Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 08 - Don’t know Jacque - Part Two {Rewrite}

Toofy saw me heading for the stairs and hurriedly caught up to me, scrambling up the blanket on my back and taking her seat on my shoulder. Still somewhat excited from playing, Toofy hadn’t seemed to notice my change in mood and was still grinning maniacally as she slowly began to calm down.

It wasn’t until we reached the room that Toofy’s expression turned serious, “Tim sad,” she observed somewhat worriedly.

I nodded and sat down on the bed.

Toofy looked around in nervous confusion, “Why Tim sad? Tim hurt?” She hopped off my shoulder and began checking me for injuries.

I didn’t know how to go about explaining this to Toofy and wasn’t sure I even wanted to try. “I...I am sad because people died. Because I think it was my fault and that maybe...Maybe I could have done something about it if I wasn’t so weak,” I explained quietly.

Toofy cocked her head to one side and was visibly struggling with what I had said. Sitting down beside me on the bed, Toofy held one hand over her chest, “Tim’s heart hurts?” She asked sympathetically.

A little surprised by her level of empathy and comprehension, I nodded.

Toofy nodded and looked very sad, “Toofy heart hurt too,” she sniffled, wiping her nose absently on her sleeve, “Toofy lost Leafy, Toofy heart hurt too,” tears began running down her eyes as Toofy stared at the wall.

“Leafy was your friend?” I guessed, surprised that she had not spoken about this person before.

Toofy screwed up her face a little and shook her head, “Leafy like Toofy, older, teach Toofy, protect Toofy...” Her voice trailed off quietly and she sniffled again.

“Leafy was your parent?” I corrected, “You were Leafy’s daughter?”

Toofy nodded, “Leafy give Toofy food, hide Toofy, protect Toofy, make Toofy safe,” she smiled faintly for a moment before her expression turned sad again, “Many Orcs find Toofy, find Leafy, want eat. Leafy make Toofy run, Toofy run, Toofy hide. Leafy...Leafy gone. Toofy alone, Toofy heart hurt,” Toofy looked up at me with sad eyes as fresh tears began running down her cheeks.

“Oh Toofy, I’m so sorry, come here!” I lifted Toofy up into a hug. I was beginning to understand why Toofy had grown so attached to me. I was treating her like a child after all, so of course, she would see me as a parent figure to fill the void left by Leafy.

After a while, Toofy stopped crying and I thought it would probably be best for both of us to take at least a short rest. This morning had been far more emotionally exhausting than I had expected when I woke up earlier. Snuggling Toofy in close and covering us both with the blanket, I decided that I would try and be nicer to Toofy from now on. While I hadn’t exactly been mean to her, there were times when I had kept my distance emotionally, and I now regretted it.

Waking up a while later, despite the emotional turbulence, I didn’t really dream of anything that I can remember now that I had woken up again. Toofy looked like she was doing better, which was a relief. I felt more than a little guilty over my narcissistic melodrama forcing her to dredge up such painful memories to put things in perspective.

“What do you think about getting some lunch?” I asked Toofy as cheerfully as I could manage, which admittedly wasn’t much but was still better than I could have managed before.

“Okay,” Toofy agreed, her usual energy still somewhat dampened compared to usual.

Knowing that I had to make this up to her, I decided to teach Toofy how to slide down the bannisters.

Heading downstairs to the common room, I waited at the bottom of the stairs and motioned to Kirk that he should pay attention. After waiting for Rose and incidentally a rather decent crowd of loitering adventurers, I gave Toofy the signal.

Toofy took a running leap, laughing hysterically as she landed both her feet on the bannister and slid right down to the bottom with her ‘cape’ drawn out to either side and fluttering behind her. Leaping into my arms rather than risking a tumble, Toofy promptly hopped down and raced back to the top of the stairs again.

Toofy repeated her new game a half dozen more times before tiring somewhat and joining me at the bar.

“I am not sure you are a very good influence on her,“ Kirk commented with a wry smile.

I shrugged, having already made up my mind to let Toofy enjoy herself for a bit. “Could we have a large lunch, please?”

“Sure thing,” Kirk agreed, disappearing into the kitchen for a few moments before returning with a large tray of roasted meat.

Letting Toofy pick what she liked first, I waited until she began slowing down before eating anything myself.

A short while later, I stretched and caught a whiff of my armpit. Even though the smell wasn’t that bad, it was clearly time for a bath. “I think it’s high time Toofy and I took another bath. Would it be alright if we bathed in the laundry area?” I asked Kirk, it had been more than a couple of days since the last time we bathed and I was feeling a little grody.

