Hanleth Interlude: For the sake of relaxation
"Umu!"
The rather loud noise echoed across the field they had been dropped into, he barely flinched at the proximity it was to him.
Though the same could not be said for the others who happened to be nearby, mainly the pained groans from the direction of the others who came down with them. He spared a glance in their general direction, his eyes lingered on the pair of them before it moved away.
"The wondrous smell of my homeland! It is truly a blessing to be back here!"
He tuned out the words of Nero and advanced on Ritsuka and Mash, the two of them glanced in his direction and watched his approach, neither one of them said anything until he was upon them. "Well?"
"Not sure yet." Ritsuka replied, then brought up his wrist. "Romani? What have you got for us?"
The communicator fizzled for a moment, the words of the doctor spilled out a second later. "G-give me a second here, Fujimaru-kun. You only just landed down…but yeah, it looks as though you're close to the last place you were at when there was the whole…spider situation."
Measured words, Ash studied the reaction Ritsuka had to them.
His Master said nothing and gave nothing away, but that spoke more about their effect than anything else. It was just further proof that they were burying their fears, or perhaps they had gotten over them? He could not say for sure, he wasn't certain he was the best person to ask on the matter either.
Instead, he turned his gaze away from them and across the horizon, a great expanse of greenery as far as the eye could see, with a distant smoke rising from the distance. Not high enough to be considered dangerous to anyone, merely the smoke from a town or a village. All it told him was that they were close to civilization.
"Spiders? Eugh."
A slightly disgusted noise from one of their recent arrivals, he kept his expression flat as their presence loomed over his shoulder. Making no visible reaction to them as they appeared, attracting the eyes of both Mash and Ritsuka.
"I never much liked spiders. Too many legs…Not to mention all those rumours about the Chaos spiders getting really big." The voice shuddered for a moment. "Everyone spoke of those at length as something to be wary of, but if they truly pose a danger, then I am certain my blessings shall be potent enough to ward them away."
He took a short step away from the speaker, moving a foot to the left.
His expression remained unbroken.
"Does this mean that the source of the Singularity we detected might be more of those Spiders?"
Mash sounded hesitant, he watched her eyes dart towards Ritsuka for a moment, then back towards the doctor.
It was a small pause before Romani replied. "I wouldn't really rule it out just yet. There is no telling what can happen. We know for a fact that thousands - perhaps hundreds of thousands - of them were bred, if they used living tissue to exist, then they would probably continue to exist without their creator to fuel them. Though we're assuming most were wiped out during the big battle with the giant spider."
Whether Romani had more to say or not, his words were cut short by the boisterous voice entering the conversation.
"It makes no difference!" Nero strutted forwards, snapping and pointing a finger at the man. "Whether these are lingering monsters or some other manner of threat, I shall allow no threat to cause havoc upon my emperor or my people! That much I swear upon my name! So then, come Praetor! We shall find whatever beasts threaten Rome and put them down!"
He stepped back as the Emperor flourished her sword, only just managing to avoid being struck in the face with the flat of the blade, though it remained close enough that he could perfectly see his reflection in the polished crimson steel.
Green eyes moved down the length of the blade, landing on the emerald orbs of the Emperor.
Neither one of them said anything.
Nero silently lowered the sword, turning her head away without making a single sound and clearly pretending as though she had not almost just smacked him in the face with her weapon. Not that it would have hurt, but it was the principle of the matter.
She should be more careful with that sort of thing.
"So…how far are we anyway?"
A tired yawn drowned out the words.
"Because I'm not a walking sort of Goddess, you know?"
Her voice sounded muffled.
Turning around, he glanced down at the speaker, then raised a brow.
Lying flat on the ground, using her arms as a pillow, Hanleth remained unmoving as she flopped across the dirt like a rug. He was a touch bemused by her actions, he assumed she would have just tried to remain standing and spoke of the conditions as being unfitting for one such as her. But clearly she was more interested in whether or not she could actually sleep, rather than anything else.
His lip curled a touch.
"Rayshifts involve physical activity. If you did not plan on engaging in such, then perhaps you should have remained slung out in your den."
Hanleth flinched as though she had been struck, her head craned up and through messy chestnut hair, she looked him in the eyes. Her mouth briefly opened, looking as though she was going to say something.
Except she didn't.
A moment passed, Hanleth closed her mouth and then lowered her head back into her folded arms and returned to her original position.
That was odd.
Was she not even going to defend herself?
…Whatever.
Dismissing her, he brought his focus back to Ritsuka.
The dark haired boy remained silently, disturbingly so. his eyes still fixed on the screen and gazing deep into the eyes of Romani, it reached a point where he was curious to see whether they would react if he snapped his fingers in their face.
Fortunately, they moved before he got the chance to do something like that.
"Alright, so!" With a rather loud voice, Ritsuka turned around and quickly spotted the smoke in the distance. Bringing up a hand and pointing towards it. "That seems as though it would be a good place to start! Good news is that it is still the reign of Nero, so we won't cause any problems with you…I don't think at least."
A beat, then Ritsuka turned back around.
"Actually, this might look like a problem if the Emperor of Rome showed up in some town in the middle of…where are we, by the way?"
"Western France." Romani replied a moment later, then made a small noise before giving a wry chuckle. "Ah, you probably want a bit more than that. You're close to…well, modern day it's called…uhh…Saintes? But back then it would be called Mediolanum Santonum…Which I hope I pronounced correctly…Did I?"
There was a touch of hope in his voice.
"Oh no, that was actually rather terrible." Nero was rather ruthless in the way she bluntly shot him down, then gave a hum. "Though I shall offer you praise for making the attempt. I advise you to work on your latin if you are to pronounce the names of my towns and cities in the future!"
Ritsuka snorted at that. "So then, what do you know about it?"
Nero blinked. "About what?"
"...Santonum. The town that's right over there."
Another blink from Nero. "Why would I know anything about it?"
"..."
"You cannot expect me to know the name of every single town and city that fell under my illustrious rule!" Nero defended, puffing out her cheeks. "I knew all of the important ones, at least. But I was assured that the other towns and cities were well taken care of, so there was nothing to worry about when it came to them! As long as Rome prospered, then that good fortune would filter into these far off towns, yes?"
Ritsuka stared at them for a half second, then shrugged their shoulders and turned away. "I don't know a lot about statecraft. My experience is limited to playing computer games when it comes to that stuff and the choices you get are very limited."
"Games?"
Hanleth's voice echoed out a moment later.
