Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Oh God, There’s Two Of Them

Sticking her head through the crack in the door to get a good view of the adventurers, Jane smiles and just starts chatting to them casually as she sits on top of me. “Hi, Dahlia. I am fine. I can’t believe my parents tried to send you all to hunt me down. Pretty messed up if you ask me. Oh, I also heard Lupis was a dick to Vee and got roasted for it. I thought he was supposed to be the smart one?”

“Jane! I am glad you are okay! Sorry, we came out because we knew you and thought you were in danger. We assumed you just ran away for some fun in the woods and got attacked. You don’t exactly think things through.” The fox girl, Dahlia, heaves a relieved sigh as soon as she sees Jane safe. She must be a rather caring person.

Feeling Jane cross her arms atop me and begin to grumble about the implication that she is rather reckless, I feel the need to contribute. “She did run off without any supplies in the pouring rain.”

“Vee!” Jane shouts with a look of complete betrayal on her face. With the most flat monotone voice I can manage while suppressing a laugh, I simply retort. “It’s true.” Aaaand now I am being lightly slapped on the head over and over.

The eleven adventurer standing beside the Dahlia makes an awkward face as she sees us horsing around. “Y-You seem to be getting along well with that monster…”

Jane perks up and stops slapping me at the silver haired woman’s comment. “Vee is cool. She is helping me train to become an adventurer!” Patting my head this time instead of slapping it, Jane’s excitement is all over the place right now. Is this really the same girl who was in tears a few days ago?

“Vee? Is it? Um, how do we get past the bombs?” As the winds sweep through the rain once more, Dahlia’s statement reminds me that they are currently standing out in the hellish rain and can’t move anywhere because of the extensive traps I set up. “Oh, right. Just follow this path of blood I am going to put on the ground and you will be able to make it through.”

Threading out a walkway of blood over the chicken landmines and other traps, I throw in a blood umbrella free of charge. The trio of adventurers quickly make their way to the door and I let them inside so we can all talk about Jane’s future. Why am I having flashbacks to those parent teacher conferences I was forced to attend as a kid?

…

..

.

“Um, is this all blood?” The short and flashily dressed dwarf runs his finger along the crimson steel wall with an expression I can only describe as “please god tell me I’m wrong.” Sadly, for the dwarf, I have to shatter his prayers.

“Yes.” My short, blunt, response just makes him sigh and back away from the wall. Then a moment later he looks down to see the floor is also made of blood, and just slump his shoulders in defeat.

Look, I know the whole “room made of blood” thing, as well as the creepy red lights which are also made of blood, gives off a bit of a murder room vibe. But, as a blood mage I don’t have any other materials to work with, and the stuff is rather durable and clean. It also means that this whole room is a weapon I can use at any time!

The whole cave is nothing like it was last week. A fact that has the adventurers completely baffled. “I have done some renovations. Please take off your shoes near the door and dry off at the magic circle over there.” I am not having you track all that mud and water into my home. The airlock system is something I prepared first as cleaning this huge cave is a massive fucking pain.

Thanks to the snake corpse, I have a lot of Ether to power my home with. Currently the corpse is sitting in a cylinder of crimson steel off to the side. Keeping the sight and smell away from us so we can relax. All in all, the place is really kitted out.

My modern sensibilities and cleaning station just weirds the three guests out. Maybe I should avoid mentioning the shower? “This place is better than our house back in town…” Greg, the dwarf, just mumbles as he washes up and dries off. The two girls can’t even find any words to comment on their own. Are the accommodations back in town really that bad for a top adventuring party? This town is pretty far out I guess.

Just as the adventurer’s finish cleaning up and are allowed in the main house's area, Jane comes rushing up to Dahlia, bouncing up and down in excitement. “Hey! Hey! Come check out my sword skills!” Pulling the confused woman along, we all follow behind Jane as she runs into the training area. “Vee, can you make the snake move again?” A pleading tone and sparkling eyes come from the young elf as I roll my eyes. “Yes, yes. I will turn it back on.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The blood constructs are partially autonomous once I move them around enough. It is a high level [Blood Magic] technique called “Blood Memory” which allows the things I create to learn from repeated actions. Though, they are not exactly intelligent, not yet. Setting the snake to attack again, I watch as Jane keeps her distance properly this time and parries the snake’s tail a few times. She is still struggling to get a good hit in, but her skills are most certainly improving.

The giant grin on Jane’s face as she battles the blood snake gives me a bad feeling that the girl is a battle junkie. Her sword slashes out towards the edge of the snake’s tail only for it to be a feint that catches Jane off guard. In an instant she is slammed into by the bloody construct and goes flying into the wall.