Kirk scratched his chin, “Erm, I guess it would be fine. But why not just take your bath upstairs?”

“I don’t really feel like making multiple trips,” I shrugged, there wasn’t much more to it than that. Besides, the cooking fire would be in use at the moment, so it would be a cold bath anyway. If anything, taking a bath outside might warm the water up a little. “Come on Toofy,” I waved at her to follow me as I walked around the bar and into the kitchen.

Rose was busy at work tending the fire and preparing what looked like stew in preparation for dinner, but she still raised an eyebrow inquisitively at me as Toofy and I walked through the kitchen.

“Taking a bath,” I explained sheepishly.

Rose nodded and turned back to what she was doing, apparently more than satisfied with the answer.

Walking out into the laundry area, I was a little surprised to find that most of the laundry tubs were missing. It took me a moment to realise that they had probably been used as part of the barricade and were very likely damaged. So it made sense that they hadn’t dragged them back through the inn again, there wouldn't have been much of a point.

Taking one of the tubs, I placed it under the pump and filled it with water. As I had expected, the water was rather cold, so I decided that it would probably be best If I took my bath first, at least then the water would be somewhat warmed up for Toofy. Untying the blanket from around my shoulders, I slung it over a washing line and did the same for Toofy’s towel in an attempt to keep them from getting any dirtier and remain dry until we needed them.

Taking out a small bar of soap from the lidded clay pot by the door, I stepped into the tub and sat down.

Toofy began stripping down, but I managed to stop her before she got to her underwear, barely. Contrary to my expectations, Toofy didn’t seem to mind the cool water temperature and hopped in with a splash.

I grabbed one of the nearby buckets, filled it with the bathwater and upended it in the tub so Toofy had somewhere to sit that would keep her head above water. “Do you remember how to wash?” I asked Toofy while lathering up my chest and pits.

Toofy shrugged and then nodded somewhat uncertainly.

“Just copy me,” I instructed, making sure to rub down my arms, chest and as much of my back as I could reach.

“Toofy do,” Toofy agreed, watching me far more intently than I was comfortable with given our current situation.

Finished with the soap, I handed it over to Toofy, “After you wash, I will help you wash your hair, okay?”

“Kay,” Toofy nodded and began lathering up her arms just as I had done.

While Toofy was occupied, I discreetly washed down my groyne and made a mental note to make sure one of the girls had a chat with Toofy about personal hygiene regarding her feminine areas. Although it was not an immediate issue, it was quite possible to become one in the future.

In the best case scenario, I would prefer it if they helped socialise Toofy a little by bathing as a group. If there was one thing I had noticed over the past few days, it was that Toofy was much smarter than I had initially given her credit for, so proper socialisation had to become a higher priority.

“Make sure to wash under your clothes too,” I reminded Toofy, as she lathered up her top.

Toofy looked at me a little weird, then shrugged, ”Kay.”

I took the opportunity to grab another bucket and began washing down my head and face with the soapy bathwater. To my immense relief, Toofy did not take long to wash and we could move on to washing her hair. Interestingly, Toofy remembered this part and leaned her head back towards me expectantly.

Wetting Toofy’s hair with the bathwater, I gingerly lathered up her hair and paid particular attention to behind her ears and the nape of her neck. Satisfied that it was about as good as I could manage, I shielded Toofy’s eyes with my hand and began rinsing her hair out with fresh water from the pump. “All done Toofy, time to hop out,”

Toofy eagerly got out of the tub and shook herself to dry off a little.

Getting out as well, I emptied the tub and pulled down Toofy’s towel from the washing line and dried out her hair as best as I could before wrapping the towel around her just below the armpits. “Better?” I asked.

Toofy grinned and nodded.

Folding the blanket in half, I wrapped it around my gut and gave Toofy’s tunic and pants a good scrubbing in the bathwater before wringing them out and then emptying the bathwater into the corner drain. I was fairly certain that it fed into a small pipe that fed the water a short distance from the inn, or at least that’s what I vaguely remembered Rose telling me while we were doing laundry.

Heading back upstairs, I found my pack had been stored in the corner of the girl’s room and fished out Toofy’s spare change of underwear. Giving Toofy some privacy to change, I took off the blanket I had been using as a towel and properly dried myself off with it while staring at the far wall.

I spent the next hour or so singing the sausage nursery rhyme with Toofy to try and help her remember the words for each number, and later giving her some very basic maths problems to familiarise herself with the concept. Toofy was definitely making solid progress on both counts, it was just a matter of keeping at it so it sticks.