"Anyway, my suggestion is that we take this road." Ritsuka gestured to the road, visibly ignoring the curiosity in the voice of Hanleth, running their hand further along until they were pointing in the distant direction of the town. "And then enter that town. We can ask around to see if there is any sort of problem. We'll probably be able to figure out pretty quickly if something is the matter, won't we?"
If it was the spiders, then the answer was yes.
That being said.
"And what if it is Spiders?"
"..."
"...Ritsuka?"
"Hmm? Did you say something, Ash?"
He raised a brow, certain that he had spoken clearly. "The enemy, what if it is the spiders?"
Ritsuka turned around and maintained their look of innocent puzzlement. "Are you saying something? Because it's just…" they silently moved their left hand to their ear, then moved their right hand away from their opposing ear. Trying to mimic something passing through their head.
…Possibly an arrow?
"Senpai…" Mash sounded rather concerned, earning a light sigh from Ritsuka and a drop of the shoulders from the boy.
"Alright, if it is the spiders we'll just…Just try and rely on yourselves because I don't know how useful I'm gonna be in that situation." His admittance was followed by his shoulders slumping. "So if I pass out, then I'm trusting you to cover for me in that situation, which I realise is a bit of an ask of me…"
"Is this what it feels like to have someone else ask me to do work for them?"
"Yes, now get up. You're embarrassing yourself and me."
The background interaction of Hanleth and Caffrey filtered through his mind.
Quite why either of them showed up to this was a mystery to him.
No, Hanleth was the originator, she wanted to come along for some strange reason and then Caffrey had shown up, declaring that she would ensure that Hanleth actually did something in the first place. He could understand her sentiment, but he would have been able to manage that task on his own.
Or Ritsuka could have managed it.
"I'll do my best, Senpai." Mash nodded, putting on a brave face and giving a single fist pump. "I am ready to protect you, but I'm confident that you should be able to overcome your fears! I will be right there to support you!"
"...Thanks, Mash." Ritsuka sniffed once, then turned around. "Alright, let's move."
"...Can someone carry me?" Another pitiful whine from Hanleth.
Ash turned his head to the sky, staring at the sun for a few moments.
With a grunt, he turned around and marched towards the downed Goddess, brushing past Caffrey as they were just about to start chiding her. He reached down, grabbing the back of the shorter woman's jumper and hoisting her up until she was eye level with him, dangling in his grasp with her legs not even touching the ground.
The two stared at one another, Hanleth with decidedly wider eyes than he had.
"O-On second thought, I-I can walk! I can walk! See? Legs working at one-hundred and twenty per-" With a shaky smile, her legs swung back and forth.
Right into his knee.
They both froze, their heads turning down towards where she had struck him, then their eyes came back up.
Hanleth made a noise like a dying animal, seemingly shrinking in on herself.
With a smack of his lips, he released his hold on the Goddess, dropping her onto the ground with a pained grunt coming from her. Though he knew for a fact that she wasn't injured in the least. His eyes lingered on her for a few moments, narrowing slightly at her pathetic state, then he turned around and walked back towards the road.
Passing the others as he did so and ignoring their looks.
"We'd best start moving."
Really, why had Hanleth even answered a summons in the first place?
She was useless for just about everything.
Ritsuka had no idea what Hanleth was even doing here.
And he didn't just mean the small field trip, he was referencing in general.
Through the words of the Goddess herself, she disliked fighting which was a fair stance to take, it wasn't something he was comfortable with either. He would rather never get used to the idea of violence but sometimes it was just needed. Most of all when people wouldn't back down.
All of which was beside the point.
Hanleth had a choice about whether she would come down here or not.
And she chose to come down to Chaldea.
It wasn't as though their purpose was a secret, nor was it a case of her being ignorant to what happened. Divine Spirits all remembered what they had done thus far beat for beat from previous Singularities. Alma clearly remembered what happened and he had apparently died.
Well, Ash said they killed him.
And they made sure to point out that it was them and not Gawyn.
Quite why the specification was needed, he wasn't sure, but he accepted their answer and noted that Alma remembered everything. Da Vinci had just said the memories of Divine Spirits would be different to regular Heroic Spirits so they would remember summonings regardless of at what point in time they appeared in.
Though he figured that opened a pandora's box about people from future encounters meeting him before they actually met.
Da Vinci had just smiled, laughed, and then frowned before walking off.
That hadn't comforted him in the least.
Regardless, it all brought him back to Hanleth who was…
Turning his head, Ritsuka realised he hadn't actually heard the Goddess complain since he started walking. Nor had he actually seen Mash either, the moment he caught sight of them, he almost stopped altogether. Being faced with the sight of Mash giving a piggyback ride to Hanleth, the Goddess slumped over her shoulders, hair rolling down like a waterfall.
He was rather surprised he didn't hear snoring.
Mash met his gaze, clearly misinterpreted what he was thinking, and then shot him a confident smile. "Don't worry, Senpai! I can carry her without any problems."
Not at all what he was worried about.
With a slow nod of the head, he brought his focus back around and stared up the road towards the distant town they were approaching. Guarded by a thin wooden palisade, it was rather larger than he would have expected from the smoke, but then again, he wasn't sure how many of the buildings inside the town would have chimneys.
Also it was the day and burning wood during the day - in a reasonably hot climate - wasn't really a very smart thing to do.
"Ah, the Roman countryside."
He jerked at the sudden voice by his side, turning his head to the speaker and noticing that Nero had somehow managed to sneak up on him without making a single noise.
Had she always been this sneaky?
"I admit, it has been sometime since I last took a stroll through such things." The Emperor continued on, waving a hand before pausing. "Or as close to a stroll as being in a carriage can get…and actually, I much preferred to stay in Rome. It was much closer to the theatres and therefore, my people would be able to come to me for their wider enjoyment."
"Did you often leave the city?"
Nero hummed at his words. "On occasion, depending on whatever fates the Gods had planned for me. A true entertainer is not always limited to their favourite venue, and I was still an Emperor. It would be remiss of me if I did not visit other parts of the Empire from time to time, reminding the people that their Emperor loved them."
As if preening at invisible praise, she puffed out her chest. "The cheers of those who have not seen me were always the loudest. But my favourite was my visit to Greece, there was such a rich culture that inspired me to carry myself to new heights!"
Ah, yes.
"I even participated in the olympic games being held there at the time!"
…That, he did not know.
"You participated in the olympic games, in Greece?" He turned to her, wearing his surprise rather openly. Something that prompted a baffled look from the Emperor.
