A few more days passed without incident and without much progress on her skills. Mia had hit a wall with her water magic, not being able to improve it. She figured she needed some combat practice with it, but being stuck on a boat meant no fighting, so she gave up and just passively messed with it.

At first she thought it was strange, no monsters out at sea? But upon asking asking Jackie about it…

“Sea monsters stay far away from the geyser, so we take the route next to it.”

…and that was his answer. Outside of the lack of monsters, they had apparently passed by a few ships heading back to Leaffin, from idle chit chat she heard at meals, she was starting to get bored.

“That one, no, the one on the left…yeah that one.”

She had also been stuck managing the ships stocks, they had gone through a lot of it, so much so she was finally able to see the back wall. She moved her ice out of the way, several crew members coming by and picking up the crate and hauling it out of the room. “That’s it?” she asked one of the crew members.

“No, we also need that barrel…that box, and…OH! That smaller one over there.” The crew member, Olly, was one of the two people almost always present down below along with her, the other being Chuck, both humans and both in charge of keeping inventory.

“That one is spice, why did we freeze spice?” Chuck questioned, grabbing the box once it was free from the ice.

“Froze everything, was told to.” Mia protested, everything that was placed in here was frozen by her, wasn’t her fault, if they didn’t want it frozen then it should not have been placed here.

“Yeah~ not the strangest thing we have found here.” Ozzy shuddered “The rat…”

“Oh yeah! The ratcicle, that was a good one.”

“Hm, sad.” She remembered a few days ago they had found a rat frozen between the boxes, obviously dead by now, it was later tossed into the ocean and floated away.

“Ok, that’s it for today’s meals.” Ozzy put his hands on his hips, seeming satisfied “Go ahead and freeze everything up, and thanks again Mia.”

“Yeah, thanks. You were a real life saver on this voyage, wish the captain would hire you on permanently.”

“Welcome, and no, have to get stronger.” She closed off the gaps in the ice, making everything one clean sheet of ice.

Both laughed “right, well, it will be sad. We won’t be able to stock up like this on the return trip.”

“Shame.” Mia shrugged, it wouldn’t be her problem.

The two turned around “Well, we will see you at brea- oh…” Ozzy paused.

“You sure about this, boss?” Chuck asked, taking a few steps back with Ozzy.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Hrm?” Mia turned around, instantly getting what they were so cautious about. Jackie, Fria, and Crim where standing at the base of the stairs, with other crew members spying on the situation from above the stairs.

“Should be fine, right, Crim?” Jackie hit Crim in the back, pushing him forward.

He snapped back, angerly growling before noticing his sister, pleading with him…

“Crim, please.”

“…right” He slowly turned to Mia, gritting his teeth he started to walk towards her, stopping once he was a few steps away from her “..I..”

Mia sighed,’ why is this guy out of his cell? Wasn’t he supposed to be in there for thw whole trip?’ she asked herself, annoyed at this situation. The man was almost three times her height and was stammering worse than she ever did. She looked behind him, towards Jackie, who just solemnly nodded.

“I’m sorry.” He choked out.

“…?” she looked back to him “Ok?” she didn’t care, he was barely a bother to her, just annoying.

“I…we,” he motioned back to his sister “lost our parents, to the church…I, blamed you…I know it wasn’t fair and i-“

“So?”

He looked up “so?! I said I was sorry for attacking you. Blaming you, our pare-“

“Lost mine too.” Mia crossed her arms, her mist spreading in the room “Village, gone. Parents, gone. Sister, missing.” She told a slight fib, she now knew where her sister was, but this guy didn’t need to know that.

Crim went red faced, stammering again but Mia wasn’t having it.

“Never blamed you, never did anything, heading to Lexon to get stronger, to help them.” She spat “again, So?” she was fighting the urge to freeze him in a block and just be done with it, his stammering face pissing her off.

“Wait! Mia!” Fria ran up, forcing Crim to bow with her “Please, forgive him… I know you have been through a lot, we have as well…I’m sorry for my brother.”

Jackie walked up “…didn’t know too much of your circumstances, sorry, all of you going through all this.”

Mia glared at him “Well, don’t forgive.” She turned away from them, heading back to her room.

Fria shot up “W-wait Mia! Please!”

She turned back “Don’t need my forgiveness, do whatever, don’t care.” She opened up the door to her room, giving one final look back to see Crim glaring at her ‘sorry, yeah right.’ She slammed the door.

A few minutes passed, no one disturbing her any further, she figured it wouldn’t be till breakfast until someone did, until then she sat on her bed in her mist filled room, she was mad.

[I’d thought you’d have more sympathy for him.] Ami piped up.

“Don’t you start.” Mia groaned; her pestering was the last thing she needed right now.

[You both came from attacked villages, both losing parents, at least have some sympathy.]

“No, why would I?” she pouted “He attacked me when I didn’t do anything.” She crossed her arms, willing a sculpture of Crim into existence in front of her “Should be happy I didn’t just kill him.” She stared at the ice statue, at first she didn’t mind the assault as it didn’t hurt her at all and she as just so dumbfounded by the situation.

But after getting talked to like that, she thought more about it, and she hated it. ‘It was unreasonable.’

[Hum~ Well, regardless, you have just one more day till you arrive at Lexon.]

She nodded, reaching into her item box and pulling out the bag of coins ‘still need someone to teach me currency…’ it was going to be tough; she had looked them over time and time again, but with her sense of money never having the chance to develop, she might as well have a bag of rocks.

She groaned, shoving the bag back in her box “First Lexon, then dungeon.” She was close, wondering how far she could get before her sister showed up. She had to admit, she was looking forward to her reaction to her being so strong. The thought of seeing her sister again calming her down, just in time as there was a knock at the door.

“Mia! Meal’s on!” It was Ozzy, who as usual knocked on her door to let her know it was time to eat, then left.

“…” She heavily sighed, leaping up from her bed and headed out to the dining hall, grabbing her grub and sitting down in her usual spot like she usually did. But this time she felt someone’s gaze on her, she looked around, trying to find the source, and quickly finding it ‘of course…’ It was Crim, out of his cage and glaring at her from a few tables away.

It was going to be a long final day…