Arriving in front of her table, Sincir extends the contract Eleanor selected from the board toward Mary with a carefully neutral look on his face.
Gncing in the parchment’s direction, then toward his face, she sighs. “And it was such a beautiful day…”
Sincir raises a palm in her direction. “I came in peace; No funny business today, I promise.”
Mary throws him a suspicious look as she accepts the contract from him, though she frowns as she sweeps her gaze throughout it. “…This is an emergency request.”
“I know; Eleanor said she is familiar with the client... If you approve that for us, we’ll be leaving at once.”
After a moment of deliberation, Mary shrugs. “The girl is thrust worthy, at least, even if her choice of company could use some work...”
As Mary skillfully stumps the parchment, Sincir smiles at her.
“Thank you, Mary. I don’t care what anybody says, you’re awesome.”
As she extends the contract back to him, Mary grimaces. “I expected so little, and you still managed to disappoint me…”
“What? It was an honest compliment…”
Mary doesn’t look impressed, or convinced. “If this is not completed by the end of the day, the guild will have to bear the damage costs caused to our client, and believe me when I say you’ll want to have a very good excuse if that happens,” she warns.
Sincir winks at her. “Don’t worry; So long as I return alive, the job will have been a success.”
“If only I could be so blessed…” Mary murmurs under her breath.
Deciding not to push his luck for today, Sincir leaves Mary to her pile of papers as he walks back to Eleanor and Ena, both of which have been waiting for him near the guild’s exit.
“Got it,” he tells them.
“Did you ask if she is gay or not?” Ena asks curiously, to which Sincir rolls his eyes.
“No, of course I didn’t. I think she’d have already said something, if her gender preferences were the issue… But rather, she said she doesn’t date short man, which means she might’ve considered it if I was older, or at least taller…”
“Shame.”
Sincir throws her a dirty look. “You know, we’re supposed to lookout for each other. Would it kill you to cheer me on for once?”
Ena snorts, making a show of checking her nails. “Cheer you on getting your third girlfriend? I don’t think so... Consider yourself lucky I’m not going to tell poor Mary to stay away from you.”
Sincir sighs. “I keep telling you she’d enjoy it as much as I, but I guess nothing I say these days gets through your thick skull.”
Ena immediately drops her nonchant act to gre at him, but before she can say anything more, Eleanor interjects by stepping in between the two of them.
“Okay, that’s enough from the both of you. An emergency request isn’t something to be taken lightly, and this is only our second day,” she says, “So let’s hurry.”
“…Sorry,” Sincir murmurs, “As the older one, I shouldn’t be going down to her level.”
As Ena flips him, and Sincir smiles at her teasingly, Eleanor sighs. Then, while shaking her head, she walks away without waiting to see if they’re going to follow or not.
“…See what you did?” Sincir says once she is gone.
Ena simply gres at him silently for a moment, before also shaking her head as she follows after Eleanor.
“Sometimes I hate you so fucking much...” she murmurs under her breath.
“What?!”
Sincir is still chuckling by the time he catches up to them, having had to run in order to do so, then clears his throat as he settles his pace to theirs, attracting her gaze.
“…I probably know most of this already, but since this a nest escapee’s contract, why don’t you give us a rundown on what we might expect from the job?” he asks Eleanor.
“Yeah, Eleanor, expin the stuff everybody already knows, so the retard over here can catch up,” Ena adds, voice dripping sarcasm.
Meeting her gre, Sincir rolls his eyes. “I never said anything of the sort... I just want to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
“Of course you do…”
Eleanor sighs. “Shup up, Ena; Sincir, you too, or I’m sending the both of you home and doing this on my own,” she says, meeting both of their gazes in order to make sure they understand she is being serious, “…That being said, the rundown isn’t a bad idea, so I’ll do it, but do not interrupt me with stupid shit, or Creator help me…”
“Okay, okay, we understand. Go on, please,” Sincir interjects.
Eleanor grimaces, but she does begin to speak, “I’ll expin this only once, so pay attention; As I’m sure you’re both aware, Elderspire has three nests in near vicinity of it: Garden of Fire, Mud Hole, and Insect Burrows… Respectively, by distance and age, with Garden of Fire being the oldest and furthest from the city. Since it is likely we will not interact with Garden of Fire in the near future, I’ll talk about Insect Burrows and Mud Holes.”
As expect, nothing Eleanor said so far is news to him, but Sincir still nods, urging her to continue.
