Chapter 23: A New Journey
“CARE to repeat that?! You’ll be working in not only the royal capital, but at the castle at that?! As a scholar’s assistant?!” Milosh’s overwrought voice resounded through the room.
After safely returning to Yezero, Unen gathered Milosh, Zola, and Simon in the living room following the clinic’s morning hours to share the news about her new job. She had the three of them sit around the table as they rejoiced over her return, and handed Milosh the official missive from the king…only to have him question it.
“Is this missive real? Sure you aren’t being tricked?”
Unen made a strained smile from where she stood right beside his chair and answered, “It’s real.” She looked in turn to Irena at her side, then to Ori and Mouru leaning against the wall, seeking their support. “Right?”
Glancing at Unen and her three friends nodding together, Milosh peered back down at the sheep parchment in his hands. “Hold on, let me read it closely. There might be some proviso hidden in the teensiest of letters that’ll allow them to make you do some questionable work in some scary dungeon or give them permission to sell you off…” he grumbled, running his eyes over every corner of the parchment.
Zola snatched the missive out of his hands from the seat opposite of him. “Oh come on, I can read this too.” She took a few minutes to look it over. “I don’t see anything particularly out of the ordinary included in it.”
“Lemme read it again.”
Ignoring Milosh as he snatched the missive back, Zola looked up at Unen with a big smile. “Good for you, Unen. You’ve taken one step closer to your dream.”
“Yeah.” Unen gave a big nod.
Right in front of her, Milosh had finally been convinced of its legitimacy at last, and held the missive over his head as he was overcome by emotion. “Is it real?! It’s real, all right! I see. I see. This is amazing!” Then his face abruptly turned skeptical again. “No, wait.”
“Wait for what?” Zola’s calm voice promptly prodded her husband.
Milosh pointed at a corner of the missive with his brow furrowed, his expression turning grim. “The date is from eight days ago.”
“Yeah, because I signed it at the castle on that day.”
“Does that mean your contract has started already?”
“Yup. So I won’t be able to stay here for long.”
Since Mouru had collapsed from exhaustion after saving Unen from the river, their journey back from the castle had taken two more days than their trip there.
“When do you plan to leave?” Zola asked.
“I was thinking I’d like to finish packing tomorrow and leave the morning after,” Unen began.
As Unen was about to say more, Milosh jumped to his feet and shouted, “We can’t just sit around then!”
“What’s wrong, darling?”
“We have to prepare to give her a send-off party! Do you want to send our adorable daughter off with just a hug and kiss goodbye?! I’m going to run over to Bernard’s place real quick! Go let your father know in the meantime!”
Bernard was the heir to the butcher shop located in the western town square, while Zola’s father was the town’s vintner.
“I plan to be back in time for the afternoon patients, but if I don’t make it back, Simon, you get started by recording their medical histories for me!” Barely finishing that sentence, Milosh urged, “Let’s go!” and rushed out of the living room, dragging Zola with him by the hand.
Left behind, the five youngsters simply stared thunderstruck at the door they flew out of.
“Wow, your dad acts fast,” Irena commented, impressed.
Simon’s disgruntled voice came in fast over hers, “He just wants to drink and let loose.”
“You know that’s not true,” Irena flatly rejoined. “He’s ecstatic and proud that Unen’s going to work at the castle, but he’s definitely feeling lonely to see her go far away. I feel the same exact way, and I know your mom and dad must have it a thousand times harder than I do. Maybe he can’t move on unless he sees her off with a bang… Doesn’t that go for you too, Simon?”
Flustered at the direct question, Simon’s eyes darted around the room and forked the conversation onto Ori and Mouru instead. “Enough about me. Why are you two going with her?”
Though Mouru cocked a skeptical eyebrow at him, he generously accepted the reins Simon had tossed at him. “Why would I let such a glorious job as the King’s Mage slip out from under my nose?”
“I bet you’ve got some wicked schemes brewing.”