"Of course, where do you suppose I was inspired to create the games of Nerofest?" With a shake of the head, she raised a finger and wagged it from side to side. "Praetor, you should investigate my legend more-"
"No, I mean I knew about the Olympic games." He corrected her, "What I meant was I didn't know they were held in Greece. I thought you created your own games and then participated in those."
"Oh, I did that as well." Nero replied with a blank expression, lowering her hand down. "I was rather pleased about those, the people loved them as well." turning to the front, she flourished out a hand. "The Quinquennial Neronia! The wondrous improvisation of the Greek Games, which I naturally improved, and marked a celebration of my own ascension…which was unfortunately cancelled after my…death. They only did it twice."
Ritsuka blinked, then hummed and turned his head away from the Emperor.
That sounded rather sad.
No wonder she had been so taken with Nerofest.
"Speaking of which…" Nero glanced over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes before leaning close to him. "There is something I must ask, that is the Goddess who organised the large celebration which went awry, yes?"
"...Yes." His response was slow and measured. "Why?"
"No reason." With a smile that was far from innocent, Nero leaned away from him and started to hum to herself, strutting onwards and swinging her arms back and forth with rather exaggerated movements.
Once again, he found himself far from comforted with her supposed answer.
"Attendant."
The sudden title had him blink, turning his head and finding that Caffrey had now floated to his side.
"I wish to speak with you of the behaviour of Hanleth." The girl spoke with a rather strained tone of voice, he watched her eye twitch as her gaze briefly directed itself behind her and to the individual still held in the arms of Mash, then back to him. "And…ask that you not spread word of her state around Chaldea. I would consider it a great personal favour to me."
Ritsuka just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think you need to worry about that. I mean…doesn't everyone already know?"
Caffrey's expression remained blank for all of half a second, then it fell. "Oh, yes. They do, don't they…Of course they do, that lazy slob. How is she ever going to command the respect from Mortals if she spends her every un-waking moment curled onto the floor as though she has just stumbled out from a tavern."
The intensity of the tirade had him jerk a little at her words, but she paid little heed to him and continued on.
"Does it not seem as though such a state is beneath her? Whether she is considered a Goddess of Bliss or not, she should take into account her appearance and how the mortals will perceive her."
Pointing to themselves, they continued on. "I, for example, am the Goddess of fortune but one would not expect to find me gambling on horse races."
Ritsuka's mouth moved before his brain. "You'd probably win all of them."
Which was, somehow, the right thing to say as Caffrey looked at him with relief and waved a hand. "You understand it, attendant. It is because we are Gods that we should be seen to dispense our authority fairly amongst the masses and with restraint. Certainly not to throw ourselves into them and use them for our own personal pleasure. Honestly. She hasn't changed a single bit."
Caffrey was pouting at this point, roughly folding her arms and dropping her head down to stare at the ground as she hovered.
"And it always reflects badly on me as well and Father doesn't do anything to stop her apart from giving her a reminder every now and again but doesn't he know how this looks for me?"
Her hands came up, pointing fingers at herself and turning to him with desperation in her eyes.
"I am the one who always has to make sure she's actively doing her job. Even now, she's just playing up her weakness so that someone else has to carry her slack. Literally, in this case. Isn't that too careless? She's the older one, so she should be doing just as much work as me."
She stopped speaking, then stared at him expectantly.
Ah, she was looking for an answer?
"That must be pretty tough for you."
Caffrey exhaled. "Exactly…but I do not complain about it, because I am a well raised Princess."
A proud smile came upon the lips of the blonde, puffing out her chest and closing her eyes. "I need to present the Gods as the beings of wisdom and grace that we are, rather than whatever mess Hanleth portrays us to be…or the dishevelled murderous insanity of Alma. Honestly, I don't know what they're doing…unless they came here just to try and mess up all my hard work…that's it, isn't it?"
The smile vanished, replaced with a frown.
She punched her hand into her waiting palm. "Well, if they think they can just come here and mess up all my hard work, they have got another thing coming. Don't they, attendant?"
"Huh? I mean, yeah, sure."
What was happening?
"Exactly." Her head bobbed up and down, eyes narrowed. "If Hanleth thinks this is going to be another vacation for her, she is going to be sorely disappointed. I won't let her get off easy, if she thinks I was bad before…wait until I enlist others to keep her on her toes. Not even that scary bodyguard of hers-"
Were they talking about Chrysaor?
"Will be able to stop me from whipping her into shape." The declaration was met with silence from him.
Caffrey coughed, then brought her hands back down, a beatific smile flickered over her face once more. "Of course, it will remain a polite reminder that she has responsibilities and that she should remember to take better care of herself. Much the same with Alma, this is not the sort of situation were we can just do whatever we want, is it, attendant?"
In response to that, Ritsuka had just one question.
"You're sure you're the youngest?"
Caffrey just slumped. "I know…they give off a terrible image. I worked really hard to make up for both of them…it would be much easier if I was the eldest, then they would have to listen to me, wouldn't they?"
He just shrugged. "I don't have any siblings, so I wouldn't know."
"An only child." A hum from the Goddess, gazing down at him with a slightly troubled gaze. "...I don't know if I'm allowed to envy you or not. So I am going to declare that I am allowed to be jealous of you and leave it at that…except now I feel very irritated that I'm jealous of a mortal…Hey, can I give you bad luck for an hour? Two hours at the most."
Ritsuka stared.
Caffrey stared back, waiting for his answer.
"...No." He replied slowly but clearly. "You cannot."
"...Thirty minutes."
"No."
"Twenty."
"Still no."
"Tch. Alright. Twenty-five."
"No-Hang on, that number was higher than the one before it!"
"You're right, I will be generous and say twenty."
"Caffrey…"
"You're hurting my feelings, attendant. It is your duty to compensate me for them."
"You are not going to curse me because you feel bad about it. I cannot help that my parents didn't have more children."
"You're the only one they had! You should have encouraged them to breed more!"
"Ewwww!"
She knew that she had to broker the topic gently to them, but it was a matter of approaching them that was rather difficult.
Knowing that they almost certainly hated her - she could see it in their eyes when they looked down at her earlier - it would be rather difficult to do that.
Did they even want her to talk to them?
…No, whether they wanted it or not, she stepped into the need to apologise with him.
It had been her mistake and she needed to right it.
He stood not far from her, while the human and the really loud and energetic Emperor - another of her natural enemies, loud people - were busy speaking with one of the humans that related to something or other. She figured that it was to do with their whole reason for being here in the first place.