“First, Insect Burrows; Its closest entry point is about three hours away from here. As the name suggests, it spawns giant insect-like creatures possessing great physical skills and defense, but little magic… However, seven expeditions of A ranking parties have failed to kill its queen so far, and the nest is growing close to twenty years now.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Sincir catches Ena shuddering.
“We’re not… We’re not going there, are we?” she murmurs dreadfully.
“Not any time soon, no, and the creature we’re hunting today isn’t from there either; From its description, it most likely came from Mud Holes.”
“So, a reptile, then?” he guesses.
Eleanor nods.
In fact, from what Sincir has heard, most nests tend to spawn creatures simir to those found naturally in Mortal Pnes, or Elysium, though the aggression of said creatures is much greater than the real thing… Garden of Fire, for example, spawns elementals which will attack any living being on sight; However, the ones which can be found in Elysium are very passive in nature, preferring to sleep most of the time, and almost never attacking anyone unless provoked.
“The good thing is, being reptiles, Mud Holes’ monsters tend to sleep after they eat,” Eleanor continues, “And if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to get the drop on this one before it goes out to hunt again.”
“…And the bad thing?” Sincir asks.
“They’re very good at hiding, so if our client has lost sight of this one, it is unlikely we’ll be able to find it easily… In fact, we’ll be lucky if it doesn’t ambush one of us.”
Ena shudders again. “The contract said it looked like a big frog, right? I’m imagining what it’d feel like to be eaten alive by one of these things, and it is not a pleasant thought…”
Eleanor stops, turning to Ena as she pces a slightly hesitant hand over the shorter girl’s shoulder.
Ena blinks. “…What?”
“Listen, whether we face goblins, insects, or reptiles, you won’t be eaten as long as I’m there,” Eleanor says, “So… Don’t be afraid, and fight as you usually do... You’re stronger than you think.”
As Eleanor resumes her walk, Ena still has her mouth slightly opened.
“Did she just…?” she whispers after a moment, meeting Sincir’s gaze with a shocked look on her face.
He smiles at her. “C’mon, you’ll hurt her feelings if you act this surprised... Let’s go, we still have a lot of ground to cover.”
Still, their talk got Sincir to think. It’d be nice if he could use his mind magic to at least locate these creatures, but he has heard from Eleanor in the past they seem to have some sort of immunity to it, though she wasn’t able to learn any details about it at the guild… Well, he guesses they’re about to find out how useful his magic will be, one way or another.
Like before, they start running as soon as they leave the city’s gate, in spite of Ena’s compint about having to run in front of everybody again.
The pce indicated in their contract is only two hours away from the city this time, according to Eleanor, so they’ll still have most of the day for themselves in case they manage to complete the job fast enough...
For Sincir, jogging under the morning sun is a fairly pleasant experience, regardless of having others watching or not. Running behind Eleanor also makes for a nice view, and now that she is officially his girlfriend, he doesn’t even have to feel guilty about staring anymore.
“…Can you stop?” Ena hisses in his direction, after a couple minutes of running, “With how hard you’re staring, it amazes me you’ve yet to trip.”
Having been caught in the act, Sincir feels his cheeks heating slightly. “I can’t help it when she is running right in front of me like this… You’d understand if you were into it.”
Ena rolls her eyes. “I can appreciate a nice ass, but you’re treating her like an object.”
Ugh. Where has she been hearing these types of things, anyway?
“No, I’m not… Or I guess you could say she is an object of my desire?”
Ahead of them, Eleanor snorts. “Ena, drop it. This guy doesn’t see women as objects, and you know that... Besides, I don’t mind it if he stares at my ass.”
Sincir can’t help the stupid grin which parts his lips as he gnces toward Ena triumphantly. “See? She doesn’t mind it.”
Ena grimaces. “That doesn’t make it right. There should be a minimum of decorum-”
Sincir sighs. “Ena, I thought you understood that I’m not that type of guy. Shame and society rules are not the things I live my life-”
“Shut up. As I was saying, there should be a minimum amount of decorum expected between friends or family, and when I see you drooling over Eleanor’s ass, I feel like plucking my eyes out.”
Sincir groans. “Fine, if it’s so important to you, I won’t look. Happy?”
“Happy?” Ena mimics in a high pitch, before throwing him a murderous look, “Say, Sin, does it look like I am happy? Does it look like any of this makes me happy, huh?”
Oh, by the Lords…
“…Eleanor, please talk to her.”
Eleanor chuckles. “About what? She had a point at the end there.”
