Chapter 47: Work-Life Balance (1/2)

“Well, shit, here we are,” Norah comments happily. “Is it just me, guys, or was this mission way easier than the last one?”

The rest of us trudge out of the forest behind her, looking up gratefully at the distant but finally visible walls of Skyhope. We’d made it to the ring of cleared land around the city, which more or less marks the successful end of our mission.

“We did well!” Bently agrees excitedly. “Everyone is doing much better now!”

“I’m feeling a bit outpaced,” Orville complains. “You’re all figuring out your talents, Vita has two now, both of which are fucking insane, and I’m pretty much the same as always.”

“Don’t worry, Orville!” Bently answers. “You’ll get strong, too! You already are!”

“Whatever,” Orville grumbles. “We were just carried by Penelope and Vita again.”

I’m too tired to shoot him a sympathetic look, and I’m not sure I could muster a proper one regardless. We got sent out to go scout and destroy Nawra in the forest almost immediately on getting back, and I’m still freshly reeling from the aftermath of Litia. On returning, I’d only had a couple hours to rush home and talk to my family, but Rowan and Lyn hadn’t been there. Another ten days later, and we’re finally getting back to the city for a more reasonable amount of time. I’m exhausted, albeit more emotionally than physically. A fresh supply of souls has kept me up and moving where I otherwise might not be.

Fed up with holding back and suspected of heresy by the Templars anyway, I told my team about my ‘second talent,’ the deathtouch… which has since evolved into a death aura. Walking into small groups of monsters, I can just send tentacles into them if they’re close enough, soul-ripping them all at once. My tendril range is only about three feet so far, but they’re slowly growing longer as I eat more and more. The ability makes many otherwise-dangerous pack-hunting creatures trivial, and since we weren’t going very deep into the forest those kinds of creatures tended to reign supreme. With my recent hatching and impressively robust diet, the whole trip turned out to be quite the buffet. If not for how badly I’ve been itching to go home the whole time, it would have been kind of nice.

“I mean we did our part, Orville, but you’re not entirely wrong,” Norah says. “Seriously Vita, what kind of magic push-ups have you been doing, girl? I have never seen a talent as crazy as that.”

I shrug.

“I’m sure there are Hunters and Templars with stronger stuff.”

“There are,” Penelope confirms. “We did just go on a trip with Gladra the Annihilator, after all. The other High Templars are comparable to her.”

“What’s she like, anyway?” Orville asks, perking up a bit. “Gladra is a legend! The strongest talentless mage.”

Well, I guess I can see why he’d be fond of her, but…

“She’s awful,” I answer flatly. “She pretty much spent the trip harassing me for fun, and she almost choked me to death once.”

“Yes, she’s clever but I got the distinct impression that she’s mentally unstable,” Penelope answers. “She kept deferring to a Templar squad leader that she should have technically outranked. Perhaps the clergy are aware and assigned her a handler.”

“Oh,” Orville grumbles, his mood dropping even lower than before. “Figures.”

“Apparently she got super strong by channeling mana constantly, even when she isn’t casting a spell,” I comment.

“What!? How is she even alive? One mistake and… Watcher’s eyes, that’s fucking insane!”

“Yes, case in point,” Penelope answers blandly.

I shudder a little. Watcher’s eyes. I get why that’s such a common swear, now. I roll my own eye around in my body, for no other reason than to enjoy the idle movement. We had a successful mission, all in all. While it’s impossible to know if we’ve cleared the forest of Nawra entirely, we did find and subsequently kill a significant number of them, which will doubtlessly please the people in charge. While I ate the feral ones we just caught, every Nawra from Litia bar Remuslime is still stored safely inside my body, plus the human soul of Theodora. Penelope was firm on the point that I should keep her soul safe; apparently she still has things she wants to ask the woman. Since she now gets to ask them without worrying whether or not Theodora will be inclined to answer, I get the impression that she’s not super torn up about Theodora’s death.

Whatever, I’m not either. I just care that I caused it. People die, but I don’t like being the one to kill them if they don’t deserve it. I’m still furious at myself about it. Hopefully she won’t mind being a Revenant too much. Not that she’ll have a choice, I guess.

Soon enough we’re back at the gate, where a biomancer is now stationed to scan every single person to enter. It would probably be a pain if there were any significant number of people trying to enter the city, but travel tends to be limited and they have more biomancers on duty when farmers are lining up to import their wares. Penelope seems mildly offended to be subjected to the scan, as she’s apparently modified her body to be permanently inhospitable to Nawra. Or so she claims, anyway.

“Is it alright if I break off here?” I ask my team. “I need to go home.”