Gathering her strength, her eyes focused back on Gawyn, wetting her lips, she rose up from her position next to the shaded section of a cart, awkwardly carrying herself forwards with lumbering and shaky steps. It wasn't her fault she didn't do a lot of walking, normally other people did that for her.
…Why couldn't she have been born with wings like Caffrey? They got it easy with just needing to flap those things and then they were flying around no problem. It would be so much easier for her if she could do that sort of thing, but she had to get born with regular old legs.
Unfair.
Dismissing the need for wings, her steps brought her closer and closer towards Gawyn, her eyes flickered away from him and located where her little sister was. Currently floating around and entertaining some of the little children with some little sparkles of light.
Maybe they thought she was a clown or something?
They were pointing and laughing at her actions, so that had to be it.
"What do you want?"
She flinched at the cold voice from directly in front of her, bunching her shoulders inwards and closing a single eye. Her head shifted, moving around to face the front of her and glance upwards through messy hair.
He wasn't even staring at her.
He was just looking across at something in the distance and saying nothing.
"H-hey, Gawyn-"
Now he was staring at her.
She wished he wasn't.
She was wrong.
He wasn't scary like Alma.
He was terrifying.
his expression remained blank, but his eyes burned with the rage of a thousand dying suns, it hadn't even lasted for a blink of an eye before it cooled into a low simmering frustration, but she saw it all the same. That fury in the second she had called him by his name.
What was it that the others called him?
Ah, right.
"A-Ash!" Hastily correctly herself, she brought her arms up to shield her body in case he hit her. "I meant Ash, right? Yes? That's what you call yourself now. I definitely said Ash the first time. That's you."
Emerald eyes dulled, then lost interest and turned away from her.
"...What do you want?"
Wetting her lips, she tapped her fingers together through her sleeves, rocking back and forth on her heels. "S-so…this seems like a nice place, right?"
"...I assume so."
"And there's a lot to do here, right?"
"...That depends."
"So…have you thought about asking the…uhm…human about taking a little time off and enjoying the-" Her mouth clamped shut as he turned back to face her, folded his arms over his chest and then leaned down to her eye level.
He said nothing, but his gaze made it clear what he was trying to convey.
This wasn't turning out as well as she hoped.
"W-well, what I mean to say is that there isn't a rush, right?" She hastily corrected herself, taking a step backwards so that he wasn't blotting out the sun with his head anymore, or with his eyes that seemed to glow. "T-there should be time for a little break, ye-yeah?"
Ash took in a sharp breath, then leaned back. "A break."
She bobbed her head up and down, bringing her fingers out of her sleeve and pinching them together, giving a slight smile. "Just a little one, you know? Get all the strength back from the walking we did-"
"We?" He squinted at her. "Who is 'we'? You slumped over the shoulders of Mash and she had to carry your hide all the way to this town."
Hanleth shrank a little.
"And she did so without complaining once, furthermore Ritsuka walked all the way here and he is an ordinary human. He has not stopped for a break nor even mentioned the topic a single time."
He stepped closer, then cast the shadow over her once more, not once raising his voice.
"The second you arrived here,you ducked into a corner and then sat down. So tell me, what have you done that is so exhausting that you require a break?"
"...Being outside?"
He leaned back once again, this time he was the one who stepped away from her and turned aboutface, all but ignoring her. "Do you even know why we're down here?"
"W-well, I-"
"It is because there is something threatening this location. While that perhaps means nothing to you and, indeed, given enough time this minute Singularity will correct itself and there will prove no need for alarm. That does not alter the fact that we are needed here for some reason, there will inevitably be someone in danger and will need rescuing."
She knew that.
She wasn't an idiot.
But what she came down here for was-
"Adding onto that the need to restock our supplies in as civil a manner as possible." He continued on, not even giving her the chance to think. "And this is only a trivial matter. Future Singularities will be towards the fate of humanity itself and all you can even thing to do is complain about being outside and how you wish for a break?"
Another cold side glare.
"I'm being civil because you have made Gawyn slightly more bearable, but that was hardly a tall order. Do not believe I hate him any less, it is after the fact and for all intents and purposes, it changes nothing."
He grunted.
"I can tolerate you because you achieved a single miniscule thing, but do not think for a moment that it has gone unnoticed that without your actions in regards to that fiasco you called a resort, there would never have been a near breakout of demons in the first place."
Another flinch rolled through her body, casting her eyes down to the ground.
"You, who hate violence and working, accepted the summoning of a covenant that relies on those two things in order to achieve its goals. Whether it is through being short sighted or just a need to further compound your damage, I care not. But do not try and spread your influence here. Not when there is a real danger."
Hanleth rolled her lips inwards and kept her gaze low, it was as though each word was another weight on the back of her head, keeping her from raising her neck.
"But let me make this clear. I am not Gawyn. I am not here for you to live out your fantasy of some younger brother. You and I have the same mother, nothing more. I do not care to know you better and, quite frankly, would consider it the greatest kindness if you did not approach me to improve our relationship in the future. I barely interacted with my siblings when I lived and see no reason to alter this trend."
With a loud sigh, they trudged off.
"I'm baffled as to why you would even accept a summoning in the first place, useless as you are."
She kept silent.
What was she supposed to say? They were right.
She was a Goddess of Bliss and her singular attempt to do something all by herself ended in a literal bloodbath, it wasn't like she could argue with the assessment that she was useless. So many had died because of her during that, the people she had tried to comfort ended up needing to fight for their lives because she wasn't very good with her role.
Did that mean she was going to give up?
…She didn't know.
…He was trying to learn how to cook, right?
Maybe…there was something to that.
Raising her head, she sniffed the air a few times and then narrowed her gaze. Carrying herself away to where the scent was strongest.
"Nothing?"
Ritsuka shook his head from side to side. "Nope, no mention of anything going on around here. Mind you, the guy did think we were some sort of circus troupe, I think." they jerked a thumb in the direction of a pouting Nero. "We were complimented on having a very life-like rendition of the Emperor, but were warned about them getting too into it."
Ash glanced at the Emperor, who only seemed to pout harder at the words.
He wasn't sure what they were expecting to happen.
Whether they were the Emperor or not, what manner of person would believe that the Emperor would come all the way out here and in the company of such a small band of colourful individuals. It just didn't make a lot of sense to him in the beginning.
But that was beside the point.
"That aside, you mean to say that there is little here that can point us in the direction of what is causing the tiny disturbance?"
Ritsuka shook his head from side to side. "I'm afraid not. They didn't say much on the matter, even if they were taking me seriously when I offered to help, but apart from a missing cow or two, they said there wasn't much of a problem."
