? I’m hardly qualified. Go talk with Master Gram.” She said shortly. She seemed about ready to close the door on us again, so I quickly interjected.

“He told us to come to you.” I said, stopping her in her tracks. I could almost see her ears prick up as she turned towards us, eyes sceptical. “I have been led to believe that your late husband had the same disease that this lady has. That is the only qualification that we need.”

The woman stopped cold—I had hit a nerve obviously. It was basically impossible to not hit one, so I wasn’t surprised when I did. There was silence for a moment while her face whirred with minute expressions. Not a word was spoken between all of us, but I didn’t dare look away from the woman in fear that she might just decide to disappear into her house. I managed to glimpse Rethi out of the corner of my eye, looking extremely worried—his body language fraught with anxiety. He was wringing his hands nervously and silently shifting from foot to foot. He didn’t seem nearly as dejected anymore, but now I had his hopes up.

“Why would I help you?” The silence was broken. Her voice was raspy now, devoid of emotion. It was cold and callous. I imagine that this was because I mentioned her husband. But I only shook my head.

“It isn’t me that you are helping. It’s him.” I waved my arm in the direction of Rethi, who was suddenly put on the spot. His eyes went wide as the woman’s attention was suddenly turned to him. He didn’t know what to do with himself. He looked to me, as if he were begging me to save him from her attention, but I simple smiled. It took him a moment to realise that I was asking him to tell her about his mother. He looked down to his hands, not confident enough to meet her eyes.

“My mother… Shae Orsen. She got Rhy disease a few years ago. It wasn’t so bad at the start, but it got worse and worse, now… she can’t even eat properly anymore. Even if she does, it’s like it does nothing” He paused heavily, implying that there was a whole lot more than just eating that she had difficulty doing. He soon picked up again, his voice rough with emotion, but almost a little hopeful, “I finally managed to get a job that will allow me to support her, maybe even be able to buy treatment if there is any that Master Gram can get. But I can’t take care of her and work at the same time, I need someone to help me.” He slowly began to look up from his hands, a slowly began to meet the gaze of Arren Smithe.

There it was. The real kicker. Crying beggar boy asking desperately for help. I don’t mean to make it seem like I was forcing Rethi into this uncomfortable encounter to scam some lady into helping his mother, but damned if it wasn’t a good marketing tactic.

“Please?” He asked with all the sincerity that the world had to offer.

“I-I…” The woman was extremely flustered. It seemed that her emotions had come back full force, forcing her to battle with both the situation at hand and the emotional tornado inside. Crying beggar boys tended to have that sort of effect I assumed.

But what I wasn’t expecting was for her to say, “I’m sorry!” And to then close the door on us, right in our faces.

The reaction was almost immediate. Rethi’s mood instantly spiralled into deep sadness. I was a little dumbfounded, but I was still basically emotionally untouched, if a little perplexed. I wrapped an arm around the boy and started to direct him away from the door.

I felt terrible, but there wasn’t much that I could really do. The only way to find someone was to do this and the unfortunate consequence of being rejected was this. Tears and sorrow. But the real problem was that there were no more options. There was no other person to turn to. I couldn’t cheer him up by saying that the next one could be it, because there was no next one.

“Master Max…” He said, practically sobbing. I pulled the kid closer to me as we reached the road in front of the house. With his head resting against my chest, he sobbed. The pain in each of those terrible, wracking sobs was almost immeasurable. I could feel the helplessness exuding from him. He had no choice. He couldn’t stand by and watch his mother die from neglect, but he couldn’t take care of her and also work at the same time. Not to mention that it was likely that Rethi’s mother wouldn’t take kindly to Rethi showing back up and trying to help again.

“I– I think that I might have to quit, Master Max.” He said, his voice muffled by my shirt. I waited for a moment but ended up merely nodding. There was nothing that I could say, and nothing that I could do. This is what they meant by being stuck between a rock and a hard place, I guess.

We stood like that for a while. Rethi’s sobs slowly became nothing more than mere whimpers. It was heartbreaking. But I had big things that I needed to do, and I won’t be able to help Rethi more than I already am. Something that I deeply regretted.

I peeled the kid away from me and grabbed a hold of his shoulders. Looking him deep into the eyes, I could only smile. He was a smart kid, smarter than most. He didn’t have many ways to show it, but you could see it in his eyes. Just that little glint of intelligence that you can’t find in everyone. I wanted more than anything to see that glint turn into a raging inferno, just like I know it would.

“Alright, kid. Let’s get moving. No use hanging around here.” I said, pushing gently against his back. We moved down the road towards Mayer’s home once again. This time there was a distinct air of melancholy. I guess even Champions had to have bad luck every now and then otherwise-

“Wait!” I heard a loud bang of a door slamming open and then the distinct sound of someone running on the gravel road behind me. I turned my head, momentarily surprised. But when I did, I couldn’t help it. I felt it rise up from my stomach and into my throat. It burst out of me with more force than I’ve ever experience before.

I laughed. I laughed a delighted, gleeful laugh.