"How is he?" Howaph asked from behind her, Laself shook her head to convey the severity of Upinte's injuries before wordlessly going back to tending to him. "That bad? Whoever attacked him must have wanted him to never get up, it's a good thing we got to him when we did."

  The atmosphere in the store was grim, everyone shifted uneasily, movements mechanical. Those who worked— which is to say, Atterson and Bylor. — did their best to focus on their tasks.

  Atterson didn't know Upinte and Jasiin as well as Laself and Howaph so her worries are centered around the future, about what's going to happen now that the people targeting them have made their first move. This won't be the last time, she knows this.

  Bylor, on the other hand, knew these kids personally. He's seen them grow up, and if he wasn't lacking in magic power currently, he would have gone and decimated the homes of the people responsible for beating them up.

  Yet the wizard didn't talk, he only simmered in his anger, seething while continuing to talk to customers, thanks to the cull now starting, the flow of people is the same as the last few days. A lot of them are adventurers, and almost all of them are complaining that the aberrants aren't as numerous this year.

  Rontress. All of them didn't say the name out loud but they knew who was responsible for the complaints, for the last few months, it had only been her who went to the swamp so there's no reason to believe she isn't the one who caused the sudden shortage of aberrants.

  Almost every adventurer that came complained about the same thing and Laself couldn't help but wonder: how long will it take before one of them points out that their store has been selling aberrant meat before the culling even started? Come to think of it, a merchant bought eggs from them a few weeks ago.

  No matter which angle you look at it, it's clear that they are connected to the sudden lack of aberrants in Misery Swamp. Will people hate them for that? What would happen if they do? Laself wasn't sure, the only thing for certain is that Rontress wouldn't be here to bail them out this time.

  Upinte groaned and Laself began to move, she dragged Howaph downward and forced him to hold Upinte's head steadily. "Don't let him go okay?" She was panicking now, the fear in her voice palpable. "We need to heal him until he wakes up, if he tells us who attacked him, we'll know who to watch out for."

  "That won't work." Thomala shook his head, he's currently sitting on the few chairs the break room has, his expression grim. "And 'sides, it's clear who did it. The head of Flotol's guards has been eyeing us for a while now, I knew he was waiting for something before he made his move, who would have thought that it was when my little girl leaves?!"

  He laughs loudly, head falling back as his lungs empty. When he finally stopped, his face morphed into the usual stoicism that he wears, "that doesn't mean we can lower our guard around him though, I can see why he's scared of Rontress, my daughter isn't a normal girl after all."

  Laself nodded at that, she wouldn't call Karuiz's father cowardly if he avoids Rontress, she would do the same. Luckily for her, Rontress is on their side, unluckily, Rontress is currently away and won't be back until spring.

  "I have a feeling that it isn't just Nadoson who's after us." Howaph gave his two cents on the situation, "my gut is telling me that there's something more going on, and that this is just the start."

  "That much is obvious son, but we don't have an answer to the rest of them, just that the man leading the village's guards hates us enough to attack our bodyguards." Thomala stood up and walked over to Upinte. "Get up boy, tell us what happened, I know you're awake. Your brown skin ain't gonna get any lighter than that no matter how terrified you get."

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  Laself raised an eyebrow, Upinte was awake? "Since when did he?"

  "Since you let Howaph take care of him, he was awake then, but decided to pretend to be sleeping because he didn't want to make us feel bad for him." The father of the Owelline household bent his knees and lowered himself until he was eye level with Upinte. "What happened, boy? You can tell us, even without my girl we can still defend ourselves."

  Can they? Laself genuinely asked herself this question and considered all the people around her, eventually, she came to the conclusion that yes, yes they can. It will be a hard fight but they can win, them not immediately losing when things go bad gave her a bit of hope.

  "... Priests beat me up."

  Laself paled and even Thomala looked shocked, guards were one thing, and other villagers can be easily solved, but the church? There's no way they can survive something like that! The church is the de facto ruler of Flotol and their influence extends beyond the chief!

  "By the Light..." Laself covered her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. "Does the church hate us too? What did we do to get their ire?"

  "No, this has happened before." Thomala shook his head and through the confused looks of both Laself and Upinte, he began explaining. "Back then, when Rontress was still a young girl, younger than she is now I suppose, the villagers accused her of being cursed."

  "That's why she became an acolyte right?" Upinte guessed, it wasn't Thomala who confirmed it though, but Howaph.

  "Yes. That's why she became an acolyte, I was too young to understand anything back then, all I knew is that my little sister had to leave and help the church while I trained with father, now that I'm older..." Howaph let out a sigh. "They did it again."

  "We were fine before, we will be fine now." Thomala tried to reassure them but even he didn't seem to believe his own words. "And Rontress isn't here, if they want her, then they're gonna have to search for her."

  "They can force her to come to them if they imprison us right?" Upinte sat up, he looked around, determination in his eyes. "If I ever get caught, don't tell Rontress about it, I'll be fine."

  "... I don't know what to say," Thomala shook his head, he didn't seem to care what happened to the kid in front of him, Laself can't exactly figure out his feelings on it so she wasn't sure what to think.

  Personally, she was never gonna call Rontress for someone like Upinte, maybe if it was her family but a person she hired? Laself didn't think that Rontress would want to be called to rescue someone like that, she believes she's not an exception to that, would Rontress rescue her if she got captured? Definitely not.

  "Rontress won't do anything." Howaph stood up. "She needs to do what she wants for once, ever since she got her class she's always prioritized all of us, she can't keep doing that."

  Laself looked at her boyfriend, her expression a mixture of hurt and agreement. On one hand, she knows they need Rontress but on the other... Rontress needs to live her own life, will live her own life. Her sister in law has already done so much for them and now she's going to rescue them on top of that?

  They're not some noble in the middle of a bandit camp, they're competent in their own right! They'll be fine!

  "Howaph's right." Thomala stood up, he patted Laself on the back and stood up. "Upinte's fine now too, we should focus on work, or I should focus on work. I need to help my wife, Howaph, how about you and the lass go out for a moment?"

  Nodding, her boyfriend got up and took her hand, "let's go." He says, voice firm. When they're out, he smiled at her softly and let go, the skin biting force of his grip loosened around her wrist and he apologized, "sorry about the roughness, dad probably wants to talk to mom and Upinte, that's why he said that."

  "No, it's fine." She can understand why he would do that. "It's none of our business to fight back right?"

  "Maybe." Howaph shrugs. "In the end, whatever happens, happens. I'll be there to help you, naturally. I'll protect you as best as I can."

  She held his hand, smiling. "Thank you,"

  "Mhmm." He smiled back, it bloomed into a grin. "Where do you wanna go? Outside the walls sounds nice right? I've never gotten a cloak this thick before so my winters have always been spent indoors, I wanna see the snow for once!"

  He sounded relieved, excited even. Laself didn't feel the same way. "Is that safe?"

  "No... Not really, I have a feeling no one is stupid enough to attack us in the open though." His words weren't reassurance, but Laself thought they were enough. She followed him out of the walls and into the field surrounding Ghorise.