A missing cow?
"Is this cow worth mentioning?"
A shrug of the shoulders from Ritsuka. "They said it happens all the time around here, a couple of wolves come in every now and again and make off with one. The guy said the season was perfect for it and they'd probably end up losing a sheep or something in the future so…"
He doubted the problem would be caused by wolves.
"...What now?"
Ritsuka hummed, then cupped his chin. "Well…we still need to pick up a couple of supplies. Mash took some of our funds to buy some produce from the farmers, so once she gets back with that, then we'll have it sent back to Chaldea and then go for a quick look about the land to see if we can find anything. If not…Well, Romani said the Singularity would resolve itself in about a day or two, provided nothing happens."
He wouldn't lie and say he was satisfied with that, but if they found no evidence of something then wasting further resources in camping around in the woods on the off chance that something did materialise was hardly going to help their situation. Not to mention the energy costs for Rayshifts.
But he would prefer to be safer than sorry.
"Understood." He hummed, then turned about. "If there is nothing else, then I will-"
"Excuse me, young man?"
He paused, then slowly inclined his head towards the speaker, a rather elderly figure hobbled towards them, his eyes fixed upon him with a faint smile. "Could I trouble you for a moment, it is just that my nephew recently went away and I don't have much anyone else to count on…"
Ash stared.
"...What do you need help with?"
He brought up a shaky hand, offering a thin smile. "Old bones, I'm afraid. Moving about isn't as easy as it used to be…"
He could see that.
…Well, it wasn't as though he had much to lose.
"Very well then." Sparing a glance to Ritsuka, he nodded to them once before he advanced on the elderly man. "What is it you need moved?"
"Well, I work for the local bakers." The man explained, before they paused and chuckled. "Or rather, I am the local bakers…I used to work there before my nephew took over, but it is the seventh year of Adrian's boy coming up soon, and I wished to bake them a special loaf for a celebration. They're having their family around for a small gathering and Adrian and his boy have been good to me."
Ash could see what they might need aid with.
…And it was a chance at baking, then again. "I feel the need to warn you that when it comes to baking-"
"Not to worry, lad." The elderly man waved him off, moving forwards and sparking him a tiny smile. "I taught my nephew all he needed to know of baking and if I can teach him, I can teach you a bit or two about it all. Just follow where I tell your hands to go and all will be right."
He…could live with that, yes.
It sounded simpler, admittedly.
Nodding his head up and down, he followed the old man on. "...I am Ash."
"Ash? Not any name I know…but alright. I'm Gaius, lad."
Ritsuka raised a brow as he watched the old man lead Ash away towards something, whatever it was he saw Ash perk up with interest during the conversation, so he figured it was probably something good.
"Umu, I am pleased to see him helping my citizens." Nero's voice drifted through his ears, he twitched a smile at her and glanced at the Emperor, seemingly having forgotten the fact she was supposedly thought of as a professional impersonator by the mayor of the town. "Although, I am surprised, they look older than some of the senators…and they were dusty enough that I once thought myself surrounded by the recently deceased."
The laugh that escaped quickly devolved into a cough, bringing his fist up to cover his mouth.
Made all the worse when Nero looked at him in confusion.
"Did I say something amusing?"
That was when he realised she was being serious, all of which prompted him to laugh even harder about everything that was happening. The idea of Nero just standing in a senatorial building and being under the impression that all the old people were dead was amusing to him for whatever reason.
He was sure it wouldn't be amusing for the senators.
"Well, talk of senators aside." Clearing his throat, he brought his attention back to Nero. "Given that Ash is helping out with the locals, and Mash is busy buying supplies, do you think that we should-"
"Uhm…"
A sound.
One that didn't come from either Nero or himself.
With a slow blink, he turned his head to the direction of the noise.
There were at least twenty small children in front of him, perhaps more. Varying in size and age, all of which were staring at him as though they were expecting something to happen. His eyes flickered towards the closest, a small dark haired young man who took a step closer with a slightly raised hand.
"Is it true you are funny people?"
He didn't even get a moment to answer before Nero brushed past him, getting in the face of the young boy and whipping her hand about, naturally enough there was a blooming rose that all but appeared in her grasp, with little to no indication of how it even appeared in the first place.
"That is absolutely correct, young citizen!" The Emperor declared, dropping the flower into the hands of the boy, who was staring at it with amazement. "You shall never see a finer entertainer than myself! For how could one possibly compete with the theatrics of a blessed beauty of myself?"
Folding his arms, Ritsuka leaned back and watched the Emperor immediately captivate the children as she produced petals with every wave of the hand, most of which ended up in the hair of the assembled audience.
It was rather amusing.
"But naturally, I do not come without a fool of my own!"
That was the only warning he got before Nero's hand snapped back and clenched a hold of his shoulder, all but throwing him forwards, he caught a glimpse of her grinning face before his eyes turned to the children, freezing on the spot from the many eyes that were now fixed upon him.
"Uhhh…"
"Oh yes!" He jerked, glancing as Caffrey appeared at his other side and placed a hand on top of his head, smiling with her eyes closed. "A brilliant juggler as well."
A faint glow and a little electric jolt shot through his system.
He cast a small glance at the Ruler, they all but ignored his stare, but he got the feeling of what they had just done to him.
…It couldn't hurt to try, right?
And it would be difficult to say no with all these smiling children staring at him, waiting for him to do something spectacular. Though he was a little surprised that Nero herself wasn't trying to juggle, unless she was planning for something else.
Well, maybe she'd wait for him to finish before she upstaged him or something.
Whatever, he didn't mind.
"Yeah…sure." He smiled at them, dropping his shoulders and glancing around, only to have three apples thrust into his grasp from Caffrey, who met his gaze and then leaned forwards.
"Don't drop those, otherwise we're going to pay for them." She nodded her head backwards, he followed her gaze to a rather stoic looking man standing next to a basket full of the fruits. He offered a thin smile and a small wave.
He didn't even so much as blink at him.
The smile faltered as he turned back, then internally shrugged his shoulders and threw the first apple up.
He had no idea what was going to happen, but if Caffrey did improve his luck…then it would probably work out in the end.
Hanleth suppressed a proud grin as she watched the human make a start with juggling, she knew that Caffrey wouldn't be able to resist using her authority when it came to such a chance. It was just a matter of waiting for everything to line up.
And she knew that there was something amiss here.
Her eyes roamed towards one of the children at the far corner, not gathered with the others and instead glancing towards the far distance over the tiny wall, a young girl with reddish brown hair, a nervousness to them which set them aside from the other children.