“Aww, you’re such a good daughter, Vita!” Norah coos.

“I wouldn’t mind helping you carry stuff, if you want,” Orville offers. “I have nowhere to be.”

“I need to resume your family’s treatments,” Penelope comments idly. “It’s unfortunate we’ve been away so much.”

“Well, I mean, if we’re making a thing about it, I do kinda want to meet your family,” Norah says awkwardly, scratching her cheek.

“Oooh! Ooh, can I come?” Bently begs.

I look up at everyone, a slightly annoyed expression on my face. I’ve been looking forward to some time to myself and my de facto parents or older siblings or whatever Lyn and Rowan are to me. Family, somehow, or at least the closest to family that I can understand. Still, though, I’m not one to waste opportunities.

“You can only come if you help buy food,” I tell them.

“...I’m giving your family free magical health care,” Penelope reminds me, smiling wryly.

“You’re also the richest person here by several orders of magnitude,” I answer, merciless. “Pay up.”

Everyone agrees, to my surprise, but apparently I shouldn’t be that shocked. Normal people buy food for each other all the time, I’m told. Sounds like a wacky practice to me, but I’m happy to take advantage of it. My team even buys food around the gate, which is all massively overpriced but admittedly very tasty. Not that the kids will care; food is food. I buy from a more reasonable stall deeper into my part of the city.

As we get to poorer and poorer districts, Bently starts giving away more and more of the food he bought, to my increasing irritation. I’m not opposed to charity in general. It’s how I survived a significant portion of my life, after all. That food is supposed to be for my family, though! Yet the poor guy looks so horrified at the state of the bad part of town, I leave him be. Then some moronic kid tries to steal something from Bently’s pockets, though, and I just about lose it.

“Are you fucking stupid?” I growl, snatching the girl’s wrist. “If you steal from the people giving things away, they won’t come back.”

“Nobody comes back anyway,” the tangle-haired brat hisses through missing teeth.

She can’t be more than eight years old, being a head shorter than even me. The girl’s blonde hair is closer to brown from all the dirt in it, and she glares up at me with the kind of piercing, cynical eyes I know all too well. I snatch the stolen money from her hand, glaring right back at her.

“I come back,” I snap. “And if you don’t learn to pick your targets better, you’ll be lucky if the next heavily armed hunter team you steal from stops after breaking your fingers.”

Scowling, she pulls her hand away, rubbing her wrist. Bently gives her some food anyway, and she runs off.

“Don’t you think that was a little harsh, Vita…?” Norah asks, her voice a mix of shock and concern.

“I’ve seen people die stealing from the wrong person. I was almost one of them. I hope that was harsh enough.”

“You could maybe encourage her to not be a thief?” Orville posits.

“And do what instead?” I ask, exasperated. “You wanna adopt her, Orville? Come on, let’s go. If we try to help everyone in the city we’ll die of old age.”

I stomp off, feeling a lot more angry than I know I should be. The others follow in silence, letting me stew. It’s obvious that I’ve been a bundle of stress and nerves since Litia, but I haven’t told the others why. Maybe Penelope has, but even if she did or if I told them myself, I’d still have to leave out the most important part. The part I can’t get over. The part where Penta is dead because of me.

She’s right here, hidden inside, and yet I can’t talk to her. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her! I fucked up bad so Penelope killed her and I can’t even be fucking mad at her about it because she fucking saved my life! I’m the only person I can blame.

It isn’t long before the shack comes into view, and while a few people— likely informants for the Drakens— peek at us as we pass through the alleyways we aren’t accosted further in any way worth mentioning. The slab of wood that passes for our door is shut, the kids perhaps wisely deciding to act as though no one is home as five heavily armed and armored people approach them. Soon, though…

“Vita!”

A tide of children rushes out of the shack, forcing me to drop to my knees or risk getting bowled over. The youngest ones hit first, swarming me with hugs. Holy shit, but they look so much healthier. It’s obvious that they’ve made good use of the money I left them. They still look starved, honestly. Cheeks hollow, bodies frail, it’s much the same sight I’m used to seeing… but because I’m so used to it, the improvements are striking to me. Just a bit more flesh where I’d expect bone, just a smidgen more color where I’d expect ashy skin. It’s no question why they’re so happy to see me: at this point, I’m a better supplier for them than Lyn is.

Considering that the only reason Lyn hasn’t stolen them the whole island already is the Drakens, I suspect that damn gang isn’t too happy with me. That’s a problem that will be heading my way soon enough. Not yet, though. Not right now. Right now, I have something more important on my mind.

“Vita,” Lyn says, exiting the shack after the wave of kids.

“Hey mom,” I answer, grinning up at her.