by Dixon, TJ
“It’s your choice but I hope you don’t regret it.” Rin’s mother says.
“As a former slave myself, the thought of keeping them slaves when I don’t have to is just not worth considering.” I say and so I take them into the town hall again and fill in loads of paperwork, pay the fee and they are free. Only as I am filling out the paperwork though did I realise I didn’t even know both their names! Jenny and Jimmy Hartwood are my new servants. I say that but I’m not exactly paying them. They get use of Hermes old home and I find a job at the Drake for Jimmy that pays well enough for food. I gave them enough to get by with for the few days until Jimmy gets paid. Jimmy and Jenny were quite insistent that they would serve me without being paid more than they need to survive, and right now I can’t afford to pay them anyway.
Chapter 14 (Peter)
It turns out that there is a bounty we can try to collect at the same time as collecting materials today. We will be mining some really useful metal for Rin’s mother and hunting cave bats. They suck blood but as long as you take an anti-curse potion they aren’t too dangerous. They have been causing trouble for the locals though, who can’t make these potions. It doesn’t pay much but the bounty is per bat so if we get enough we can earn a reasonable amount on top of our normal pay.
Hermes has visited the village near the mountain before, so ports us there. This is the first time we will work alongside Jenny so I am looking forward to seeing how well she works as part of the team. We walk to the mountain but it only takes half an hour or so and is a pleasant stroll. We find the entrance to the cave system.
The enemies are easy kills and we want to get lots so we decide to split up, but I want everyone to get used to working together so in the morning Hermes, me and Jenny will work together and Rin, Yu Kii and Lucy will work together. In the afternoon Jenny and Lucy will swap and then in the evening I will swap with Jenny. Jenny protests that she can’t guard me when we are in different groups but I make it clear that when we are on the job my orders need to be followed.
Jenny being the oldest and strongest will carry the metal and Hermes will carry the bag of bat corpses. When we swap we will give both to Rin who can put them in her bag along with what her group finds. We wish each other good luck and head into the tunnel to the east, whilst Rin’s group heads west. Jenny lights the way. The first bat turns to ash and is therefore useless.
“Sorry!” Jenny apologises. “I panicked!”
“I’ll kill the bats, you light the way and Hermes will find the metal.” I say annoyed but not wanting to get upset by one lost bat. The next bat I slice in two and pop in the bag Hermes is carrying. There are lots of bats but it is good practise at using my power efficiently. I am counting and we are at 52 when Hermes calls out to stop.
“It’s very nearby.” She says with her eyes closed. “There it is. It will take a while to get it all out. Give me a minute.” The liquid metal starts to flow from newly formed holes in the wall. It takes a few minutes but eventually she has extracted all the metal and the wall of the tunnel has lots of small holes like worms have been digging.
“Great job.” I say looking at how much Hermes managed to get out.
“Thank you.” Hermes says smiling proudly.
We don’t find any more metal but we are on 167 by lunch time. We port to the cave entrance and have our little picnic that Rin packed. It is simple bread and cold meat but it keeps us going. I ask how many bats Rin’s group got but they weren’t counting. We agree to have a little competition to see who can get the most in the afternoon. The winning group gets to choose what we do on our next proper day off. Since there are three in a group it will be a vote of course.
I port Lucy and Hermes back to where we reached and we start to walk on. I am lighting the way because Hermes needs to focus on her earth sense and Lucy doesn’t have the power to use magic constantly.
“So how did you manage without me?” Lucy asks tongue in cheek.
“Just fine.” I answer, mostly to tease her.
“You could at least pretend to miss your beautiful little pet!” Lucy protests.
“Oh I did!” I laugh.
“Liar!” She laughs back.
“There’s some metal here.” Hermes says.
“Already! We would have reached here if we had stopped for lunch a minute later. We could have dumped it on Rin. Oh well, do you work Hermes.” I say and as it happens there is only a small amount. I am carrying it and Hermes carries the bats. We are on 121 when I feel something in the air. I stop suddenly and Hermes walks into me. My light goes out leaving us in the dark.
“Sorry! Why did you stop?” Hermes asks urgently.
“Quiet!” I whisper. I close my eyes and realise what it is. Bats. Lots and lots of bats. There is a large cavern ahead that is filled with them. There must be at least a thousand of them. I smile and whisper to Hermes. “We just won the competition! Create a light for me but don’t burn any of them.”
Hermes gasps as she creates a powerful light and sees the scene ahead of us. I fill the cavern with lightning being careful not to make it too powerful because I don’t want to collapse the roof. The bats quickly die. We scoop them up but soon realise my bag is nowhere near big enough. Hermes forms a huge stone bucket which we fill and then port back to the entrance with. I then port with Lucy to where Rin’s group had gotten to and quickly track them down.
“What are you doing here?!” Rin asks in shock. “What happened? Where’s Hermes?”
“She’s fine but we can’t carry it all so we need you to port back to the entrance.”
“Weakling!” Rin laughs but ports with me and her mouth goes wide at the sight. “How did you get this many?!”
“There was a whole cavern filled with them.”
“Any metal?”