They were scared.
Sparing a glance towards the direction of the human summoner - Ritsuka - she noted that neither he nor any of those around him were really paying attention to her. It was fortunate, it let her move without any of them caring all that much.
Carrying herself closer and closer to the girl, she eventually came up behind them and glanced around, then dropped herself down until she was at eye level with the back of her head. "Hey…girl?"
The small one jolted a little, then turned around to face her with a flash of panic, quickly settling when they noted that there was nothing insidious about her appearance. Hanleth gave a slightly comforting smile to them, nodding her head behind them and towards the direction of the other gaggle of children. "How come you aren't with any of them? Are you not that interested in juggling?"
Her eyes darted to the performance, then back to her.
A small shake of the head came next, the girl spoke in a quiet voice. "No…I…"
Slowly, her head turned around and they gazed back into the distance, towards the edge of the woods and froze up.
"Or perhaps…you're worried about something?"
"...You won't believe me." The girl replied in a hushed whisper. "No one else does. They said it was just a wolf that got the cow but…" when they turned back around, there was a haunted look in her eyes. "I saw what ate them. It was a monster."
…So Ash was right then, troubling.
"A monster." Not letting her own nervousness show, she gave a hum and bobbed her head up and down. "Is the monster making you really scared then?"
"...It's going to eat me…"
"Hmmmm." With a long hum, Hanleth rose back onto her feet, puffed out her chest and then pointed to herself. "Not if I have anything to say about it. I might not look it, but I am actually super strong."
She really hoped that she wasn't coming across as nervous as she felt.
The little girl looked up at her with a rather dubious stare. "Uhh…but-"
"The monster was out in the woods, right?" A scared nod of the head. "Then I will go and beat the monster up. You go and have fun with the other kids and when I come back, I'll tell you that the monster is all taken care of so you don't need to worry about anything, alright?"
"B-but-"
"Nope!" Hanleth beamed down at the girl, spun on her heel and then moved around behind them, placing her hands on her shoulders and gently ushering them forwards. "Don't worry about any scary monsters. Hanleth is gonna take good care of it and then everyone will be relaxed."
That was right.
She just needed to take care of this.
They were all having a good time.
If it was a spider…then if the human saw it they would freak out, they said as much.
She wasn't going to do that to them.
Everyone else was just having fun.
She could deal with a single slightly overgrown spider, no problem.
Easy.
The girl stumbled into the crowd, Hanleth remained unnoticed as she stepped away from all of them, turning around and sneaking back away to the front gate, sparing a single glance over her shoulder towards them.
She didn't make much of an impact anyway, so they probably wouldn't notice she was gone.
This was fine.
It was fine.
Hanleth hated the outdoors.
She hated doing all the sort of work that came with the outdoors and she especially hated having to do physical activities. It was awful, she didn't have any talent for it in the first place. All she could really manage was making sure that everyone else was relaxed, so why would she possibly try and squander her talent with that?
…Except for when it didn't work and then seemingly made things much worse.
She wasn't sure if they knew, but relaxation was the one thing she had ever been good at.
And she screwed it all up in the worst way possible.
Worse than all of that, she timed it all wrong.
A resort less than a couple of weeks after Chaldea had a big party?!
What happened to all the stress they were supposed to have been working up…actually, she might have missed some details there.
She recalled there being a summoning offer but she slept through it…had that been the christmas party?
She could add it to her list of blunders.
Taking a direct route didn't work, so setting things up and letting them go their natural course was the method she was going to go with. The loud people enjoyed dragging others into their loudness and for someone like that blonde Emperor, she loved it when people applauded her, so just giving her what she wanted seemed to be the way to go.
So just point everyone in the right direction and let them enjoy themselves, she could put up with a bit of work if it came with the knowledge that the others were having fun-
Her foot caught something - probably a tree root - and the next thing she knew, she was falling forwards and splatting into the mud. Unsure of how long she was lying face down in the muck, she pulled her head out of the dirt and kept a dazed look straight ahead, giving a mild sniffle.
Moving her hands up, she wiped them over her face and pulled the cold sludge off her cheeks, or just smeared it further across. One of the two, either way her sleeves were now filthy the front of her jumper was splattered as well, she fell backwards onto her behind, staring vacantly across the woods.
Another sniffle escaped her.
…She just wanted to sleep.
Chris could probably do all of this stuff really easily.
Hanleth took in a deep breath, shaking her head from side to side as she pushed herself back up to her feet. She couldn't afford to lose sight of everything now, she needed to make amends for messing up everything, so that just meant she would need to keep pushing forwards through the woods.
Even if she hated the woods.
And the outdoors.
And she was now cold, wet and smelled.
Her sleeves dropped down, her hands moved towards her hair and picked away at the stray clumps of leaf litter stuck in them, giving them a gentle tug and pulling them out, staring at the tiny little twigs for a moment, then tossed them aside with a grunt and carried on pushing herself forwards.
Another step then she paused.
A frown creased her lips as she turned her head down towards the ground, furrowing her brows as she watched her foot catch on the dirt. Giving it a couple more tugs and watching the topsoil shift ever so slightly, as though pulled along by something just underneath it and out of sight.
"What the…?"
It was really stuck as well, it felt like she'd been caught in a noose or something.
Turning around, she moved down and started to shift the leaf litter and soil aside, unveiling a silvery string of some kind. Pulled taught, almost like that of a bowstring. Her confusion remained as she pulled away at it, then winced as she found that her fingers got caught in it as well, giving them a tug and struggling to pull herself free.
All of which ended with her flopping onto her side, another groan, a mixture of exasperation and annoyance pulled from the back of her throat.
Another tug.
Hanleth froze.
She wasn't the one who tugged it that time.
It was only a slight pull against the ropey thing around her foot, but it was unmistakable, someone was pulling back in response to her pulling in the first place. Another frown came upon her lips as she tugged harder.
They tugged again.
The next thing that Hanleth knew, she was being whisked along the ground, dragged through the mud and all manner of filth and barely catching sight of rather large hole in the ground - just between the roots of a tall tree - before she was yanked away into darkness, a flicker of gold escaped her fingers.
A large fanged head stared back at her, eight eyes reflected the glow of her body.
This was, perhaps, the most productive baking session he had ever been involved with.
It was…Ash wasn't sure how to describe the feeling, but it was one that he was rather content with. A sense of accomplishment, though it would be wasted upon him, watching the rounded loafs of bread extracted from the clay oven made him feel a touch of anxiety, mainly because he hadn't gotten this far before.