“Ugh! I need sleep!” Nadine groaned as she suddenly barged into the room, wandered over to the bed and collapsed face-first into the blanket, “I never want to drink another mana potion again!”

Clarice was not far behind her and closed the door, “Yeah, I hear that the accumulated side effects are nothing to joke about,” she agreed with an exaggerated shiver.

“Side effects?” I asked.

Clarice nodded, “You get dizzy when you drink one, but if you drink too many you get pretty bad nausea or fatigue. Or at least that’s what Nadine says anyway.”

Nadine groaned into her pillow but made no further attempts to confirm or deny what Clarice had said.

“Oh, right!” Clarice slapped her forehead, “A Guild investigator is putting together a report on the raid, so try to stay up in the room as much as possible, yeah?”

“Okay...” I agreed hesitantly, “What is a Guild investigator exactly?”

Clarice scratched the back of her head awkwardly, “Well, erm, they like, investigate stuff for the Guild, you know?” She replied, perfectly explaining nothing I hadn’t already assumed by virtue of the title.

Nadine groaned and rolled over on the bed, “The investigator interviews people, looks into anything strange, assesses damage to the foothold, stuff like that,” she sighed tiredly, “It’s mostly just administrative stuff, but there is a chance that the investigator might take an interest in you and ask some difficult questions...”

Ah, there it was. “If that is the case, then I don’t really mind,” I agreed, more than willing to hang out in the room for a couple of days until this investigator leaves.

“Figured you would say that,” Clarice grinned somewhat mockingly, “So I let Kirk know that you and Toofy would be needing meals delivered to the room.”

“Thanks,” I was genuinely appreciative that Clarice had made the consideration on our behalf.

“Could you keep it down for a while, at least until I fall asleep?” Nadine groaned.

Clarice rolled her eyes and headed for the door, “Fine.”

Pulling out my damaged tunic from my pack, I followed through on my plans to repair and alter it. It was a rather straightforward process so it didn’t really take that long. Slipping on my recently patched tunic, I set about doing my best to shorten the pants and reinforce the knees and cuffs. Pretty much all the fabric from my mid-shin and lower had been torn and frayed to oblivion. So by the time I was done, I finished with a somewhat longish pair of shorts that fell just past my knees. Given that this was the best I could do with what I had on hand, I decided not to be too hard on myself.

While I was more than happy to pass the rest of the day in quiet self-reflection, Toofy became bored rather quickly. I tried teaching her some quiet games, but Toofy was either uninterested or would become too excited and we would have to stop so she wouldn’t wake up Nadine.

In the end, I settled on quietly telling Toofy some of the fairy tales and children's stories I remembered from when I was growing up. Toofy would interrupt occasionally when she didn’t understand something, but surprisingly not very often.

By the late evening Clarice had returned to the room and Nadine, though still tired, was doing much better.

“The investigator has been asking a lot of questions about Tim,” Clarice sighed irritably.

“Questions?” I asked hesitantly, unsure I wanted to hear the answer.

Clarice nodded, “Where is it? What level is it? Who is the owner? Where did it come from?” She had adopted a nasal tone, presumably to imitate the investigator, “He has been badgering me all day! Because of course, the Guild manager ratted us out!” Clarice seethed.

Tiredly sitting up in bed, Nadine nodded and rubbed her temples, “What about Emelia? Do you know if she has told the investigator anything?”

Clarice snorted and smiled a little, “Actually, yeah, she has.”

Nadine stiffened, “Is it anything we need to worry about?” She asked worriedly.

“Nope,” Clarice chuckled and shook her head, “He tried questioning her but got nowhere fast! I think maybe Emelia is smarter than we gave her credit for. After just a couple of minutes, the investigator was practically pulling his hair out and screaming at her when she couldn’t answer one of his first questions he asked slightly differently for a second time to try and trip her up. It was hilarious!” Clarice crowed happily.

Nadine sighed in relief, “I suppose that is perhaps the best we could have hoped for.”

Clarice shrugged and pulled off her boots.

“So will we be alright you think?” I asked.

“Dunno,” Clarice admitted a little sheepishly, “Kirk and Rose are looking out for us, so it will probably be fine though.”

Nadine gave it some thought and then nodded, “The investigator seems to be driven by curiosity more than a valid motive, so I doubt the Guild will allow him to linger for long. Also with the portal open again, Kirk and Rose can exercise a decent amount of influence to pressure the Guild into wrapping up the investigation sooner rather than later.”

“Why is that exactly?” I asked curiously, “Aren’t they just running an inn?”