It was foolish to expect a sincere admission from someone who was truly scheming evil plots.
Sure enough, a ridiculing smile curled its way onto Mouru’s lips. “Be my guest and be content with honest poverty if you think aiming for success in life is evil,” he scoffed.
“I meant you’re scheming evil things toward Unen. Aren’t you guys after Hereh?” Simon snapped, holding his ground.
Mouru’s eyes narrowed on Simon even as he continued smirking. “I understand why the parents who raised her would worry, but you? Not so much. Seriously, between you and this girl right here, everyone around Unen is overprotective.”
Irena suddenly started waving her hands in front of her in a panic. Wondering what was wrong, Unen opened her mouth to ask Irena when Simon loudly snorted.
“Do I need to have a reason to worry about Unen, my best friend and little sister? Do you not care about others without a special reason?”
Mouru’s mood turned sour at having someone challenge him head-on. He grimaced as if displeased and turned away from Simon.
✦ ✦ ✦
MILOSH and Zola returned just before their afternoon appointments. They both insisted to Unen, “You don’t have to help out today,” and left with Simon to man the clinic at the front of the house.
“Then, I’ll head home too. See you tomorrow,” Irena said with a smile, reaching for the back door’s handle.
“Take care,” Mouru replied, waving his right hand.
“What? You aren’t coming to the farewell party tomorrow?”
“Neither Ori nor myself are shameless enough to crash a gathering of close friends and family who are seeing off a loved one.”
At hearing Mouru’s unusually quiet response, Irena’s eyes went round and wide until the whites showed. Then she pursed her lips and dramatically intoned, “Now that’s a big fat lie!”
A second later, she loudly laughed, “Just kidding. To be honest, my opinion about you being shady hasn’t changed much… How could it when you two never share anything about yourselves?” she said, shrugging with a teasing smile. “But I’ve come to think it’s okay to trust you—as of a second ago.”
“Just a second ago?!” Mouru’s voice cracked.
Irena scratched her head a little awkwardly. “You were in a terrible mood when Simon talked back to you, right? But you still didn’t bring up what we talked about in the castle courtyard. That’s what did it for me.”
“That’s all that did it for you? So flipping that around, you mean we never earned even the tiniest fraction of trust from you after all this time?” Mouru objected, baffled.
Ori furrowed his brow beside him. “You mean ‘I’ not ‘we.’”
“For that matter,” Mouru protested, “we at the very least know the difference between what should and shouldn’t be said! So rude!”
“Again, ‘I.’”
Mouru pretended he didn’t see Ori’s glower or hear his retorts. Leaving them to their bickering, Unen glanced up at Irena.
“Irena, what did you talk about in the courtyard?”
“Um, about that…” Irena’s eyes examined the ceiling for a bit, before she shook her head hard to jolt herself into action. “We talked about how much Simon, me, and everyone loves you, Unen!”
Irena’s sunny smile stole Unen’s breath for a second. Slightly delayed, a burning heat filled the inside of her chest like a roaring fire. It was almost as if she had swallowed a piece of the sun itself.
Irena pulled the red-faced, frozen Unen into a tight hug for a moment before straightening back up again. “See you tomorrow, Unen! Take it easy today! Good night!”
Once Irena’s back had disappeared down the street, Mouru turned to Ori. “Okay, I think it’s time for us to return to the inn.”
“Yeah.”
They both stepped out onto the road toward the town center, facing the opposite direction of Irena.
A gust of wind blew past the empty space where they had been standing beside Unen all this time…
“See you later. Give everyone our best wishes. We’ll come to get you the morning after tomorrow.”
A beat of silence.
“Ah, okay. Um, well, erm…thank you for everything! I look forward to the start of our next journey together!” Unen’s reply accidentally came out delayed, and panic caused her to thank them in a loud voice.
Mouru and Ori both blinked.
After a slight pause, they shared a happy look, and said together, “Same here,” their lips turning up into smiles.