“Not in the cavern but there’s a small amount in my bag along with some more bats.” I say and point to my bag which is lying next to the stone bucket.
“You can fill the bag.” Rin says.
“Thanks.” I say annoyed.
“I’ll do it.” Hermes says.
“Let’s do it together.” I say.
“I was joking. No need to get worked up.” Rin says and holds the bag open whilst Hermes and I fill it.
“I wasn’t getting worked up.” I say. “It’s sometimes hard to tell when you’re joking though.”
Rin sniffs but doesn’t say anything. She seems to be acting a bit like Lucy at the moment. We finally have all the bats in the bag and part ways again. By dinner time we have another 119 bats and a bit more metal but not much. Rin’s group has 235 bats but the winner is clear. That said Rin’s group has found a lot of metal.
We decide we don’t really need to get any more bats or metal so we port back to the town hall to turn in the bats. The stunned face of the official alone is worth all of our work, but the money is even more welcome. We earn nearly half a gold coin each from the bounty. The metal really pleases Rin’s mother and is much more than she expected. It’s been a good day’s work and we are all pleased with the outcome. I try to get Jenny to accept a small payment for her work but she refuses saying, “All I did was light the way. Even if I had done more I couldn’t accept payment. Jimmy’s wages are enough for us to both live on.”
The next day we go to the town hall to check the bounty notices. At first I am concerned we aren’t going to be able to get in, but then they see Jenny and wave us into the bounty room. I guess having a woman in our group helps. There are an awful lot of bounties and the notices are written directly onto the wall or desk so we are unable to take them with us. There are a few other mages here but they seem to quickly find what they are looking for and leave. I on the other hand am a little lost as to where to start.
“They’re categorised.” Rin says. “Each corner seems to be notices best suited to a particular element. In the centre on those desks are ones that require more than one element, and that desk is ones that require all four elements.”
“What about the o
nes on that desk where that woman is standing?”
“There are only three notices there and they are ones with at least 5,000 gold. The highest is the leader of the fallen angels for 100,000 gold. We’re not going to do those before you suggest it.” Rin says.
“I wasn’t planning to today.” I say. Seeing Rin’s expression I look her in the eye and say. “Or before we graduate and form our company.”
“Perhaps we could then do the 5,000 gold job, but certainly not the dragon or the fallen angel jobs.” Rin says.
“Possibly not the fallen angel, but the dragon one I plan to.” I say.
“Possibly not!?” Rin exclaims. “Putting the dragon aside for now, there is no way we will be taking on the fallen angel, ever.”
“Probably not.” I agree.
“Not just probably.” Rin says darkly
“Regardless lets choose one for today.” I say hastily changing the subject. I hurry over to the desk that requires all four elements before Rin can complain. Straightaway I see one of interest so I point and say. “This one.”
“You don’t need to pick the first one you see just to shut me up.” Rin says sounding a little wounded.
“No. Look at what it is.” I say and Rin takes a closer look before gasping.
“Those creatures! I had hoped never to see them again.”
“It’s just one of them though and it should be good practise. We know they’re tough but we can certainly beat it. The bounty is high too. Ten gold for just one kill.”
“What do we need as proof?”
“Just the head. The rest we can turn to ash or mess up as badly as we want.”
“If we can I’d like to keep the corpse in fairly good condition. My mother may be able to use it for something.”
“I guess if we cut off the head that should kill it. I don’t want to take too many risks though so if we need to damage it then we do. Better that than it damaging us.”
“True.” Rin agrees.
“Everyone else seemed to talk to that woman before leaving. Do you think we need to say we’re going after this bounty?”
“Yes. I think she registers us against it so anyone else knows that there is already someone going after it.”
I approach her but she looks disdainfully at me. In a so superior voice she says, “Only women may register for bounties.”
“Oh. Jenny!” I call out.
“Yes.” Jenny says and walks over to help me.
“We need you to register for a bounty. It’s bounty 5679.” I tell her.
“Please register me for bounty 5679.” She says and the woman looks disapproving but registers her anyway. The monster was spotted at the top of Drake Mountain so I port us to a small cave near the top. It is one we cleared last time we were here and it is still empty. We don’t want to port right on top of the monster.
The plan is to have Rin freeze its legs to the ground whilst I try to slice its head off, and Jenny and Hermes try to burn the neck to ash. Yu Kii will defend us with an earth wall if it breaks free or has an attack that can reach us. If things get too bad I’ll say to port and everyone will port back to the cave immediately. Lucy will provide healing if needed but will hopefully just sit on my shoulder without having to do anything. Naturally if we port back I will take her with me.
Everything seems to be going more or less to plan. Rin freezes its legs without any trouble and I try to slice its neck off but as expected it is too hard to slice. The burning is working but only slowly. Unlike the last one this is not injured and so we need to burn or cut through its outer shell. Giving up on slicing it for now I feed air to the flames, which burn even stronger. We have used a lot of power but its neck armour is weakened a lot by the flames. I slice it again and it is starting to cut through. After a few more cuts the head falls off and it spurts a green liquid. Yu Kii creates an earth wall to stop the green stuff covering us. The wall is partially melted so I am glad she reacted quickly enough.
