“That sounds kind of horrible,” said Mizuki. “Like, I feel like you thought it was a funny story, but it’s really not.”
“My mom found it funny,” said Alfric, shrugging. “It was a day she undid because half of the party had died. She actually went and tracked down the kid, hired him on. She liked his initiative, even if it was callous.”
“Your mom sounds tough as nails,” said Mizuki.
“Oh, you have no idea,” said Alfric. “She holds a couple of family records.”
“For?” asked Mizuki.
“Most dungeons run, longest dungeon run, biggest haul from a single dungeon, most entads from a single dungeon, most dungeons in a day,” said Alfric.
“Isn’t she only in her forties?” asked Hannah.
“Late forties. There was a time she was running really hard,” said Alfric. “She had created a party composition specifically for not taking breaks and then just kind of… kept going, I guess. They ended up with good entads for it. According to her, and I don’t know how true this is, there was a year when her party accounted for nearly ten percent of all new entads in Dondrian.”
“That sounds suspect,” said Hannah. “Not that I’d call your ma a liar.” Though there’d been something that he’d said earlier, about his original ambition to do dungeons at a level not seen in decades, and it occurred to Hannah that perhaps he was talking about his own mother.
“Yeah, better that you don’t do that,” said Alfric. “I did ask her about it, but all she had to say was that she was told that number by an entad dealer, and maybe they would know, but.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t a boast she made often, but she did have a habit of boasting, at least when other dungeoneers were trying to puff out their chests. Mostly to put them in their place, I guess.”
“Think we’ll meet her someday?” asked Mizuki. “Because she seems neat.”
“I’d like to make a name for myself before I go back home,” said Alfric. “At least, say… twenty dungeons?”
“So half a year, at current rates?” asked Hannah. “I can’t see us goin’ too much faster than that, which I know isn’t what you want.”
“All that stuff with Lola aside, I’m going to dungeons and actually enjoying myself,” said Alfric. “And no one stole the wardrobe.” He shrugged. “Faster would be better, yes, but with two dungeons done, and a third on the way… I’m actually doing it now, which I’m grateful for.”
“You had a tough time of it before us,” said Hannah.
“My standard of living was high,” said Alfric. “I’m not going to complain about it more than I already have.”
“You have feelin’s though,” said Hannah. “Doesn’t do to let them go unexamined.” There was almost nothing about that in the Book of Garam Ashar but plenty that Hannah had been taught at the seminary. People often thought their problems were small and left them to fester, and that was true of their bodies as much as their minds.
The boy on the bird came back just about then.
“How about it?” asked Alfric. “Are we under arrest?”
“My dad isn’t the hexguard,” said Bib. “He would send someone else, if he wanted to.”
“Well, unless you’ve got a posse coming, I suppose we’re in the clear,” said Alfric.
“I have to apologize,” said Bib.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Alfric. He probably would have waved a hand, if he hadn’t been keeping the wardrobe steady.
“I have to apologize,” said Bib. “Dad said that if I didn’t, I would get in trouble. So I’m sorry for saying that you stole it and that you should keep it here, and my dad told me that I should ask if I could make it up to you, because you’re not supposed to berate strangers, he said. And you’re not supposed to repeat conversations from the dinner table to them.”
“So you owe us a favor, is that it?” asked Alfric.
“I guess,” said Bib.
“Well, I’ll think about it,” said Alfric. “But we have nothing for you right now. That bird makes you fast, and I think we can use that, if your father is okay with you going a bit far from home.”
“I go where I want to,” said Bib, holding his chin high.
“Well then, remember me, because I’ll be calling on you,” said Alfric.
“Okay,” said the boy. He turned his bird around and sent it off down the trail again, this time without saying goodbye.
“You think you’ll be able to collect on that?” asked Hannah.
“No,” said Alfric. “But it doesn’t hurt to have a favor from a nosy little kid.”
“You like kids?” asked Mizuki, eyes brightening somewhat.
“I like them well enough,” said Alfric. “I was a mentor in the Junior League for a bit, when I was floundering.”
“I had thoughts of being a teacher,” said Mizuki. “But I wasn’t all that good in school, and to be a teacher you need to go off training for three years.”
“Three years isn’t so much,” said Hannah. “Not when you’re talkin’ about takin’ care of the little ones.”
“How long is seminary?” asked Mizuki.
“Five,” said Hannah. “Though you can do the final year as part of a placement, if you so desire. Most of it is just tryin’ to get the right mindset for Garos, which was never much of an issue for me.” She turned to Alfric. “Seems strange to me that you like children.”
“Why’s that?” asked Alfric.
“They’re just… not very serious creatures, it seems to me,” said Hannah.
“Depends on the kid,” said Alfric. “Some of them are very serious, and maybe that’s what I like: being the only person that sees that seriousness and being the only one who will indulge it. In the Junior League, as a mentor, I was always on the lookout for them, the serious ones, when I wasn’t trying to keep my brothers in line.”
“Brothers?” asked Mizuki. “I thought you were an only child?”
“Why would you think that?” asked Alfric.
“You never talk about them,” said Hannah. “And you have that kind of energy, I s’pose.”
“I’m not sure I know what that means,” said Alfric. “Mizuki, can you come scratch the back of my head, or would that be weird?”
“It would be weird, but I’d do it,” said Mizuki. She walked past the wardrobe and reached up to scratch Alfric’s head.
“Lower,” he said and then sighed with relief. “Honestly, I probably could have just carried this thing with one hand for a bit, but the more work we put into it, the more I worry that we’re going to drop it and make all that labor be for nothing. Thank you.”
“No problem,” said Mizuki. She stayed at the front with him, walking side by side. “So wait, how many siblings do you have?”
“Five,” said Alfric.