“Curses are the worst, yeah.” Sett picked up a ring, inspecting it for a moment with his low-level appraisal “but, besides the questionable items… to send an assassin after a kid…” he glanced up at the frozen corpse statue, shaking his head.
“Oops.” Mia was reminded that she still might be in trouble for killing him, playing innocent. She did do that when she was half asleep.
“Again, why oops?” Sett sighed “You’re not In trouble, if you left him alive with all these items, he might have gotten out and taken you back to the cult.”
“I wish you’d told me sooner. Could have cleaned up.” Gin complained, staring at the statue “…going to be a pain.”
“Okay…” Mia was relieved, she didn’t want to be stuck in that interrogation room all day again.
Sett stood up “Oh shit! Right! We don’t have time for this!” he quickly looked over the items, glaring at the ring device once he noticed it, grabbing it and shoving it in his pocket “Ah... Mia, normally all this stuff, besides the slave collars and any cursed items would be your property after we appraised them but, we have to go, now.”
“They didn’t have any money on them?” Gin mumbled, looking over the stock before remembering something, running out of the room.
“But, items…” outside of the cursed items, maybe, she did want them… “wait, go?”
“Yeah, I went to the docks early and got you both a job and a ride.” Sett proudly declared “originally I would prefer a kid your age to just get a passenger seat but… so many people are fleeing…” he looked sad for a brief moment, before shaking it off “if you want them that badly, take what you can carry, wait till you are at Lexon, and get them appraised there.” He paused, then stated sternly.
“Ah, ok…” she looked over them, her inventory was full so she’d have to carry them by hand… the necklace that gave ice resistance was an obvious no-go, along with the drought ring, so that just left the 3…only 3? She didn’t care for the weapons, the sword was neat and the crossbow was too big for her and she laughed at the idea she even remotely needed the daggers, so she picked up the remaining 3 accessories.
[You have pockets.]
‘I do?’ she checked over her clothes, indeed, she had pockets. She shoved the 2 rings and a necklace into her pocket.
“Nothing else? Well, guess a mage doesn’t need all these weapons.” Sett shrugged, moving towards the door where he bumped into Gin.
“Mia! Breakfast.” Gin pushed past Sett, presenting Mia with a small bundle “Sorry, could not go all out. But, hope you have safe travels.”
Mia took the bundle, opening it slightly to peer inside “Sandwiches.” Her mouth parted in a slight smile “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Alright, let’s go let’s go!” Sett clapped “They wanted to shove out an hour ago, so we are already late!”
Mia nodded “Bye, Gin.” She said her farewell, before running after Sett.
“Thanks again for looking after her with so short notice…I’ll send a cleanup later for, that.”
“Yeah, no problem, now hurry! Before they leave her and you have to pay for another nights stay.” Gin said, watching them as they left his inn.
The two ran down the docks after saying their farewell, Sett nervously laughing to himself “hope they didn’t…” the two navigated the pier, which was a lot busier than it was the night before, a lot of shouting and moving, ships coming in and out, and general chaos with how many people were moving about.
It made Mia a bit dizzy, the first time she was surrounded by this many people.
“Mia, keep close.” Sett said, staying behind her so she doesn’t get lost. At first he tried to hold her hand but he was unable to hold on, her temperature too low, so he resorted to guiding from behind.
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“Ship, what job?” he had mentioned he had gotten her a job, she was curious, watching people carry large crates with twice their size with just one arm, or even larger crates between two people ‘strong… I can’t do that.’ She worried he wanted her to do something like that.
Sett glanced around, brightening up “There it is, still in port.” He pointed to a gigantic ship that stood out among the rest, it being made out of metal as opposed to wood “so, with your job… don’t get offended or anything but… ah, better for the captain to explain.” He shook his head, leading her with increased pace down the docks.
“Eh? Offended?” what job could it possibly be? She’s done a lot of cleaning before so that wouldn’t be so bad… unless she needed to clean bathrooms… she also couldn’t really work with water as she is now, so hopefully it wasn’t that.
“Oh, not that bad, sorry, just nervous. This was a last second thing.” They rushed through the crowd, finally coming up to the ship in question.
Mia glanced up, amazed at it’s size, it dwarfed the other ships next to it, and it was made of metal? How did it float? How did it move? Mia was taken aback, awestruck, only taken out of it as they approached a shouting man giving orders to people lifting packages and crates up into the ship using ropes and cranes.