“Jane!” Dahlia shouts as she crashes into a heap and runs over.

“Owwww! Vee, heals please!” A pained yet still childish request comes from the ball on the floor, meanwhile the snake stops in place. The elven scout, who Jane said was named Nadia, moves in to heal her, but I am already running [Healing Magic] through the kid myself. “Are you okay?!” Nadia seems rather scared and is running Ether through her body to both heal and prepare to attack at the same time.

Though Jane can’t use Ether without skills, it does not mean she can’t sense it at all. “Nadia, it was just one hit. Calm down, I am totally fine. See! Vee already healed me.” Her words manage to calm the woman down so I just wander in from behind to scold the little brat. “You should give yourself more room for error, you were so focused on getting a hit in that you lost sight of an obvious feint.”

“Such a worry wart.” Letting out a small embarrassed grumble, Jane just stands back up and moves over to the snake again. As all this is going on the three dumbasskateers just gape at us, our usual routine of a young girl bantering with a rather scary looking monster obviously too much to handle. I am amazed these people survived to Rank C if they are losing their composure at every little thing.

“So, as you can see she is safe and training to protect herself. She has made some great progress in a single week. When she started she couldn’t even beat a simple chicken.”

“You said yourself that the blood chickens were stronger than the real ones!”

“They were weaker when I first made them for you.”

Without a comeback, Jane just turns to focus on the snake again. Though, I can still hear grumbling about how I shouldn’t be selling her out in front of the top party in the whole town. “Jane,” I start in a warning tone, “you have guests. Do try and pay attention to them.” Honestly, this battle junkie is always asking for me to make training dummies. Her constant use of them is why they are already so strong and learning so fast.

“Urk, R-Right.” My comment makes her freeze in place before turning on her heels to head back towards the slack jawed humans. “so, yeah! I’m good. Want some food? I’m kind of hungry now that I think about it. I’ll grab some cockatrice legs and we can snack while we talk. Then I can get back to training.”

“I heard that.”

----------------------------------------

On their way back down the mountain in the pouring rain, the human trio trudges along in silence until a certain dwarf speaks up. “...That place really was bigger than our house, nicer too. If you can get past the creepy black walls and ominous red lightning.” Dahlia just tiredly glares at him. “Shut up Greg.”

“Just sayin’.” Shrugging his shoulders, the man just faces forwards and keeps on down the mountain.

“Jane seems happy at least.” Nadia meanwhile tries to focus on the positive part of the situation. She had seen how the girl interacted with the monster, they seemed like old friends. Though, with the monster taking on a slightly motherly position in the dynamic.

Dahlia looks down at the wet muddy ground, “She does…” Her quiet mutter barely making it through the rumbling thunder.

“Conflicted? I know that Vorpalia is a monster, but she is also an Otherworlder. It is obvious she is taking good care of the little swordswoman.” Nadia, still walking at the head of the group as the scout, turns her head back to look at Dahlia. The vulpid’s face is twisted with worry.

“I am not conflicted about leaving Jane with the monster. I… I am pissed that we didn’t notice, that we came out on this job to hunt down an innocent girl so that her parents could sell her off. We have to report this immediately.” Clenching the handle of her sword tightly, Dahlia keeps thinking back to the parent’s faces when they accepted the quest. They were scared, and angry. She thought that they were afraid for their daughter and upset at themselves. But it was the other way around.

Breaking a contract with a noble could ruin them, or worse. Of course they were afraid, they were in danger. That anger was not for their failure to protect their daughter, but at their prey that escaped.

“Of course we will report it immediately, her parents will pay. Honestly, how did her parents even meet a foreign noble in the first place? That is what does not make any sense. And why does this noble want Jane so badly that they would risk breaking international law to try and buy her?” Nadia wants to comfort her friend, but the whole situation is so strange that she can barely manage to not let her own thoughts spiral.

Elven woman are highly sought after for slave trade. That is something Nadia was taught to be afraid of since she was a child. But things still didn’t add up. The risk was far too great to be worth crossing borders like this. “It just feels off.” Dahlia firmly agrees with Nadia as she explains her own feelings.

Greg however just sighs. “It is above our pay grade to think about stuff like this. We will have to leave those questions to the Guild.” Dahlia and Nadia just grunt in agreement as they finally pass through the town gate.” If anyone can do anything about this situation, it is the Guild.” Dahlia firms her grip as they start to make their way through the slightly flooded streets, her desire to see the girl’s parent’s taken down growing with every spiraling thought.