“Our retionship makes her uncomfortable, and she’s being unreasonable about this whole thing.”
“Give it more than a day, and maybe she’ll get over it.”
…Okay, fair. But how long will this rebellious phase st, exactly? He misses when she would just listen to him, begging to sleep on the same bed as though it was no big deal…
He can’t believe she kicked him out of their room. Fuck, that hurt, damn it.
“Ena…”
“I’m not talking to you right now.”
This brat.
“Listen, how about tonight I give you a massage, as an apology for this whole thing... How does that sound? It has been a while, and I know you really like them…”
“I’m not a child anymore, Sin. You can’t bribe me to accept this.”
“…So, you don’t want the massage?”
“…I didn’t say that.”
Sincir smiles. “It’s a deal, then.”
Ena humphs, pointedly looking away from him as they continue to run. Meanwhile, Eleanor gnces at him over her shoulder.
“It has been a while…? How many massages have you given her, exactly?”
Sincir cocks his head thoughtfully. How many? It’s not like he counted them. When they first started living together, Ena often compined about being sore from their training, and since he was to bme for her pain, he’d every now and then offer her a massage…
“…Never mind,” Eleanor murmurs, her expression darkening slightly as she turns away, “I get it.”
Seeing her obvious jealousy, Sincir chuckles…
…Oops, he was looking at her ass again.
Damn it, what else is he supposed to do during the jog there? Stare at the trees…?
A very boring jogging session ter, Sincir releases a sigh of relief once Eleanor finally stops and points toward a group of houses next to a farm simir to the one they saw during their first job.
“This should be it,” she says.
Even before they have time to settle down, Sincir spots a boy running toward them.
“Big Sis Eleanor?!” the boy screams, “What took you so long?!”
Eleanor makes a face once she sees the boy, but she doesn’t have a chance to say much of anything before he stops in front of her, grabs her wrist, and begins to pull her toward the farm.
Sincir exchanges a look with Ena, but seeing no other choice, he decides to follow for now.
“…been waiting for hours!” the boy is saying when Sincir catches up to Eleanor and him, “They managed to corner it in the barn st night, but mom said that if it decides to attack, pitchforks won’t do shit to stop it!”
As she continues to be pulled forward, Eleanor throws them a gnce of hopelessness over her shoulder, but Sincir simply smiles at her, clearing his throat.
“Hey, Big Sis Eleanor, why don’t you ask for the details of the job…?”
As Eleanor gres at him, Sincir catches Ena chuckling out of the corner of his eye.
In the end, Eleanor sighs. “Brandon, please, I can walk by myself…”
“Oh. Of course, sure, I just… I got excited when I saw it was you who came. Those goblins had no chance st time, and I-”
“Brandon,” Eleanor cuts in, firmly this time, as she throws the boy an exasperated look, causing him to immediately release of her arm, stepping away and nearly falling.
“…We can talk about other stuff ter. Has anybody been hurt? What’s the situation?”
Brandon blushes slightly, but he does begin to speak, “Last night, near sundown, Dad noticed this huge thing near the river, so he told Derek to head into the city and pce an urgent request at the guild… The thing is, it came into our barn during the night and ate Betty, so now everybody is watching it so the monster doesn’t get away.”
Eleanor nods. “Take us to your barn, then.”
Bradon rolls his eyes. “But that’s what I was doing before…” he murmurs under his breath as he turns and begins to walk away.
Sincir chuckles, receiving another gre from Eleanor for his troubles...
As it turns out, the farm’s barn isn’t far, and they arrive after a couple of minutes of walking, during which Eleanor is incessantly pestered by questions from Bradon… If not for it being the funnies thing Sincir has seen in a while, he might’ve even felt bad for her.
Once they spot the dozen or so people standing a ways away from the barn’s closed doors, a plump middle-aged woman immediately begins to head in their direction, having spotted them, and Eleanor greets her with an obvious look of relief on her face.
“…Eleanor! Oh Ancients, I’m so gd!” the woman excims once she approaches them, involving Eleanor in a bear hug before the nephilim has the chance to open her mouth.
Saying Eleanor looks uncomfortable and awkward would be an understatement, but she does make and effort to pat the woman’s back, who seems distraught and worried.
“…Morning, Lena,” Eleanor greets, “I heard the monster is still in your barn?”