Nadine smirked a little condescendingly and shook her head, “The innkeepers who work inside the Labyrinths are technically contracted by the Guild. They have a rank slightly lower than the manager but unlike Guild managers, the innkeepers aren’t nearly as divided in Guild politics. So the managers are reluctant to antagonise them lightly.”

“Oh, I didn’t know Kirk and Rose had that sort of clout,” I admitted sheepishly, “But if they are Guild employees, does that mean the inn belongs to the Guild? So can’t the investigator just get a key and barge in whenever he feels like it?”

Nadine shook her head, “The agreements are a bit complicated, but basically Kirk and Rose own the inn under an operational discretionary lease contract. So long as Kirk and Rose pay the lease fee, they can run the inn however they like.”

“They can tell the investigator to fuck off basically,” Clarice clarified with a grin.

Nadine sighed but nodded in agreement.

“Well that’s a relief,” I sighed, but all too quickly remembered something else that had been bothering me, “Have either of you seen Jacque?” I asked worriedly. There were some questions I wanted to ask her, specifically about the Goblin chieftain’s spear, but she hadn’t made an appearance all day.

Clarice shrugged, “Dunno.”

Nadine shook her head as well, “She didn’t say anything about leaving, but I haven’t seen her since this morning. I doubt she will have gone anywhere just yet though, the rewards for the raid contributions haven’t been handed out yet after all, and it’s not like Jacque has dissolved the party either.”

I nodded and tried my best to put the matter out of my mind for the time being, but it was easier said than done.

*****

Sauntering down the city streets of Hurst, Jacque paid little mind to the small band of thugs trailing behind her. Worst case scenario, they did something stupid and she would need to put them down. Jacque’s information broker in the slums had been quite helpful, so she didn’t really mind the minor inconvenience all that much since she was in a good mood.

Although Jacque still needed to verify the information with a few targeted inquiries at the Guild, she was confident that the opportunity was real and intended to capitalise on it. Defensible unclaimed real estate in the Labyrinth was hard to come by after all, and Jacque needed a new base of operations after what happened to the last one.

Recalling the slaughter of her minions at Trevor’s hands still made Jacque angry. The meathead hadn’t even claimed the territory or looted the ruins after levelling her fortress to the ground and killing everyone he could catch. Jacque swore that she would make Trevor pay for that, many of those minions had been irreplaceable and close friends.

Letting out a deep sigh, Jacque had to content herself with the fact that her provisional alliance with Tim seemed to be off to a good start. Even though he was not nearly ruthless enough to contend with the other Awakened, he was getting there. Given the right guidance and a few nudges in the right direction, Jacque was confident that Tim would more than suit her purposes.

Discovering Tim on the first floor of Hurst’s Labyrinth was a happy little accident and more than made up for losing her chance at the key. There would always be other keys and there was no telling which key he received anyway. Besides, If Jacque had wanted to claim the key, she would have had to kill all the witnesses. At least this way, all the attention was on Tim and not her.

Noticing two more thugs moving out of the alleys ahead of her, Jacque sighed and shook her head. Drawing her sword, Jacque glanced lazily over her shoulder at the thugs now rapidly closing in from behind and sighed again. This really was a mild inconvenience, but at least there would be no witnesses.

“Hand over yer-URK!” The thug staggered backwards clutching at his neck as blood welled over his fingers and ran down his chest.

Before the others could react, Jacque had leapt in amongst them. Effortlessly disarming one of them by hacking through his right bicep and severing the muscles and bone while using the same blow to slash open the guts of another, spilling his intestines onto the ground.

Jacque didn’t let up, capitalising on their shock and driving the tip of her sword through another thug's chest before kicking him off the blade and swinging the sword overhead and into the collarbone of another that was standing behind her.

“M-monster!” The last thug cried, dropping his truncheon and turning to run.

“Close enough,” Jacque muttered with a smirk, effortlessly catching up to the fleeing man and slashing a long gash down his back, causing him to pitch forward onto the hard ground.

“Please don’t kill me! I didn’t wan-ghurk...” Jacque cut the thug's plea short by hacking her sword halfway into his neck.

Shaking her head, Jacque leaned in close to the dying man so they could look one another in the eyes, “I don’t show mercy to trash like you,” she spat, “Preying on those you think are weaker and always running your mouths about how you had no choice the moment someone stronger reminds you how weak you truly are!”

The thug pawed helplessly at the sword lodged in his neck as his eyes began to dim.

Jacque waited until the last flicker of life left the man’s eyes and snorted in contempt at his final thoughts encompassed by a single word, ‘unfair’. The irony was not lost on Jacque. To gang up on a woman late at night, seven to one and still claim that life, the fight and the universe, in general, was unfair...It was actually rather typical of most bandits and thugs Jacque was forced to put down. Almost every single one of them had believed their actions to be justified by some perverse self-serving logic, and the moment things didn’t go their way, it was ‘unfair’.