"You're not scared of a bread oven, are you?"
The dry voice of Gaius, Ash regarded the old man with a spare glance and a faint grunt, pulling the bread out completely and setting it upon the side. Staring at it, carved into eight sections, and then moving to place it on the counter, shouldering the large wooden spatula as the old man hobbled forwards and then leaned over it.
A moment or two passed, the old man gave the loaf a sniff and then reached forwards, prodding it a couple of times before giving a satisfied hum. "Not as good as my nephew…but you're a beginner. Good lad."
That was…
"Then it is edible?" That was his main concern, the slight worry that he had done something to cause the bread to be toxic to humans. Everything else he had attempted thus far had ended in disaster, it could be cynical but he was long since learning to expect the worst from everything.
Gaius gave him a flat look. "If you had done anything wrong, I would know about it."
With a shake of the head, the old man hobbled away to the second load they had made, though this one was admittedly smaller than the first.
"Now then, for your payment."
Ash raised his hand, shaking his head. "I do not require a payment for my-"
"Take the bread, son."
He blinked.
"...But your neighbours-"
"I meant the small one." Gaius turned back, holding the smaller loaf in his hands and hobbling back towards him, giving a tiny smile as they did so and extending it out. "Best you work on it…Your sister said you were looking to be a baker and could do with some training on it, not a lot of chances and she asked me…persuasive young girl, she is."
His sister.
Ash kept his expression blank, wordlessly taking the bread from the old man and staring down at it for a few moments, then drawing his lips thin and closing his eyes. "My…sister put you up to this?"
Gaius waved his hand. "She didn't put me up to a lot. I needed the help and she said you'd be fine with it. Besides, you and your lot have brought a few smiles to the town again. Best to give you something for your troubles and an afternoon of help is worth a small loaf."
Hanleth told the old man to give him pointers, did she?
Rolling his jaw, Ash bobbed his head up and down, briefly dismissing the conflicting emotions he felt with the notion of Hanleth meddling with his personal life and instead looked back to the old man. They did not have to put up with the request of Hanleth, and he would have sensed her influence if she had tried something with them.
"...Thank you, Gaius."
The old man reached forwards, giving him a couple of pats on the shoulder. "Think nothing of it, lad."
With those final words, he swiftly departed the bakery and made his way back towards the centre of town. Whether he felt conflicted about the matter or not, he could not deny that Hanleth had meddled when he had asked her specifically not to do so. He needed no favours or handouts from his family and would prefer they left him in peace until he could decide his feelings for them.
They made his life complicated and he wanted to focus on himself, not whether he would need to watch out for their intrusive actions.
His feet paused as he came to the centre of the town, then furrowed his brows as he gazed at the crowd that had all gathered.
At the front of the crowd with a wide smile on his face, was Ritsuka.
Currently in the middle of juggling some fruits while Nero appeared to be putting on some manner of flowery dance. Whether people were impressed about her spinning like a flower on the pommel of her burning sword or the fact she was hurling rose petals from her sleeves without consideration for who was around, was something of a puzzling factor for him.
Then there was Caffrey, floating above them with her wings spread wide and dancing rings of light around her fingers and shooting them from one hand to the other.
It was a very…bright performance.
…Which the crowd was captivated with.
…When did this happen?
"Ah! Hello, Ash-san."
Mash's voice pulled him to her, glancing at the girl with a large satchel bag over her shoulder, they nodded to him and then stared on ahead with a rather infectious smile on her face. "I just came back and then everyone was dancing and doing tricks…I know they said they thought Nero-san was an impersonator but I didn't think they would take it seriously."
Neither did he.
"Hmmm? Ash-san? Is that bread?"
He waved the load in his hand. "Yes…I assisted the baker and made this with their aid."
"Really!" Mash looked rather impressed about that, and perhaps a little proud as well? He couldn't really tell. Her eyes darted back to the bread, then nodded her head up and down. "It looks incredible! Is that what you've been doing for the last couple hours?"
…Couple of hours?
"...I did not realise it had been that long."
How did he lose track of time so quickly?
Shaking his head, he dismissed that rather disturbing loss of time and swung his gaze away from the crowd and to the sidelines, frowning as he noted that neither left nor right of the audience there was a single sign of Hanleth, nor could he immediately sense where she was. It was rather troubling for him, the idea that she was without supervision after what she had just done.
Not to mention that he needed to speak with her.
"Ash-san? Is something the matter?"
"I'm not sure." He extended the bread to Mash, the girl blinked in confusion before hesitantly taking it from him. "I will be back shortly, I have noticed that Hanleth is not in the immediate vicinity…and I require words with her."
Before Mash could even get a word out, he was already moving with a frown on his face.
"U-uhm…" He stopped walking, turning his eyes down to the small girl who had come to a halt by his legs. "Y-you…you came with the other lady, didn't you?"
She stumbled forwards, one eye forced shut while the other looked straight ahead in something of a daze.
Hanleth was fairly sure she was heading in the right directly, stumbling for a moment and dropping down onto her hands and knees. Taking in deep gulps of air, winces of pain shot through her body as she formed yet another miracle around her, healing over her injuries once more to the best of her abilities.
It did nothing for the spider venom.
Which still hurt.
Why were they even that big in the first place and why were there so many of them?
This was awful.
Absolutely miserable.
She hated it.
With another groan, she pushed herself up unto her knees and stared across the-
Her mind froze.
Standing at the very edge of the woods, Ash stared back at her.
His blank gaze centred on her face, then shifted to glance down at the rest of her without even an ounce of emotion within his eyes. But that wasn't what concerned her, what she was more focused on was the fact they were even here in the first place. She was cure that-
His hand ignited with fire.
Her eyes widened, falling backwards as he swung his arm out faster than she could react-
The ball of flames whipped past her head, a high pitched screech of agony ripped through the air, she turned about and watched the burning remains of another spider roll across the grounds for a moment or two before it went still, crackling under the heat of the fires.
Crunching footsteps echoed next, growing closer and closer to her.
When they finally came to a stop, she remained unwilling to pull her head up to meet the gaze of the owner of the shadow now cast over her, she just stared straight ahead for a few seconds.
"...You set me up with a baker."
She didn't have the nerve to speak, but she managed a nod of the head.
"...The town performance, was that your doing as well?"
"...I just told the kids that they were good entertainers…" She muttered back in a quiet voice, she felt his stare burn holes into the top of her head. "They…they did all the actual work with everything. C-Caffrey likes that sort of thing and I figured that the Nero girl would want to show off…"
"...Then you came out here."