After stepping away, the woman nods rigidly, pressing her hands together until her knuckles grow white. “It ate our poor cow, the bastard… When I think it could’ve been one of our children, instead…”
At this point, an older man, most likely in his fifties, walks toward them from the barn’s direction. He carries an axe, and pces a hand over Lena’s shoulder once he approaches, bringing her to meet his gaze.
“Easy, woman,” he says, “Nobody was hurt, and the thing’s about to get what it deserves… Thank you for coming.”
Once the man meets Eleanor’s gaze, she nods.
“We came as fast as we could... Are you certain it is still in the barn?”
The man nods. “Some of our people are watching the back of it, and the thing wouldn’t have been able to leave without breaking some hard wood, which we would’ve heard, anyway.”
“It was brave and stupid of you to approach it so much, but it does make out job easier,” Eleanor says.
He sighs. “We know how dangerous it’d have been to lose sight of it… And we can’t work while it’s still lurking around, anyway.”
“I understand. However, and I hope you take no offence to this, I’ll have to ask you to clear your people from here.”
“None taken,” the man says, “We’ll keep our distance.”
After another exchange of pleasantries, their trio approaches the barn while the farmers clear the way as instructed.
Eleanor seems calm, but Ena is visibly restless as she unsheathes her sword and stares toward the barn’s closed doors.
“…How are we doing this? Should we have someone circle out the back to make sure it doesn’t get away?” she asks.
Not knowing the behavior of these things all that well himself,Sincir takes a gnce toward Eleanor, who shakes her head.
“It’ll probably attack us once we disturb it, so we don’t need to fear it suddenly running away. The most dangerous moment will be when we open the door… Sincir, do you think you could do it with a spell?”
“Sure.”
“…Without damaging it, I mean.”
Sincir gnces toward the rge piece of wood keeping the door closed. Could he lift it…? It’s probably too narrow and heavy for a wind spell to do it easily, but he could use a spatial one to get the job done.
“…Yeah, I can do it.”
Eleanor nods, also unsheathing her sword. “I’m not sure I need to mention this to either of you, but these people depend on their farm to survive, just as the city depends on the food these smalls farms produce-”
“I got it from st time,” Ena murmurs, interrupting Eleanor as she smiles and spins her sword, “Don’t worry, I won’t hesitate… I hate reptiles, anyway.”
Sincir rolls his eyes. “Okay, listen, I think it’s best I leave this one to the two of you. Ena, you can gain some experience, and Eleanor, you can show your cool side to your friends… I’ll be ready to interfere if something goes wrong.”
Eleanor sighs, but she doesn’t take his bait. “In this case, I’ll take the left and attract its attention, while you take the right and look for an opening to approach, Ena… And remember, you don’t need to end it in a single blow, so don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
Ena nods, and together, they begin to approach the barn from opposites sides of it...
Meanwhile, Sincir focuses on casting a mind spell to inspect the barn’s insides and surroundings... Immediately as he begins to expand his senses, he detects the girls’ mind shields, and a couple of small animals hiding in the grass, as well as the farmers standing further away from them, their thoughts of worry and excitement fshing through his mind… However, once he expands the spell’s reach to cover the barn, he is surprised to find out he cannot detect anything inside of it.
Hey, is this thing really there? Could the farmers have been wrong?
He expected some sort of resistance, like the one magical creatures tend to have, but for it to not show up at all…
The first possibility Sincir can think of would be for the creature to have some sort magic concealing its mind, like the one used at the chapel by the demon contractor who killed Father Anders... However, the reason he didn’t detect that spell at the time was because he didn’t know it existed and he was too far away to detect the casting of a shadow spell focused on concealment; But right now, knowing where to look and that there’s supposed to be something there, it’d take a very powerful spell to fully hide something from his senses, and not something Sincir expects would be present on a monster the guild categorizes as F rank, either naturally or otherwise...
The second possibility Sincir can think of is for it to simply not have a mind, which would be… Strange, to say the least. Even insects have minds, though they’re usually too small to be detected... Alternatively, magical constructs, such as his shadow puppets, do not possess any minds of their own, acting according to the instructions imprinted in their mana during their creation… The problem is, nothing Sincir has heard about these monsters leads him to believe them to be pure magical creations.
“…Hey, Sin, what’s taking you so long?!” Ena shouts at him from her readied position, clearly impatient to start.
Realizing Eleanor is also staring at him with a questioning look on her face, Sincir scratches his head.
Well, the third possibility is that the monster is simply not inside of the barn or in its immediate vicinity, but he finds it hard to believe all of these people would’ve missed it leaving… Only one way to find out.