“Hey~! Captain Jackie! I brought the girl!” Sett shouted, trying to get the man’s attention.
The Captain in question was wearing a stylish blue suit, decorated with a few medals on his chest. He was tall and thin, with pointed ears like Maria’s “Get the new shipment into the hold! Tie it down! Ford stop slacking! Ti stop riding the fucking boxes and get to work! We leave in-“ he noticed the two approach, turning back to his crew “Thirty minutes! Ti! Go get away crew! We have enough!” He shouted towards Ti, a cat beastkin who gave them a salute atop a box being carried by 2 other men, then they hopped off the box and ran into town.
“So, this the ice mage girl?” Jackie faced them once more, inspecting Mia “… seems a bit young for what you sold her up to be.”
“Hello, Mia.” Mia waved.
“Captain jackie,” he then motioned towards her “and what’s with the mist?”
“Yeah, she is young, but she is also the one that froze a bunch of crazy idiots at the front gate yesterday.” He then shrugged “And, we don’t know. Hard to get information out of her.” He glanced down at her “Can you turn it off?”
“No.”
“Can’t turn it off.” Sett’s shoulder’s slumped “But I didn’t lie, she’s freezing cold… nearly gave me a fucking frost bite just holding her hand…”
“Sorry…”
Jackie burst out laughing “Well, if she’s as cold as that, and was responsible for the gate, then I don’t have to regret my increased food stock.” He nodded towards the crates being loaded into the ship, a few boxes remaining. “Honestly, it saves me and my crew.”
“Hm? Oh, job?” she had something to do with food?
“Oh? Didn’t tell ya?” His eyes shifted to Sett, who shrugged.
“Thought it was best for you to…I didn’t want her to get upset when this is already short notice.”
“Tch.” Jackie clicked his tongue “Yeah alright, sure.” He popped his neck “Don’t know why they get uppity about it either, So Mia, ever been in a fridge before?”
Mia crooked her head to the side, her ears flicking atop her head “Fridge?”
“Riiight, food storage. During ship travel food can get a bit dicey, especially perishables, if you want anything fancy and not stuck eating dried meat and crap rations for a week you need a fridge.” He flicked his thumb back behind him “A magic tool sized storage that is powered by a magic stone. Alternatively, you need a *fridge*…an ice mage willing to spend all their mana attending a food storage area, keeping everything cool or frozen, for a week.”
He sighed heavily “Well, we couldn’t find a magic stone in time, some bastard bought all the big ones up. And our replacement mage we hired through the guild suddenly vanished, so miss Mia.” He knelt down to eye level with her, the best he could “up for the job?”
‘That’s it? Easy.’ Mia nodded “yes, can.” She questioned why she would get offended by this…
He smirked “Good.” He clapped, standing up “But, first things first, before you accept the job and I get stuck with a bunch of rotten food, we need a fairly large room to be kept at about, just above freezing for a week, freezing everything would be preferred but we can ration it. Be honest, the room is about…here…to here…” he mapped out a large room on the dock, a decent sized square of a cargo hold “Think you can do it?”
“Easy.” Mia confidently said, freezing stuff was her specialty. She raised her hands and ga-
“Nononono, no!” Sett yelled “Not on the pier!” he waved his hands back and forth in a cross pattern “Look, Jackie, if she says she can do it, she can, I do not want my men cleaning up a giant block of ice.”
“Smaller?”
“No! no ice blocks!” Sett desperately pleaded.
Jackie laughed “Fine, then how about…those.” He pointed towards 3 unloaded crates “she just has to keep them cool, but she…can…oh…huh.”
Mia had frozen them solid moments after they were pointed out to her, desperately wanting to freeze something after being denied her giant ice block “Done.”
“That it is…” Jackie watched his crew start to gather around the frozen crates stuck in a layer of ice, unsure how to load them now “and uh, you can do that for all of them? How’s your mana?”
Mia checked “Full.” The mana cost from her freezing blast already recovered ‘didn’t cost much though… 12? Maybe?’
[It was 4.]
‘Hooooo’ completely negligible.
“…Hey Sett?” Jackie slowly turned to him, expecting some answers.
“If you question it too much, things will get complicated, and you will be stuck in port for another hour or two… “
“Right!” he clapped his hands, then spun on his heels to address his crew “Crew! Say hello to our newest member who will keep all our food fresh and preserved, Mia!” he shouted, everyone cheering in response.