Wiping her sword clean on the dead thug’s tunic, Jacque briefly considered looting their bodies and then decided against it. It was likely that they only had a few coppers, and it wouldn’t be worth dirtying her hands further for such a pittance. Better to leave it for the scavengers, it would encourage them to mess up the scene a bit anyway as they fought over the spoils.

Jacque sheathed her sword and casually began sauntering back towards the Guild branch office, absently wondering if any other trash would be stupid enough to cross her path.

*****

Stiffly stretching my back, I wondered if it was really such a smart idea to sleep on the floor. Unsurprisingly, I was the first one awake and couldn’t really do all that much without waking anyone else up. So instead, I decided to look at everyone’s status to see if fighting off the raid had gotten us any real benefits.

Looking at my own status information first, I saw that I had levelled up, despite the gigantic amount of EXP required. The level up had awarded another point of Willpower, bringing me up to seventeen. Increasing my Willpower stat was tantamount to increasing protection against Enslavement, so I was glad to have it.

Toofy had gained an extra point of Toughness and Agility, which was nice. Anything that increased her survivability was more than welcome in my book.

Nadine had gone up a level as well, gaining another point of Intelligence. I wondered if it actually made her smarter or if it just helped with overall comprehension.

Lastly, Clarice had gained two whole points of extra Toughness, which was kind of crazy given how close both she and Toofy were to gaining another level. Clarice was steadily getting closer to the same HP as me even and now had thirty-three. The benefits of having a combat class were pretty obvious at this point. If I didn’t need to keep Toofy safe from opportunists using Enslavement abilities on her, I would seriously consider getting a combat Class instead of Slaver.

I knew there were probably some people who would be overjoyed at the opportunity to dominate others with the power of their mind and turn them into hapless Slaves, but I was not one of them. If it weren’t for Toofy, I would rather have no Class at all than Slaver.

Clarice woke up about an hour later and I aired my grievance over the Slaver Class.

Clarice shrugged, “Is it really so bad?” She asked sceptically, “I mean if you know that you won’t abuse the Ability and take advantage, then what is the difference?”

I opened my mouth to reply but couldn’t think of a satisfactory answer. The best I could manage was that I disliked the name and was honestly a little worried by the temptation. “I guess you're right...” I admitted somewhat sullenly.

Clarice shrugged again, “Sometimes you just have to make the most of what you are given, y’know?” She added sympathetically.

I nodded, “I guess.”

“Although, speaking of Classes...” Clarice rolled over on the bed so she was facing me and had a hopeful expression on her face, “I don’t suppose you know any Advanced combat Classes?” She asked hopefully.

I shook my head, “Isn’t it pretty obvious that I don't?” I asked somewhat exasperatedly, “I was actually going to ask you to show me how to fight, but then Toofy and I got stuck in this room.”

Clarice sighed and nodded, “Figures. It’s pretty amazing that you can teach the Surgeon and Field Surgeon Classes though,” she admitted, “You sure you don’t know any fighting techniques?”

“Pretty sure,” I replied.

The closest thing I knew to fighting was Olympic-style wrestling and I wasn’t very good at it. I lacked a lot of the necessary flexibility and nimbleness to perform the moves correctly.

My mum had gotten me into wrestling for exercise and to try and make some friends, but my height and weight meant that I had to train with much older kids, so I dropped the sport after a few years. In hindsight, I probably would have been better at American showmanship wrestling, but I had never really considered it.

“You hesitated,” Clarice observed pointedly, “Why did you hesitate?”

Had I? I was pretty sure I hadn’t.

Letting out a deep sigh I rubbed at my temples, “I know a little about wrestling,” I admitted.

Clarice smiled intensely and sprang up into a sitting position, “Teach me!” She demanded.

I flinched, “Um, are you sure? We don’t really have the space-” I tried to discourage Clarice but she was already up and off the bed.

“Nah, we’re doing this!” Clarice insisted, pulling on her pants, “You can just push the bed up against the wall or something!”

I slumped dejectedly in defeat.

Toofy seemed excited at doing something more active though, so I supposed it wasn’t all bad.

I pushed the bed against the far wall and removed the mattress before lifting the bed up onto its side to free as much space as possible. Laying out the mattress on the floor, I hoped that it would be sufficient to dampen hard falls without being too difficult to move on. Without a real mat, the mattress would just have to do.

