Chapter 23 - Worming her way inside
"So Riko, where do you live?" Tanya asked, staring up into the sky and enjoying the view of real clouds. It was an innocent question to gauge her standing in society. Perhaps this girl could be useful to her.
"Um, in the Belchero Orphanage."
"Ah, yes." she pretended to know that place. "And how old are you?"
"Nine!" the girl declared proudly while adjusting her glasses.
"You look like a lovely girl Riko. I am sure you have many friends in the city do you?"
"N-no. We aren´t supposed to go too far from the orphanage yet, so I haven´t met too many people. B-but I know Leffi! She´s the best! I think we are friends... Although she is friends with everyone..."
"Mmmhh." hummed Tanya noncommittally. "How old is Leffi then?"
"Um, twenty? No, that can´t be... thirty? I don´t know... But she´s really pretty though!"
Wonderful. A potential source for more information about the city then. Being well knowledgeable about Orth would be necessary if she wanted her father's project to succeed. You never knew how trustworthy children's stories were so she would not rely on Riko for too long. On the other hand children were inconspicuous enough to get into a lot of places unnoticed, because nobody took them seriously. Perhaps some of the orphans would be willing to spy for her in exchange for small gift? Tanya still remembered what she had done in her orphanage to get even a scrap of food.
"That´s nice. So you said you wanted to be a delver, is that right?"
"Yes! More than anything! I want to be a White Whistle someday like my mom! Just imagine all the cool things I will discover and... and the super awesome adventures I'm going to experience!"
She could only shake her head at this foolish naivety. Thankfully the overexcited girl didn´t notice as she spun her tales of the fantastical, fairy tale version of what she imagined work in the Abyss to be like. Tanya wanted to tell her that there was nothing fun about bleeding from every orifice in your body or nearly getting your head bitten off by a giant snake, but she refrained from doing so. As long as Riko was enamoured with the fantasy version of what a delver did then she would hopefully cling to Tanya´s every word and not become suspicious.
Finally after her little monologue had ended she inquired after the fact that she was most curious about:
"So your mother was a White Whistle? What was her name?"
It sounded like an innocent question, but only an idiot would answer it. From what she heard White Whistles were treated like celebrities and exposing yourself as the child of one could make you an easy target for many who wished to extort such an influential figure.
"She is as White Whistle! Lyza the Annihilator is the greatest delver there is! She is not dead. I know it!"
"Aha. That is fascinating. Yes, she is pretty famous." Tanya smiled with all the enthusiasm she could muster.
"Not to mention that nobody has seen her for long time." she added in her thoughts. The Annihilator even had books written about her! Alone the information that she had a child would be worth the journey through the Abyss if she sold it to the right people. (Not that she intended to do that if she could exploit this situation in her favour.)
"I can´t wait till she visits me again! She´s always so long down there that I nearly forget her face. Haha."
Choosing her career over her family in this time period could not have been an easy decision. Female delvers were a thing, but the traditional image of woman as loving mothers and housewives was very much still existent. Although one´s perception of time could become weirdly distorted in the deeper layers of the netherworld Tanya estimated the current era to be comparable to the 1920s from her homeworld. Props to Lyza for valuing her personal independence more than her spawn. She would have done the same.
"Come let us get back to your home Riko. I bet your caretakers are already worried about you."
"Oh! You´re right Rose! We have to hurry!"
And so they ran as fast as their nine year old legs could carry them.
∞•۞˂Jiruo´s point of view˃۞•∞
"Ahhh..." he sighed in frustration.
Riko had gone missing again. This time she had obviously lost something dear to her and then when she couldn´t find it she had stormed out the door and ran into the city. Typical. It was already getting dark outside and she had not returned which made him worry immensely.
Had something happened to her? Did she stumble and fall off a cliff in her usual clumsiness? Was she kidnapped? Wounded? Stuck in a tree?
Maybe he really should have chased after her. His negligence had cost poor Riko whose mother he had promised to keep safe. Damn it!
Enough. Jiruo would not wait any longer while a child under his care was in danger! If he found her then the punishment would be-
Exactly in this moment the girl in question slipped in through the backdoor he had been watching and froze when she spotted him. She was panting and red in the face as if she had just ran a great distance. The location of the sun had probably told her that she needed to come back and she had sprinted all the way.
"Riko where were you? Do you have any idea of how much trouble you are in?"
Before a sound could leave her open mouth a second presence slid up behind her into the light.
"Excuse me kind sir, but I believe it was my fault that Riko here lost track of time. Had I not engaged in her in conversation then I am sure she would have been punctual for curfew. I humbly beg for your forgiveness." the figured said with a bow.
He couldn´t make out their features under the cloth that they wore around their mouth, but the voice and the long, blond hair clearly identified the stranger as a girl. Wait... was that a red whistle around her neck? And why was she so formal? She didn´t look any older than Riko.
"And who might you be?" he asked impassively.
"You may call me Rose. I am a simple Red Whistle delver, returning from an expedition to the Subterranean Bandits."
Ozen´s group? They had a somewhat bad reputation when it came to undercutting prices on the market and some had accused them of stealing in the past, although nothing could be proven. Nothing too scandalous, but that she associated with them could mean a number of nasty things. There was no need for her to put dangerous suggestions into Riko´s head.
"Then who is your teacher Rose?"
"Ah, the Black Whistle Tunigoru. He is a wonderful instructor and very knowledgeable about the flora of the Abyss. "
Jiruo had never heard of this person which made him wary, but foreign delvers arrived all the time and some explorers stayed in the deeper layers for years. It was absolutely possible that this person had been longer in the Abyss than he even was alive! So he would trust Rose´s word for now.
"What is your business with Riko?"
"I don´t have many friends, you know? We just ran into each other and got immersed in a thrilling conversation. I decided to follow her home, because I was curious to see this part of Orth. I have never been here before and I wanted to look around a bit."
Somehow the response sounded stiff as if practiced. Maybe he was just imagining things. This only was a small girl after all. Despite those eyes looking older...
"Where is your master then? Shouldn´t he be with you? "
"He has a few things to handle at the other end of town. I went around exploring and got lost a little." Rose said, looking at the ground.
Riko chose to chime in: "Oh please Leader can she stay for tonight? It´s already night and you don´t want her to get home through the darkness, do you? I promise I will take good care of her! Please?"
Although he would not admit it under pain of death, those big, hopeful puppy-dog eyes were wearing down his resolve. How could he say no to her without sounding like a heartless monster?
"Fine. But you will wash her bed clothes. And don´t think that I forgot your punishment! Tomorrow, I want you at my doorstep by sunrise!"
"Yayyy!"
"My thanks, Mr...?"
"Jiruo."
"I hope this will be a moment we look back on fondly Mr. Jiruo." Rose smiled widely.
For some reason he doubted that.