“We’d best not put this in your bag, Rin. Jenny, could you port back with the head and collect the bounty, then meet us at Rin’s home?”
“Sure.” Jenny says and picking the head up with magic she ports out.
“Rin how about we move this with magic directly to your… What’s that sound?” I ask myself and close my eyes to sense the wind. “There’s a second one above us! Port out!”
We are all back at the cave and breathing quickly at our narrow escape. A few seconds later and we might have been eaten. “You all port back to Rin’s, and take Lucy with you. I’ll get the corpse and port straight back. There’s no way we’ll beat a second one without Jenny and even with her we have used too much power to do it safely.”
“We could just leave the corpse. Perhaps collect it when we come back to kill the second one?” Rin says.
“It shouldn’t be too hard to collect it. If it gets dangerous I’ll port back to you without the corpse.”
“I’d rather you just came back with us.” Rin says but I smile and she sighs. “Fine, but you better come back alive.”
“I will.” I say and watch as everyone ports away. Alone I fly out of the cave and realise the creature has landed next to the corpse. I consider giving up but then I sense something else. There are four people lying on the ground near it, and they are alive. There is something wrong with them though. Their bellies are swollen and I sense something alive inside of them. There is an old man and woman, and two young men. I get the impression they are a family.
“You want to save them, don’t you?” A cheerful voice beside me asks. I almost fall out of the sky in shock!
“Yes. Who are you?” I ask.
“I’m Mayor Perry, and I’m a real mage, unlike you little boy. Leave this to me. I will definitely save them.” She says coming into view. She is holding a wooden barrel and after a moment I realise what it is as she drinks from it.
“Is that beer?” I ask.
“Oh no! I only drink my namesake. Good old perry!”
“What is perry?”
“Like cider but with pears. How much of an amateur are you little boy?”
“At least I don’t drink whilst on the job. Anyway I’m too young to drink! More importantly can you really save them?”
“Just watch me.” She says with a smile, and still smiling she fills the mountain top with flame. After a moment all that is left is ash. “That’s how I save people.” She says still smiling but I am in shock.
“You killed them! How is that saving them?!”
“The only woman amongst them was old enough that she wouldn’t have survived anyway, and death is the saviour of all men. You can look forward to it too.” Perry says with a laugh raising her barrel and then drinking from it before porting away. Furious I land but there is nothing left of the people or the monsters. I curse and port back to Rin’s house.
“What’s wrong?” Rin asks picking up on my distress immediately.
“There were people down there. Perhaps I could have saved them, but that bloody drunkard, Mayor Perry appeared out of nowhere and burnt them to ash along with the monster. All whilst saying she was saving them!” I say and then curse again.
“Were there many people down there?” Rin asks cautiously.
“Four. Two young men with what I assume were their parents. They had something inside them but I am sure we could have saved.”
“You may not have saved those four people but at least they are the last victims of those two monsters.” Rin says.
“What about Perry’s future victims?” I ask.
“She is too much of a monster for us to take on.” Rin says and I suppose she is right.
“Did you get the bounty?” I ask Jenny to try to distract myself.
“Yes. Here’s your portion.” Jenny says and hands me some coins. I don’t count them but instead put them in my coin pouch straight away.
“Let’s train.” I say and we all agree.
I have Jenny help Hermes with fire magic whilst Rin helps Yu Kii with wat
er magic. Lucy shows me how to hide my presence but it is not easy. I will need to work on this for a while before I get the hang of it. We train for most of the rest of the day just breaking for lunch and dinner.
The next morning and we meet at the Drake again. This is going to be another day off so having won the competition the other day it is for Lucy, Hermes and me to decide where we go. I have no idea and Hermes isn’t bothered, as long as it isn’t the same place as before. Lucy feels like visiting her old home so that is our plan.
It is actually very close to the academy so we don’t need a boost but we enjoy a nice drink and breakfast first at the Drake. Jimmy seems very happy to serve us, and unlike some of the other staff here he obviously isn’t scared of us. I enjoy a plate of sausages and the others choose something they like. Jenny seems hesitant but as everyone else is eating she accepts my offer of breakfast. She looks up apologetically at Jimmy but he clearly doesn’t mind.
When we are all finished and ready I port us using Lucy’s knowledge of the location. It is a large mansion near a small village and surrounded by crops. We go up to the front gate and are met by a guard. Lucy being Lucy orders her to, “Fetch Lady Fillia immediately.”
“Who are you?” The guard responds abruptly. She is obviously not too happy at being ordered by someone she apparently doesn’t know.
“Lady Athena.” Lucy replies and the guard’s mouth drops open in shock.
“She died over…”
“Silence fool!” Lucy shouts. “Get Elena Fillia right this second!”
The guard still looks suspicious but ports away and is back after a minute with a tall thin lady. She has the same green short hair and blue eyes as Lucy. Lucy said she was only an adopted member of the family but she looks just like a blood relative. She looks about the same age as Jenny. Perhaps she’s Lucy’s younger sister or niece?
“So who is claiming to be Lady Athena?” She says scowling.
“Long time no see.” Lucy says floating in front of her eyes. She jumps back and her eyes go wide.