“We need to do stretches first,” I insisted, resolved to at least avoid pulling a muscle if I could help it.

“So we just copy you?” Clarice asked, already doing some basic warmup stretches of her own.

I nodded, “Yeah. Ideally, the warmup would include some light running, but we don’t really have space for that...”

After about fifteen minutes of Toofy and Clarice following my lead, I waved them back away from the mattress and began demonstrating the basic stance and how you were expected to move. Explaining why the stance was important basically boiled down to remaining mobile while maintaining your centre of gravity to prevent you from losing balance, so they both picked it up easily enough.

Toofy already had the break-fall figured out from what I had seen yesterday, so I had her demonstrate it for Clarice. Once Clarice was fairly confident in using it, there wasn’t much point in putting off the holds and throws anymore, but I still wanted to give Clarice one last chance to back out.

“Are you sure?” I asked warily, “I am not particularly good at this and if I do it wrong, I could break or dislocate your arm...”

“Woah! Really?!” Clarice asked not at all afraid as I had hoped, and was instead even more excited.

Letting out a deep sigh, I assumed the position and signalled for Clarice to come at me. Before either of us really knew what was happening, I had ducked down, pivoted my body, grabbed her arm and thrown her up and over onto the mattress.

*Whump*

I just stood there for a moment awkwardly holding Clarice’s arm before moving to try and help her up.

“How the hell did you do that?!” Clarice demanded, apparently somewhat intimidated.

My technique had been sloppy but passable, mostly succeeding due to brute strength. “It would be easier if I could show you,” I explained with a sigh, “But I guess I could show you how I moved and then you could maybe practice with Nadine when she comes back.”

“Why Nadine?” Clarice asked, somewhat confused.

“You think you could throw me?” I asked dubiously. If she had a real wrestling instructor to work with, she just might manage it with good technique. However, for Clarice’s current skill level, I was way too heavy.

Clarice frowned determinedly, “Why not?!” She demanded, “Go on, show me what I need to do, then I’ll flip you so hard you see stars!”

Groaning inwardly, I demonstrated the move five more times, step by step. Giving Clarice a few mock tries to get the form right, we were ready for Clarice to make an actual attempt.

“GRRRGH!!!” Clarice grunted and strained hard to try and lift me off the ground but just couldn’t manage it. Trying, again and again, she just couldn’t build up the required momentum.

“It’s alright,” I consoled her, “As I said, I am just way too heavy for you at the moment. There is no need to feel bad about it, I honestly doubt that I could flip someone my size,” I admitted truthfully.

Breathing heavily Clarice nodded and released my arm, “Then-what-else?” She demanded.

I was about to answer when Nadine returned with breakfast. “Oh, What are you guys doing?” She asked curiously, looking at the mattress in the middle of the floor.

“Tim’s teaching me to grapple!” Clarice insisted enthusiastically.

“Wrestle,” I corrected lightly, gratefully accepting one of the bowls and handing the other to Toofy.

“Whatever,” Clarice said dismissively, “Tim says I need a partner though, so what do ya say?”

“Uh, what?” Nadine asked, a little confused by what was going on.

“I need a training partner!” Clarice repeated insistently, “You’ll help me right?!”

Nadine blanched, “Um, I really don’t think it sounds like-”

“Nonsense!” Clarice interrupted, “It’s important for self-defence! Besides, we have this mattress for safety and everything!” She insisted intensely.

Nadine looked to me for help, but I just shrugged. Clarice did actually have a point. It wouldn’t be a bad thing for Nadine to know how to defend herself without a weapon. Although admittedly one of the more aggressive martial arts would be better for that sort of thing.

While Toofy and I ate our breakfast, Clarice bullied Nadine through the warmup stretches.

Now free of having to demonstrate every move on Clarice, I could demonstrate everything up to final execution with Nadine and then have Clarice repeat it for me until she got it right. It still didn’t unlock any Classes though, no matter how many times Clarice threw Nadine or pinned her to the floor.

“Enough!” Nadine put her foot down, “I am heading off for lunch!” She stormed out of the room and stomped down the corridor in a huff.

Clarice winced, “I guess I did kinda take it too far...” She admitted sullenly, “What are we getting wrong?”

I shrugged, “Maybe you need to wrestle a wider range of opponents?” I suggested. “Or maybe you need to beat someone with wrestling? Nadine didn’t unlock the Surgeon classes until she finished her second set of sutures.”

Clarice pursed her lips and nodded thoughtfully, “So what you’re saying is, I need to throw some people around and maybe choke them out?”

Oh no, what have I done?!

“Ah, no Clarice I don’t think-” I tried to correct her but it was too late.