Another nod of the head, though she was silently curious as to how he even knew to come looking-
"I was set upon by a small girl who was concerned that you had yet to return after promising to vanquish the monster in the woods nearly three hours ago."
…That long?
"I…I got most of them…"
It didn't feel like much of an achievement, her hair was a mess, her arms and legs were sore, she had been covered in bites and scratches, clothes mangled beyond belief and she was covered in bug goo from when they had exploded after being struck with miracles. It was, without a doubt, one of the worst experiences of her life.
Not to mention accidentally falling over the desiccated remains of the missing cow.
"Yes." Came the flat words of Ash. "I can see you clearly encountered the spiders."
Another sniffle escaped her.
Then he spoke again. "...You told no one. Why?"
The dam broke, her head whipped up with tears already spilling from her eyes. "Because I messed up and wanted you all to have some actual fun! At first I wanted to apologise for being such a big failure but then it felt really awkward and you were really mean to me when I tried to talk with you but then I remembered that you wanted to cook so it seemed like a good opportunity to apologise!"
She barely even registered the face of her younger brother, too lost through the murky haze of her tears.
"And then that Nero girl looked all sad because no one believed they were Nero but they liked doing performances so I sent all those kids to give her a chance to show off and she really liked that and Caffrey would obviously want to get involved in that sort of thing and then there was this little girl who was scared of monsters coming to eat her so I wanted to go and deal with it!"
Dropping her arms down to her side, she threw her head back, her voice cracking as the tears spilled forth without end.
"But then it turned out to be spiders and then they tried to eat me! Then I was really scared and wanted to call out for help but then remembered Ritsuka said he was scared of spiders and I didn't want to make him really worried because he probably already hates me about the park and I didn't want him to hate me more because I made him fight spiders!"
She scrambled forwards, all but throwing herself into the front of Ash and wrapping her arms around him.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaah!" A wail ripped free of her throat. "And it was really dark and they kept biting me and I had to fight them all by myself and now I'm covered in goo and I smell bad and I'm tired and I just want to go ho-ho-ho-home!"
Her hands pulled from the ruins of his sleeve, clawing away at the armour of her brother as she pulled closer to them.
"I'm sorry I screwed up with the park! I'm sorry I ruined everything! Please don't hate me-e-e-e! I just wanted to be a helpful big sister for once!"
"...You're covering my armour in snot."
She flinched at the cold words, more so when a pair of hands dropped to her shoulders and pulled her away from them, though it wasn't too rough and they stopped her from dropping to the ground, at least.
Moving her hands up, she wiped her sleeves over her eyes to get rid of her tears, clearing up her eyes and glimpsing the conflicted expression on the face of her brother.
"This…you…" His eyes closed, his head dropped low and an annoyed groan escaped them. "...Ritsuka would be upset if you were to get killed over something like this…and I doubt he bears a grudge about what happened."
That wasn't what she was worried about.
"What about you?"
"...I don't know…I wasn't expecting you to apologise in the first place."
…How low was she in their opinion that they didn't think she would apologise for screwing up with them?
"...Whatever." Ash declared with a grunt, then moved.
A gasp escaped her as she was picked up and slung over his shoulder, the indignant feeling of being carried like a sack of potatoes paled in comparison to the fact they were at least talking to her. She didn't know if they hated her or not, but she needed to ask all the same.
"...What did you make?"
"...Bread."
"...Is it nice?"
"I can't taste." His words had her flinch ever so slightly as she recalled that small problem. "However…Hmph. I came over to tell you not to bother me when I am trying to find something to do…but that was the first time I made something that was not a failure so…the opportunity you gave me was well used…but I would prefer it come after dealing with the immediate threat. My enjoyment does not come secondary to the task at hand."
Hanleth sniffled a bit. "...It does to me."
Ash stopped walking, another sigh escaped them. "You are…very different."
"That sounds a bit like an insult coming from you."
"You are not…" Another slow response from Ash, then they grunted and resumed walking. "Is it really that important to you?"
"...I'm the Goddess of Bliss…if people aren't enjoying life around me, then I'm not doing my job."
"Hmmm."
"I can normally tell what people like but with you…it's just blank so…I don't like seeing my little brother like that, even if we never met. I thought the park would work out…but it didn't because I tried to please everyone…"
There was a brief pause, then an almost mirthless snort from Ash. "I have noticed that humans enjoy a variety of tasks, none of which make sense to me even now. I cannot say I really understand it…but…I can approve of your intentions, at the very least…they are better than mine."
…That sounded like praise.
Was she getting praised?
"Tha-"
"But if you ever try and turn me into Gawyn again without my express consent, in the unlikely event that ever happens, then I will most certainly try and kill you when I return."
"...Okay. Sorry."
"Just…don't do it again."
She stumbled into the room.
The mission had ended the second she got back and they had been whisked back to Chaldea with all their supplies and the problem well taken care of.
Which was good.
That was good.
Her eyes flickered up at the faint sound of scraping metal that reached her ears.
Chris was in the room, dragging some sort of stone over the edge of her sword with this very uncomfortable noise upon each brush of the blade.
Her head pulled up, taking a short sniff of the air, her eyes lingered on her for a moment, then her brows furrowed just a little. "...Did you get into a fight?"
A slow nod.
"...Did you win?"
"...Yeah." Hanleth nodded again, then coughed and stumbled back towards their bed and flopped down into it face first. "All by myself…sort of…I got most of them, I mean…"
"I see."
The scraping sound stopped, heels clacked along the floor and a gentle grip found itself on the back of her jumper, pulling her up and then rolling her over fully onto the bed, facing the ceiling. Her eyes squinted at the brightness, it didn't last long before the lights were dimmed, the glow of Chris's eyes moved through the room.
"You pushed yourself too hard." Was the simple comment they made.
"Maybe…" She wasn't going to argue with them. "...I think it was worth it."
"Then that is all that matters." The blankets of the bed were dragged over them. "Too many wounds. You are a bad fighter…What did you fight?"
"...Large spiders. I hate them."
"Hmph. As I said. A bad fighter."
"...Shut up. I'm tired." She rolled onto her side, pulling the blankets close and lowering her eyelids.
Enough effort had been put in today, she just wanted a little nap as a reward.
"I'll tell anyone who arrives that you're busy."
Her lip pulled up a little.
"...Thanks Chris."
"...Next time you fight, bring me. It would make everything much faster and less messy."
"...Yeah…I'll…do that…" Her eyelids fluttered shut, carrying her away into a peaceful slumber.