Clarice wasn’t listening and hurried out of the room.

Damnit...

It’s not like I could even chase after her with that damn investigator around either. Ugh, this was just another stupid mistake, I should have just refused to teach Clarice anything in the first place.

“Hup,” Toofy rolled across the mattress again, clapping excitedly as she sprang up on the other side, “Hehehe! Tim see?” She asked excitedly.

Alright, maybe it wasn’t all bad, “Yes Toofy, I see. You are so good at this!” I replied encouragingly.

Toofy grinned and tucked into another roll across the mattress to land right in front of me. Grabbing my hand, she moved it onto her head and looked up at me expectantly.

“Cute little monster!” I growled affectionately, tousling her hair.

“Hehehe!” Toofy giggled through her teeth.

Seeing that Toofy really seemed to like acrobatics, I wondered if she would be interested in learning to handstand or cartwheel. They had little real practical value, but it was the sort of thing kids found entertaining. Besides, it would be easy enough to teach Toofy how to handstand while we are stuck in this room anyway.

“Do you wanna learn something fun?” I asked Toofy slyly.

“Hrm?” Toofy looked up at me curiously.

“Let’s go over by the wall and I will show you,” I explained, moving over to the wall and sitting down.

Toofy followed me, looking somewhat confused.

“Watch this,” I smiled, laying down on the floor before pushing my back up the wall and supporting my head with my arms.

Toofy clapped excitedly “Toofy do!” She insisted, copying what I had done, but having a much easier time of it given her lighter frame.

“Pretty fun huh?” I insisted.

Toofy grinned back at me but was too distracted by the new perspective to answer.

I winked at Toofy before slowly letting myself back down, “If you get good at it, you can even walk on your hands. Do you want to try?”

Toofy nodded vigorously, “Toofy do!”

“Hehe, okay Toofy,” I smiled and squatted down next to her, “Since you are still learning, I will hold your legs up so you can keep balance, okay?”

“Kay!” Toofy waggled her feet and toes excitedly.

Holding Toofy’s ankles I gently guided her away from the wall.

Toofy squawked in surprise at first, as she staggered and desperately tried to keep her balance. But very quickly, she found her centre of gravity and was able to keep pace with the slow movement across the room.

[Conditions have been met for {Clarice} to advance to the Advanced Class: {Grappling Pugilist}. Accept? (Y/N)]

“YESSS!” Clarice cried out loudly from outside the window.

I nearly dropped Toofy in surprise. After reading the notification, I just stared at it for a minute incredulously.

The door to the room slammed open and Clarice rushed inside. She had a split lip and her nose was bleeding, but Clarice didn’t seem to care, “You see that right?!” She demanded excitedly.

I nodded, “What did you even do?” I asked hesitantly, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

“Oh pretty much nothing,” Clarice scoffed offhandedly, “I just sparred a bit with Tobi since I figured he owes us one. I kept trying to throw him over my shoulder as you showed me, but he kept hitting me, so I got a bit mad and started hitting him back. Before I knew it, I got a good left hook in and dropped Tobi to the ground. Since he was already down there, I figured I would try the chokehold you know? One thing led to another and here we are!”

Wait a minute, “Did you choke Tobi unconscious and leave him outside alone?” I asked sharply.

Clarice opened her mouth to answer but promptly stopped herself, “Ah...maybe...” She admitted sheepishly.

“I told you choking people out was dangerous Clarice!” I hissed urgently, “You should have at least brought him to Kirk to make sure he was alright!”

“Ah, yeah...” Clarice admitted awkwardly, “I’ll go do that now,” she quickly slipped outside and hurried downstairs again.

I had half a mind to decline the Class change on general principle, but after taking a deep breath I decided against it. There was little point in being petty, the damage was already done. Perusing Clarice’s status while waiting for her to return, I could see that she had unlocked two Basic Classes as well, the Grappler and Pugilist. So maybe I was right, practising with Nadine hadn’t counted, or maybe Clarice just needed a second opponent.

“Nadine says Tobi will be fine,” Clarice announced dismissively as she returned to the room again. “So anyway, are you gonna accept the Advanced Class or not?!” Clarice demanded impatiently.

“You actually want it? Do you even know what the Class does?” I asked just to make sure. Conceptually, the Class didn’t seem like a very good idea. The whole point of using weapons was to put some added distance between yourself and your opponent. Theoretically, this Class would specialise in close-quarters fighting, not exactly ideal when fighting monsters.

Clarice nodded, “It’s probably all about hitting people and throwing them around. Of course I want it!” She insisted.

I sighed and shrugged, ultimately, it was her decision, “Accept.”

“YES!” Clarice pumped her fists, “THIS IS SO AWESOME!”

“Status” I muttered quietly. I wanted to see what exactly made this class so special. Skimming through the majority of the information that I knew already, I saw that her starting stat bonus was a single point of strength and five bonus HP, not much of a surprise there. However, reading through the new Class Ability genuinely gave me pause.

[(Class Ability: Brutal Momentum {Rank 0}): Increases the momentum of your attacks. {Strength} increases momentum.]

“Hehe, you wanna try that move again?” Clarice asked with a determined grin.

I sighed and nodded. Might as well find out if the ability behaves like we think it does.

After making sure Toofy was a safe distance away, I gave Clarice the go-ahead and she smiled wickedly. Already regretting agreeing to this, It was obvious that Clarice had not forgiven her earlier failure.

Throwing her whole weight and Strength into the throw in one motion, Clarice actually managed to almost lift me off the ground. Considering that she was a whole Strength point weaker than the last time she tried, this was a damned impressive effort.

“Ugh, damn it!” Clarice cursed, staggering away and massaging her shoulder, “Still couldn’t throw you...”

“You came close though,” I pointed out encouragingly, “Much closer than before for sure.”

“Really?” Clarice asked, hissing a little as she rolled her shoulder, very likely having pulled a muscle.

“Yeah. You could probably manage it with another point of Strength to replace the one you lost,” I agreed.

“Huh,” Clarice seemed mollified by that, “You’re right, I forgot about the Strength loss,” she admitted and grinned again, “Just wait until I level up again, I’ll be throwing you around like a sack of flour in no time!”

“That’s not very encouraging...” I pointed out awkwardly.

Clarice shrugged, “Wasn’t meant to be!” She grinned ferally, “Anyway, thanks for the help, Tim!” Clarice called out over her shoulder on her way out of the room, “Now, who to try it on next-” I heard her muttering as she closed the door.

I really needed to stop helping crazy people...

*****

Emelia sat awkwardly at the bar and picked at her lunch with little enthusiasm. But it wasn’t because she had problems with the food, Emelia actually really liked Rose’s cooking. She was just rather stressed out and didn’t feel like she had anyone to talk to about it.

Helping the group during the raid seemed to have helped repair the rift Emelia had created between them, but she didn't want to test the relationship just yet for fear it would fall apart again. So that left Emelia on her own, with no one to talk to. If she was being honest with herself, Emelia was afraid of what Tim, Nadine and Clarice would say when they discovered that both Bloodhunters were dead.

Emelia was not particularly good with numbers, but she knew that those two monsters had required a colossal amount of mana-stones to evolve and that she had no feasible way of paying them back.

When Emelia had enquired at the Guild office about her share of compensation from the raid, the receptionist had unhelpfully directed Emelia to the notice posted on the board.

Even after lingering by the board for more than three hours, Emelia still did not have a clear idea of how much compensation she would receive. Asking some of the other adventurers investigating the notice hadn’t been particularly helpful either.

Emelia sighed dejectedly and took another bite of her meal. When Emelia had applied to become an adventurer, she hadn’t known it would involve so much reading. The main reason she chose to become an adventurer in the first place was that she thought all she needed to do was kill monsters and get paid.

If Emelia had known things would turn out like this, she never would have run away from home in the first place. It was also fairly depressing and rather telling, that contrary to her initial expectations, neither her mother nor father had made any attempts at trying to track her down.

Then again, Emelia should have expected it. She had been a constant source of embarrassment for them and they were probably quite happy to be rid of her. After all, for a family of scribes to have a daughter unable to read or write was scandalous. It wasn’t for a lack of trying on Emelia’s part, she wasn't illiterate. It was the damned letters and numbers. Whenever Emelia became anxious, they would just begin moving around on the damned page.

Everything that had gone wrong in her life was the fault of those damned untrustworthy things messing about and tripping her up. Most recently when the Guild manager insisted that Emelia was legally required to hand Toofy and Tim over or be imprisoned. Unable to read the words on the paper, Emelia had no idea whether he was telling the truth and he wouldn’t let Emelia talk to Nadine about it. The decision had to be made right then and there. And in her fear, Emelia had chosen poorly, she knew that now.

Despite the pain and no small level of anguish Emelia had caused Tim, he had given her a second chance to make things right. Tim had even given her the two Bloodhunters to help protect her during the raid. But now the Bloodhunters were dead and everything was turning to shit again. “How am I even meant to tell him?” Emelia sighed dejectedly and wondered if anyone else would accept her into their party.